"What?!"
Gaara's face changed drastically. The sand around his entire body began to surge out of control, his muscles tensing to the limit.
Minato's golden pupils constricted. The Flying Thunder God kunai was already clasped at his fingertips, and his expression had never been so grave.
"What a terrifying chakra... It's forcing back all the Tailed Beasts!"
On the stone seat suspended high in the air, the eyes beneath Madara's pale spiral-patterned mask twitched slightly. For the first time, he focused his gaze on that figure emerging from the coffin.
The corners of his mouth seemed to curve into a faint, almost imperceptible arc. No longer merely an indifferent observer, he now wore a cold, cruel, and deeply amused expression.
Shukaku's sand body also rippled violently at that instant, as though it had sensed a fatal threat.
It rapidly spread its limbs, attempting to shield its host from that figure.
Under countless shocked gazes, the coffin's heavy lid slowly slid backward...
The heavy coffin finally opened completely, revealing the figure standing behind it.
Dark red Sengoku-era armor covered a tall, straight body. Long black hair fluttered without wind, like blazing flames.
Beneath his narrow eyes ran two lines of dark purple markings.
Even standing there quietly, he exuded an overwhelming, peerless terror that seemed to freeze the air itself.
Once they saw that face clearly, the entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence.
"Impossible!!!"
Kakashi cried out in disbelief. His Sharingan trembled violently from the sheer shock, as if it were about to burst from its socket.
That face... that ancient armor, that trademark hairstyle, that terrifying aura impossible to imitate...
Minato's heart sank to the bottom. He forced out that name, one that had long become a taboo in legend.
"Uchiha... Madara?!"
Ōnoki stared fixedly at the figure behind