Two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan!
A ghostly purple skeletal frame shielded Izuna, grievously wounded yet burning with murderous intent. Beside him stood Uchiha Madara, his Dojutsu Power surging, like a demon from hell. The brothers stood together, their boundless hatred mingling with their icy Dojutsu Power to form a terrifying, despair-inducing pressure that engulfed the entire battlefield.
The surviving Uchiha ninja seemed to have been given a shot in the arm. They cried out fervently, "Lord Madara!" and "Lord Izuna!" Their morale soared to its peak.
The Senju, meanwhile, were plunged into shock and terror. One pair of Mangekyō had already made Uchiha Madara invincible. And now there was another? How were they supposed to fight?
Tobirama Senju's face had turned deathly pale. He stared fixedly at the ghostly purple skeleton surrounding Izuna, his mind frantically calculating the limits of this unknown defense and how to break through it. At the same time, he bitterly regretted failing to kill Izuna with a single strike, and his resolve to develop an ultimate technique beyond speed and conventional ninjutsu grew even stronger.
Hashirama Senju stood at the very front, feeling the two immense yet kindred forces of Dojutsu Power, both brimming with hatred. The sheer pain and weight of responsibility nearly crushed him. He spread his arms wide, unleashing even more overwhelming Chakra without reservation, trying to steady the wavering battle line by himself.
"Hashirama! Get out of the way, or the Senju Clan will be wiped off the map today!" Uchiha Madara's Mangekyō fixed on Hashirama, his voice so cold it held not a trace of emotion.
"Madara! Stop! This hatred will only destroy everything!" Hashirama pleaded desperately as he summoned all his strength. More thick vines and wooden structures began to emerge from the ground. Though crude, they were incredibly sturdy, and they struggled to hold back the Uchiha's assault.
"Destroy everything? Then we'll start with you!" Madara roared. He unleashed the full power of his Mangekyō, gathering his immense Chakra into a gigantic flame-shaped form that crashed toward Hashirama!
Izuna, too, endured the pain and controlled the incomplete skeletal arm of his Susanoo, slamming it into the Senju formation!
The brothers fought as one, their might shaking the heavens!
The Senju Clan's defenses teetered on the brink of collapse. Ninja were continuously engulfed by flames or sent flying by the skeletal arm, and screams rang out without end.
Hashirama's eyes nearly bulged with desperation. He poured all his Chakra into the ground, and more vines burst forth, growing wildly and weaving together into a massive wooden shield. It withstood the combined assault of Madara's Fire Style and Izuna's Susanoo!
Rumble!
Amid the deafening explosions, splinters flew and cracks spread across the shield. It was about to collapse!
Hashirama gritted his teeth, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as his Chakra drained faster than ever before. This was a struggle beyond anything he had faced. Against the power of two pairs of Mangekyō, even his Sage Body was not enough to overcome the strain.
At this critical moment—
An extremely subtle change took place.
It came from no one on the battlefield. It came from... the entire world? Or perhaps from the ground beneath their feet, from the forest around them.
It was as if some will that had slept for countless years had, at that moment, stirred ever so slightly...
Only a handful of exceptionally perceptive people could catch the ancient, vast ripple that flashed by and vanished.
Uchiha Sou's Double Tomoe Sharingan trembled. He sensed a strangely subtle Dissonance in the Natural Energy around him, as if an unseen hand had nudged a set of scales. A force that leaned toward "life" quietly spread, its presence almost impossible to detect, and lent its support to the struggling Hashirama Senju.
By contrast, the cold Dojutsu Power born of the hatred in Uchiha Madara and Izuna seemed to face a faint, indescribable rejection from the world itself.
The effect was so slight it was almost impossible to detect, and it could not change the battle. But for that fleeting moment, it was there.
Uchiha Madara's brow seemed to twitch almost imperceptibly. His Mangekyō swept over the surroundings, but he found nothing and assumed it was an illusion brought on by overusing his Dojutsu Power.
Hashirama Senju, who was caught in the midst of it, felt something entirely different!
The instant that vast ripple passed through him, his connection to the ground beneath his feet suddenly deepened countless times over! The life force that had once welled up passively became extraordinarily vibrant and responsive. It was as if the faint vitality of every blade of grass and every tree in the surrounding forest was cheering for him and flowing toward him!
An insight flooded his mind, as if delivered by a sudden stroke of inspiration!
The wood he had been trying to create was not simply a product of Chakra. Its essence was... guidance! It was the resonance and shaping of life energy!
"Wood Style..." Hashirama murmured unconsciously. He abandoned Hand Seals and spread his arms as though he meant to embrace the entire forest!
Hum—
Life force ten, even a hundred times greater than before surged from within him!
In the next instant, as everyone watched in stunned horror, the ground rumbled violently around Hashirama!
No longer did crude vines and wooden stakes emerge. Countless sturdy, living trees burst from the earth and grew at a frantic pace! They intertwined and coiled together, instantly forming a small forest domain, yet one brimming with surging vitality. Thick branches coiled around Madara's flames and Izuna's Susanoo arm like giant serpents. Though they were continually shattered by the overwhelming power, their growth and resilience far surpassed anything before!
More importantly, this suddenly formed forest domain radiated a gentle yet boundless vitality. To some extent, it neutralized and offset the cold, oppressive pressure of the Mangekyō Sharingan's Dojutsu Power, easing the strain on the Senju ninja behind Hashirama, whose defenses had nearly crumbled!
"What... is this?" Izuna stared in shock at the forest that had come to life before him. His Susanoo arm had actually been held back, at least temporarily, by the wildly growing trees!
A flicker of surprise crossed Uchiha Madara's Mangekyō, too. His flames were being weakened and absorbed, layer by layer, by the life-giving trees!
"Hashirama..." Madara stared at his closest friend and greatest rival, now shrouded in a lush forest, his presence unfathomable. His expression was utterly grave.
Hashirama seemed to have stepped into an entirely new realm.
This forest domain was nowhere near the world-changing scale it would reach in the future. It was only a rudimentary, limited-range prototype of Deep Forest Emergence. But the meaning and potential it represented were already entirely different!
Tobirama Senju watched his elder brother's sudden breakthrough, delight flashing in his eyes, though thoughtfulness soon eclipsed it. More than anyone, he knew that his brother's power had come somewhat... abruptly, as if he had received some unseen favor.
The battle had once again reached a stalemate.
Two pairs of Mangekyō now faced a Sage Body that had begun to master true Wood Style.
The forces of hatred and destruction faced the forces of life and growth.
Uchiha Sou watched this astonishing scene, his mind reeling. He was absolutely certain that the subtle ripple from a moment ago had been no illusion!
Something... or someone... had intervened just then! In an almost imperceptible way, it had favored Hashirama Senju, allowing him to seize the crucial opportunity for a breakthrough in this desperate situation!
Was this the world's "Causality"? Was this the "favoritism" hidden behind history?
A chill rose in his heart.
He looked at the two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan, which might grow even more indignant and hateful because of the world's subtle "injustice," and at Hashirama Senju, whose presence continued to rise beneath the forest's protection.
He knew that from this moment on, the nature of the war might have changed. This was no longer simply a feud between two clans. It seemed that a deeper power had begun to intervene in secret.
And as an anomaly who sought to glimpse and control "Causality," how was he supposed to navigate this grand, increasingly unfolding game of chess, one already tilted by favoritism?
Because of Hashirama's unexpected breakthrough and the Uchiha brothers' exhaustion, the battle temporarily reached a stalemate. Both sides tacitly began to retreat and tend to their wounds.
But everyone understood that the next clash would be even more terrifying.
With this subtle nudge of favoritism, the torrent of the times surged faster toward the unknown.
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