Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!
Senju Hashirama clapped his hands together, focusing on Uchiha Madara, who stood atop the Nine-Tailed Fox. A gigantic wooden dragon burst from the ground and lunged at the fox, biting down hard.
Relying on its massive body and strength, the Nine-Tailed Fox blocked the wooden dragon's attack. During the brief stalemate, it formed a Tailed Beast Bomb and slammed it into the dragon's head, blasting it to pieces!
The Tailed Beast Bomb destroyed the wooden dragon but kept going, hurtling straight toward Senju Hashirama.
Standing on a broken tree stump, Senju Hashirama calmly pressed his palms together again and released another jutsu.
Wood Style: Wood Human Technique!
As the jutsu took effect, a gigantic wooden hand burst from beneath him and grabbed the Tailed Beast Bomb!
The body attached to the wooden arm emerged from the ground as well. Senju Hashirama stood atop the Wood Golem's head and directed it to hurl the Tailed Beast Bomb still clutched in its hand at the Nine-Tailed Fox's face!
Seeing the danger, Uchiha Madara quickly used Susanoo to shield the Nine-Tailed Fox from the Tailed Beast Bomb in the Wood Golem's hand.
The shield created by Susanoo collided with the Tailed Beast Bomb wielded by the Wood Golem, and the two forces reached another stalemate.
But neither side had any intention of giving up.
As both sides unleashed their full power, the clashing forces exceeded some critical threshold and exploded with a thunderous boom!
The blast swept across dozens of kilometers in an instant, reducing every tree and patch of earth in its wake to dust.
A moment later.
As the wind blew, the Nine-Tailed Fox emerged from the smoke, clad in Susanoo armor.
Uchiha Madara stood above the armor's brow, gazing at a wooden statue of a demon on the ground as he murmured to himself:
"So it withstood the beast's attack. Is that the Wood Release: Hōbi Technique...?"
The wooden demon statue on the ground suddenly split down the middle, revealing Senju Hashirama, unharmed inside.
He stared sternly toward Uchiha Madara and thought, So he's using Susanoo as armor for a Tailed Beast. Madara sure has some interesting ideas.
As the thought crossed his mind, an approving look even appeared on his face.
At that moment, Susanoo swung its sword. The Wood Golem pressed its palms together and blocked the attack.
"I've seen through your attacks! Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Senju Hashirama shouted.
The ground trembled, and several enormous wooden hands burst from it, surrounding the Nine-Tailed Fox from all sides and pinning it in place.
But the restraint didn't last long.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, clad in Susanoo armor, was exceptionally powerful. In just a few breaths, it broke free of the Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence and escaped the many wooden hands.
As the fox broke free, splinters filled the battlefield.
Senju Hashirama leaped from one huge wooden block to another in midair. Seeing the land around him reduced to ruins, he couldn't help thinking, If this goes on, the whole land will be wrecked. We should move toward the coast instead.
With that, he dashed farther south.
Uchiha Madara pursued him, shouting, "Don't run!"
One fled while the other chased. From behind, Uchiha Madara angrily unleashed an attack combining a Tailed Beast Bomb with Susanoo.
Forced to stop, Senju Hashirama used the Summoning Technique to summon Fivefold Rashomon, hoping to block the combined attack.
As Senju Hashirama watched the Tailed Beast Bomb hurtle toward Rashomon, he thought, This should do it...
Uchiha Madara saw what he was doing, too, and thought, He's changing its trajectory?
Soon, when the Tailed Beast Bomb infused with Susanoo struck Fivefold Rashomon, its trajectory shifted, sending it straight toward the land on the other side of the sea.
A short while later, a flash of light from an explosion appeared, and both men saw the result of the attack.
"It hit the land on the other side?"
Senju Hashirama glanced over, a bead of cold sweat trickling down his face.
Uchiha Madara turned his gaze back and said solemnly, "Hashirama, it's been a long time since we fought seriously. You should know I'm not the same as I used to be, right?"
Senju Hashirama pressed his palms together, trying to reason with him again. "Everything we've done up to this point, all our efforts—you want to let them go to waste, Madara?"
"There's nothing to gain from fighting each other. This battle will only hurt the village and the shinobi. It'll only dishonor our brothers and comrades!"
As Uchiha Madara listened, his expression grew darker.
"You... are lecturing me?!"
Senju Hashirama delivered his final warning. "I don't want to kill you!"
Uchiha Madara's expression darkened further. "Are you saying you can kill me whenever you want?"
Senju Hashirama realized he'd angered him and hurried to clarify, "No, I mean... we're friends."
But Uchiha Madara didn't want to hear it. He cut Hashirama off with a wave of his hand and shouted, "My attack has already reached the other side of the sea!"
With that, he prepared to strike.
Senju Hashirama knew his attempt to reason with him had failed.
He murmured, "There's no other choice."
Then he prepared to fight back.
Sage Art!
Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!
Top Transformed Buddha!
High above in the distant sky.
A pure-black bird carried three people as they watched the terrifying battle.
The three were Hyuga Hoshishaku, Senju Yuto, and Senju Tobirama.
Senju Tobirama had come using Flying Thunder God and initially planned to take the two children back to the village.
But he couldn't talk his young nephew out of it.
Besides, the two children had already watched safely from high above for quite some time.
So he decided to stay beside them, watch the battle, and protect them.
He wasn't qualified to join the fight below.
But he could protect them from the shock waves.
And so the three watched the entire battle from atop the Flying Bird.
No one spoke during that time.
They were all stunned by the terrifying battle below.
The fierce fight had escalated from a clash between the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Wood Golem to a battle between the Nine-Tailed Fox clad in Susanoo and the Wood Golem created by Sage Art: True Several Thousand Hands.
Then the Wood Golem subdued the Nine-Tailed Fox, and the two men fought hand to hand, using Taijutsu and ninjutsu. They kept going for several hours.
By the time Yuto could no longer stay awake and passed out, the battle below was still raging.
Xingzhuo rubbed his numb cheek and said to Master Tobirama, "Master, I'll take Yuto back."
Senju Tobirama frowned as he looked down at the figure below, then sat up and glanced at the unconscious Yuto. He agreed to Xingzhuo's request.
"Fine. I left the key jutsu for the sealing barrier on you two. I'll stay here and keep an eye on things."
Xingzhuo nodded and made a Shadow Clone to control the Flying Bird they were riding.
Then he took out a new Sealing Scroll from a piece of sealing paper and began to draw.
Soon, another pure-black Flying Bird had been drawn. He picked up Yuto and climbed onto the newly drawn bird.
The Shadow Clone stayed on the current Flying Bird, maintaining its form.
After securing Yuto, Xingzhuo's real body headed back to Konoha without looking back.
As for the rest of the battle,
once the Shadow Clone was dispelled and its memories returned to him, he would know what had happened.
He didn't even need to watch to know that Senju Hashirama would win this battle.
So there was no need to stay and watch any longer.
As for warning Master Tobirama to destroy Madara's body?
He might as well forget it. Everything was currently part of Black Zetsu's scheme.
He didn't even have the ability to protect himself, so for now, it was better not to provoke these big shots.
Before you continue