Unassailable

"...It didn't work?"

Uchiha Madara hovered in midair, his brow furrowing as his expression grew more solemn than ever.

The Susanoo Great Buddha before him looked like a god descended into the mortal world, its countless arms spanning the sky, its power overwhelming. Its defenses were astonishingly strong—even his Perfect Susanoo's slash hadn't budged it in the slightest!

"Even stronger than Hashirama's True Several Thousand Hands?"

His voice was low, but his eyes burned fiercely with excitement, madness, and fighting spirit all at once.

"...Interesting!"

Before the words had even faded, the blue Susanoo suddenly surged upward again, sending shockwaves exploding through the air as its blade-like wings spread wide!

Madara leaped out from the Susanoo's forehead, bounding across its skeletal frame as he locked onto his prey like a falcon!

—His target: Uchiha Yoru!

"Hah!!"

With a roar that shook the heavens, Madara leaped high into the air, his right fist brimming with blue chakra as he struck at the Great Buddha's brow!

Uchiha Yoru didn't move. He simply raised one hand.

Bam!

In an instant, the Great Buddha's palm blocked Madara's heavy punch. The statue didn't even sway.

"Heh." Uchiha Yoru chuckled softly.

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!!"

Madara opened his mouth and unleashed a flaming dragon straight at Uchiha Yoru's face!

Yoru remained calm, raising his right hand slightly as he unleashed the same technique with a thunderous blast!

Boom!!

The two flames collided, soaring into the sky and setting the entire heavens ablaze!

At that moment—

Madara's figure flashed. His attack missed, and he appeared behind Uchiha Yoru in an instant!

A blade flashed across!

—It was caught.

Yoru reached back and seized the blade and Madara's wrist with perfect precision, as if he'd anticipated the move!

"You're too slow."

Madara's expression didn't change. Instead, a strange, cold smile crossed his face.

"You think there's only one of me?"

"Limbo: Border Jail!!!"

Vmm!!

Four invisible figures suddenly appeared, cold and sinister as they silently closed in!

The next instant—

"...Huh?"

Madara's pupils contracted. The four Limbo shadows had been stopped in midair!

—Six black figures, nearly identical in appearance, had materialized in the air, suppressing his Limbo!

"You've mastered Limbo too?"

"I'm not imitating you."

Uchiha Yoru spoke calmly. "I've mastered it more completely."

"Your four shadows are too insubstantial."

As he spoke, Yoru's six shadows suddenly struck—

Bam!

The four shadows were crushed in an instant!

—Uchiha Madara was sent staggering backward. He barely steadied himself as cracks spread across his armor!

He lowered his head and looked at his palm, as if trying to sense the force that had crushed him.

He fell silent for a long while.

"So... even Limbo has been countered?"

He looked up at Yoru's expression and smiled instead.

There was excitement in his smile. There was fighting spirit.

"Yoru, you really are exceptional."

"You're more exceptional than the countless geniuses I've encountered!"

"You truly stand in the position of a 'god.'"

"But I, Uchiha Madara—"

"Never bow down."

With that, he formed Hand Seals.

"Planetary Devastation!!"

The sky collapsed in an instant. Black spheres flew upward, gathering the power of the earth. Even the ground beneath the Susanoo Great Buddha began to shake!

Yoru remained calm. Six Paths light rings appeared behind him, and he gently lifted a hand.

"Disperse."

Boom!!

The gravitational pull between heaven and earth abruptly broke. The six black spheres fell like stars, exploding one after another in midair!

Uchiha Yoru looked at Madara in the sky, his gaze calm.

"Stop struggling."

"Your incomplete Six Paths Power isn't enough."

Madara's eye twitched as he stared fixedly at Yoru.

Every attack he'd launched at Uchiha Yoru had been neutralized by his flawless defenses...

After a long silence, he suddenly burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha—good, very good!"

"You're the first person to push me this far."

"After Hashirama, I thought there was no one left worth fighting with all my strength."

"But you're different."

He slowly raised his hand. Susanoo's power gathered behind him once more, his body taking on the shape of a dragon as its dense chakra swept toward them like the night.

"Next, I'll use the true End-Time Power."

Uchiha Madara stood atop the Susanoo. His voice was low, but filled with feverish intensity.

"Yoru—"

"Let me see whether you, this 'god,' can withstand my ultimate power!"

Madara had just begun to gather chakra when—

Across from him, Uchiha Yoru's Rinnegan glimmered faintly.

At that very moment, Uchiha Madara's body froze.

For the first time, his expression shifted ever so slightly.

It was as if, for an instant, his soul had been pulled into some unknown space, only to return a moment later.

It lasted less than half a breath.

The madness in his eyes vanished for an instant.

But the next second, he had recovered as if nothing had happened. His lips curled into a cold, arrogant smile.

"Hmph!"

Meanwhile—

On the ground, the three Hokage, bound by Uchiha Yoru's Truth-Seeking Orbs, all wore numb expressions.

They'd already been shocked too many times to count.

Yoru had once overwhelmed them in a display of absolute superiority—a feat that had shaken the world. Now, facing the real Uchiha Madara, he still hadn't fallen behind. If anything, he seemed to have the upper hand.

Senju Hashirama's throat bobbed. Deep shock filled his eyes. "When he suppressed us just now... he didn't even use the Rinnegan's abilities?"

Even they had been utterly crushed, and Uchiha Yoru still had more in reserve?

"Madara... awakened a new eye?"

Hashirama murmured, his gaze fixed on Madara in the sky, his brow tightly furrowed.

On the ground, two figures stood in deathly silence.

The battlefield had been reduced to ruins. Even space seemed to tremble.

Orochimaru hid behind a shattered layer of rock, his snake-like pupils narrowing as he stared fixedly at the battle above.

"The Buddha Form, Susanoo, the Rinnegan..."

"This kind of power..."

A hoarse laugh rose from his throat, his voice low and raspy.

"Heh heh... I'd heard stories of Hashirama and Madara shattering mountains in their battle. I thought they were exaggerated legends..."

"Now I see they weren't fighting at all—they were so terrifying that they forcibly changed the natural landscape..."

He licked his chapped lips. His face was deathly pale, but an almost obsessive, frenzied light surged in his eyes.

"Compared to beings like them... I was still foolishly hoping for immortality?"

"Perhaps humans... shouldn't even try to glimpse power on that level..."

At that moment, Black Zetsu's face had grown grim, suspicion and unease tangling in its eyes.

"That moment just now..."

"Madara's chakra... actually stopped!"

Its voice was cold, but its emotions were on the verge of spiraling out of control.

"What did that brat do to Madara?!"

"Genjutsu? No... that wasn't ordinary mental interference! Was he peering into Madara's heart?"

"This is bad..."

"If even Madara loses..."

Black Zetsu shuddered violently. Cold sweat ran down its back, and a fear unlike anything it had ever known spread from its spine to every limb.

"Mother's revival... will be nothing but a pipe dream!!"

It didn't dare hesitate any longer. Its body quivered, twisting into a mass of shadow as it silently sank into the earth and began to retreat in haste.

"I need a backup plan."

"This boy... isn't a variable I can control."

"Uchiha Yoru... just what kind of monster is he..."

But just as it was about to disappear completely, it looked up at the sky—and felt reassured.

Uchiha Yoru and Uchiha Madara had both abandoned the Buddha statue and the Susanoo. Their figures tore through the air and shot straight into the clouds!

—Taijutsu!

—Ninjutsu!

—The power of the Rinnegan!

The two became streaks of divine light and collided high in the sky with a thunderous impact!

The clouds exploded, and the sky shattered!