"That face! I feel like I've seen it somewhere before!"
Dongmao of the Lightning Release Quartet spoke up.
Although the Twelve Guardian Ninja were all very young, they were among the finest ninja in the Land of Fire. They needed not only to be "stronger than their peers," but also to be well-versed in a variety of academic subjects.
This naturally included the history of the Sengoku period and the founding of Konoha. They had seen portraits of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama countless times. Even though Uchiha Madara was now very old, the immense chakra he radiated every moment made his identity unmistakable.
"You're... Uchiha Madara?!"
"Dongmao, what nonsense are you talking about?! Uchiha Madara died long ago!"
The other three had sensed Uchiha Madara's astonishing chakra too, but they were unwilling to believe that he was Uchiha Madara. After all, what old man nearing a hundred could still move with such vigor, pick up a strapping young man, and ask if he wanted to dance?
"Oh? You've got a decent eye. Hand over the Talisman, and I might let you off."
Uchiha Madara was so supremely confident that he didn't care how much his return would affect the Ninja World, nor was he concerned that the nations of the Ninja World might unite against him.
In his eyes, there was only one person who could stop him: Senju Hashirama. As for everyone else? "You're nothing but grains of sand, not worth a fraction of me!"
"Hmph! Uchiha Madara was killed by the First long ago! Don't think you can fool us with your tricks, old man!"
As soon as Beizi finished speaking, Uchiha Madara rushed in front of him at a speed none of them could react to, then gave Beizi a taste of the same neck-grab Hema had received.
But the Lightning Release Quartet's bond was unbreakable. How could they let Madara do as he pleased? They immediately hurled a barrage of shuriken and Senbon infused with Lightning Release chakra, trying to stop him.
"What a pathetic attack... Are ninja really this weak now?"
Uchiha Madara laughed scornfully. The attacks were so feeble and slow that he didn't even need Susanoo to defend himself. In a fraction of a second, he kicked Beizi hard, then activated his Sharingan and completely predicted the attacks' trajectories.
"Pfft!"
Beizi crashed heavily to the ground beneath the waterfall. Blood surged up and sprayed from his mouth, while every Lightning Release-infused weapon missed its mark.
"Put away your toys and try to entertain me!"
Madara picked up the scythe he had used only back in the days of the Valley of the End and taunted them.
"Damn it! Don't underestimate us!"
"Dongmao, Nanwu! Use Lightning Release together!"
Crackling bolts of lightning rapidly slithered across the ground toward Uchiha Madara like snakes. But he didn't dodge, simply letting the lightning explode in front of him.
--Boom!
Dust billowed into the air. Xidu watched the smoke slowly clear with caution, sweat running down his cheek. "Did we get him?"
But in the next instant, deep blue chakra erupted into visible form. Like the immense strength of Senju Hashirama, it whipped up a gale and blasted the smoke away.
"Pathetic! Pathetic! That attack wasn't even a tenth as powerful as Hashirama's!"
After gauging the strength of the current generation of ninja, Uchiha Madara quickly grew bored. He activated the second stage of Susanoo, whose four arms held four long chakra swords. Madara spoke slowly from within it. "Take this as a reward for entertaining me. Hand over the Talisman, and I'll spare your lives."
"Not a chance!"
After lying motionless for quite some time, Beizi struggled to his feet, clutching his stomach. He shouted to his companions, who were panting as they dodged the four long swords of Uchiha Madara's Susanoo—
"Dongmao, Nanwu, Xidu! Use 'Lightning Style: Thunder Dream Thunder Person!'"
"Oh? An S-rank Lightning Release secret technique? Interesting...!"
(Madara seemed to have a very thorough understanding of ninjutsu in the original work. He could even decipher Impure World Reincarnation, so the author has good reason to suspect he read Konoha's complete catalogue of forbidden techniques. He even seemed familiar with the Eight Gates... So in this story, Madara is well-informed and knows this Lightning Release secret technique. Of course, it could also be that the "intelligence White Zetsu" is doing its job.)
Lightning Style: Thunder Dream Thunder Person was a Lightning Release Ninjutsu performed jointly by the four members of the Lightning Release Quartet—Dongmao, Xidu, Nanwu, and Beizi—each taking one of the four cardinal directions. Although the conditions for using the technique were extremely demanding, requiring all four of them, its power was also astonishing. The four of them controlled lightning from their respective positions, forming a point of concentrated energy high above the target area and ultimately unleashing a destructive lightning strike that covered the entire region.
Its power reached the level of an S-rank secret technique. It could instantly vaporize all matter in range, making it one of the few high-level Lightning Release Ninjutsu in the Naruto series that required multiple ninja to perform together.
However, the technique required a long time to charge, so interrupting it was quite easy.
But... Uchiha Madara wanted to see just what these youngsters could do, so he chose not to stop them.
--Rumble!
Four bolts of lightning shot into the sky, joined together, and converged at a single point. Immediately afterward, a railgun-like bolt of lightning came crashing down, its dazzling white light expanding toward the horizon. Everything the light touched—whether plants and trees or mountains and rocks—was vaporized beneath its glow.
When the technique ended, the entire Lightning Release Quartet collapsed to the ground, utterly drained. Beizi had already been gravely injured by Madara's kick, and now he had exhausted his chakra as well, leaving him even weaker.
"So... we managed to protect the Daimyo's Talisman after all...?"
"What a shame..."
A whisper, laced with a chill, seeped into their ears. The next instant, blue chakra erupted from the center of the explosion, staining the sky a deep color.
Uchiha Madara crossed his arms over his chest and barely raised a finger. Susanoo immediately evolved to its third stage, adding a lower body and legs to its second-stage form. Madara stood inside Susanoo's head. It could still attack with the four long swords of its second stage, while its new legs also covered the defensive gap beneath it.
Behind Susanoo's sturdy armor, the Lightning Release secret technique—which had matched the Tailed Beast Bomb in power—had managed to deal some damage, but not much.
"How... could this... happen..."
Despair surged over them like a tide. Uchiha Madara brought down his long sword, and the blade's chakra cleaved the waterfall in two. A torrent of water mixed with mud and sand poured down, and the force also deprived Uchiha Madara's own statue of its support, sending it crashing to the ground.
That single attack had nearly wiped out the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Only Beizi, still clutching the Talisman, remained alive, clinging to life amid the rubble.
"You're certainly loyal. You'd rather die than hand over the Talisman?"
In Madara's eyes, Beizi was simply blindly loyal. Still, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire was lucky to have a subordinate like him.
"Damn you...!"
The Twelve Guardian Ninja had been prepared to sacrifice themselves for the Daimyo from the start. But as he watched his comrades fall one by one, he tightened his grip on the Rat Talisman and made his decision.
"Go... to hell!"
Susanoo's long sword pierced Beizi's body. Before his body's functions had completely ceased, he flung the Rat Talisman away. Uchiha Madara was still using Susanoo and couldn't immediately use the Body Flicker Technique to catch it.
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