The Ambition Under the Sun (1)

Boom... Boom...

Two consecutive strikes rang out with a deafening crash, yet Madara stood as immovable as a mountain, steadily catching the stone statue's assault. With a single kick from his Susanoo, he sent the statue toppling to the ground. As the statue lay there, Madara, hovering above its chest, gathered a massive flame in his mouth and unleashed it.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"

"Summoning: Single Rashomon!"

The powerful flames surged toward the ground like a spear of fire, but a Rashomon gate erupted from the earth, appearing before Senju Butsuma to shield him from Madara's attack. Butsuma did not pause to catch his breath; he quickly formed hand seals to launch a counterattack.

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"

Unlike the Earth Style used by ordinary ninja, Butsuma's technique seemed far more potent. Powerful dragon heads emerged on either side of him, their two-meter-tall maws opening to fire massive earth bullets, each over a meter in diameter, in a rapid-fire barrage like a machine gun.

Madara had not expected Butsuma's attack to be so sudden and fierce—or perhaps he had simply been playing around. The continuous barrage of earth bullets hammered against the Susanoo; while they could not break its defense, they still forced the Susanoo to retreat several steps.

The burning pain in his abdomen grew more intense. Butsuma knelt on one ground, gasping for air as he stared at Madara, his mind beginning to cloud over. The potent venom from Ryuchi Cave was not something he could neutralize in a short time. Of course, the fact that he had lasted several minutes against a lethal poison that kills upon contact was a testament to his immense self-control and raw power.

"Summoning: Double Rashomon!"

Madara, however, ignored everything and charged at Butsuma again. Gritting his teeth, Butsuma pressed his palms to the ground, and two Rashomon gates appeared in Madara's path. The Susanoo's dual blades slashed against the gates, failing to cleave through them in a single strike. Unfortunately, they could only withstand one blow; after five or six consecutive strikes, the two gates crumbled into rubble. Butsuma's body recoiled, and two clan guards rushed to his side to intercept Madara, only to be crushed into pulp by the Susanoo.

"Damn it!"

Seemingly realizing he could not shake off Uchiha Madara, Butsuma stopped retreating. He quickly pressed his hands against the blackened wound on his abdomen to seal his blood vessels and acupoints, then gritted his teeth and drew his longsword, charging at Madara's Susanoo like a fierce tiger.

Boom...

Unlike before, a hairline fracture appeared on Madara's Susanoo. Madara had not expected Butsuma's strength to be so great. Just as he prepared to fight seriously, Butsuma, having landed from the impact, grabbed the Susanoo's toe and hurled it away.

A venomous snake hissed as it emerged from beneath Butsuma's feet, but he did not notice it. As he turned to continue his assault on Madara, he felt a surge of intense killing intent from behind. He tried to turn, but it was too late. Mingye had used a substitution teleport, driving a longsword directly into Butsuma's back, piercing through his chest and pinning him to the ground.

"Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"

A thunderous roar from Senju Hashirama echoed across the clear sky. An object landed beside Mingye and Butsuma, and a sharp pain erupted in Mingye's abdomen—the result of a sweeping kick from a powerful leg. Mingye was sent flying, tumbling over ten meters as he scraped against the ground. Then, the entire earth began to shake violently as trees grew frantically, bursting through the soil and transforming into countless tentacles that lashed out at the Uchiha clan members.

"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"

A blade of powerful flame erupted from Madara's mouth, sweeping across the massive trees and setting the entire forest ablaze. Ignoring the tangled, rapidly regenerating trees, Madara strode forward, his eyes radiating a fanatical desire for battle as he charged toward Senju Hashirama.

"Senju Hashirama!"

"Uchiha Madara!"

No further words were needed between the two. After calling out each other's names, Hashirama stood atop a wooden figure that had burst from the earth beneath his feet. The giant wooden figure's arm, entwined with a wooden dragon, launched the first strike against Madara. Madara did not flinch; his Susanoo swung its blades again. Unlike the previous skirmish, Madara was clearly going all out this time. Blades appeared in all four of the Susanoo's hands, and he slashed at the wooden dragon, hacking it into pieces in an instant.

Seeing this, Hashirama controlled the giant beneath him to throw its fists. Green vines within the wooden figure's palms formed glove-like protections, allowing it to clash with the Susanoo's blades without being severed, barely holding off Madara's assault.

Amidst their struggle, Tobirama and Uzumaki Aihara appeared before Senju Butsuma. Tobirama did not weep or cry out for revenge; with a stern expression, he hoisted Butsuma onto his back and fled rapidly toward the edge of the battlefield.

A flash of silver light streaked by—Izuna had also noticed the situation and rushed over to block Tobirama's path.

"Izuna!"

"Tobirama, we need your father's head to claim the bounty!"

Izuna sneered mockingly at Butsuma, who was now barely clinging to life. Tobirama's eyes turned cold, filled with killing intent as he retorted.

"Take your own instead!"

Uzumaki Aihara crouched down and pressed his hands to the ground, creating a transparent barrier between Tobirama and Izuna to isolate them.

"Hurry and take your father away!"

"Thank you, Aihara, but you must be careful!"

Seeing Uzumaki Aihara intervene, Tobirama thanked him and turned to flee in a different direction. Izuna did not pursue; instead, he looked at Uzumaki Aihara and asked, "Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Aihara!"

The answer seemed to be within Izuna's expectations. He then sneered, "I didn't expect you to be that distant relative of the Senju clan. It seems you two are quite close!"

"Naturally! So you should just...!"

Uzumaki Aihara started to retort, but a sharp pain suddenly struck his back. Mingye had appeared behind him, a long blade piercing through his chest. Mingye pulled the blade out and kicked Uzumaki Aihara to the ground. Slightly dissatisfied with Izuna's actions, he complained, "Second Brother, next time you can handle this yourself, don't wait for me to step in!"

Izuna chuckled, slightly embarrassed, and explained, "Your methods are simpler!"

Hashirama was pinned down by Madara, unable to make any move that could turn the tide of the battle. Unable to defeat Madara even with his full strength, Hashirama gradually lost the desire to continue fighting for victory.

"Wood Style Secret Technique: Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom!" Surveying the entire field, Hashirama suddenly spotted Uzumaki Aihara's corpse and let out a roar of grief and rage. Countless trees erupted from the ground, rapidly forming an active forest. The branches transformed into tentacles, attacking the surrounding Uchiha clan members and carving out a path for the remaining Senju ninja to retreat.

Not far away, Mingye frowned as he watched Hashirama unleash this Wood Style. The implications of this technique and its effects were identical to the chakra-absorbing vines of the Tree God from the manga. This was definitely not something Hashirama could have conceived on his own. Of course, perhaps he had underestimated Senju Hashirama's talent, but Mingye still vaguely recalled another matter: Hashirama had not yet cultivated Sage Mode. As for the inheritance of Sage Arts, there were only three places in the world: Ryuchi Cave, Mount Myoboku, and Shikkotsu Forest. Where exactly did Hashirama's inheritance come from?

Unlike his mindset while reading the manga, Mingye now desperately wanted to find the soul of the Sage of Six Paths, who wandered the world, as well as that so-called brother of the Sage, Zetsu. Both were beings capable of changing or overturning the fate of the world—one wanted to destroy his mother, the other wanted to unseal her. It was like a family feud, yet the price paid was the suffering of the entire world. If the Sage of Six Paths could survive, why was there no news of the second brother who had fought alongside him to seal their mother? This was something Mingye could not fathom.

Though his mind wandered, Mingye's hands remained swift. Seeing Hashirama leading the thirty-odd surviving members of his clan toward the east, and seeing Hashirama holding off Madara and the others single-handedly to buy them time, he bit his finger and pressed it to the ground. A massive seal appeared on the earth.

"Summoning: Chaos of Three Snakes!"

One black and two white, three hundred-meter-long giant snakes appeared in the forest. Standing atop the head of the white snake in the center, Mingye stared at the retreating Senju clan members like a leopard eyeing its prey and issued his command to the three snakes.

"You lot have enjoyed quite a lot of blood and flesh from me these past few days. Manda, Wu, Mie, isn't it time you put in some effort to help me do what I want done?"

"The ninjas of the Senju Clan, how truly pathetic! Very well, since I'm in a good mood today, just watch and learn, Mingye!"

Manda, covered in pitch-black scales on the left, was the first to speak. Its body shot out like an arrow released from a bow, bypassing Senju Hashirama from the side to block the path of the Senju Clan's ninjas. On Mingye's other side, Wu—also covered in pitch-black scales but marked with a crimson scar just below its hood—said nothing, slithering rapidly through the forest. It crushed a vast stretch of trees into flat ground, cutting off the only other route of retreat.

Watching the Senju Clan ninjas, whose eyes were filled with despair and the resolve to die like trapped rats, Mingye showed not a shred of mercy. Together with his second brother Izuna, who had just returned, he launched the final slaughter against those ninjas.

"Mingye! Spare them!"

Having been fully committed to the battle, Hashirama had not expected that his inability to shake off Madara for even a moment would cause his retreating clansmen to suffer such a massive blow once again. With Hashirama determined to leave, Madara found it impossible to intercept him. Arriving beside the dozen or so survivors, Hashirama erected a sturdy wooden wall to block the Uchiha Clan's ninjas. Standing atop that wooden wall, Senju Hashirama glared coldly at Mingye.

Mingye could not see Hashirama's expression, but based on the fluctuations of chakra he sensed, he could tell that Hashirama was on the verge of losing control. He chuckled, pulled his sword from the body of a Senju ninja who had tried to take him down with him, and used the corpse's clothes to wipe the blood from the blade. He wiped it meticulously, offering no answer at all.