Boom... boom...
The two blows landed in quick succession, their impacts deafening. Madara stood firm as a mountain, catching the stone statue's attack without flinching. Susanoo kicked the statue in the chest, sending it crashing to the ground. Madara hovered at its chest, gathering a massive flame in his mouth before spewing it out.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
"Summoning: Single Rashomon!"
The powerful flames shot toward the ground like a blazing spear. A Rashomon surged up before Senju Butsuma, shielding him from Madara's attack. Butsuma didn't stop to catch his breath after escaping the flames. He formed Hand Seals again and quickly counterattacked.
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
Unlike the Earth Release used by ordinary ninjas, Butsuma's seemed far more powerful. Two imposing dragon heads appeared on either side of him. The two-meter-tall heads opened their jaws and fired massive earthen bullets, each over a meter across, in a continuous stream like a machine gun.
Madara hadn't expected Butsuma's attack to come so suddenly and fiercely—or perhaps he was simply toying with him. The earthen bullets slammed into Susanoo one after another. They couldn't break through its defenses, but they still forced it back several steps.
The burning pain in Butsuma's abdomen grew worse. He knelt halfway on the ground, panting as he watched Madara, his thoughts growing hazy. The deadly poison from Ryūchi Cave was not something Butsuma could dispel in a short time. Even so, he had managed to endure for several minutes after being struck by a poison that could kill with a single drop of blood. It showed just how well he could control his body—and how formidable he was.
"Summoning: Double Rashomon!"
Madara paid him no heed and charged again. Gritting his teeth, Butsuma pressed his palm to the ground. Two Rashomon gates appeared in Madara's path. Susanoo's blades struck them, but failed to cut them down in a single blow. They only withstood one attack, however. After five or six more swings, both gates crumbled into rubble. Butsuma leapt backward as two clan shinobi rushed to his side, hoping to stop Madara. Susanoo simply crushed them beneath its feet.
"Damn it!"
Apparently realizing he couldn't escape Madara, Butsuma stopped retreating. He rapidly pressed his fingers against the blackened wound on his abdomen, sealing off the blood vessels and pressure points. Then, gritting his teeth, he drew his sword and charged at Madara's Susanoo like a ferocious tiger, relying on sheer physical strength.
Boom...
Unlike before, a crack appeared in Madara's Susanoo. He hadn't expected Butsuma to be so strong. Just as he was about to take the fight seriously, Butsuma landed from his charge, grabbed Susanoo by the toe, and hurled it away.
A venomous snake hissed into view beneath Butsuma's feet, but he didn't notice. As he turned to attack Madara again, he sensed a murderous intent behind him. He tried to turn, but it was too late. Mingye used a substitution teleportation technique, and a long sword plunged through Butsuma's back and out his chest, pinning him to the ground.
"Wood Release: Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Hashirama Senju's roar rang out beneath the clear sky. An object landed beside Mingye and Butsuma. A sharp pain struck Mingye in the abdomen—the result of a kick from someone's sweeping leg. He was sent skidding and tumbling along the ground for more than ten meters. Then the earth began to shake violently. Trees surged up, bursting through the soil and transforming into countless tendrils that attacked the Uchiha Clan's shinobi.
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"
A powerful flame spewed from Madara's mouth, forming a blade that swept through the trees and set the entire forest ablaze. Ignoring the trees that kept wrapping around him and rapidly regrowing, Madara charged forward, eyes burning with a frenzied hunger for battle.
"Hashirama Senju!"
"Madara Uchiha!"
The two didn't need to say anything else. After calling out each other's names, a wooden golem erupted from the ground beneath Hashirama and lifted him up. A Wood Dragon coiled around the giant's arm and struck at Madara first. Madara didn't flinch. Susanoo swung its blades again, but unlike in the previous fight, he now fought with all his strength. Blades appeared in all four of Susanoo's hands, and they hacked the Wood Dragon into pieces in an instant.
Hashirama saw this and controlled the giant beneath him to swing both fists. Green vines formed a glove-like covering over the wooden golem's hands. They struck Susanoo's blades without being cut through, barely managing to withstand Madara's attack.
As the two battled, Tobirama and Uzumaki Aihara appeared beside Senju Butsuma. Tobirama didn't cry out or shout for revenge. With a stern expression, he pulled Butsuma onto his back and quickly fled the battlefield.
A flash of silver streaked past. Izuna had noticed what was happening and hurried over, blocking Tobirama's path.
"Izuna!"
"Tobirama, we need your father's head to collect the reward!"
Izuna sneered at Butsuma, who was barely breathing, and taunted him. Tobirama's eyes turned cold with murderous intent as he retorted.
"Use your own!"
Uzumaki Aihara crouched and pressed both hands to the ground. A transparent barrier appeared before Tobirama and Izuna, separating them.
"Take your father and go!"
"Thanks, Aihara. Be careful!"
Seeing Uzumaki Aihara come to his aid, Tobirama thanked him, then turned and fled by another route. Izuna didn't pursue him. Instead, he looked at Uzumaki Aihara and asked,
"Who are you?"
"Uzumaki Aihara!"
Izuna seemed to have expected that answer. He continued, taunting him,
"I didn't realize you were a distant relative of the Senju Clan. Looks like you're all quite close!"
"Of course! So you'd better—"
Uzumaki Aihara was about to retort, but a sudden stab of pain stopped him. Mingye appeared behind him and drove a long blade through his chest. He pulled it out, then kicked Uzumaki Aihara to the ground. Clearly dissatisfied with Izuna's actions, he complained,
"Second brother, next time, if you can handle something yourself, don't wait for me to step in!"
Izuna gave an awkward little laugh and explained,
"You make it look easier!"
Madara kept Hashirama pinned down, leaving him no chance to do anything that could turn the tide of battle. Even as he fought with all his might, Hashirama gradually lost the desire to keep battling Madara for victory.
"Wood Release Secret Technique: Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom!" As he surveyed the battlefield, Hashirama suddenly spotted Uzumaki Aihara's corpse. With a grief-stricken roar, he raised countless trees from the ground, quickly forming a vast, moving forest. The branches became tendrils and attacked the nearby Uchiha Clan members still fighting, forcing open a path for the surviving Senju Clan shinobi to retreat.
Not far away, Mingye watched Hashirama use Wood Release and furrowed his brow. Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom seemed to have the same nature and effect as the God Tree's chakra-draining vines in the manga. It was impossible that Hashirama had come up with it on his own. Perhaps Mingye had underestimated Hashirama's talent, but another thought had begun to take shape in his mind. Hashirama hadn't learned Sage Method yet, and as far as Mingye knew, only three places in the world passed it down: Ryūchi Cave, Mount Myoboku, and Shikkotsu Forest. Where had Hashirama learned it?
Unlike when he'd read the manga, Mingye now desperately wanted to find the soul of the Sage of Six Paths, roaming the world, and the so-called immortal's younger brother, Zetsu. Both of them could change or even overturn the balance of the world. One wanted to kill his mother, while the other wanted to unseal her. It was like a family feud, but the price they paid dragged the whole world into misery. If the Sage of Six Paths had been able to survive, then why was there no trace of the second son who had fought alongside him and helped seal their mother? It was something Mingye couldn't understand.
Though Mingye's thoughts were wandering, his hands moved without pause. Hashirama was leading the thirty or so surviving members of his clan eastward. Bringing up the rear, he had managed to hold off Madara and the others long enough to give them time to escape. Mingye bit his finger and pressed it to the ground. A massive summoning seal appeared beneath his hand.
"Summoning Technique: Chaos of Three Snakes!"
One black snake and two white ones appeared among the trees, each a hundred meters long. Standing atop the head of the white snake in the middle, Mingye watched the retreating Senju Clan shinobi like a leopard eyeing its prey. He addressed the three snakes.
"You've enjoyed plenty of my meat offerings these past few days. Manda, Wu, Mie, don't you think it's time you put in a little effort and helped me do what I want?"
The black-scaled Manda on the left spoke first. "The Senju Clan's shinobi are in a sorry state! Fine, since I'm in a good mood today, just watch, Mingye!"
He shot off like an arrow, circling around Hashirama before blocking the Senju Clan shinobi's path. On Mingye's other side, Wu—also covered in black scales, but marked with a scarlet streak three inches below his head—said nothing. He slithered quickly through the forest, flattening a swath of trees and cutting off another escape route.
The Senju Clan shinobi looked like turtles trapped in a jar, despair and determination to die in their eyes. Mingye showed no mercy. Together with his second brother Izuna, who had returned to the fight, he joined in the final slaughter of the shinobi.
"Mingye! Spare them!"
Completely absorbed in the fight, Hashirama hadn't realized that his inability to get away from Madara had left the shinobi retreating from his clan vulnerable to another devastating attack. He only wanted to escape, and Madara had no way to stop him. Hashirama reached the dozen or so surviving members of his clan and raised a sturdy wooden wall to keep the Uchiha Clan's shinobi at bay. Standing atop it, he stared coldly at Mingye.
Mingye couldn't see Hashirama's expression, but from the chakra fluctuations he sensed, he could tell Hashirama was on the verge of losing control. He smiled, pulled his sword from the body of a Senju Clan shinobi who had tried to take him down with him, then carefully wiped the blood from the blade on the corpse's clothes. He made no reply.
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