Madara Uchiha glanced up at the sky.
His gaze shifted away from Imu, swept over the unresponsive Scepter and the demonic energy churning overhead, then finally settled on outer space, tens of thousands of meters above.
He stared for so long that the Night Owl Guard below began to wonder whether he, too, was waiting for Uranus to attack.
Then an amused smile curled his lips.
In truth, he had been somewhat wary of Uranus before.
The sight of Tengai Shinsei being pierced by a single blast was still etched into his memory. A power capable of silently disintegrating a meteor thousands of meters across from within was indeed the only thing in this world that could give him trouble.
That was why, throughout his battle with Imu, he had kept a fraction of his attention on the sky.
He had been waiting for Imu to use Uranus again, analyzing its possible attack trajectories, impact points, and firing intervals.
He had been holding a little strength in reserve for Uranus all along.
But now, Uranus had not fired.
Imu was frantically trying to activate it, and Uranus's Scepter was desperately absorbing demonic energy, yet Uranus gave no response whatsoever.
Madara's Mangekyō Sharingan rotated slightly.
He instantly thought of someone who had not appeared once since the battle began.
Uchiha Natsu.
That brat had not shown his face at any point since this battle started.
Madara had assumed he was holding the fort on Origin Island or handling the fighting on another front.
But Uranus's failure to fire suddenly connected all the clues for him-Natsu had gone into space.
He had used Madara as bait to lure Imu into deploying Uranus, then gone straight after control of the weapon.
A flash of approval crossed Madara's eyes.
"That little bastard Natsu..." he