Madara was fading away too.
The light of Impure World Reincarnation's release spread over him, creeping upward from the soles of his feet.
His expression did not change at all. Then he looked at Genya.
"Impure World Reincarnation has a weakness."
He spoke abruptly, his voice sounding as though he were discussing something that had nothing to do with him.
His hands began forming hand seals.
Genya recognized the technique. It was not a technique to release Impure World Reincarnation, but the Counter-Control Technique.
The white light stopped.
Madara's reincarnated body stopped on the verge of dissolution, and the fragments that had already turned into motes of light coalesced again.
"Brat, did you think this was over?"
Genya watched, his expression so calm that he seemed to have known this would happen all along.
He pulled back, a streak of purple light tracing an arc through the curtain of rain as he retreated to Tsunade's side.
Tsunade was treating an injured Konoha ninja. She did not even look up when Genya approached.
"Done fighting?"
Genya shook his head.
"Not yet."
The situation on the battlefield began to take shape.
Both sides gathered their forces, forming two battle lines on the smoke-filled battlefield.
On Konoha's side, the Five Kage stood at the front.
Beside Tsunade stood Raikage A, Tsuchikage Ōnoki, Mizukage Mei Terumi, and Kazekage Gaara.
Behind them were Konoha's ninja-Jiraiya, Kakashi, Guy, Itachi, Shisui, and the elite Konoha ninja gathering from across the battlefield.
Farther back stood the forces of Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure, their forehead protectors gleaming in different colors through the rain.
Hidan and Kakuzu stood in an inconspicuous corner. Hidan carried his scythe over his shoulder while Kakuzu counted the spoils he had just collected in his money pouch.
Pain, Konan, Deidara, and Sasori stood off