I acknowledge you!

Outside the Hyuga Clan Compound, in the Land of Fire.

Wind howled across the wasteland.

A blue-violet skeletal torso rose from the ground, muscles and arms growing over its bones, standing a head taller than the surrounding trees.

Madara stood within the chakra in the giant's chest, looking down at Shinichi.

Shinichi stood in the middle of the wasteland, gazing up at the Susanoo.

One of the Susanoo's enormous hands suddenly rose, then came crashing down on Shinichi, blotting out the sky.

Its palm was larger than a room, driving a howling blast of wind before it.

Shinichi raised his hand, and the pale blue light of his Tenseigan flashed.

A burst of repulsive force surged up, striking the descending hand head-on.

The enormous hand was forcibly knocked off course and fell to one side.

Boom!

The giant hand slammed down several yards from Shinichi.

The ground shook violently, and earth erupted in churning waves, leaving a huge crater.

Loose stones and shredded grass flew everywhere.

Shinichi stood where he was, the hem of his clothes snapping in the wind, without moving a single step.

The Susanoo's two enormous hands came crashing down in turn.

Shinichi pulled one off course with an attractive force, then pushed the other away with another burst of repulsive force.

Booms rang out across the wasteland as one deep crater after another was smashed into it.

After several exchanges, the Susanoo had struck more than a dozen times without so much as touching the hem of his clothes.

Shinichi raised his hand and fired a burst of repulsive force at the Susanoo's chest.

The blue-violet giant merely swayed.

A dent appeared in its chest, but as its chakra flowed, the surface swelled back into place in an instant.

Shinichi could see it perfectly clearly with his Tenseigan.

The Susanoo's chakra wrapped around itself in layer after layer, astonishingly thick.

Madara stood at its very center, his expression cold, without a scratch on him.

Shinichi had a clear picture now.

Attractive and repulsive forces could shake the Susanoo and push its attacks aside, but they could not pierce those thick layers of chakra.

Neither side could do anything to the other.

On a rise at the edge of the Hyuga Clan Compound.

His eldest uncle had activated his Byakugan and was staring fixedly toward the wasteland.

The scene before him had completely surpassed his understanding.

Who was Madara Uchiha? A monster who had swept across the Shinobi World, as renowned as Hashirama Senju.

"The clan head... can actually fight Madara Uchiha?"

Scarface supported Shinichi's eldest uncle, his voice tight.

"Madara Uchiha has even brought out his Susanoo, and the clan head is still trading blows with him!"

His eldest uncle did not respond, never once taking his eyes off the wasteland.

That was Madara Uchiha.

Not only had Shinichi not lost, he was fighting him to a standstill.

On the wasteland.

Shinichi raised his head and looked at the blue-violet giant towering several yards before him.

If he could not break through this Susanoo today, Madara would certainly not stop.

The clanspeople could forget about having even a moment's peace on their journey to the Land of Rice Fields.

He had to make Madara understand that the Hyuga of today were not pushovers anyone could trample on.

Shinichi recalled the original story he had read in his previous life.

There was another level beyond the Tenseigan, called Tenseigan Chakra Mode, which Otsutsuki Toneri had used in the original story.

The original story had not explained how to activate it, and he did not know either.

But all the Tenseigan's power was in his eyes, so he would force chakra into them.

Shinichi gritted his teeth and forced all the chakra in his body into both eyes at once.

The next instant, the pale blue light in his eyes shone at its brightest.

His eyes could not contain so much chakra, and it spilled out around his eye sockets.

Pale blue chakra spread over his cheeks and neck, flowing down to cover his entire body.

In the blink of an eye, a Chakra Cloak glowing with a faint pale blue light enveloped Shinichi completely.

Boom!

A shock wave burst outward.

A ring of earth beneath Shinichi's feet was compressed downward, and all the wild grass within several yards flattened outward.

His strength and speed doubled in that instant, surging upward.

Pale blue light shone across the wasteland.

Tenseigan Chakra Mode had activated!

Shinichi suddenly felt something above him resonating with him.

He looked up.

A pale white moon hung in the clear afternoon sky.

That resonance felt familiar, the same kind of thing as his own Tenseigan.

Shinichi realized it at once.

It was the Giant Tenseigan guarded by the Ōtsutsuki Clan on the moon!

The next instant, an unimaginably vast surge of chakra thundered down from high above and poured into his body.

There was so much that it did not feel like his own at all.

The pale blue Chakra Cloak around Shinichi suddenly blazed, illuminating the entire wasteland.

The Susanoo's enormous hand came whistling down once more.

The wind pressure flattened all the wild grass on the ground.

Shinichi raised his right hand and unleashed a burst of repulsive force.

This burst of repulsive force was countless times stronger than before, striking the enormous chakra hand head-on.

Boom!

The giant hand was driven back, dragging the entire arm backward with it.

Seizing the opening, Shinichi kicked off the ground.

Earth flew, and his figure left only a pale blue afterimage as he rushed to the Susanoo's chest in the blink of an eye.

Shinichi raised his palm and slammed it heavily against the blue-violet giant's chest.

A crack first opened where his palm landed.

Then spiderweb cracks rapidly spread outward, crawling across its chest and up its shoulders until the front of the half-bodied Susanoo was covered in fractures.

On the rise.

Scarface's grip on Shinichi's eldest uncle tightened, and he cried out involuntarily.

"It cracked! The clan head cracked Madara Uchiha's Susanoo!"

His eldest uncle saw it even more clearly with his Byakugan.

Within that pale blue light around Shinichi, there was so much chakra it was almost overflowing, even more than inside the Susanoo.

"Uncle, just what is that light around the clan head?"

His eldest uncle shook his head. He had lived more than half his life and had never seen anyone shine like this.

On the wasteland.

Madara stood in the innermost chakra, looking at the cracks before him, then at the pale blue chakra around Shinichi.

For the first time, he frowned.

Madara could see it perfectly clearly with his Sharingan.

This kid's chakra had been nowhere near this level just moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, it had risen to a terrifying degree.

He had only ever seen this much chakra in that fellow Hashirama Senju.

Madara's brow relaxed, and his fighting spirit instead grew stronger.

After delivering that palm strike, Shinichi had already landed back on the ground.

Madara looked down at him and spoke coldly.

"What is your name?"

Shinichi looked up at him, his tone even.

"Shinichi Hyuga."

Madara repeated the name "Shinichi Hyuga."

"I acknowledge you!"

"Aside from Hashirama, you're the first person to crack my Susanoo."

Madara's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan spun, and blue-violet chakra erupted from his body.

A layer of thick blue-violet armor grew down from the Susanoo's shoulders, encasing the giant's entire upper body.

The spiderweb cracks across its chest were covered by the armor, leaving no trace visible.

The Susanoo grew larger again, taller and bulkier than before, standing on the wasteland like a small mountain.

Susanoo, third stage.