The aftershocks of the fractured spacetime slowly receded like the tide. Shattered currents of air hung suspended overhead, and tiny spacetime fissures spread across heaven and earth like countless transparent lines.
Hashirama Senju stood quietly in midair, his red skirt fluttering without wind. Well... since he was using Kushina Uzumaki's body, naturally, it was a skirt.
And so, dressed in a red skirt, Hashirama Senju calmly looked down at the two people before him.
For a moment, the atmosphere was somewhat quiet, or rather, calm. Yet that calm was far more suffocating than furious roars.
"Hashirama... Senju."
In the end, the masked man broke the silence.
Although Hashirama Senju was using Kushina Uzumaki's body, no one other than Hashirama Senju could wield that signature Wood Release, capable of destroying the medium of any jutsu formula and controlling spacetime.
Hashirama Senju still said nothing in response to the masked man's words.
Hashirama Senju's thinking was simple: as long as he did not admit it, he was not Hashirama Senju.
Right now, he was Kushina Uzumaki, y'know~
Seeing that Hashirama Senju could not even be bothered to acknowledge him, the masked man could not help shaking his head lightly.
"How arrogant... looks like we'll have to fight after all. Honestly, facing an opponent like this as soon as I arrive in this world... but I'm used to it."
As the man murmured, the air became so oppressive it almost solidified.
A battle was on the verge of erupting.
Sasuke Uchiha moved first.
He never made pointless probing attacks. Against an opponent of Hashirama Senju's caliber, any probing would only waste an opportunity.
His eye power spread out in an instant, and his chakra surged violently. A deep-purple Susanoo skeleton rose behind him, its bones hard and cold, rapidly layering over one another