Battle (II)

Madara's Sharingan remained fixed on Hashirama.

Hashirama pressed his palms together.

The air between them seemed to freeze, then abruptly exploded.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"

Hashirama called out in a low voice.

The ground split open with a rumble. Countless thick trees surged toward Madara like giant pythons come alive, fast and wide-ranging, covering half the canyon in the blink of an eye.

Madara's lips twitched.

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

He drew a deep breath, his chest swelling, then forcefully exhaled.

It wasn't a fireball.

It was a sea of fire.

Orange-red flames crashed outward like a tsunami, colliding head-on with the surging sea of trees.

Boom-!

Fire and wood collided with a deafening roar.

Heat, wood splinters, and the smell of burning exploded in every direction.

Ryuto was facing off against Izuna when a blast of hot wind hit him in the face, blowing his hair back.

The ground shook.

"Whoa, all this..." Ryuto's heart lurched.

This wasn't sparring anymore. They were going to tear the canyon apart.

The shock wave made Izuna sway too, but he reacted extremely quickly. His Sharingan spun, and he slid backward with the push of the hot wind while forming hand seals.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

More than a dozen small fireballs shot at Ryuto from different angles.

Ryuto pushed off the ground and activated the Flight Technique, his body shooting into the air.

The small fireballs missed, exploding into sparks below.

But as soon as Ryuto rose into the air, a shadow fell overhead.

The sky hadn't gone dark.

A massive log several meters in diameter, blasted away by Madara's Fire Release, was spinning straight toward him.

"Shit!" Ryuto cursed, forcing himself sideways in midair. The log swept past his back, the wind pressure stinging his skin.

The log slammed into the cliff behind him, sending loose stones cascading down.

On the other side, Madara wasn't doing well either.

His Fire Release had burned away part of Hashirama's forest, but more trees emerged from underground. This time, they weren't growing at random; they were coiling toward Madara.

Madara evaded the entangling branches with several consecutive backflips, finishing his hand seals while still airborne.

"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Song!"

Several fire dragons erupted from his mouth, lunging at Hashirama with claws bared.

Hashirama didn't dodge.

An enormous wooden figure rose beneath his feet, lifting him up.

The wooden figure swung its fists.

Bang, bang, bang!

Its fists smashed the fire dragons apart, scattering sparks everywhere.

"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"

Standing atop the wooden figure's head, Hashirama pressed his palms together again.

A Wood Dragon nearly as large as the wooden figure burst out from behind it, unleashing a silent roar as it dove toward Madara.

Madara had only just landed when the Wood Dragon reached him overhead.

His Sharingan spun wildly as he twisted his body at an incredible angle, narrowly avoiding the Wood Dragon's lunge.

The Wood Dragon rammed into the ground, blasting out a huge crater and throwing rocks and soil more than ten meters into the air.

The shock wave hurled Madara away. He adjusted his posture in midair, landed on one knee, and slid a long distance.

He looked up at Hashirama atop the wooden figure, the patterns in his Sharingan spinning rapidly.

"Heh... You're getting serious, Hashirama."

"Madara, stop holding back yourself," Hashirama said calmly, though his chakra fluctuations were frighteningly powerful.

Watching from the air, Ryuto couldn't help marveling inwardly.

These two were seriously fierce. Their fight was like a demolition job.

He had only just dodged the log when Izuna attacked again.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Izuna's voice came from below.

Ryuto instinctively tried to avert his gaze, but this time, Izuna's genjutsu didn't work through the eyes.

It was sound.

The voice drilled straight into his head, carrying a strange rhythm that slowed Ryuto's movements by half a beat.

In that half-beat, three kunai shot up from below at tricky angles.

Ryuto burst ki beneath his feet, shooting higher again. The kunai skimmed past the soles of his shoes.

But that was exactly what Izuna had been waiting for.

He pressed both hands to the ground.

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

Three fire dragons shot skyward from the ground, sealing off the space to Ryuto's left, right, and above.

Ryuto had nowhere to dodge.

He thrust both hands forward.

"Ki Blast!"

A white ball of light the size of a basketball shot out, colliding with the fire dragon in the middle.

Boom!

The fire dragon exploded, but the other two had already reached him.

Heat blasted his face, nearly setting his hair alight.

Ryuto gritted his teeth, concentrated his ki in his arms, and crossed them in front of him.

Bang! Bang!

Both fire dragons slammed squarely into his arms.

The impact sent Ryuto flying more than ten meters upward. His sleeves were scorched, and his skin burned with pain.

"Damn it, so we're fighting at range?" Ryuto shook his arms and looked down at Izuna.

Izuna stood on a jutting rock, his Sharingan fixed on him as he drew several more shuriken.

"Ryuto, up in the sky, you're just a target," Izuna said.

"A target?" Ryuto laughed. "Then watch this."

He spread his hands, palms facing downward.

Ki gathered furiously in his palms.

One, two, three... Ten white balls of light appeared around him.

"Ki Blast Rapid Fire!"

Ryuto swept both hands.

The ten balls of light rained down on the area where Izuna stood.

Izuna's expression changed, and he instantly vanished from the spot.

Boom, boom, boom, boom-!

The balls of light struck the ground, blasting out crater after crater. Rocks shattered, and soil flew.

Not even a scrap remained of the rock Izuna had been standing on.

He appeared dozens of meters away, but before he could steady himself, Ryuto's second wave of ki blasts arrived.

This time, there weren't ten.

There were twenty.

Ryuto floated in the air, his hands like machine guns as densely packed white balls of light hammered down.

"Let's see how you dodge these!" Ryuto shouted.

With his Sharingan fully active, Izuna dodged furiously through the gaps between explosions.

But there were too many balls of light, and they covered too wide an area.

One exploded beside his feet, and the shock wave sent him tumbling.

Izuna rolled twice on the ground. Just as he got back up, another wave of light arrived.

He gritted his teeth and formed hand seals.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Three Izunas appeared and ran in different directions.

Without even looking, Ryuto locked onto one with Ki Sense.

"Found you!"

He brought his hands together, condensing a ki blast several times larger than the previous ones in his palms.

"Eat this big one!"

The oversized ki blast left his hands, trailing white light as it hurtled straight toward the real Izuna.

Izuna looked back, and the patterns in his Sharingan abruptly contracted.

He couldn't dodge it.

His hands rapidly formed seals.

"Uchiha Flame Formation!"

A wall of fire rose from the ground, shielding him.

The ki blast struck the wall of fire.

Boom-!

It blasted through the fire wall. Its power diminished, but it still struck Izuna.

The explosion hurled Izuna into the canyon's rock wall, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

He slid to the ground, a large hole torn through the chest of his clothing and his skin charred black.

His Sharingan remained fixed on Ryuto in the air.

"This guy... Is his ki unlimited?"

On the other side, Madara wasn't doing particularly well either.

Hashirama's wooden figure and Wood Dragon, combined with Deep Forest Emergence, attacked in relentless waves, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

Madara's Fire Release was fierce, but whenever he burned away one batch of wood, another immediately grew in its place.

Hashirama stood atop the wooden figure's head, pouring out chakra as though it cost him nothing.

"Madara, admit defeat," Hashirama said. "Your chakra won't outlast mine."

Madara wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the fighting spirit in his Sharingan burning even stronger.

"Admit defeat? Hashirama, when have you ever seen me admit defeat?"

His hands formed seals so quickly they left afterimages.

"Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance!"

A massive whirlwind of flame appeared out of thin air and swept toward the wooden figure.

Hashirama controlled the wooden figure, sending a fist crashing into the flaming whirlwind.

Fire and wood collided again. The explosive blast of air even sent the waterfall in the center of the canyon surging backward.

Ryuto swayed in the air under the blast and looked toward Hashirama.

Incredible. The wooden figure had smashed the flaming whirlwind apart with one punch, but its fist had been scorched black too.

Madara seized the opening to retreat and put some distance between them.

But the moment he retreated, Hashirama's Wood Dragon came coiling toward him again.

Madara used several consecutive Body Flicker Techniques to evade the Wood Dragon's lunging bites, his Sharingan glancing toward Izuna.

Ryuto's ki blast bombardment had Izuna pinned down, and he was already wounded.

Madara frowned.

He abruptly turned and formed hand seals.

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

Another sea of fire erupted, but this time, it wasn't aimed at Hashirama.

It was aimed at Ryuto.

The sea of fire swept across the sky, engulfing half the stretch of sky where Ryuto was.

Startled, Ryuto pushed the Flight Technique to its limit, shooting upward like an arrow and narrowly clearing the edge of the flames.

But the sea of fire blocked his view.

By the time he broke past it and looked down, Izuna was no longer where he had been.

Using the sea of fire as cover, Izuna had hidden behind a giant boulder and was panting heavily as he adjusted his chakra.

Madara drove back a wave of Hashirama's attacks and took a moment to shout at Izuna.

"Izuna! Quit dragging your feet!"

"Use that move!"