Clash

After leaving the restaurant, Jogo made his way through the mountain forests on Tokyo's outskirts.

This was one of the areas Satoru Gojo frequented-according to the intelligence Kenjaku had provided, Gojo would pass through here today.

Jogo chose an ideal ambush point: a narrow mountain road, with a sheer rock face on one side and a steep slope on the other.

Gojo's car would have to pass through here, and once it entered this stretch of road, it would slow down, providing the perfect opportunity for a surprise attack.

He crouched on a branch, faint wisps of heat rising from his volcanic head as his single eye warily scanned the road below.

Cursed energy circulated slowly through his body, like magma gathering strength deep within a volcano, waiting for the moment of eruption.

"According to the intel, this should be the road," Jogo muttered, a flicker of excitement flashing in his single eye.

"Satoru Gojo... today is the day you die."

He had rehearsed it countless times in his head: first, he would test Gojo's strength with Ember Insects, then wear down his stamina.

Finally, he would use Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain to drag Satoru Gojo into a volcanic hell that would guarantee his death.

A perfect plan.

But just as he focused all his attention on the mountain road, an abnormally vast, terrifying surge of cursed energy suddenly entered his range of perception.

It wasn't coming from the road.

It was coming from... above?

Jogo jerked his head up.

In the sky, a black figure plummeted at a terrifying speed, like a black meteor tearing through the air, through the clouds, through everything.

Those eyes-

Blood-red eyes with strange black patterns spinning within their pupils.

It was Madara Uchiha!

Before Jogo could even consider why he was here, his survival instincts had already made him react.

His crater spewed scorching magma, forming a lava shield overhead as he darted sideways.

But he was too late.

Madara was more than three times faster than he had anticipated.

Bam-!!!

The black figure slammed into the branch where Jogo had been crouching, instantly shattering the thick wood.

A hand shrouded in blue cursed energy clamped onto Jogo's head like an iron vise, then drove it down hard.

Boom-!!!

Jogo's entire body was driven into the ground, his head buried deep in dirt and rubble.

The shock wave spread outward, shaking the surrounding trees askew and sending flocks of birds scattering.

"Who's there!?" Jogo roared, his single eye struggling to turn in the dirt as he tried to make out his attacker.

Madara knelt on one knee, one hand pressing down on Jogo's head while the other hung naturally at his side.

He tilted his head slightly, his blood-red Sharingan looking down at the cursed spirit beneath him with terrifyingly calm eyes.

"A special grade cursed spirit?" he said softly, as though appraising a product. "Feels... pretty weak."

"What did you say!?" Jogo flew into a rage, cursed energy bursting from his body like an erupting volcano as he tried to blast Madara away.

But Madara's arm didn't budge.

He exerted his arm again, wrenching Jogo out of the ground as easily as pulling up a radish.

Then, the instant Jogo's body hung in the air, Madara released him and lashed out with his right foot, driving it hard into Jogo's abdomen.

"Guh-!"

Jogo flew backward like a cannonball, smashing through three trees with bowl-thick trunks before slamming into a rock face, leaving a web of cracks across it before slowly sliding down.

Agony.

His organs felt as though they had shifted, his bones groaned, and even the flow of his cursed energy faltered for an instant.

Jogo lay amid the rubble, his single eye fixed on Madara in the distance as genuine horror arose within him for the first time.

What the hell is this guy... such terrifying strength, and this amount of cursed energy... it's bottomless!

He had seen plenty of jujutsu sorcerers, but the black-haired boy before him possessed the strength of a ferocious beast.

"You bastard," Jogo said as he struggled to his feet, wiping the black blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. "Give me your name!"

Madara remained where he stood without pursuing him, merely watching him calmly.

"Madara Uchiha."

Jogo's single eye contracted sharply.

This guy is the Madara Uchiha Geto mentioned?

He recalled Kenjaku's words-win Madara Uchiha over.

Now, it seemed utterly impossible to win him over. He was an enemy with whom there could only be a fight to the death.

But if he's an enemy, then I have to eliminate him completely!

A vicious glint flashed through Jogo's eye. He slammed both hands into the ground, pouring cursed energy underground like a surging tide.

"Got you!"

Beneath Madara's feet, the ground suddenly bulged and split, and a small volcanic crater appeared out of nowhere.

Deep within the crater, dark-red magma churned, its terrifying heat distorting the surrounding air.

Then it erupted.

Boom-!!!

A column of searing magma shot into the sky, completely engulfing Madara's figure.

Flames and lava cascaded down like a waterfall, instantly charring vegetation and melting rock wherever they passed, turning the ground into scorched earth.

Jogo panted, a flicker of satisfaction flashing in his single eye.

Lava Eruption was one of his proudest cursed techniques. Its instantaneous temperature exceeded three thousand degrees, enough to melt steel.

Even a special grade sorcerer would be killed or crippled by taking this attack head-on.

But in the next second, his expression froze.

A blue light shone within the column of magma.

At first, it was only a faint speck, but it rapidly spread and swelled, forcibly pushing the magma aside.

The light coalesced and took shape-a blue giant stood within the magma.

Susanoo: Second Stage.

The giant raised an arm and casually swept it outward, brushing aside the surrounding magma and flames like dust to reveal the calm figure at its center.

Madara stood within Susanoo, his Mangekyō Sharingan watching Jogo ahead with eyes as calm as though he were watching a boring fireworks display.

Jogo's single eye nearly bulged out of its socket.

"What... is this? A cursed technique!?"

He had seen shikigami, cursed energy constructs, and all sorts of peculiar cursed techniques-but never anything like this.

The blue giant radiated terrifying fluctuations of cursed energy, its quality so high that Jogo was alarmed.

"Ember Insects!"

Jogo dared not hesitate any longer. He flung out both hands, and countless tiny flaming beetles appeared.

The beetles beat their wings and took flight, swarming toward Susanoo like a dense red tide.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-!!!

The flaming beetles struck Susanoo's body, exploding into balls of fire.

Explosions rang out without pause, flames soared skyward, and thick smoke billowed, enveloping the entire forest clearing in smoke, dust, and fire.

Jogo breathed heavily, his single eye fixed on the center of the smoke.

Ember Insects seemed simple, but every beetle contained highly compressed cursed energy, with explosive power rivaling a hand grenade.

With thousands upon thousands detonating at once, they could flatten even a small mountain.

The smoke and dust slowly cleared.

The blue Susanoo still stood, without so much as a scratch on its body.

The giant's four arms slowly rose, an enormous blade of deep-blue energy forming in each palm.

Standing in the giant's chest, Madara looked down at Jogo's disbelieving face and gently shook his head.

"And to think I worked so hard training myself..." His voice held a trace of genuine disappointment. "So special grade cursed spirits are this pathetically weak?"

Jogo froze, then flew into a rage.

"You damned brat-!!!!"

The crater on his head erupted violently, magma pouring out like blood.

The flames in his single eye danced wildly, and cursed energy poured out like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

"I'll kill you right here! Burn you to ash, grind your bones to powder, and burn away your soul along with them-!!!"

He formed hand seals before his chest.

The surrounding air began to distort, the temperature rose sharply, the ground cracked, and magma surged from the fissures.

He was going to turn this area into a volcanic hell that belonged to him alone.

Yet as Madara watched his movements, rather than stopping him, he raised both hands as well and formed a different hand sign before his chest.

"Sure." A nearly maniacal smile curled Madara's lips. "Watch me crush you completely."

Susanoo dissolved into specks of light, replaced by a pair of purple eyes patterned with concentric circles-the Rinnegan!

Meanwhile, in the distance, atop a small mountain.

Kenjaku stood there, quietly watching the distant battle.

The line of stitches across his forehead looked particularly glaring in the sunlight.

His expression was calm, but his brow furrowed slightly.

Has he even mastered Domain Expansion? And judging by the quality of that cursed energy...

Sixteen years old, enrolled less than a year ago, Domain Expansion, capable of overpowering Jogo head-on...

Where on earth did this monster, Madara Uchiha, come from?

On a mountain road even farther away, a black official car was slowly approaching.

In the driver's seat, Kiyotaka Ijichi gripped the steering wheel, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

In the passenger seat, Satoru Gojo sat with his legs crossed, humming an off-key tune.

"M-Mr. Gojo," Ijichi said, his voice trembling slightly as he watched the abnormal fluctuations of cursed energy in the sky ahead.

"There seems to be... a very powerful cursed energy signature up ahead. Wouldn't it be better to take a detour?"

Satoru Gojo looked out the car window and couldn't help smiling.

"Pull over. Perfect timing. I'll go watch the fun~"