Madara Uchiha stared fixedly at the golden figure above Amegakure, his eyes grave.
One punch.
Just one punch.
And he had sent the Ten-Tails flying to the other end of the lake with effortless ease.
"That strength..." Madara Uchiha frowned deeply, his wariness of Pero rising without limit.
It seemed that dealing with Pero would have to come first if he was to complete his plan.
"Madara." Black Zetsu rose from the lake beside Madara, looking toward the dust thrown high into the sky where the beast had fallen in the distance, a trace of fear in his voice.
He sensed an ominous presence within the dust.
"The Ten-Tails is a mindless monster. If we don't bring it under control soon, its attacks might hit us too."
Before he had finished speaking, earth-shattering chakra erupted from the dust beyond the hill.
The immense Ten-Tails struggled to its feet amid the mountain range that had been blasted apart.
There was nothing but chaos in its enormous, scarlet eye.
He slowly lowered himself and opened his enormous mouth.
A ball of pure purple-black energy rapidly gathered above it. The gusts stirred up by the swiftly circulating energy instantly dispersed the dust spreading around it.
That was a Tailed Beast Bomb!
Madara Uchiha's pupils abruptly contracted as he watched the swelling Tailed Beast Bomb. He could sense that the enormous bomb contained enough power to erase everything within a ten-li radius from the face of the earth.
His fists clenched involuntarily, and an ecstatic expression appeared on his face.
As expected of the Ten-Tails. Even an unconscious, instinctive attack had already reached this level.
Soon, he relaxed again, the corners of his mouth even curling into a sneer.
Because this creature's attack also encompassed Pero and Amegakure behind him.
He wanted to see just how Pero would handle this attack.
Above Amegakure, Pero's clone floated silently, the golden flames on his body rippling like waves.
He watched the Tailed Beast Bomb taking shape in the distance, his face expressionless.
He merely raised his eyes slowly, two points of crimson light gradually appearing in his golden pupils.
The next moment, heaven and earth lost their color.
All anyone present could see were two slender beams of red light tearing through the curtain of rain at an inconceivable speed, striking the Tailed Beast Bomb precisely while it was still gathering chakra.
The Tailed Beast Bomb, powerful enough to destroy the world, split neatly into two halves down the middle, like butter sliced by a hot knife.
The chaotic chakra lost its restraints and instantly surged backward, bombarding the Ten-Tails' enormous body.
Awooo-!!
For the first time, pain appeared in the Ten-Tails' chaotic eye.
It let out one agonized howl after another, its massive body blasted apart by its own uncontrolled power, flesh and blood flying as countless ravine-like wounds instantly appeared.
But a second later.
Those wounds, enough to kill any living creature outright, rapidly healed at a visible speed under the Ten-Tails' nearly limitless chakra.
"This can't go on."
Madara Uchiha thought that if this continued, the Ten-Tails might get beaten into submission.
He himself was also eager to obtain power beyond all bounds.
Without further hesitation, he leaped up, turning into a black shadow as he passed over the allied forces and raced toward the Ten-Tails.
The Ten-Tails shook its enormous head, struggling to turn its massive body over amid the mountains.
Madara Uchiha landed before him.
His Rinnegan suddenly widened, and a strange ocular power erupted. White appendages quickly extended from the Ten-Tails' body, connecting Madara Uchiha to it.
"That power you scatter so carelessly is mine to command now."
Roar-!
The Ten-Tails roared again, but this time, a trace of Madara Uchiha's will appeared in its single eye.
Madara Uchiha stood on the Ten-Tails' back, connected to it by the appendages.
Under Madara Uchiha's control, the Ten-Tails' ten enormous tails lashed like whips toward Pero's clone in the sky with earth-shattering force.
Faced with an attack powerful enough to destroy a nation in one blow, Pero's clone remained entirely at ease.
His figure darted at high speed between the countless massive tails, seeming to blink from place to place as casually as if he were strolling through a courtyard.
Sometimes, he could not even be bothered to dodge, knocking the Ten-Tails' ferocious tails back with a punch.
As he easily handled the Ten-Tails' attacks, he slowly approached Madara Uchiha's position.
Madara Uchiha's gaze sharpened.
Limbo: Border Jail!
Pero's clone paused slightly in his advance, sensing a strange fluctuation in the space around him.
It was as though shadows that could not be seen, touched, or heard, yet existed in the world, were approaching him.
Thud.
A dull impact unleashed a tremendous gust.
Pero's clone merely raised a hand casually, precisely blocking the shadow's attack.
Madara Uchiha's pupils contracted.
He... he could actually sense Limbo: Border Jail's attack?!
People without the Rinnegan could not detect this attack.
As Pero's clone drew closer and closer, Madara Uchiha began to feel that something was wrong with him.
At last, through the Rinnegan's perceptiveness, Madara Uchiha discovered what was strange about Pero.
The body of the Pero before him was actually somewhat transparent, radiating that pure golden light from the inside out.
Madara Uchiha's eyes instantly went round, and for the first time, an expression as though he had seen a ghost appeared on his face.
"A... a clone?!"
This Pero, who had sent the Ten-Tails flying with one punch, handled it with ease, and could even block his Limbo: Border Jail.
Was actually... actually just a clone!
Without the Rinnegan, he would not even have been able to see through this Pero.
A fury mingled with humiliation erupted like a volcano in Madara Uchiha's heart.
He, Madara Uchiha, a legend of the Shinobi World, the mastermind behind the entire Shinobi World, had actually been humiliated by someone like Pero!
"You... you... bastard!"
Madara Uchiha let out an enraged roar atop the Ten-Tails' back. The chakra in his body, fused with Senjutsu, erupted without restraint.
Through the Ten-Tails, it became a violent shock wave that drove Pero's clone back a short distance in the air.
He hesitated no longer.
He turned around and slammed both hands onto the Ten-Tails' body.
"Just you wait. I'll show you what true power is."
In an instant, the Ten-Tails' enormous eye unleashed a terrifying suction like a black hole.
Its mountain-sized body, along with Madara Uchiha himself, collapsed and converged toward a singularity at the center under that suction.
The surrounding trees were uprooted, the earth was torn apart, and the hills gradually began to crumble. Everything was sucked into that constantly shrinking point by the terrifying pull.
Finally, when everything had been completely devoured.
All that remained where the Ten-Tails had stood was a large white sphere emitting an ominous white light.
A terrifying presence that made people tremble emanated from that white sphere.
The allied shinobi in the distance began trembling all over and losing their will merely from sensing that presence.
From that white sphere came an utterly abrupt sound.
A heartbeat.
Thump-
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