"Hiruzen Sarutobi, your opponent is me!"
An icy, commanding voice rang out clearly across the chaotic battlefield.
Uchiha Gen'yō did not even acknowledge Hiruzen Sarutobi's world-shattering attack. He simply walked unhurriedly up to Uchiha Fugaku and stood in front of him.
His leisurely bearing made it seem as though he was about to face not the full-force strike of the Third Hokage, hailed as the "Shinobi Hero," but a gentle breeze against his face.
"Gen'yō!"
As Fugaku looked at the young man's back before him, warmth surged through his heart, but even more than that, he felt worry.
"Be careful! Sarutobi, he..."
"Uncle Fugaku, thank you for your hard work."
Uchiha Gen'yō waved without looking back, cutting him off.
"Leave the stage to me now."
"Go keep an eye on that masked rat scurrying about for me. Don't let him escape."
"As for this old bag of bones with a death wish..."
Gen'yō slowly turned around, finally looking straight at Hiruzen Sarutobi as he charged toward him with overwhelming fury and murderous intent.
An utterly contemptuous smile curled his lips.
"It's my turn to send him to his grave myself."
"Arrogant brat!"
Seeing Uchiha Gen'yō's expression of complete disregard, Hiruzen Sarutobi nearly burst with rage.
He roared, driving the chakra within his body to its limit.
"You'll pay for your arrogance with your life!"
"Secret Art: Five Release: Great Combo Technique!"
Boom!
Earth, water, fire, wind, lightning.
Five different chakra natures fused and amplified perfectly in the hands of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the "Professor of Ninjutsu" proficient in all ninjutsu.
It was no longer a simple combination like before, but a true cycle of the five elements, an endlessly renewing formation of annihilation.
At its core was a ferocious dragon formed from lightning, wrapped in blazing flames; beyond the flames was a rapidly spinning gale that sliced through everything; beyond the gale were roaring, surging waves powerful enough to sweep everything away; beneath the waves were earthen walls as massive as mountains, powerful enough to crush everything.
The scale and power of this compound ninjutsu were several times greater than when he had attacked Fugaku earlier.
At that moment, the entire sky was shrouded in multicolored light of destruction.
The terrifying energy fluctuations even made Shisui and Obito, who were fighting at high speed in the distance, involuntarily pause and cast horrified looks toward it.
"Is... is this the Third Hokage's full power?"
"What terrifying pressure!"
"Before power like this, we're nothing but ants!"
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi unleash such divine might, the surviving Konoha ninja felt the flames of hope rekindle on their faces.
They could almost see the insufferably arrogant Uchiha Gen'yō being blasted into ash beneath this world-shattering ninjutsu.
"Lord Hokage will win!"
"Kill that traitor!"
"Avenge our fallen comrades!"
Earth-shaking shouts rang out once more.
Elsewhere, Ōnoki's heart leaped into his throat.
"Lord Gen'yō!"
He watched nervously as that white-clad figure faced the natural disaster-like ninjutsu alone.
Though he had already witnessed Uchiha Gen'yō's unfathomable methods countless times, the sight before him still exceeded his imagination.
This was already the limit of the power a Kage-level fighter could achieve.
Had he been the one facing this attack, he would have had no third option beyond meeting it head-on with Dust Release or fleeing in disgrace.
But how would Uchiha Gen'yō respond?
Yet what happened defied everyone's expectations.
Faced with terrifying ninjutsu powerful enough to destroy a small mountain and evaporate a river, Uchiha Gen'yō did nothing.
He did not even form a single defensive hand seal.
He simply stood there quietly, looking up with something close to pity at the five-colored torrent about to swallow him.
It was the look an adult would give an immature child desperately spraying him with a toy water gun.
"Is that all?"
Uchiha Gen'yō shook his head and let out a barely audible sigh.
"The Third Hokage, hailed as the 'Shinobi Hero,' who stood at the pinnacle of the Shinobi World for decades."
"Your caliber, your strength, your resolve."
"Is this all they amount to?"
His voice was quiet, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly, filled with disappointment and disdain.
"You truly disappoint me, Hiruzen Sarutobi."
"You aren't even worth making a move against."
The instant his words fell, the world-shattering Five Release: Great Combo Technique finally came crashing down.
No dodging, no defense.
Under everyone's expectant, worried, or horrified gazes, Uchiha Gen'yō's figure was completely engulfed by the raging torrent of five-colored energy.
Rumble-!
A deafening explosion seemed ready to tear the entire world apart.
The ground where Gen'yō stood was instantly blasted into a terrifying crater over a hundred meters in diameter.
Violent energy shock waves swept outward in every direction like a tsunami.
Countless enormous rocks were instantly hurled into the air and pulverized.
Some nearby ninja were even sent flying by the aftershocks alone, coughing up blood.
The entire battlefield was shrouded in a chaos of dust, steam, and raging chakra, and the world seemed to lose all sound at that moment.
"Is... is it over?"
A Konoha ninja stared at the center of destruction, which looked as though a meteor had struck it, and asked in a trembling voice.
"It's definitely over!"
His companion answered fervently, "No one, absolutely no one could survive after taking such a terrifying blow from Lord Hokage!"
"We won! We won!"
After a brief, deathly silence, the Konoha side erupted in thunderous cheers, as though they had survived a disaster.
Hiruzen Sarutobi floated in midair, gasping for breath.
That last strike had depleted more than eighty percent of the chakra in his body.
His aged face was full of exhaustion, but as he gazed down at the "masterpiece" he had created with his own hands, the light of victory shone in his cloudy old eyes.
"Whew... it's finally over."
He murmured to himself.
Though the price had been steep, as long as he could eliminate Uchiha Gen'yō, the greatest threat, it was all worth it.
Yet just as everyone thought the outcome was settled, a voice so calm it made their hearts tremble drifted slowly out from the center of destruction.
"That was your full-force strike?"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Shinobi Hero."
"It was practically just scratching an itch for me."
"Tell me, with me standing here completely unscathed, won't the expression on that old face of yours be quite a sight?"