Sasuke's special delivery—uh, I mean, his "Amaterasu Raikiri"—was seriously powerful. Unlike big area attacks like Tailed Beast Bombs or Limbo, this technique didn't hit a wide area. Its strength came from the piercing power added to Raikiri.
Put simply, Shukaku's shield could block a Tailed Beast Bomb, because that kind of attack spreads out too much. But it couldn't block Amaterasu Raikiri, which focuses all its power on one point. It pierces straight through.
You either dodge it or counter it with something just as strong.
That said, when it comes to wiping out everything around you, Tailed Beast Bombs are still better.
So why explain all this? Just to make it clear—even if you're hiding inside the crystal at the head of a Susano'o, which is its strongest part, you still can't block Sasuke's strike that combines Six Paths power, his Karma mark, and Amaterasu.
As the crystal shattered, Madara was blown backward. But Sasuke's eyes flashed, and he instantly switched places with a piece of broken chakra, appearing right in front of Madara. Amaterasu Raikiri stabbed into him in the blink of an eye.
Both of them were sent flying. It looked like Sasuke had knocked Madara away with one hit and chased him down at the same time.
*Boom!*
They crashed hard into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
Only then did the full-body Susano'o slowly fade away. Before it vanished, it even turned to look at Sasuke's back one last time, like it wanted to swing its sword again.
"Did it work?" Hashirama stood on top of a wooden giant, watching with a serious face.
As the dust cleared, Sasuke and Madara could be seen in the crater, facing each other.
Sasuke let the lightning in his hand fade and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Kamui is really a pain."
Madara's Mangekyou spun slightly. "If it weren't for Kamui, that attack just now would've gone straight through my heart."
"Yeah." Sasuke didn't deny it—he had aimed for Madara's heart. "But don't get cocky. Kamui only lasts about five minutes. Even if you've found a way to stretch it, it can't be more than ten. I can wait."
"No need for all that." Madara waved his hand, and in the next second, to Sasuke's surprise, he just canceled Kamui on his own.
He rolled his neck a bit and spoke calmly. "But you're right—I can't beat you right now. I'll admit that. I guess... Obito actually did something useful for once."
His eyes turned toward the distance, as if he was waiting for something.
Sasuke suddenly felt uneasy.
"What are you trying to do?" he asked.
"Nothing much. Just waiting for a guy named Orochimaru," Madara said as he jumped out of the crater. He didn't seem to care at all that his plan had been exposed. "Before coming here, Obito gave his eye to Orochimaru. Told him to go catch the One-Tail, then bring the eye to me once I'm back."
"I can use Summoning Technique to bring in the rest of the Tailed Beasts. Add in the One-Tail that Orochimaru just caught, and I've got everything I need to bring back the Ten-Tails. Simple plan." Madara glanced at the Demonic Statue in the distance, which Sasuke had taken control of. "Only thing I didn't expect... was that you'd be the one controlling it."
Sasuke blinked in confusion. "You're just... telling me all this?"
"Is there something you can't say?" Madara glanced at Sasuke casually. "Even if I tell you, you won't be able to stop it."
As he said that, Sasuke's eyes suddenly widened. "You already caught Shukaku!"
Based on what Madara said, Orochimaru was supposed to catch Shukaku first and then give the eye to Madara. But now that Madara already had the eye, didn't that mean Shukaku had been captured?
What the hell is Naruto doing? Don't tell me he actually let Orochimaru take Shukaku...
"Nope. That Orochimaru guy failed," Madara looked at Sasuke and said. "That Uzumaki Naruto is with the One-Tail right now. Even I wouldn't dare say I'd win in that situation. What chance does a rat hiding in a sewer have?"
Hearing that, Sasuke let out a sigh of relief. "Then why did you say Obito did something good?"
"It's that sewer rat…" Madara suddenly grinned with a strange look in his eyes. "He might be a rat, but he's the same kind of rat as Senju Tobirama. He gave me some useful info. Obito finding him was actually a pretty good move."
"Wha—" Sasuke hadn't even finished saying the word when a loud explosion suddenly rang out.
He turned his head on instinct and saw that the huge Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had vanished, leaving only a cloud of smoke behind.
Sasuke's pupils shrank. "Summoning Jutsu? That's impossible! I'm the one who controls the Demonic Statue. How could someone else summon it?"
Before he even finished speaking, Sasuke reacted instantly. Without a second thought, he used Amenotejikara and appeared right in front of Madara. He didn't even have time to use any ninjutsu—he just swung his long sword and cut Madara clean in half.
Blood and organs burst from Madara's upper body, splashing everywhere like a broken dam.
But Madara's face didn't change at all. He didn't care about the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He just smiled and said, "Oh, and one more thing—the reason that rat brought me this Three-Tomoe Sharingan was to give me something to use as a medium for Izanagi."
"The Kamui dimension... pretty handy."
As soon as he said that, Madara's body—from top to bottom—suddenly vanished, as if someone had erased him with an eraser.
A second later, a swirling space distortion appeared in the distance. Madara's figure, still wearing that strange smile, disappeared into the black spiral.
Before the swirl fully vanished, Sasuke had already appeared beside it. Black lightning surged from his body as he struck, destroying the entire spiral in one blow. Blood and bits of some unknown body part splashed onto the ground, staining it red.
It was Madara's lower body… But even with just his upper half, someone like Orochimaru had enough skill to heal him.
Sasuke stared at Madara's lower half on the ground, clenching his fists tightly. "Orochimaru… what the hell have you been doing…"
This whole thing was way too bizarre. Whether it was Obito bringing Madara back to life, Orochimaru summoning away the Demonic Statue that Sasuke controlled, or the things Madara said—they were all so unbelievable. So much so that even though Shukaku hadn't been taken yet, Sasuke still felt uneasy.
Hashirama landed beside Sasuke, looking at Madara's half-body with a complex expression. "This isn't your fault."
And this time, it really wasn't Sasuke's fault.
Sasuke took a deep breath and deactivated his Karma form. "I can still sense the direction the Demonic Statue was taken. They went toward Naruto. Madara won't be able to fight again anytime soon."
"This time, we got played by a younger generation," Hashirama said with a helpless shake of his head. "Everything went smoothly on Tobirama's end, but we let the enemy get away here."
"That's the third time the enemy's slipped away from me," Sasuke said with a dark look on his face. "And two of those were because of Orochimaru."
Kurama was right—Orochimaru holds the real power behind the scenes.
We either bring him under control, or take him out. If we don't, who knows when he'll pop up again to mess things up.
Kurama, this time I'll remember what you said.
…
On the other side of the glowing light, where brightness and darkness met, a figure holding a fishing rod grinned. Veins bulged around his eyes before they suddenly turned into blue Rinnegan.
"What an interesting future. Even going through it again is still surprising."
"These low-level creatures… they really are fun."
"Don't you think so? Otsutsuki Sasuke."
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