"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"
"Wood Release: Wood Human Technique!"
A ferocious wooden dragon coiled itself around the towering wooden giant.
Standing atop the head of the wooden giant, Hashirama and Tobirama stood side by side.
Hashirama called out loudly,
"Young man! Fourth Hokage! For the sake of Konoha, stop us!"
Boom!
The wooden giant's foot stomped heavily onto the earth, producing an earth-shaking roar. The ground trembled violently as a massive surge of Nine-Tails chakra burst forth from Minato.
In an instant, a dark yellow Nine-Tails fox appeared before the wooden giant—its entire form composed of chakra.
Beneath the golden cloak shimmered a faint dark red glow.
Yin-Kurama Mode.
The Nine-Tails had been split into Yin and Yang halves and sealed separately within Minato and Naruto.
Naruto had the Yang half, while Minato possessed the Yin half—but there was no real power gap between them.
"Rrrrroooaaaarrr—!"
The Nine-Tails let out a furious roar, its savage bloodlust unmistakable.
It warned Minato,
"I'm only half of myself right now. There's no way we can beat that monster Hashirama. And this is our first time syncing—our time is limited."
It still remembered how, back when it had been sealed by that freak Senju Hashirama, it had been picked up like a helpless chick.
And the worst part?
Hashirama had actually said its power was too terrifying and needed to be sealed away.
Seriously, whose power was the real threat here?!
Kiyosuke hovered beside Minato, enveloped in dense chakra.
He said,
"Should we seal the Fourth Kazekage too?"
"I already placed the seal. He won't be making any moves for a while."
Minato moved with astonishing speed and said,
"The First Hokage's power is absolutely terrifying... So this is the strength that once brought peace to the warring states era?"
No... he hasn't even gotten serious yet.
Kiyosuke silently complained to himself.
There was no need to explain how terrifying a full-powered Hashirama was.
Just one "True Several Thousand Hands: Top Transformed Buddha" was enough to beat the Tailed Beast Mode Nine-Tails into submission.
Luckily, the Edo Tensei body couldn't unleash Hashirama's full strength.
Otherwise, not even he and Minato combined would be able to seal him.
"Can you teleport me to the Second Hokage?" Kiyosuke asked.
"I'll take him on. You hold off the First for now.And make sure the wooden dragon doesn't latch onto the Nine-Tails. If it does, it'll start absorbing its chakra."
"Got it."
Minato nodded.
He placed a hand on Kiyosuke's shoulder, and with a flash, teleported him away.
Back when they were attacking Tobirama earlier, Minato had secretly planted a Flying Thunder God mark on him.
As a result, when Kiyosuke suddenly appeared beside Tobirama, the latter had no time to react—
Kiyosuke's whip kick struck cleanly, sending him flying off the wooden giant.
Hashirama burst into laughter at the sight.
"Tobirama, you got caught off guard! Hahahahaha! Come to think of it, that chakra mode is kind of special… And isn't the Nine-Tails a bit smaller than usual?"
His little brother had always been a master of sneak attacks—so seeing him get ambushed for once was extremely entertaining.
But what intrigued him even more was Minato's Tailed Beast Mode.
He had never seen this kind of power before, but it was clearly some specialized application of the Nine-Tails' chakra.
"Shut up, big brother!"
Tobirama reappeared beside Hashirama in a flash, looking rather sour—not from the sneak attack, but because his brother was gleefully enjoying it.
"You still have time to laugh at me?
How about helping the Fourth Hokage and that young man seal us instead?"
"My bad, my bad. Fourth Hokage, that boy named Kiyosuke—bring it on!"
The wooden giant stepped forward, its enormous fist smashing down toward the Nine-Tails.
But the beast clamped down on it with its jaws, tearing off a massive chunk of wood.
The dragon slung over the wooden giant's shoulder let out a shriek and bit down on the Nine-Tails' neck, its body twisting as it tried to bind the beast.
But the Nine-Tails had already fallen for that trick once—no way was it letting it happen again.
Acting immediately, it caught the wooden dragon with its claws and locked it in place.
Then it began gathering a Tailed Beast Ball in its mouth.
With a deafening boom, the Tailed Beast Ball launched—
Hitting the wooden dragon square in the neck and blasting it apart.
Wood splinters flew everywhere.
While the Nine-Tails fought the wooden giant and dragon, Kiyosuke engaged the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Shockwave!!!"
Tobirama wasted no time, launching a high-level jutsu straight away.
He puffed up his chest and unleashed a tremendous volume of water, erupting in tsunami-like waves that surged with overwhelming force.
Even Minato and Hashirama, who were still battling nearby, were caught in the blast radius.
Faced with such a large-scale Water Style technique, Kiyosuke didn't bother dodging.
He dove straight into the water.
Two figures streaked through the waves, moving with blinding speed.
Water Release: Wave-Riding Strike!
Both of them used the same jutsu to dart around and attack underwater.
But soon, more objects began to appear in the depths—
Explosive tags.
Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags!!!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rippled through the water.
The muffled roars thundered beneath the surface.
Minato had placed a Flying Thunder God seal on Kiyosuke earlier during teleportation—
So he was able to recall him instantly.
"This is nuts—four guys fighting, and three of them don't even need to breathe!"
Thanks to the Nine-Tails' chakra protecting him from the water, Kiyosuke could breathe normally.
The outer explosions never let up.
Tobirama, who had been hiding beneath the surface, was hit directly by the explosive tags—
His body blew apart into fragments.
The Great Exploding Water Shockwave collapsed into a massive water sphere, and the blasts stopped.
The wooden giant's body was riddled with craters from the explosion.
Hashirama's form vanished.
As Minato and Kiyosuke scanned for him, a grotesque demon-faced mask appeared atop the wooden giant's head.
It suddenly opened—
Hashirama stepped out.
"Hahaha! Isn't this one of Tobirama's jutsu? You're using it pretty well, kid!"
Hashirama laughed as he looked at the aftermath caused by the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
Most of Tobirama's creations were forbidden techniques—each one alone enough to cause chaos across the entire shinobi world.
Like Edo Tensei, for example—
Even the technique's creator couldn't control himself under its influence.
It was almost laughably ironic.
At that moment, Tobirama's body had reformed.
He returned to Hashirama's side and nodded.
"Not a bad idea. When I first created that jutsu, it was meant to be used in conjunction with Edo Tensei. But you've found a new way to utilize it. Impressive."
He'd figured it out.
Kiyosuke's body was immune to physical attacks, which meant the explosions wouldn't harm him either.
In other words, even within the blast radius, he'd be fine.
That turned the technique into a deadly secret weapon.
"To be praised by the Second Hokage is a great honor. But... it'd be better if you hadn't invented those forbidden jutsu to begin with. They've caused us a lot of trouble, you know."
Tobirama's face darkened.
"How was I supposed to know Konoha's rogue ninja would learn them?"
"You should've thought more carefully when you created them," Kiyosuke sighed.
"Immortal bodies are just... such a pain."
You can't kill them, and you can't catch them either.
So what the hell are you supposed to do?