"Impossible!!!"
Madara roared in unwilling fury. "I've planned all this for so long—I will never fail!"
"When you put your faith in a stone tablet, your failure was already decided! No one can entrust peace to a tablet whose truth can't even be verified!"
Kiyosuke hovered in the air, clashing fiercely with Madara.
"That stone was left behind by the Sage of Six Paths! Only those with the Sharingan can read it!" Madara's voice was filled with conviction. To him, the tablet contained the true key to peace.
One could only say that Black Zetsu's manipulative skills were truly top-tier.
"Then why didn't the other Uchiha believe in it? Why was it only you? Do you think you're smarter than everyone else? Wake up, Madara. The moment you chose to walk alone in pursuit of peace, you had already lost."
Kiyosuke's face was calm. He didn't care about Madara's failure.
He only cared about whether those two brats had made it through safely.
"Peace was never something that one person could achieve. You forgot that. You thought you could force peace upon the world with your own strength alone—but peace has never been something one person could create."
Madara turned to glance at the countless people struggling against him, and suddenly, he laughed.
"Hahahahaha! Seems I've lost to you after all, Asakawa Kiyosuke. You win. But I won't go down that easily! I am..."
"Uchiha Madara!!!"
The air trembled with a surge of power. Everyone could feel it—the force radiating from Madara himself. He was matching their combined strength.
Was this the power of a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki—one who could stand equal to the Sage of Six Paths?
Everyone stared in shock at the display, and Kiyosuke shouted, "What are you all doing standing there?! Pull harder! Madara's losing control!"
This was the moment of truth—everything would be decided here!
Kiyosuke's body flared into flames as he dove at Madara once more, fighting to buy everyone below another chance at victory.
"Everyone, pull!!!"
Naruto bellowed, "We're going to win!!!"
"We're going to win!!!!"
Thousands of voices roared in unison, shaking the heavens with their determination.
"See that, Madara? This... is humanity's resolve!"
"A flock of sheep without a leader will always lose its way," Madara muttered, his voice low.
"Asakawa Kiyosuke... are you that shepherd?"
Kiyosuke shook his head.
"No. I'm not. Someone will stand up to lead them—but that person will never be me."
"Hah... what a pity," Madara said softly, almost regretful. Yet he didn't stop struggling. He pulled with everything he had, unwilling to lose to the Allied Shinobi Forces—or perhaps, unwilling to lose to Hashirama among them.
He fought with all his might, but he could feel it—the tailed beasts inside him were slowly tearing away.
"I refuse... to fall here!!!"
"You should fall here!"
Kiyosuke flew toward him and slammed his fist squarely into Madara's face.
Crack!
The sound of shattering bone echoed. Madara staggered back in pain, yet still refused to yield.
"In that case..." Kiyosuke exhaled deeply. "Yin Seal—Release!"
The seal on his forehead burst open. Black markings spread across his face as a suffocating surge of chakra erupted outward, so dense that even Madara's expression changed drastically.
"Impossible! You still have that much chakra left?! The Yin Seal?!"
"Oh? This level of chakra even surpasses what I had in my youth," Hashirama said, nodding in admiration.
Tobirama frowned. "Does he have Senju or Uzumaki blood?"
After all, in the shinobi world, only the Senju and Uzumaki clans were known for possessing such vast reserves of chakra. No other clan could compare.
"Bloodline or not, that's not the issue right now!" Uzumaki Mito snapped. "Hashirama, are you slacking off? Pull harder!"
"I really didn't eat today," Hashirama muttered under his breath as he commanded his wooden avatar to exert more force.
Kiyosuke raised his fist high.
"I'll end this... with one punch!"
There was no flashy fire, no grandly named technique—only a single, solid blow.
But that punch carried unimaginable power.
Madara was sent flying, and at that very moment, the tailed beasts were torn free from his body.
The eight freed beasts hit the ground, shaking off the dust.
"Finally!" Shukaku shouted.
"Naruto, you've fulfilled your promise to us," Matatabi said gently.
"You've done well," Son Gokū nodded solemnly.
"Kurama!" Naruto yelled.
"Idiot! I can hear you just fine!" Kurama snapped back, his tone tsundere as ever. "You're inside my other half—you don't have to scream so loud!"
Kaido—no, the Nine-Tails—yelled at Naruto so fiercely that even the other beasts burst out laughing.
"Yes! We did it!!!"
"We won!!!"
Cheers erupted across the battlefield. The Allied Shinobi Forces shouted at the top of their lungs, their victory cries echoing through the sky. People hugged each other in tears—overjoyed to have survived, overwhelmed that the impossible battle was finally over.
This war had been a clash of gods. Surviving it felt like a miracle.
Thank heaven—they were still alive.
...
Meanwhile, Madara lay at the bottom of a deep crater. Countless bones were broken from Kiyosuke's final punch.
He had already lost his Sage form, and his hair had turned black again.
When Obito was controlled by Madara and used the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, his hair had turned white, remaining so even after his Sage power faded. But Madara, who hadn't used the technique, retained his dark hair.
Now, stripped of the tailed beasts, all that remained in his body was the empty shell of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. Its life force was immense, so Madara wouldn't die—but he was left utterly drained, on the brink of collapse.
"How does it feel?" Kiyosuke asked, stepping closer.
"Terrible," Madara rasped, breathing heavily. Having lost all nine beasts, his body felt worse than it ever had—even weaker than in his old age.
"Well, of course. You lost."
"Yeah... you won." Madara gave a faint smile. "You understand me now, don't you?"
"I do."
Kiyosuke nodded. "I'm going to take your Rinnegan. It's for the future."
Madara looked at him steadily.
"Another 'situation,' huh?"
"Naturally. Otherwise, I could've just revived you from the start, then sealed you inside Ryūchi Cave and let the White Snake Sage suppress you there. No one would've been able to bring you back again. Naruto and Sasuke already carry the Sage's blessing—you didn't lose unfairly."
"The Sage of Six Paths... he's still alive?"
"Not completely dead. He lingers—because of his two troublesome sons."
Kiyosuke briefly explained the matter of Indra and Ashura.
"So... Hashirama and I are like that? Hah, that's disgusting." Madara laughed weakly at himself.
"Then what am I now?"
"You are you, Uchiha Madara. No one can replace that."
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