Rumble!
The Earth Flow Rampart split apart, dust and smoke rising.
Madara's cold eyes narrowed.
"Did he run?"
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"
A hand shot from the ground beneath him, gripping his ankle.
Madara's eyes flicked down sharply. He instantly gathered chakra into his foot and stomped with crushing force.
BOOM!
The earth split apart in all directions, the arm hanging limply as if lifeless.
Madara's lips curled in disdain.
"This man actually tried using a child's jutsu against me?"
Whoosh!
But it was only a feint. The true attack came from above.
A stone giant manifested overhead, its massive fist plummeting straight toward him!
Madara's pupils shrank.
'When did he form the seals?'
He thought back, most likely when the Earth Flow Rampart had risen earlier. Mū had planned this move several steps ahead.
A clever ploy. But against absolute power, such tricks were nothing but desperate flailing.
Madara raised his fan overhead just as the fist descended.
BOOOOOOM!
The stone giant's blow shook the ground, leaving a massive crater.
And yet, Madara stood unharmed, calmly muttering,
"Uchiha Return"
White light flashed.
In an instant, the giant's force was reversed back onto itself. Its massive frame cracked, shattered, and crumbled into rubble.
---
Hidden nearby, Mū panted, hurriedly replenishing his chakra reserves.
"Damn it… Madara's actually serious now."
He could feel it.
The man had entered that deadly state where words were few, but every strike carried killing intent.
Each move, whether the move just now or that crushing kick earlier, had been aimed to end him.
Mū's hands blurred through seals before his figure shimmered into view.
The moment he appeared, Madara flickered into position beside him, scythe flashing down in a vicious arc.
Whshhh!
The strike came fast as lightning.
Mū desperately manipulated stones into the air, interposing them. The scythe bit into rock, and in that instant Mū twisted, guiding the earth to wrench the weapon aside, trying to disarm him.
Then his hands flew into another seal.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!"
Madara instinctively brought his fan up to block.
But no dragon came.
Instead, Mū spun on his heel and shot backward into the sky, retreating at full speed.
Madara's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"…You dare play games with me?"
He had grown used to Hashirama always announcing his jutsu honestly, announcing them as he unleashed them. This bandaged man, however, broke the rhythm, and for once, even Madara had been caught off guard.
From the shadows, Hashirama rubbed his face with an awkward laugh.
"Ah… Madara, you're too naive sometimes."
Beside him, Tobirama only scoffed coldly.
"The one calling Madara naive is the real fool here."
"Hmph! You think you can run?"
Madara launched himself skyward, his speed nearly equal to Mū's flight.
Mū glanced back.
Madara's Sharingan burned, locking onto him like a predator closing in on its prey.
Cold sweat trickled down his neck. His body had long been stripped bare of hair by battle scars, but still, every nerve screamed.
Gritting his teeth, Mū forced himself onward, heading toward the location he had chosen beforehand.
There, he stopped abruptly.
Madara lunged without hesitation, scythe swinging to kill.
This time, Mū didn't dodge. He met him head-on.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Their blows collided in midair, stone and steel clashing violently.
Madara's Susanoo flared open at its first stage, its skeletal arm swiping downward.
SMASH!
One colossal strike slammed Mū into the ground.
Madara immediately followed up, his fan releasing a storm of energy.
Madara's fan slammed Mū into the ground, pinning him there.
"To be honest," Madara said coldly, dismissing Susanoo, "I've wanted to do this to you for a while now."
Pinned beneath the fan, Mū's eyes glimmered faintly.
"Still trying to act tough?" Madara sneered.
But in that instant, Madara felt a sudden chill at his back.
Slap!
A hand landed on his shoulder.
Madara's face twisted in shock.
'What?! The one I pinned… was just a stone clone?!'
Before he could react...
"Earth Style: Ultra Added Weight Rock Jutsu!"
Mū pressed the seal, and crushing gravity slammed onto Madara.
In an instant, Madara's body felt impossibly heavy. Even the earth beneath his feet cracked and sank beneath the weight.
"Now then… try this technique for size!"
Mū's palms struck the ground.
RUMMMBLE!
The earth convulsed.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward at terrifying speed, as if the land itself was splitting apart.
But instead of scattering, the fragments surged inward, pulled as if by an immense gravitational core.
Madara was dragged skyward, his body yanked helplessly into the air. He rose higher and higher, unable to resist.
At the same time, stones and soil across the battlefield tore free, ripped from the ground as though alive.
They ascended like meteors, converging on Madara, slamming into him in torrents.
The sky darkened with the sheer mass of rock. Madara's form was buried beneath an avalanche of stone.
Mū lifted into the air as well, both hands raised toward the heavens, completing the seal.
"This… is my Chibaku Tensei."
His eyes shone with pride as he gazed at the enormous sphere forming in the sky. At the same moment, blood spilled from the corner of his lips.
---
"By the gods!"
"This is insane!"
"Lord Madara… he's actually being suppressed?!"
The shinobi of Konoha, watching from afar, were struck dumb, their eyes wide with shock.
Elite, veteran, and even younger ninja alike stood stunned.
Hiruzen, Danzō, Homura, Koharu, Kagami, and others could barely believe what they were seeing.
"That power… Danzō, look!" Hiruzen's voice trembled with awe.
Danzō's expression was grim, eyes narrowing.
Even Kagami, loyal to the Uchiha, couldn't hide his astonishment.
"Such a jutsu… is this even still considered ninjutsu?"
In the moonlight, Mū seemed almost divine, hands raised high, creating what looked like a second moon above the world.
For the shinobi of Konoha, it was a sight beyond comprehension.
Not only was his jutsu itself shocking, but the fact that someone other than Hashirama could fight Madara evenly…
It shattered their worldview.
Perhaps "monsters" weren't exclusive to Konoha.
Other villages, too, had their legends.
---
"This technique… astonishing," Hashirama admitted in awe. "Maybe I should try developing something like it myself."
Tobirama, however, narrowed his eyes. He had noticed something different.
But he didn't say it outright. He wanted to see if his brother could figure it out.
"Big Brother, didn't you notice something strange about that sphere?"
Hashirama scratched his head. "Eh? What's strange about it?"
Tobirama turned his gaze toward the Hyūga clan head.
"Did you see it?"
The Hyūga patriarch gave a helpless smile.
"With the Byakugan, of course I saw it. Every single rock making up that sphere… is inscribed with explosive tags."
"What?!"
Hashirama's face tightened. He activated his powerful sensory perception and immediately realized it was true.
Inside every boulder floated countless explosive tags.
"But how?!" Hashirama demanded, reeling.
"That guy was under our watch the entire time!"
"Wasn't he fighting Madara non-stop? When could he possibly have planted them?!"
Three questions burst from Hashirama at once, his face lined with shock.
Tobirama's voice cut through, calm and level.
"Because from the very beginning… it wasn't just one man fighting Madara."