In Senju Hashirama's field of vision, a face resembling Madara's own was embedded in the flesh of Uchiha Madara's chest.
Senju Hashirama's pupils narrowed. A flicker of astonishment crossed his gaze.
Uchiha Madara naturally noticed the shift in Hashirama's line of sight immediately. A cold smile tugged at the corner of his lip.
Madara spread his arms wide and let out a booming laugh, brimming with untamed arrogance.
"When two opposing forces act upon each other, all of creation is born."
"Hashirama — do you remember the stone monument of the Uchiha? It said that those who obtain both powers — the Uchiha and the Senju — will attain true happiness."
Madara's laughter faded. He spoke in a flat, detached tone.
At Madara's words, Senju Hashirama's brow furrowed, a flash of seriousness in his eyes.
"It seems you've been plotting quite a lot since you left the village."
Senju Hashirama looked down at Uchiha Madara before him, his tone carrying a note of lament.
At first, Senju Hashirama had not fully understood how Madara had obtained the legendary Rinnegan.
But hearing Madara's words now, Hashirama more or less grasped the truth.
Whether as the closest of friends during the Warring States Period, or as mortal enemies in the present — in Senju Hashirama's eyes, Uchiha Madara had always been an extraordinary figure.
And in Madara's eyes, the same was true of Senju Hashirama.
Capturing the Nine-Tails jinchuriki was only one of Madara's objectives in launching this war.
After all, in terms of tailed beasts, Yuto controlled far more than Konoha, which possessed only one.
Another reason was that Senju Hashirama had become an obstacle that Madara had to eliminate in order to carry out his plan.
Yuto's goals and Madara's plan were not identical, but in the early stages, their broad direction aligned.
And there was one more reason — a more important one. Uchiha Madara wanted to fight Senju Hashirama with everything he had, once and for all.
Madara had lost the last war. And he had survived only by clinging to life in the most wretched manner.
That was a stain on his pride — a humiliation he could never accept.
So he would face Senju Hashirama in a proper, no-holds-barred fight to the death. One of them would live. One of them would die.
Madara clenched his fist and slammed his palm against the ground.
He let out a low cry, and the entire earth trembled.
From beneath Madara's feet, a wood golem — seven or eight times larger than Senju Hashirama's — erupted from the ground.
"Wood Release?" Senju Hashirama's expression shifted at the sight.
"Hashirama — seeing your own power wielded by my hands. How does it feel?"
Uchiha Madara stood atop the enlarged wood golem, looking down at Senju Hashirama below, and spoke with supreme arrogance.
Having transplanted Senju Hashirama's cells, Uchiha Madara had long since gained access to Wood Release.
The colossal golem immediately began to move, swinging its enormous arm down toward Senju Hashirama.
Just one arm of Madara's golem was roughly half the size of Senju Hashirama's entire wood golem.
A massive shadow blotted out the sky above Senju Hashirama. Rather than retreating, he maneuvered his golem forward, using its superior agility to dodge Madara's strike.
But Madara's reaction was equally swift. The massive golem's arms paused mid-swing, then snapped back toward its own body.
The arms sliced through the air as they retracted, compressing it with enough force to produce a deafening sonic boom.
With a thunderous impact, Madara's retracting arms caught Senju Hashirama's golem clean across the midsection, severing it in two.
Senju Hashirama's face showed no surprise. He used the force of the impact to spring off his own crumbling golem, leaping directly onto the waist of Madara's colossal wood golem.
Channeling chakra to his feet, Senju Hashirama clung upside down to the golem's body.
He pushed off and sprinted vertically along the golem's surface at incredible speed, racing toward Madara at its summit.
Madara's eyes shifted at the sight.
The previously smooth surface of the enormous golem suddenly sprouted countless bulges.
A swarm of Wooden Dragons burst from the golem's body, forming a wave of terrifying serpentine figures that surged toward Senju Hashirama.
Senju Hashirama's expression darkened at the sight of the Wooden Dragons closing in.
After all, no one would enjoy watching their own signature jutsu used against them.
But Senju Hashirama's speed did not slow in the slightest.
Empowered by the Eight Gates, he threw a single punch that shattered the head of the leading Wooden Dragon.
Brutal, overwhelming force poured from Senju Hashirama's body, obliterating every Wooden Dragon that came surging toward him.
In that moment, Senju Hashirama was like a humanoid beast, radiating sheer ferocity from every inch of his being.
He destroyed many Wooden Dragons in a short span, but even more continued to pour toward him.
At the same time, Madara's golem raised its massive palm and swatted at Senju Hashirama, who was scrambling across its body.
Facing a sky full of Wooden Dragons and the golem's enormous palm, Senju Hashirama realized closing the distance to Madara would be difficult. His forward momentum halted for an instant.
He released the chakra clinging to his feet, and his body dropped from the golem at extreme speed.
Mid-fall, he bounded off the golem's massive frame several times before landing on the ground.
Madara, of course, had no intention of letting Senju Hashirama escape and widen the gap between them.
The colossal golem raised its fist and slammed it down toward Senju Hashirama below.
Each punch carved a bottomless crater into the earth. The ground shook violently, as if a magnitude-ten earthquake had struck.
Senju Hashirama darted across the battlefield at blistering speed, weaving between the falling fists. His body left streaks of blue afterimage across the ground.
Senju Hashirama seized a brief pause, slammed both hands against the earth, and let out a sharp cry.
Enormous trees erupted from the ground. In moments, the battlefield — which the two combatants had already stripped bare — transformed into a dense forest.
The towering trees swarmed skyward, surging toward the golem.
Senju Hashirama had not used Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence to fight the golem directly. After all, the jutsu alone could not destroy it.
He was using it to stall the golem's movements.
The tactic worked — the golem's actions slowed noticeably.
Seizing the momentary lull, Senju Hashirama broke from his position, escaping the golem's attack range.
Only after putting what he considered a safe distance between them did Senju Hashirama stop, panting.
Madara continued driving his colossal golem toward Senju Hashirama while bellowing.
"My Wood Release isn't as weak as you think!"
Senju Hashirama roared back. A terrifying surge of chakra erupted from every pore of his body.
He raised both arms and brought his palms together with a thunderous cry.
A booming echo rolled across the heavens and the earth.
An aura of such overwhelming power descended upon the entire battlefield that it made the soul itself tremble.
A colossal Wooden Buddha statue with countless arms rose slowly from the ground, appearing between heaven and earth.
The shadow of the statue alone was enough to blanket the entire battlefield.
If Senju Hashirama's wood golem was like a younger brother beside Madara's colossal golem, then Madara's golem was nothing — not even a younger brother — before the True Thousand Hands.
Uchiha Madara looked up at the gargantuan Buddha. Not a trace of fear appeared in his eyes — only exhilaration.
Madara had been waiting for this legendary jutsu.
Even with Senju Hashirama's cells transplanted into his body, Madara could only use basic Wood Release.
A technique of this caliber was beyond his reach.
It was a jutsu unique to Senju Hashirama — the mightiest Wood Release technique that only he could wield.
Madara's lips were stretched wide in a feral grin, his eyes burning with fervent anticipation.
The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in Madara's eyes spun rapidly. Immense ocular power surged from his pupils.
Blue, solidified chakra flowed from Madara's body like a liquid, swiftly covering the colossal wood golem beneath his feet.
A hybrid abomination — combining the wood golem's raw strength with Susanoo's impregnable defense — appeared before Senju Hashirama: an Armored Susanoo.
The power pouring from Madara's eyes did not weaken. If anything, it surged with even greater intensity.
The Susanoo-armored golem raised both arms, lifting its palms into the air.
Three Yasaka Magatama — spheres of pure, condensed chakra — materialized above the golem's left hand.
Terrifying energy was compressed into the three magatama, causing them to swell to several times their original size. Their surfaces radiated a light as brilliant as the sun.
The air around the magatama seemed to ignite, boiling and churning with a nightmarish intensity.
On the golem's right hand, a black dot appeared. It expanded at a visible pace.
Using the power of the Rinnegan, Madara compressed chakra into an ultra-high-density black sphere, generating a terrifying gravitational pull.
This version of Chibaku Tensei did not immediately begin absorbing everything around it. Instead, the full force of its gravitational pull was compressed entirely into the black sphere.
From a distance, the black chakra sphere in the golem's right hand looked almost ordinary — far less dramatic than the blazing magatama on its left.
But a careful observer would notice the space around the high-density black sphere slightly warping and bending.
All of Chibaku Tensei's normally released gravitational force had been sealed within the sphere.
The result was a Chibaku Tensei of even greater terror — compressed into a new and more devastating form.
The Susanoo-armored golem raised both arms: the left hand cradling the blazing magatama, the right hand cradling the eerily silent black sphere.
The golem brought its hands together, forcibly merging two completely different powers of apocalyptic magnitude.
The three swollen, radiant magatama began orbiting the black sphere like small planets along distinct trajectories.
A single composite technique — blazing magatama circling a void-black energy core — now floated between the golem's palms.
Two inherently unstable jutsu, when forced together in this manner, paradoxically achieved an eerie calm.
Anyone who laid eyes on it could sense the earth-shattering devastation lurking beneath that deceptive stillness.
While Madara prepared this supreme technique, Senju Hashirama was doing the same.
Senju Hashirama opened the Sixth Gate of the Eight Gates.
An aura of unimaginable power erupted from within his body.
He channeled this force into every fist of the True Thousand Hands' countless arms.
Each of the statue's thousand fists radiated a brilliant, awe-inspiring blue chakra — like a peacock spreading its tail in full display.
In this moment, Senju Hashirama raised his head toward Uchiha Madara and fixed him with a piercing glare.
[
Dear Readers,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to you today because things have become genuinely difficult, and I need to be honest about where I stand.
I am currently posting five to seven chapters every day across my active fictions, keeping up with bonus releases and extra chapters on top of that. The schedule is relentless, and I am putting in everything I have to make sure nobody is left waiting.
Going forward, I am also bringing more quality fictions to the table — unfound gems and hidden stories that deserve a wider audience. I want to keep expanding what is available for you to read, but I cannot do it alone.
Right now, my financial situation has dropped to the lowest point it has ever been. Patreon support is not just helpful anymore — it is what keeps this work alive. Without it, I do not know how long I can sustain this daily output or continue hunting down those new stories for you.
If you have been reading and enjoying the work, please consider joining a tier. I have increased what each tier offers so that your support goes further:
Adventurer — $3 per month
20 chapters in advance for all of my works
Warrior — $7 per month
40 chapters in advance for all of my works
Immortal — $10 per month (Highlighted Tier)
60 chapters in advance for all of my works
Access to character images
Important note: Subscribing through the Apple App adds an extra 30 percent fee due to Apple/Patreon policy. Please subscribe through your browser to avoid the extra charge. Apple also processes payments very late — two to three months — which makes it much harder for me to receive funds quickly when I need them most.
I am pleading with you because I need your help right now. Your support would let me keep the daily releases going, keep the early access flowing, and keep bringing you those new, quality fictions I have lined up. It would keep my head above water while I do what I love.
If you cannot subscribe, sharing the work with others who might enjoy it still helps more than you know.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your time.
Patreon: patreon.com/anish_44
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/anish_44
]