Meanwhile, on the battlefield along the Naka River.
The Nine-Tails sealed within Kushina suddenly let out a low growl.
"Kurama?"
Kushina asked him inwardly.
"What's wrong?"
"That chakra."
Kurama's voice carried a rare trace of seriousness.
"It's on the same level as that old man. When did your Hokage become this terrifying?"
Kushina froze for a moment before grinning.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Kurama snorted and said nothing more, but his tails continued to swing restlessly within the sealed space.
Up ahead.
Madara stood within the forehead crystal of the dark blue Susanoo, his Rinnegan narrowing slightly.
He could feel himself being suppressed.
His repulsive force crashed forward like a tidal wave striking a mountain. Yet the mountain remained completely unmoved, while the wave itself had begun to roll backward.
"This is impossible."
Madara frowned.
This was the power of the Rinnegan. How could it possibly be suppressed in the same manner by someone who did not even possess the Rinnegan?
Could it be that the Rinnegan in his Edo Tensei state was actually this weak?
But the facts were right before his eyes.
The layer of green chakra surrounding Kiyohara did not even show the slightest ripple. He simply raised his hand, and the repulsive force radiating from his palm became even stronger.
Boom!!!
The ground beneath Madara's dark blue Susanoo collapsed into a gigantic crater.
The enormous chakra giant was forcibly pushed backward more than a dozen steps. Every single step left a footprint several meters deep in the riverbank.
"He's being suppressed?"
Fugaku stood on the riverbank. His dark purple Susanoo had already completely disappeared. He looked up at the retreating dark blue giant, his expression solemn.
Shisui stood beside Fugaku. The remnants of his green Susanoo were already turning into points of light and dispersing behind him.
"The density of this chakra has already gone far beyond the scope of ordinary chakra."
Shisui spoke slowly.
"This chakra is on the same level as the ocular power of the Rinnegan. It may even be higher."
Izuna had remained silent the entire time, watching everything unfold. The cracks across his Edo Tensei body were slowly healing.
The two brothers stood across a riverbank that had been completely devastated by the battle. At one particular moment, their gazes met.
Izuna saw excitement in his elder brother's Rinnegan.
It was the kind of excitement that came from battle lust boiling over.
Izuna's heart immediately sank.
He knew Madara far too well.
From childhood until now, every time Madara revealed that kind of expression, it meant that he was about to do something insane.
"Tenpenchii!"
Madara's voice rang out from within the dark blue Susanoo.
He raised both hands.
The dark blue Susanoo simultaneously formed hand seals, three enormous hand signs changing rapidly in front of its chest.
"What is he trying to do?"
Minato stood at one of the barrier nodes of the Four Red Yang Formation. His golden hair was blown backward by the turbulent chakra currents.
A Flying Thunder God kunai was already clutched tightly in his hand. He was prepared to teleport away any attack that might be directed toward Konoha.
Then Minato sensed something and looked toward the sky.
Foooosh!
Something unbelievably enormous was descending from above.
Minato's pupils contracted.
A meteorite!
The edges of the meteorite were engulfed in blazing flames as it burned through the atmosphere at tremendous speed. Its enormous body blocked out a large portion of the sky, and the shadow it cast completely enveloped the Naka River valley in darkness.
"A technique of this level…"
Kakashi frowned.
He had absolutely no means of defending against it.
"The impact of a meteorite falling from beyond the atmosphere is enough to flatten the entire Konoha."
Fugaku, Shisui, and Izuna had all allowed their Susanoo to disappear.
They stood where they were, looking up at the meteorite that was rapidly growing larger in the sky.
Izuna's Edo Tensei body trembled slightly.
It was not because of fear.
It was because of anger.
"Brother, have you gone insane?!"
He shouted toward the dark blue Susanoo.
"There are civilians in Konoha! There are members of our Uchiha clan there!"
"They won't die."
Madara replied calmly.
"Kiyohara will stop this meteorite. If he cannot stop it, then that only proves that he is not worthy of being my opponent."
Madara did not believe that Kiyohara would be unable to withstand it.
However, he believed that Kiyohara would have to pay a price to do so.
That would accomplish his goal of exhausting Kiyohara while also allowing him to determine just how powerful Kiyohara really was.
Izuna clenched his fists.
The elder brother he had once admired more than anyone else had now become a complete lunatic.
"Good. The second one is here too!"
Facing an enemy like Kiyohara, Madara's Tenpenchii was even larger than it would normally be.
This attack had also drained most of the chakra within his body.
A white Zetsu emerged from his body and began replenishing his chakra.
Everyone looked up once again.
Above the first meteorite, the clouds had been torn apart by an even larger opening. The second meteorite slowly revealed itself through the gap.
It was twice the size of the first.
Its diameter exceeded two hundred meters.
The two meteorites fell toward the Naka River valley, one following the other, one above the other.
"Minato!"
Kushina called out.
"I'm fine."
Minato tightened his grip around the Flying Thunder God kunai in his hand.
His mind was racing as he calculated every possible method of dealing with the situation.
The Flying Thunder God Technique could teleport objects, but the meteorites were simply too enormous. There was no way he could teleport an entire meteorite away.
Even if he teleported away only part of it, the fragments produced when the meteorite shattered would still cause catastrophic destruction.
For the first time, Minato felt that even his Flying Thunder God Technique had situations where it was powerless.
At that moment, Kiyohara's voice came from the center of the battlefield.
"You dropped two little stones and already consider them some kind of ultimate killing move?"
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
Madara's expression stiffened.
Little stones?
The two meteorites summoned by the forbidden technique Tenpenchii, activated through his Rinnegan, were powerful enough to erase the entire Konoha from the map.
And Kiyohara had just called them little stones?
"This brat."
The corner of Madara's mouth twitched.
"He's even better at pretending than I am."
Kiyohara then raised his right hand.
Several green Truth-Seeking Balls appeared in the palm of his hand.
The green beads rapidly revolved above his palm. Their speed continued to increase until they were moving so quickly that the naked eye could only see a circular green halo flowing around his hand.
At that moment, Kaguya was sitting on the sofa in Kiyohara's living room.
The veins around her pure white eyes bulged slightly. Her Byakugan's vision pierced through the walls, streets, city walls, and barriers, allowing her to see everything happening on the Naka River battlefield with perfect clarity.
"That is the power of the Tenseigan…"
Kaguya was watching the battle remotely, and even she was surprised when she saw the power Kiyohara was displaying.
If there was enough chakra, this technique could even pierce through the stars.
The only problem was that its chakra consumption was far too enormous, making it unsuitable as an ordinary technique.
Yet after Kiyohara used it, he was still capable of refining such an enormous amount of chakra from within his body.
So strong…
She wanted it so badly…
Kaguya shook her head and focused on the fight in front of her.
The veins at her temples became more prominent, and the vision provided by her Byakugan instantly became even clearer.
In the next moment, the Truth-Seeking Balls in Kiyohara's hand condensed into a golden chakra light sword that stretched across the heavens and earth.
Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!
A sharp pain suddenly shot through his eyes, and an involuntary tear welled up at the corner of his eye.
…
"An eye more advanced than the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Fugaku murmured.
Izuna did not say anything.
He simply stared at Kiyohara's back as he held the golden light sword in his hand.
A thought emerged in his mind.
If his brother had encountered someone like Kiyohara back then, would he still have chosen to walk down that path?
On the battlefield, Kiyohara held the golden light sword horizontally in front of himself.
Then he swung it.
The golden blade swept across the sky.
Shinng!
Under the cutting power of the golden light sword, the two meteorites were effortlessly cleaved into several pieces, as easily as if they had been made of cheese.
Kiyohara raised his left hand.
An invisible force of attraction was released from his palm.
The four meteorite fragments were enveloped by the gravitational force and redirected away from Konoha. They flew toward the barren mountains north of the village.
Several seconds later, four heavy impacts echoed from the distant mountain range.
BOOM!!
The earth trembled slightly.
Ripples spread across the surface of the Naka River, while several birds were startled into flight from the surrounding forest. They circled anxiously through the sky, letting out uneasy cries.
The chakra consumption of Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion was indeed enormous, but the amount of chakra within Kiyohara's body was already far beyond what an ordinary person could possess.
Even after expending such a huge amount of chakra, Kiyohara could recover it very quickly.
Madara stood within the forehead crystal of the dark blue Susanoo.
He had not expected Kiyohara to break his technique so easily.
"!"
"Do you have any other tricks? If not, then this wooden clone of yours should be about ready to disappear, shouldn't it?"
The corner of Madara's mouth curled upward.
"What are you in such a hurry for?"
He formed hand seals once again.
His hands came together with a sharp clap.
Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!
The dark blue Susanoo's arms drew together, and its enormous chakra palms overlapped in front of its body.
Immediately afterward, a gigantic wooden dragon burst through the chest of the Susanoo.
The wooden dragon was more than a hundred meters long.
Its head rose high into the sky. The natural wood grain across its head formed a sinister dragon-like face, while its enormous jaws opened wide, revealing rows upon rows of sharp fangs.
Even more astonishing was that the wooden dragon was not acting independently.
It wrapped itself around the dark blue Susanoo.
Its massive body coiled around the Susanoo's waist and both arms, while its tail wound around the giant's legs.
Susanoo combined with the Wood Dragon.
The two merged into one.
Both their size and their oppressive presence had increased by more than double compared with before.
"This is the Wood Dragon that Hashirama used to suppress the Nine-Tails back then."
Madara's voice came from within the Susanoo.
"If it wraps itself around you, it will continuously absorb your chakra. With the amount of chakra you possess, how long do you think you can hold out?"
The Wood Dragon moved the instant Madara finished speaking.
Its enormous body suddenly shot forward from the Susanoo, moving at a speed that seemed completely unnatural for such a massive creature made of wood.
Its jaws opened wide. Tiny threads of chakra coiled around its wooden fangs as it lunged toward Kiyohara, attempting to bite him in half at the waist.
Kiyohara did not retreat.
He raised his right hand.
Five dark green Truth-Seeking Balls once again appeared in his palm. They rapidly revolved around his hand, eventually forming a high-speed rotating ring.
Truth-Seeking Ball Rasenshuriken.
Kiyohara released the Truth-Seeking Ball Rasenshuriken from his hand.
The rapidly spinning ring of Truth-Seeking Balls carved a green trail of light through the air as it flew directly toward the Wood Dragon's head.
The moment the Wood Dragon came into contact with the edge of the rotating beads, its body was sliced apart into countless fragments.
Wood chips flew in every direction.
At that exact moment, Kiyohara's figure disappeared from where he had been standing.
Madara's Rinnegan only managed to catch a fleeting afterimage.
Kiyohara had already rushed straight toward the chest of the dark blue Susanoo.
Kiyohara raised his right leg high into the air and delivered a powerful kick directly into the chest armor of the dark blue Susanoo.
Boom!
A gigantic depression exploded across the chest of the dark blue Susanoo. Pieces of armor flew in every direction, exposing the chakra skeleton inside, which was already beginning to crack apart at an astonishing speed.
Bang!
Madara was kicked out of the forehead crystal of the dark blue Susanoo.
His body flew through the air like a cannonball before plunging toward the ground.
Without Madara's chakra supporting it, the dark blue Susanoo immediately began to collapse.
With a tremendous rumble, Madara's Wood Clone slammed heavily into the riverbank of the Naka River, creating a deep crater dozens of meters in diameter.
The mud and sand at the bottom of the crater were blasted into the air by the impact, mixing with the river water and turning into a downpour of muddy water and debris.
Madara lay at the bottom of the crater.
His Wood Clone was already covered in countless cracks.
Half of his cheek had shattered away, exposing the broken wooden structure underneath.
"You... really are very strong."
Kiyohara descended from the sky and landed at the edge of the enormous crater. He lowered his head and looked at Madara's Wood Clone, which was slowly falling apart at the bottom.
"But we will meet again. Next time, I will use my real body."
"Kiyohara, your chakra and your strength have already piqued my interest. You are the only person in this world who is truly qualified to be my opponent."
Madara paused for a moment before using the final strength remaining in his Wood Clone.
"Next time, I will win."
A moment later, the Wood Clone's body completely disintegrated, breaking apart into countless tiny pieces of wood.
"It's over."
Minato breathed a sigh of relief. He then returned his kunai to his ninja tool pouch and forcefully stretched his stiff fingers.
"Lord Fugaku, that technique Kiyohara used just now... what do you think that dojutsu technique was?"
Fugaku shook his head.
"I don't know. But that was definitely not an ability of the Sharingan."
Shisui nodded thoughtfully.
Izuna stood beside the two of them. The cracks across his Edo Tensei body had already completely healed.
He stared at the crater where Madara's Wood Clone had disappeared. The Mangekyō in his eyes slowly rotated, and the emotions within his gaze were complicated.
His brother had suffered a crushing defeat.
That meant that even if Madara's true body came here personally, there was a very good chance that he still would not be Kiyohara's opponent.
Izuna did not know whether he should feel happy or sad about that.
He raised his head and looked toward Kiyohara.
Kiyohara had just turned around at the edge of the crater and was walking toward them.
Izuna took a deep breath before slightly bowing his head.
"Thank you for stopping my brother."
Kiyohara waved his hand and reached out to pat Izuna on the shoulder.
"There's no need to thank me. Even if he hadn't come looking for me, I would have gone looking for him sooner or later."
He glanced around at the valley, which had been devastated beyond recognition by the battle.
The course of the Naka River had been blasted into a crooked and irregular path. Cracks and landslides covered the mountain walls on both sides. The riverbank was filled with craters of various sizes, while the bamboo forest had been torn out by the roots. Broken rocks and splintered pieces of wood were scattered all over the ground.
"What a shame about this mountain."
Kiyohara shook his head before forming hand seals.
"Earth Release!"
He pressed both hands against the ground.
Earth Release chakra surged from his palms and flowed into the earth. The ground began to tremble slightly.
The enormous craters created by the battle slowly closed under the influence of his Earth Release. Broken rocks were lifted and returned to their original positions, fitting themselves back into the cracks across the mountain walls.
Then came Wood Release.
Kiyohara changed his hand seals.
Green Wood Release chakra surged out from within his body.
Along the mountain walls on both sides of the valley, the broken roots of trees began to sprout fresh green shoots.
The young shoots rapidly grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming into towering trees.
The bamboo forest that had been uprooted was restored as well. The bamboo plants slowly rose from the soil, while their segmented stalks extended upward one section after another.
In a very short period of time, most of the Naka River valley had been restored.
There were still traces of the battle if one looked closely, but at least the area no longer resembled a devastated ruin.
Tsunade hurried into the valley from the entrance.
Her long blond ponytail swung from side to side behind her as she walked.
When she reached Kiyohara, she folded her arms across her chest and carefully looked him up and down.
"Are you all right?"
Only after confirming that there were no serious injuries did the tension in her shoulders finally ease slightly.
"I'm fine."
Kiyohara smiled.
He then moved a little closer and lowered his voice.
"I'll let you give me a thorough examination when we get back."
Tsunade glared at Kiyohara with an annoyed expression and raised her hand as though she was about to hit him.
"Be serious. There are so many people watching."
Her voice was lowered as well, and the fierce tone she had used a moment earlier had changed into something closer to an affectionate complaint.
Minato stood not far away, watching the interaction between Tsunade and Kiyohara. A gentle smile appeared on his face.
"Lady Tsunade and Kiyohara still have such a good relationship."
He sighed with emotion.
"Back then, Kiyohara was merely a Genin under Lady Tsunade's team. Now Kiyohara has become Hokage, while Lady Tsunade has instead become the most important person supporting him at his side. That kind of bond between master and disciple is truly something to envy."
Minato had no idea that the relationship between Kiyohara and Tsunade had already gone far beyond the boundaries of an ordinary teacher and student.
…
At the same time, in the space between the Pure Land and the living world.
The Sage of Six Paths sat cross-legged in a vast void.
His body was in a semi-transparent spiritual form.
Floating before him was a mirror condensed from chakra.
The scene playing within the mirror was precisely the moment Kiyohara had sliced apart the two meteorites with a single golden sword.
The Sage of Six Paths frowned deeply.
"This is the power of the Tenseigan from Hamura's lineage. How does Asura possess the abilities of the Tenseigan? Where did he obtain the bloodline of the Ōtsutsuki clan on the moon?"
The Sage of Six Paths reached out and brushed his hand across the surface of the mirror.
The scene changed to an earlier point in time.
It showed Kiyohara just after he had arrived at the battlefield.
Green chakra had appeared around his body, and both the quality and color of that chakra were on the same level as the ocular power of the Rinnegan.
"Asura's Yang Release chakra... the First Hokage's Wood Release chakra... and traces of the chakra of the Tailed Beasts..."
The Sage of Six Paths paused.
"And there is also this chakra that is currently transforming toward the nature of Six Paths chakra. This is no longer merely Asura's chakra."
The Sage of Six Paths was completely bewildered.
However, Asura's chakra truly did exist within Kiyohara's body.
That meant Kiyohara really was a reincarnation of Asura.
The Sage of Six Paths fell into deep thought.
If Kiyohara was the reincarnation of Asura in this generation, then who was the reincarnation of Indra in this generation?
Although Sasuke had yet to awaken the full potential of his Sharingan, the chakra of Indra within his body had already begun to reveal itself.
"So, the reincarnations of this generation really are Uchiha Sasuke and Namikaze Naruto. Sasuke inherited Indra's chakra, while Naruto inherited Asura's chakra."
The Sage of Six Paths stroked his beard.
This was his judgment regarding the reincarnations of this generation.
"But where did the Asura chakra within Kiyohara come from? Could something have gone wrong with the previous reincarnation of Asura, causing Asura's chakra to split into two portions? One portion reincarnated into Naruto, while the other was inherited by Kiyohara?"
After considering the matter again and again, he felt that this was the most reasonable explanation.
Over the course of a thousand years of reincarnation, it was not impossible for something to occasionally go wrong.
However, Kiyohara's identity was not what truly troubled him.
In the Sage of Six Paths' eyes, the reincarnation targets of Indra and Asura in this generation should have the same objective.
That objective was to seal Kaguya.
According to the hints given to him by the Great Toad Sage, the conflict that had continued for a thousand years should finally come to an end in this generation.
Yet he had discovered something completely incomprehensible.
The Asura of this generation had actually resurrected Kaguya!
What in the world was going on?
The Sage of Six Paths could not understand it at all.
As far as he was concerned, all his mother needed was to remain sealed forever!
"And what's more, it seems that they have reached some kind of agreement. Mother has not attacked Kiyohara, and Kiyohara shows no signs of attempting to seal Mother. The two of them are actually living together peacefully."
He closed his eyes and rubbed his throbbing temples.
"Asura, what exactly are you doing? Do you even know who you resurrected? That is the Rabbit Goddess who once sought to destroy the entire world. She is the very existence that Hamura and I put so much effort into sealing."
He remembered that night thousands of years ago.
He and Hamura had joined forces to fight against their mother.
The battle had been so intense that the heavens and earth seemed to be overturned, and the landscape of the entire planet had been changed.
They had gone through tremendous effort before finally sealing their mother within Chibaku Tensei.
Afterward, they sent the sealed body to the moon.
Following that battle, he established Ninshū.
He distributed chakra among humanity, hoping that humans could use chakra to connect their hearts with one another and create a peaceful world.
"If Asura has strayed from the right path, then... should I have handed Ninshū over to Indra back then?"
He began thinking about Indra.
Indra was his first son.
He possessed an extraordinary talent for the Sharingan, and his talent for ninjutsu surpassed everyone else within Ninshū.
Indra believed that power was the foundation for maintaining order.
Asura, on the other hand, believed that love and bonds were the foundation of peace.
In the end, he chose Asura as the successor of Ninshū because Asura's ideals were closer to his own.
But now, the reincarnation of Asura had resurrected Kaguya, while the reincarnation of Indra, Madara, was attempting to defeat Kiyohara, the very person who had opposed Kaguya.
Although the Sage of Six Paths also considered Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan to be wrong, at least the plan had not actually succeeded.
"Perhaps..."
The Sage of Six Paths' voice became somewhat uncertain.
"I really did wrong Indra."
The Sage of Six Paths felt a trace of guilt.
"If I entrust my power to you that time, would your path be the correct one?"
He remained silent for a long time.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"But the reincarnations of Indra and Asura from the next generation have also appeared. Sasuke and Naruto are the reincarnations of this generation. Madara and Hashirama belonged to the previous generation, while Kiyohara is an unknown variable whose generation cannot be determined."
The Sage of Six Paths sighed and rose from the Pure Land.
"I need to meet Hamura."
He had made his decision.
"This matter concerns Mother. I must hear what my younger brother thinks."
The next moment, the Sage of Six Paths disappeared.
(End of Chapter)