Chapter 251 – Gen vs. Genshiki (Gen)
The night air was sharp and cold.
Black Zetsu and Obito watched as Madara's Susanoo was shattered in an instant, the man himself seized in a single grasp. Though stunned, they remained outwardly calm—they had already witnessed the terror of the so-called Ōtsutsuki Genshiki. But not everyone present shared their composure.
Rōshi, the Four-Tails' Jinchūriki, who had returned only after sensing the chaos in Iwagakure, could no longer hold it together.
"W–what is happening here?!"
He had lived far from the village for years, deliberately distancing himself from its politics and troubles. Now, stumbling into this nightmare, he was utterly lost. The entire valley had been swept away as if erased, and even Son Gokū, the proud beast within him, trembled in fear.
"Run!" the bijū roared in his mind. "Run now—or you'll never have the chance!"
Rōshi's heart skipped. Even Son Gokū is afraid…? But before he could act, a furious shout split the night.
"RAAAH!"
Madara's chakra erupted, the air bending under its weight. Never before had he known such humiliation. With a roar, he unleashed a violent repulsion—Shinra Tensei.
"Oh?" Gen raised a brow. Madara rarely resorted to such techniques. Still, with the Rinnegan in his possession, it was only natural.
The blast ripped outward like a storm. The Four-Tails' Jinchūriki was hurled aside like a ragdoll, Black Zetsu scurried even deeper underground, and only Obito remained steady, cloaked within Kamui's dimension.
Yet when the dust cleared, Gen still floated, untouched.
Madara had managed to wrench himself free using the repulsion, but the cost was severe—half his body, including his head, had been obliterated. Edo Tensei saved him, reassembling his form in moments, but the shame lingered.
That speed… too fast.
Madara's breath quickened, not with fear, but exhilaration. His eyes gleamed with the lust for battle. Facing this so-called god only made his blood boil hotter.
"The world was already too small for me…" he muttered, hands flashing through seals. "Now let's see if you can withstand this—Katon: Ryūen Hōka no Jutsu! (Dragon Flame Release Song Technique)"
Four great dragons of flame spiraled toward Gen. As they struck, Madara lunged in close, a black staff forming in his grip—his attempt at wielding yin–yang release.
"Fūinjutsu: Absorption Seal—now!"
The flames had only been a distraction. He aimed to seal Gen in one strike.
But Gen only looked mildly amused. "Yin–Yang Release, is it?" His golden blade cleaved down, Truth-Seeking Orb reshaping into a radiant sword. "Pity. You're nothing more than a corpse."
CLANG—!
The black staff shattered in a single stroke.
"What?!" Madara's eyes widened. The constructs of yin–yang release were supposed to be beyond ordinary destruction. But before he could recover—
BOOM!
Gen's left fist slammed into his abdomen. Madara's body crashed into the earth, carving a deep trench through the mountainside.
"Damn it… what kind of power is this?"
Even though Edo Tensei dulled his sense of pain, yet he was reeling, his mind struggling to comprehend how easily his creations were undone.
Above him, Gen hovered serenely, gaze not even fixed on Madara but drifting instead toward the Four-Tails. That dismissal burned deeper than any wound.
"No matter if I'm not whole…" Madara's voice dropped to a growl. His Rinnegan flared, and a black sphere shot skyward.
"I will not fall so easily—Chibaku Tensei!"
The earth convulsed. Mountains tore themselves from their roots, rocks and rivers lifted into the sky, all dragged toward the growing sphere. The land of Earth was made for this technique; its endless stone answered the call with terrifying efficiency.
Both Gen and the Four-Tails were swept up in its pull, swallowed by the forming satellite.
Madara's grin widened. "Even if half my body won't regenerate… I'll drag you down with me!"
But his voice faltered as his remaining flesh refused to heal—the lingering scar of Gen's yin–yang release. Still, he pressed on, summoning his azure Susanoo once more.
This time, the avatar did not brandish blades. Instead, it mimicked Madara's hands, forming seals. A suffocating aura spread across the entire Land of Earth.
"…He's insane."
Black Zetsu's whisper carried terror as he burrowed further away. Even Obito clenched his fists, heart pounding.
So this is the true might of the Rinnegan…?
His longing for those eyes deepened, though doubt gnawed at him—Nagato had wielded them and been crushed. But Madara's power seemed to shatter those doubts… if only for a moment.
Within Obito's mind, Isshiki only scoffed.
"Lower creatures. Dressing up tricks as divinity. Pathetic."
And in the distance, as Jiraiya, Ōnoki, and the others approached, their eyes widened in disbelief.
"This chakra… is Nagato here?!" Jiraiya whispered.
Ōnoki's gaze fixed on the colossal Susanoo rising like a god of destruction. His wrinkled face went pale.
"Unbelievable… and yet, familiar. That Susanoo… I've seen it before."
Deidara's face twisted in confusion, while Sasuke spoke in his usual flat tone.
"That's Uchiha Madara's Susanoo. I didn't expect him to still be here."
"They're… fighting each other?" Naruto's eyes lit up, excitement slipping into his voice.
"So does that mean we should—"
"The Four-Tails is there as well," Gen's God Tree clone cut in, shaking his head calmly. "And it isn't faring well. You should all keep your distance. This battle… is not one you should approach."
"What do you mean?"
Everyone except Jiraiya looked at him in shock, but Gen offered no further explanation. Instead, he simply raised a hand and pointed to the sky.
The group followed his gaze. In that instant, their blood ran cold.
High above, suspended over the massive sphere created by Chibaku Tensei, two colossal meteors were plummeting earthward.
If those two titanic masses crashed into the sphere and then struck the land…
"Damn it… that's Ōtsutsuki Genshiki's power."
Ōnoki's voice cracked, his composure finally breaking. "Does he intend to destroy the entire Land of Earth?!"
"Not quite," Gen's clone muttered, giving Ōnoki a sidelong glare before speaking again in a low voice. "Look closer… over there."
As if on cue, a blinding golden light erupted from within the black sphere.
The radiance seared across the night sky, dazzling to the point that the shinobi could hardly keep their eyes open. Even the distant survivors still in Iwagakure had to shield their faces from its brilliance.
"That's… a sword?!" Ōnoki's voice trembled with disbelief.
Before his eyes, the golden light condensed into a colossal blade—thousands of meters long—that swept outward in a single, merciless arc.
With that one strike, the Chibaku Tensei sphere split neatly in two. The twin meteors descending from the heavens shattered into fragments under the same swing.
BOOM—!
BOOM—!
BOOM—!
The halved sphere and pulverized meteors rained down in massive chunks, crashing into the land below with earth-shattering force. The ground shook like an endless earthquake, mountains trembling, valleys collapsing.
"…How… how is this possible?"
Madara didn't even flinch at the falling debris. His gaze was fixed, wide and stunned, on the golden blade that had just cut through his Susanoo like paper. His massive avatar crumbled apart, fragment by fragment, while his Edo Tensei body began to collapse under the same merciless stroke.
Yet he didn't move. Didn't resist. He simply stared, hollow-eyed, at the lone figure in the heavens.
That godlike silhouette didn't even spare him a glance. To Genshiki, Madara was nothing more than an insect crushed underfoot. His attention was already elsewhere—focused on a lone figure walking steadily from the distance.
"That's…"
Ōnoki's voice quivered.
"…Kitagawa Gen?!"