Chapter 297 – The Taste of Despair: Madara and Hashirama
"You—!"
The Fourth Raikage's voice rasped as Gen's fingers tightened around his throat.
Though his reanimated body didn't need air, the humiliation burned deeper than suffocation ever could.
He knew Gen was strong — but this strong?
His reanimation refused to heal, his chakra refused to flow — his very existence was being overwritten.
"What… what happened after my death?!"
No one in Akatsuki had told him about Yin–Yang Release.
They didn't need to.
Even they knew — Gen and the others like him existed on an entirely different plane.
"Die!"
A roar tore through the air.
The Third Raikage blurred forward, lightning sparking across his entire body.
His fingers stiffened into a blade, thrusting toward Gen's heart —
"Hell Stab!"
Gen's lips curved upward, the corner of his eye catching the motion.
"Oh, that technique? I think I've used that one before."
The grip around the Fourth Raikage's throat tightened.
Chakra pulsed from Gen's palm like crushing gravity.
"You remember how I destroyed your village, don't you?
Then tell me—why didn't you learn anything from it?"
The Fourth Raikage tried to speak, but no sound came.
To his horror, the chakra in his body… simply wouldn't gather.
Even as a reanimation, his power was gone.
Before he could process it, the ground cracked — a colossal Wood Dragon burst forth, its roar shaking the burning air.
"What—?!"
The Third Raikage's eyes widened.
He couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
He plunged his lightning spear forward — but the dragon met it head-on, its scales glowing with living chakra.
"I heard you once fought Tailed Beasts," Gen murmured.
"Let's see if you can handle mine."
BOOM!
The collision split the battlefield.
Waves of flame and shock tore through the air, scattering White Zetsu like paper dolls.
When the smoke cleared, the Third Raikage's arm was shattered — while the dragon's wounds had already healed.
He was losing — in speed, in strength, in regeneration.
"Tch!"
A flash of gold cut through the sky — the Golden Canopy Rope wrapped toward Gen like a living serpent.
Kaguya's voice echoed within his mind.
"That's Hagoromo's weapon… the Canopy Rope. I didn't think I'd see it again. How pitiful."
"You're not about to tell me this is another of the Sage's 'plans,' are you?"
Gen sighed.
"Honestly, he should've been called the Culprit Sage instead."
He could almost imagine the old man using Universal Pull to drag every mess into his lap —
"Almighty Blame Jutsu."
The thought almost made him laugh.
Still, he admitted, these Six Paths relics were curious things.
Once, he'd even thought about digging them up himself — but time had taken that chance from him.
And now? They were beneath his notice.
"I don't need power borrowed from the Sage of Six Paths anymore."
The rope neared. Gen casually tossed the Fourth Raikage aside like trash, leaping into the air.
Lightning flared.
The Banana Palm Fan released a storm of thunder from above, while Ginkaku lunged from behind with the Seven Star Sword.
A deadly pincer strike.
"Not bad," Gen said lightly. "Almost interesting."
His smile deepened.
"But that's all."
The earth split.
A Wood Golem erupted from below, roaring as it rose behind him like a mountain.
Its giant arm deflected the lightning storm.
Gen met Ginkaku's charge head-on, his blade of black Yin–Yang chakra clashing with the Seven Star Sword.
The air rippled — and Ginkaku's confidence froze.
"Impossible…!"
A crack snaked across his treasured weapon — the legendary tool of the Sage.
"Good weapon," Gen said calmly. "Wrong user."
His chakra surged, and the sword snapped in two.
Purple lightning burst from his hand, striking Ginkaku square in the chest.
"GAHH!"
The man's body convulsed, a smoking hole blown through his torso.
At the same moment, the Wood Golem swung its colossal fist —
BOOM!
Kinaku's body became a blur, slammed backward through the flames and into the still-recovering Third Raikage.
Both crashed into the earth, carving a trench that split the battlefield apart.
Even the Raikage's pride faltered.
"This… this monster…"
Their speed, their power — nothing mattered.
Gen hadn't even used Flying Thunder God yet.
And still, they couldn't touch him.
"If we're playing," he murmured, "then let's play properly."
He raised his hand.
"Wood Release — Nativity of a World of Trees."
Roots burst from the scorched ground, writhing upward in an infernal bloom.
The vines ignited with fire yet never stopped growing, twining and strangling everything in reach.
"Damn it! Move!"
The Third Raikage shouted, slicing the vines with lightning palms, but more grew back.
Soon, the battlefield became a forest of burning trees, swallowing the White Zetsu army whole.
The air filled with screams and the sound of cracking wood.
The fire and the trees became one endless inferno — a forest of death.
From atop a blazing tree, Gen stood with his arms folded, gazing down coldly.
He wasn't the one surrounded.
They were.
The Allied Shinobi Forces could only watch, stunned speechless.
"Is this… what the First Hokage was like?"
"Is this the true power of Wood Release…?"
"With Fire and Wood combined — no wonder Konoha endures…"
They began to understand why Senju Hashirama had been called the man who "ended the era of war."
Because a power like this could end it.
"Unbelievable…"
Even Jiraiya and Tsunade felt their scalps crawl.
Seeing Gen fight was not the same as imagining it.
"He's turning the battlefield into hell," Jiraiya muttered hoarsely.
"Or into a lesson," Tsunade said quietly.
"He's toying with them. He really hates the Cloud that much?"
"Hate's not the word," Jiraiya sighed. "It's something colder."
They knew Gen's hands were heavy when it came to the Cloud — heavier even than against Akatsuki.
---
Flames roared again.
The four Cloud warriors lay broken in the dirt, surrounded by the smoldering corpses of their army.
Gen still stood untouched, eyes half-lidded, his expression unreadable.
"Damn it… how… how did he get this strong?"
None of them had an answer.
Even in death, they could feel despair.
"This is over," Gen said simply.
"You didn't even make me warm up."
The Fourth Raikage clenched his fists, speechless.
His left arm — gone again.
Ginkaku's chest — hollowed out.
The Third Raikage and his sons finally understood what "an insurmountable mountain" felt like.
"Is Konoha truly back to its old strength… or beyond it?"
Gen raised his hand, smiling faintly.
"Tell me something. Do you know how your villagers felt…
when I attacked the Cloud?"
"Wha—what do you mean?"
The Third Raikage's gut twisted.
He had a feeling he didn't want the answer.
Gen didn't respond.
His chakra flared — the ground quaked, his robes billowed, and flames swirled into the sky.
The world fell silent.
Then —
It appeared.
A titanic figure emerged from the burning storm —
a Buddha, wreathed in flame, its back crowned with a thousand hands,
each hand clasping fire like divine wrath.
Even the resurrected Raikage fell still, staring in horror.
"What… is that…"
"Wood Release… even stronger than Hashirama's…"
"He's not human… he's something else…"
The Fourth Raikage swallowed hard, his voice breaking.
"So this is it, huh…
You wanted us to feel what my people felt that day —
pure despair."
Gen's eyes glimmered coldly.
"Exactly."
His hand rose.
The fiery Buddha's fist descended.
The heavens collapsed.
The earth shattered.
It was like divine punishment made real.
---
Meanwhile — Konoha.
"Yo, looks like we're finally synced!"
Naruto grinned, feeling the Nine-Tails' chakra swirling smoothly inside him.
Beside him, Kushina watched with a faint smile, sensing the harmony between her son and the beast.
"Not bad, brat. You've got decent control now."
"Heh-heh! You're the best, Mom!"
She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her pride.
"Don't get cocky. The Nine-Tails isn't a pet. Respect its power — or it'll eat you alive."
"Got it, got it!"
Naruto pumped his fists, bursting with energy.
"Alright! Time to back up Dad — I've waited long enough!"
Kushina sighed.
"You're hopeless. How can you be excited about war?"
But her words faltered when the ground began to tremble beneath them.
A pulse — distant but immense — rippled through the world.
Naruto froze.
He pressed his hand against his stomach.
"This chakra… even Kurama's afraid…?"
Far away, a shadow crossed the leaf village rooftops.
"Tch. Konoha hasn't changed a bit."
Uchiha Madara walked silently toward the Hyūga compound,
his eyes cold, his purpose absolute — the Sage's younger brother's relics.
He doubted the Hyūga were truly descendants of that bloodline.
But Black Zetsu was insistent — and Black Zetsu was, after all, born of his own will.
"So be it."
As he passed through the familiar streets, his gaze lifted to the Hokage Monument.
Five faces — the fifth still incomplete, half-chiseled in stone.
"Kitagawa Gen…"
Madara's expression hardened.
He remembered the man's power — the battle in Iwagakure, the crushing defeat,
the sight of Hashirama's strength reborn within another.
"Even I couldn't wield Hashirama's power like that…"
And the rumors —
that Gen had fought the Ōtsutsuki,
that he was called the Evolutionary.
"Evolution…? Hmph."
"If strength defines survival, then I'll evolve further still."
His Sharingan gleamed as he turned toward the Hyūga compound.
But then—
He froze.
A tremor rolled through the air,
a wave of chakra so vast it made the trees shudder.
From across nations, from the Land of Hot Springs —
Gen's power reached him.
Even here, the ground vibrated.
"Gen…" Madara whispered.
A White Zetsu rose beside him.
"Lord Madara, it's him. No mistake."
Madara's lips curled.
"Of course. Only he could cause that kind of quake."
"Do you want to know who he's fighting?" the Zetsu asked playfully.
"The Cloud."
"Hmph." Madara's eyes narrowed. "Then they're already dead."
The Zetsu chuckled.
"We should hurry, though, Madara-sama. Because if I'm not mistaken—"
Whoosh!
A kunai whistled past his face —
CRACK!
Lightning burst on impact, purple bolts crawling across the ground.
Madara turned his head slightly, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
"So… you've finally come out."
Madara's silhouette vanished.
In the next instant, he stood upon a high platform overlooking the village below.
"So it's you… brat."
His deep voice carried down through the night.
From the street below, a shadow lifted its gaze — and a pair of crimson Sharingan glimmered in the dark.
It was Uchiha Sasuke.
But something about him was different.
The chakra around him pulsed sharper, colder — heavier.
The tomoe in his eyes had changed form, their pattern spinning into something more intricate, more complete.
He had done it.
He had awakened the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Madara Uchiha," Sasuke said evenly, his voice calm yet edged with electricity.
"So it's really you."
"Heh."
Madara smirked, eyes flickering with faint amusement.
"Not bad eyes. Better than I expected."
He studied Sasuke for a long moment, then exhaled.
"I'll admit — you've grown. But if you think that alone makes you my equal…"
His smirk widened.
"You're delusional."
"Maybe."
Sasuke raised his short sword. Lightning crackled along the blade like living veins of power.
"But I won't know until I try."
Madara gave a soft chuckle and shook his head.
"Hmph. Looks like I'll have to discipline you first."
Then, as he straightened, the amusement vanished from his expression.
The night air turned heavy. His gaze hardened, cold and sharp.
"You have my face, my blood — and yet you followed that snake, Tobirama."
"A student of that deceitful Senju?" His voice trembled with rage.
"You disgust me."
"...What?" Sasuke blinked, momentarily caught off guard.
---
At the Fire Country border —
Senju Tobirama's expression suddenly darkened.
"Something's happening," he muttered.
"A massive chakra surge — and it feels… vaguely similar to yours, Brother."
"It must be Gen," said Hashirama, a grin spreading across his face.
"If he's fighting, we've got nothing to worry about."
"Idiot." Tobirama glared at him.
"That's exactly the problem — who is he fighting?"
He ticked off the names, voice tight.
"It could be Madara… or Obito… or even Ōtsutsuki Genshiki himself!"
Hashirama's smile faltered.
Madara and Obito he could accept — but that other name?
That was no ordinary enemy.
"Hmm… I don't think it's Genshiki," Hashirama said after a pause, frowning.
"If it were, the chakra would be even more terrifying. No — this feels more… grounded."
"Grounded?" Minato asked, curious.
Hashirama turned toward the direction of Konoha, his brow furrowing slightly.
"Strange. I can sense Madara's chakra… inside the village."
"Madara? In Konoha?!" Tobirama snapped.
"I knew that bastard wouldn't stay quiet! No wonder we couldn't find him — he's been hiding under our noses!"
"Then there's no time to waste," Minato said, his face hardening.
Hashirama's grin returned.
"Exactly. Let's go — he's the one we came back for, after all."
He clapped both of them on the shoulder, his chakra flaring as the three vanished in a burst of light.
"Finally," Hashirama whispered, his voice trembling with anticipation.
"After all these years… Madara."
"I've been waiting for this."
---
Meanwhile – The Land of Hot Springs
The battlefield was silent.
The ground was torn apart — the forests burned away — and the sky above shimmered with waves of heat.
The Allied Shinobi Forces stood scattered and dazed, unable to speak.
Their ears still rang with the sound of what they had just witnessed —
The earth-splitting roar.
The thousand-armed flaming Buddha towering into the clouds.
A living inferno that had reduced the White Zetsu army to ash and vapor.
They had seen hell itself — and lived to tell of it.
"Is… is this really the power of a shinobi?"
None could answer.
In the center of that scorched land stood Gen,
his figure wreathed in faint embers, his shadow stretching across the cracked terrain.
He gazed down at the devastation with quiet satisfaction.
"Not bad," he murmured.
The Buddha of Yin–Yang Release towered behind him, still exhaling smoke from its last strike.
The four reanimated Cloud Kage had already disintegrated into dust.
It was over.
But Gen didn't move.
His eyes shifted toward the horizon, as if sensing something new.
"Old acquaintances, huh? Fine."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"The more, the merrier."
Just then — his system interface flickered to life.
[Side Quest Completed – Sasuke's Path: "The Night Gave Me Black Eyes, But I Painted Them Red."]
Reward Acquired: Fragment of Sasuke's Yin Release (Special).
The glow faded — and several shadows appeared before him.
The next wave had arrived.