Chapter 259: Change of Mind
"Earth Style: Earth and Stone Dragon!"
"Water Style: Water Stream Wall!"
"Lightning Release: Sharp Spear Stab!"
...
Though the ninja alliance wore different uniforms, the headbands on their foreheads bore the same symbol—one that now united them under a single cause. In front of them loomed a god-like enemy.
Roars erupted from the throats of every shinobi.
They were like wild beasts trapped in wildfire—desperate to survive.
A massive dragon of earth and stone surged upward from the ground, roaring into the sky. Trailing behind it came a colossal lightning-charged spear, crackling with fury.
Their combined techniques seemed miraculous—the result of hundreds, even thousands of ninja performing jutsu together, pushing ordinary high-level techniques to the realm of ultra-high-level power.
But even so... it wasn't enough.
Their target wasn't just an enemy. It was a storm, a calamity incarnate. Their most powerful attacks weren't used to destroy him—they were used just to survive his.
In the distance, Susanoo's complete form advanced slowly. Towering and humanoid, it pressed its hands together in signs, resembling the colossal stone statues in the Valley of the End.
Dark blue chakra pulsed through its visualized meridians, echoing Uchiha Madara's own power within.
Then—he released it.
"Move!"
"Anyone with chakra, protect the injured!"
"Save—!"
Shouts rang out as orders flew through the ranks. The sky turned black.
Under the power of the Rinnegan, meteors began to fall—countless meteorites trailing flame and ash as they streaked toward the earth like divine judgment.
They weren't large, but their numbers were terrifying.
Each one, crashing from the heavens, packed enough power to tear through defenses. Even the alliance's group jutsu could only smash them into fragments.
Among the shattered rock and flame, countless ninja were too slow to escape. Bodies were crushed—blood and screams lost in the chaos.
Under each squad leader's command, the surviving units fought to hold the line, to buy time, to stall a monster that no longer felt human.
The war had begun with Nagato's Shinra Tensei. But Madara... was beyond that now.
This wasn't a ninja. This wasn't even human.
This was something akin to a tailed beast.
Only a tailed beast, with limitless chakra, could maintain this level of power without pause. Only a tailed beast could casually unleash techniques capable of leveling entire countries.
Wave after wave of ninjas rushed forward, giving everything to slow his advance—even as their chakra ran dry, even as their bodies failed them.
But inside the massive Susanoo, Madara stood untouchable.
No wounds. No fatigue. No wasted motion.
He was like a machine that could never be broken.
"…It's over."
Rasa, who had just used his Magnet Release to shield the coalition from a wave of falling debris, collapsed to the ground, arms limp at his sides.
His body was soaked in sweat. Mud clung to his face. He looked utterly drained—utterly defeated.
His chakra had been spent long ago. Now, even lifting an arm was too much.
"Medical team!"
Tsunade's voice rang out sharply as she rushed to Rasa's side.
Her body was coated in blood—her own and that of the countless fallen shinobi around her. The hemophobia that had once haunted her was long forgotten on this battlefield.
Too many had died here.
Jiraiya, Ōnoki, and Mei Terumi, like Rasa, had pushed their chakra reserves to the limit. Their bodies could no longer withstand direct combat.
Now they had temporarily fallen back, letting the coalition forces hold the front line while they caught their breath—at the cost of more lives.
"What else can we even do against a monster like that?"
Mei Terumi stumbled backward and sank to her knees, face pale.
Her body was riddled with wounds. Unlike Ōnoki, she hadn't lost her legs—but her internal organs had taken a beating from repeated shockwaves.
She had only been Mizukage for a little over a year. Large-scale warfare was something she had never truly faced.
The Five Kage had been forced into direct confrontation with Madara, unlike the coalition, which could at least strike from a distance.
Compared to Darui—the Fifth Raikage—who had already fallen in battle, her survival was a miracle in itself.
"The amount of effort it takes to block just one of his casual attacks… is this war even worth continuing?"
While receiving medical treatment, Rasa's gaze locked on the dark blue giant in the distance.
Even from thousands of meters away, the pressure it exuded was suffocating.
The medic beside him trembled—but he didn't stop working.
Compared to others, those who had directly faced Uchiha Madara knew better than anyone how hopeless the situation truly was.
That towering behemoth was bigger than any tailed beast. Up close, one couldn't even see its head—just its torso, stretching beyond the clouds.
And inside, suspended high in the sky, Madara stared down on them all—his gaze filled with cold disdain, as if crushing what little hope remained.
"That's enough, all of you!"
Tsunade was still healing when Ōnoki, bleeding and broken, stood once more.
He picked up a stone in his palm and looked around at the other Kage.
"Don't worry about the consequences. Don't dwell on the odds. What matters now is how we fight—and how we move forward!"
He crushed the stone in his fist.
"The true barrier isn't in front of us—it's in your hearts."
"You're the Kage of your villages. Don't tell me you're afraid of death."
"The meaning of this war doesn't matter. Our only goal is to drag that bastard down from his pedestal. That alone is enough."
Without waiting for a reply, Ōnoki's frail body lifted into the air again, flying across the battlefield, shouting orders, rallying joint attacks to halt Madara's march.
In a war between nations, there is room for negotiation—for surrender, for reparations.
But with Madara... there was no such thing.
This man had been abandoned by his clan. He fought alone, bound to nothing.
In a world built on bonds, on love and legacy—he was a relic from the abyss. A monster with no ties, no restraints.
If such a creature succeeded in collecting the tailed beasts...
Then, Ōnoki knew, the world would not survive. He would destroy everything.
The old man's words left the others speechless.
No matter how hopeless they felt—none of them were as broken as the Tsuchikage who had lost both legs, and still soared across the battlefield.
They were exhausted, yes. Chakra reserves nearly gone. Their bodies trembling.
But they could rest later.
Right now, they still had a war to win.
"Perhaps... we should consider asking the Jinchūriki to join the battle."
Tsunade looked around at the resting shinobi. "Uchiha Madara's target may be the Jinchūriki, but his power is already beyond anything we can counter."
"Without the power of the Tailed Beasts, we have no real way of harming him."
Unlike Nagato, Uchiha Madara possessed vast combat experience—and more importantly, he had the impenetrable protection of the complete Susanoo.
Its enormous size brought no burden to his movements. In fact, it allowed him to return to full combat efficiency. They weren't just fighting a giant—they were facing a shinobi whose strength, defense, speed, and chakra reserves exceeded theirs a hundredfold.
And yet, they all sensed it—Madara still hadn't shown his full strength.
"Tsunade is right. We can't consider surrender. Not now."
Jiraiya, sitting cross-legged on the ground, looked at those around him. "Did any of you notice? Even after taking Nagato's Rinnegan, Madara could still use the Uchiha's eye techniques—like Susanoo. There's something strange going on here."
"Perhaps I can explain."
Squatting on Jiraiya's shoulder, Shima Sage finally spoke. "The Uchiha clan's bloodline traces back to the legendary Sage of Six Paths."
"So... the Sharingan has the potential to evolve into the Rinnegan, the eye technique once held by the Sage himself."
The others, including Jiraiya, were unsurprised. They had suspected as much since Madara took the Rinnegan from Nagato and replaced it with his own. But this was the first time their theory had been confirmed.
"The bloodline of the Six Paths Sage runs through many in the ninja world," Shima Sage continued. "The Uchiha inherited the eyes of Indra, his elder son."
"We had our suspicions from the moment Jiraiya encountered the boy with the Rinnegan."
"But the Uzumaki clan... they descend from Ashura, the Sage's younger son. They carry that legacy as well. It's not impossible for one of them to awaken the Rinnegan too."
She paused, then added, "Only... it's clear now that those eyes were never truly Nagato's."
"That boy struggled just to use them. They drained his life force. Meanwhile, the Uchiha uses them with ease."
"So... Nagato was just a pawn of Uchiha Madara."
Mei Terumi's voice was cold. "He orchestrated everything. And then, after dying peacefully, waited decades—until the Akatsuki finished gathering the Tailed Beasts—before using those eyes to resurrect himself. And that resurrection… it came at a cost."
They had all seen it. The way Madara held Nagato's corpse by the head, as lifeless as a discarded puppet.
"What a terrifying man," Jiraiya muttered, standing with effort. His Sage Mode had long since faded. "It's hard to imagine how the heroes of the past ever stood against someone like him."
"But we can't give up. We have to find even the faintest path to victory."
"We need to contact the rear barrier unit and request that the Jinchūriki be brought to the front!"
Though the other Kage hesitated, none of them disagreed.
"Sage Fukasaku, I'll need your help," Jiraiya said, turning to the toad elder. "Use the Myōboku summoning contract to contact Shikaku in Konoha. Ask him to prepare the First Hokage's cells—and have them delivered here by toad."
At those words, silence fell.
Even Shima and Fukasaku were stunned. Tsunade, too, froze beside him.
No one had expected Jiraiya—so steadfast in the shinobi way—to make such a choice.
"Ris," Jiraiya continued, addressing the Hidden Cloud shinobi coordinating their sensory network, "Contact Yamato from the front-line unit. Tell him to come immediately."
"Fifth Hokage..." Mei Terumi looked at Jiraiya, frowning. "Do you have a plan?"
Jiraiya remained quiet for a long moment before speaking.
"We're fighting an enemy from a previous era. So now... we need help from allies of that era too."
It was a painful decision. One that tore at his ideals.
Had he not been Hokage, he might never have made it—even if the world fell.
But now, he was no longer just Jiraiya the Hermit.
He was the one who bore the will of the village. The one who had to make the impossible choices.
His gaze turned distant. He didn't dare look at Tsunade.
A voice echoed in his mind—one he hadn't heard in years.
"People always change, Jiraiya... You'll change too. It's just a matter of time."
In the end... he was the one who'd lost.
---
"Still resisting?"
Inside the armored body of Susanoo, Uchiha Madara guided the massive war god forward with deliberate steps.
He had not yet completed his grand plan. He hadn't reached the final stage. And so, the full power of the coalition's jutsu still posed some delay.
Even his complete Susanoo couldn't walk through it unscathed.
But their numbers continued to dwindle. And with every step forward, his pace grew faster.
The battlefield was no longer the desolate plain it had once been.
After wave upon wave of meteor strikes from Tengai Shinsei, the Allied Forces had been forced to retreat from the area near Hidden Mist. Now, they had fallen back to the town where the logistics units had been stationed.
Through the Rinnegan, Madara could already sense the Jinchūriki approaching.
That pitiful barrier couldn't hide them from him.
"So you're willing to sacrifice everything," Madara muttered, gazing down from above. "To cling to those tiny fragments of hope—even if it means fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with former enemies?"
He looked at the shinobi below—helping one another, shielding one another—and a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes.
"How long has it been since I've seen something like this? Over a century, perhaps."
"If this were me... from decades ago, I might have believed it. That people could abandon hatred. That they could truly understand each other."
"But after what I saw in the underworld... I discarded such foolish emotions long ago."
The flicker of humanity vanished. Cold detachment returned.
"Madara-sama, you seem to be stalling."
Beside him, Black Zetsu spoke respectfully.
"With your power, you could have crushed these shinobi and taken the Jinchūriki already. But instead... it seems you're choosing to apply pressure rather than end it outright."
"Hmph."
Madara wasn't surprised. After all, Black Zetsu had been born of his will.
"You guessed correctly. I've had a change of heart."
"I want to fight that boy before the plan is complete."
His voice lowered.
"Hyūga Ryosuke."
"I want to face him—and maybe... I need to perfect myself first."
Black Zetsu's expression tightened, a rare sign of unease. Then he forced a bitter smile.
"Won't you have your chance once the Infinite Tsukuyomi is activated?"
But even as he spoke, a dark chill flickered in his eyes.
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