Chapter 267: Thousands of Hands on the Top of the Buddha!
The giant tree that emerged from the earth stretched endlessly into the sky.
Unlike the grotesque, monster-like form of the Ten-Tails before, this was a true tree—majestic and awe-inspiring. Though it had no branches or leaves, and the bark appeared bare and ancient, a single, eye-like fruit bloomed at its crown, glowing ominously.
High in the sky, the full moon once pure and silver had been stained a deep crimson, tainted by the radiance of the bright red fruit atop the colossal tree.
Ta-ta-ta-ta
Whip-like roots spread out in all directions, piercing into the ground like spears, stabbing deep into the planet's core. Even without Byakugan, everyone could sense how far those roots were digging downward, relentlessly, endlessly.
"Absorb it... absorb it..."
A strange voice echoed in Uchiha Madara's mind, repeating like a whisper from some distant abyss.
His gaze lingered on the Nine Tomoe Rinnegan that had flashed through his mind earlier, and with it, the understanding of the next level—one not just found in the cryptic words on the Uchiha Stone Tablet—grew clearer.
"We need to wait."
Madara, fully aware that the tree was now drawing on the planet's natural energy, suppressed the urge to merge with it. The tree was feeding—pulling in natural energy from all directions like a starving beast, drawing nutrients to ripen the eye-shaped fruit.
That would be the final form.
But before that...
"Are you still so sure you can defeat me now?"
Madara turned toward a distant point on the horizon and smirked. "If nothing unexpected has occurred, then our realms... should now be equal."
Unlike before, when he hesitated between facing Ryosuke fairly or advancing his plans, he now hesitated no more.
If he could break into the next realm, Madara was confident that Ryosuke would no longer be a threat. He would surpass even him, leaving all rivals in the dust.
Thus, he no longer feared that failure in battle would jeopardize his long-awaited plan. He wouldn't have to fake weakness or delay for time. He and Ryosuke—both wanted a fair fight to prove they were the strongest in the world, across all eras.
And the plan... must proceed.
Though Madara's voice was quiet, it carried across countless miles like a whisper of wind, reaching Ryosuke's ears towns away.
"Indeed. We're on the same level now," Ryosuke replied calmly, his bright eyes studying Madara's chakra with curiosity. "Since I became the strongest... I haven't even had a chance to show my strength. No one has been worthy of it."
"I wonder if that will change today."
His voice, too, reached Madara's ears effortlessly.
"Arrogant."
Madara grinned. "Same level, yet you still think you can defeat me? Foolish child!"
"The difference between us lies in experience—hundreds, even thousands of battles!"
And with that, his figure vanished, disappearing from the battlefield before the stunned Allied Shinobi Forces could react.
"Is that supposed to be an age advantage?" Ryosuke muttered, unbothered. "That means nothing to me."
He raised his hand calmly.
In the blink of an eye, Madara appeared before him—crossing miles in an instant—and swung his scepter with thunderous force.
The wind howled.
Ryosuke could feel the sheer power behind the strike. His eyes pierced Madara's body, calculating the tension in his arm muscles, the speed, the angle.
Boom—
A deep, muffled sound followed—like a pebble landing in a still lake.
The scepter never made contact. In front of Ryosuke, an invisible wall of repulsive force stopped it completely.
Perfectly matched.
No shockwave. No backlash. Just absolute equilibrium.
Madara's eyes narrowed as he stared at the calm young man before him. "I see... Repulsion, balanced to perfection."
"Let's see how many of my attacks you can neutralize!"
"Sage Technique: Storm Release—Light Fang!"
A searing beam of laser-like energy fired from Madara's mouth, cutting through the sky with devastating speed.
Ryosuke didn't move.
He simply tilted his head ever so slightly, letting the beam pass within a hair's breadth of him.
Even his hair remained untouched—parted with such precise control that not a single strand was harmed.
Far behind him, deep within the Land of Water, the highest peak was pierced clean through by the beam—reduced to dust in an instant.
"Fight back!"
Madara roared as a bolt of violet lightning crackled from his palm and launched forward.
He knew very well: only Senjutsu could affect bodies that had reached the Six Paths realm. The same applied to Ryosuke. That was why he hadn't immediately wiped out the Shinobi Alliance, and instead chose to apply pressure—waiting.
Waiting for Senju Hashirama.
From Nagato's memories, Madara had learned of Tobirama being summoned by Impure World Reincarnation. If he could lure out Hashirama and force him to use Sage Mode, he could learn from it—copy it—steal it.
He had waited this long for that very reason.
But now—why wasn't Ryosuke fighting back?
Why was he only dodging?
It felt like mockery. A silent insult to the battle.
Madara's face twisted with frustration. His attacks grew more intense—more violent.
Each time his voice rang out in fury, Ryosuke narrowly avoided the purple lightning. Again and again.
The Yin Release—Thunder Release?
Another rare technique.
From beginning to end, Ryosuke never took his eyes off his opponent.
He saw everything: the chakra flow in Madara's body, the contraction of muscles, the rapid heartbeat accelerated by emotion...
Every. Single. Detail.
With Ryosuke's current analytical abilities, even the smallest of movements from his opponent could yield dozens of potential attack trajectories—and he could calculate the optimal countermeasure before the strike even began.
"Let's change the battlefield."
Whoosh—
Taking advantage of a lull, Ryosuke shifted his attention to the distant mountain flattened by the beam attack, as well as the scorched ground shattered by the purple lightning. Without hesitation, he took flight, gliding effortlessly through the sky.
"Tch."
Uchiha Madara snorted coldly and gave chase, soaring into the air after him. But his attacks didn't pause.
Having once learned from Hashirama Senju to sense natural energy and enter Sage Mode, Madara had since ascended to the Six Paths realm. He was now far more adept with Senjutsu. No longer needing to absorb and refine natural energy manually, he could manipulate it at will—melding it instantly with the vast chakra inside his body.
With just a thought, he could invoke Sage Techniques without delay.
"I'm getting more and more fluent with this."
Ryosuke continued dodging with precision, though he began to feel the steady rise in Madara's mastery.
"He's adapting."
Then, abruptly, Ryosuke stopped evading. Floating in mid-air, he faced the incoming Madara—who charged forward with his scepter raised—and shifted his posture.
Defense became offense.
His Sage Chakra surged. His body was clad in black-armored Haki, and his hand extended forward, a single finger aimed at Madara's forehead.
He fused ninjutsu, Haki, and the Six Powers of the Navy into a single perfected style.
Likewise, he had fully dissected his opponent's battle pattern.
"What?!"
Madara's eyes narrowed. Though he had anticipated a counterattack, this strike caught him off-guard. He barely avoided the blow—only to respond immediately with another bolt of purple lightning.
"You've been using me... as a whetstone, haven't you?!"
His tone was both bitter and amused. Somehow, he could always decipher Ryosuke's intent—even in silence.
That finger strike... it contained more than chakra. It bore the same strange aura he had once felt from the red-haired warrior. The technique, the energy—it wasn't of this world.
"Are you mimicking techniques you observed in our previous fights?"
With his emotions flaring, Madara's speed and power surged again. The Ten-Tails within him poured chakra into his limbs, granting him virtually limitless stamina. He could push his body to its limits without concern for exhaustion.
"I've never underestimated my opponents—and I never take a battle lightly."
Ryosuke's voice remained calm as he continued to analyze Madara's rising momentum. "My combat method begins by determining the opponent's core stats. That's why I held back until now."
"But you're stronger than expected—even beyond my estimates."
"I rarely find someone on my level, so there was little data to base predictions on. But now—thanks to you—I finally have a worthy benchmark."
Ryosuke's earlier passivity wasn't arrogance. It was careful analysis—observation refined through battle.
Even when facing weaker enemies, he never dropped his guard. He had studied Madara extensively before the latter's Six Paths transformation, but now that Madara had reached that realm, the dynamic had shifted. The way they each reached the Six Paths was different, and so were the abilities it yielded.
"Do you really think victory is something you can calculate?"
Madara sneered. "Combat isn't numbers—it's instinct!"
"True power comes from the desire to win—the ferocity of the will!"
In a flash, Madara's body stopped mid-air.
Four identical shadows emerged, wielding scepters, attacking Ryosuke from all directions.
"I don't care how keen your senses are... You're not escaping this time."
"All movement routes are cut off."
"Instinct?"
Ryosuke murmured.
In the next instant, pale white flames erupted from his body—Tenseigan Flame.
This was the manifestation of Tenseigan chakra. He had entered the Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
Sorry... but I don't need to dodge at all.
Bang—!
He had already seen through Madara's plan. The shadows attacking from four angles were meaningless to him.
From his body, an overwhelming burst of repulsive force exploded outward.
At the same time, a gravitational field formed at a distant point—converging toward him with brutal force. When the opposing gravitational and repulsive fields collided, they smashed the four shadows into oblivion.
This wasn't mere Rinnegan repulsion—it was the purest gravitational mastery of the Tenseifab Eye. With it, he could shift planets.
Crushing four illusions? That was trivial.
"You're finally getting serious."
Madara didn't flinch at the destruction of his shadows. Instead, he clapped his hands together.
A moment later, colossal chakra burst forth from his body.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
From his form erupted a massive wooden statue with thousands of arms. It expanded rapidly, devouring the land beneath it. Entire forests, houses, and wildlife were obliterated beneath its bulk.
"Senjutsu: Wood Release—True Thousand Hands! Bodhisattva on the Summit!"
Compared to Hashirama Senju's earlier wood statue, this new version dwarfed it. Even Hashirama's statue couldn't compare to the sheer size of a single hand of this behemoth.
And as Madara's Rinnegan pupil power surged once more, the statue was cloaked in a dark blue chakra. Susanoo armor enveloped the Bodhisattva.
"Die!"
Madara roared.
From the Thousand-Armed Statue, countless fists blurred into motion—each one a phantom of destruction. They came crashing toward Ryosuke in a wave of devastation that could flatten entire nations.
This was the same technique that had once dealt Madara heavy damage—but now, the chakra coursing through it was even more vast than Hashirama's ever was.
Combined with a full-body Susanoo, this was not just an ultimate technique.
It was a divine calamity.
Madara genuinely believed this attack could annihilate Hyuga Ryosuke—and if not, it would at least sink the entire Land of Water, making it the boy's final resting place.
"So then..."
Before the colossal statue, blocking out the blood moon with its titanic presence, Ryosuke's Flames roared even higher.
"This time, it's a one-minute superposition..."
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!"
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