Chapter 268: Are You Still Fighting, Senior?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The shockwaves from the descending fists shattered entire tracts of land before even reaching the ground. The roar echoed across the entire Land of Water. Everyone still within its borders could feel the trembling beneath their feet—violent, unrelenting, as if the earth itself was on the verge of collapse.
The already chaotic waves surged toward the heavens, stirred by the earth's violent spasms. Whirling winds spiraled upward, forming deadly wind columns that tore apart anything caught within them.
Atop the towering statue, Uchiha Madara watched the figure below with burning intensity.
The assault hadn't ended, yet its aftershocks had engulfed the entire nation.
This was no longer a display of shinobi power; it had transcended that realm. This was divine. Not even the tailed beasts, the ultimate weapons of war since ancient times, could produce such devastation. Not in this magnitude.
The Nine Tailed Beasts, once the peak of military might, could never annihilate a great nation with a single attack.
At the heart of a massive crater, the pressure around Ryosuke far surpassed any other point. The earth beneath him had cracked, compressed several meters downward by sheer force.
And yet… Ryosuke stood untouched.
Not a strand of his pale white hair moved. He seemed suspended in a space detached from the chaos around him.
Clenching his fists, his gaze remained cool and unshaken—even with the sky-darkening statue looming above.
He raised one palm.
One second.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Time seemed frozen. The muscles in his arm stretched taut, iron-hard and layered in black Armament Haki. Beneath the surface, the chakra of the Tenseigan pulsed through his veins like a surging tide.
Boom!
The roar of blood and energy rushing through his body thundered in his mind.
The fist shadows multiplied, their impact distorting space itself. Reality seemed to blur. The atmosphere around him wavered like rippling water, unstable and undefined.
Fifty seconds.
One minute.
Crack
Time shattered like glass.
Countless white fist shadows erupted from Ryosuke's side, blasting toward the monstrous Statue.
Like a tiger unleashed, a flood of power exploded from his palm, infused with the full might of his chakra.
"Well done."
In that instant, countless dazzling lights surged from Ryosuke and collided with the rain of incoming wooden fists.
BOOM
The balance of power shattered.
A roar shook the ninja world. Not just the Land of Water —but across the seas, on the far side of the continent, even people in distant nations looked up in confusion, unable to grasp the origin of the noise.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The thunder of impact was relentless. Giant trees soared skyward like divine pillars reaching from the earth to the heavens.
From afar, beside the sacred tree, a colossal statue towered over the Land of Water. Beneath it, a much smaller figure clashed against the giant with unyielding resolve.
Each impact sent violent tremors through the land. The entire island nation once solid was beginning to fracture.
"It's… cracking!"
A Hidden Cloud shinobi screamed in horror, watching seawater burst forth from massive fault lines in the earth.
Nearby, ninjas from other villages shared the same despair. They no longer knew how to flee this hellish battlefield, yet didn't dare cross the raging seas either.
Though they had made it to the edge of the Land of Water, the towering tsunami-like waves beyond forced them back.
Yet the land beneath their feet was breaking apart, shaking with the force of gods.
Unless those two monsters stopped fighting, the entire nation would become a ruin.
"H-Help...!"
A scream of despair pierced the air—raw and panicked.
Ahead of them, the sea was black and furious. Behind them, thunder cracked like a war drum in the heavens.
The ground below quaked violently, as if one misstep would collapse everything.
This small band of lucky survivors, barely clinging to the borderlands, had lost all sense of direction or hope.
And yet… they weren't the only desperate souls.
The Land of Water's vast landmass had long been its greatest strength among the Five Great Nations. Rich in resources, it fueled the military power of the Hidden Mist Village and stood tall as a pillar of global influence.
But now, this proud country was indeed shaking the entire ninja world—but not in the way anyone had imagined.
What began as a war against the Akatsuki had spiraled into something beyond comprehension. No one in the shinobi world had foreseen this.
Of the surviving Five Nation Alliance forces still trapped within the Land of Water, those few who hadn't already been swept away by the clash between Uchiha Madara and Hyūga Ryosuke were left paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of destruction.
The First Combat Unit. The Second Combat Unit. The Logistics Division...
All had received the same order: retreat.
And they had obeyed, abandoning all pretense of order. With field commanders slain and command structure in shambles, they hastily gathered survivors, picked the ranking officer nearby as the de facto leader, and initiated a desperate evacuation.
Gone were thoughts of noble sacrifice.
Even the most devoted warrior knew now—charging into that storm was suicide.
Not even all the shinobi of the world could stand against those two.
The Nine Tailed Beasts had been reduced to nothing—mere trophies ripped from the bodies of their Jinchūriki. If even they were dragged out helplessly… what chance did ordinary humans have?
At this point, no ninja dared claim superiority over civilians. There was no chakra, no kekkei genkai, no status that made a difference anymore.
In front of Madara and Ryosuke, they were all the same.
This was no longer a war for men.
This was a battlefield for gods.
"BOY!!"
Madara's voice erupted across the land, his chakra flooding the sky like a fountain, pouring into the statue to fuel a new wave of strikes.
At the very center of the battlefield, the landscape continued to expand—cracked wider and wider not by movement, but by the sheer pressure of the two clashing titans.
Torrential winds blasted outward from their epicenter.
The sky above the Land of Water was stripped bare of clouds, revealing only a blood-red moon.
Under its ominous glow, the nation had become a land of nightmares.
A realm of fire and fury.
Countless fist shadows collided with countless fist shadows.
At a glance, the two forces seemed evenly matched, but both combatants knew the truth. Compared to the massive statue's wide but scattered barrage, Ryosuke's Eighty Gods Vaccum Attack was far more cohesive—and more devastating.
Amid the countless giant wooden fists crashing toward the Land of Water like a divine punishment, the concentrated barrage of the Eighty Gods Vaccum Attack, layered and compacted hundreds of times within a single minute, cut through them like a silver spear. It tore a path straight through the chaos—headed directly for Uchiha Madara atop the colossal statue.
"I've already seen through every one of your attacks."
Ryosuke's voice was calm—too calm. His expression was steady, as if he'd foreseen the outcome the moment their techniques had clashed.
Shrouded in a flame-like coat of pale white chakra, his body surged forward along the path carved by the Eighty Gods Vaccum Attack , soaring toward Madara like a dragon of silver fire.
"What a strange taijutsu…" Madara frowned, unsettled by the overwhelming defeat of his ultimate True Thousand Hands technique.
Facing Ryosuke's high-speed charge, he responded quickly, condensing a black shield from his Truth-Seeking Orbs in front of himself.
But the moment the shield formed, an overwhelming sense of danger hit Madara like a cold wave. Without hesitation, he abandoned the statue and launched himself skyward.
Crack—!
The shield of black chakra shattered instantly, pierced through by a jet-black spike.
And at the other end of the spike—was Ryosuke.
Without slowing down, he continued his pursuit into the skies, as if he'd anticipated Madara's dodge from the start. Even though he was a beat behind, his momentum never faltered.
He's going to swing the scepter...
Anticipating Madara's counter, several pale white Truth-Seeking Orbs suddenly ignited in Ryosuke's left palm. Controlled by thought alone, the spinning spheres formed a blazing ring of light and hurled forward like a divine halo.
As expected, Madara abruptly turned mid-flight, scepter raised in a wide arc, swinging it like a long sword toward the incoming halo.
Bang!
The scepter struck the glowing ring, unleashing a muffled shockwave.
But then, an unimaginable force surged through the scepter and blasted into Madara's arm, sending him plummeting like a comet.
Boom—!
He smashed into the earth with cataclysmic force.
The land cracked and splintered like brittle glass. Shattered terrain flew skyward as Madara's body plowed through stone and soil, dragged violently across the landscape until he finally skidded to a halt—at the border of the Land of Water.
High above, Ryosuke floated silently in the air.
He didn't pursue.
His gaze, cool and sharp, pierced through the haze of dust and rock, locking on to Madara's battered form far below.
Truthfully, Ryosuke hadn't wanted to clash with Madara so soon. But the elder had grown arrogant after ascending to the Six Paths Realm. He'd come straight for Ryosuke, launching an assault without hesitation—and Ryosuke had no choice but to respond.
In truth, Ryosuke still looked forward to fighting Madara.
Just... not now.
Madara's strength, speed, and chakra reserves had surpassed expectations after his transformation—but his techniques remained within Ryosuke's grasp.
The Rinnegan's abilities, the Senju-derived Sage Arts, his chakra flow, and even his physical combat style—Ryosuke had observed them all during Madara's earlier clash with the Allied Shinobi Forces. While his raw attributes had increased, his actual technique remained rooted in muscle memory, unchanged by the new power.
Which meant Ryosuke could predict his every move.
In contrast, Madara knew nothing about him. Not his style. Not his limits. Not his eyes.
Unlike Madara, who had only stepped into the Six Paths Realm half a day ago, Ryosuke had entered it after years of study, backed by transmigrator's foresight.
He had spent years researching techniques, combining the One Piece world's Armament Haki, Rokushiki, and swordsmanship, with the finesse of Gintama-style kenjutsu.
One fighter had prepared, studied, and dissected the battlefield in advance.
The other had only just arrived.
Not even the Ten-Tails could close that gap.
At best, it gave Madara raw chakra and a divine physique—but no wisdom, no refined skill.
"Cough!"
A mouthful of blood sprayed from Madara's lips.
Even with a godly body, the damage he had taken was immense. His internal organs were mangled, his back scraped raw, and white bone shimmered beneath shredded flesh—his heart and organs barely holding together.
If not for the regenerative properties of his Six Paths body, he'd be dead.
But even now, chakra from the Ten-Tails surged through him, beginning the healing process. Mangled flesh reknit rapidly before Ryosuke's eyes.
"Where did that boy get his eyes...?" Madara's thoughts raced as he rose slowly from the crater. "Could it be… an evolved Byakugan? What abilities do they grant?"
Uncertainty clouded his mind. The foreign techniques Ryosuke used were unlike anything he had ever seen.
His face twisted in a mixture of awe, confusion, and frustration.
"Senior," Ryosuke called calmly from above, "do you still wish to continue?"
Madara looked up, breath ragged.
The expression on his face… was complex.
For the first time in decades—no, perhaps since his youth—he felt shame.
Shame... and indignation.
To be looked down upon by another… when had that last happened?
Since taking the mantle of Uchiha clan head and awakening the Mangekyō, he had towered above others.
Only Hashirama had ever stood beside him as an equal.
But even Hashirama hadn't looked down on him like this.
No one... has ever stood above me!
"Divine Art: Tree World Arrival!"
Madara's hands clasped together, voice thunderous.
The massive Sacred Tree at the center of the Water Country began to grow again—its roots bursting from the earth, spreading toward the planet's core and erupting across the ninja world.
In every corner of the continent, giant roots exploded from the ground, entangling shinobi like vines, draining them of their chakra—feeding the tree like parasitic tendrils.
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