Madara clapped his hands together and then spread them wide.
"Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!"
Crack! Crack...
Thick, vine-like plants burst through the earth, shooting skyward in an instant!
The vines appeared ancient and rugged, their textures deeply etched, exuding an aura of unmatched toughness.
Some unlucky Konohagakure shinobi were ensnared by the branching vines. Within moments, their bodies were drained of life, reduced to withered husks. They quickly dried up and decayed, as though the vines were monstrous entities feeding on flesh and blood.
Before long, the vines reached dozens of meters into the air. At their tips, massive flowers resembling lotus blossoms suddenly bloomed.
Hiss... Hiss...
As the flowers opened, a thick, pale yellow pollen spread rapidly through the air.
"How is he able to use the First Hokage's Wood Release?!"
"This is bad!"
"That's the First Hokage's—"
"These pollens are poisonous! Hold your breath, everyone!"
Minato Namikaze's expression changed drastically. There was no time for him to ponder why Madara could use Wood Release. Instead, he urgently shouted warnings to those around him.
"Hmph!"
Madara let out a cold snort, intertwining his fingers to form another hand sign.
"Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Boom!
A torrent of flames as vast and overwhelming as a surging ocean erupted from Madara's mouth, rushing forward with unstoppable force.
The intense heat collided with the pollen-filled air, igniting it instantly, along with the towering vines.
Crackle! Crackle!
The massive wooden figure summoned by Naruto was entangled by the thick, resilient vines. The vines constantly released yellow pollen, which continued to spread.
Naruto controlled the fists on the wooden figure's back, repeatedly smashing them against the vines wrapped around its body. However, the effort was futile—the durability of the vines far exceeded that of his wooden construct.
Madara's Wood Release was on an entirely different level from Naruto's.
Moments later, the advancing sea of flames engulfed the vines constricting Naruto, as well as the wooden figure itself. A peculiar, pungent floral scent filled the air, stinging Naruto's nose.
The moment the scent entered his nostrils, a wave of dizziness rippled through his mind.
"This guy..."
"How can someone be this strong...?"
Naruto forced himself to hold his breath, but an unprecedented sense of helplessness welled up within him.
"Naruto..."
"How are you holding up?"
"Do you want me to lend you my power?"
At that moment, a fiery red figure appeared deep within Naruto's consciousness. However, the figure was locked inside a cage.
"Let me guess—you want me to hand over my body to you again?"
"Or are you hoping for another tug-of-war match?"
Naruto retorted sharply, showing no courtesy toward the red figure.
"No..."
"Not this time..."
The red figure blinked its massive eyes.
"Huh?"
Naruto was momentarily stunned, unsure of the meaning behind the words of the "tenant" who had lived inside him for over a decade.
In the outside world.
A young man with a bowl-cut hairstyle and clad in a green bodysuit had somehow moved to stand directly in front of Madara. What was surprising was the blue steam radiating from his body.
"Roar, Youth!"
"Daytime Tiger!"
The green-clad Konohagakure shinobi formed a peculiar hand sign and shouted with determination.
The surrounding air seemed to compress around the man's fingertips.
Suddenly, the highly compressed air was released, expanding outward in an instant. The resulting high-pressure air cannon took the form of a tiger!
Roar!
The lifelike, black-striped white tiger lunged at Madara, its release creating a shockwave of white energy that rippled outward, forming a circular blast. The vibrations could be felt kilometers away!
However, the white shockwave didn't last long. A far more powerful repulsive force erupted from within the blast.
"Shinra Tensei!"
With a deep, resonant utterance from Madara, the Daytime Tiger's assault was completely nullified.
The green-clad shinobi was sent flying by the repulsive force, his arms crossed in front of his head to shield himself. His feet dug deep furrows into the ground as he was pushed back.
"Gai!"
"Are you alright?"
Minato Namikaze's figure flickered into view behind Gai, steadying him.
"I'm fine!"
"But this guy..."
"He's unbelievably strong..."
Gai panted heavily, his expression grave as he spoke.
At that moment, the intense flames had caused the once-clear sky to gather thick storm clouds. The dark clouds loomed ominously overhead, with faint blue lightning flickering along their edges.
Suddenly—
Crack!
A deafening thunderclap echoed across the heavens!
"Lightning Release: Kirin!"
From within the storm clouds, the flickering lightning coalesced into two massive, beast-like legs. Then, an enormous, lifelike Kirin head emerged from the clouds.
What was shocking was that the Kirin's head was so vivid it seemed almost sentient. Its entire body was composed of pure lightning.
The Kirin spotted Madara from its perch in the clouds and descended with blinding speed, striking him like a bolt from the heavens.
BOOM!!!
A thunderous roar accompanied by a dazzling flash of lightning erupted where Madara stood.
Anyone who witnessed the scene would feel an instinctive, primal fear—a deep-seated terror of nature's overwhelming power.
But.
Madara was clearly no ordinary human.
If one had the eyesight to peer through the lightning, they would see a white barrier of light forming in front of Madara.
The azure lightning that came into contact with the barrier was swiftly "dissolved."
"Lightning Release, huh?"
"To achieve this level of nature and shape transformation?"
"Impressive!"
"And that blue steam..."
"That's not your full strength, is it? Surely, you still have more to give?"
"Who would have thought that in a world without Hashirama, I'd find someone who could reignite my desire to fight..."
"Hahaha!"
"Dance! Dance to your heart's content!"
"Make me truly excited!"
Madara reappeared before everyone, laughing arrogantly with a wild, unrestrained demeanor.
The backdrop of his laughter was the blazing orange-red inferno, accompanied by the crackling of burning air and Madara's maniacal voice. Occasionally, the scent of scorched pollen wafted through the air.
Though the storm clouds above began to dissipate, for the remnants of Konohagakure, this scene had already become an apocalyptic nightmare.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 BOOK COMPLETED ON PATREON!
📚This story has reached its conclusion on my Patreon!
🔥 Full story available now💎 Exclusive bonus content & early access to new books
👉 Join my Patreon community today![✨patreon.com/GoldenLong]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━