"Defense squad!"
Senju Tobirama shouted. With him at the center, nearly a hundred Senju ninja lined up in a row. The other ninja's hand seals were mostly the same, but Senju Tobirama's differed—yet the technique they unleashed was identical.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall!
Not the standard water wall, but a massive vortex spiraling into the air, colliding with the descending Great Fireballs and neutralizing them.
Compared to this, even the early stages of the Fourth Great Ninja War seemed like child's play.
"So the Senju adopted a similar method?"
Izuna thought to himself.
Against the defensive wall the Uchiha had constructed, it was only natural to select a unit specifically for defensive support.
But the Uchiha still held the terrain advantage. The Senju would not find it so easy to breach this carefully crafted hundred-mile Stonecastle!
In the first exchange, though the Senju blocked most of the Great Fireballs, a few still got through, leaving some with burns of varying severity.
Meanwhile, the Uchiha side remained completely unharmed. This was the advantage of holding the high ground.
For clans like the Kaguya and Hatake, who favored close-range combat, this was a fatal disadvantage.
The only real worry was Senju Hashirama, that bug-level existence.
But Izuna would handle him personally.
"Big brother, I'm counting on you!"
Senju Tobirama shouted to Senju Hashirama.
"Wood Release!"
Senju Hashirama took the lead, clasping his hands together. In the next second, he thrust both palms forward, unleashing incomparable chakra.
"Deep Forest Emergence!"
Countless massive vines—each over ten meters in diameter—burst from the earth around Senju Hashirama, growing at a speed that utterly defied the laws of nature and surging toward the base of the hundred-mile Stonecastle.
Like moles burrowing underground, they drilled directly into the mountain's foundation.
Even from hundreds of meters high atop the Stonecastle, the Uchiha forces felt a rumbling vibration beneath their feet.
"Is that bastard Hashirama trying to hollow out the entire mountain?!"
Uchiha Sen cried out in alarm.
This was simply beyond human capability.
If this battle had taken place in the era of Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma, even with three thousand troops, the Senju would have needed at least a year to breach this hundred-mile Stonecastle.
But now, watching Senju Hashirama, with his Wood Release alone, he could probably bore through the mountain in less than a week.
Once the mountain's foundation collapsed, the Stonecastle would fall without a fight.
But if Uchiha Sen and the others had witnessed the Impure World Reincarnation-era Madara using his complete Susanoo to slice off two mountains with a single stroke, they would not be so shocked.
Ninja below Kage-level could only be classified as "ninja."
But those who obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan or awakened Wood Release techniques—these individuals far surpassed "Kage-level" and left the concept of "ninja" far behind. They had one foot already in the "Six Paths" tier.
And Madara, who had awakened the Rinnegan, and Senju Hashirama, who had mastered Summit Enlightenment, had half their bodies across the threshold of the Six Paths.
But for now, Senju Hashirama could not be allowed to destroy the hundred-mile Stonecastle.
Without a word, Izuna leapt down from the wall hundreds of meters high. His chakra transformed into silver-white flames, rapidly forming the outline of a giant.
The Yasaka Magatama in his right palm spun wildly, infused with black flames.
"Take this, Hashirama!"
The humanoid Susanoo swept its massive hand.
Blaze Release: Yasaka Magatama!
Looking up at the enormous magatama flying toward him, Senju Hashirama clenched his hands even tighter, redirecting the giant vines of Deep Forest Emergence upward to form a colossal wooden barrier.
BOOM!!!!
The moment the Yasaka Magatama struck the wooden wall, it exploded.
Countless fragments wrapped in Amaterasu's black flames scattered in all directions. The Senju ninja, already familiar with Amaterasu, dodged at top speed.
"Only you came down to engage directly? Isn't that a bit too arrogant, Izuna?!"
Senju Tobirama stepped forward and shouted.
Izuna responded only with a light snort.
Senju Tobirama could be called the pinnacle of Kage-level—but still Kage-level.
Before himself and Senju Hashirama, who had touched the threshold of the Six Paths, there remained a vast chasm.
Seeing Izuna ignore him, Senju Tobirama felt another surge of irritation.
"Once you reach this level, numbers cease to matter."
Izuna laughed arrogantly. "Have you reached this level, Hashirama? If not, the Senju are finished!"
As Izuna's wild laughter rang out, his eyes—bearing the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan with patterns opposite to Madara's in the original story: outer circles and inner "Person" shapes—spun madly, one clockwise and one counterclockwise.
The humanoid Susanoo that had been covering him abruptly swelled into a bloated form more than 50 m tall, like a massive cocoon just before a butterfly burst free.
Standing at its crown, Izuna clenched his right fist under the Uchiha and Senju clans' disbelieving, horrified stares. "Condense!"
In an instant, that 800 m-tall, cocoon-shaped Susanoo sprouted a pair of enormous silver wings, then feet and legs. Armor hardened into place, a mask took shape—sharp nose, crimson eyes—like a demon god made flesh.
A Perfect Susanoo!
At the center of its brow, a diamond-shaped gem formed, and Izuna stood within it.
Whoooom!
As Susanoo's wings unfurled, the gale they stirred forced both armies of ninja to stagger backward.
"Well?" Izuna called down with something pointed in his tone. "Hashirama."
"T-this is the Vice-Clan Head's real power!" Uchiha Sen cried out before he could stop himself. The rest were too stunned to speak, their mouths hanging open.
This wasn't like the time with Edo Madara, when there was room to toy around. Behind Izuna stood 2,000 Uchiha.
He had to show his hand from the very start.
"This guy... he's already reached this level?" Senju Tobirama muttered, staring up.
From below, the shock Perfect Susanoo brought Tobirama and the others was even greater than what the Uchiha felt from above. That towering figure that seemed to pierce the clouds—a god...
No. A demon.
Just drawing the blade at its waist would be enough to invite consequences no one could guess at.
"Wood Release... Wood Golem Jutsu!!"
When everyone else was too stunned to even form words, Senju Hashirama suddenly roared.
The ground shook again, mountains and earth seeming to heave. Yang, Water, and Earth chakra surged out in a violent burst, and a wooden god-warrior rose—formed of brown timber, a Wood Dragon Jutsu coiled behind it—lifting Hashirama up to face Izuna within the Perfect Susanoo.
Izuna glanced at Hashirama atop the wood golem's head. There were no Sage Mode markings on his face yet, but there was no question about it: both of them had already brushed the threshold of the Six Paths.
Whether it was the Senju on the ground or the Uchiha upon Hundred-Li Stonecastle, everyone looking up at those two colossal beings felt it for the first time—
They were ants.
In stature, and in strength.
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