In the late afternoon that day, Senju Mori and Uzumaki Chisawa finally crossed the entirety of the Land of Frost and arrived within the borders of the Land of Lightning, territory of Kumogakure.
Compared to the exhausting rush of their journey, finding Senju Tobirama once they entered the Land of Lightning turned out to be surprisingly easy — or rather, there was no need to look for him at all.
On one side of the battlefield stood the Second Hokage himself, Senju Tobirama, continuously unleashing massive Water Release techniques so powerful that they had completely reshaped the surrounding terrain.
On the other side were the Gold and Silver Brothers, whose bodies radiated the sinister, burning chakra of the Nine-Tails.
Under Uzumaki Chisawa's sensory perception, the battle raging on the border of the Land of Lightning was like a blazing sun that had fallen to the earth, impossible to overlook.
"Such dense tailed-beast chakra! That must be Kinkaku… Ginkaku's chakra signature has disappeared! And there—yes, that's Lord Tobirama's chakra!"
"Lord Tobirama is fighting Kinkaku!"
Eyes shut tight, Chisawa formed a hand seal and focused his Kagura's Mind Eye, continuously monitoring the distant battle.
"Good."
Senju Mori's lips curved into a smile, and he leapt forward, racing toward the direction Chisawa had indicated.
...
Since the moment Kinkaku and Ginkaku had entered partial Tailed-Beast transformation, their speed had increased dramatically — so much so that Senju Tobirama could no longer rely solely on his Flying Thunder God Technique to maintain distance.
The Second Hokage knew this well: his chakra reserves could never match those of these two beings — inhuman monsters of special lineage who had literally eaten the flesh of a Tailed Beast.
If the battle continued as a war of attrition, he would undoubtedly be the first to run out of chakra.
So, roughly dozens of miles from the border of the Land of Lightning, Tobirama had been caught by the brothers — and had chosen, resolutely, to stand and fight.
By now, their clash had reached a fever pitch.
...
"Rumble—!!"
As Senju Mori drew closer, the sound of roaring water became deafening, mingled with the thunderous blasts of exploding jutsu.
He didn't need to move any closer. From a high branch, he could already see—
a massive lake that had appeared out of nowhere amidst the forest.
The highest-level battle in the entire shinobi world was happening right before his eyes.
Leaping down lightly from the treetop, Senju Mori landed silently on the ground.
"Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique."
With practiced ease, the Earth Release technique took effect, and his body slowly sank into the ground.
...
When Senju Mori surfaced again, the clash was raging right before him.
Senju Tobirama had become a blur of white light, flickering endlessly among the trees.
Each time his hands formed only two or three seals, a perfectly executed Water Release technique would follow.
At times, he raised a dome of water to block attacks from every direction.
At others, he conjured massive water dragons, which spiraled and crashed toward his enemy with destructive force.
Compared to Tobirama's almost artistic precision and elegance, Kinkaku's fighting style was pure savagery.
Shrouded in a cloak of tailed-beast chakra, he nimbly dodged most of Tobirama's ninjutsu—and whatever he couldn't dodge, he simply took head-on, relying on brute strength.
Between his astonishing speed, overwhelming power, and the mighty Bashōsen (Banana Fan) he wielded, Kinkaku's attacks came with a frequency nearly matching Tobirama's own.
"Water Release: Torrent!"
Taking advantage of the fact that Kinkaku hadn't yet noticed him, Senju Mori emerged silently from underground and began forming hand seals at incredible speed.
A stream of water, compressed to an extreme degree, stretched into a thin, horizontal line in midair—like the slash of a ninja blade—and shot forward at astonishing speed, striking Kinkaku squarely from behind.
Though the technique's name was plain and unassuming, it was in fact a high-level Water Release jutsu, one that required mastery of both the nature and form transformation of water chakra.
The sudden ambush caught Kinkaku completely off guard. The hyper-compressed stream of water was sharper than a blade, slicing through part of his tailed-beast chakra cloak.
Then, upon contact with his body, it detonated with a thunderous roar—what had been a thin line of water exploded into a massive wave, engulfing Kinkaku and hurling him violently through the air.
But Senju Mori's eyes narrowed.
Ideally, the jutsu should have stayed in its compressed form, cutting cleanly through the target, and only exploded after meeting strong resistance. The fact that it detonated prematurely meant it had failed to achieve its perfect form.
"Mori? What are you doing here!?"
Senju Tobirama immediately recognized the Water Release technique. When he saw the one who cast it, even his usually stoic face showed a rare flash of shock.
No matter how he thought about it, there was no reason for this kid from the Senju clan to have crossed half the shinobi world and appeared here—of all places—at such a critical moment.
Senju Mori didn't reply. He appeared completely focused on his jutsu, as if the sheer pressure of facing an opponent like Kinkaku left him no room for conversation.
Yet behind the thin mist stirred up by his own water technique, a flicker of darkness flashed across his eyes.
He had, perhaps… come too early.
After assassinating Uchiha Kagami, Mori and Uzumaki Chisawa had rushed nonstop, fearing that by the time they arrived, Tobirama would already have been killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers—and his body and the Six Paths Treasures taken by Kumo reinforcements.
But to his surprise, when they arrived, not only were there no Kumo reinforcements in sight, but Tobirama himself still seemed in fighting shape.
This old white-haired monster… was this strong?
Not only had he fought the Gold and Silver Brothers alone for an entire day—he'd even killed Ginkaku without being fatally wounded?
Yet in the next instant, the shadow in Mori's eyes vanished as if it had never existed.
Now that the mist had cleared, he could clearly see the deep gash running along Tobirama's side—blood flowing freely, and a trace of red tailed-beast chakra seeping from the wound.
Given Mori's medical knowledge, he could tell that the cut was right where one of the kidneys should be—and it might have even grazed the abdominal aorta.
A destroyed kidney wasn't instantly fatal, but since it was a heavily vascular organ, such a wound would cause massive bleeding. Combined with the corrosive nature of tailed-beast chakra…
Within just a few seconds, Mori's expression shifted smoothly from shock to anger, and then to concern.
"Lord Tobirama! You—"
"Don't lose focus," Tobirama interrupted coldly. "Help me finish him first."
As expected of a man forged in the wars of the Warring States era—Tobirama didn't even flinch despite the severity of his wound. Any normal person would have already collapsed in agony.
On closer inspection, Mori noticed his complexion was unnaturally pale, but the change was subtle, hidden well by his white hair and gleaming metal forehead protector.
"Understood, Lord Tobirama."
Once he had assessed the situation, Mori shifted most of his attention back to Kinkaku.
The tailed-beast cloak, combined with what seemed to be the special constitution of a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths, granted Kinkaku absurdly high defense.
Even after taking Mori's Water Release head-on, he showed barely any visible injury.
Kinkaku was already back on his feet, his body still wreathed in red chakra. His face looked more demonic than human, and his eyes had turned into slitted, vulpine pupils.
It wasn't so much that his defense was truly invincible—it was that his wounds were healing almost instantly under the influence of the tailed-beast chakra.
Still, judging by the monstrous aura he now emitted, Mori couldn't even be sure the man retained any reason or sanity at all.
"A brat from the Senju clan…? Fine, I'll kill you too!!!"
The words were slurred and heavy with malice, squeezed out between clenched teeth—but they proved that Kinkaku still retained a fragment of conscious thought.
"Looks like I'll need something faster… and sharper," Mori murmured to himself, already weaving new seals.
There was no need for Tobirama to give orders. Mori knew the plan instinctively.
His Torrent jutsu was already his strongest single-target attack, but if that couldn't pierce Kinkaku's defenses, then his role was clear—to restrain the monster, not destroy him.
The final, fatal strike would be delivered by the true master of Water Release—
the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
After all, no tailed-beast cloak nor inherited power could withstand Tobirama's blade-like torrents.
His water jutsu, when unleashed at full power, was said to be able to slice even the branches of the Divine Tree clean in half.