Chapter 315: The Twin Titans of the Shinobi World? Not Much, Really
The ocean surged violently, and countless trees grew at astonishing speed across its surface — within moments, an entire forest had taken shape atop open water.
And it didn't stop there. As long as Hashirama kept feeding it chakra, that forest would keep growing without end.
Birth of Dense Woodland was, without question, one of Hashirama's most iconic Wood Release techniques. As long as an enemy stood within that forest, Hashirama could sense their exact position at all times — and beyond that, the trees themselves possessed the ability to drain an opponent's chakra.
Once trapped inside that forest, unless you could defeat, crush, or kill Hashirama quickly, you were essentially facing a slow, inevitable death.
"Wood Release — Clone Technique."
Hashirama's gaze deepened, and he pressed his palms together once more. From the towering, ancient trees beneath his feet, thirty clones — identical to him in every way — extended outward and took shape.
Wood Release clones ranked among the most durable clone types in existence, second only to Madara's own Six Paths avatars formed through Rinne Rebirth. And beyond their durability, each clone retained roughly eighty percent of the original's combat strength.
As an Edo Tensei revival, Hashirama currently operated at ninety percent of his living-era strength — which meant these clones carried something close to seventy percent of that same power.
The instant they took shape, the clones scattered immediately, charging straight at Tobirama, Hiruzen, Minato, Itachi, Naruto, and Karin.
One opponent against five Wood Release clones each — even Karin found herself facing five clones of her own.
Hashirama intended to take on everyone present, single-handedly.
At that moment, Hashirama's gaze turned toward Sakura, still hovering above the forest, his expression grave.
"Sakura. I'll give you one last chance."
"Let this go. Stop all of it."
"I won't hold any of this against you."
Hashirama's tone stayed cold and level.
"Hashirama Senju. It seems you've already made your choice."
Sakura felt nothing at the offer. Her body descended steadily, and she landed directly across from him.
"Sakura. You're too dangerous. You lack the capacity to hold the title of Hokage."
By now, Sakura had genuinely run out of patience for the man. A relic of an outdated era, hopelessly rigid, unwilling to change.
"I lack the capacity?"
"And you think you have it?"
Sakura's tone dripped with disdain.
Hashirama's expression hardened, and without another word, the massive tree beneath his feet shattered, and he vanished from where he'd stood in an instant!
The Hokage's expression didn't shift at all, her green eyes utterly devoid of emotion as she watched Hashirama close the distance.
His fist came at her, tearing through the air with an audible shriek, wrapped in visibly savage chakra.
The invisible force of that punch alone sent a shockwave rippling outward in every direction, visible to the naked eye.
A single hand.
Blocked Hashirama's punch outright.
"First Hokage. Is this really your full strength?"
"That's a bit..."
"...weak, isn't it."
The words left the young woman's mouth calmly, as though stating the most mundane fact in the world.
!
Hashirama's eyes went sharp with shock — and then, in the same instant, a whip-fast kick tore through the air and slammed into his flank!
A dull, heavy thud sounded, and fragments of crimson armor scattered alongside sheets of paper, and Hashirama was sent flying backward at tremendous speed.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
He tore through three massive trees before finally, barely, coming to a stop.
The Hokage raised an eyebrow at the sight, genuinely surprised.
She'd expected that kick to shatter half his body outright. Instead, only his armor had cracked.
Living up to the name, I suppose.
Before Sakura's rise, Hashirama's own Yang Release had unquestionably ranked as the strongest in the shinobi world. Even without treading the exact same path Sakura had, his body — shaped over years by that same underlying discipline — was on a level no ordinary shinobi could hope to match.
Even now, revived as an Edo Tensei body.
Hashirama studied the Hokage's calm, unbothered expression, then pressed both palms together. A massive scroll materialized amid a wisp of white smoke, and with a swift motion, he unrolled it and drew out a blade as tall as Sakura herself.
That weapon was Hashirama's own — a specialized shinobi tool that had once held its own even against Madara's own war-fan, wreathed in flame.
"Heh. Facing me, and you're still going to bother probing with taijutsu first, by the book?"
"Not that I mind indulging you a little."
Sakura's mouth curled with mockery at the sight, and under Hashirama's watchful, wary eyes, she pulled a pair of brass knuckles from her pouch.
Having earlier used the Adamantine Staff — welded together with Madara's Heavenly Canopy Quaking Stars — to hurl those meteors, Enma had strained his back badly in the process and was out of commission for the time being.
Which left Sakura with only the brass knuckles. Not that it mattered — they'd more than suffice.
She slipped them on and clenched her fist tight, blue-and-pink flame igniting fiercely across her knuckles.
The flickering light illuminated her face in alternating shadow and glow, but the sheer danger radiating from her entire being was enough to tighten every nerve in Hashirama's body.
This was the strongest opponent he'd ever faced. Even at his own absolute peak, he wasn't certain he could have beaten this girl standing before him.
But—
Just because he couldn't win, did that mean he shouldn't even try to stop her?
"Doing what one knows cannot be done, regardless — that is the true measure of a Hokage."
Hashirama let out a quiet sigh, gripping the massive blade in one hand, aiming it at the coldly composed Hokage before him.
Even now, he still hoped words alone might reach this junior of his.
"That phrase, applied elsewhere, might have earned my respect."
"But set against everything you're actually doing right now, I only find it laughable."
"Refusing to accept the new — that's exactly how you get swept aside by the tide of history."
The Hokage took a single step forward, and Hashirama's eyes snapped wide with alarm!
He raised the massive blade almost on pure reflex, holding it horizontally in front of him!
An overwhelming, unbearable force surged through the blade in that same instant!
Hashirama was sent flying backward once again!
The Hokage gave chase without hesitation.
The next instant, she'd already caught up to his flying body!
A tiger roared low from within her fist — another punch!
Clouds follow the dragon. Wind follows the tiger.
Every punch the Hokage threw came wrapped in a sharp, tearing shriek of displaced air, the wind torn apart by her fist carrying, faintly, the low growl of an enraged tiger.
In an instant, blade-light flashed and fists thundered between the two Hokage, sword ringing against knuckle, an exchange of blows too fast and too numerous to count, sweeping through the forest without pause.
This was pure, unadorned taijutsu — a contest of raw physical skill between the two Hokage, present and past.
At first, Hashirama could still manage to block with his massive blade. But as the Hokage's speed climbed higher and higher, the wind around them growing ever more violent, he found himself increasingly unable to keep pace with his own junior's rhythm.
The longer the fight went on, the more Hashirama's heart sank — startled first, then grieved, then genuinely sorrowful.
That a junior with talent this staggering should hold beliefs so fundamentally opposed to his own left him deeply, deeply saddened.
"If you're still not going all out, I'll take the initiative myself."
Three more consecutive punches forced Hashirama to stumble backward more than ten steps, and Sakura reminded him, watching him struggle to hold his ground.
Hashirama steadied himself, glancing down at the dented, cat-faced pattern engraved along his massive blade, then looked back at the Hokage ahead of him, expression grave.
"You mean to say you haven't gone all out yet?"
Something tightened in his chest at the thought.
"You are Konoha's founder, after all. Letting you off easy costs me nothing — and finishing you off outright from the start would only cost me face, given who you are."
Something almost like laughter rose in Hashirama at his junior's words.
Since when did he — Hashirama Senju — need someone to hold back for his sake?
The Hokage spoke again, her calm gaze now carrying a trace of something like pity as she looked at the man before her.
"Since I'm dealing with an opponent whose full capabilities remain something of an unknown, I've never bothered developing sealing techniques."
"So rest easy."
"I can't seal you away single-handedly. And given your status, I have no intention of making you look worse than necessary."
"Which means, from the very start, your safety was never actually in question."
"Be grateful — your reputation is buying you that much, at least."
Hashirama automatically filtered out the second half of her statement, seizing instead on the key detail buried within it.
"What 'unknown opponent'?"
Hashirama's expression turned grave, watching her.
"That's not something you need to concern yourself with right now."
"All you need to know is that you'll have a fight with me — and then obediently fall."
The Hokage regarded him, calm.
Did Sakura not understand how formidable sealing techniques could be?
She understood perfectly well. Unfortunately, to Sakura, sealing arts — much like Wood Release itself — fell into the category of "nice to have, but not worth pursuing."
And even by her own current understanding, the strongest sealing technique in existence — the Outer Path: Heavenly Canopy Quaking Star — was fundamentally rooted in Ōtsutsuki bloodline power.
As for the rest — the Four Symbols Seal, the Eight Trigrams Seal, the Reaper Death Seal, and the like — none of those would likely accomplish much against an actual Ōtsutsuki either.
The Reaper Death Seal, perhaps, held some potential. But there was no realistic version of Sakura ever bothering to learn it.
And even if she did, without the raw physical foundation to back it, she wouldn't get within arm's reach of an Ōtsutsuki regardless.
"In that case—"
Hashirama drew a long breath, drove the massive blade into the ground beside him, and pressed both palms together in front of the watching Hokage!
Sage Mode. Activate!
Dignified, mysterious black markings crept across Hashirama's face, and between his brows, a sun-disc pattern took shape — much like Sakura's own — though unlike hers, Hashirama's sun bore no jagged, radiant edges to mark it as her signature symbol.
Hashirama's sage markings closely resembled Sakura's own — perhaps a natural convergence shared by any practitioner of Yang Release.
Entering Sage Mode instantly wasn't unique to him — Sakura could do the same. She simply preferred drawing on the pre-stored sage chakra kept within her Yin Seal.
"Sage Technique — Wood Release — Wood Man Jutsu!"
Hashirama's shout rang out. In that instant, the massive trees beneath his feet trembled, roared, surged with sudden vitality!
Countless towering trunks fused together, and a colossal figure, hundreds of meters tall and massively built, tore itself free from the earth.
The Hokage regarded the massive figure before her, calm, then turned her attention outward.
Not just here — the entire forest surrounding them trembled in the same way.
Dozens more colossal figures rose up across the forest, one after another!
Hashirama's earlier Wood Release clones — every single one of them had now cast the same technique.
Just as Madara had once managed twenty-five simultaneous Susanoo using his own Wood Release clones — Hashirama himself, the original, could naturally sustain thirty full Wood Men through the same method.
Only—
Far off in the distance, Sakura spotted a streak of gold darting frantically through the forest, a red-haired girl clinging to his back, both of them desperately dodging the pursuing Wood Men.
Clearly, even Naruto — already in full Nine-Tails Chakra Mode — was no match for these constructs.
Let alone Karin.
But with Karin being actively hunted like this, that could only mean—
"HASHIRAMA!"
"Didn't expect you had this trick up your sleeve too!"
A voice, equal parts thrilled and furious, roared through the forest.
Karin's flight had forced Sakura to release her Adamantine Sealing Chains around Madara to redirect the surrounding constructs — and Madara had broken free in the chaos.
Madara's excitement came from the chance to fight alongside Hashirama once more. His fury came from the fact that Hashirama had never once used this particular technique against him, back when they'd fought.
"So that's it."
"Three sides in conflict. The weaker two teaming up against the stronger?"
"Not without a certain appeal — at least this fight won't be boring."
The Hokage said, calm.
She wasn't particularly worried about Naruto and Karin's safety. At worst, Hashirama would simply capture the two of them and lecture them at length about his outdated ideals.
Though it would come down to a genuinely interesting question — whose talk-no-jutsu was more effective, Hashirama's or Naruto's?
If Sakura hadn't been the central figure in this fight, she genuinely would have considered abandoning it briefly just to watch which of them managed to talk the other into submission first.
"MADARA!"
"I need your help with this."
Hashirama's thinking ran exactly as Sakura had predicted.
He meant to join forces with Madara against this overwhelming junior of theirs.
Too strong. Absurdly strong.
Hashirama had never encountered talent of this magnitude before.
At twelve years old, he'd been competing with Madara over who could pee farther. This girl, at the same age, had already been qualified to participate in Hokage-level battles — and had played a decisive role in them, no less.
And now, at sixteen — even with Wood Man Jutsu active, Hashirama had no confidence he could win.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"So the day comes when you need something from me!"
"Fine, then — I'll do you this favor!"
Madara shot toward Hashirama at tremendous speed, his entire body wreathed in deep blue flame, and within moments, his complete Susanoo took full shape.
With a thunderous crash, Susanoo landed heavily beside the Wood Man.
"Not finished yet!"
"Sage Technique — Wood Release — Wood Dragon Jutsu!"
Hashirama, standing atop the Wood Man's head, roared, and instantly a wooden dragon, over a hundred meters long, coiled into existence within the forest, winding itself around the Wood Man's waist.
The two colossal figures now stood before the Hokage like twin guardians of hell itself, glaring down on all creation.
"The twin titans of the shinobi world, huh."
"This is finally getting interesting."
The Hokage looked up. The two towering figures blocked out the light entirely, their shadows swallowing the whole battlefield.
For a moment, terrifying chakra blanketed the entire field, as if heaven and earth themselves were bowing before the combined strength of these two men.
Across the entire recorded history of the shinobi world — five hundred years back, easily — no single opponent had ever been considered worthy of facing these two together.
Because these two men, together, represented the absolute peak of power for the past five hundred years.
This was what godhood looked like.
Divine might, unbreakable as a fortress.
"Sakura!"
Far off, still running for his life, Hiruzen stared, aghast, at the sight.
"Sakura, now's still the time to surrender!"
Hashirama's voice, amplified by the sheer weight of chakra surrounding him, carried an almost divine authority.
"No need for hollow posturing. It only makes you look weaker."
As she spoke, the red-and-white Hokage robe slipped from her shoulders, revealing the red-and-white athletic wear beneath. That discarded robe, entirely untouched by the terrifying chakra saturating the air, drifted gently on the wind, threading its way between the towering ancient trees before settling onto the ocean's surface.
Sakura's pink hair began to stir, unmoved by any wind at all.
Sage Technique — Yin Seal — Strength of a Hundred Technique.
Activate!
Sage markings, even more commanding than Hashirama's own, surfaced across the Hokage's face, and terrifying chakra condensed within her body in an instant.
!!!
Hashirama's expression changed sharply at the sight.
Nothing.
There was nothing there.
Despite having entered Sage Mode himself, Hashirama sensed absolutely no change in the natural energy around him — and yet the Hokage had entered Sage Mode right in front of him, without drawing on any of it at all.
He'd already guessed what her Yin Seal must contain.
Nothing but stored natural energy, or sage chakra itself!
Hashirama understood the Yin Seal's true capacity better than almost anyone alive — his own wife, Mito Uzumaki, had practiced the exact same seal technique.
"MADARA!"
Hashirama meant to call out, coordinating a simultaneous strike with him — but before the words left his mouth, wind screamed and roared, and when he turned to look, the Hokage had already leapt upward, driving a kick straight into the underside of the full Susanoo's jaw!
That Susanoo — taller even than the Wood Man beside it—
Its head — exploded.
"Full Susanoo, is it. Don't recycle a trick you've already used on me."
"That just makes it look like you're out of ideas."
Madara stared, utterly disbelieving, watching his own complete Susanoo shatter under a single kick from this young Hokage.
The instant that Susanoo's head burst apart, those cold green eyes turned, like a tiger fixing on new prey, directly onto Hashirama.
Not good!
A wave of alarm crashed through Hashirama, and he immediately directed both the Wood Dragon and the Wood Man to attack the Hokage.
The dragon roared. The Wood Man bellowed.
The Hokage made no move to dodge, charging straight at the nearest threat — the dragon.
Blue-and-pink chakra flame surged like a winged tiger's roar around her fist.
Splinters scattered instantly.
The dragon let out a mournful cry.
The moment her fist made contact, the Wood Dragon shattered, head to tail, in a single instant.
Its supposed chakra-draining ability accomplished absolutely nothing at all.
"WHAT?!"
Hashirama's mind reeled with shock — but there was no time left to process it.
The Wood Man swung a fist the size of a small mountain straight at the Hokage.
But the Hokage's momentum never slowed. What should have been a massive, powerful arm shattered instantly before her, as fragile as paper.
Something like a primordial, unstoppable beast seemed to live inside her small frame — in the span of a blink, the Wood Man's entire arm was torn apart completely.
Then a single punch obliterated both Hashirama and the Wood Man's mountain-sized head entirely, all at once.
Countless splinters of wood rained down like a storm onto the ocean below, kicking up massive waves.
Everyone present stared, struck speechless, at what had just happened.
One kick, shattering Madara's complete Susanoo. One punch, tearing apart Hashirama's Wood Dragon and Wood Man both.
"The twin titans of the shinobi world?"
"Not much, really."
The Hokage stood, unshakable, between heaven and earth, her expression exactly as unchanged as it had been from the very start.
As Hashirama's body plummeted toward the sea, rapidly regenerating even as he fell, he gritted his teeth, staring up at the pink figure in the sky — when a flicker of green light caught his attention.
That was—
The necklace hanging around the Hokage's neck.
The very necklace he'd once given to his own granddaughter, Tsunade.
Infused with a fragment of his own chakra.
Even little Tsunade acknowledges this junior?
Damn you, Tobirama — what exactly have you been teaching Konoha's next generation?!
A wave of fury toward his own younger brother surged through Hashirama at the thought.
But right now, that same necklace gave him something to work with.
Even with his body not yet fully restored, Hashirama pressed both palms together once more.
"Sage Technique — Wood Release — The Bodhisattva Descends Among the People!"
At that instant, the necklace at Sakura's chest blazed with sudden light, and countless streams of green chakra surged out from it, winding rapidly around her body.
The Hokage's brow furrowed slightly, a flicker of alertness crossing her mind.
This is the technique used to seal the Nine-Tails.
But that alone wouldn't have been enough to genuinely alarm her. She remembered exactly what had happened the moment Tsunade first gave her this necklace.
Her Yang Release had already reached full mastery by then, her body constantly enhancing itself, her instincts sharpening into something close to precognition. The moment she'd accepted that necklace, an unmistakable chill had crawled up her spine.
Which meant Hashirama using the chakra stored within it, casting The Bodhisattva Descends Among the People right now, was, at most, mildly inconvenient. Nothing close to a genuine crisis.
So where was the real danger?
Almost on instinct, the Hokage's gaze shot toward the distant shoreline.
Two figures stood there, unnoticed until now — as if they'd been watching this entire battle unfold for some time already.
Orochimaru. Kabuto.
But Orochimaru was standing beside some kind of mechanical apparatus, and the Hokage's eyes narrowed sharply at the sight.
That was—
Kumo's chakra cannon?!
"Farewell, my dear junior."
"Even you can't survive what this thing's about to do."
Orochimaru understood perfectly well — having sided against Konoha in the Fourth Great Ninja War, and now aiding the coalition against her again, he'd long since become a thorn firmly lodged in his junior's side.
Given any opening, there was no version of events where she'd let him live.
Which meant—
Strike first, or suffer for it.
The chakra cannon beneath him had already been charged to full capacity, and in that instant, a blue-white beam of pure annihilation shot straight toward the Hokage.
At that exact moment, the chakra binding her from The Bodhisattva Descends Among the People became the final straw breaking the camel's back.
The blue-white beam tore through sky, sea, and earth alike in the same instant, and the Hokage's cold gaze filled entirely with that same annihilating light.
At that moment—
A flicker of gold overtook her eyes.
Sage Technique — Yang Release — Yin Seal — Strength of a Hundred Technique!
The Hokage understood clearly: a blast on this scale could destroy the moon itself. There was no room left to hold anything back.
Never had she imagined that Hashirama and Madara working together couldn't force her to go all out — and yet Orochimaru had managed it.
Truly, the world was unpredictable.
But even going all out now, facing an attack capable of shattering the moon, victory wasn't guaranteed.
"Tch. Didn't expect it to come down to this."
Who would have.
A voice, from somewhere deep within, answered her.
(End of chapter.)
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you