"Tsuchikage-sama, Raikage-sama, our scouts have locked onto Madara's location. He's sitting atop a large rock, ten kilometers ahead. The place where the Five-Tails is set to revive is just one kilometer south of Madara."
The combined forces of Iwa and Kumo ninjas were able to track Madara's movements clearly and reported all the details to their respective Kage.
Onoki asked, "What about the Iwa-nin guarding the area?"
"We found thirty corpses, none survived," came the grim response.
Hearing this, the Fourth Raikage, A, glanced at his own scouts from Kumo, who nodded to confirm the information was accurate.
"Now that we've found the enemy, the next step is to figure out how to kill him!" A said with a face full of hatred. He was itching to kill Madara for not only taking his brother's life but also stealing the Eight-Tails from Kumogakure.
"Don't underestimate him. According to the plan, we need to neutralize his Sharingan and Susano'o first. Only once the ninja forces have surrounded him can we make our move," Onoki responded solemnly.
He had personally experienced the terror of Madara before, watching as Madara effortlessly defeated both him and his teacher, the Second Tsuchikage, Mu.
That kind of power was something Onoki could never forget.
"Madara is no ordinary ninja. If we underestimate him, all of us could lose our lives."
"I understand. You take command, Onoki!" the Fourth Raikage conceded, knowing that a ninja of Madara's caliber couldn't be taken lightly.
Although A had never fought Madara, he had faced Konoha's Thunder Fang before, and the sheer power of that fight was enough to know not to be reckless.
The coordination of the attack would be left to Onoki, who had prior experience with Madara and knew his capabilities well.
"Alright, captains, proceed as per the pre-established plan and prepare immediately."
"Yes!" the Iwa and Kumo jonin captains responded, then led their respective teams into action.
Onoki clenched his fists. He had been closely monitoring Madara's movements through his scouts but noticed that Madara had yet to make any moves. The Uchiha must know that they were coming—there was no way someone with his intelligence, who had located the rebirth sites of the Four-Tails and Five-Tails, wouldn't have his own sources of information. Yet, he had made no response to their ninja army. Was he simply ignoring them?
Onoki was far past the age of prideful bravado, but when faced with the man who had once humiliated both him and his teacher, it was difficult not to feel a surge of emotion.
Before long, the forces of Iwa and Kumo executed their plan and surrounded Madara. But throughout the process, Madara made no moves.
"They've probably finished their preparations, Madara-sama. I'll take my leave now," Black Zetsu said after receiving information from White Zetsu.
"Go ahead. I won't need you here for now," Madara replied.
After Black Zetsu left, Madara stood up from the rock, stretched, and said, "Consider this a warm-up before collecting the remaining tailed beasts."
No sooner had he finished speaking than he sensed the Iwa and Kumo ninjas moving in to attack him.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
Twenty Kumo ninjas emerged from underground, less than thirty meters from Madara, rapidly forming hand seals and releasing their jutsu.
Madara chuckled and said, "Using Iwa-nin to tunnel underground, huh? So the two villages are cooperating this well?"
In an instant, hundreds of Storm Release lasers fired at Madara, the blinding light forcing him to momentarily squint.
"So, they're trying to block my Sharingan. It seems like Onoki put a lot of thought into this plan."
Raising a hand to shield his eyes from the lasers, Madara activated partial Susano'o in front of him.
Thud, thud, thud.
The Storm Release lasers relentlessly bombarded the front of Susano'o, but their power was insignificant. In mere seconds, dozens of lasers hit Madara's Susano'o, but they posed no real threat.
Their purpose was solely to obstruct his vision.
"Earth Release: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling!"
"Earth Release: Rock Bullet!"
With the lasers blinding Madara, dozens of massive boulders, some tens of meters in size, were hurled toward him, along with smaller stones the size of human heads.
It was as though a storm of rocks had been unleashed.
Boom, boom, boom!
Hundreds, if not thousands, of rocks of varying sizes rained down on Madara's position, creating a scene of utter destruction. In just a few seconds, the barrage had created a small mountain, burying Madara underneath.
"Earth Release: Earth Core Shift!"
Simultaneously, two teams of Iwa-nin flanked Madara and used a combination jutsu to create a massive pit hundreds of meters deep, causing the small mountain of rocks to collapse and sink into the ground.
Boom!
The mountain collapsed, and the boulders began to roll and crash downward, causing an even greater scene of destruction.
"Fourth and Fifth squads, move in!" Tsuchikage assistant Tsuchidai ordered. As soon as he spoke, two squads of Kumo-nin appeared at the edge of the pit, rapidly forming hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Cannonball!"
Several streams of water shot forth from the Kumo-nin's mouths, rushing into the pit where Madara had been buried.
"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!"
Immediately following the Water Release, a Lightning Release jutsu was cast, creating an electrocuted water trap. The massive rocks would likely not have killed Madara, so the Kumo-nin used water to fill the gaps between the rocks, suffocating any remaining space for Madara to breathe. Then, by adding lightning, they hoped to paralyze him.
"Perfect, keep it up!" Onoki commanded, floating in the air and observing the battlefield. He knew Madara still had Susano'o, so he and the Fourth Raikage were prepared for it. If necessary, Onoki could use his Dust Release to break through Susano'o.
As the Kumo-nin continued to pour water into the pit, the Iwa-nin supported the attack with additional techniques, and soon the pit was filled. Thunderous lightning bolts crackled over the water.
"Did we get him?"
Onoki was hesitant to believe that it had been so easy to defeat Madara.
Boom!
Suddenly, a massive arm of deep blue Susano'o burst out from the pit.
"He's coming out! Prepare yourselves!" Onoki shouted.
In the next moment, Madara's towering Susano'o, standing fifty or sixty meters tall, erupted from the pit, pushing aside the enormous boulders and debris.
"You're not getting up!" the Fourth Raikage shouted, enhancing his body with Lightning Release Chakra and the Weighted Boulder Jutsu. While the technique slightly slowed him down, it increased his strength two- to three-fold.
"Earth Release: Fissure Palm!"
Simultaneously, Iwa-nin, led by Kitsuchi, launched their Earth Release jutsu at Susano'o's feet, causing the ground to split and forcing Madara's giant chakra construct to stumble.
"Lightning Oppression Horizontal!"
The Raikage then leaped high into the air and delivered a powerful elbow to Susano'o's chest.
The force, combined with Susano'o's unsteady stance, caused the giant chakra construct to fall backward.
Boom!
The earth quaked as Susano'o crashed to the ground, its immense weight sending shockwaves through the battlefield.
"Now's our chance, Onoki!"
Onoki didn't waste a second. He had already locked onto Madara's location within Susano'o and gathered his chakra. In his hands, a milky white cube began to form.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
The white cube quickly expanded to a massive size, encompassing Susano'o. Within the boundaries of the cube, everything would be disintegrated into the most basic molecular particles.
"It worked!" Onoki's face lit up with relief upon seeing his Dust Release hit Madara.
But in the next moment, his expression darkened as he realized the white cube was quickly being absorbed.
Madara, with a mere raise of his hand, had absorbed the entirety of the Dust Release with the power of his Rinnegan.
"Well done, Onoki. It seems the two villages are working together quite well, but this is as far as it goes," Madara said with a smirk.
With the Rinnegan's chakra absorption ability, the elaborate tactics of Iwa and Kumo were nothing more than a joke to him. He had merely been humoring them.
There was some slight surprise, but only a little.
"I didn't expect to need the Rinnegan to deal with you, Onoki. It seems you've improved," Madara remarked as he raised a hand and clenched his fist.
"Now, let's see how you handle my fully-formed Susano'o."
Crack, crack!
In an instant, a colossal amount of chakra erupted from Madara, forming the complete version of Susano'o, a towering behemoth nearly 200 meters tall.
Even tilting their heads, the ninja couldn't fully take in the godlike figure standing before them. This Susano'o was two or three times larger than any tailed beast.
"Damn it…"
The Fourth Raikage, despite being in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, felt powerless. He recalled the time he faced Yōichi, but Yōichi's Susano'o wasn't as tall as Madara's.
Yet, the feelings of helplessness and despair were the same, enveloping his mind.
"Retreat!" Onoki was the first to react. Their first strategy had failed, but they had a backup plan. However, even now, he realized the second plan wouldn't work either.
Maybe, just maybe, if he poured everything into his Dust Release, he could delay Madara's fully-formed Susano'o.
Boom!
Madara swung Susano'o's massive chakra blade, sending the earth into turmoil. The impact caused the ground to crack open, creating a canyon several kilometers long.
Boom, boom, boom!
Mountains in the distance were split in two by the force of the strike. In just one swing, Madara had decimated a large portion of the combined Iwa-Kumo forces, killing countless shinobi, though the agonizing cries of the survivors could still be heard.
"Let's play a game, Onoki," Madara said, folding his arms as he stood within Susano'o. "I'll swing my sword five times. After that, I won't chase you anymore. How many of you survive depends on your luck."
Upon hearing Madara's words, Onoki was filled with terror and rage. He was the Third Tsuchikage, but in front of Madara, he was still the same as he had been before—helpless.
The real fear was the knowledge that Madara's earlier strike had been one of five.
"Run!" Onoki shouted as he turned to flee. But even as he did, Madara was already moving Susano'o.
"This is the second strike!"
The godlike Susano'o raised its chakra sword again. This time, Onoki pushed his chakra to the limit, hoping to protect his village.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World!"
The white pillar of Dust Release met Susano'o's blade, slicing it in two. But the sword's energy continued to spread, causing even more destruction to the Iwa and Kumo forces.
Once again, the ground was split open, and the sky seemed to crack under the pressure.
"Third strike!"
"Stop, Madara! Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World!"
Onoki poured an immense amount of chakra into his next Dust Release, blocking the third strike and managing to break part of Susano'o's chakra blade. Yet, even with that, the energy that followed still ravaged the battlefield.
Onoki's Dust Release even damaged parts of the fully-formed Susano'o, but the damage was swiftly repaired by Madara's endless chakra.
"Fourth strike!"
Boom!
The earth crumbled once again, the two village's elite ninja forces being decimated. Despite the defenses organized by the Fourth Raikage, their Earth Release barriers were powerless in the face of Madara's fully-formed Susano'o.
"This is the fifth strike!"
This time, Madara swept the sword horizontally, widening the scope of destruction. Onoki, with his last reserves of chakra, unleashed one final Dust Release.
While it briefly halted the chakra blade, the lingering force of the strike continued to devastate the landscape, leaving a deep chasm in its wake.
Of the two thousand elite Iwa and Kumo shinobi, less than a fifth remained alive.
"That old man Onoki is still alive… But whatever. I said five strikes, and I won't chase you anymore."
Madara deactivated Susano'o and found a new place to rest, satisfied with the results. Without even trying, he had utterly decimated the elite forces of two great nations, including their Kage.
And soon, with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, these survivors would also fall into the new world he would create.
"Madara-sama, the Five-Tails seems to be reviving!" After the battle ended, Black Zetsu emerged from the ground and reported, "The chakra has started to gather. I believe the Five-Tails will soon be fully resurrected."
"So soon? Let's go take a look."
Perhaps the intensity of the battle had caused the Five-Tails' revival to accelerate by a few days. Black Zetsu wasn't entirely sure, but he was more excited than Madara. Soon, he would finally meet his mother again!
(End of Chapter)
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