Sasuke lightly clapped his hands, a faint smile on his face as he looked at Madara, who was standing in the distance with a stunned expression.
"What? Did you think it was genjutsu?" he asked calmly.
"Injuries of this level don't even require me to use genjutsu."
Madara was at a loss for words.
If it wasn't genjutsu, then what had just happened?
Why... why wasn't Sasuke dead?
How could he be completely unharmed after having his throat slit? Did this guy possess some kind of immortal secret technique?
Or had Sasuke developed some bizarre jutsu on his own?
The thought left Madara momentarily frozen in place.
The shinobi alliance, witnessing this scene, was equally dumbfounded.
Just moments ago, they had been lamenting Sasuke's apparent death.
But now, he had seemingly come back to life in an instant.
What was going on?
These people probably had no idea what Yin-Yang Release was.
Sasuke's Yin-Yang Release, the Creation of All Things Technique, allowed him to instantly create anything with a single thought.
Now, with Sasuke's mastery of Yin-Yang nature transformation reaching such a high level, healing his injuries in an instant was no issue at all.
In fact, there was only one way to truly kill Sasuke: to instantly destroy his brain, rendering him incapable of thought.
But achieving such a feat was incredibly difficult, especially against someone of Sasuke's caliber.
"Madara!"
Sasuke's voice suddenly rang out, snapping Madara out of his thoughts.
Madara looked up at Sasuke, his worldview seemingly shattered.
Someone who should have been dead had come back to life in an instant.
Even the Impure World Reincarnation wasn't this convenient!
What kind of technique was this?
"I know you've mastered many powerful abilities," Sasuke continued, "but you've never truly considered where these powers come from.
Or how to delve deeper into them, to develop even stronger techniques.
In my eyes, you've only mastered the powers of those who came before you. You're a good student, but you'll never be a good teacher."
Madara frowned.
"Are you saying that you haven't just mastered those powers, but have also expanded upon them?"
Sasuke nodded. "That's right."
He raised his hand, and a flame flickered to life in his palm.
"Fire a power derived from the nature transformation of fire-style chakra.
Most people would stop at mastering the basic fire nature transformation and call it a day.
But I'm different. I was curious about the ultimate potential of fire, so I didn't just master the five basic nature transformations I pushed each of them to their absolute limits, to the point where further improvement was impossible."
With a flick of his wrist, Sasuke tossed the flame into the air.
The resulting explosion was terrifying, leaving even fire-style specialists among the shinobi stunned.
"This is the secret to my strength.
My power isn't just due to my chakra reserves, which rival those of a tailed beast.
It's because I've honed every aspect of my abilities to perfection."
Hiruzen, hearing this, was deeply shaken.
Sasuke... was more deserving of the title "Professor" than he was.
Even the most basic nature transformations, Sasuke had patiently refined to their utmost limits.
This was something Hiruzen had never been able to do. In his youth, he had lacked the patience to meticulously polish every technique.
After all, who wouldn't want to learn powerful jutsu as quickly as possible?
Hiruzen sighed quietly.
Even if he had spent the time to refine every technique, he doubted he could have achieved what Sasuke had.
"And beyond the five basic nature transformations, I've also mastered Yin and Yang Release.
With these, you can't kill me.
This is the power of the Creation of All Things Technique Yin-Yang Release: Creation of All Things."
Hearing the name of the technique, Madara was once again stunned.
He was familiar with Yin-Yang Release, of course.
But he had never thought to use it to develop new techniques.
Nor had he ever considered training in it.
In fact, since becoming famous in the shinobi world, Madara had largely forgotten about training altogether.
Recalling his childhood days of rigorous practice, Madara suddenly realized what he had been missing.
Had Sasuke been growing with this mindset all along?
Even setting aside Sasuke's natural talent, his sheer determination was something Madara couldn't help but admire.
"You've truly surprised me, Uchiha Sasuke," Madara said.
"I regret not being born in the same era as you. But... I'm fortunate to have met you in this one.
Your power is astonishing. Now I think I understand why you were able to awaken the Rinnegan."
The others were taken aback.
They turned to look at Sasuke.
Was the reason he had awakened the Rinnegan also due to his training?
"The power of the Sharingan was never a curse," Sasuke explained.
"It's just that you never grasped its true secret.
By training to enhance your ocular power, you can unlock higher levels of visual prowess.
Even evolving the three-tomoe Sharingan into the Mangekyō Sharingan isn't impossible."
Madara nodded, recalling his own experiences with awakening the Sharingan.
If he had known this back then, things might have turned out very differently.
But it was too late now.
"It seems defeating you today will be difficult," Madara said with a smile.
"But... that's fine. Even if I can't defeat you, I can still capture you.
Besides, you're not our true target."
Fighting Sasuke had been Nagato's will, but now, the one controlling Akatsuki was... Obito.
And Obito had no intention of confronting Sasuke directly.
As Madara spoke, he spread his arms wide.
"The time has come.
Uchiha Sasuke, what follows will be a true shinobi world war.
You can watch to your heart's content. If your goal is simply to grow stronger, you don't need to get involved."
Sasuke chuckled.
If this had been earlier, he might have been content to sit back and observe.
But now... things were different.
Sasuke needed the chakra of all the tailed beasts to elevate his Yin-Yang nature transformation to the sixth level.
Just as Sasuke was about to respond, the ground began to tremble.
Madara turned his gaze toward the shinobi alliance.
"They've been watching long enough. Now it's their turn to participate.
Let's begin!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth shook with deafening roars as countless White Zetsu emerged from the ground.
The main force of the White Zetsu army had arrived.
Alongside them came the reanimated shinobi, ready to join the battle.
The true war was about to begin.
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