---Third POV---
After the battle with Hashirama at the Valley of the End, Madara hid behind the scenes of history, plotting for decades. Now, for the first time, he truly felt that the shinobi world was progressing forward. He hadn't felt it before because no true warriors had appeared. But now, after taking a serious beating, he was forced to rein in the arrogance that had swelled within him since Hashirama's death.
Outside the domain of Wood Release barrier, a golden meteor smashed brutally into the giant wooden masks.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Five of the masks didn't last even a second under the violent impact; they shattered into flying wood chips in an instant. The remaining three were also quickly destroyed one after another.
Only the final mask remained.
Madara seemed to be continuously supplying chakra from behind, and it actually managed to withstand Ryouma's ordinary headbutt for a moment. During the stalemate, waves of golden circular shockwaves spread from the point of collision, blowing away all the remnants of Wood Release scattered across the battlefield.
The residual shockwaves alone left the Iwa forces struggling to cope.
Ōnoki raised his hand and launched a Dust Release to disintegrate a giant flying piece of wood. He quickly began organizing the Iwa ninjas to evacuate outside the barrier.
A barrier corps ninja, seeing him exit, quickly asked, "Tsuchikage-sama, should we keep maintaining the barrier?"
Ōnoki furrowed his brows and thought for a moment. Considering that the recent battle clearly showed Ryouma had the upper hand, he didn't need to hesitate.
"Keep it up."
"Yes!"
Upon hearing his subordinate's response, he flew into the sky to observe the battle within the barrier. His gaze swept across the shattered, uplifted underground rock layers, and he couldn't help but complain. "Is this really a battle between ninjas?"
Compared to this scale of combat, the time he fought Madara alongside his teacher was nothing more than child's play.
---
Bang!
The sound of air compressing and exploding rang in Ryouma's ears.
An invisible Limbo shadow wielding a black rod struck forward. But unlike usual, the rod met resistance this time; it couldn't even break through the golden chakra cloak.
However, the force of the strike still sent him flying, crashing into nearby ruins, relieving the real Madara trapped within the wooden barrier.
But Ryouma wasn't one to suffer quietly. As he was sent flying, he swung Lostvayne in his right hand, launching a flawless counterstrike, completely dispersing the last Limbo shadow.
Crack!
The wooden mask split open from the inside, revealing Madara's grim expression.
Seeing Ryouma completely unharmed, he had no choice but to form hand seals and summon twenty Wood Release clones to guard him.
With both Limbo shadows now dispersed, it would take time to regenerate them. He didn't even know if these wood clones could hold out long enough.
Boom!
A wave of force erupted from the ruins, sending broken debris flying. The golden meteor rose again, landing right in front of the group of Madara.
Looking at the crowd of wood clones before him, Ryouma couldn't help but mutter. "Every time I fight you, it's either Wood Release or more Wood Release. Seriously, you might as well change your name to Senju Madara."
Madara actually had no comeback for that.
The twenty wood clones simultaneously activated Susanoo. Blue giants instantly surrounded Ryouma, and just like the Iwa suicide bombing squad earlier, they rushed in like living bombs.
But Ryouma didn't break out of the Susanoo encirclement using his usual Full Counter as Madara had anticipated. Instead, he used a far more violent and direct method.
Gripping Lostvayne with both hands, Ryouma raised it above his head. A surge of golden chakra burst forth like a wave, wrapping around the blade to form an enormous golden sword that stretched so far skyward its end was unseen.
Whoosh!
The atmospheric clouds were torn apart by the forceful winds. He skillfully controlled the massive blade and brought it down in a wide horizontal slash.
Madara didn't even get the chance to activate his Rinnegan's chakra absorption, the slash was already complete. A golden arc stretched across his entire field of vision, from near to far.
All the Susanoo were cut clean in half. Golden cracks spread across them in the blink of an eye, destroying both the armor and the wood clones within. Even the outer barrier couldn't withstand the sheer kinetic force behind the slash, it warped and twisted violently before finally shattering into pieces, and the turbulent golden sword swept across hundreds of meters.
Madara repelled the residual energy surging toward him with Shinra Tensei, mentally counting the cooldown time of Limbo.
50 seconds left!
As long as the cooldown ended, he would have another chance. But fifty seconds was still too long. Having swiftly dealt with Madara's clones, he dashed forward, charged up and ready, slashing his golden Lostvayne directly toward Madara's head.
In a moment of desperation, Madara summoned the Gedo Statue to block the strike.
"Roar!"
As the shell of the Ten-Tails, the Gedo Statue was indeed durable, but not indestructible. The golden slash carved through it, and the statue let out a shrill roar as it was cleaved diagonally in two.
Ryouma leapt atop the Gedo Statue's head, formed a one-handed seal, and reached down.
Four chakras of different colors were pulled from within.
One beam fell across the sky and landed at the edge of the battlefield, where it was absorbed by Shukaku, who was cradled in Minato's arms. The remaining three transformed into three tailed beasts that appeared on the battlefield.
As soon as Son Gokū emerged, he shouted, "I am out!"
"It's you, Shukaku's friend."
Isobu had a good memory. Although Ryouma's appearance had changed drastically, its recognition system worked just fine and identified him immediately.
"Thank you." Gyūki, one of the few kind-hearted tailed beasts, expressed its gratitude to Ryouma as the first thing upon being freed.
Ryouma smiled and nodded at them. "Save the small talk for later, we still haven't dealt with the enemy."
With that, he crushed the ground beneath his feet and charged toward Madara at high speed.
30 seconds left!
Madara counted down silently, his Rinnegan flaring as he raised a black gravitational core into the sky.
Invisible gravity pulled at the earth, tearing massive rocks from the ground and dragging them upward.
This level of gravity, of course, couldn't affect Ryouma in his full-speed sprint, but Madara's target wasn't him.
The three newly released tailed beasts were caught by the pull and began thrashing as they were drawn toward the gravitational core in the sky.
"I'll blast it apart!" Son Gokū began forming a Tailed Beast Ball in his mouth, but suddenly felt a wave of weakness surge through its body. The bomb fizzled out. Too much of their chakra had been drained while sealed inside the Gedo Statue by Madara.
If it was just a Chibaku Tensei, then even if the three tailed beasts got caught in it, it wouldn't really matter. After all, the big shots would come to the rescue after the fight.
But the problem was...
"Look up at the sky!" Kokuō shouted.
A massive shadow descended from the sky, it was an enormous meteor. Its target was precisely the gravitational core of that Chibaku Tensei.
"You'll go save them, won't you? That's your greatest weakness... just like Hashirama's." Inside his Susanoo, Madara sneered coldly as he slowly lowered his hands from the seal, though inwardly he was carefully counting down.
26 seconds left!
To save or not to save, was that even a question?
Of course not.
Ryouma continued accelerating without hesitation, the golden glow of Lostvayne in his hand growing ever brighter.
"You're really that heartless?"
Unexpectedly, Ryouma showed not a shred of concern for the fate of the tailed beasts. Madara had no choice but to further channel his ocular power.
The Complete Body Susanoo appeared once again, this time clad in Wood Release armor.
"Wood Style Armor: Susanoo!"
Unlike last time, Madara had clearly optimized the technique, the armor was now even thicker, with perfect protection at every joint.
The head especially was protected with multiple layers of wooden masks. Whatever its offensive or mobility limitations might be, its defense was clearly maxed out.
If this had been the earlier version of his technique, it might have been troublesome. But unfortunately, now he was facing Ryouma in his second stage, a true "Super Saiyan."
Behind Ryouma, sealing patterns spun rapidly, these extended the duration of the Super Saiyan Mode. Two of the five tomoe at the center slowly faded away.
This meant he had voluntarily released part of the seal, trading time for greater output.
The golden chakra storm roared with tangible force, forming a massive golden dragon around him.
The next moment, a dragon's roar shook the places.
It tore through the ground as if nothing could stop it, jaws wide as it crushed Susanoo's armored face in one clean bite.
This time, there was no Limbo shadow to take the hit. Madara lifted both hands and unleashed a Super Shinra Tensei in a desperate attempt to resist. But it was all for nothing, the golden dragon broke through it with overwhelming force.
However, the backlash from the forcibly broken Shinra Tensei sent him flying backwards at high speed.
"Didn't expect that, did you? This was my escape route all along." Madara was never shy about using tricks and schemes. He could tell that Ryouma had used some sort of forbidden jutsu to suddenly boost his power, definitely time-limited. In other words, all he had to do was stall. Victory would still be his, just like in his battle with Hashirama. In the end, survival decides the winner.
But Ryouma, watching Madara fly farther away, showed no frustration at being outplayed. Instead, he smirked and formed a one-handed seal.
At the same time, Minato, who had already positioned himself behind Madara, also formed a seal.
The Flying Thunder God kunai marks on both of them lit up. In an instant, their positions switched.
Ryouma swung Lostvayne in a single clean slash at the now-vulnerable Madara, who had practically delivered himself right to him.
At that moment, Madara was midair with no footing. His Shinra Tensei was on cooldown. He could only watch helplessly as Ryouma's blade came slashing down.
The sharp sword first shattered both of his eye sockets, and in the very next moment as they passed each other, Ryouma spun around and delivered a reverse upward diagonal slash. The golden slash mark extended from Madara's waist all the way up to his neck.
Whoosh!
After stabilizing his stance, Ryouma immediately hurled a Flying Thunder God kunai straight into Madara's skull, then formed a seal with both hands and placed a space-time seal over it.
The outcome was decided.
---
Meanwhile, on the other side, after swapping places with Ryouma, Minato wasted no time in throwing another Flying Thunder God kunai toward the gravitational core still suspended in the sky.
He appeared atop the still-forming Chibaku Tensei sphere. Relying on lightning-fast reflexes and skills, he managed to teleport the entire mass several kilometers away just before it could fully form and trap him.
With the gravitational force dissipated, the three tailed beasts fell to the ground with a "boom". However, the enormous meteor overhead still remained a deadly threat.
He quickly assessed the chakra remaining in his body. Forget teleporting the meteor, he couldn't even teleport a single tailed beast at this point.
Luckily, he and Ryouma weren't the only ones still able to fight.
The Iwa forces were all hiding behind a raised slab of stone. Ōnoki had his hands pressed against it, using the Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique to keep the rock from being blown away by the aftermath of the battle.
"Tsuchikage-sama, there's a star falling from the sky!" One Iwa ninja shouted as he pointed skyward.
Ōnoki glanced up and immediately flew over to smack the ninja on the head.
"Idiot, that's an enemy jutsu."
In just a few seconds, the massive meteor's shadow had already enveloped a radius of over a kilometer around the Iwa stronghold.
Feeling the crushing pressure, some Iwa ninjas couldn't take it anymore, they dropped their weapons and simply sat down, their life flashing before their eyes.
Ōnoki didn't scold them. In his youth, he too had once feared Madara's overwhelming power. But now, things were different.
"Tsuchikage-sama?"
Surrounded by gazes filled with either worry or hope, he clenched his fists and soared skyward against the blinding sunlight.
Minato looked up in surprise. "A flying ninja? Is that the Tsuchikage?"
With both palms pressed firmly against the meteor, Ōnoki unleashed the greatest chakra output of his entire life.
Chakra surged wildly, and the meteor began to slow. Chunks of stone crumbled and fell to the ground, and unbelievably, the massive meteor was now being physically held up by him alone.
The surviving Iwa ninjas below instantly burst into cheers.
"Ōnoki… not bad at all."
Ryouma smiled slightly and turned his attention back to Madara's corpse. He was confident he had destroyed Madara's eyes as quickly as possible, and had also applied a space-time sealing jutsu to prevent the corpse from being summoned or manipulated.
But Izanagi was a jutsu that could be pre-recorded into the eye ahead of time. Back in the day, it was precisely because Tobirama selfishly kept Madara's corpse that the resurrection plan inadvertently succeeded.
So he made a firm decision, he would completely destroy Madara's body, eliminating any chance of him using Izanagi to revert the destroyed Rinnegan back into existence.
30 advance chapters!
/Malphegor