"I didn't expect you to reach such a level. Even if I die here today, I'll have no regrets… Hahaha—come!"
Once Madara finished speaking…
A roaring surge of flames burst from his mouth, sweeping over everything in front of him. At the heart of the flames—was a pair of eyes.
Genjutsu.
Madara was famed across the shinobi world for his Fire Release and overwhelming power, but that didn't mean his genjutsu was weak—far from it. Among the Uchiha, there were few whose genjutsu surpassed his.
Aside from Madara himself…
Who else could force Kyoichi to spend an entire breath to break free?
But—
This genjutsu couldn't touch Kyoichi at all.
Because at this moment, his eyes were already completely shut, severing his sight entirely. In exchange—
Seven-Day Breathing Method—Fourth Activation!
After absorbing a tremendous amount of oxygen, his skin fully awakened. Though he cut off his vision, both his sensory perception and tactile awareness amplified explosively.
The next moment—
He charged straight into the flames.
Madara's pupils contracted.
He had already witnessed Kyoichi's speed, yet right now—this speed was not just faster than before. It wasn't merely twice as fast—seven, eight times, maybe even ten times faster. Even with his three-tomoe Sharingan activated, Madara couldn't track Kyoichi's position.
At this point, there was no room for thinking.
Thinking?
If he took the time to think, his body might already be dead before the thought finished.
Madara understood opponents like this far too well.
So—
He abandoned thought entirely, relying solely on pure, battle-forged instinct—
Boom!
Blue flames roared upward. A piece of "bone" manifested and perfectly intercepted Kyoichi's blade.
But—
Crack!
The bone shattered.
"What?"
Madara hadn't expected Susanoo to fail to block that strike.
The opponent's kenjutsu—stronger than before, far stronger. He had completely underestimated his power.
Madara no longer dared to entertain any stray thoughts.
A dazzling blue radiance burst from his body. A half-body warrior colossus rose from him, slamming a fist toward Kyoichi as gray mist and flames billowed outward.
Yet—
Neither the flames nor the mist could harm Kyoichi. An invisible layer of force around him repelled every attack.
Next—
A sword formed in Susanoo's hand.
Entirely blue, half-solid, half-ethereal.
Blood streamed from Madara's eyes, but he hesitated not at all.
A single slash—resplendent to its absolute limit.
This strike nearly reached his former peak—but the price was the rapid deterioration of his eyes. Yet at that moment, a wooden giant surged up from beneath Kyoichi's feet.
Wood Human Technique.
The giant raised both arms and caught the blade directly.
Madara clutched his eyes, blood flowing from them. "That technique again. Not as overwhelming as Hashirama Senju's, but… not far off!"
His Susanoo began to crack apart—but then…
The Uchiha clan's most notorious talent appeared.
Kyoichi was about to finish Madara with a single stroke, when Madara suddenly pulled out a pair of eyes and swapped them at blinding speed. At the same time, the seal on his forehead released.
In the next instant, an eye opened on his forehead—and in the palms of both hands.
Susanoo evolved into its Complete Body.
Madara transformed himself into something beyond human. And this version of Susanoo consumed not just Sharingan power, but the very vitality of his body.
All for—
This battle!
Though he lacked the Rinnegan, in this moment Madara felt as though he had returned to the days when he fought Hashirama to the death.
This time—he intended to win!
"Time is limited. Let's settle this quickly."
"My thoughts exactly."
Kyoichi didn't want to delay either. He still intended to search for Black Zetsu. Wait too long, and Black Zetsu might become impossible to find.
—— Air Palm Burst ——
He unleashed the Air Palm straight toward Madara's true body.
Ordinary attacks couldn't pierce Susanoo.
But—
This was highly condensed Sage Chakra, combined with Frog Kata principles, further compressed into a needle-point through Air Palm.
No matter how strong the defense…
It cannot withstand a drill focused to a single point.
Susanoo was punctured instantly, leaving a narrow opening. Madara nearly failed to dodge—
He couldn't avoid the strike entirely, but the Yata Uchiwa's material was extraordinarily durable, managing to block the force.
Meanwhile—
Susanoo swung its massive sword downward, sweeping out a wave of blade energy.
This time—
The wooden giant failed to withstand it and collapsed instantly.
Kyoichi, after all, was not Hashirama Senju. Even with a Sage Body and Wood Release, without sacrificing his own life force, he couldn't give Wood Release the chakra-absorbing properties Hashirama had.
Naturally, the power was diminished.
Moreover—
His Wood Human wasn't true Senjutsu—only infused with Sage Chakra.
But—
Fragile?
No problem.
Speed would make up for everything.
As the sword came down, Kyoichi's figure vanished.
The next moment—
The ground split open as blade energy carved a long fissure.
But—
At the same instant, Kyoichi's sword flashed free from its sheath.
A Wind Release blade, condensed to its absolute extreme.
A single slash swept out—then vanished instantly upon release.
A thin bloodline appeared on Madara's cheek.
This slash pierced straight through Susanoo's core defense, nearly cleaving his head.
Then—
Kyoichi's figure appeared in several positions in rapid succession, each blade strike carrying enough force to crack Susanoo. Madara's own sweeping blade attacks were vast in range, but failed to catch Kyoichi.
Too fast!
However—
Madara soon realized this still wasn't Kyoichi's limit—
In his rapid movements, Kyoichi used Yin Release nature transformation to create shadow-based formulae.
These seals, hidden in shadows and spatial gaps, were completely undetectable. Kyoichi flickered among them at blinding speed.
Madara narrowed his eyes.
At this speed, he'd need to seize the exact instant of opportunity if he wanted to kill. Otherwise, he'd be beaten passively.
Being wounded?
Hardly a concern.
As long as the blow didn't kill him outright, his body would rapidly regenerate. Whether he ended up looking like a sack of torn rags was not something Madara cared about.
He understood one thing clearly:
If he died here, he wouldn't leave behind a whole corpse anyway. He had prepared long before—parts of him separated earlier had not been destroyed, and another "body" had been cultivated.
Even if he died, Black Zetsu could revive him using that vessel.
What he desired—
Was to fight Kyoichi to his heart's content.
Even being pressured like this was unexpected, but precisely because of that—
This battle thrilled him beyond words.
Madara felt his blood boiling, his long-lost battle instincts roaring back to life. After taking several slashes, he began to sense a certain rhythm—
The intuition born from endless combat experience.
At the moment Kyoichi slashed, Madara flickered forward. Susanoo's blade came crashing down, a devastating arc cleaving toward one of Kyoichi's Flying Thunder God markers.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion.
The land split open with a massive fissure.
Madara had unleashed that attack with absolutely everything he had—without the slightest restraint.
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