Maito Gai stood obediently behind Yakumo, like her bodyguard.
The current situation didn't allow him to consider too much.
Since Yakumo stood on Konoha's side and was Hikari's friend, Gai felt he could trust her.
"How do you know Izanagi?" Uchiha Madara examined Yakumo closely, confirming he saw no trace of the Uchiha on her.
Yakumo shrugged. "I just do. Is it really that hard?"
This conversation was practically impossible!
Madara choked on her words and shook his head helplessly.
"Since you refuse to cooperate, I have no choice."
"Although Izanagi is powerful, I don't believe you can use such power without any cost."
"Next, I'll show you what true divine power is."
"Tengai Shinsei!"
Madara's right eye widened. The unique dōjutsu of the Rinnegan activated, and a meteor several thousand meters in diameter began falling from the sky. If this meteor struck the ground, everything within a hundred miles would become a wasteland of death.
The meteor's descent wouldn't just devastate the impact point. The shockwave after impact would sweep across everything. If it fell on an island, it could sink the entire island outright.
"I mean, isn't this a bit much?!" Yakumo was utterly exasperated.
She truly hadn't expected Uchiha Madara to unleash his ultimate move right away, giving her no chance to stall for time. Faced with a meteor of this size, Yakumo had absolutely no way to deal with it.
It must be remembered that Yakumo's expertise lay in genjutsu. Against ordinary ninjutsu, she could manage by replicating it with genjutsu.
But how could she possibly block such a massive chunk of rock with genjutsu?
"Eight Gates, Gate of Shock — Open!"
Maito Gai activated the Eight Gates once again. His body was enveloped in blue chakra, which soon transformed into blazing blue flames as he shot straight toward the meteor.
From below, it looked just like a moth flying into a flame.
Compared to that enormous meteor, Gai resembled nothing more than an ant.
"We cannot simply stand by and watch!" Ōnoki shouted, then activated the Light-Weight Rock Technique and soared into the sky, charging directly toward the falling meteor.
"Super Light-Weight Rock Technique!"
"Morning Peacock!"
Gai's attack arrived simultaneously. Like a peacock spreading its tail feathers, the originally relatively smooth meteor was pummeled with craters.
"Gai, stop attacking! That will only cause the rocks to fall and injure more people." Gaara flew up, using his sand to catch the falling debris, then forming sand supports to halt the meteor's descent.
"Alright, I understand!"
If he couldn't deal with the meteor, then he would deal with the one who summoned it.
"Eight Gates, Gate of Death — Open!"
The crimson beast reappeared, and the agony of death surged through him once more.
Without waiting for Uchiha Madara to react, Gai unleashed his final trump card.
"Yagai!"
A pale-red dragon's head, moving faster than Madara could react, shot straight towards him.
This time, Madara had no Truth-Seeking Orb barrier protecting his body. Yagai struck him directly.
As Gai descended from the sky, the impact created a crater dozens of meters deep. At its center lay Uchiha Madara, looking thoroughly disheveled.
At this moment, one of the two horns symbolizing the Six Paths on his head was broken. His chest was torn open, revealing his beating heart.
"Hahaha, just a little more, this time it was really, really close!" Madara laughed heartily. Death had truly come very, very close to him this time.
He lay on the ground gasping, his body rapidly regenerating. Beside him, Maito Gai had once again become a casualty, his skin torn and shredded.
"In that case... I'll just have him give you another shot!" Yakumo called down from the edge of the crater. Then, to Madara's astonishment, Maito Gai returned to his perfectly intact state.
"You people have no shinobi integrity!"
Madara really wanted to curse. He hadn't expected Yakumo to master Izanagi, let alone use it a second time. More importantly, he couldn't even tell how she was activating this genjutsu.
After all, the shinobi world also followed a law of conservation.
The more powerful a technique, the greater the cost.
An illusion technique involving life and death like this required a three-tomoe Sharingan as a consumable item. Once used, even a Mangekyō would lose its light, becoming a useless eye.
"Uchiha Madara, you look quite pathetic."
A ripple appeared in space, and then Obito manifested before Uchiha Madara. His eyes were now the Kamui Mangekyō Sharingan. At this moment, his mastery and use of Kamui had reached a new level.
"It's you!"
Madara looked at Obito, inwardly wishing he didn't have to see him at a time like this.
This boy he had manipulated since childhood, the one he had always treated as a puppet — Uchiha Obito — had now become his only hope of survival.
Honestly, Madara's luck was terrible. He hadn't expected to encounter a Yakumo here who could use 'Izanagi' to alter someone else's death, nor had he anticipated a Maito Gai who had trained the Eight Gates to the Gate of Death.
Either of these two alone, Uchiha Madara wouldn't have cared about.
But both appearing simultaneously posed a serious problem.
The Eight Gates relied on life force to unleash attacks that threatened Madara's life, and Yakumo could use Izanagi to revive Maito Gai after using the Gate of Death.
These two created a peculiar chemical reaction.
"I've figured out how she's using Izanagi," Obito said, watching the regenerating Uchiha Madara, especially that pair of Rinnegan, which stirred an impulse in Obito to dig them out.
He hadn't expected these people to resurrect Uchiha Madara behind his back while he was searching for the Nine-Tails' chakra. By the time he returned from the Fire Temple, Madara had already retrieved the Rinnegan, mastered the Ten-Tails, and become its new jinchūriki.
"Explain." Under the restorative power of Six Paths Mode, Madara quickly recovered his physical state.
Obito watched Yakumo, his two Mangekyō spinning incessantly, guarding against her genjutsu.
"The Uchiha clan was massacred. Konoha's former elder, Shimura Danzō, possessed several Sharingan. If I'm not mistaken, Yakumo is using those very eyes to perform Izanagi."
Hearing this, Uchiha Madara's mouth twitched.
He was, after all, the former clan head of the Uchiha. Hearing someone use his clan's eyes to perform Izanagi made him want to vent his frustration.
But considering the one being revived was Maito Gai, Madara was at a loss for words.
Maito Gai in Eight Gates state was truly troublesome. That extraordinary speed, that unparalleled attack power—even with the Rinnegan, he had almost been kicked to death, let alone Obito.
What should be done?
"How many eyes does she have left?"