The shockwave from the repelled Outer Path Demon Statue brought Uchiha Madara back to his senses.
Looking at Tiga standing before him and Izayoi floating in the air, Madara's killing intent had unknowingly shifted into battle-lust. He couldn't help but grin and mutter, "I didn't expect that there would be someone in this world besides Hashirama who could pressure me like this. It's really… wonderful!"
Madara shouted the last word aloud.
Immediately, he formed hand seals and roared, "Wood Release: Thorn Killing Technique!"
Thick vines erupted from the ground, wrapping tightly around Tiga like coiling ropes.
Before Tiga could break free, the Outer Path Demon Statue opened its mouth and spat out a purple chakra dragon, which instantly pierced through his body.
Tiga, though possessing an immortal body, had the chakra beads within his form swallowed by the chakra dragon.
Devoid of his chakra beads, Tiga was immediately immobilized.
The chakra dragon continued upwards, roaring as it surged toward Izayoi.
Facing the rapidly approaching chakra dragon, Izayoi frowned slightly, having momentarily forgotten about this move of the Outer Path Demon Statue.
At the same time, he quickly condensed chakra beads and transformed them into a green light wheel, shouting, "Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
The light wheel shattered, forming a massive tornado that spiraled downward toward the chakra dragon.
When the two clashed, instead of the tornado being devoured, it passed through the dragon after losing some of its energy and landed squarely atop the Outer Path Demon Statue's head.
Izayoi ascended into the sky, a smile on his face as he dodged the increasingly violent chakra dragon.
When the tornado struck the statue, its knees buckled slightly, and numerous cracks appeared on the blue armor covering its head.
"It really is a natural disaster," Madara muttered, watching the scene with growing certainty.
Those black spheres… were a more advanced form of Yin-Yang Release—capable not only of creating matter but also generating natural calamities.
No wonder the Hungry Ghost Path struggled to absorb them.
If not for the embedded chakra, they might not be absorbable at all.
Madara retracted the chakra dragon and had the Outer Path Demon Statue draw a massive blue samurai sword.
With one mighty swing, the weakened tornado was cleaved apart.
Flapping its wings, the Outer Path Demon Statue soared toward Izayoi at high speed.
"Chibaku Tensei!"
Reaching a specific altitude, Madara raised a hand and activated the technique.
Invisible gravity locked onto Izayoi's figure, and meteorites from outer space, drawn by a magnetic pull, streaked toward him.
Izayoi, however, calmly seized the moment.
He stopped midair, forming hand seals.
All the meteorites within a certain range suddenly halted, then reversed course and shot toward the Outer Path Demon Statue.
Madara's pupils shrank. He couldn't comprehend what sort of ability this was.
The statue swung its blade and unleashed a massive slash, cleaving the incoming meteorites and continuing its attack.
Izayoi maintained the seal.
When the slash entered a certain range, it suddenly slowed… and then stopped—but it didn't dissipate.
"Return!"
Izayoi pointed, and the enormous blue slash turned and flew back at the statue.
"Gravity? No… this is… space-time manipulation!" Madara finally realized.
He also recognized the limits of the ability:
It could control objects within a certain range but not living beings. And it had a weight limit.
Even the slash couldn't be stopped immediately—so it wouldn't work on the statue.
Nothing to fear.
The Outer Path Demon Statue met the returning slash head-on, catching and dispelling it.
It then opened its mouth and spat out another chakra dragon toward Izayoi.
Meanwhile, Izayoi had crafted a spell-engraved metal piece using chakra beads.
Calculating the statue's flight speed, Izayoi whispered, "Heaven's Sent Technique."
The metal vanished silently.
A second later, Izayoi vanished too.
He reappeared directly before Madara and punched at close range.
Startled, Madara quickly deployed Wheel Grave: Side Prison.
A Wheel Grave shadow appeared and took the punch for him.
But Izayoi grinned and opened his hand—revealing a black sphere.
Injecting chakra into it, it transformed into a turquoise light orb.
With a flash, the orb exploded into scattered photons, which formed a tornado that swept away both the Wheel Grave shadow and Madara.
The white chakra tube connecting Madara and the statue snapped instantly.
Without his control and having not yet reabsorbed the tailed beast chakra, the Outer Path Demon Statue lost consciousness—like Tiga below.
With no Yin Release chakra to sustain it, the blue armor and wings on the statue disintegrated into flames and vanished.
The massive statue plummeted to the moon's surface like a meteorite.
Izayoi pursued Madara, whose body was now shielded by a transparent white light from the Hungry Ghost Path.
Madara took this chance to absorb chakra and escape the tornado's range using Rinnegan shadow resistance.
He then mechanized his body and fired a barrage of missiles at Izayoi.
Since ninjutsu didn't work on him, Madara had no choice but to rely on the Shura Path's tech weaponry, which he usually disdained.
But he forgot Izayoi's most annoying ability.
Izayoi formed a one-handed seal. The missiles froze in midair, reversed, and blasted back toward Madara.
Madara was forced to use repulsive force to blast them away—aiming to hit Izayoi as well.
But then, Izayoi merged nine chakra beads into a liquefied black shield.
The repulsive force was completely nullified.
Madara's eyes narrowed again in shock.
Before he could summon another Wheel Grave shadow, Izayoi flew in and punched him.
Repulsion was on cooldown.
Susanoo was still disabled.
Madara instinctively reinforced his arms using Wood Release and the Shura Path.
Boom—!
Izayoi's punch exploded with air pressure, shaking Madara's core with a force second only to Hashirama's Sage Mode.
Madara was knocked away like a rubber ball and slammed into the moon.
Izayoi didn't let up.
He reached out and grasped the merged black sphere, injecting vast chakra into it.
Instantly, the orb radiated a golden glow—no longer turquoise, but as dazzling as the Giant Rinnegan Eye.
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
Like Goku from Dragon Ball, Izayoi grasped the golden orb and unleashed a massive golden beam.
The beam shot downward like a divine laser.
On the ground, Madara—through his Rinnegan—felt the massive chakra incoming. The sensation of death overwhelmed him.
The speed and intensity of the beam were beyond repulsion, beyond Hungry Ghost absorption.
Madara wrapped himself in Susanoo and summoned two Rinnegan shadows. They also deployed Susanoo for defense.
It wasn't enough.
BOOM—
The golden beam struck like a space cannon.
Madara was engulfed in golden light.
Armor shattered, breathing stopped, his body fell uncontrollably.
He quickly summoned two more shadows, barely slowing his descent.
Just as he stabilized—
BOOM! The golden beam surged again.
Madara plummeted further, like a drill splitting bedrock.
He tried everything—repulsion, Chibaku Tensei, Wood Release—but nothing could stop it.
Even a summoned meteorite was destroyed before formation.
When the four Rinnegan shadows vanished from time, Susanoo was torn like paper.
Madara pushed his palms forward and released the Hungry Ghost Path at full force.
A white shield formed inside Susanoo, barely resisting the beam.
But he continued falling.
The beam pierced the moon.
Susanoo screeched as flames from re-entry lit up its armor.
Back on Earth, people looked up in awe.
"What… is that?"
"A meteor?"
"No, it's golden!"
"There's a crack on the moon?!"
"It's not a joke!"
Panic spread.
Ninjas trembled, some collapsing in despair.
The Five Kage and elite shinobi were just as helpless.
"Is this even ninjutsu?" someone muttered.
"This is divine power."
"Who can withstand this?"
Back on the battlefield, the beam suddenly reversed, retracting at incredible speed.
Then—
A collective gasp:
The once full moon…
Was missing a third of its left side.
As if cut by a celestial blade.
Clean. Visible from Earth.
People were speechless. The line between man and god had been crossed.
Who did it?
Otsutsuki Toneri?
Uchiha Madara?
A member of Akatsuki?
Or the man with Wood Release?
The world burned to know the truth.
…
"That… couldn't be Onii-chan, right? Is this the power of the Rinnegan?"
Hanabi stared, stunned.
"Gurgle…"
Karin—ace-level shinobi—was speechless.
So was Hinata.
Tree World Advent, Super Shinra Tensei, meteor showers—they thought those were god-tier.
But this?
Cutting the moon?
This was divine might.
If Izayoi had this power in the final battle, would even the Akatsuki's leader matter?
"Not good!"
Hinata and Karin suddenly sensed several familiar chakra signatures rapidly approaching.
Clearly, they were coming to summon Izayoi.
But… Izayoi wasn't home.
No shadow clones could imitate his chakra level.
Just when panic set in—
A familiar voice rang out.
"Don't worry. The main body already made arrangements."
The girls looked over in surprise.
"Izayoi-kun? Onii-chan?!"
It was the wooden clone responsible for guarding Yin-Kurama—returning with full chakra.
The perfect alibi had arrived.