Haseo hurled a Kunai from his hand. The sharp blade flew straight toward Madara Uchiha's eyes.
With an open palm, he curled his fingers into a claw, clamping down on Madara's right wrist while twisting his waist backward. Using his own shoulder as a pivot point, Haseo forcefully pressed Madara's arm downward.
CRACK!
The sharp snap of breaking bones rang out—Madara Uchiha's elbow snapped backward at an unnatural angle. This arm was effortlessly dislocated with such ease.
Madara tilted his head sideways, dodging Haseo's Kunai. After seeing his arm broken and noticing Haseo attempting to throw him over his shoulder next, Madara kicked forward with his right leg. Using the moment Haseo had to dodge, he broke free from the hold.
"At my current condition, I can't sustain a prolonged fight anymore. The next move must decide the outcome." Saying that, Madara shook his fractured arm, watching it heal back to normal instantly.
Minor wounds, as expected, could hardly affect him—the integration of Hashirama's cells carried both strengths and weaknesses.
"In other words, I still have one breath left to live?"
Being trapped within the cramped space on Susanoo's forehead actually turned out to be an advantage for Haseo. Though Madara's taijutsu was overwhelming, the problem was that his physical state at the moment felt somewhat "fragile." Without any weapons, it wasn't suitable for him to directly confront Sage Haseo.
Therefore, immediately afterward, Madara leaped outward, and his Susanoo vanished.
For now, Madara might not be able to counter Haseo's Flying Thunder God Hand Seal. That essentially meant Susanoo was temporarily sealed—if he used it, it would be useless anyway, just wasting his precious ocular power.
The two ninja plummeted from a height high enough to crush five hundred demon hunters.
Mid-fall, Madara twisted his body slightly ahead first, and as he did so, black rods rapidly flew from his hands, shooting directly toward Haseo.
In the air, Madara—who could manipulate gravitational forces and repulsion—clearly held the upper hand over Haseo. Under these circumstances, Haseo struggled to adjust his posture freely. Facing these incoming assassination strikes, he chose not to block or defend—but instead, to instantly teleport away.
Compared to Black Receivers, during midair suspension, Haseo was even more worried about Madara's [Shinra Tensei] and [Universal Pull].
However, just as Haseo reappeared at the location of his broken blade, regaining full spatial awareness and senses in the next instant, a sudden sharp pain surged through his abdomen.
A black Receiver had pierced straight through his abdomen—and it had pierced through his organs.
Madara remembered Haseo's reappearance spot, accurately predicting that under aerial assault, Haseo would choose to teleport right over.
So before Haseo activated Flying Thunder God, Madara had already flung an attack aimed precisely at his landing point.
Madara landed, then immediately charged toward Haseo.
"You may have access to the Flying Thunder God technique, but it's obvious you rarely use it in actual combat. Your natural speed is already a clear advantage and far more convenient, so there's no real need for such a technique.
You've left very few coordinates on this battlefield — how can you claim to be as elusive as a ghost in mist?"
Madara Uchiha saw right through Haseo's unfamiliarity with the Flying Thunder God in combat; after all, the frequency of Haseo's spatial jumps was extremely low.
Haseo clenched his jaw tightly — he didn't even have time to remove the black receiver embedded in his abdomen before charging at Madara Uchiha once more.
But this time, things were different. As Madara pressed both hands close to him, Haseo felt his chakra dispersing uncontrollably — his [Sage Chakra] was being siphoned away by the [Blocking Technique Absorption Seal].
The sage markings on Haseo's face began fading rapidly.
Madara truly intended to end the fight in an instant.
With a simple gesture, he summoned his giant sickle and Uchiha war fan from across the field. Along with them, Haseo's second long blade — tethered to Madara by chain — flew toward him.
The loss of chakra weakened Haseo instantly, the physical disparity rendering him powerless.
Just as the onslaught intensified, a surge of chakra suddenly erupted from beneath Haseo's feet, followed immediately by piercing pain, tearing sensations, and indescribable agony — a vine had impaled Haseo's left leg, and now it was erupting with wild, uncontrollable growth.
Growing taller. Thicker.
Despite his condition, Madara Uchiha had finally managed to activate [Wood Release] — and its impact was stunningly overwhelming.
The [Wood Release] pierced through him like breaching a '[nuclear power plant].' In an instant, violent arcs of lightning exploded from Haseo's body.
The pain sent his adrenaline skyrocketing, causing him to instinctively unleash his maximum strength.
Haseo clapped his hands together in a seal formation then raised one hand glowing with lightning, severing the vine in an instant… yet in that brief span, it had already grown as thick as his thigh.
Now his left leg was grotesquely contorted, skewered by a section of living, green wood — still pulsating and growing like some parasitic vine.
The wound itself was bad enough, but the real problem was how Haseo could possibly maintain his usual agility under these circumstances.
With Madara suddenly escalating the assault, the tide of battle shifted drastically in an instant.
At this point, Haseo had absolutely no time to focus on his injured leg. Madara caught his giant sickle in his right hand while extending his left palm toward Haseo.
A sudden wave of danger crashed over him. Acting purely on reflex, Haseo hurled his entire body sideways at top speed toward the left.
His slightly trailing right arm suddenly endured repeated crushing sensations — a feeling worse than sticking a hand into an industrial conveyor belt… it was the devastating aftermath of a collapsing space — pressure beyond imagination.
Madara certainly wouldn't use [Kamui], but at this moment he fused [Shinra Tensei] with [Universal Pull], generating violently opposing forces capable of grinding any ninja's body into pulp.
The only thing worth thanking his lucky stars for was that Haseo had a flash of divine inspiration to dodge, or else that single strike would've killed him instantly.
Yet his right arm, now crushed inside the meat grinder, rendered it absolutely impossible for him to perform any hand seals ever again...
That earlier Wood Release technique appeared to have become the decisive move in the battle.
Due to the wood-type attack, Haseo had first lost his agility.
Deprived of speed, he then lost both his hand seals and techniques.
His right arm—crushed and twisted beyond recognition—had been hanging loosely from his body like a broken thread. But with a grit of his teeth and a sharp tug to the left, the mashed flesh trapped within the jutsu's field stayed behind permanently. Haseo might not enjoy any protagonist privileges, but he did ultimately master one of the classic skills of legendary heroes:
Arm severance.
But Madara Uchiha's assault was a pincer maneuver. As Haseo dodged to the left, what awaited him was Madara's colossal sickle.
Haseo's willpower could withstand pain, but couldn't prevent physical disorientation—having every bone, muscle, drop of blood, and piece of skin crushed into paste was certainly worse than cleanly losing an arm.
Especially since Haseo himself had intentionally torn his own arm off.
For an instant, phantom limb sensations surged, compelling him to want to do something with his right hand. But when logic caught up, he realized he no longer had that hand at all.
Therefore, his overall reaction lagged slightly. By the time he decided to dodge in the other direction, it was already somewhat too late.
The tip of the sickle pierced his abdomen; as Madara reeled it back, half of Haseo's body was sliced open—still, he should count himself fortunate that although unable to retreat quickly enough, he managed to halt just in time. Otherwise, if his spine had been caught beneath Madara's scythe blade, it truly would've been a complete waist-level cleaving.
Thus, Haseo still stood firm.
He reached out with his left hand and caught midair the Spare Long Blade flying toward him.
The more severe his wounds became, the more heightened his chakra state and emotions grew—he was now at the peak of mental focus in his entire life.
Gripping the sword with one arm, Haseo slashed downward vertically with immense power straight into Madara's chest cavity. At such close range, Madara's long-handled weapon simply couldn't be swung again in time!
So Madara could only meet the strike with his bare hand.
Clang!
Haseo's second sword shattered on impact with a sharp crack.
Half the blade spun sharply upward into the air.
In that moment, Haseo vanished from the spot. Using the Flying Thunder God mark he'd previously planted on Madara, he teleported to his opponent's side and discarded the broken lower half of his blade, rushing forward with a single palm strike aimed at Madara.
At this point, Haseo could still use one final hand seal technique:
[Sage Art: Lightning Release · Kurika - Grand Heavenly Phenomenon]!
A towering column of lightning erupted virtually at contact range, blasting straight into Madara's body.
Such an intense surge of energy would have been near-impossible to absorb instantaneously, but with the power of the Rinnegan, Madara effortlessly deflected it.
However, just as Madara was about to act, he suddenly noticed his chakra surging wildly out of control—proof that the "Chakra Absorption Technique" shouldn't be used recklessly.
Some people aren't just poisonous themselves; their chakra is poison too.
Madara Uchiha lost the strength to directly deflect the attack. He could only activate Shinra Tensei to conjure a barrier, barely withstanding Haseo's Lightning Release blast.
Mine's not that easy to handle, huh?
The lightning surged forward and split in two. Half a second later, as if the caster had exhausted all their chakra, the pressure on Madara abruptly eased.
But at this moment, Haseo's severely weakened figure vanished too.
Just as Madara began to turn around, he suddenly felt someone gently press down from atop his head.
Spinning blades struck the ground with a "thud."
Madara collapsed forward, his head pressed into the earth by a single palm… As if that weren't enough.
In battles between ninja, reversals always come abruptly.
"I can't form seals anymore, but I still have a no-hand-seal Lightning Release called 'Mikage.'"
Blue lightning coiled around Haseo's left arm. With every word, blood splattered onto Madara's back.
"Plus, I have another no-hand-seal technique called 'Flying Thunder God — Second Step'… Lord Madara Uchiha, I think I understand why you loathe Tobirama Senju so much."
Haseo slowly pulled his arm free.
The soil carried a stuffy warmth. The grains brushing against his skin felt rough and coarse. Then the heat spiked further, and everything turned thick and clinging.
Bleeding from his wounds, Haseo forced himself upright, limbs barely holding together as he dragged forward.
Madara remained Madara, except now there was a fist-sized hole through the rear of his skull.
[Rinnegan...]
Haseo opened his palm, revealing something truly grotesque.
And then…
He tightened his fist again, knuckles crunching slowly.
Activating Flying Thunder God — Second Step at the target location—the technique was almost always a guaranteed killing blow on first use.
Not relying heavily on Flying Thunder God in battle wasn't because Haseo was unskilled or unfamiliar—it was simply part of his disguise, a feigned weakness meant to deceive Madara Uchiha.
A deception crafted specifically for this final strike.
Haseo casually tossed the bloody mess in his hand onto the ground, then tried using one hand to press against the wound on his left abdomen.
"Tch, this amount of bleeding… definitely more than any woman's monthly ordeal… talk about commitment…"
PS:
My take follows the original canon—Flying Thunder God — Second Step was developed by the Fourth based on the original Flying Thunder God technique.
Later arcs in Naruto patched things up so badly that many of the early highlights ended up as pure garbage.
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