"Truly terrifying..."
Namikaze Minato gazed at Uehara Naraku's figure, a deep solemnity flashed across his face, and at this moment, he felt an unprecedented pressure.
Namikaze Minato's voice was somewhat disheartened as he asked, "Obito, have you ever seen Sage Mode become so powerful? Neither I nor Jiraiya-sensei can compare to Uehara's Sage Mode!"
"Sensei..."
Uchiha Obito's mood wasn't very good.
Uchiha Obito felt out of place with the few people present: "I can't use Sage Mode... I haven't even heard much about it."
This was really awkward.
Among the four people present, three could use Sage Mode.
Uchiha Obito was the only one who hadn't even heard much about it and didn't understand what Sage Mode was about until now.
What exactly is Sage Mode?
This was a conundrum for Uchiha Obito.
However, Uchiha Obito was very clear about one thing, and that was that Uehara Naraku's strength had definitely increased, becoming even stronger than when they'd last met!
Uehara Naraku felt an unprecedented power!
The tenfold increase in life energy allowed Uehara Naraku to clearly sense the terror of this power; absolutely no one could withstand a punch, and any enemy he had encountered in the past was a pushover under the ultimate form of Sage Mode!
Even if the Ten-tailed Jinchuriki were to be resurrected, Uehara Naraku was confident to fight it; this was one of the trump cards Uehara Naraku had to confront the soon-to-be-revived Six Paths: Orochimaru!
It's not just Uehara Naraku who felt this way; his opponent the First Hokage Senju Hashirama could also feel that his enemy seemed to have become excessively powerful...
"This aura..."
Senju Hashirama's expression changed slightly, his eyes under the black sage pupils slowly tightened, and his voice became somewhat low: "Although I don't quite want to say this, you are indeed stronger than me now!"
Just the mere presence of Uehara brought immense pressure to Senju Hashirama!
Senju Hashirama had beast-like combat intuition; he could sense the aura emitted from Uehara Naraku's body, indicating how powerful this guy had become after activating a different Sage Mode!
"Do you know the name of this Sage Mode?"
Uehara Naraku relaxed his fist once more, satisfiedly examining his hand, and spoke softly: "It has a very nice name; it's called the Divine Ascension... Just hearing it, you can understand its meaning, right?"
"Divine... Ascension?"
Senju Hashirama's expression was stunned for a second; then he understood the meaning behind the name: "Once Sage Mode is activated, does one become a god-like existence?"
"That's roughly the idea..."
Uehara Naraku carelessly nodded, then suddenly tilted his head and smiled: "First Hokage, as the God of Ninja, I want to ask you a question."
Uehara Naraku's smile was rather humble: "If I claim to be a deity now, would it be a bit too arrogant?"
"..."
Senju Hashirama's expression changed.
After a while, Senju Hashirama suddenly smiled and waved his hand: "What's this so-called god? Ultimately, it's still just ordinary humans..."
"Perhaps what you said is right."
Uehara Naraku also smiled and nodded. His figure suddenly crossed Senju Hashirama's body and appeared behind Senju Hashirama!
At this moment, his speed was utterly undetectable!
This was the suppression brought by the Highland Bloodline and five million life energy!
When Senju Hashirama saw Uehara Naraku appear, he only felt a blur before him, and then was hit by a high-speed whirlwind and shockwave sweeping in!
This is...
What speed!
Even Uchiha Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't capture Uehara Naraku's figure; he didn't even have time to react, only seeing Uehara Naraku's position suddenly empty!
"Is this a space-time Jutsu?"
Uchiha Obito furrowed his brow and said: "It's like he vanished into thin air; it's as if it's faster than Minato-sensei's Flying Thunder God Jutsu..."
"No."
Namikaze Minato gritted his teeth, shaking his head, watching a shockwave and whirlwind suddenly lifted by high speed. Namikaze Minato's expression turned ugly: "He just moved slightly... Purely relying... on his own speed..."
"First Companion!"
Uehara Naraku's palm suddenly pierced Senju Hashirama's chest, creating a large hole in his Reanimation Body, even Senju Hashirama couldn't even notice this at all!
Uehara Naraku's voice continued at Senju Hashirama's ear: "You're right, any enemies we can defeat aren't really gods after all..."
"When..."
Senju Hashirama gazed incredulously at the hand piercing his chest, murmuring: "Even speed can't be captured now?"
"Yeah..."
Uehara Naraku stood behind Senju Hashirama, leisurely retracting his arm and said, "How does it feel to be ambushed from behind?"
"Not very good."
Senju Hashirama shook his head, watching the large hole in his chest slowly recover, and said in a low voice, "Because it reminds me of killing Madara."
The battle of the Valley of the End years ago.
Just as the two were about to battle to exhaustion, Uchiha Madara killed a Wood Clone, thinking he had killed Senju Hashirama, only to be stabbed from behind by Senju Hashirama!
Remembering that incident put Senju Hashirama in a bad mood.
"Are you trying to provoke me?"
After watching the hole in his chest recover, Senju Hashirama clasped his palms together abruptly and shouted sharply, "Then as you wish! Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Countless dense vines and large trees sprouted from the earth, appearing around them. Each vine and branch extended toward Uehara Naraku, striving to bind him tightly!
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
Uehara Naraku also did not hesitate to raise his palm. A white light suddenly appeared in his hand, like a massive white sword, instantly sweeping away all the branches and vines, reducing the entire forest to atomic dust!
Uehara Naraku watched as Senju Hashirama's body was also affected by the Dust Release and turned into molecules before reconstituting. Smiling, he said, "Seeing the Wood Release of the First Hokage really makes me want to perform a little!"
"..."
Senju Hashirama's body gradually formed. He simply watched Uehara Naraku and said, "That move just now was very strong. It seems you have quite a powerful bloodline within you..."
"Perhaps..."
Uehara Naraku clasped his palms together and said softly, "Aside from things like Sharingan, Byakugan, and Rinnegan, I should have any bloodline that can be synthesized through chakra nature transformation."
The next moment, Uehara Naraku calmly uttered a technique name that made Senju Hashirama somewhat alarmed and uneasy: "Sage Art: Wood Release: True Thousand Hands!"
A towering Wooden Man Kannon statue rose from behind Uehara Naraku, with the massive Kannon statue lifting him higher!
Countless arms appeared on either side of the Wooden Man Kannon!
Whether it was the immense size of the technique or the pressure it emitted, everyone watching felt a vague sense of anxiety and fear, especially Senju Hashirama himself!
Due to the Reanimation Body, Senju Hashirama was unable to use this technique because of his limited strength. However, he knew very well the power of this technique!
It was precisely by relying on the True Thousand Hands that he defeated Uchiha Madara, who had fused Nine-tail and Susanoo!
"Does your body... also possess Wood Release?"
A hidden shock flashed in Senju Hashirama's eyes, as he discovered to his amazement that the True Thousand Hands before him seemed even more advanced than his own back then!
This guy is actually so powerful!
Uehara Naraku looked down at Senju Hashirama below, calmly raised his palm, and sighed softly, "Then let's use this technique to create a bit of a commotion.
After our battle, someone should come to investigate here... In that case, the Ninja Alliance will consider me, the General, to be the only savior!"
Since it was impossible to erase Senju Hashirama's consciousness, which meant he would leak information, Uehara could only temporarily seal him away, to be used later when his identity was exposed.
But doing so seemed too wasteful.
So it would be better to let Senju Hashirama take the blame!
The commotion from True Thousand Hands was bound to attract the intelligence perception squads, and they would surely know that Senju Hashirama was truly revived...
And Senju Hashirama had a huge battle with Uehara Naraku, leaving the outcome and process of the battle for Uehara Naraku to craft carefully...
This process had to be somewhat credible.
Because the truth was too unbelievable.
After all, Uehara Naraku couldn't claim he defeated the First Hokage Senju Hashirama with Wood Release—saying that out loud would sound so fake that people would think Uehara had gone insane.
"Top Transformed Buddha!"
The next moment, Uehara Naraku's palm suddenly swung down.
The countless arms behind the Kannon statue smashed down toward the ground!
A thousand massive arms relentlessly attacked, causing large explosions far beyond those of Tailed Beast Balls!
Even Senju Hashirama could only watch uneasily as all this unfolded. His Reanimation Body was also crushed into dust and fragments by True Thousand Hands!
Uehara Naraku manipulated one arm of the True Thousand Hands to smack the gradually restoring Senju Hashirama into the ground and ordered, "Obito Uchiha, Namikaze Minato, get a coffin and seal the First in it!"
"You guy..."
Senju Hashirama's gaze was somewhat complicated.
"Don't worry."
Uehara Naraku looked at Senju Hashirama's somewhat puzzled and unwilling eyes and calmly said, "In a few days, you will meet your old friend… when that time comes, take it as my surprise celebration for Lord Madara's revival!"
Uehara Naraku nodded to himself, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Yes, he will surely enjoy this surprise… After the surprise and excitement, let him experience a bit of despair!"