Namikaze Shinju had finally seen through the true nature of the Hogyoku (Wish Jewel).
The object embedded in Aizen's chest was not only the source of his power—it was also his deadliest weakness.
Aizen probably hadn't realized it himself yet. Absolute power always came with risk, and not everyone was capable of controlling that risk.
A mad plan took shape in Shinju's mind.
"All units, follow my command."
On Konoha's battlefield, the stench of decay seeped into everything.
Uchiha Madara's Complete Body Susanoo was collapsing.
The blue giant that covered the heavens was riddled with ashen rifts across its armor.
Each time it swung its blade, large chunks of fragments fell away.
Across from him, Barraggan—the skeletal Arrancar—simply stood there, letting his power corrode everything.
Madara's Rinnegan locked onto his opponent, while waves of weakness surged through his body.
This slow, chronic-death kind of fighting made him unbearably irritated.
He hated this helplessness.
Right then, Shinju's voice rang directly in the depths of his consciousness.
"Stop entangling with your individual opponents. Contract the frontline."
Madara's movements paused.
Give up?
Make Uchiha Madara give up the enemy in front of him?
What a joke.
He was about to question it when the second order came immediately after.
"At any cost, concentrate all power—attack Aizen!"
Madara froze.
He looked up at Aizen, hovering high in the sky.
So that was it.
Madara let out a laugh.
Abandon this boring battle of attrition and challenge the existence standing at the very peak.
Now that was interesting.
"I'll repeat it. Target: Aizen!"
As the final order fell, a clear current washed over Madara's mind.
He felt like he'd returned to his absolute peak.
"Exactly what I wanted!"
Madara laughed wildly, no longer paying Barraggan any attention.
His Complete Body Susanoo snapped around, wings spreading, and shot straight into the sky.
The colossal war god abandoned all defense, pouring every last drop of chakra into the long blade in its hands.
On another part of the battlefield—
Senju Hashirama's Wood Style clones were being torn apart again and again.
His opponents were Ulquiorra and other powerful Espada. After learning Hashirama's strength from their previous battle, Ulquiorra had recovered and immediately entered Segunda Etapa.
His black reiatsu spears pierced through gigantic wooden bodies time after time.
Regenerate. Destroy. Regenerate.
An endless loop.
Hashirama could feel the stalemate tightening across the battlefield—everyone was being dragged into the mud.
At this rate, everyone would be exhausted to death.
He had heard Shinju's order too.
Attack Aizen.
Hashirama looked toward the man in the sky—
—and instantly understood Shinju's intent.
Capture the leader first.
Rather than sink into endless attrition, pour everything into one decisive strike.
"Understood."
Hashirama clasped his hands together.
Sennin Modo activated, and the markings across his face surfaced instantly.
The earth began to quake violently as boundless natural energy surged toward him.
That invisible shackle that hindered chakra flow also vanished without a trace at this moment.
He felt more brimming with power than ever before.
The ground beneath his feet cracked apart inch by inch, and a Senju Buddha statue—hundreds of times larger than anything he had summoned before—began to rise from the earth.
The moment the command was issued, the entire battlefield changed completely.
All the core Heroic Spirits made the same move at the same instant.
They abandoned the enemies in front of them and pulled inward toward the battlefield's center.
"What?"
Golden flashes linked together across the battlefield.
Minato and Tobirama hurled kunai engraved with Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) formulas to the edges of the battlefield.
They blinked back and forth between the retreating Heroic Spirit legion and the pursuing enemies.
Every flicker carried ripples of space.
Countless ripples connected into a visible spatial fault line.
A wall constructed from space-time ninjutsu temporarily blocked all pursuers.
"Buy time for Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama!" Minato's voice rang through the comms.
They executed Shinju's order in their own way.
The sky above the battlefield was split by two completely different forces.
On one side—Madara.
The blue Susanoo had been raised to its absolute limit, the long blade in its hands gathering power that could erase everything. Where its edge pointed, even space itself warped.
Tenchi Gaeshi (Heaven-and-Earth Overturning Star)?
Compared to this, that sort of move was a child's toy.
This was Madara's purest, most peak strike.
On the other side—Hashirama.
The massive Senpo: Mokuton: Shin Susenju (Sage Art: Wood Style: True Several Thousand Hands) had fully formed.
Hashirama himself stood atop the Buddha's head.
Behind the statue were thousands of colossal arms that blotted out the sky.
Every single arm contained senjutsu chakra powerful enough to smash mountains.
Konoha's two founders—mortal enemies in life—now aimed their strongest power, without holding anything back, at the same person.
The man who had remained high above everything, as if nothing here concerned him.
Up in the sky, Aizen finally moved.
He was no longer the player calmly watching the board.
The board had been flipped—and every piece was coming for him.
He felt the two world-destroying forces rising from below.
Either one alone would be enough to flatten Seireitei into nothing.
Now, both were bearing down on him at once.
The calm on his face vanished.
He could feel the Hogyoku in his chest craving battle.
"...Finally not playing with my subordinates anymore?"
He looked at the blue giant blade cutting in from the left, then at the countless incoming拳影 from the right.
He slowly raised his right hand.
"Fine."
"Then let you witness… the power of a god."
A black sphere radiating an ominous aura appeared in his palm.
That was the true Hogyoku (Wish Jewel).
Namikaze Shinju watched as the energy indices of the Heroic Spirits and Aizen all spiked sharply.
The two peaks representing Madara and Hashirama had already surpassed the upper limit of the system's records.
And the point representing Aizen was even more terrifying.
It was like a black hole, greedily devouring everything around it.
"He's making his move."
Shinju's expression didn't change at all.
Hashirama and Madara's combined strike might be strong, but it absolutely wouldn't kill Aizen fused with the Hogyoku.
It might not even truly injure him.
This strike was never meant for killing from the very beginning.
It was meant to force Aizen to use the Hogyoku's full power to respond.
To force the Hogyoku into its highest active state.
Only in that single instant would Shinju have a chance.
Shinju's gaze locked tightly onto the black sphere in Aizen's chest.
His killing move had never been Hashirama or Madara.
It was himself.
The moment he'd been waiting for—
was now.
On the battlefield, Susanoo's slash and True Several Thousand Hands' fists had already closed in on Aizen.
Power capable of destroying the world was about to collide.
(End of Chapter)
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