Chapter 27: Battle of the Giants
The center of the battlefield.
The main forces had already retreated far away, but the atmosphere here had only grown heavier.
Hashirama stood alone, facing the Clan Heads of the Inuzuka, Aburame, Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi. Even with his immense self-confidence, his expression couldn't help but turn serious.
The five clan heads exchanged a look. The Nara Clan Head gave a slight nod to the Aburame and Yamanaka leaders, signaling a probing attack.
"Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique)!"
"Hijutsu: Kikaichū (Secret Technique: Parasitic Destruction Insects)!"
"Hijutsu: Shiran'shin no Jutsu (Secret Technique: Mind Disturbance Jutsu)!"
The three attacked simultaneously, assailing Hashirama from three different directions.
"Mokuton: Kajukai Kōrin (Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees)!"
Hashirama didn't dodge. Massive trees erupted from the ground, attacking all five opponents while simultaneously defending against the three-pronged assault.
Faced with the attack, the five leaders used their own skills to dodge.
The Inuzuka Clan Head's face turned dark. Hashirama's attack was almost targeted specifically at him. With his heightened sense of smell, the pollen was unbearable. His ninken whined beside him, clearly in equal distress.
The Inuzuka Head patted his partner's head and gritted his teeth. "Gatsūga (Fang Over Fang)!" Man and beast became two spinning tornados, ripping the dense forest to shreds.
Seeing that his opponents weren't so easily defeated, Hashirama's hands formed new seals: "Mokuton: Mokujin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Wood Human Technique)!"
Several hundred meters away, Masahiko watched as Hashirama formed a Wood Human dozens of meters tall. He opened his mouth, "This is the first time I'm seeing this jutsu of Hashirama's. It's as ridiculous as I thought. Looks like he won't even need Sage Mode to end this..."
Masahiko stopped mid-sentence, his face frozen. "Hey, hey... isn't that a bit of an exaggeration...?"
In response to the Wood Human, the Akimichi Clan Head had finally made his move. With a "Chō-Baika no Jutsu (Super Multi-Size Technique)," he transformed into a giant over one hundred meters tall. Next to him, the Mokujin looked like a child.
Masahiko saw the look of worry on Tobirama's face and said, "Relax. He's probably just all show..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the giant punched the Wood Human's head clean off.
"Holy hell! This 'big' clan is actually that strong?!"
This was, in fact, Masahiko's own misconception. He had assumed the Akimichi weren't that powerful because the strongest one in the original story was Choji's father, Chōza, who was just an Elite Jonin.
But the Akimichi's Multi-Size Jutsu was a case where quantity created a qualitative change. When a Clan Head-level shinobi used the Super Multi-Size Technique, the power of the resulting giant was on a completely different level.
Tobirama spoke up, "Great-Uncle, why would you think that? The Akimichi are the second strongest taijutsu clan in the Land of Fire, second only to the Kaguya..."
"Second strongest in the Land of Fire?" Masahiko's mouth twitched. "Then where does that put the Hachimon Tonkō (Eight Inner Gates)?"
"Hachimon Tonkō? What's that?" Tobirama asked, confused.
"I'd like to know what it is, too... and where I can learn it," Masahiko said slowly.
Before Masahiko had discovered the correct way to use his system, he had once been obsessed with the Eight Inner Gates. He had thought that, since he was reborn, even if he couldn't become a top-tier powerhouse, he could at least "bloom brilliantly for a moment."
During the Fourth War in the original story, when Madara first saw Guy open the Seventh Gate, he had said, "It's not the red vapor? He's looking down on me!" This proved the Eight Inner Gates existed in the Warring States Period. Madara had likely even seen the full power of the Eighth Gate before, but that user probably wasn't as strong as Guy, allowing a non-Six-Paths Madara to defeat him.
But Masahiko had searched for two whole years and never found any "Might" family. It was possible it was passed down to only one person per generation. It was even more likely that—judging by how Guy passed it to Lee—it was only taught to people with "thick eyebrows."
In the end, Masahiko had come very close to gluing on a pair of thick eyebrows and wandering around...
Masahiko was lost in thought about the Eight Inner Gates, completely forgetting about Hashirama's battle, until another tremor snapped him out of it.
He looked up. Hashirama had formed an even larger Wood Human, one that was nearly the same height as the Akimichi giant. The two were trading blows. The other four clan heads couldn't get close and could only interfere from the sidelines.
"Mokuton: Hotei no Jutsu (Wood Release: Laughing Buddha Jutsu)!" Hashirama sealed again. Dozens of massive hands sprouted from the Wood Human's back and shot toward the Akimichi Clan Head.
"Chō-Harite (Super Open Palm Slap)!" the Akimichi Head roared. His palms grew even larger, smashing the wooden hands one by one.
"Hijutsu: Kage Nui (Secret Technique: Shadow Sewing)!"
"Hijutsu: Gasaiga (Fang Crushing Fang)!"
"Hijutsu: Mushidama (Secret Technique: Insect Sphere)!"
Three clan heads attacked at once, shattering a large portion of Hashirama's Wood Human.
Hashirama was about to reform it when the Yamanaka Clan Head shouted, "Hijutsu: Shiran'shin no Jutsu (Secret Technique: Mind Confusion Jutsu)!"
Although it couldn't control Hashirama, it stunned him for a split second. Facing the Akimichi's incoming attack, he no longer had time to form the Mokujin.
"Kuchiyose: Gojū Rashōmon (Summoning: Five-Layered Rashomon)!"
Using the five gates to block for an instant, Hashirama was able to re-form the Wood Human.
The battle fell into a stalemate. The other four clans supported while the Akimichi Clan Head led the attack. The battle of giants continued for an hour without a clear winner.
At this point, all six had exhausted nearly half of their chakra and tacitly stopped.
"Lord Senju, it seems we are evenly matched and won't be able to settle this quickly," the Nara Clan Head said. "Why don't we split the chakra-conducting metal 50/50? There's no need for this to be a fight to the death."
Hashirama, however, sat cross-legged atop the Wood Human, his eyes closed, and did not answer.
"Lord Senju?" the Nara Clan Head asked again.
"This is bad! Attack him, Lord Akimichi!" the Yamanaka Clan Head suddenly shouted, sensing the bizarre change in Hashirama's chakra.
At that moment, Hashirama opened his eyes. Two pale cyan markings were visible around them. Sage Mode: activated!
"Senpō: Myōjinmon (Sage Art: Gracious Deity Gates)!"
Several massive gates fell from the sky, pinning the Akimichi giant firmly to the ground. Even when he shrank his body, he couldn't escape.
"Damn it! Everyone, be careful!" the Nara Clan Head roared.
But against a Sage Mode Hashirama, it was useless.
"Senpō: Mokuton: Shin Sūsenju (Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands)!" Hashirama clasped his hands together, creating a colossal wooden statue with hundreds of arms, looming hundreds of meters over the battlefield.
"Chōjō Kebutsu (Top Transformed Buddha)!"
The hundreds of giant fists rained down.
From a distance, Masahiko saw this and smiled. "The battle is over."
Sure enough, when the dust settled, the battlefield had been gouged into a massive valley. Hashirama, having deactivated Sage Mode, was sitting on a tree root, catching his breath. The other four clan heads, though they had dodged the direct attack, had been knocked unconscious by the shockwave. The Akimichi Clan Head was in the worst shape, still pinned under the Myōjinmon, where he had taken the brunt of the force. Ironically, the gates had also shielded him from the worst of the attack, allowing him to survive.
Hashirama rested for five minutes. By now, Tobirama had led the Senju forces back into a standoff with the allied army. With all five of their leaders unconscious, the allied army was now on the defensive, wary of a final Senju attack.
Hashirama looked at the opposing army, smiled, and did not order another attack. Instead, he just said:
"Let's go. Time to go home and celebrate!"