The 'Sealing Maw' wasn't a ninjutsu. It was a Fuinjutsu Logic-Gate. Tobirama had mapped my reliance on environmental physics and had created a counter-algorithm—a localized zone where chakra was stripped of its elemental nature, returning it to a state of raw, unmanipulable energy.
Technical Assessment:
Effect: Zero-Chakra Zone (Dielectric strength: Infinite).
Escape Probability: 0.12%.
Survival Condition: Manual Override.
I fell into the basalt pit, the air around me suddenly turning cold and "empty." My Sharingan flickered—the spirit-pressure that fueled its processing was being drained by the seal. To the Uchiha, this was a death sentence. Without their eyes and their fire, they were just children in silk.
To me, it was a data-gathering opportunity.
The walls of the pit were slick with a black, ink-like substance—the physical manifestation of the seal. The scent was pungent, like old vinegar and burnt hair. I could feel the chakra being pulled from my pores, a cold, leaching sensation that made my muscles tremble.
"You relied too much on your 'machine', Uchiha Kaito," Tobirama said, standing at the edge of the pit. He looked down at me with the cold, detached gaze of a forensic examiner. "I have studied your 'Blue Fire' and your 'Resonant Steel'. They require a specific chakra-flux to function. Without it, you are just a boy with a broken rib."
He raised a heavy iron club—a weapon designed for blunt-force trauma, ignoring my Ghost-Steel's reflective properties. He wasn't going for a clean kill; he was going for a mechanical deconstruction.
Observation: Kinetic potential—1,200 Newtons. Target: Cranial vault. Probability of termination: 100%.
"The technical error, Tobirama," I said, my voice echoing in the hollow pit, "is assuming that chakra is the only energy-source I can access."
I reached into my boot and pulled out a small, lead-lined cylinder. It contained White Phosphorus mixed with ground magnetite—a compound I had refined using the endothermic-flash method.
I didn't use a seal. I used the friction of the club's impact.
As Tobirama swung, I didn't dodge. I held the cylinder in the path of the club.
CRACK.
The impact was a 10-on-the-vibration-scale. It shattered my remaining radius and ulna, but it also triggered the ignition. White phosphorus burns at 2,800 degrees Celsius and does not require chakra to oxidize. It is a chemical causality. It is a law that even a zero-chakra zone cannot patch.
The pit was instantly filled with a blinding, white-hot fog. The heat was so intense it bypassed the Senju's regeneration-threshold; the moisture in Tobirama's skin didn't just boil, it flashed into steam, causing his dermal layers to delaminate in a clinical 9-on-the-burn-scale.
Tobirama screamed—a raw, human sound that cut through the phonic-noise of the battle. He stumbled back, his iron club melting in his hand. The black ink of the seal sizzled and evaporated, the high temperature disrupting the molecular stability of the Fuinjutsu ink.
I climbed out of the pit, my armor scorched, my own skin blistered where the heat had bled through the dielectric barrier. My left arm hung useless at my side, the bone-shards grinding against the nerves—a sharp, white-hot 9-on-the-pain-scale. My neurological load was at 92%, and my vision was a blur of red ghosts.
System Log: Manual Override Success. Asset Status (Tobirama): Severely Degraded. Combat Efficiency: 99.9%.
I stood over him, my three tomoe spinning with a predatory clarity. Tobirama was on his knees, his face a ruin of charred flesh and weeping blisters. He looked at me with a hatred that was no longer tribal—it was existential. I was a virus in his world, a glitch that he couldn't solve.
The battle around us was ending. The Senju, their leader incapacitated and their vanguard liquefied by phonic-artillery, were retreating into the "Verdant Singularity" of Hashirama's rearguard. They had lost 42% of their manpower in less than ten minutes. The Uchiha had lost 4%.
Madara appeared beside me, his Susanoo—now optimized for density, not size—a shimmering ribcage of blue-white light that tasted of ozone and ozone. He looked at Tobirama, then at me, his own eyes wide with a terrifying realization.
"You used a chemical fire," Madara whispered, his voice hushed. "You didn't even use your spirit. You just... used the world."
"Spirit is a finite resource, Madara-sama," I replied, wiping the warm, metallic trickle of blood from both eyes. "Chemistry is a law. Why fight with your heart when the world provides the weapons for free? The Senju believe in the 'Will of Fire'. I believe in the 'Efficiency of Combustion'."
I looked toward the horizon, where the smoke of a hundred blue-fire forges was starting to stain the sky. The Warring States Era was no longer a war of clans. It was an industrial revolution. I could feel the timeline shifting, the gears of history being ground down by my presence.
System Log: Level 4 Optimization Complete. Relationship Variable (Madara): Tagged as Future God-Threat. Current Objective: Debug the Mangekyō's Causality-Loop. Secondary Objective: Locate the Uzumaki Sealing-Archive.
I closed my eyes, the cold rain of the gorge finally starting to soothe the burns on my skin. The "Hell Difficulty Tutorial" was over. The game was finally getting interesting.
"One," I whispered into the wind.
The Warring States would never be the same. And I was just getting started with the frame-data.