Hearing his wife's name, Minato's eyes suddenly lit up.
That's right—there was still a small Nine-Tails sealed inside Kushina. If Kushina transferred that half of the Nine-Tails to Naruto, then Naruto could survive.
"But… what about Kushina?" Minato asked.
Hearing the question, Hoshiyomi waved his hand nonchalantly.
"Now that's just insulting me. Do you really think I can't defeat that guy before Kushina's life force runs out?"
At those words, Madara's face darkened, while Minato showed a look of joy.
That's right—Kushina wasn't a perfect jinchūriki. And with the Uzumaki clan's immense vitality, even if the tailed beast were extracted, she wouldn't die immediately.
If Hoshiyomi could defeat Madara within that time and release the Nine-Tails again, then neither Kushina nor Naruto would die.
Although the hope was slim, Minato didn't hesitate any longer. He immediately picked up Naruto and said to Hoshiyomi:
"Then I'll leave this place to you, sensei."
As soon as he finished speaking, Flying Thunder God activated with a whoosh, and Minato vanished. The speed left even Hoshiyomi momentarily speechless.
After Minato left, Hoshiyomi slowly descended from the air and patted Guy on the shoulder.
"Don't just stand there. Hurry and take Sasuke to Tsunade. There might still be a chance to save him."
Guy snapped back to his senses, hurriedly dropped his stance, sprinted over, picked up Sasuke's body, and rushed toward Tsunade.
Seeing Guy completely ignore him, Madara's temple twitched in anger.
Come on—I'm Six Paths Madara now! Other than Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and the Sage of Six Paths, I'm the third being to ever reach this godlike realm. Couldn't you at least give me a little respect?
With that thought, Madara fixed his gaze on the root cause of everything—Gekko Hoshiyomi—and spoke while suppressing his rage:
"Gekko Hoshiyomi, have you had enough fun yet?"
"Huh? That's my line, isn't it?" Hoshiyomi replied casually.
He still wore that infuriatingly carefree expression.
Seeing Hoshiyomi treat him with such disregard, Madara finally became genuinely angry.
"Since you're so stubborn, let me show you the true gap in power between us."
As he spoke, Madara slammed the Six Paths staff heavily into the ground. With that motion, the Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him shot toward Hoshiyomi.
Seeing Hoshiyomi face the orbs with utter indifference, Tobirama hurriedly warned him:
"Use space-time ninjutsu and dodge! That's no ordinary attack—if you can't avoid it, the consequences are—"
Before he could say "terrifying," Tobirama froze on the spot.
Not just Tobirama—everyone present stood dumbfounded.
Because the Truth-Seeking Orb, which they believed meant instant death upon contact, had been casually split in half by Hoshiyomi with a single slash.
Split. Cleanly. Completely.
Watching Hoshiyomi casually twirl the Mikazuki Munechika in his hand, wearing an expression that clearly said "That's it?", everyone was left speechless.
Director, wasn't this script supposed to go very differently from just a moment ago?
In the distance, Madara was the most shocked of all. As the wielder of the Truth-Seeking Orbs, no one understood their power better than he did.
The Truth-Seeking Orbs possess the power to nullify ninjutsu and to decompose all forms of matter.
By common sense, if Hoshiyomi were to clash with a Truth-Seeking Orb using the Mikazuki Munechika, the normal outcome should have been the sword's destruction and Gekko Hoshiyomi being completely annihilated on the spot. Yet Hoshiyomi was completely unharmed—something that made absolutely no sense.
Could it be because of senjutsu? It was true that Truth-Seeking Orbs could not fully negate senjutsu, but directly cleaving one apart with senjutsu should require an enormous amount of power.
Thinking this, Madara hardened his resolve and raised his hand again—five Truth-Seeking Orbs shot out at once.
Let's see how you handle this—five at the same time.
Madara's plan sounded perfect, but what happened next completely exceeded his expectations.
Watching the five orbs streak toward him, Hoshiyomi didn't even blink.
"So you like long-range attacks? Then I'll play along."
As he spoke, Hoshiyomi slashed through the air with the Mikazuki Munechika. Wherever the blade passed, five blue light-swords abruptly manifested in midair, shooting straight toward the five Truth-Seeking Orbs and colliding with them head-on without the slightest hesitation.
This was the second skill Hoshiyomi had obtained upon advancing to Grandmaster level—Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion.
Because none of his previous opponents had been strong enough, Hoshiyomi had never bothered using this skill. Now, against Madara, it finally had its place.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosion caused by the collision between the five light-swords and the five Truth-Seeking Orbs was scarcely weaker than the clash between the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails against the Ten-Tails.
The ground shook violently under the force of the blast. Amid the dust and smoke, two figures slowly floated into the air.
Seeing that Hoshiyomi was hovering without even using the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, Madara's shock was unmistakable. He couldn't help but ask:
"Don't tell me… you've also mastered the power of the Six Paths?"
Floating in the air, Hoshiyomi looked at Madara's stunned expression and smugly raised an eyebrow, replying with a shameless grin:
"Did you think you were the third being, after Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and the Sage of Six Paths, to reach this level? The truth is—you're actually the fourth."
Indeed, the reason Hoshiyomi appeared so late on the battlefield wasn't just because he had gone to settle Kushina and prevent Black Zetsu from launching a sneak attack. There was another crucial reason.
He had gone to White Wolf Ridge to reclaim the two shadow clones he had left there training all this time.
To put on this grand performance in front of Madara, Hoshiyomi had deliberately suppressed himself and avoided advancing to Sword Saint level too early.
Only after confirming that Madara would step into the Six Paths realm tonight did Hoshiyomi release the two shadow clones that had been training at White Wolf Ridge. By assimilating the experience they returned, he finally broke through to Sword Saint level.
At this moment, within Hoshiyomi's system, his experience bar had become:
Sword Saint Level: MAX
All of his physical attributes had likewise reached Sword Saint-level.
Since Sword Saint was the absolute ceiling of the system, upon reaching it, Hoshiyomi immediately received two skill draws, and at the same time, his Dance of the Startled Swan was upgraded twice.
The current Dance of the Startled Swan now had a maximum of 8 charges, with a recovery time of only 1 hour, and each sword shadow could persist for 6 hours—fully comparable to the Flying Thunder God Technique.
From the Sword Saint skill draws, Hoshiyomi obtained:
Passive Skill: Supreme Divine Swordsmanship
Active Skill: Ten Thousand Swords Become One
Supreme Divine Swordsmanship:
As a Sword Saint, you can integrate all sword techniques into one. Having mastered the ultimate mysteries of swordsmanship, you can effortlessly use limit-breaking sword techniques that previously required activating Ultimate Slash.
(After mastering Supreme Divine Swordsmanship, skill nature transformation advances to nature fusion. The host may freely fuse the seven attributes—Wind, Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Yin, and Yang—to unleash fused-attribute sword energy attacks.)
Ten Thousand Swords Return Become One:
The ultimate strength lies in this single strike. A slash powerful enough to momentarily shatter space itself—this is the might of a Sword Saint!
(Activation consumes one use of Ultimate Slash.)