[here is the 1st chapter guys, more to come. drop all your powerstones]
Hiruzen led hundreds—nearly a thousand—Konoha shinobi, mobilizing within five minutes of Hikaru's disappearance.
He'd left enough reserves behind for rescue.
And now that the Nine-Tails had left the village, even those previously barred from combat were released.
Everyone following him had combat capability.
For Konoha, that still wasn't a lot.
Border forces were the true bulk.
But Konoha was the richest village, with the most complete shinobi training system.
Even amid war, even if their numbers weren't above Cloud—
No other village could treat them lightly.
BOOM!
The earth shook.
The Nine-Tails' roars shook the sky.
Everyone could feel how violently it was resisting.
Hiruzen steadied his body, looking back at the many shinobi falling from the tremors, and sighed.
"Hiashi. Check what's happening ahead."
Hiashi activated Byakugan.
Even without it, they could vaguely see what was ahead.
But for clearer intel, Byakugan was best.
He looked—
And froze.
Then he reported carefully:
"If I'm not mistaken… the Senju child used the Wood Dragon Technique."
"The Wood Dragon is binding the Nine-Tails and continuously devouring its chakra."
"And the earlier quake… was caused because the Senju child blocked the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb."
Blocked a Beast Bomb alone… and summoned Wood Dragon?
Hiruzen fell silent.
Earlier, Hikaru had blocked a Beast Bomb with Earth Release and a summon.
But now his summon was back in Konoha doing rescue work.
Meaning Hikaru was truly facing the Nine-Tails' attacks alone.
No—not just facing them—
He was defending and threatening the Nine-Tails at the same time.
Wood Dragon was a high-level technique—
One Hashirama used frequently.
But that was Hashirama.
Even Wood Release itself was a dream for ordinary people.
Even Danzo's experiments—those who'd become mindless and sprouted like plants—
Could only manage something like Wood Formation Wall at best.
Wood Dragon?
Unthinkable.
Had Hikaru grown to this point already?
Hiruzen drew a deep breath.
Tonight, the boy's power had shocked him again and again.
And the boy's temperament made his heart tighten with fear.
"The Fourth Hokage and the Senju child are restraining the Nine-Tails and should be sealing it now—hm?"
Hiashi's voice changed again, turning uneasy.
"Another person has appeared."
"He also seems to have space-time ninjutsu…"
"And—he's fighting Hikaru."
"They're moving toward us!"
An intruder—heading their way?
Hiruzen immediately threw aside all other thoughts.
No matter how frightening Hikaru was, he was still Konoha.
This outsider was an enemy.
And Hiruzen had already learned from ANBU, from people like Nezumi, that the attacker was an outside Uchiha with space-time ninjutsu.
"Move!" Hiruzen roared. "Eliminate the enemy! Assist the Fourth Hokage in sealing the Nine-Tails!"
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
They surged forward—
But before long, a massive chakra presence flooded ahead.
A roaring torrent slammed toward them.
"All Earth Release users—front!" Hiruzen barked, forming seals first.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Multiple walls rose—
But before the torrent even struck, the ground shook again.
A towering giant tree erupted ahead.
They'd seen this before.
They remembered it.
The Nine-Tails itself had been wary of it.
This was one of Wood Release's signature techniques—
Deep Forest Emergence.
What kind of enemy could force the only Wood Release user since Hashirama to unleash this?
They had no answer—
And they didn't even have time to think.
The torrent and the tree were not things they could handle.
The vines were already surging toward them.
They could imagine what would happen if those vines hit their earth walls.
"Everyone—retreat immediately!" Hiruzen clenched his teeth and gave the order.
For the first time, he understood a fragment of what other villages' Kage must have felt forty or fifty years ago facing Hashirama.
Hikaru was nowhere near Hashirama's peak.
And yet, even this level made them feel helpless.
What, then, had Hashirama truly been?
…
In a cave within the Land of Fire, Obito staggered out of warped space, clutching his chest.
He collapsed.
Blood spread across the ground.
He didn't care.
He only cursed Hikaru—cursed how shameless he was.
Obito had expected he might lose.
After all, Hikaru—like Minato—seemed able to read his technique.
Even with Minato's example, Obito didn't dare be too arrogant.
But even if he lost, he believed he could avoid losing badly if he stayed careful.
Instead—
He'd lost completely.
With no dignity at all.
Obito had already figured out Hikaru's Flying Thunder God trick.
As a Wood Release user himself, he'd noticed seeds buried in the ground.
He guessed Hikaru used those seeds as markers, letting him spam Flying Thunder God within a certain area—hidden and efficient.
But that meant distance limits existed.
So Obito had tried to leave that range.
Once outside the range, Hikaru shouldn't be able to appear beside him without a marker.
But Obito never imagined—
Hikaru didn't rely on the ground markers at all.
When that chakra-blue blade pierced his chest, Obito suddenly remembered something:
Minato had marked him earlier.
"…Flying Thunder God marks are shared?" Obito gasped.
He stood slowly.
His wound was already healing under the robe.
With White Zetsu half-body, his recovery was still strong.
Then a black-and-white figure rose from the earth.
"Looks like you suffered," it said, studying him. "That Senju kid is indeed strong."
"Hmph. He's strong, but only that much," Obito spat. "If I wasn't careless—"
"That kid has senjutsu chakra," Black Zetsu cut in.
"He's tested your intel."
"And he has Wood Release and Flying Thunder God."
"You should be grateful he'd been fighting for so long and didn't have enough chakra left. Otherwise, you wouldn't have returned."
Black Zetsu paused—because he truly felt lingering fear.
Hikaru wasn't at Tobirama's level.
But he wasn't weak either.
And Obito compared to Madara… was not even close.
Peak Madara + Nine-Tails still lost to Hashirama.
Now Obito's technique had been read, and his opponent had comparable space-time tricks.
How could he win?
Black Zetsu had been secretly watching.
When Hikaru stabbed through Obito's chest, Black Zetsu almost revealed himself.
Fortunately, Obito ran—knowing his limits.
And Hikaru's senjutsu chakra was nearly drained.
Otherwise Obito would've been in mortal danger.
"Senjutsu…" Obito muttered, pulling off his mask, revealing a pale face.
"This bastard has senjutsu too…"
"I had no intel on that," Black Zetsu said, shaking his head.
"Even if he's low now, you're not combat-ready either."
"So what's your plan?"
"Plan?" Obito glanced at him, then looked away. "No plan. We leave."
"We've already done what we could."
For Obito, tonight was a "failed success."
He wanted the Nine-Tails.
He didn't get it.
But he exposed Wood Release.
He demonstrated strength.
And his goal was also to show people like Nagato—people not fully obedient—what he could do.
That was accomplished.
And that cold chakra earlier…
Obito suspected Minato used something like Reaper Death Seal.
If so, the Fourth Hokage was finished.
Killing his teacher left a bitter emptiness in Obito—
But no regret.
He had chosen this road.
He couldn't turn back.
He admitted, for a moment, he wanted Minato to recognize him.
To realize he was Uchiha Obito.
But Minato never did.
He even believed Obito was Madara.
"Maybe I truly have become Uchiha Madara…"
Obito's heart turned bitter—
And yet his resolve only strengthened.
If you can't recognize me, then we are strangers now.
And you won't survive this.
From now on, I am Madara.
I will create a new world—
With you, with Rin, with Kakashi—
With everything beautiful.
"And Hikaru…"
"You gave me a big surprise."
"Maybe 'Madara's' opponent really is 'Hashirama.'"
"If I'm Uchiha Madara…"
"Then you are Senju Hashirama."
"We'll have a proper 'conversation' someday."
His Sharingan rotated.
His body warped.
And he vanished as if he had never been there.
…
Back in Konoha, at the former Uzumaki site, Hikaru's shadow clone watched Tsugaya Hiroshi as he slowly recovered.
He remained cautious, but didn't move.
Even as a clone, he carried Hikaru's full memory and knew this was a critical moment.
His caution wasn't about Tsugaya's strength.
It was about Tsugaya's attitude.
If Tsugaya developed other ideas, Hikaru's main body would have to come personally.
A shadow clone had one weakness:
It didn't know what the main body was doing.
So he could only wait.
Then the ground shook slightly.
A small lizard popped up.
The clone relaxed.
They couldn't communicate directly—
So the lizards were their best messengers.
The lizard jumped onto the clone's shoulder, tongue flicking, transmitting information through chakra.
The clone absorbed it all and nodded in satisfaction.
Everything on the main body's side was going fine.
He was surprised Obito returned and targeted him—
Because he definitely didn't remember bribing Obito.
But it had happened, and it wasn't worth dwelling on.
There were more important things now.
"Well," the clone said calmly, turning to Tsugaya Hiroshi, "you've had time to recover. Start."
"Finally…" Tsugaya stared at him. Then his gaze sharpened. "You're Senju, aren't you?"
"Yes." The clone answered flatly. "Outside, the Wood Release is my main body. Any other questions?"
"You're doing things Konoha doesn't want you to do," Tsugaya licked his lips. "So even if I help you, can I really leave?"
"A Senju doing forbidden things… that's like the Hokage betraying Konoha, isn't it?"
The clone looked at him like he was an idiot.
Tsugaya clearly wasn't thinking straight.
And arguing with someone like that was pointless.
So the clone's voice turned cold.
"Do it."
"If you don't, I'll have the main body come and force you."
"You don't have a choice."
"Obey, and you might live."
"Make it difficult, and I'll feed your corpse to my Wood Release."
Tsugaya fell silent, staring at the clone's single-handed seal.
He didn't know what it meant, but he guessed: it was the dispel seal.
Do it, and he'd be trapped forever.
Refuse, and he'd be forced, then destroyed.
And the thought of being crushed into fertilizer made his skin crawl.
Finally he sighed, picked up the Reaper mask, and stared at the clone.
"Remember your promise. I'll cooperate."
He put on the mask and began rapid seals.
The clone watched carefully.
The method to undo Reaper Death Seal wasn't complicated.
If you knew the hand seals and used chakra properly, you could do it.
Simple in theory—
But it was forbidden for a reason:
Sealing kills.
And unsealing also kills.
It required enduring the agony of disembowelment.
Not many could accept that cost.
A deathlike chakra enveloped Tsugaya.
He began to howl in pain.
Hair stood on end under the pressure.
Behind him, a pale reaper-like shadow formed.
The temperature plunged.
Hikaru's clone's senses flared.
He "saw" something like a horned demon from hell.
Then—
Something strange happened.
The clone's brow furrowed.
In his perception, that entity's "soul" seemed to bind with Tsugaya's.
Not chakra—soul.
And that reaper seemed to hate Tsugaya intensely.
"What is this…?"
If the souls were linked, Tsugaya wouldn't be able to escape easily afterward.
But in the original story, Orochimaru didn't show any such soul-binding consequence.
Was the technique flawed?
Or was there another reason?
Perhaps Tsugaya's "immortality" had provoked the reaper's disgust?
After all, death was a cycle.
You might evade it—
But not with methods labeled "evil."
The clone judged quickly:
"It's probably the second."
No way Senju Shōma would dare sabotage him.
And that hatred felt real.
Tsugaya drew a short blade.
The reaper drew its blade too.
Then it stabbed its own belly and tore open an incision—
As if committing seppuku.
Tsugaya choked out a groan.
He copied the motion—
His abdomen ripped open, blood and broken organs spilling out.
The reaper's belly also opened.
From the wound, a blue light burst out—
A chakra soul fragment.
It shot away so fast the clone couldn't react.
But he noticed its direction:
Straight toward Hikaru's main body.
"So it's like the description," the clone thought, relieved.
Once freed, the soul seeks its body.
If there's no body, it wanders briefly, then returns to the Pure Land.
That meant Hikaru didn't need to prepare Edo Tensei-level measures or hunt down Chiyo for a last resort.
Then Tsugaya's voice, fading, crawled out:
"S-save… me…"
The clone sighed internally.
He could feel Tsugaya's life force draining rapidly.
Whatever "locked" vitality he had was gone.
Blood poured out.
The clone crouched, tried to bind the intestines, and push them back—
"I…"
He looked up mid-sentence—and froze.
Tsugaya's life force had completely vanished.
His eyes were wide, unfocused.
His face twisted like a demon.
He was dead.
"…Terrifying."
The clone murmured, senses sweeping over the body.
That evil, curse-like mark on Tsugaya was completely gone—
Gone so thoroughly it was unnatural.
It wasn't the technique's fault.
It was likely that the "reaper" had truly rejected him.
"This world really is something else," the clone scratched his head helplessly, staring at Tsugaya's dead face.
"I might be the first person to kill an 'immortal' who worships Jashin…"
…
In the forest, Hikaru returned—landing steadily beside Minato and Kushina.
Naruto's crying was loud, as if he sensed what had happened.
Hikaru checked Naruto's belly and relaxed.
No seal.
Minato's body had a seal pattern—
But no Nine-Tails chakra remained inside him.
That confirmed it:
Reaper Death Seal had taken it into Minato's soul.
"Shame," Hikaru thought, lightly. "Otherwise I might've collected some Nine-Tails chakra."
He looked at Kushina.
She was completely unconscious—probably from grief.
In one night, she'd lost the love of her life.
"But at least…" Hikaru smiled faintly. "They didn't fall into a dead-end where both of them die."
He crouched before Minato, eyes closing.
His senses spread.
Minato had no heartbeat.
No consciousness.
By ordinary standards, that was death.
But in the shinobi world, you didn't declare death so easily.
"Found it."
Hikaru opened his eyes.
He sensed the nearly extinguished "spark" still inside Minato's body—
That last ember that determined whether someone could be pulled back.
Then—
A blue light suddenly flew in and sank into Minato.
Hikaru froze.
Then he smiled.
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