Now Makoto finally understood why characters who abused time-stop always carried a stash of throwing knives on them.
Makoto glanced at the group around him.
Forget everyone else—Senju Tobirama definitely had a stack of kunai hidden in his gear.
However, Makoto decided there was no need to ask for one.
At the exact millisecond the masked man was about to completely slip into the spatial distortion and escape, Makoto triggered his Time Stop, and then...
He grabbed Senju Hashirama by the collar and literally threw him like a giant shuriken!
Launched through the air by Makoto, the frozen Hashirama plunged face-first straight into the radioactive filth covering the masked man's face, freezing completely suspended in midair.
Then, time instantly resumed its flow.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—!"
Senju Hashirama let out a bloodcurdling, miserable scream, but the cry was abruptly cut off.
Because he had already been sucked into the Kamui dimension right alongside the masked man!
"I'm so sorry. I really couldn't bring myself to touch him..." Uchiha Naori deactivated her Susanoo, stepped back, and formally apologized to the group.
"It's fine. This isn't your fault. If I had to plant Yachihoko on him while he looked like that, I wouldn't be able to stomach it either," Uchiha Hikari said, standing on her tiptoes to sympathetically pat Naori on the shoulder.
"...If I had known beforehand that modern shinobi possessed 'tactics' like this, I definitely would have kept my guard up." Uchiha Naori sounded deeply regretful.
"Actually, this specific tactic is somewhat of a Konoha specialty."
"You see, Konoha preaches this ideology called the 'Will of Fire.' It claims that the old leaves burn up and turn into rich nutrients to nourish the new, budding leaves. But think about it logically: how much nutrition can burnt ashes really provide? The only thing that actually packs enough bio-nutrients to sustain a massive tree is... well, that."
"So it's actually normal for Konoha shinobi to enjoy playing around with that stuff." Uchiha Hikari delivered this completely unhinged explanation with a perfectly serious face.
Standing right beside her, Tobirama opened his mouth, fully prepared to viciously refute her slander.
But suddenly, he felt his chakra aggressively drain away.
His legs turned to jelly, and he plunged face-first toward the crashing waves below.
However, the sea beneath them wasn't real water anymore. Konan casually flicked her hand, and the illusionary ocean dissolved into thick sheets of origami paper, forming a soft safety net that lifted the chakra-drained Second Hokage back up.
"What exactly happened to him?" Uchiha Naori stared at the slumped Tobirama in confusion.
"Oh, he suddenly realized his beloved elder brother had plunged deep into enemy territory, so he got overwhelmingly anxious about him. For a split second, his emotional turmoil caused his chakra to completely short-circuit, and he fainted. Right?" Uchiha Hikari once again "helpfully" provided the explanation.
"...Right."
Tobirama mentally struggled for a solid second, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.
The humiliating memories of getting drained and casually tossed right in front of Uchiha Madara last time were just too agonizing to look back on!
He never wanted to relive that nightmare again!
However...
The moment he pictured the masked man currently locked inside a small box with his incredibly pissed-off elder brother, Tobirama's mood instantly brightened.
That naturally evil Uchiha was finally about to suffer the absolute, righteous judgment of the Senju clan!
"My brother should be able to subdue the masked man in record time. The real issue now is how my brother actually gets back out. We need to head straight to Konoha and track down Kakashi," Tobirama suggested, pulling himself together.
Forget the fact that Hashirama didn't know a lick of space-time ninjutsu.
Even if he did, it would be utterly useless.
Tobirama couldn't sense the Flying Raijin mark he had slapped onto his brother's armor at all.
That meant unless the masked man manually activated his Mangekyō to rip open a spatial tunnel, no outside space-time ninjutsu could penetrate the dimension.
It operated on the exact same logic as when his Flying Raijin Slash struck the masked man earlier.
"Kakashi? That name the masked man screamed right at the end?" Uchiha Naori frowned slightly. She vividly remembered the masked man shouting something along the lines of:"The force supporting me in becoming the Sage of Six Paths is Konoha's Will of Fire. Thank you, Kakashi!"
"Yes. The masked man's other Mangekyō is currently sitting in that Kakashi's eye socket," Uchiha Hikari nodded.
"Are they... gay?"
"They are."
"..."
...
Meanwhile, deep inside the Kamui dimension.
Senju Hashirama was violently spitting, clutching his own throat with an expression of absolute despair and visceral sorrow.
As for the masked man, he stood frozen, staring blankly at the legendary God of Shinobi, completely unsure of what to do next.
If he opened a Kamui portal right now and kicked Hashirama out, the Second Hokage would instantly lock onto his brother's Flying Raijin mark and warp the entire hit squad inside to continue beating his ass.
But if he kept the portal shut?
Then that effectively meant he surrendered his intangibility cheat code and was forced into a cage match against the ultimate plant-zombie juggernaut standing in front of him.
He also had the option of just warping himself out alone, but that was even more suicidal.
What the masked man truly couldn't wrap his head around was how the hell Senju Hashirama had violently launched himself forward at the very last millisecond, getting sucked into the dimension right along with him.
Judging by Hashirama's current suffering, it didn't look like he volunteered for the mission.
'Could it be...' the masked man panicked, 'Did the Second Hokage develop some kind of new, god-tier space-time ninjutsu?!'
"You little Uchiha brat! You've officially crossed the line this time!"
After spitting for a solid minute, Hashirama finally straightened up.
His face darkened to a terrifying degree as he began stalking toward the masked man, step by heavy step.
Do not forget one crucial detail: Senju Hashirama's Edo Tensei body had recently been patched with the sensory-and-taste DLC formula.
In other words, he had physically, personally tasted the impact just now.
No wonder the poor man looked like he wanted to die all over again.
"Wait, hold on, Lord First! How about we sit down and discuss the Infinite Tsukuyomi and true peace for the shinobi world?" The masked man hastily backpedaled.
Desperate, he tried to force himself to stay calm and change the subject by launching a Talk no Jutsu.
"Sure. You can discuss it with my Wood Human!"
Hashirama clapped his hands together.
An enormous, solid wooden head immediately erupted straight out of his own chest.
At this point, he wasn't even bothering to respect the laws of physics anymore.
Normally, whenever Wood Release was cast, the trees surged up from the nutrient-rich earth.
But since the Kamui dimension was a barren void with no soil, the God of Shinobi just forced the massive construct straight out of his own Edo Tensei body!
"Wood Release: Cutting Technique!"
The masked man tore open the stump of his severed right arm and violently catalyzed the growth of the Hashirama cells grafted into his body.
A massive volley of razor-sharp wooden spikes shot straight toward Hashirama.
However, the masked man had clearly lost his damn mind in the panic.
Trying to use the First Hokage's own signature power against him? That was as stupid as Orochimaru trying to mind-control an Edo Tensei Hashirama using Hashirama's own DNA!
The wooden spikes slammed into the towering Wood Human.
Forget leaving a scratch—they literally just melted right into the construct, getting instantly absorbed.
In the very next second, a massive Wood Human—looking bizarrely bloated, like a giant member of the Akimichi clan—fully materialized inside the cramped Kamui dimension.
This was a titan class summon capable of wrestling a Perfect Susanoo barehanded.
Meanwhile, the masked man couldn't even summon a basic Susanoo himself.
Hashirama leaped up and landed solidly on top of the Wood Human's head.
"Didn't you claim to be Madara?! Then bring it on, Madara! Let's settle this right now!"
Standing high above the battlefield, Senju Hashirama immediately spotted the several large buckets the masked man had stockpiled inside the dimension.
Some were empty, while others were still brimming with their foul payload.
These were the exact weapons the masked man had just deployed against him!
Seeing the source of his trauma, Hashirama felt a surge of ungodly grief and blazing fury.
He commanded the bloated Wood Human to reach down, grab the massive buckets, and completely crush them in its bare wooden hands!
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