Hiruzen took a deep breath. The smoke and stench of blood filling his nose only made his body more excited.
He tightened his grip slightly on the halberd Enma had transformed into and gave it a fierce flourish.
Even though most of the force from his fall had been discharged into the ground, his arms were still faintly numb.
'Still just flesh and blood...'
'I need to pay attention to defense on the battlefield. There's no reason to take attacks head-on when I can avoid them instead!'
"Let's go, Enma!"
Enma silently gave a slight shake.
What he actually wanted to ask was:
Hiruzen, are you even human anymore?
With a body this strong even before activating a Lightning Release Chakra Mode, even accounting for all the techniques Hiruzen had used to cushion the fall and redirect the force, he could hardly be considered the same species as an ordinary shinobi anymore!
Hiruzen rolled his shoulders and abruptly surged forward!
Blood-red Sage Art Lava Release chakra gathered along the massive blade of Enma's halberd form.
Hiruzen's pupils contracted as the halberd blade erupted forward.
A halberd tens of meters long roared through the air in the Hokage's hands!
It was obviously a cold weapon meant for close-quarters combat, yet in Hiruzen's hands it became the crudest, most direct, and most effective battlefield harvesting machine imaginable, erasing every distant Iwa shinobi who tried to attack him!
Every sweep of the blade cut down entire groups of Iwa and Kumo shinobi like wheat before a scythe...
Han's sharp eyes even noticed steam rising from Hiruzen's arms that was distinctly different from the heat of the magma.
It was Boil Release chakra—the very power Han knew best as the Five-Tails' jinchūriki!
Han suddenly felt dizzy.
First an advanced form of Lava Release, then Boil Release...
At this point, which side on this battlefield actually had the power of the Four-Tails and Five-Tails?
He was starting to lose track!
'My Monster Strength can't possibly match the Hokage's...'
'His understanding of Boil Release has already reached another level! Wait—how is he using Lava Release Chakra Mode while also using Boil Release chakra?'
Han suddenly realized the real problem.
It was extremely difficult for a shinobi to use two ninjutsu simultaneously. Anyone capable of doing so had to possess master-level understanding of the five basic nature transformations.
And chakra modes covered the entire body.
Forget combining two of them—simply maintaining one while casting another ninjutsu was already extremely difficult...
That was why Lightning Release Chakra Mode was usually paired with nintaijutsu. It didn't require excessively delicate control.
What Han didn't know was that Hiruzen, who had constructed an internal circulation palace of Kekkei Genkai and composite chakra threads and possessed the Ten Thousand Seals Body Integration Seal as a second heart, was no longer comparable to an ordinary shinobi.
It was as though he had multiple threads and processors running at once...
Another blade filled with molten crimson light swept across the battlefield. The air displaced by the enormous weapon violently blasted chunks of earth into the air, filling the battlefield with flying dust and stone!
Against the gray haze of war, the red glow of magma burned with naked fury.
Hiruzen said nothing.
He simply continued forcing his way toward the heart of the Land of Earth!
An entrance like this would naturally expose his position, but that was exactly what the Hokage wanted.
Even if the Earth Grudge Communicator had been destroyed and the Flying Thunder God Technique couldn't be activated for some unknown reason, Senju Tobirama's chakra sensing ability would still be enough to detect his movements.
The first Darkness of the Shinobi was a living radar surpassed only by Mito and Uzumaki Ashina.
So Hiruzen didn't need to know Tobirama and Danzō's exact location.
All he had to do was fight his way forward, all the way to the very center of the Land of Earth. Then no matter where his teacher and brother were, they would be able to converge on him as quickly as possible!
"This is bad..."
"This absolutely can't continue. The shinobi in this column are already finished. If the Hokage keeps charging forward like this without any order to it, he might actually break an entire army by himself!"
Cold sweat soaked Han's back.
"Come on. We're retreating..."
"Thank goodness! I thought you were actually going to fight that monster head-on! Let's get out of here!"
The Five-Tails let out a long breath of relief.
Ever since Uzumaki Shio and Tomie had teamed up to cut off several of its tails, it had been thinking seriously about the path to peace for the Tailed Beasts.
It and Han already had trouble dealing with those two together. If they ran into the Hokage, whose mastery of Boil Release had reached such terrifying heights, wouldn't they simply be torn apart alive?
Han got along reasonably well with Rōshi, since they were both Iwagakure jinchūriki, so the Five-Tails had once heard the Four-Tails repeat a famous line Fugaku had shouted in a fit of rage: "Tailed Beasts can't feel pain!"
The Five-Tails thought that was complete nonsense!
They might not truly die and could be reborn, but who said that meant they couldn't feel pain?
Konoha shinobi were terrifying...
"No. I still have to fight the Hokage."
"No matter what happens, I'm an Iwa shinobi. Charging him now would just be throwing my life away, so I'm going to skip ahead to the column after next and take command there..."
"We need to make sure Tsuchikage-sama and the Third Raikage know where the Hokage is so they can return to reinforce us. Then I'll lead organized shinobi units and use battlefield ninjutsu to stop him!"
Han rapidly retreated, making a cruel but rational decision.
The shinobi in this column were already a lost cause.
Their organization had been shattered so badly that trying to restore order now might even draw the Hokage's attention...
Since Hiruzen was advancing ahead of him, Han planned to abandon the next column as well and move directly to the third layer, where he could prepare those shinobi for battle in advance.
Only then would they be able to mount an effective defense.
Han cast one last glance at the Hokage rampaging through the battlefield, wrapped himself in steam, and rapidly fled into the distance.
But inside him, the Five-Tails spoke in a gloomy voice.
"Hey, just so we're clear—if you want to fully transform into me, I'm not lending you my power..."
"I understand that you're an Iwa shinobi, but I'm not an Iwa Tailed Beast. I don't want to get beaten up."
"For the sake of the relationship we've built, I'll lend you chakra. Anything beyond that, you'll have to figure out yourself!"
The same principle still applied.
Tailed Beasts could feel pain, and the Five-Tails certainly didn't care about any "Will of Stone."
If anything, judging by where it came from, a creature whose general biological type was closest to a horse had always lived among the forests and plains that now lay within the Land of Fire!
It really wasn't familiar with the Land of Earth at all.
The relationship between the Five-Tails and Han wasn't the same as that of an ordinary Tailed Beast and jinchūriki.
But compared to the Eight-Tails willingly getting hurt to save Killer B, there was still a vast gap between them.
"You..."
Han sighed silently.
"Fine. I understand..."
Expecting the Five-Tails to suddenly comprehend the Will of Stone and start thinking of itself as an Iwa shinobi wasn't realistic.
Or rather, a Tailed Beast could never sincerely become part of a hidden village.
The relationship between the two sides was far too warped.
Except in Konoha.
Han had no idea how the Hokage had managed that.
During more than a year of back-and-forth fighting, the reason Han had developed this impression was that he had seen quite a few Konoha jōnin—and even some chūnin—manifest Tailed Beast cloaks in battle!
The amount wasn't large, but it was unquestionably genuine Tailed Beast chakra.
As a jinchūriki himself, Han knew that unless the Tailed Beast willingly shared its chakra, forcibly splitting its chakra apart and sealing it into multiple shinobi was almost impossible...
In other words, Konoha, which had always been weak when it came to its relationship with the Tailed Beasts...
Had already overtaken Iwa and Kumo in that very area, despite originally lagging behind!
"To be honest, I don't even want to give you chakra. It might hurt my future relationship with Konoha... You know how things are over there."
The Five-Tails sighed.
"That chakra was obviously something the Nine-Tails voluntarily distributed to those Konoha shinobi. The negative emotions inside it were far weaker than what I'm familiar with!"
"Even if I die, by the time I'm reborn, the shinobi world will probably belong to Konoha anyway. If I end up carrying too much blood debt by then, what am I supposed to do?"
"So, Han, you need to understand where I'm coming from too."
"I actually have connections in Konoha. I get along pretty well with the Nine-Tails..."
The Five-Tails wasn't lying to its jinchūriki.
Its temperament was mild, and it had never really had any conflict with the Nine-Tails.
If the Five-Tails joined Konoha, it wouldn't be difficult for the Nine-Tails to put in a good word for it and help secure decent treatment.
But only if it didn't become too hostile toward the Hokage...
"Then let's do this. I'll try to take the Hokage down with me. This is the last thing I can do for Iwa."
"If I fail, I'll release the seal myself in advance and put all the blame on me. Then you can talk things out with the Hokage yourself! That way I won't have failed Iwa, and it's not like I can stop you anyway..."
Han spoke softly.
"So lend me some chakra one last time!"
The Five-Tails froze.
After thinking for a while, it slowly nodded.
Serving different sides and fighting for their respective masters was simply normal in the shinobi world.
But once Han was dead, even if the Five-Tails immediately turned around and joined Hiruzen's side, no one had any moral grounds to judge it.
And Tailed Beasts wouldn't care even if they did...
Until then, it would honor the bond it had with Han one last time.
The Five-Tails believed the Hokage would understand...
After all, that was the man who had changed the Nine-Tails!
Deep within the Land of Earth—
At that moment—
Tobirama, who was evading Ashina, suddenly felt something and turned toward the distant sky.
Far away, a wave tore through the blue sky, accompanied by streaks of red light.
It was how Hiruzen and Meteor Volcano appeared from such an enormous distance.
"The Hokage came to reinforce us!"
Tobirama's heart trembled.
"I can sense his chakra! He's far away..."
Danzō frowned deeply.
"Hiruzen came? How is that possible? It hasn't been long since we lost contact and got ambushed. Even if he mobilized troops and launched an advance, there shouldn't have been enough time..."
"Unless he came alone and made a forced march by himself. Then there might be the slightest chance..."
But even as Danzō spoke, he followed Tobirama's gaze, saw the distant sky, and abruptly fell silent.
Wait...
Hiruzen, you actually came?
"He's lost his mind!"
"Can you sense anyone else's chakra? Fugaku, Isshin, Orochimaru, Tenzō..."
Danzō's expression became extraordinarily complicated as he fired question after question at Tobirama.
"Answer me!"
For the first time, Hiruzen's arrival made Danzō lose all patience with "Seisui."
"I can't sense anyone else. The battlefield is too chaotic, and the distance is too great."
Tobirama's expression darkened.
He didn't bother arguing with Danzō over his tone. There would be plenty of opportunities to deal with him once they returned to Konoha.
"Logically speaking, there's an extremely high chance the Hokage came alone to rescue us..."
"I can sense him. He's advancing toward the center of the Land of Earth. He's doing this to draw enemy forces toward himself and reduce the pressure on us."
Tobirama understood his beloved student's intent almost instantly.
It was also meant to clear a path for Konoha's main force.
Otherwise, if they walked into an ambush, the casualties would certainly be severe...
"That damned Uzumaki Ashina!"
Anger surged in Tobirama's eyes, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Ashina had driven them deep into the Land of Earth. Tobirama and Danzō had tried more than once to kill the old man along the way, but in practice they had found no way to deal with him.
Banshō Ten'in, Shinra Tensei, the Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains and Mind's Eye of the Kagura, plus the constant regeneration of a Six Paths Impure World Reincarnation body...
He was like a self-repairing iron tortoise.
And on top of that, he had all kinds of troublesome Fūinjutsu.
Aside from his mobility not being top-tier, he could practically be called an invulnerable living fortress...
Tobirama, Izuna, Danzō, and Yashiro had all launched coordinated attacks against him, only to nearly end up covered in several sealing techniques themselves.
That had given them a very deep understanding of just how powerful the greatest sealing shinobi of the Warring States Period truly was.
He hadn't merely retained his old strength.
He had gone beyond it!
So they immediately switched tactics. Tobirama began laying out Flying Thunder God marks again as support, while Danzō's Wind Release Chakra Mode became their main means of mobility.
Then they turned around and ran...
Ashina wasn't in any hurry to chase them either.
He leisurely locked onto Tobirama's location with the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, erased the Flying Thunder God marks one by one, and maneuvered them into a pincer with the Third Raikage and Ōnoki...
This was Madara's test for Seisui.
If he intended to use the Flying Thunder God Technique, then when confronted with circumstances even more dangerous than those Senju Tobirama had faced back then, he should find a way to escape them.
Otherwise, that simply meant he wasn't capable enough...
And sooner or later, he would end up in trouble just like Tobirama!
It could only be called another Warring States-style test.
As for the reward, Madara had already prepared it.
It concerned the matter of the Box of Ultimate Bliss jinchūriki, something Tobirama had been thinking about for a long time.
Madara, now possessing the Rinnegan, had even deliberately sent a Limbo clone to observe the box carefully for a long period of time, breaking down its mechanisms from a higher-dimensional perspective.
"Forget about Uzumaki Ashina for now! Talk about Hiruzen!"
Danzō was practically shouting.
"How can he, as Hokage, take such a risk? He's going to regret this! I'm going to impeach him so hard for this!"
Danzō had originally intended to elevate his own achievements through death and permanently fix the gap between himself and Hiruzen, so that future generations would speak of the two of them in the same breath and place them side by side.
But if something happened to Hiruzen because he came to rescue him, Danzō couldn't even imagine what he would do...
Living would be ten times, a hundred times more painful than dying!
And there would be absolutely no way to undo it.
It would be something far more horrifying than failing to raise his hand all those years ago!
"Shut up."
"Why do you think Hokage-sama came? Because you're his brother!" Tobirama snapped.
But even his normally steady heart had fallen into turmoil.
How could it possibly be because Danzō was Hiruzen's brother?
Obviously it was because he was Hiruzen's teacher!
Tobirama quite naturally thought:
Since when did Danzō have that kind of importance?
Obviously, he didn't...
'Hiruzen...'
'Why would you do something like this? Nothing is going to happen to me. We're only dealing with a handful of minor threats. You're the Hokage, yet you came this far into danger alone. That's far too reckless!'
'Danzō is right about one thing. Once we get the chance, we absolutely need to give you a severe reprimand!'
That was what Tobirama told himself.
But the faint trembling of his hands betrayed what he truly felt.
People had emotions, after all.
No matter how cold someone was, they still had their own likes and dislikes. It was impossible to judge everything solely in terms of personal gain and rational calculation.
To have a student who would charge into an army of thousands to rescue him...
Tobirama felt that his entire life, both as Hokage and as a teacher, had been worth it!
Even if others misunderstood him as the "First Darkness of the Shinobi," the "Shadow Hokage," or whatever other awful title they wanted to give him, none of that mattered anymore.
The title of "Hiruzen's teacher" was enough to eclipse all of it!
'Hiruzen, you bastard...'
Danzō steeled himself and was about to rush toward Hiruzen's direction when Tobirama grabbed him and yanked him back.
"Don't go straight toward him to provide support. Uzumaki Ashina has already placed partial seals on us. Our chakra is restricted, and we've consumed too much already. Follow my orders."
"The Hokage came to save us, not the other way around. If we waste such a valuable opportunity because we let emotion dictate our actions, that would be incompetence unworthy of Konoha shinobi!"
Tobirama took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice.
"No matter what happens, the first thing you do is calm down and assess yourself and the situation..."
"Danzō, wasn't that something Nidaime-sama told you before? You've repeated it to me countless times!"
Danzō froze.
Then he clenched both fists and gave a heavy nod.
He felt ashamed of his own powerlessness!
At that moment, Danzō made up his mind. If nothing happened to Hiruzen and he still had a chance to return to Konoha...
Then even if he had to prostrate himself before Orochimaru!
He would find a way to master Fury, the Tsuchigumo Clan's Kinjutsu...
And combine it with his Wind Release Chakra Mode to create a Kinjutsu based on explosive natural energy!
Tobirama was thinking along similar lines.
'Once I get back to Konoha this time, I really do need to kick Uchiha Izuna out...'
'Even though I still haven't found a way to deal with the Box of Ultimate Bliss, I'll find some way to make him burn through all his visual power and forcibly seal the Box of Ultimate Bliss inside my body!'
This war had finally made Tobirama understand his own role.
What he should be doing was serving as Hiruzen's support. Izuna's advantages in close-range combat were certainly useful, but they were ultimately just an extra edge rather than something decisively important.
Satori's ability to sense malice, predict danger in advance, and fly over large areas, on the other hand, would turn Tobirama—who already possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique—into an exceptional support fighter capable of contributing against virtually any enemy.
That was the most cost-effective choice for Konoha.
'Once was enough. Twice was already too much...'
'I will never let anyone restrict my Flying Thunder God again!'
A dark glint flickered through Tobirama's three-tomoe Sharingan, though he quickly suppressed it beneath his usual self-control.
But just as Madara had planned specifically for "Seisui"...
Someone as excessively calm as "Seisui" needed a seed of hunger for power planted deep within him. Later, the Box of Ultimate Bliss's negative emotions could be used to nourish that seed until it bore fruit...
Madara's assessment had been simple:
It's good that Seisui resembles Izuna. The part of him that resembles Tobirama is what's hurting him!
After Tobirama's performance on the battlefield, there was no longer any way to hide the fact that Izuna's chakra existed inside his body.
After all, Shio and Tomie both possessed sensory abilities, and neither of them had any intention of protecting Tobirama's dignity...
And so the little story surrounding Seisui's origins, along with Senju Tobirama's heartless act of tearing apart a pair of lovers, had spread widely through Konoha and even across the Land of Fire.
Yet somehow, the whole matter remained balanced at a very peculiar threshold.
Nobody talked about it in public.
But everybody knew...
'Don't tell anyone else, all right? This has to stay secret!'
'Of course, of course. Brother, I've got something to tell you, but you absolutely can't tell anyone...'
More or less like that.
"Move!"
Tobirama pushed his sensory abilities to their absolute limit.
Hiruzen's arrival seemed to give even Tobirama's partially sealed chakra enough strength to break through some of Ashina's restrictions.
His entire body once again filled with the power known as the bond between teacher and student.
What he needed to do now was avoid creating any additional trouble for Hiruzen.
Once the Third Raikage, Ōnoki, and the other pursuers had their attention drawn away by his beloved student, Tobirama needed to find a way to make contact with the other Konoha shinobi.
In the condition he and Danzō were currently in, even if they joined Hiruzen now, they would have trouble keeping up with his pace...
'Uzumaki Ashina...'
'Or whoever is hiding behind him—don't let me catch you!'
Tobirama gritted his teeth inwardly.
...
At that same moment, Ashina's coworkers and employer were all watching the battle with grave expressions.
Obito wasn't among them.
He was currently isolating himself from every Kage and even Madara himself, focusing entirely on his training...
In reality, he was one of the main characters in today's grand performance.
Naturally, they couldn't spoil too much for him in advance and risk diminishing the effect.
After Hi-kun mediated between them, Madara had reluctantly agreed to use relatively reasonable methods to stimulate Obito so their grandfather-grandson relationship wouldn't completely collapse.
"That Uzumaki Ashina really is one hell of an iron tortoise..."
"Danzō's Wind Release Chakra Mode is actually pretty impressive. Cutting through my Stage Two Tailed Beast chakra wouldn't be a problem for him, but he just had the misfortune of running into something like that..."
"And that Uchiha who resembles Senju Tobirama is the same. His moves are nasty enough, but Fūinjutsu just has too much priority. It can even forcibly interrupt the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags!"
Kinkaku sat in his chair and gave his assessment.
"Oh? Sarutobi Hiruzen actually entered the battle—and alone!"
As the brains among the Six Kage, Mū immediately responded to Hi-kun's warning and the intelligence provided by the White Zetsu.
He brought his hands together and switched the genjutsu array over to Hiruzen's channel.
The instant the feed changed, he saw Hokage-sama's "Sage Art: Meteor Volcano."
Kinkaku's face immediately twisted into a grimace, and he looked like he could barely hold himself together.
The group had only just been discussing...
Exactly how much of Ashina's skill Hiruzen, whom Ashina regarded so highly, had inherited.
Or rather, just how far Hiruzen could push the upper limits of that entire system...
Hōzuki Gengetsu and Mū had both concluded that Hiruzen was a shinobi who marked the beginning of a new era.
His entire system revolved around making sure his opponent didn't get to have a system at all, then defeating them with overwhelming experience and raw stats.
It was a combat framework unlike anything the shinobi world had ever seen.
"Wait..."
"His stats are that ridiculous?"
Ginkaku watched Hiruzen slaughter his way across the battlefield, the enormous halberd tens of meters long roaring through the air, and instinctively flexed his own arm.
They were all close-range fighters...
Kinkaku and Ginkaku understood Hiruzen's physical strength far better than most people did.
And they understood exactly what that level of strength meant in close combat.
"If Senju Tobirama asks us to put pressure on him..."
"I can't do it. He counters me. There's nothing I can do!"
Ginkaku and Kinkaku exchanged a glance, then both spread their hands helplessly.
When someone whose entire approach depended on raw stats ran into an opponent with even higher stats, having no special mechanics meant having absolutely no answer...
That was simply how physical combat worked.
"Doesn't your Preta Path absorb chakra? What he's using doesn't seem like an ordinary technique. It's probably senjutsu chakra, but you should still be able to absorb it, right?"
The Second Raikage considered the matter.
He was another one who had no real answer.
But being unable to deal with Hiruzen was actually good news!
"I probably can, but there's still a limit to both how much I can absorb and how quickly I can do it. With the amount of chakra he has, even if it weren't senjutsu, how many of his techniques do you think I could actually swallow before I hit my limit?"
Ginkaku gave a dry laugh.
"Anyway, if you tell me to go, I'll go. The sooner I die, the sooner I can move on. Mū, you bastard, don't you dare drag me back with the Naraka Path afterward. I haven't done anything to you!"
Kinkaku nodded emphatically in agreement.
Thanks to the intelligence shared by Gengetsu and Mū, they all knew that whenever Hiruzen got serious, he wrapped Fūinjutsu around his fists.
He specialized in beating Impure World Reincarnations.
"And today we're still supposed to go scare that little brat Obito..."
"Senju Tobirama really is something. His student is already this strong, and he's still trying to maintain balance in the shinobi world..."
The Second Raikage sighed.
"Maybe that kind of refusal to ever be satisfied is exactly why Konoha keeps getting better and better!"
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