Chapter 148 (Patreon)

“I’ve already seen through your methods, Mihawk!”

Madara slowly rose to his feet.

He glanced at the gunbai held in his left hand before casually throwing it aside.

The weapon struck the cliff and slid across the stone.

Madara had already analyzed Mihawk’s abilities during their previous battle.

Mihawk’s Ranged Slashes were created through pure sword force, compressing and severing the air without relying upon chakra. There was nothing for the gunbai to absorb or reflect.

Then there were the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which allowed Mihawk to sever the death of a jutsu itself.

Against such an opponent, the gunbai would only get in Madara’s way.

“In that case...”

Madara raised his remaining hand.

“I’ll use Yin–Yang Release.”

A black liquid emerged from his palm.

It twisted together and rapidly solidified into a slender black receiver.

Whoosh!

The moment it finished forming, Madara hurled it toward the approaching Mihawk.

Blue chakra erupted around him almost simultaneously.

An Armored Susanoo formed behind Madara, its hands spreading apart as several blue magatama gathered between its palms.

“Yasaka Magatama!”

The Susanoo threw them immediately after the black receiver.

The receiver and magatama approached Mihawk from different directions, sealing off the path in front of him.

“Divine Strike!”

Before Mihawk could draw Nemesis, Hinata’s voice sounded from above.

She thrust her palm forward.

Her Tenseigan released a concentrated burst of repulsive force, twisting the surrounding air and chakra into a powerful cannon that shot forward like a beam of light.

BOOM!

The repulsive blast struck the black receiver and Yasaka Magatama simultaneously.

A tremendous eruption of energy shook the cliff.

The resulting shock wave swept outward, hurling dust, rocks, and shattered pieces of the ground high into the air.

Madara stood behind the rising cloud of debris and looked up.

Hinata floated above the battlefield, her clothes and long hair fluttering in the turbulent wind.

Madara’s expression became more serious.

“That girl...”

The power behind that attack was considerably greater than what he had sensed from her during their previous encounter.

“She has grown stronger again.”

Mihawk landed on the cliff with his right hand resting upon Nemesis’ hilt.

“Hinata, go help the Allied Shinobi Forces.”

His eyes remained fixed upon Madara.

“Leave him to me.”

Hinata had wanted to fight beside Mihawk, especially after seeing how exhausted he had been following his first battle against Madara.

However, she trusted his judgment.

“Yes, Mihawk-kun.”

Hinata descended toward the Allied Shinobi Forces.

Madara condensed another black receiver in his left hand.

“You’re sending your girlfriend away?”

A faint smile returned to his face.

“Alone, you pose a considerable threat. But the two of you together would be far more troublesome.”

Mihawk slowly drew Nemesis from its sheath.

“Would you simply stand there and allow us to fight together?”

“No.”

Madara answered without the slightest hesitation.

“But remember this... I won’t repeat the mistake I made during our previous battle.”

BOOM!

A violent surge of blue chakra erupted from Madara.

The tremendous pressure made his long black hair rise into the air.

The Armored Susanoo expanded at an astonishing rate.

Muscle, armor, wings, and additional layers of chakra formed around it until an enormous blue warrior stood upon the battlefield.

Madara rose into the sky within the crystal embedded in its forehead.

The Perfect Susanoo towered more than twenty meters above the cliff, its enormous body visible from every corner of the battlefield.

The moment it appeared, countless shinobi turned toward it.

Their expressions changed immediately.

“That’s... the Perfect Susanoo.”

Tobirama’s expression darkened as he maintained his corner of the Four Red Yang Formation.

“Is Madara planning to interfere with us?”

Hiruzen stared at the blue warrior.

“So that is the legendary Susanoo said to possess enough power to reshape the land.”

Minato’s eyes widened slightly.

“It’s enormous...”

Only Hashirama remained comparatively calm.

Sage Mode markings surrounded his eyes as he studied the young swordsman standing before Madara.

“Madara is actually taking him seriously.”

Hashirama frowned slightly.

“Who is that young man?”

He understood Madara’s strength and personality better than anyone.

Madara rarely acknowledged another person as his equal. Aside from Hashirama himself, there had been almost no one he was willing to confront with his full power from the beginning.

Yet the moment Mihawk appeared, Madara had immediately summoned his Perfect Susanoo.

Judging by Mihawk’s appearance, he seemed to be around the same age as the young Uchiha who had arrived with Orochimaru.

For someone so young to receive this level of caution from Madara was extraordinary.

The appearance of the Perfect Susanoo shook the Allied Shinobi Forces, but it did not destroy their morale.

The previous Hokage had joined the war.

The current Five Kage were also fighting on their side.

Even if Madara possessed terrifying power, the Alliance no longer felt as helpless as it had before.

“All right!”

Hashirama brought his hands together.

A small passage opened within the Four Red Yang Formation.

Inside the barrier, the Ten-Tails remained pinned beneath the enormous crimson torii gates created by Hashirama’s Sage Art: Gate of the Great God.

Hashirama looked toward the Allied Shinobi Forces.

“Everyone, attack together!”

His voice spread across the battlefield.

“We’ll bring down the Ten-Tails in one strike!”

“Yeah!”

The Allied Shinobi Forces answered with a deafening roar.

Filled with renewed confidence, countless shinobi rushed toward the passage in the barrier.

Naruto clasped his hands together and turned toward Sasuke.

“Sasuke, let’s go too!”

Sasuke did not respond.

His eyes remained fixed upon the distant cliff.

Before the immense Perfect Susanoo, Mihawk’s dark-clothed figure appeared incredibly small.

Yet Mihawk stood before it without retreating by even a single step.

Ever since childhood, Mihawk had been like an insurmountable wall in Sasuke’s path.

No matter how much Sasuke improved, Mihawk always seemed to stand far beyond his reach.

Years later, Mihawk had nearly killed him with a single strike.

At first glance, the wound had not appeared fatal. A strip of flesh had merely been severed from Sasuke’s waist—an injury that an experienced shinobi would ordinarily survive.

However, the wound had refused to heal.

The bleeding would not stop, and Sasuke had nearly died from an injury that should never have threatened his life.

Obito’s words still echoed within his memories.

“If I hadn’t grafted White Zetsu’s tissue into that wound, you would have died.”

Sasuke unconsciously touched his waist.

A faint phantom pain passed through the place Mihawk’s sword had cut.

Now, that same man was standing before the legendary Madara Uchiha.

Madara had even summoned his Perfect Susanoo against him from the beginning.

To force such a response from Madara at their age...

Sasuke felt as though the distance between himself and Mihawk had grown even greater.

“Hey, Sasuke!”

Naruto’s second shout finally pulled him from his thoughts.

Sasuke looked toward him.

“We’re going!” Naruto urged.

Sasuke lowered his hand from his waist and prepared to follow.

Just as the two were about to move, a soft voice descended from the sky.

“Please wait.”

The advancing Allied Shinobi Forces slowed and looked upward.

Hinata floated above them, her Tenseigan focused upon the blood-red full moon.

“Begin your attack after mine is finished.”

Hashirama looked at Hinata with mild surprise.

He quickly sensed the immense power gathering within her eyes and grinned.

“All right!”

Hinata slowly raised one hand toward the sky.

The blue-and-white patterns within her Tenseigan shone with a deeper radiance than before.

Invisible gravitational waves spread beyond the battlefield and reached high into the atmosphere.

A black point appeared against the full moon.

Hashirama and Tobirama noticed it almost simultaneously.

Their eyes widened.

“What is that?”

For an instant, the shinobi below assumed another enemy attack had begun.

The black point rapidly expanded, gradually consuming the moon behind it like a lunar eclipse.

A vast shadow spread across the battlefield.

Naruto, Sasuke, and the charging Allied Shinobi Forces stopped in their tracks.

The air grew unbearably heavy.

A powerful gravitational field descended over the Ten-Tails, further pinning its gigantic body beneath Hashirama’s crimson torii gates.

Even the shinobi outside the barrier could feel the pressure weighing upon their shoulders.

Hinata’s quiet voice passed across the battlefield.

“Tengai Shinsei.”

A colossal meteorite emerged from the darkness above.

Its immense body tore through the atmosphere and descended toward the Ten-Tails, flames spreading across its surface as it filled the night sky.

Madara’s eyes widened.

For the first time since summoning his Perfect Susanoo, his attention left Mihawk and shifted toward Hinata.

“Tengai Shinsei...”

Madara made no attempt to conceal his admiration.

“She reproduced it after seeing it only once?”

Hinata had witnessed Madara summon two meteorites during his first battle against Mihawk.

Using the Tenseigan’s control over gravity, she had reconstructed the principle behind the technique and drawn a meteorite down from beyond the atmosphere.

Madara’s smile widened.

“Among the women of her generation, even Mito could not have matched such talent.”

Hashirama stared at the descending meteorite before looking toward Hinata.

A broad smile appeared upon his face.

“Oh!”

There were far more remarkable shinobi in this era than he had expected.

Knowing that people such as Mihawk, Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke would inherit the future of the shinobi world filled Hashirama with an unexpected sense of relief.

Meanwhile, Mihawk finally understood the deeper radiance he had noticed within Hinata’s Tenseigan after awakening.

Her control over gravity had advanced to an entirely different level.

Above them, the enormous meteorite continued descending.

Its shadow swallowed the battlefield as it fell directly toward the imprisoned Ten-Tails.