Chapter 158 (Patreon)

Madara watched Nerona Mihawk approach the cliff alone.

After their previous battle, he had already learned enough about Mihawk’s abilities to know that carelessly throwing large-scale ninjutsu at him was pointless.

No matter how destructive a technique might be, if Mihawk could perceive its weakness with those strange eyes and reach it with his sword, there was always a chance he would simply cut it apart.

But knowing that did not mean Madara intended to retreat.

His hands quickly formed several seals.

“Fire Release: Dragon Flame Loud Singing Jutsu!”

Madara exhaled, releasing four masses of orange-red fire that immediately transformed into blazing dragons and rushed toward Mihawk from different directions.

Their heat distorted the surrounding air.

Mihawk continued forward as his Observation Haki spread, taking in Madara’s position, the four fire dragons, and every movement around the cliff.

Then his perception reached slightly into the future.

Before the flames could surround him, Mihawk suddenly changed direction in midair with Geppo.

Boom!

An invisible force smashed apart the ground where he had been only a moment earlier.

Madara frowned.

“Can those strange eyes of yours perceive Limbo?”

His Rinnegan remained fixed on Mihawk.

“No… that isn’t it. You moved before my shadow even attacked.”

A trace of curiosity entered Madara’s expression.

“Just what kind of dōjutsu do you possess?”

Mihawk offered no answer.

He drew Nemesis, allowing dark Armament Haki to flow across the blade before layering the deeper force of Advanced Armament over it.

Madara had already seen that black coating during their previous battle. Mihawk had used it to reinforce both his sword and his body, so its appearance no longer surprised him.

Back then, however, Madara had possessed the artificial body of an Edo Tensei. He had witnessed what the power could do, but his dead flesh had been incapable of properly feeling its nature.

Now everything was different.

With a living body, Hashirama’s senjutsu chakra sharpening his senses, and both Rinnegan focused to their limit, Madara finally perceived what had escaped him before.

There was no chakra flowing around Nemesis.

His Rinnegan could see chakra in all its forms, yet the black coating contained none. Even his Sage-enhanced perception could only feel the pressure it exerted, not any chakra circulating within it.

So it isn’t some foreign method of manipulating chakra.

Madara’s eyes sharpened.

It is another power entirely.

Mihawk swung Nemesis once.

A dark-red slash tore across the early-morning sky and passed through all four fire dragons almost simultaneously.

The flames exploded one after another, scattering burning embers across the sky, but Mihawk passed through them without slowing down.

As he reached the cliff, Madara extended a black chakra receiver from his palm and caught Nemesis against it.

Clang!

The clash had barely begun when Madara twisted his body and drove a kick toward Mihawk’s side. Mihawk raised his own leg to intercept it, covering his skin in Armament Haki before they made contact.

Bang!

A violent gust swept across the cliff as the ground beneath them split apart.

Madara’s kick carried chakra strengthened by Hashirama’s senjutsu, yet the black power surrounding Mihawk’s leg endured the impact without being disrupted.

The sensation confirmed what Madara’s eyes had already told him.

Haki did not clash with his senjutsu chakra as another form of chakra would. It remained completely separate, pressing against Madara’s power without mixing with it or being affected by its flow.

“Even senjutsu chakra can’t break through that black reinforcement.”

Far from being surprised, Madara sounded pleased.

“That power of yours is as troublesome as ever.”

Before he could press the attack, the force flowing through Nemesis suddenly changed.

Advanced Armament Haki passed through the point where their weapons met and penetrated the chakra receiver itself.

Crack!

The black rod fractured from within.

Madara stepped backward and glanced at the broken weapon.

He had already experienced this penetrating force during their previous battle, but feeling it through a living body made its nature far clearer.

The power had not needed to destroy the chakra receiver from the outside. It had passed through the point of contact before erupting within it.

It bypasses the surface and destroys the inside directly.

Madara’s smile widened.

No wonder ordinary defenses are so ineffective against it.

By the time he raised his eyes again, Mihawk was already in front of him.

Nemesis flashed toward his neck.

Madara leaned back just far enough to avoid the blade, but its edge still swept across his cheek and left behind a thin line of blood.

He touched the wound with two fingers.

For the first time since returning to life, Madara felt warm blood running down his skin.

When he looked back at Mihawk, the ruby color of his eyes had disappeared.

In its place were the icy-blue Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

The moment those eyes settled on him, Madara finally experienced something his Edo Tensei body had prevented him from understanding.

His living body reacted instinctively.

There was no overwhelming chakra coming from Mihawk, nor was there any visible killing intent. Even so, a chill spread through Madara’s flesh.

Those eyes were looking directly at his death.

Madara stared at Mihawk for a moment before suddenly throwing his head back and laughing.

“Hahahaha! So this is what your eyes truly feel like when faced with living flesh!”

When he had been an Edo Tensei, even being cut apart had meant very little. His body would simply regenerate, making the threat carried by those eyes feel distant.

Now things were different.

If Mihawk’s blade reached the wrong place, there would be no regeneration waiting for him afterward.

The deadly pressure should have made anyone else retreat.

Instead, it ignited Madara’s fighting spirit.

“Good!”

His expression became increasingly ferocious.

“Then I, Uchiha Madara, will face you with everything I have!”

Blue chakra erupted around him.

Susanoo rapidly formed, growing from a skeletal rib cage into a massive armored warrior within moments. A chakra sword materialized in its hand before descending toward Mihawk with enough force to split the cliff apart.

Mihawk calmly returned Nemesis to its sheath.

Armament Haki gathered around his hand and sword, but another familiar force soon rose alongside it. Black-red lightning flickered around the blade, twisting through the air without touching it.

Madara immediately recognized the overwhelming pressure he had encountered during their previous battle.

This time, however, his living body and Sage-enhanced senses allowed him to distinguish it clearly from the Armament Haki covering Nemesis.

The black coating clung tightly to the sword like invisible armor, while the lightning-laced pressure radiated directly from Mihawk himself.

The black power reinforces his body and weapons.

Madara’s Rinnegan followed every flicker of lightning.

But this is different. This is his will given physical force.

Neither contained the slightest trace of chakra.

Mihawk drew his sword.

A massive dark-red crescent erupted upward.

Boom!

The slash shattered Susanoo’s sword on contact and continued into its body, causing cracks to spread rapidly across the enormous chakra construct.

Madara immediately raised one hand.

“Shinra Tensei!”

A powerful repulsive force erupted around him.

The damaged Susanoo broke apart just as Mihawk’s slash collided with the repulsion. The two forces struggled for only an instant before the sword energy began to scatter.

Madara peered through the violent air currents, only to discover that Mihawk had disappeared.

His Rinnegan immediately shifted upward.

Mihawk had already used Geppo to rise above him, and Nemesis was descending toward his head.

“Hmph.”

Madara exhaled a vast cloud of burning ash.

“Fire Release: Hiding in Ash and Dust Jutsu!”

The gray mist swallowed Mihawk completely. An orange light flashed from within a moment later, followed by a deafening explosion that engulfed the entire cloud.

Naruto raised an arm to shield his face from the blast.

“Mihawk!”

Hinata remained farther back, where Mihawk had instructed her to stay. She could still see his chakra through her eyes, so unlike Naruto, she knew the explosion had not struck him directly.

Inside the smoke, Mihawk had no need to rely on his sight.

His Observation Haki remained locked onto Madara, while the future he had witnessed moments earlier told him exactly what Madara intended to do.

Madara stepped backward as his Limbo shadow attacked Mihawk from the left.

Mihawk tilted his body at the last possible instant.

The invisible strike swept past him and smashed through the cliff with a thunderous crash.

A silver flash immediately appeared within the smoke, tearing the entire cloud apart.

Mihawk emerged from the opening and continued toward Madara.

Madara leaped away from the approaching blade and landed several meters back.

“Hah… you nearly caught me the same way again.”

Mihawk continued advancing without answering.

Limbo attacked once more.

The invisible fist came from behind Mihawk, but Observation Haki warned him before it could arrive.

Mihawk shifted aside, allowing the strike to pass across his shoulder.

Madara’s expression changed.

“Again…”

He finally understood what was happening.

“You aren’t seeing Limbo. You’re moving before it even attacks.”

Madara’s smile slowly returned.

“So that strange perception of yours can reach into the future?”

A quiet laugh escaped him.

“Hahaha… what a troublesome ability.”

Madara raised his hand again, but this time he did not attack immediately.

“After fighting you several times, I’ve learned that ordinary ninjutsu is almost useless against those eyes of yours. Even Susanoo can be cut apart if your blade reaches it.”

His palm turned toward Mihawk.

“Yet the simplest power of the Rinnegan has forced you back every time.”

The air around Madara began to distort.

“Let’s see whether you can cut this as well.”

“Shinra Tensei!”

Repulsive force swept across the cliff like an invisible tidal wave.

Mihawk’s Mystic Eyes focused on the approaching distortion.

“That technique stopped being useful against me a long time ago.”

Nemesis flashed through the air with a sharp metallic ring.

The rushing pressure split down the middle.

The violent wind surrounding Mihawk disappeared as though the technique itself had been severed.

For the first time, Madara’s smile froze.

“You cut the repulsion itself?”

Mihawk stepped through the remains of Shinra Tensei without slowing down.

Madara stared at him for another moment before his laughter returned, louder than before.

“Hahahaha! Those eyes of yours truly are absurd!”

He had no intention of allowing Mihawk to close the remaining distance so easily.

Limbo moved again.

This time, the invisible attack came from behind while Madara waited directly ahead.

Observation Haki warned Mihawk a moment before the strike arrived. He shifted aside, allowing the invisible fist to graze past his shoulder, but Madara had already closed the distance.

A black chakra receiver stabbed toward Mihawk’s chest.

Mihawk swept Nemesis across his body and knocked the rod aside. Madara immediately drove his other fist forward, only for Mihawk to counter with a punch of his own.

Their fists stopped before they touched.

Black-red lightning erupted within the narrow gap between them.

Boom!

The collision hurled both men backward, their feet tearing through the cliff before they regained their balance.

Madara looked at the space that had remained between their fists.

This application of Mihawk’s power was not new to him. He had already seen the same black-red force wrapped around Mihawk’s sword and attacks during their previous confrontation.

Only now could his living body properly feel what happened when it struck.

Their fists had never touched, yet his senjutsu chakra had recoiled as though it had been hit directly.

So the force collides before our bodies ever make contact.

Madara slowly lowered his hand.

His will itself becomes part of the attack.

Advanced Conqueror’s Haki continued to crackle faintly around Mihawk’s arm before gradually fading.

None of Mihawk’s abilities were unfamiliar to Madara. Their first battle had already shown him the Mystic Eyes, the black reinforcement surrounding Mihawk’s body and sword, and the strange perception that allowed him to anticipate attacks.

What had changed was Madara’s understanding of them.

With Hashirama’s senjutsu sharpening his senses and both Rinnegan operating at their limit, he could finally feel the complete difference between Haki and chakra.

The two powers did not share the same source, follow the same rules, or interfere with one another in the same manner.

But Madara had changed as well.

He now possessed both Rinnegan, Hashirama’s senjutsu chakra, and a living body capable of bringing out power that his Edo Tensei form could never fully wield.

Madara raised his hand once more, causing the surrounding air to distort.

Mihawk immediately sensed two Limbo shadows moving from different directions while Madara’s palm remained aimed directly at him.

“Shinra Tensei!”

Repulsive force exploded across the cliff.

Instead of retreating, Mihawk stepped directly into it.

Geppo burst beneath his foot, shifting him away from the first Limbo attack. He twisted in midair as the second passed beneath him, bringing Nemesis around in the same motion.

Armament Haki had already covered the blade, while black-red lightning coiled around it.

Mihawk’s sword met the repulsive force head-on.

Boom!

The cliff collapsed in several places beneath the collision.

Mihawk was forced backward through the air, but only for a moment. Advanced Armament flowed from Nemesis while his Mystic Eyes traced the weakness hidden within the technique.

Madara saw his sword move.

Shing!

Shinra Tensei split apart once again.

Mihawk passed through the collapsing repulsion and appeared directly in front of Madara.

Madara moved his head aside just as Nemesis swept across his neck, missing his flesh by less than an inch.

Several strands of black hair drifted through the air.

Madara leaped backward and landed farther along the cliff.

For several seconds, neither of them moved.

Then Madara laughed.

“Hahahaha! Good!”

His excitement had only continued to grow.

Against most opponents, the combination of Limbo and the Rinnegan would have been enough to decide the battle almost immediately.

Mihawk, however, could anticipate attacks he could not see, reinforce himself enough to exchange blows with Madara directly, and destroy techniques that would normally be almost impossible to defend against.

Madara rolled his shoulder once before looking at the sword in Mihawk’s hand.

“I thought I understood your abilities after our first battle.”

The Sage Mode markings around his eyes remained visible as both Rinnegan focused completely on Mihawk.

“But seeing those powers and experiencing them with living flesh are two entirely different things.”

Mihawk raised Nemesis slightly.

“You’re talking too much.”

Madara’s smile widened.

“Hahaha! Then come!”

Mihawk stared back at him, his Mystic Eyes glowing faintly.

Neither moved for several seconds.

Then both disappeared from the cliff at the same time.