---Third POV---
"Dance with all your might before me." As soon as he finished speaking, Madara charged forward with his Susanoo, rampaging with reckless abandon. Despite its massive size, it displayed incredible agility, wielding two chakra blades that left dazzling blue arcs in the air as they slashed toward Ryouma.
But unfortunately for him, chakra-based attacks were the last thing Ryouma was worried about.
He held Lostyane horizontally in front of him and delivered a simple strike.
"Full Counter!"
An invisible domain expanded once again. Anyone watching would surely think he was trying to stop a runaway train with his bare hands, after all, the difference in size was absurd.
But the moment the expanding domain clashed with the ferocious strikes of Susanoo, the reversal occurred instantly.
The two blade-wielding arms of Susanoo bore the brunt of the counter. Countless cracks spread across them, and in the blink of an eye, they extended to its torso.
Madara furrowed his brows. He hadn't expected Ryouma's counter-attack technique to be this powerful, it could even repel Susanoo.
Seeing that Susanoo was about to collapse, he decisively exited from within it and leapt backward.
The next moment, Susanoo's entire body shattered, and the immense chakra within it detonated in place due to the judgment effect of Full Counter.
A fan-shaped shockwave surged in the direction Madara had retreated, stirring up another massive cloud of dust in the already-devastated forest. Within this blast of dust and debris, countless splinters and chunks of wood flew chaotically. Getting hit by one was no joke.
He was forced to summon another Susanoo just to block the aftermath of the explosion.
At this point, he understood why Ryouma wanted him to use the full-body Susanoo from the beginning, if that version had been destroyed by this counterattack, the consequences would've been far worse than now.
He had read about this counter-type technique in White Zetsu's intel, but he didn't expect it to be strong enough to destroy Susanoo. This level of power had clearly surpassed normal ninjutsu… Could it be a bloodline limit?
As that thought crossed his mind, Ryouma struck again.
Three Rasengan Spheres shot out like bullets, one transformed into a lightning hound under crackling thunder, lunging straight at him.
Madara first had his skeletal Susanoo punch the lightning hound into pieces.
The other two simulated the Grand Flame Rasengan and the Rasenshuriken. They arced through the air and collided mid-flight. The dark purple chakra completely engulfed the blue Rasenshuriken. Even the flames sprouting from the blade were stained with a destructive dark purple hue.
The core sphere of the Rasenshuriken sprouted two conical flame spikes from top and bottom, as if two flaming bases were embedded into one another.
"Burning Wind Explosion!"
It flew even faster than a Rasenshuriken. In just a few seconds, it was already closing in on Madara.
Ryouma formed a one-handed seal and released control over the raging chakra within Burning Wind Explosion.
Crack—
A sound like a bolt snapping rang out.
The core sphere of Burning Wind Explosion began to expand rapidly. At the same time, a powerful suction force appeared, pulling in everything around it.
Massive trees were uprooted, chunks of earth and even nearby streams were not spared, everything was drawn toward the growing orb, silently igniting as it approached.
Madara was no exception. He forced Susanoo's four arms deep into the ground to anchor himself, but in the next second, both he and the ground beneath Susanoo's feet were dragged into the air.
Helet out a cold laugh.
"Hahaha! Since you've danced so hard, I'll let you witness the ultimate power of the Uchiha."
His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan began to spin rapidly, and under the force of his immense ocular power, the half-bodied Susanoo began to grow explosively as if injected with steroids. Waves of chakra whipped his long hair upward.
In the next instant, an absurdly large Complete Body Susanoo appeared on the battlefield. Blue chakra flames slowly rose around it, forming a radiant chakra cloak.
The suction of Burning Wind Explosion, after all, was fundamentally different from the gravitational pull of Chibaku Tensei. Before the towering hundreds-of-meters-tall Complete Susanoo, it seemed powerless.
"It's not over yet."
He extended his right hand and clenched it tightly.
The flowing chakra across Susanoo's body rapidly solidified under his ocular control, forming pieces of armored plating that locked into place.
Finally, as the raven-hound-faced helmet closed, a warrior-like Susanoo that blocked out the sun stood firm on the battlefield.
He hovered within the crystalline forehead of the Complete Susanoo, with the Uchiha fan strapped across his back, arms crossed before his chest.
Truthfully, even he hadn't expected that a kid like this could force him to bring out his true power.
Under Madara's control, Susanoo held its chakra greatsword horizontally, gripped the hilt with its right hand, and in one swift motion drew the blade and slashed toward the burning purple sun suspended midair.
A ferocious sword light cut Burning Wind Explosion cleanly in half in an instant. Dark purple chakra burst from the point of the cut.
The rampaging chakra rained down like a meteor shower, smashing into the ground and leaving countless craters. The scattering embers ignited the forest for kilometers around.
And that wasn't the end of it.
The sword aura of that draw slash, after splitting Burning Wind Explosion in half, continued its momentum. It flew even farther, slicing through two distant peaks a kilometer away in one clean strike.
The ground below was left as though a massive clawed tornado had ravaged through, utterly ruined, a scene like doomsday had arrived.
Madara had deliberately adjusted the angle of the slash. He didn't aim directly at Ryouma, but instead used the air pressure it generated to unleash a shockwave packed with shattered wood and debris, blasting it toward him.
After the brief clash just now, he was temporarily able to confirm that the opponent's reflecting technique was fundamentally different from Uchiha Return.
The Uchiha Return required absorbing the enemy's attack first before it could convert it into wind projectiles and shoot them out.
But Ryouma's reflection skipped that step entirely, directly returning all chakra-based attacks back at the attacker.
So that meant only physical attacks would work… it was quite similar to the Preta Path's absorption, he thought to himself.
When Ryouma saw Madara using his Susanoo to launch a sword slash, he had already prepared to unleash Full Counter, but the sword slash didn't even target him.
He wasn't even given the chance to act.
The attack skimmed the ground, stirring up debris and shockwaves.
Even though he didn't hide his intent to use Full Counter, Madara was still able to analyze its weakness so quickly. It was no wonder he was one of the strongest among the Sage of Six Paths' descendants.
Ryouma sheathed Lostvayne and held a Flying Thunder God kunai horizontally in front of him with both hands, as multiple space-time seals began inscribing themselves into the air.
"Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder!"
From Madara's high vantage point, he saw the shockwave sweep across Ryouma's position, only for a very visible gap to appear in the middle, the distorted space had redirected all the debris and impact away to the desert of the Land of Wind.
Before long, the aftermath of the battle temporarily settled.
What was once a vibrant forest had now become a scene of utter devastation.
---
Elsewhere, the spiky White Zetsu silently slipped into the base using the Mayfly. "Madara-sama, the plan failed. That girl, she…"
Madara's expression didn't change at all after hearing the report. Plans never went perfectly, and with his level of composure, he was not one to be shaken.
White Zetsu asked, "So what now? Without a bait, that boy could teleport away with space-time jutsu at any moment."
Madara curled his lips into a confident smirk. "It's just the Flying Thunder God Technique. Against true power, it's nothing."
He had already seen through it. Just as he wanted to use Ryouma, the boy had intended to kill him from the very start. Unless facing a completely hopeless situation, Ryouma would not simply run away.
Which meant, even without Shiori as bait, he could reverse the situation and use Ryouma's killing intent to his advantage. Space-time jutsu might be wondrous, but it wasn't without weaknesses.
As long as he seized the right moment and used a genjutsu before the boy could activate the Flying Thunder God, or used sealing jutsu to lock his chakra… Either method, if successful, would make Madara the ultimate victor.
Especially if he could control Ryouma with genjutsu, the possibilities of manipulating space after that would be endless.
With just a rough plan, Madara had already thought of several ways to use Ryouma to plunge Shiori into utter darkness.
But the first step was still, capturing the boy successfully.
---
Back on the battlefield, Ryouma stood on the scorched and ruined ground, slowly lowering the Flying Thunder God kunai in his hand, eyes fixed on the fully formed Susanoo towering above.
He hadn't expected that even after witnessing the Full Counter, Madara would still dare to summon the Complete Susanoo. Did he really believe that Full Counter had a limit?
He let out a light laugh.
If Madara truly thought there was a limit, then he was underestimating things too much. If there was a limit to Full Counter, it would only be Ryouma's own reaction speed.
After all, it was an active skill, it depended on how fast his hands moved. But judging from the guy in front of him, he wasn't the least bit concerned about keeping up.
Without a moment's hesitation, the sound of Chidori echoed across the battlefield again, and Lostvayne reappeared, gripped firmly in his hand.
He charged fearlessly toward the towering monster before him.
Madara, of course, knew he couldn't let Ryouma get close, if the boy managed to slash the Complete Susanoo, then this body would definitely be rendered useless.
But he had already thought of a way to deal with the boy.
Staring coldly at Ryouma below, his hands began weaving seals rapidly.
"Nativity of a World of Trees!"
With loud rumbles, the earth began to shake violently. Hundreds of giant tree trunks, each several meters thick, burst from the ground and whipped through the air to intercept Ryouma.
Madara then clapped his hands together.
Dozens of thick tree limbs surged in from all directions, aiming to engulf Ryouma completely.
So it really comes down to fighting with Wood Release, huh? As Ryouma's thoughts turned, a Rasengan flew from behind and landed directly on Lostvayne.
The blade began to emit a faint, glowing white light. He raised his hand in a sword gesture and ran two fingers along the blade.
The next moment, where his fingers touched, the blue lightning arcing across the blade was replaced by deep purple flames that roared to life along the edge.
Thanks to Lostvayne's excellent chakra-conducting properties, it smoothly transferred the blaze chakra across the entire blade in less than a second.
Ryouma condensed a high concentration of blaze chakra into a tangible form, extending Lostvayne's original short blade into a full-length tachi about 1.5 meters long.
He casually slashed several times, sending arcs of dark purple flame-shaped sword energy into the trees. The high heat instantly cut through the advancing trees, leaving severed wood chunks falling to the ground, each piece catching fire and continuing to burn silently.
He then drew a massive amount of Shukaku's chakra from his seal.
These trees were too troublesome, he was preparing to clear them all out at once.
High in the sky, Madara looked down at the battlefield. Seeing that direct wood attacks were ineffective, he began forming hand seals again.
"Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!"
The previously quiet forest surged once more. Giant trees, like massive serpents, began twisting and expanding outward in all directions. At the top of the growth, Madara summoned countless huge red flower buds and forced them to bloom.
A massive cloud of hallucinogenic pollen was released, spreading across the entire battlefield.