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The forest fell eerily silent after the intense exchange between Hashirama and Madara. The air still crackled with residual energy from their battle, and the ground was littered with splintered wood and scorched earth. Both warriors stood poised, their breaths steady but their gazes sharp, as if sizing each other up for the next move.
Madara didn't mince words. "Hashirama, you've lost."
Perched on a branch opposite him, Hashirama shrugged nonchalantly. He wasn't the type to dwell on defeat. "Alright, Madara, you've clearly grown stronger during my absence. I underestimated you."
Madara's lips curled into a smirk. "I told you before—I'm no longer the man I once was. It seems you still haven't fully grasped that."
"Then there's nothing left to say," Hashirama replied, his expression hardening as he quickly formed hand seals.
"Wood Release: Thorny Death!"
With a roar, countless razor-sharp wooden spikes erupted from the ground, all converging toward Madara in a relentless barrage.
Madara surveyed the incoming attack with calm indifference. To anyone else, such an onslaught would have been fatal—piercing them into a mangled mess—but Madara was unfazed. Without hesitation or even forming hand seals, he muttered under his breath:
"Chidori Stream..."
A brilliant blue aura of lightning enveloped his body. The wooden spikes disintegrated upon contact with the electrified field, reduced to mere splinters. No matter how fiercely the thorny projectiles advanced, not a single one could penetrate Madara's defenses.
From afar, Tobirama watched with widened eyes. Renowned for his mastery of creating new jutsu, he immediately recognized the intricacies of this technique. The Chidori Stream utilized Lightning Release chakra to emit electrical currents from every pore of the user's body, effectively creating a protective barrier akin to the Hyuga clan's Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven.
What truly astonished Tobirama, however, was Madara's ability to channel such volatile Lightning Release chakra through his entire body without harming himself—a testament to his unparalleled control over chakra. This realization weighed heavily on Tobirama's mind, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy about his older brother's chances.
Meanwhile, the battlefield dynamics shifted yet again. Both combatants, relying on their immense reserves of chakra, began unleashing devastating attacks at full force.
Hashirama commanded countless wooden spikes to erupt continuously from the ground, launching them relentlessly toward Madara. In response, Madara intensified the output of his Lightning Release chakra, his electrified aura growing more ferocious by the second. Every wooden spike that approached him was obliterated instantly.
Growing impatient, Madara thrust his hand forward.
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
A concentrated spear of lightning materialized in his right hand, its blinding brilliance slicing through the air at incredible speed. The spear shot out dozens of meters, narrowly grazing past Hashirama's ear and piercing through countless trees behind him.
Unfazed, Madara swung the nearly hundred-meter-long spear of lightning, its radiant glow cutting through the dense forest of wooden spikes surrounding him. With a swift motion, he raised it high and brought it down in a devastating arc aimed directly at Hashirama.
Reacting swiftly, Hashirama formed hand seals.
"Wood Release: Great Buddha's Hand!"
Two colossal wooden hands emerged from the ground beside Hashirama, each towering three times his height. They intercepted Madara's descending spear with precision, clamping down on it like a vice grip.
Thus began a fierce contest of wills—one wielding the overwhelming power of Wood Release, the other harnessing the raw intensity of Lightning Release. Each pushed against the other with unrelenting force.
Tobirama, observing the spectacle, felt increasingly troubled. His brows furrowed as he stared at the massive spear of lightning extending dozens of meters from Madara's hand.
"This shouldn't be possible…" Tobirama muttered under his breath. "When did Madara acquire such an enormous reserve of chakra?"
He couldn't deny the truth before his eyes. Conjuring a lightning spear of that length required an extraordinary amount of chakra—far beyond what most shinobi could muster. Even Tobirama admitted to himself that he couldn't replicate such a feat, let alone wield such a weapon while engaging in close combat with someone like Hashirama.
Lightning Release and Wood Release operated on fundamentally different principles. Wood Release manifested physically; once a structure was created, maintaining it simply required controlling the flow of chakra within it. Lightning Release, on the other hand, was elemental in nature. Once discharged, lightning naturally dissipated unless constantly reinforced and shaped by chakra—an endeavor twice as demanding.
"When did Madara become so powerful?" Tobirama lamented silently, frustration gnawing at him.
Hashirama, undeterred, poured more chakra into his technique. With a thunderous crack, the massive wooden hands shattered Madara's Chidori Sharp Spear. Seizing the moment as the spear dissipated, Hashirama quickly formed another set of hand seals.
"Wood Release: Wooden Dragon Technique!"
Now, Hashirama was getting serious. This was one of his signature techniques—a trump card capable of subduing even the Nine-Tails. A monstrous wooden dragon, tens of meters long and bristling with jagged edges, emerged from the ground. It let out a deafening roar, sending shockwaves rippling through the air as it charged straight toward Madara.
Faced with the oncoming beast, Madara's eyes gleamed with excitement. Quickly forming hand seals, he declared, "Hashirama! Watch closely as I counter your technique head-on! Lightning Release: Thunder Dragon Strike!"
Intense lightning surged around Madara's form. Accompanied by a resounding roar, a fearsome dragon composed entirely of crackling electricity coalesced around him. It spiraled upward, its body shimmering with sparks, before lunging forward to meet Hashirama's wooden dragon head-on.
The two titanic creatures collided with cataclysmic force, unleashing shockwaves that tore apart the surrounding forest. Trees were uprooted, the ground cracked open, and massive fissures spread across the battlefield. Dust and debris filled the air as the dragons fought savagely—biting, entangling, slamming, and clawing at each other. Every swipe of their tails or collision of their bodies sent tremors rippling outward.
The wooden dragon relied on brute strength, attempting to constrict and crush its opponent. Meanwhile, the thunder dragon unleashed destructive bursts of electricity, seeking to annihilate the wooden construct.
Hashirama and Madara locked eyes, their hands still forming seals as they maintained control over their respective dragons. The earth quaked beneath them, soil churned violently, and the battle raged on with no end in sight.