"I may have Madara's cock in my mouth but Kishimoto firmly placed it there so leave me alone please." -Swagkage
If We Fuck Up Once, We Die
If we fuck up once we die.
If we fuck up once we die.
If We Fuck Up Once, We Die.
All three of them repeated it one last time across the telepathic connection.
They had taken a whole minute of real time to check their equipment, catch their breath, and strategise. Throughout it all Madara had continued to float impassively at the foot of the tree, looking away from them and hardly moving a muscle.
The only reason they had taken so long was the simple logic that he was thinking faster than them, so at some point in the last minute he'd have run out of things to plan and left them with free time to catch up.
Hopefully.
There was a lot of hoping going on at the moment.
But Naruto was still dying, and he was draining chakra from them faster than they could naturally recuperate, so eventually there wasn't much point in delaying any longer.
Now, what Madara counted as an inciting incident to end their prep time wasn't clear, and asking him (thus indicating they were trying to abuse his generosity) probably wouldn't go down well.
But there was nothing wrong with just testing the waters, right?
"For Konoha." Hinata said, out loud, entering a stance.
"For the Republic." Sasuke intoned, throwing Samehada.
"For Skyrim, for Shor, and for Sovengarde's freedom." Naruto joined in, catching the sword and twirling it.
"Four Score and Seven years ago, I had a-"
Sasuke was interrupted as Naruto stabbed Samehada right into the bark of the nearby root. Madara turned around.
The following events would all occur within the next ten seconds.
Sage chakra, absorbed from the world over and being transmitted back through the roots to the Shinju tree, began instantly to flow through into Samehada.
Just as instantly, Madara went from floating stock still to flying towards them at a not-insignificant fraction of the speed of light, all his Truth Seeking Orbs flying with him.
Naruto stretched one arm out and his six Orbs blasted towards the attacker, colliding with six of Madara's ten and temporarily keeping those out of action as Hinata interposed herself. TCM activating, she launched a beam of counter chakra at the incoming monster, and two more black orbs merged together in front of him to block it, his momentum not changing in the slightest.
The two remaining orbs swung round on an arced path from either side, which was about the time when Sasuke switched places with a stone outcropping beneath and behind Madara, launching up the needle-sword Nuibari with no expectation of actually landing his perfectly aimed hit to the cranium but at least meaning to distract one of the spheres-
It froze in midair, and Sasuke promptly went "Shit-SHINRA TENSEI!" Causing a wave of force to emit out from his position and hit...nothing?
Holy fuck, it feels so good to finally be the one to use that busted power- Sasuke remarked, and
Sasuke what was that? Naruto thought.
Limbo clones! Sasuke thought back. He pulled Raito from his bracer, each half of the twinswords blocking something before an invisible force punched him in the face, sending him reeling. Nuibari came rocketing down from the air towards him, and he was barely able to twist the arm attacked to it's string enough to make it bury into the floor beside him rather than his neck. He has four of the fuckers now!
I still can't see them! Naruto flexed his fingers and launched out a web of chakra chains, aiming to grab Madara who was still approaching Hinata. He grit his teeth as another of Madara's orbs transformed itself into a net that caught the chains.
Sasuke landed on his feet, a chunk of the skin on his left arm rising out, revealing a metal hose and a- (Flamethrower? Oh my god this powerset is crazy!) blasted out a gout of fire that washed over two otherwise invisible silhouettes, his sword blocking something else before he coughed as something else visibly grabbed his head on both sides, preparing to twist, as Naruto accelerated the plan by yanking Samehada out of the wood, the sword dissolving and flowing over his body as he put his hands in the shadow clone position and Madara reached Hinata, the two orbs he'd been shielding with blowing straight through the artificial arms she'd been using for the attack and zooming back to pin her wings while his arms batted away her taijutsu defence and his final unoccupied orb swung down to her head-
Madara's Rinnegan shifted back into his Mangekyo.
He kicked her in the stomach and sent her crashing away as the three Orbs he'd set on her swung back around, shielding the back of his head just before a red laser struck it.
The laser fired by Sasuke's Asura path, from a small compartment in the back of the flamethrower, that should have melted through Madara's skull and cooked his brain at the speed of light.
"BULLSHIT!" Shouted Sasuke, Rinnegan flashing as he teleported away mid-neck snap, barely able to keep his head on his shoulders.
He's not lightspeed, there's no way he had time to react to that! The Uchiha staggered as he landed, also note to self, Amenotejikara is really fucking chakra draining I can't keep spamming it!
You named it? Naruto thought across, busy with his own efforts: Three shadow clones popped into existence around him, and all four of them charged forwards. He tossed Samehada back to Sasuke as he passed, having gotten what he needed, and he and his clones all flashed into sage mode, recalling his Truth-Seeking orbs.
Even with sage mode he still couldn't sense the Limbo clones, but Hinata's prediction proved correct: Being unable to see an opponent was nowhere near enough to stop him. A brief "buffering wind!" stirred up the rock dust beneath them into a cloud, one the Limbo clones all disrupted by moving through. That, combined with the pressure of the wind caused by their movement, made it easy enough for the Sage clones to do battle with them.
They clashed in a four on four brawl.
Meanwhile, Hinata had just barely hit the floor from Madara's kick, and he had noticed the weakness of her cloak dropping, blasting through the air towards her like a bloodhound catching the scent of weakness.
Hinata rolled to her feet and thrust her arms out, launching as strong a wave of telekinetic force as she could at Madara, while Sasuke joined in from the other side with a Bansho Ten'in. Their combined power was barely able to halt Madara's ordinary flying speed.
It didn't do anything for the ten Truth-Seeking orbs roaring towards Hinata even faster than he had.
She took in the speeds and trajectories of the homing projectiles, and concluded avoiding them all was impossible. Without the Tenseigan cloak (still charging), she couldn't block them either.
A hurried thought-conversation ensued.
Then both Hinata and Sasuke's eyes reverted to their middle forms at the same time.
Hinata jumped away from the orbs and was able to dodge a whole four of them. The six remaining tore into her body, Vishnu powerup shattering as she lost three arms, a leg, and took two massive puncture wounds through her stomach.
Simultaneously, a blast of Kesshotoketsu tore out from her eyes towards Madara, at the same time as a dragon made of Amaterasu lashed out from Sasuke. Madara had committed all his orbs to the attack, but that didn't leave him defenceless: a quick blast of Shinra Tensei cleared him a sphere of freedom.
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Sasuke forced his Rinnegan back into being and stretched a hand out. The king of hell emerged from the ground, opening its mouth, and Hinata's broken (but not yet dead) body crashed forwards into it. The mouth snapped shut.
Just before all this, Naruto was fighting his own battle. Not against the Limbo clones, that was secondary.
His opponent was the fucking tree.
He and his three clones whipped the truth seeking orbs around them as a unit, clashing with the invisible enemies from another dimension. Either the Limbo clones couldn't use Rinnegan powers, or were simply hiding the fact that they could until a good opportunity struck. Either way, Naruto was grateful, because he couldn't use any jutsu peroid. Not with his remaining shreds of chakra being shared between him and clones. Is this what normal ninja feel like? The need for restraint? How do you all cope, this is is pitiful!
Worst was his sage reserves. The amount he'd drained at the start of the battle was pittance, and split between his clones, they were all about to run out.
He needed more, enough to power up large numbers of clones for extended periods so he could actually fucking contribute to the fight. He needed whatever Madara was getting.
He needed the Shinju tree.
Getting his clones killed was easy, but doing so in a way that freed him was much harder, so he had to really strategise. At his command, the Truth Seeking Orbs all swirled into a protective sphere around the central Naruto, abandoning his clones on the outside.
The Limbo clones quickly dealt with the remaining Naruto and pressed in, quickly formulating a plan to try and get in from under the ground. However, they had neglected to properly factor in Naruto's practically nonexistent sense of self preservation.
It wasn't really him within the protective dome.
Two of the shadow clones had been casually tossed away by the Limbo Madara. Only a small amount of effort had been expended because only a small amount of effort was required to make them pop. But they had also accidentally done the same thing to the real Naruto, who drew in the Orbs after himself as he sprinted away from the Limbo clones towards the base of the tree-
"Bansho Ten'in."
"Hrk!"
Naruto felt an all-too familiar pull in his gut, and was yanked back towards the real Madara, still barely being protected by the Shinra Tensei he'd just fired.
Which meant that Naruto was being pulled towards a sphere of Amaterasu and Kesshotoketsu, right as the last of his sage chakra ran out.
He grimaced and stretched one hand downwards, Adamantine chains digging into the stone and dragging him off his path and towards the ground. He landed beside Sasuke, growling and rolling to his feet, and LIMBO! Shouted Sasuke in his head, because right, those aren't busy anymore-
Which was when the mouth of the King of Hell opened. Hinata jumped outwards, body completely intact and Tenseigan cloak flaring, with a wide sweep of Counter chakra that (presumably) forced the Limbo clones away.
Madara's Shinra Tensei ended, and the elemental attacks fell in onto him.
He...just floated out of the chaos. Body burning, but a quick sweep-over of his returning Truth Seeking Orbs solved that issue, and he regenerated all the damage practically instantly.
His eyes narrowed just a tiny amount.
And then, for the first time in the combat, he started weaving hand-seals. "Tengai Shinsei: Ultimate Meteor Storm."
Sasuke's professional tactical assessment of the situation was that they were completely and utterly fucked.
Madara had began with a simple blitz using his strongest powers. And that hadn't worked, so now he was going to start playing tricksy. Using his less directly OP but more varied and ridiculous powers to keep them on their toes. Catch them out and kill them, or if not, keep them burning through their chakra reserves until they ran dry.
Any idea why we haven't seen his Susanno yet? Naruto thought into the group.
Pragmatism. Sasuke answered. And the power ranger effect. He knows if he brings out his strongest powers, we'll bring out ours. He thinks the odds of us pulling a win off go up if we resort to that, and we aren't doing that yet because one big attack on our part will drain our chakra completely.
So shouldn't we try it? Hinata asked.
Depends. We're still in normal mode because he's confident he can outsmart us. You wanna contest that?
We've got two genii and the world's trickiest moron. Naruto's reassuring voice came in. We got this in the bag!
That was when it started raining meteors.
The (insert synonym for big) rocks weren't quite as (insert synonym for bigger) as the ones Madara had dropped on the alliance earlier in the war, but this time there were dozens of them, and more falling all the time. Sound became meaningless; nothing could be heard above the explosive roars of each successive meteorite pummelling into the ground around them like a jackhammer and turning the terrain into a mass of craters, peaks, and flying debris. Take Alduin's signature attack from Skyrim and multiply everything by a hundred, you might get something vaguely resembling what was going on now. It looked like the sky itself was burning.
Team Seven scattered, and the moment they had done so they realised it was a mistake as Madara and his Limbo clones hunted them through the hellstorm. The Jinchurikki's senjutsu let him sense their locations exactly, and Sasuke quickly found himself being hounded by three of the Limbo, all of whom are as strong as Madara is FUCK this powerset.
Sasuke punched one in the chest with an Amaterasu Rasenkunai; it was knocked backwards but there was no other response, and he took a fist to the gut for his trouble. His back crashed into one of the fallen meteorites, but he ignored the pain and caught the arm of the next Limbo clone to strike at him. He twisted, using its body as a human shield to block another kick, then gripped his captive on the neck. Human path? Nothing. Preta path? Let him push his hand inside their 'body', but no other effect, and by that point the clone had counter-grappled and thrown him into the arms of another, and a punch was coming in towards the back of his neck that would sever his spinal cord. His eyes turned upwards, towards a falling meteor directly above him. Only about the size of a car, but with plenty of momentum.
Alright, fuckers, let's see if you can survive this.
Eyes straining, he used Amenotejikara to switch places with the rock.
All three Limbo clones were crushed beneath it, and Sasuke found himself hundreds of metres up with a perfect bird's eye view of the battlefield.
Madara has chased Hinata down again, and Sasuke witnessed what was probably in the top five fastest taijutsu brawls of all time. Hinata was a white-blue blur, four arms, two legs and two wings flashing like this was Jojo's Bizzare Adventure or something. Even with her amazing skill, though, she didn't stand a chance. Madara was still faster, still stronger, and still possibly flat out better than her. He dismantled her defence, grabbed her by the throat, pulled up a Rinnegan rod in one hand-
-Froze in Kesshotoketsu, and shattered the distraction effortlessly, but by that point his attention was already elsewhere.
Naruto had pinned his own Limbo clone down with Truth Seeking orbs, and made another dash for the tree. Madara had been flying straight for him, and again used Bansho Ten'in to pull the Uzumaki back.
The distraction was enough. Hinata thrust her arms forwards, calling out "Hiragekoma!" and while Madara blocked it (obviously), he couldn't turn the block into a grab, and Hinata was able to use her flight and telekinesis to disengage. He didn't run her down, instead continuing to chase after Naruto. Sasuke looked back, and watched the Limbo clones he'd tried to destroy shove the meteor off them and start moving again, completely unharmed.
We need a way to deal with the clones! He shouted into the link.
More importantly, we need to get Naruto up that tree! Hinata interceded. That's the second time he's gone out of his way to stop it! What's the range on his universal pull?
Mines almost thirty metres! His first was about double that, but it might be a double bluff! Sasuke warned.
This is the second time he's given up the opportunity to kill me to catch Naruto! Hinata retorted, He wouldn't do that for mind games! Naruto, there must be some benefit for you getting Samehada to that tree!
Great! Naruto enthused. Now SAVE ME!
While flying through the air in Madara's pull, he span vertically twice then kicked a small meteor that was falling atop him, sending it hurtling towards Madara. Madara completely ignored it, and it clattered off his chest.
Once again, six Orbs crashed against ten, and Madara had the advantage. Two of the spares swung down to shatter the chains Naruto tried to use to change his path, while the other two hovered dangerously behind Madara's shoulders, waiting until his target came within range (and possibly in case Sasuke attempted to teleport in and intervene). And Hinata was too far away to effectively intercede.
Hinata! Sasuke shouted. Gravity was much slower than he might have liked; he launched down kunai with wire attached and pulled himself faster, giving it a little extra leftward force to dodge another falling meteor. Assassination plan 12!
Hinata turned to him and nodded, dropping into what might have seemed like a position to catch him even as she used her telekinesis to speed him up.
Sasuke waited until the literal smallest division of time he could physically process before he collided with her, when he was a hair's breadth away from her arms that really didn't seem to have friendly intentions.
Across the battlefield, Madara's Rinnegan shifted back to Mangekyo, and the two Truth Seeking orbs he had in reserve dropped into physical contact with his shoulders.
And then Sasuke triggered his Amenotejikara, switching places with Madara.
And you didn't know I could do that did you-OH COME ON!
Hinata shouted "FIVE HUNDRED AND TWELVE PALMS!" But the two Orbs Madara had brought with him (he brought them in ADVANCE, how did he react to it IN ADVANCE-) flew into a shield in front of him and caught the blistering tirade.
Sasuke and Naruto were now both falling, and the former held out Samehada to the latter, shouting "Here! Get up there and-"
Madara, for the first time looking like he was actually being strained by his actions, pointed a finger at a spot in the centre of the warzone and said "Chibaku Tensei."
Team Seven all started to fall sideways.
If a meteor storm hadn't looked cool enough, imagine a meteor storm where every meteor that fell was being sucked towards a central point, gaining even more momentum as they did and moving to crush the insolent children that had dared to exist anywhere near them.
Does anyone remember when this was all about ninja? Like, sneaking, and knives, with some small bits of magic? Naruto thought, sounding on the verge of a mental breakdown as he dodged another rock.
Don't panic! Hinata told them. We can do what the Sannin did! Summon our sage creatures and reverse summon to their sanctuaries! Naruto, this will be a great chance to drop down shadow clones there and drain Senjutsu from the tree roots!
Sasuke was silent in the chakra Skype call. He was too busy thinking.
How is Madara doing this? How is he predicting us so well? How, how, how? THINK!
All three had already taken more than enough hits to have blood about their persons. As one, they took some in their hands, put them together, and shouted "SUMMONING JUTSU!"
...
...And nobody came.
In Mount Myoboku, in Shikkotsu Forest, in Ryuchi cave, and in the Angel Mountains, enormous roots tore up through the walls and ground.
Toads, Slugs, Owls, and Snakes all struggled weakly in the grasp of twisted, hungry branches.
The Shinju tree fed upon natural energy, after all. It's roots had been drawn to those hidden places as inevitably as water flows downhill.
Kudos struggled harder than most, his Mangekyo flashing a deep, angry red, screeching his defiance to the world. But he could not free himself. And when his mistress called, he could not answer.
"FUCK!"
Team Seven reached the centre of the rapidly forming planetoid. Hinata wrapped her wings around Naruto and Sasuke, trying to save them all from the worst of the buffeting as she strove desperately to use her own powers to pull them out of the gravity well. But there was nothing she could do to match the power of the Jinchurikki of the Ten-Tails, not alone.
Sasuke was barely even paying attention. His Rinnegan darted about, looking at Madara charging up something in his hands, seeing the four Limbo clones all arraying themselves out in front of their master. Meanwhile, his mind whirled, darting from concept to concept as fast as his neurones could fire. The Limbo clones, the Rinnegan, the Summoning, where did everything come from, why was Madara so smart, how much chakra do I have left, how can Madara predict what we're going to do?
The rocks piled down on top of them, slowly blocking out their view of the outside world. The last thing Sasuke witnessed before everything went dark was Madara building up an enormity of lightning chakra in his arms, and shouting "INDRA'S ARROW!"
Then, there was absolutely nothing to see. The darkness was total, inescapable.
And finally, Sasuke saw.
And, in an elegant four-step plan, he knew exactly what he had to do.
His eyes briefly closed, as he whispered an apology to his future self. Then they opened again.
"Chaotic Planetary Devastation."
Step one completed: counteract Chibaku Tensei.
The planetoid shattered, the outward wave of force turning it into a frankly enormous fragmentation grenade that threw pieces of broken stone miles upon miles away. If the world survived, children would be venturing out and finding shards of it across the five nations for decades to come.
What Sasuke was feeling was frankly beyond pain at this point. He'd never felt anything like it and never wanted to again, but knew he was in for much worse before this little manoeuvre was completed, as he forced himself to push off forwards, jumping between the stone shards of his recent prison and riding their momentum up towards Madara.
Madara didn't even seem surprised. He simply hurled the enormous lightning bolt.
Oh...the one that owl used really was a miniature. So this is my ancestor's signature, huh? Glad he was as much of a dramatic bitch as we all are.
Ignoring the screams of his teammates in his thoughts, Sasuke rode the wreckage straight towards the incoming bolt, one arm reached out.
Of course, Madara's variant was imbued with senjutsu. It didn't turn Sasuke to stone, far too much for that; just began to obliterate his cells on contact. He didn't even bat an eyelid as his arm began to disintegrate; an arm that didn't exist hurt less than the rest of him did right now, and besides, it meant he was in contact with it. He stared past its blinding brilliance, focusing his vision on Madara's Limbo clones. Not the simple projection of force that they appeared as in this world, no, he focused on what the Rinnegan could uniquely see. On where they really were.
Amenotejikara was greater than it initially seemed. Sasuke had instinctively known that its reach was greater than simply taking him to other objects, to other people, that it was daring him to expand its reach further...a dare he was all too happy to take.
After all, we know other dimensions exist at this point, right?
Sasuke wrapped his consciousness around himself, and the arrow, and punched a hole through the fabric of reality.
Step two completed: counteract Indra's Arrow.
He vanished from the dimension he'd spent his entire existence up to that point in, and now he was falling through empty space, stars all around him and the vacuum so cold-
He latched back onto his target, and tore through another hole. The dimension he appeared in was one of ice, freezing and terrible, so cold that even in the split second he spent there his skin hardened and frosted-
Tore through another, this was a dimension full of fire and lava, so hot his skin blistered and cracked, still the wrong place but closer, and Indra's Arrow was still with him, burning almost up to his elbow now-
Tore through another, and entered a world that was cold, but not unbearably so. Beneath him was a snowy landscape, and a large stone fortress, on the roof of which two figures with pale white hair looked up at him in shock-
Tore through another, and the blank, geometric world he saw around him now could only be Kamui. There were even signs of combat and a splash of blood far below him, if he looked.
His body was shutting down, tearing apart beneath him, he simply didn't have the power to do this. So he used the Preta path to draw energy from the Arrow, even as it accelerated the rate that the senjutsu tore his arm to shreds, come on, I don't care what happens after, I just need to last a few more moments-
He tore through another hole. This world was blank. White, from horizon to horizon. With a laugh, he realised this might be the same place Hagoromo had brought them when he'd granted them their powers. Didn't think I'd be returning so soon, did you?
But most importantly, below him were four small pinpricks of something in the endless nothing. Four pinpricks that we're looking up at him in absolute bewilderment.
"HELLO, BOYS!" He screamed down to the Limbo clones. "I'M BAAAAACK!"
Sasuke released his conscious grip on the Indra's Arrow. Then he tore one last hole, and vanished into it.
What the rest of the combatants saw was Sasuke run up to Madara's coup de grace...and both vanish through a hole in the air.
A split second later, Sasuke returned through the same hole, tumbling helplessly through the air.
His right arm was gone, his skin had all been burned off, and blood and guts poured from his mouth. The remnants of his tongue. He hit a rock on the way down, throwing him into an even more helpless fall and snapping one leg at the hip. As he span, however, he was able to get a beautiful view of the four Limbo clones looking terrified for a good full millisecond. Then Indra's Arrow hit them in their own dimension. The four constructs vanished in a whisper of wind.
Step three completed: Neutralise Limbo Clones.
His Rinnegan regressed at that point, as did his Mangekyo and his Sharingan entirely. Ordinary, dark black eyes looked up at Hinata and Naruto, who (never the type of people to stand and gawk) flew down towards him.
They caught him about ten metres off the ground, and lowered him the rest of the way.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in his face, which was rather inconsiderate (or not really. Sasuke was practically deaf anyway at this point.) "What did you just do?"
Madara's secret. He thought up at them. His tenuous grasp on even the basic communication genjutsu was faltering, but he forced himself to provide his teammates one final tool.
The way he can predict us so well, I figured it out.
In hindsight it was simple enough, though he supposed in hindsight everything was. The biggest clue had been something so innocuous, Sasuke would never have noticed it if he hadn't been paying attention to the exact same things in himself. Why had Madara's eyes always gone back to Mangekyo when his life was in the greatest danger?
With his last strength, Sasuke shared:
Madara can use his Sharingan to rewind time.
Also, I love you.
Step four completed: Reveal Madara's Mangekyo Ability.
Then the connection cut, and he knew nothing at all.
"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed, as his friend slumped, and Hinata found with some surprise that she'd shouted her teammate's name as well.
He's not dead! She called across the bond, eyes roving over Sasuke's vitals. But I have no idea how! His brain signals are going to cut out any second.
'Any second', however, gave ninja a lot of time.
Naruto inhaled, and set Sasuke down. He picked up Samehada from where it lay, having toppled out of Sssuke's outstretched hand. Then he turned back to the battle.
Time rewind. He sent to Hinata. Think Sasuke was right?
Yes. Hinata answered, honestly, somewhat amused by how far she'd come from hating the Uchiha's guts. I trust Sasuke completely. If that's the conclusion he came to, I believe him. The issue is, how do we use it against the motherfucker that did this to him? Madara predicted the laser, the switch into the 512 palms, I'm sure he was doing it during the war...if he can undo his mistakes, how do we win?
The same way Hashirama beat this guy his entire life. Naruto replied. The answer felt perfectly obvious to him. We put him in a position where knowing what's going to happen won't matter.
Meanwhile, Madara was looking between the two of them, and the spot his Limbo clones had just occupied. "It will take me a whole day to get those back..." he mused. "Other dimensions. Noting that for later."
Thunder roared above him. Though the meteor storm had stopped, it had turned the sky into a broiling mess of lightning and dark clouds. They couldn't even see the moon anymore, and Naruto briefly hoped that might have turned off the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Hinata?
Nope.
Dammit.
Madara put his hands together. "I hope you didn't expect that to give you an advantage. You see, a fun thing about Yin-Yang release is that it also gives you all the other releases too. Wood Clone Jutsu."
"OH COME ON!"
Madara didn't stop at four of these clones. He made ten, then ten more, then ten more, and by that point the first ten had activated their own Susanno and were charging toward the last two members of team Seven.
The pair exchanged a glance, and a whole lot of strategy.
Then Naruto hopped onto Hinata's back.
As once Sasuke had ridden Naruto into battle against the One-Tails, so now did Naruto ride Hinata against the Ten. Tenseigan Cloak active, Hinata flew forwards, and slammed into one of the Susanno's heads with both fists. Her arms flashed with Edacious chakra as her lionfists burst to life, consuming the energy making it up and causing the wood to shrivel and die.
This is the advantage Sasuke fought for, fuckface. The Limbo clones had no cost for you. These bargain basement ones have weaknesses.
They were trapped, obviously, because Madara had thought of this. Each clone that charged towards them was brimming with natural energy, designed specifically to stop Hinata doing exactly what she was doing.
What he hadn't accounted for there was teamwork.
Hinata gasped as the natural energy flowed into her system, threatening to turn her to stone.
Gasped again as Naruto turned her head around and kissed her full on the lips.
He used the contact to access her chakra, and drew the sage energy out of her and into himself, eyes flashing orange.
Did you have to do that?
Not at all. Are you complaining?
Hell no.
The first Susanno-Wood-Clone disintegrated under their grasp.
The next punched them, and Hinata caught it's fist in one hand, repeating the process, while Naruto hurled his Truth Seeking orbs at the nearest one, tearing it apart.
Two more came in, swinging swords, and Hinata vaulted them, using her telekinesis to yank both avatars towards her and drain them both, her chakra reserves rapidly filling back up to even higher than they had been before the fight had started. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto shouted, and this was more like it. Six shadow clones appeared around him, all in Sage mode, each wielding one of the Truth Seeking orbs as ruddy big sticks to smack about the avatars as they attacked.
Madara watched from afar as his endless supply of clones, far from drowning his opponents in overwhelming force, began to fall faster and faster.
But he wasn't stupid enough to keep attempting a failed strategy.
"Particle Style: Obliteration Ring!"
A white circle with a radius of over a hundred metres appeared on the ground, centered on Hinata and Naruto, and it rapidly grew brighter and brighter.
Hinata met Naruto's eyes. Then she kicked him in the chest.
He went flying outside the radius of the ring just as it's light peaked, and then a cylinder of white energy tore up into the sky. The beam tore straight up through the clouds, causing all the swirling black storm heads around it to rumble even more dangerously from the heat.
It also completely disintegrated one of Naruto's sandals, as well as, presumably, everything within the ring. That included all of Madara's own clones, but most importantly,
"HINATA!" Naruto screamed.
To his credit, the Uzumaki boy didn't let his grief distract him for even a moment. Smart. Madara couldn't actually sense anything within the giant column of his own power, but was willing to be the girl had found a way to keep herself alive (even if he'd saturated it with as much senjutsu as he could to get past her annoying Counter-Chakra).
His plan had been to hold them in there as long as possible (they had every incentive to stay inside for as and absorb as much energy from the attack as they could) which would let him set up as many of the dozens of plans he'd thought of as he had time for.
However, with the girl's impulsive emotional move, he now had an opportunity to put the biggest potential threat in the fight out of action right now.
He ceased his concentration on the Particle Style beam, and focused all of his attention on hurling his Truth Seeking Orbs at Naruto as fast as he could.
Naruto, sailing up over Madara, resummoned his six shadow clones (and their respective Truth Seeking Orbs) with a poof of smoke, and hurled the orbs down at him.
Madara briefly considered his options, then allowed his own Orbs to sail past Naruto's without engaging them. The boy was doing making more clones up there to help him evade, and Madara would not allow him to reach the tree with a halfhearted attack. He committed all his Orbs to destroying all the Naruto (not even he could tell which was which, annoyingly), and when Naruto's Orbs reached him, he simply activated Shinra Tensei, the defensive wave of force enough to block the orbs for as long as it would take to destroy their caster.
Good fight, Naruto. But it's over.
And yet.
As the six orbs approached the edge of his defense, three of them vanished in poofs of smoke. Appearing in their places was-
"Oh Madaraaaaa~!" Called out three Hashirama Senjus who were all completely naked. "It's been so long, surely if you're going to spend eternity ruling the world you could spend it with me~"
Madara's jaw dropped.
"MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE! REVERSE HAREM JUTSU!" Shouted Naruto, even as Madara's orbs began to tear him and his clones apart.
Madara was distracted for just barely long enough. He realised that the Naruto clones transformed to look like his ex-boyfriend weren't falling onto him, but rather around him, but by that point there wasn't anything he could do.
Golden Adamantine chains wrapped around the perimeter of his Shinra Tensei, and their chakra-nullifying powers pushed them through, slamming into Madara himself as the Naruto clones sheepishly dangled from the ends of the chains below, but that was still pointless because Madara still had his sage mode and could completely ignore their effects-
Which was when the Particle Style attack finished. Madara looked over and oh, that's where the other three Truth Seeking Orbs are. Hinata floated above a shield made of them, one that had cracked under the blast of annihilation but held, and now one of her hands was stretched up to the sky.
The dark, clouded, rumbling sky.
"GRYPHON! BEGONE, THOT!" She screamed.
The storm flashed, and lightning chakra tore down towards Madara.
And without his Orbs or ninjutsu, he couldn't block it.
Oh, damn. That was close.
His eyes reverted to the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Turnback was what he had nicknamed his Mangekyo power, and it was the most exhausting thing he had. The longest he could rewind in his first life was five seconds, and doing that had put him in the hospital for over a week. Fortunately most conflicts didn't require it, and with the speed ninja moved at, he rarely needed to go back more than a handful of milliseconds. But his newfound power, coupled with the newly ridiculous speeds everyone moved at, meant that it became incredibly useful for pulling himself out of difficult situations. And of course, any chakra cost was worth it to avoid being killed outright.
The fact that he had been pushed to use it so many times in a single fight was a testament to his opponents skill, power, and ingenuity.
But none of that was enough to grant them the victory.
He rewound barely a millisecond, watching the world around him flash into inverted colours as everyone moved backwards, including himself. He watched the events around him crucially, waiting for the perfect moment to reclaim his body-there.
He was back just before the Particle column vanished, with his eyes in Mangekyo form, and chose to make his attack a much more cautious one, only sending four orbs to Naruto while six of them intercepted the falling clones.
The shadow clones disguised as Orbs were obliterated on contact, and the actual Orbs had their momentum halted by three of his own. The other three formed a shield above him, waiting for the moment when Hinata's clever lightning jutsu fell down from the heavens.
Of course, he couldn't block that with Shinra Tensei. Not because it wasn't strong enough: Because his eyes were stuck in Mangekyo form until he reached the moment in time when he had originally used the jutsu.
I had never thought that that of all things would be a weakness. Today is certainly a strange one.
The column of light vanished, Hinata screamed "GRYPHON!", and Naruto...
Madara gaped, as two more Orbs appeared around Naruto and his clones, moving to intercept Madara's attacking four.
He only used ONE to save Hinata? Possible, if he infused it with Senjutsu, but why would he keep any of them in reserve? I was originally going to send all ten, he must have expected that, how did he-
Oh. Oh, son of a motherfucking bitch, when did they figure Turnback out?
Madara could do nothing but watch, helplessly.
Naruto's two orbs crashed into two of Madara's, leaving only two free to fly towards him and the clones he'd gathered around his person.
There were six Naruto total, all still flying with the momentum of Hinata's kick up towards the tree. Madara's Orbs struck, and that number dwindled to four, then three.
One of the Naruto took the other two, and threw them even harder away. That was then destroyed by an orb, and as the last two soared away, one of them turned around, fingers flashing with Adamantine chains-
Madara directed the last orb past it, targeting the Naruto that was the furthest away. The black material bit into his jumpsuit...
And he vanished in a puff of smoke.
The last Naruto continued, unimpeded, towards the tree.
"FUCK!" Madara swore, enraged.
The Gryphon struck his shield, which held, and he finally was able to bring his Rinnegan back active ("A fat lot of use you were!" He shouted at the third eye on his forehead) but by that point Naruto was out of range of Bansho Ten'in. Hinata was flying up to Madara now, aiming to buy her teammate time.
He sighed.
Privately awarded them the award of 'best team he'd ever had the displeasure of fighting'.
And then he summoned his Susanno.
The world shook in response to it's activation, and he didn't even bother analysing it's appearance, just reaching for the titanic katana at his hip, drawing it and swinging it in one smooth motion.
There was a flash of light.
Then Naruto, and the Tree, were both cut entirely in two.
The next chapter will be released Tomorrow, Sunday 5th April, at 22:00 London time.
You know, I never considered myself a 'fanboy' of the Uchiha, or of Madara specifically. Sure, I like him, I think he's an interesting antagonist (thought, I suppose, a bit of a copy of Pain in terms of motivation). But I always thought the Byakugan was cooler, which you can tell because I wrote a 360,000 word fanfiction about it.
But Madara...he's just broken dude. That's not my fault. They gave 80% of all the strongest powers we've seen so far to one dude.
I've made clear that while he was alive, Hashirama was always that little bit better than Madara, and it pissed him off to no end. But I think the main reason Madara is so intimidating is because he doesn't give a shit about the nonsense all the other ninja perpetuate. The smack-talk, the references, the joking...Madara ignores it all. He'll just kill you.
Return tomorrow evening for the conclusion. For better or worse.
