With a confident strut, Madara appeared from the crater wearing nothing but a few cracks to his crimson armor plates. Kouta, who crash-landed through the giant Susanoo arm and the ribcage defenses dusted the dirt off of his clothes in reserved discontent with the damage his attack had dealt to the enemy. Madara's eye darted off to the right side so that it could catch a glimpse of the boy that had just gone right through his defenses.
"Is that disappointment I see in you? You've done well to break through this elementary Susanoo stage." Madara wondered without much emotional reaction. No smirk to rub his confidence into everybody's faces or empty boasts, the fact that he didn't enjoy his dominance in power only made it worse. After all, he treated taking the best Team Hawthorn could offer and having only a few cracks to show for it as if it was the only possible outcome.
"Yeah… It was such a flashy maneuver that I was ready to put you down with it…" it was Kouta now who laughed out, even though he was laughing in the face of a dire situation.
"Put me down?" Madara blew air through his nose in mockery of the boy's declaration. "As of yet I'm not even convinced you lot are worth the time I'm wasting on fighting you."
"Now!" a voice cut through the settling routine of an after-crash conversation, forcing every present ninja to turn their attention toward the trio from Team Westerlund as the Nara girl from their ranks fell to one knee and put her hands together in a Nara clan hand seal position, letting her shadow to stretch out lit by pale moonlight. The strength of the Nara shadows and their range depended on the source of light and a middle of a dense forest during the middle of the night was one of the worst times to be a Nara ninja, save for perhaps the total pitch blackness, devoid even of the moon in the sky.
Madara took a pair of steps back, not even feeling the need to apply any rush to his moves as even a casually paced step was enough for Rarrifa's shadow to run out of range just inches before touching Madara's shadow and completing the connection.
"Really?" Madara sneered at the kneeling girl who, for some reason, continued to smirk as if her shadow wasn't letting out pathetic twitches in an attempt to lengthen its reach just a little bit. "The Nara clan was always second rate fiddle but its advocates couldn't stop praising your intelligence on the battlefield. You're embarrassing even my own low standards for your bloodline."
"Partial Expansion Jutsu!" Akimichi Saol yelled out while winding his hand up in the position for a hammer strike. As if it were blown up with a balloon, the hand inflated to massive proportions far surpassing the entire body mass of the chunky young man, allowing him to drive the hand down in an attempt to swat Madara like an irksome fly.
A pair of trees burst forth from the ground, driving its rising branches to Saol's inflated arm and keeping it up but it served little use. Madara himself appeared to be surprised by the sudden emergence of the Senju trees from underground, enough so to end up right under Saol's slam. The supersized limb raced back to its owner, snapping back into place with a nasty crunch that made Saol wince from the tension in his shoulder joint from the sudden deflation of his striking hand.
Faeino Yamanaka put her arms up as if preparing to box, she rolled up her sleeves and grabbed the end of the rubbery sheet wrapped around her wrists, revealing her wristbands to be just a scroll of rubber tied around her arms. Pops spread from both exposed sheets of rubber, revealing a pair of stick-shaped parts that Faeino scooped up from mid-air and slammed against each other, then, after they've fixed in place, dragged them apart, allowing the parts to form a bow.
Reaching for the leather sack hung on her back in the pouch attached to her belt and her thigh, Faeino removed an arrow and pulled it on the string, like a synchronized symphony, the arrow ignited with electric crackles of Lightning Release chakra coating. The Yamanaka girl let an arrow loose and replaced it with a new one in rapid succession, skewering the forest floor around Madara.
"You'd think that one would be a better shot while focusing on archery as their fighting style…" Madara bumbled while rising back on his feet after being smashed to the ground by Saol's attack, yet another breakthrough for the united genin that served of little to no use against the legendary shinobi.
"Lightning Style: Chain Net!" Faeino mumbled without requiring to form any hand seals. Something that was incredibly handy for her, given how she had no free arms to spare for that while using her bow. The electricity coating the arrows interconnected with each separate arrow simultaneously, forming an intricate net for which each arrow served as a crossing point between the links.
Madara yelled out, engulfed in Lightning Release chakra. It didn't seem like the jutsu was all that mighty in terms of power but what it lacked in heart-stopping capabilities it delivered in spades with disruption. Faeino didn't even look to Saol, who already knew his role from previous experiences working alongside his Yamanaka teammate. The young man clapped his hands together and jumped up, boosting his jumping height greatly with chakra until he soared above the tallest trees in the forest.
By the time Saol expanded the size of his body, he had wrapped himself into a fetal position and upon expansion became an actual wrecking ball that threatened to quake the entire Forest of Death, heading straight in the direction of the stunned enemy as a round arrow of a far more devastating and weighty variety that was launched from no string except the one of his own hype.
"Ino-Shika-Cho: Shadow Thunder Crash!" Saol cheered out when Rarrifa worked her Nara hand seal into the rotation and extended her shadow, utilizing the flashing lights from her teammate's electric light show to fuel the strength and range of her own technique which sprouted from the ground and extended like a large geyser that surrounded Saol's cannonball crash with a layer of Rarrifa's chakra manifesting itself in shadows. The obsidian-colored human cannonball crashed into the shocking lightning net, resulting in the dirt rippling in waves all around the place of impact as the Lightning Release chakra coiled and stormed around its newfound target, insulated by Rarrifa's shadowy layer of protection until the artificial lightning storm had subsided.
"Whoa! That's a neat combo!" an all too familiar voice distracted the two girls observing the remains of their combination attack. Morei, the Great Blue, had risen from its short nap and clapped his hunky, webbed hands for the Ino-Shika-Cho combo of the Hoshigakure genin. "The only way it could have been even better was if it contained space for the Great Blue himself!" Morei jested while pointing at himself with his thumb and smirking with a full row of razor-sharp teeth.
"How would they make space for you if they haven't even known you even existed until ten minutes ago?" Raizo, Morei's teammate, scratched the back of his head. Using her kanabo for an assist in standing up, Chu also returned to her feet and shook her head to let her hair settle into a more workable loose hanging position compared to the awkward clump they've stuck together after Madara's jutsu burnt up the ribbons holding her hair in the twin ponytail position.
"Oh, but I agree…" Madara's voice pierced the settling smoke as the lightly battle-damaged Uchiha emerged from the smoke. "This was a most remarkable attack, worthy of entertaining me. If only it didn't take three ninja to execute a jutsu that packed about as much punch as a single decent one…"
Madara's red armor had cracked completely in half with only one shoulder piece remaining in tatters, held together by copper wire strings while the other side had scattered across where Madara had fallen, his black undershirt was covered in dirt and light bruising shined as the only gold trophy the genin alliance would have ever wanted in such a situation. Madara's hair looked even wilder in his current condition of battle wear. Despite the limited successes, the man looked more ready than ever to scrap for real and the efforts of Kouta and Team Westerlund might have only served to drive the Ghost of Uchiha into a sense of rightful rampage like in his heyday.
"That worthless stick appears to have summoned trees before, let's see what other fancy tricks it can offer, shall we?" Madara smirked and pulled the ancient Senju artifact he had just pulled out from the sacred archives he had collapsed into. Judging by the cool manner in which he had exposed the weapon to his enemies, it was almost as if he hadn't just drawn just a bare stick that wasn't even properly trimmed as buds of fledgling leaves and side branches hung by its sides.
Madara's chakra manifested in a thick coating around the stick, before the legendary Uchiha threw himself at the genin, choosing to attack once against all. Hoshigaki Morei whistled to himself and threw himself in Madara's way, his face gleamed with happiness as this chance was everything he had wanted. Madara read the kid like an open book, whereas Morei tried to shoulder charge the Uchiha and slam him into the ground, Madara rolled over Morei's back and kicked him to throw the Great Blue face-first into the dirt.
Murky blurs flashed all around Madara as Kouta, Deiji and Nanaba all charged at him at the same time. Kouta's body retained the Curse Seal Stage One markings while Deiji's armor spat out steam like it was its only job, a whip-like tail had sprouted from Nanaba's bottom, aiming to strangle or whip Madara with all of the might that the Seven-Tails could have mustered. Madara leaned and danced around Kouta's speedy striking combinations. Evading Deiji's power crosses, further strengthened by the bursting steam that gave each strike Deiji threw a certain missile-like oomph to them, was nothing compared to the first feat of evasiveness. Nanaba's tail wrapped around Madara's throat and swung him over her head.
Madara's feet planted first into the ground as the Uchiha had more than enough battlefield experience to find the right side up to land better. That was when Kouta flashed in on his location, chakra jets bursting from under his transformed feet and his arms had already taken the state of Curse Seal Mark Two, although only in the feet and the arms from the elbow down to the fists. Madara raised his arms up to block the hit and succeeded but wild jets of chakra burst forth from the makeshift vents in Kouta's elbows, sending Madara rolling and crashing back right through the remains of the hallowed Senju temple.
Seeing Kyona Chu charging at him with her kanabo winded up and screaming her lungs out like a madwoman, Madara just flung the sacred Senju stick aiming for her face in a twisting whirl. Having more skill than Madara had attributed to her, Chu slid under the stick and bent her body back to have the stick miss her in the entirety of its vertical, spinning pathway.
Before the kanabo swinging berserker could dash up to Madara's face and smash him nice and proper, however, a stream of black and white cubes flocked from seemingly the skies themselves and formed a supermassive mass of shuffling cubes. Chu placed her kanabo back to its holster on her back and dashed back, shoving her thick hair out of the way of obstructing her view as he took a gander at the extravagant sight.
"Why is the cube interfering?" Itachi scratched his chin, looking troubled over the fact that the cube had just protected Madara out of nowhere. It was then that Itachi's eyes fixed on the lowly stick lying on the devastated garden dirt. "The stick…"
"I know that stick!" Kouta yelled out, pointing at the object now that he had a clearer view of it since Madara was no longer in the possession of it. "That's the stick from the World Spruce of Princess Satsuhimasa, the Spruce Princess! The tree that stuck the moon together and which Satsumaru used to control the Tailed Beasts with!"
"The Tailed Beasts!?" Itachi turned to Kouta in shock. Judging from the absolutely dumbfounded expression of the Uchiha prodigy, he was not aware of this particular story. "Is there even such an artifact?"
"There is, Mana used to tell me that story a whole lot! Although… It was supposedly just a dumb story…" Kouta rubbed his chin in confusion of a figment of what he had considered being just a dumb story to have manifested itself into what he had considered being reality.
"I see… Makes sense that Hashirama's alternate clansmen wouldn't keep just a useless old stick around…" Madara laughed out to himself while he stared at the mass of cubes taking a shape of a fat creature that stood on two legs and had a head the size of one-third of its total body, once the pair of protruded eyes, as well as its six distinct tails, began forming, it became clear just what the creature was for certain. The sudden appearance of the Six-Tails had become a factor that nobody had anticipated!
"Of course it would be cubes…" Itachi stared at the head of the massive beast that was yet to fully comprehend the fact it was alive. "This is just a replica of this universe, after all, meaning that neither that stick nor the Tailed Beasts that inhabit it are real. In order for this stick to be replicated, the cube must create the Tailed Beast clones to make it work. It hadn't anticipated that the stick would be used so it's covering up for that factor spontaneously…"
"Hmph… Six-Tails, what a pathetic, lumbering slob…" Madara mocked his sudden savior before opening his crimson eyes with glee. "Either way, even if you wouldn't have been my first choice, I can make this work!"
Madara took a tall bound and landed atop of the Six-Tails' head as ethereal, blue Susanoo scales began forming all around the gooey body of the Six-Tails. What had appeared to be just a bipedal, six-tailed, supermassive slug, turned out to be the world's toughest shellfish now that the Susanoo coated it from head-to-toe.
"Now look what you children made me do… You've gotten me all rared up and excited to wreak some havoc. I'm sorry if you all end up catching your deaths!" Madara already declared his victory standing atop of the Six-Tails, having positioned a whole bunch of sharp helmet pieces around him to help keep him atop of the brawling, armored Tailed Beast he had made. "Oh, also, I'd rather not forget…"
The armored slug inflated to the point where it had threatened to burst the Susanoo plates from within before blowing out a white cloud of gas, focused up and streamlined into a single jet of corrosive stream that threatened to blow and corrode all the way through the core of the simulated Cube World and onto the other side. Once the Six-Tails had settled its attack, a wall of white slugs fell apart, multiplying from a single, staunch defender of the puny branch positioned underneath.
"It may be just a fake, but it's a sacred regalia keepsake of this Universe's Senju clan and I'll die before letting you destroy it!" Tsunade pointed the stick that she clutched in her subtle yet capable of almighty blows hands while the duplicated white slug with purple rings decorating its back reformed to a singular, supersized wall it started out as before the damage it had suffered forced it to duplicate to survive.
"Oh? An inferior spawn of her grandfather, using an inferior species of slugs and swinging fists of insufficient strength to break through the armor of the sworn enemy of your clan. The epitome of failure makes some bold claims as always…" Madara had little else but stern stares to offer the valiant Senju kunoichi.
"Go on, use the stick!" Orochimaru hissed at Tsunade in encouragement for her to call for a superior mount to engage Madara's own pet.
"Don't!" Itachi warned the Slug Princess before she made a grave mistake. "With the Mangekyou Sharingan Madara can cast illusions on the Tailed Beasts and control them. All you'd be doing is summoning another one to his aid."
"The Sharingan can even do that?" Orochimaru gave up his idea and became immensely interested in the power the visual technique of the Uchiha clan offered.
"Oh… You're awfully well-informed…" Madara smirked, looking impressed with Itachi's knowledge. "Makes me wonder why someone so aware of the Sharingan's abilities can use so few of them… Is it because your eyes are not yet eternal? If so, you lack the drive to strive for strength, you're even worse than the ignorant ones…"
"Everybody knows that snakes are afraid of slugs, I'll just let you handle this thing, for now, Tsunade…" Orochimaru shrugged and relinquished the responsibility of handling the slug to Tsunade. Despite it being an awful trick of not owning up to one's responsibility, the young lady of the Senju appeared more than content in handling the matter herself as she rolled back the sleeve of her kimono as if winding up for an awesome punch before placing the stick of the World Spruce under her belt.
Tsunade raised her index. A minute spark of blue lit up at the tip of her finger, like a predecessor to a finger beam, a tiny, sparkling star at the end of the kunoichi's fingertips. The Slug Princess crouched over and touched the ground with her enhanced finger. Violent earthquakes made parts of ground rise while others sunk in emerging fissures, even the beacon of stability with all that fat and weight focused on its lower body that was the Six-Tails fumbled over and struggled to stay upright. The entirety of the genin alliance didn't risk it and darted off further from Tsunade while Jiraiya called on for one of his toads to carry him and Orochimaru further from Tsunade's rampage as he'd done so many times when she got mad at him for peeping at her.
"This is just what one of my fingers can do. I have long since wondered what would happen if I focused all of my herculean strength into an entire fist and really let loose. Even in my home universe, it was a thought far too frightening as few people could take as much as a flick from me and live to tell me how bad it hurt. Madara, right now, right here, I will rip you to shreds for insulting the Senju legacy!" Tsunade pointed her finger at the vain figure of the legendary Uchiha resting himself atop of the Susanoo-clad Six-Tails before clenching her arm into a mighty fist and winding it up for a punch while her awesome might surged through it in chakra so intense that it became easily visible to even the naked eye.
In his arrogance, Madara crossed his arms and refused to even humor the thought of blocking the strike in any other way than letting his armor and Six-Tail's natural bulk take it. His vain stare was a declaration of war and a challenge to young Tsunade to do her best and break her arm trying to dent his limitless might. Like a heaven-splitting arrow, Tsunade soared right at where the Six-Tails was its thickest. She too possessed some pride in her clan, the Senju, as well as her own, personal power and where she had taken the abilities she had inherited from one of the pair of the most powerful clans of her home universe.
On foreign land, a fake version of the Forest of Death, a ravaged, hallowed garden of the Senju, the clans of Senju and Uchiha came to clash once again as they've done in the epic wars of old.
