[Hokage's Office; 0700 Next Day]
"You have need of me, Danzo-sama?"
Grey hair struck up in invasive spikes atop the kneeling man's head. His face was covered by a white porcelain mask with no holes, muffling the young man's voice. Kabuto Yakushi, Danzo's last member of root, was awaiting new orders. With yesterday's events planted firmly in his mind, he knew anything his master said would be beyond importance. He'd already had to sit through a meeting with the other kage. Of course, it makes sense they'd be more than annoyed at having their delegates cut down by an errant missing nin, but the Leaf had suffered the most. Unfortunately for them, Danzo was not Hiruzen Sarutobi. One would cave under the pressure, but Danzo set them all straight with a wave of killing intent. He blackened the walls of their meeting room with ease, snuffing out the Raikage's lightning armor and freezing the other two in place. It was merciful, though, as he had stopped before ending them all. That eye in his right socket was not to be trifled with. Initially, he'd wanted Shisui's mangekyo for its ability, but Kagami's eye…
Shisui could make you change the course of your life with one word. Kagami would rewrite your entire past with just a blink. It made the perfect soldiers out of anyone weaker than the user. There was no hope for you if your chakra levels were even slightly less than Danzo's. It came with a drawback, though. It could only be used once every one year, and only on one person. He focused his chakra weight on the Raikage and had the eyes focused on the third Tsuchikage. Making that man a pawn would have the other Kage a patch of dust floating onto his desk. Some things had to be done, though. Thankfully, it never went that far. Danzo had no current plan to take out the other Kage until his village was strong enough. That said, he wouldn't hesitate to change the fate of the world by wiping out an enemy. Some ants could make a hill if left unchecked, and stepping on the small fry always elicited a groan of pleasure from the old man.
"I want you to check something for me, Kabuto. There's been an increase in whispers around the planet of the whirlpools getting a little more active."
Ninja with swirling blue masks had been seeping from the ocean and flooding the continent with whispers of ghosts on the rise. The world would get bent over if the Uzumaki had somehow hid and started to rise again. They weren't strong when it came to fighting, but even one of their ninja could vanish an entire chunk of the planet by just breathing. The level of fear those people created wasn't something Danzo's heart could take. Learning Hiruzen had been the reason they were taken out was startling, but Danzo understood. For the same reason Danzo made sure Dan Kato and Nawaki Senju were killed, the Senju and Uzumaki couldn't remain alive. It was bad enough having the Uchiha around, but any other potential planet killers were a bad sign. Madara proved it by defecting when he did and splitting a landmass nearly in two during his fight with Hashirama. One good thing shinobi of their caliber could do was mitigate damage by condensing their chakra and aiming it accordingly. There were still mountain tops floating in space from that battle.
"May I ask what you mean, Danzo-sama?"
Danzo just gazed down at the blank mask.
"It means, Kabuto, that an enemy of the state is on the rise, and Itachi is going to need some information before he takes this seat. Now get going. I have more work and meetings to attend to."
As the grey-haired youth departed, another landed in his place. A much taller, more emotional, figure stands before Danzo. His mouth is held in a tight frown, but his eyes are alight with running thoughts and bustling tears.
"What did you do, Danzo-sama?" The young man questions.
A small sigh blankets the air as Danzo shuffles the paperwork in front of him, then stacks the files onto the corner of his desk. He looks up softly, gazing into the youth's eyes without a single drop of hate. He had learned the night prior that his previous methods of controlling the shinobi under his lead were not the most ideal. Of course, it came from losing someone he trusted and respected. Even at his age, he still had much to learn and everything to give. He'd always made the shinobi under his rule sacrifice their lives for his greater good, yet he finally understood the error in doing so. To lead the youth, you must first give up your own time and strength. Sitting back and letting the earth spin his ninja to an early death wasn't the way the world worked anymore. Hashirama's time had passed. The warring clans era was long deceased, and for good reason. Sending kids to their death wasn't something any leader should do without first being the one before them. Hiruzen had made him realize. To lead meant to be the one sacrificing.
It was a cold day in hell when Danzo came to the correct conclusion, but the cost was almost too high. Had Itachi and Kakashi not become the two current strongest walking ninja in the leaf, Danzo would have sent the leaf village packing with one last war effort. Danzo himself remembered how strong Hashirama was, and he wasn't close to the level he felt from Kakashi and Itachi. Danzo realized it before he went to bed. The genius of his dead friend wasn't something to be trifled with. Hiruzen planned all of it. So caught in his current thoughts, he was snapped out of them when the newest grey-haired teen dropped a light short sword onto his desk.
"I'm quitting the ANBU."
The words hung in the air, but Danzo didn't even flinch. He just looked up from his musings and stared into Kakashi's eyes.
"And what do you plan on doing now?"
Kakashi saw a gleam of mischief in Danzo's eyes, but he didn't bring it up.
"I want to teach at the academy."
Danzo just hummed in thought, then replied.
"That's too easy a job for you."
"Not if I change the curriculum."
Danzo steepled his fingers and leaned forward. Kakashi didn't need to be told to continue judging by the look he was being given.
"We need to upgrade the training regime and stop focusing on paper assignments."
Danzo raised his visible eyebrow, surprised by the admission. He had always been aghast at how weak their genin were becoming. They were the bottom of the barrel when compared to the genin of the other hidden villages, and it was worse now with the threat of a clan of supposed Gods coming to claim one of their own.
"I suggest having the Black Ops ANBU take the current crop of genin to their underground base and put them through all ten levels. Have us both monitor them and make sure none of them die."
Danzo's eyes widened in alarm, but he pushed past and waved the youth on.
"I know no one has made it beyond level eight, but we must change that now. That Otsutsuki being was apparently the weakest of their clan. Knowing we'll have more coming in the distant future is a problem. Right now, not one person in the shinobi nations is taking down any of their top five, at least as far as I believe. Even worse, I overheard you talking about a rise near the ruins of Uzu. We are not prepared for anything coming unless our next shinobi can handle themselves. I'm saying this now, Danzo-sama, we are not prepared for war. Our survival rests on the newest generation, and that means we must start now."
"And what of the parents of the children? Anyone taken to the levels won't be getting out until we believe they are ready."
Kakashi hesitated for just a few seconds, but he pushed on.
"Send them all on high-ranking missions, then surround the village in constant ANBU surveillance. There is no current growing war, so we have time. Just…"
He paused, seemingly calculating something.
"I see," Danzo muttered. "We have seven years to war and ten years to the end."
Kakashi looked down in surprise, alarm flickering across his visage.
"Don't look so surprised, Kakashi. I am very aware of the current climate. I already had to deal with a few irate Kage, let alone the process of the funeral for later today. There's very little time to relax as the Kage of a hidden village."
Kakashi raised his hands and wondered softly to himself. To be a teacher meant showing children the proverbial blood on his hands. To be a teacher meant breaking a student and reshaping them into someone he could be proud of. Yet he had his own doubts. Every team he was ever a part of inevitably died around him. There was no lack of blood in a fight and in survival. He had watched as the souls of his enemies and allies and friends alike drifted into a new journey. His team. His sensei. His family. They all disappeared before they could see him succeed, but last night had shown him something.
"If I may, Danzo-sama..." his question was answered before he could finish.
"Kagami Uchiha gifted me an eye the same as your teammate Obito did. Kagami's eye can create any genjutsu based in reality by using your memories and the souls of the dead. I don't control what events play out, but I can set them in motion. That said, Kagami's eye is now inactive for the foreseeable future."
"But why…"
"I did it for you and Itachi. You both had harrowing deaths happen before your very eyes, and your survival was put into question. I made sure you both could make your peace with what you lost. I know it's not a fix, but it'll have to do. I need you both ready for the events to come. There's no telling what can happen anymore, and the hands writing fate have changed their ink at the behest of Hiruzen Sarutobi."
Kakashi looked at Danzo in wonder as the man spoke highly of the third. He knew they weren't on friendly terms for a while, so seeing the adoration in Danzo's words was a shock still.
"Do you want me to do anything for the funeral, Danzo-sama?"
Danzo just hummed before grabbing a slip of paper from his stack.
"I've got a somewhat long mission for you. First, we'll be hosting our funerals and admitting Itachi into office, then you'll make your peace with the dead."
He handed the document to Kakashi and let him skim through the contents. He looked from the paper and watched his sitting Kage nod gravely.
"You want me to… deliver the bodies of the visiting nin? Couldn't that be construed as an act of war?"
"You won't be delivering the bodies. You're going to stop any village from invading us by dropping the bodies at the border posts of each village that participated in our chunin exams, then flare your chakra as much as you can. I know how much you have now with Obito's second eye. It's a preemptive strike to tell the other villages to not come knocking."
Kakashi looked a little scared at the thought. He wasn't ready for another war.
"The other Kage are only slightly above me in terms of strength, Kakashi," and Kakashi's fear was assuaged.
He knew his own power was above Danzo's by a wide margin, but power wasn't skill. Even in a head on fight, he wasn't sure he could defeat Danzo. The man had a ton of experience fighting against Uchiha. He also knew Danzo planned on taking the Uchiha down himself if his plans with Itachi and Shisui fell through.
Kakashi nodded at Danzo before getting ready to leave the office.
"One more thing."
Kakashi stopped his leave when he heard Danzo speak again.
"Yes, Danzo-sama?"
Danzo was silent for a minute. It seemed the man was hesitant to respond, digging through his own thoughts to find the right way to phrase his next response.
"When you take those kids, you better make sure they come out stronger than you. We don't have time to dilly-dally anymore."
"By your leave, then."
Danzo just nodded and watched as Kakashi disappeared in a spiral. A hot breath of relief escaped his mouth, but his small sigh was overtaken when the room he was in shifted upside down and his perception was taken from him. A white silhouette revealed itself, flowing from the ceiling that was now the floor. It had spiky green hair and dull yellow eyes. Half of its face seemed to be made like the roots of a tree, but Danzo wasn't so focused on the image of the being as he was startled that he couldn't move. His struggle to move was cut off by a rather high-pitched voice.
"My master has need of you, Danzo Shimura. Don't worry, though. Everything here will be as if it never changed."
Danzo continued to struggle before his eyes widened to horror as the being transformed itself into a copy of himself. He was about to shout for someone to help, but the copy waved as his body was enveloped in a black sludge. Before he vanished, he heard the clone speak again, and his fear changed to complete horror.
"Phase one of Kage takeover, done."
The voice was the same as his own. With the parting words, the sludge enshrouded his body, and he was taken.
[Unknown Cave; Five Seconds After]
"Welcome, five Kage."
Danzo felt himself land on his back and get pulled to his feet by the same sludge that pulled him into an abyss. As it drained from his body, he saw a dark cavern around himself and immediately activated Kagami's eye to find any openings, though it was limited in power considerably and would be useless in combat. When none could be seen, he looked directly to his right when he felt more presences be revealed. He saw Ay, the Raikage, rise to his feet in his hulking glory. The man was everything a ninja shouldn't be, but he had the power to cut down a tailed beast. Kumo understood only brute strength and nothing else, but Danzo had witnessed the man in action. Though his speed wasn't close to Minato's, he was definitely top five in the shinobi world. As he slowly stood up, his tan skin blended well with the brown walls of the dimly lit cavern. His goatee and split small mustache glowed hot white with every flicker of candlelight, as did his slick backed hair.
Three more people were dropped unceremoniously from the ceiling and landed on their feet. The shortest one has olive green hair and a staff with a curved tip. Danzo could see the person's pink eyes narrow in apprehension, clearly showing a guarded guise. The second is a man shrouded by a black cloak with tendrils of gold dust floating ominously around his person. Danzo had dealt with that man plenty of times in the past, constantly unearthing leaf shinobi buried under tons of gold sand. The last member to join the gathering of the Kage is much shorter than the green haired, seemingly child, to his right. Danzo couldn't even hide his growing sneer when Onoki began floating next to Rasa of the Golden Sand and Lightning Killer Ay.
Before any of the Kage could react to their newest situation, a cold voice broke through the cavern and snuffed out every candle alight on the unforgiving walls.
"Welcome, five Kage, to my humble abode."
Danzo's eye narrowed minutely, but he withheld any comment. It wasn't the welcome he wanted. Being kidnapped like the children he used to take off the streets and alleys of the leaf isn't what he'd planned on, but he would wait. Rushing into unknown territory never went well for any shinobi in war. Of course, he watched with a raised eyebrow as Onoki charged up his dust release and Ay's cloak of lightning enveloped his body. Before they both could snap into combat, a feeling of ice snaked its way across their skin as they all heard multiple footsteps clack across the ground and whisper into their ears. Danzo himself felt his hope of escape wane considerably when he saw the flaky skin of reanimated bodies appear in his view. He knew exactly who he was looking at. The five arrivals did nothing to save his stress levels regarding the future of the world. Already, he had to contend with a somehow revived Uzushiogakure, then he heard about a clan of Gods from outside their galaxy, and now before him were the ghouls of the shinobi world. Hashirama Senju, the creator of the Wood Release. The strongest created bloodline in the ninja world. Next to him stood the Ghost of the Uchiha, Madara. A man who fought Hashirama until they were both exhausted and nearly unable to continue their death battle. And yet, nothing was worse than the man next to Madara. Tobirama Senju, the White Flash. The man who created the jutsu being used to make him walk the earth again. He was also the first man to kill an Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan, a feat his own brother achieved a decade later. And said Uchiha was standing to him. Izuna Uchiha, the Shadow of Kami. Genjutsu prowess that had no rival. Able to make you feel dead just by standing in his vicinity. A harrowing breath of air slowly dripped from Danzo's lips when he saw the last person standing before him. Maito Dai, the first user of the eighth gate. Someone who killed five members of the first seven swordsman, and gravely injured the sixth and seventh. The Blue Beast of the leaf.
"They all follow, but they all think."
That cutting, cold voice spoke again. Danzo was getting tired of it breaking his train of thought. Nothing good could come with that level or arrogance from the shadowy man behind the five reanimations.
"Pick your poison. You will fight them, and if you win, you will be sent back from where you were taken. But if you lose… your body and life will be used to bring to life the individual you choose to fight."
Danzo could feel the other Kage begin to lose hope in their current plight, though he couldn't be sure if their apprehension was real since shinobi tended to lie about their fear, so he took the reins anyway. Being on a team with Hiruzen and Kagami made it so he had to grow. He had to become a leader. He had to take control of any less desirable situation. With practiced ease, he released the seals on his bandages as everyone in the room looked on. Long ago, he had covered his bandaged arm in transplanted sharingan to fake immortality. To cast an illusion on death itself to trick an opponent into thinking he had died, but he realized how limiting the action was. He scrapped the idea by tearing his own arm off and worked relentlessly on a project to make it more powerful. In the end, he found nothing to match the might of a sharingan, yet he found something else. A scrapped plan for immortality became a plan for invulnerability. He had Kabuto work on changing the date of Hashirama's cells they had an overabundance of. In doing so, he changed the wood release cells into something different. He created his own kekkei tota, an ability no other ninja had access to because they didn't have the will to bend reality like he did. Of course, binding a Uzumaki mask to your cells wasn't something any sane man would do, but here he was. As soon as he released the chakra binding bandages, he felt his reserves skyrocket, putting him firmly above the threshold Kakashi and Itachi sat on, but it would be costly. It was almost certain death, chakra suicide. He would be less than an adult civilian once his power ran dry, and one arm less, yet it didn't matter. If he didn't go all out from the start, it would be over for the ninja world. No one would be able to defeat Madara Uchiha, especially the one in front of him. He could feel his cells aligning with that of the Uchiha and knew the Ghost had much the same idea as himself.
As his power washed over the individuals in the cavern, he snuffed out the Raikage's lightning armor and forced the Tsuchikage out of the air. He could hear the silent chants of wind begin smoothing out the rough stone, so he had to get started before he inadvertently killed the other Kage.
"Ay."
The Raikage looked to his left and studied Danzo.
"You take on Hashirama. Your speed should be enough to dodge him long enough for me to assist you."
The towering, bulky man just grunted in acknowledgment. He wasn't about to talk down to a man who turned off his armor with just a flex of wind. Little did he know.
"Yagura. You'll take on Maito Dai. I believe you have some business to take care of."
The Mizukage barely heard him speak. Of course, he was already prepared to take the man on. The Blue Beast was someone he had looked up to when the story was broken to him. He was the reason Yagura became the Mizukage to begin with. No Kage could survive the political suicide of having their strongest ninja team get killed in their own ambush.
"Rasa. Take on Izuna Uchiha. Like it or not, your Gold Sand is the perfect counter to the Sharingan and its abilities."
Rase shrugged off the words, but he was still hesitant to deny the man. Nothing good would come from fighting the behemoth to his left. He was also the weakest of the present four, so he wouldn't question Danzo.
"Onoki. You fought against Madara before he became what he is now. You had no chance then, and you have less of a chance now. Take down Tobirama, Onoki, then come to the leaf to talk."
Onoki scoffed, but he would listen for now. He could feel the wind radiating off the man and knew it had much the same effect as his dust release, but it seemed more potent and less controlled. He would listen, but he wouldn't promise to visit the leaf. The ill-will his village harbored for their fourth was still too high.
"I will take Madara down and try to get you all to safety. Just remember to sta…"
He was cut off when the same sludge from earlier enveloped them all, and their counterparts, and sent them to another place.
"Black. What the hell was with the Hokage's power?"
The remaining sludge morphed into the body of Black Zetsu as the creature eyed his ally.
"I don't know. I also don't think it'll matter in the end. We gave Madara the Rinnegan he died with, so anyone against him will lose pretty swiftly."
Itama paused while looking at his fingernails. The one on his index finger was cracked and he frowned fiercely.
[Kaguya's Desert Dimension]
Rasa felt himself fall onto a rather high sand dune and picked himself up. That sludge was getting annoying. He swept his pinprick black eyes across the land and studied the terrain. All sand as far as he could see. There wasn't a better place for him to fight. His bloodline of metal sand would be at its peak here, and there wasn't a thing anyone could do to stop him. The second time he turned his gaze to the right, he saw a shadow flicker above the sand and readied himself for a fight. Unlike his predecessor, he could control the sand without moving his hands. His chakra almost had a mind of its own, though he wouldn't be surprised if it did. Even the third Kazekage's iron sand could come to his aid subconsciously when he was indisposed.
As the shadow drew closer, Rasa created a wall of sand before himself and in the path of the shadow. He then branched it out to creat a square around himself that reached into the clouds. Destroying any land below the desert to form more sand had its boon. He would never run out of sand. What he didn't expect was for the shadow to burst through the wall without moving a single grain. Before he had a moment to react, a black fist slammed into his stomach and folded him around the extended arm. He coughed out a trail of saliva before he felt himself launch away toward the wall behind himself. Before he was a meter away from his assailant, he felt a hand grab onto his left ankle and whip him around and upward before letting go. He flailed almost helplessly as the sand around the two lagged to keep up. He was struggling to right his body as he cartwheeled upward and above the walls he'd erected. In an act of subconscious thought, he turned the hollow shell into a cube of solid sand and compressed it as much as he could to crush the shadow, but his plan backfired when the shadow appeared above him.
Izuna Uchiha, clad in an armour of dark energy, pointed his right hand, palm facing Rasa, down and pushed. Rasa felt as if a hand of gravity grabbed his suspended body and started pushing him downward at his cube. Before impact, he turned the cube into a sea of soft sand, but it did little to mitigate the damage inflicted upon him. He found himself shoved through the collapsing sand cube and under the dune he was previously standing on. He felt the sand tearing against his skin even after softening it, leaving lines of blood to mix with the sand in an embrace. The agony he felt was immense, but his painful groans were interrupted by the same gravity hand letting him go. He had a small reprieve, but it ended too quickly. He felt as gravity leveled down upon the sand with extreme hatred as the entire desert became a solid, flat ground of sandstone that he was trapped inside. He could feel his body begin to flatten horrifically, almost like the shadowed man was trying to turn him into human paper. He tried to scream to release some of his agony, yet he was cut off again.
This time, it felt like the ground he was inside of was stepped down on brutally. Almost like he was crushing an insect under his foot after it annoyed him. He could feel the stone fracturing and sending ripples through his body as his arms and legs cracked under the pressure. It didn't help when the tremors had to escape through him. As he could see the sky again, he noticed his body was floating atop nothing. He was stuck inside the foot of gravity that stepped on the ground and destroyed the terrain with ease. He knew if he didn't act now, he would die a swift death, so he took a page from the third's father and began lining his bones with gold, plating them and making sure any fractures were filled. It also meant having to focus on keeping his body intact and fixing any new damage.
As the solid gravity lifted, he kept himself floating using his gold sand and slowly pushed his body to right itself. His arms and legs straightened out from their broken angles and his skin mended itself, leaving him almost bionic with the metal. Subconsciously, he began changing the properties of the sandstone below to match that of gold, then turned it all into a powder. It was more than time to get serious, knowing any mistakes now would mean death. Thinking back on his plight, he truly wondered if what he was going through was how his son felt. Perhaps it would need a change if he got out of the fight alive. Again, he sensed a shift in the pressure around himself and blocked the oncoming attack with a denser wall. It stopped the gravity assault cold, barely rippling across his sudden defenses. He felt more attacks coming from his left, right, and behind. It was all ease to him as he stopped them all, then gathered more sand around his body. If he was going to fight a giant of gravity, he'd match it with a giant of his own. More and more sand around him lifted from the floor and turned into a Golden Knight. It had a claymore and a shield, readying to defend and assault its enemy with odd autonomy. It was reacting on its own using the reflexes of Rasa's own mind. It also became a blind battle of will since he wouldn't be able to see while stuck inside the head of the Knight. He did take some liberty when studying up on the battle between Madara and Hashirama. His own Susano'o of sand being used against the sibling of their very ghost.
He began his own counters to each fist and foot of invisible air, dodging by jumping and strafing and diving. It was relentless, having to only dodge and never really counter with his own attacks, but he soon found the opening he needed. He could feel the air shift to attack behind himself, so he did something his opponent least expected by inverting his Knight. Instead of turning around, he made the back of the Knight into the front and used its golden claymore to slash downward on the Uchiha. He felt the resistance of gravity, but the blunt defense was cut through as the sword bifurcated the ghost from left shoulder to right thigh, raining shadowy ooze onto the sand. His fast victory ended sharply when he felt the very dimension begin to weigh more than what his Knight could handle. The plated gold began warping and bending, tearing itself apart under the ever-increasing weight of his own hubris. In what world would he ever defeat one of the strongest members of the Uchiha clan? As his Knight finally gave out into a fine golden dust and left him in free-fall, he found himself planting face down onto it, breaking the bones in his arms and legs even more, and fracturing his ribs.
He could hear a soft clap echo across the dunes, mocking his injury. He slowly, gingerly looked up toward the area the noise was stemming from and saw the sneer looking down at him. He couldn't see much else as his vision started to blur. He felt his own light leaving as his heart rate started slowing down. There was nothing he could do as the clapping died down and ended.
"Did you really think you had a chance? Even Tobirama won because of a fluke. Your little sandcastles are meaningless in the shinobi world. You're but a child playing with the adults, given a handicap to make you believe you're our equal. You and yours are nothing to an Uchiha. As long as I have these eyes, you'll always lose. So, make sure you remember this in the afterlife, you'll never amount to anything worth a damn against an Uchiha."
Rasa could feel tears prick at his eyes when he began seeing his wife's smile ahead of him.
"Karura. Protect him. Protect all three."
His mutters were heard by the Shadow of the Uchiha, who laughed mockingly before blitzing forward to end the broken and beaten Kazekage.
'If only I could…'
Rasa's thoughts were broken when he felt something take hold of his heart. It felt like a hand, except it wasn't a pressure caused by an increase in gravity. It was a warm feeling, gentle and soft. It felt like life and love, and it began bringing his heartbeat up.
'Karura…? Why are you…?'
Rasa knew his wife would look at him with disdain and scorn, but he could feel her warmth alight in his chakra.
'Perhaps, with you, I can change it all.'
He could feel his deceased wife's chakra mix with his own and leak deep into the sand, spreading through the entire dimension. Each femtosecond, he could feel something in the ground answer his call and grab onto his chakra. As soon as he had everything he needed, he pulled it with all his might and relished the blurry sight of the shining chrome-like metal. It felt heavy, more than even his gold by a considerable amount. As soon as his consciousness began slipping, he made one last effort and flicked the sparkling sand away as fast as he could manage. His aim was true and cruel.
A scream of pain erupted throughout the desert as the Shadow grabbed at its now black-bleeding and ruptured eyes. He couldn't even use the cursed Uchiha technique to reappear unharmed since his eyes were just destroyed. He was flailing wildly and flaring his chakra to find the downed Kazekage. Between his screams, he yelled something that made Rasa smirk, if only just.
"You were dead to rights! What did you do to me?!"
Rasa mouthed his answer, knowing the Uchiha wouldn't be able to see or hear it, so engrossed in his own pain. Now, Rasa could die at ease. His opponent couldn't fix the damage as the regenerating eyes were constantly torn apart by the unknown metal. Rasa, with one last action, ensnared the Uchiha in a golden mausoleum with black ink written on each side. A tomb for the reanimated man, forever trapping him in the desert dimension. With extra effort, Rasa pulled the mausoleum into the depths of the desert, far and away from any watching eyes. With his soul locked thousands of meters below the surface, Rasa felt the black sludge from before covering his body and returned him to his own house, against the well-wishes of his daughter.
"Get Chiyo," he managed to say before finally passing out.
[Kaguya's Ocean Dimension]
Yagura knew he had to end the fight as fast as he could. The legend of the Blue Beast wasn't anything he wanted a part of, yet he was also curious. The forever genin, if Dai could even be called that anymore, was a legend by itself. The man who never won a chunin exams, nor led a single team. Yet when his end came, he took down five Kage level shinobi by himself, protecting his own progeny in the process. Yagura could respect it, but he'd never be caught dead losing to him. Unfortunately for Maito Dai, Yagura is stronger than all seven swordsmen, and he also had every weapon sealed in his fingers, plus three more unseen. On top of his staff granting him the infamous coral release, the Blur Beast had no hope of winning the fight. Never mind the biju sealed within, Yagura had every key to succeed in his fight against the man, yet he wanted to play. He could even feel the Sanbi agreeing, if the bubbling red chakra tickling his skin was any indication.
He regarded the green clad man.
"If it's any consolation, I don't hate you."
Dai just flashed a charming grin, white teeth flashing in the air. As soon as he raised a thumb up with an outstretched arm, Yagura summoned his headhunter flat sword and charged. Each step he took left a patch of floating coral shells as he blitzed to the left of the Blue Beast, readying a strike to take the man's head off. To his surprise, the gigantic blade failed to cut through the orange arm band on Dai's right arm. So caught up in his surprise, Yagura missed the blindingly fast punch aimed through the headhunter, snapping the metal into glistening shards and ramming a few into his chest, along with an alarmingly heavy fist. He tried in vain to shield himself with coral, but even the shells failed to stop the punch. He was blasted off his feet at lightning speed, tumbling head over heels across the surface of the ocean before quickly sinking below. A burst of blood tore from his lips and stained a small area of water above him. Even worse, he'd dropped the long flat sword, making it impossible to find in the ocean. Especially after the hit that launched him away, he knew one of his ten cursed blades was lost forever.
He swam back up and broke through the waves, landing on his feet and studying his opponent. The man was dancing on the balls of his feet as if the hit he landed wasn't even close to a warmup.
"I'll admit," Yagura said aloud, "You are the strongest person I've ever had the displeasure of fighting. I'll have to end it now."
The young man's voice penetrated the air, but Dai didn't even bat an eye. He just readied himself in a stance Yagura didn't know, making the younger man summon a new weapon. The Kiba blades. Two straight short swords with protrusions on each. Like slim cat teeth, with one on the bottom of each and one on the top, but opposite side. With each swipe of the blade, pure lightning would tear up from the earth and piece the heavens, flash frying anything in their wake. And on the ocean, they would wreak havoc upon the Blue Beast with delightful practice. Yagura left no hesitation as he once again charged forward, making sure to leave enough space between himself and his opponent. He swung as fast as he could, pushing away an approaching wave of salt water with a blast of air before arcing lightning from below Dai, yet his eyes widened when he felt a superheated charge below himself. He had just enough time for his eyes to trail down as the lightning blasted beneath him, searing the hairs on his arms and legs off. Through the pain, he could see a small metal pole floating around his feet, suspended by the electricity. His surprise turned to horror when the lightning disappeared, and he felt more than saw the top of a black sandal clad foot slam into his jaw and send him careening across the battlefield once again.
With his sudden second exit, Dai grabbed the Kiba blades and snapped them both in twine, tossing them into the ocean behind himself. Even as a reanimation, he had bad memories of those blades and wanted nothing to do with them. To protect his son, he went in blindly, but he was also quite intelligent. Unlike his son, he remembered everything he saw once. Those weapons he faced off against would never see the light of day again. Nothing would stop him again. He looked up when he felt Yagura's chakra shift, going from a calm olive green to a cruel coated crimson. His biju chakra was turning ocean water to steam and sending tidal waves toward him, but with a reanimated body, he just let the waves wash over himself. If he was alive, he'd feel the water spreading across his skin, but he couldn't. He couldn't even feel, but it wouldn't stop him from being revived. It wouldn't stop him from seeing his son again.
He watched cautiously as Yagura summoned the needle blade and held the ninja wire in his off hand. That creepy sewing needle haunted battlefields with the sewing bead corpses of his allies, yet he shrugged off the sour memories and prepared to break another weapon. Still, the near transparent crimson cloak around the young Kage wasn't something to scoff at. Dai bounced on his feet once before alighting himself in the familiar blue glow of the sixth gate. Here and now, he could use the full power without suffering the drawbacks, and he quickly made use of it by appearing next to Yagura, snapping a kick off, shearing through the thick needle blade and folding Yagura in two. The young Kage felt the biju chakra in his system do its damndest to heal his instant eviscerated organs around his abdomen, while also doing its best to heal his immediately shattered spine. It didn't help when a few discs were pulverized while a couple slipped through the skin on his back and skipped across the rocking waves like a supersonic skipping stone.
In an act of desperation, he summoned the shark skin sword and fused with it, allowing the hungry creature to feed on his red chakra. He felt his injuries heal, yet he also realized he wasn't sent across the sea again. He looked up into the black pupils and bushy eyebrows of his assailant. The man pulled his fist back and grabbed Yagura's face in a tight hold. Thinking quickly, he let the shark skin sword take the reigns and cover his body in razor sharp teeth that tore through Dai's right arm effortlessly. Unfortunately, the blue aura didn't dissipate from the man's body, leaving Yagura confused for enough time to capitalize. Dai broke through another gate and entered the seventh, then tore a foot through Yagura's stomach and out of his back. The young Kage couldn't believe his eyes as the shark skin was destroyed in one shot, leaving him wide open and bleeding out. He tried to pull himself from Dai's limb, but the man lifted his leg up above his head and slammed downward, ramming Yagura onto the surface of the ocean. He felt a few bones break from the crash long before he felt his body get submerged. The shark skin sword separated from his body and drifted toward the bottom of the sea, out of commission for the foreseeable future.
He let the Sanbi heal his newest wound, doing his best to not move as his body was once again mended. He let his thoughts wander through every potential outcome at the end of his fight and he only saw one clear way to succeed, but it required extensive setup he didn't believe he could manage. Against anyone else, he may have had a shot, but against someone who apparently wasn't using chakra to fuel his attacks, there was almost zero hope for success. Resigned to his battle, Yagura quickly went phase two of his biju cloak as his skin peeled away and pure chakra cloaked him. As he was about to resurface once again, a long cylinder of air tore through the sea and pierced his right shoulder, snapped his clavicle and rending the arm useless. He panicked and tried to swim away when the wound healed itself instantly, but more thin cylinders ripped under the water from above and stopped all of his potential exits to safety. With nowhere left to go but up, Yagura tried to swim away as fast as he could. His plan ended horrifically when more cylinders broke through the calmed waters and shredded his arms and legs, separating his forearms and calves at the elbows and knees. With no other ability to swim, a final cylinder of air, this one wider than the Sanbi itself, slammed into him at the top of his head and rammed his body into the floor of the ocean, right atop each of the broken four swords. The impact alone pancaked his body and destroyed the stone beneath, turning each blade to dust before any of his blood could heal them.
In despair, the Sanbi healed as much of Yagura's body as it could, but it didn't help. The young Kage died on impact, yet his chakra was still running wild. The olive green became a dark green, coating his body with a metallic sheen. The final move of Yagura. Using the newest three swords in his arsenal, plus his staff to hold it all together, he could make a permanent armor. The armor would stop all damage that he could think off, dispersing the kinetic energy of each attack around his body rather than through. The swords also healed all wounds inflicted on him, making him near immortal and invulnerable. Now with the three chakra tails of the Sanbi swishing behind himself, and the biju cloak shielded by the remaining swords, Yagura didn't have to summon the others. From here on out, he would win his fight and figure out a method to disperse the swords after.
Quickly vanishing from the rapidly filling hole left in the ocean, he appeared next to the green glow of Dai, he unleashed a single wave of his hand that destroyed the entire upper body of Dai and halved the ocean, deleting trillions of tons of water. The water was turned immediately to chakra for his body to store and later unleash as one attack. As his opponent started to regenerate, Yagura raised both of his hands and instantly turned every drop of water around himself into chakra to absorb, clearing the entire ocean for tens of miles. He could feel the extreme influx of chakra, taking it all in to prepare one final attack. Even a reanimation wouldn't survive its entire body being atomized. He bid his foe a silent goodbye as he planned to release ten percent point blank, but his plan was foiled by an aura of red taking over Dai's body.
The red covered man faded from view, fading back in behind Yagura and slamming his fist into his metallic body. Yagura was expecting a painless attack, yet he was pierced all the way through again. His metallic armor did nothing to stop the punch of the Death Gate. Contrary to previous belief, the Death Gate wasn't named for the death of the user. It was named after the user killed every enemy in its wake. So far, no one has survived. Even the remaining swordsmen died to the injuries weeks later, after they were given time to pass their blades on. Yagura stumbled forward, then immediately stumbled to the side as another hole appeared on his body. He couldn't react to the speed, nor could his current power-up heal fast enough to keep up with the accruing damage. He was suffering more and more, failing to compete, let alone react to, his adversary. Even being given the perfect opportunity to use it, Yagura couldn't fathom why it wasn't working. Another hole appeared millimeters from his heart, and while his blood started pooling on the uncovered ocean floor, he decided then and there to release twenty percent of his built-up strength.
The resulting explosion ceased all activity as the world turned white. Thousands of miles of land were incinerated with reckless abandon, all to take out one man. The action left Yagura winded as he stood atop the only piece of land visible. However, he also felt the same twenty percent fill up, and then some. Everything he destroyed was turned instantly into chakra energy for him to use again. It likely wouldn't come to that, though. Seconds turned to minutes, yet he wasn't transported home. Confusion bled onto his face, but it stopped and changed to horror when he saw Dai's body begin to glow a true black. The darkest chakra was seeping into the air, blackening the sky with sinister smiles. Yagura was about to release another twenty percent, but he was derailed.
Dai's body regenerated instantly, allowing the man to finally speak.
"I will see my son again."
Before Yagura could ponder the remark, his world was permeated with a quiet whine of pure misery. His armour was gone, his chakra build up dissipated, and his nerves were silenced. He couldn't feel a thing, nor could he see. It was like his eyes had ceased to exist. He could hear, though, and he listened for the source of his predicament. It had to be an illusion.
"The Ninth Gate, only useable if you survived the eighth."
Yagura knew of the eight gates, but he didn't know how they worked. That said, he knew there wasn't a ninth. At least, he thought he knew.
"The Gate of Purgatory. Only used by the dead. And even then, you still lose after… because you're also dead."
'Ah,' Yagura thought. 'When you sacrifice everything, you get the second chance to keep going.'
"I will see my son again."
Those words were spoken coolly, yet Yagura also heard the appreciation of a good fight. He also found out why he couldn't see or feel anything. He was already dead.
[Kaguya's Ice Dimension]
Tobirama Senju knew the reanimation jutsu he created wasn't his brightest idea, but it was always meant to be a last resort army killer. Never did he consider his youngest brother a problem, but seeing Itama again… it was gut-wrenching in all the wrong ways. He had turned against the leaf, catering to the same ideology as the Uchiha clan. Might never makes right. Now he had to hope in being killed by the oldest living Kage, yet he had too many doubts in the decrepit man. Tobirama had all the autonomy he needed, yet he still had to fight to kill the man. That didn't mean he couldn't stand still and let that fence sitting brat kill him. Of course, Itama would put him in an ice dimension to fight. Why not take away his strongest skillset. Little did Itama know, he was still the strongest water jutsu specialist. He could make an ocean using just the molecules in the air, but he'd already tried to make a geyser as soon as he landed. The spire of ice in front of him proved how fruitless the effort was. The water instantly froze on contact with the air, such was the intensity of the cold surroundings.
His musings were derailed when the giant column of ice was vaporized along with his face. Another cube of anti-material destroyed the rest of his undead body, clearing the mountain he was standing on in the process. The elder Kage landed on the spot Tobirama was previously, hoping to Kami he killed the man without issue. His hopes were dashed by the sound of fizzling paper. He had just enough time to coat his skin with metal before explosions began duplicating around him. Tobirama materialized on the next mountain range of glaciers a mile away as his paper bombs deleted part of the terrain. Noticing the old man wasn't inside the explosions, he launched a few more beams of water around himself, creating a dome of ice spikes instantly to try and kill his opponent. His efforts ended in vain as he was once again turned to dust along with his protection.
As soon as he started forming again, Onoki tried to grab him and activate his boulder jutsu, but he was too slow. Tobirama flashed away in a white light, bringing a lot of bad thoughts to the forefront of Onoki's mind. Losing his strongest S-class nin to a yellow flash was the worst thing to happen to him last war, and now the creator of the accursed technique was out of his reach. There was something ironic about failing to stop the weaker of the two men. Said irony flatlined when he really thought about it. He'd lived long enough, so perhaps this was where he drew the line around himself. No one could say the life he lived was fruitless. He had an amazing son and a young granddaughter on her way to becoming a striking shinobi. The only issue was the weird clone that's being used as his body double. What could Onoki do to the first flash if he couldn't even see the second? Perhaps it was time to use his last-ditch effort move. Dust armor, the pinnacle of a Tsuchikage's strength. Lord Muu taught him to never use it unless you had nothing left to lose. If he was to die today, then he'd do it after atomizing everything and everyone in his way, including an undead Senju.
He felt his back argue with him as he straightened up and began to float off the ground. The dust armor was a lot like the Raikage's lightning armor, except it came with an equal danger to himself that it did to his opponent's. Where even touching something will disintegrate it, Onoki's own body would deteriorate over prolonged use. The perfect double-edged sword of the shinobi nations. He'd show the Senju that he wasn't just a Kage who sat back and took out the remnants of an army after a war. He released a shuddering breath and slowly built the vacuum around his body with his earth and wind chakra. All it did was fill an area two inches off his skin with his created bloodline technique, vanquishing all in its wake that entered the kill zone. Between himself and his adversary, he'd make a new name for himself. Kill Aura Onoki. The perfect counter to people who teleport. They'd be eviscerated upon teleporting next to him.
He began floating forward slowly, a curse he had to maintain. Any increase in speed would result in the technique backfiring and killing him instantly, but it was the best offense and defense. He felt as Tobirama launched wave after wave of water at him, yet it didn't matter. He casually moved against it all, never faltering in his stride. He had no time for mistakes, no time to question the usage. It was just him and the reanimated man before him. He couldn't even feel the heat of the tandem exploding paper tags that followed the failed water attacks. He could feel, however, his fingertips on his right hand as they withered away from the stress of the technique. Well before he'd even damaged his opponent, he'd been dealt a painful blow by his own hand. He shrugged away the piercing pain and continued forward, intent on bringing down the second Hokage. He watched as shadow clone after shadow clone teleported into his dust shield, bursting into particles to float away from his focused and straining eyes, not caring in the least as his right arm decayed up to the elbow. A shinobi carried their scars proudly, never losing track of their goal.
He was within hearing distance of his foe, now, being extra careful to never lose track of him. He was connected to the air around him, always knowing where anything was. As he got within range of his dust release attack, he slowly lifted his left arm and summoned a single white sphere to float harmlessly above his left palm. Said sphere instantly encapsulated the two of them, making it truly impossible to leave, even by reverse summoning. It was a vacuum from hell, capable of tearing apart time and space to achieve just the one purpose it had. Annihilate everything, even at the cost of his own life.
Onoki whispered out the technique, not even bothering to look at his opponent as his eyes closed for the final time.
"Atomic Dismantling: Space-Time Rend."
And Tobirama knew nothing once again as even his soul was eliminated in a flash of white, almost reminiscent of his teleportation technique.
[Kaguya's Gravity Dimension]
Ay knew the fight he had wasn't going to be easy, yet he was amped. His own father fought the eight tails to a standstill, ending the fight in a draw. Then he had taught him how to activate the lightning armor and watched as he reached a higher tier. His father's stage two cloak was still chakra based, but Ay had something better. By supercharging the air, he could use real lightning to power his attacks while moving just as fast on a whim. That said, Ay also had a trump card. Utilizing the very light around himself, he could fuse the photons with his electricity. This combination put him near the speed of light while electrifying everything he touched. Of course, this also came with a rather intense risk. If he used too much light to power his movement, he'd sear through reality and tear his own body apart. Yet he may have to here. Hashirama Senju, the first God of Shinobi, had single-handedly enslaved every biju on his own with an almost lackadaisical ease. His father was an ant compared to the man, and while Ay could realistically defeat the eight tails, unlike his father, he very much doubted he could defeat all nine tailed beasts and come out not even winded.
But his unlucky choice of opponent could be a boon, as when they both landed, Ay stood strong and fierce. He couldn't even register the ten-fold gravitational pressure weighing him down, but his opponent was struggling to even stand. Chakra could be used to enhance muscular strength and density, but not against whatever he was under. He could feel his own chakra being weighed down. It seemed the dimension he was transported to didn't push you down based on regular gravity, but on the amount of chakra you possessed. And Hashirama Senju had more chakra than all the tailed beasts. If Ay felt ten times heavier, then someone with one-hundred times his own chakra capacity would be a slip of paper underneath a mountain of tungsten. Ay didn't hesitate in his approach, lighting his body up with stage one of his lightning cloak.
Small flickers of sparks shone above his skin, turning him into a beacon of light for the world to see. He took a single step forward, then slammed a foot down on the Senju's body, cratering the ground. The floor of the dimension shook from the impact as his foot sheared through Hashirama's back and put a sizable divot into the small pyramids lining the terrain. Those pyramids were useful in keeping people off-balance, but when said person could crush them beneath their feet in simple stomps, it didn't matter. Ay flared the chakra around his leg, shredding Hashirama's chest apart and spreading the paper ashes across the land. His next attack was ended prematurely when roots began erupting from the green lined stone, doing their best to capture the speedy man. He dodged and ducked, slicing his hands into any root close enough to trap him. Those same roots started sprouting flowers and coating the land with a green fog. In one inhale, Ay felt himself begin to tire, already falling to the effects of the sleep paralysis floating in the air. He flared the sparks and ignited the toxic cloud in a large explosion. He was unaffected by using his sparks, but Hashirama's regenerating body was once again torn apart. Ay wasted no time in jumping away from the man to avoid another storm of poison, doing his level best to also keep an eye on the mortal God.
He then felt an enormous amount of chakra permeate the surroundings, all originating from the Senju. Those same root attacks quintupled in size and took the form of a dragon without legs or wings. Ay felt a few beads of sweat line down his face as anxiety started to take hold of his mind. The wooden dragons had rows and rows of teeth and glowing green eyes, but Ay wasn't phased by that. His focus was on the green gas constantly being exhaled by them, not only covering all breathable air in the fumes, but also melting through the terrain like acid. He subconsciously activated stage two of his lightning cloak. Blue streaks covered his form and tore into the small pyramids around his shins. As soon as the dragons lunged after him, he didn't bother dodging. It would take too much time, so he rushed in. His cloak should be able to burn away the gas without affecting his breathing, and that's exactly what happened. He wasn't expecting the resulting gas explosion to rock the dimension fiercely, nor did he expect his punches to do no damage to the dragons. Instead, he was immediately pin balled, ricocheting off each snout and shaving skin off on each tooth. His stage two armor was proving fruitless in its protection, but he had to keep going. A lot was on the line for the safety of his village, so he had to keep going.
With renewed vigor, Ay gave a shout of rage and flared his cloak even more, actively breaking through the wooden dragons surrounding him and blasting through the rest, sending shards of wood plummeting to the ground. He wouldn't let his effort be in vain, but it turned out all for naught. When he was distracted by the dragons, Hashirama wasn't idle. The God of Shinobi created his giant wood golem in the background. Sure, he was still flattened by the extreme gravity of the dimension, but his golem, once used to fight against Madara's perfect Susano'o, towered above the land. It didn't even struggle to move as a giant hand came down atop the Raikage, attempting to crush the man with its palm. Ay raised his hands above his head to stop it from crushing him, but the attack turned out to be a feint as his chest was blasted by the giant's foot. It stole his breath as he felt a few ribs strain and crack under the hit. Even with the force pushing him down, Ay was sent careening across the land, shoulders, elbows, and knees impacting the small pyramids and crumbling them in the process. His stage two cloak also dissipated as he focused his chakra inside his body to mitigate some of the damage.
He lay crumpled over the uneven ground a mile from where he was hit, staring into the sky with bleary vision. He was currently questioning whether the continuation of the fight was worth the effort, but then he thought back to his time with his adopted brother. Like his father, he'd befriended the jinchuriki of his village and made sure people treated him with respect. He'd also had a hand in making sure the other container was treated fairly, unlike that half-wit leading Stone. If he lost the fight here, there's no telling what would happen to Kumogakure. With a shuddering breath, he charged up his stage two cloak again and readied himself for what was coming next. Aiming his hands high above his head, he turned, launching a beam of lightning energy into the clouds above and watched as a storm rapidly formed. He could hear the Golem charging ahead, ready to kill him. Before the behemoth got within striking distance, real lightning surged upwards underneath him and channeled inside his body. The stage three armor, pure lightning fed by his chakra.
As another solid fist the size of a redwood tree trunk neared his body, Ay stabbed forward with one finger. The attack was modeled after a move his father used to cut down his enemies, except this one didn't need contact. He just let the lightning supercharging his body eat through ten percent of his available reserves, then let loose a screech of sound from his index fingers aimed at the approaching arm. The attack was near instant and too fast for the Golem to react to. A flash of white cremated the entire arm and turned half the head of the golem to ash in less than a tenth of a second. It also ate through half of Hashirama's form. Without the creator of the golem able to focus on it, the giant crumbled to pieces of falling wood, stabbing into the ground with reckless abandon. As the first Hokage formed again, he used his final move, the One-Thousand Armed Buddha. Ay stared up at the thing that dwarfed the golem five-fold, but he didn't let his nerves drag him down. He wiped his brow from the sweat that formed and prepared for his last effort. Without a second's pause, the Buddha's hands came downward at Ay.
He just exhaled one last time and let the photons in the air absorb into his body. The stage four cloak changed his skin into a solid white flash that flickered bursts of ten thousand celsius temperature lightning off his skin recklessly. It cared not for ally or enemy, destroying everything in its wake until only Ay remained standing. But he also had to attack, because if he didn't, he had no doubt the thousand arms of the Buddha would pulverize him after outlasting his chakra reserves. As soon as the first fist was within a millimeter of his face, he attacked. His arms matched the speed of the statue, then exceeded it by a thousand times. Splinters of wood littered the air around him, then were incinerated split seconds after, but he could feel his chakra depleting too fast. It didn't help the statue was actively regenerating the destroyed arms faster than he broke them. With a sigh of displeasure, Ay disappeared and reappeared above Hashirama. Before the Hokage could see him, he prepared his final attack. It wasn't too different from a bijudama. When he trained with Bee, he made sure to find counters to the tailed beast bomb, and his best was matching and exceeding the chakra ball with a stronger one.
With a roar of effort that brought the attention of the statue to himself, he formed a massive ball of light in front of himself that nearly matched the heat and intensity of the sun itself. He didn't even see as the statue's face changed from joyous to hatred, nor see the hands turn to a giant shield. All he saw was the ball continuously increase in size until it matched the height of the golem and felt as the lightning and light armor left his skin and left him empty. With one last ditch effort, he pushed the ball downward and used his remaining chakra to flash himself away at the speed of light. He didn't even see the explosion, but the heat he felt seared the first layer of his skin off as he was transported back to his office in a bloodied heap of torn tissue and slightly revealed bones.
[Uncharted Territory]
Uchiha Madara didn't know what to think when he was revived with the Edo Tensei, but he did know one thing about the jutsu. If you are stronger than the caster, you can re-summon yourself to break free from their hold. Unfortunately for Madara, he wasn't close to the strength of the user. Fortunately for Madara, his revival was different than the others. He wasn't an Edo Tensei. Whoever revived him did the impossible. The only rinnegan in the last few centuries was his own, yet here he was, awake and alive and stronger than ever. Just flexing his chakra produced fissures in the ground around himself. The issue he now had was that his rinnegan eyes were different. They weren't the familiar light purple eyes with concentric rings but were instead crimson with three tomoe in each of the three black rings. Even more, he had no idea what powers he now had with the eyes, but he would learn as he went. Already, he could feel the world around himself, all the way down to every ant crawling beneath the surface. It was like he was a new god instead of the ghost he used to be.
He gestured toward his adversary. With just a single thought, he sent out a wave of shadow clones to approach the individual, then encased them all with a blue aura. Said aura turned into spindly veins that coalesced into bones and skin, then biju sized giants with one shadow clone inside each head. Ten super clones with slightly smaller Susano'o than his own. He chuckled internally and smirked to himself.
"Would you like these clones to use the perfect Susano'o?"
His voice radiated arrogance, but it wasn't without reason. With how he was now, he'd easily beat any rendition of Hashirama. He didn't receive an answer though, so he scoffed and let loose. His own perfect Susano'o towered two times larger than before and mimicked the size of the beast of legend while his clones' Susano'os became the size of what his perfect used to be. He did blink in surprise as his Susano'o grew four extra arms and pulled out four extra swords, now totaling eight. If that was surprising, his eyes widened when the area he was in shuddered as if in fear of his own power. His surprise turned into a smug grin as he withheld his opponent. The man wasn't even moving and Madara thought it was because of his fear. Little did he realize how wrong he was. With just a wave of his hand, his opponent dispatched four of his clones in a cascade of wind that ripped them to smithereens. Said wind came down from the sky with a howling rage that tore a channel through the ground a mile wide and hundreds of miles deep.
Madara's surprise at his own power turned to a scowl of displeasure. Of course, when he became a hundred times more powerful, someone else would take his rival's place.
"Who are you, boy?" He asked.
The white cloaked man regarded him with cold eyes, then replied.
"The fifth Hokage, Danzo Shimura."
It was always someone from the leaf. First, the death of his brother Izuna, then the death of himself to the brother of who killed his. The Uchiha were cursed to fall against someone aligned with the leaf, it seemed. Madara's inner monologue was ruined when the rest of his clones were squashed by another torrent of wind. It was like they were gnats to a human hand, incapable of escaping. Just simple nuisances sent out to a slaughter. How was he meant to fight against something like this without knowing how his clones had died. His opponent wasn't even flaring their chakra to activate whatever jutsu they were using. They just pointed and he lost. It was demeaning, really. He was supposed to be the boogeyman of their world, yet here he was but a child being disciplined. In his anger, he used an old jutsu he hadn't bothered with since Hashirama achieved senjutsu.
A meteor breached the stratosphere, but it wasn't the right size. And of course it wasn't just one. Ten meteors the size of earth itself broke through the gathered clouds, falling toward the ground at mach speed. He gazed up in wonder at his folly, but he was giddy. If he could actively do that subconsciously, nothing would stop him from wreaking havoc on the world or casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi written on the Uchiha stone tablet. He gazed down on his adversary, but the man didn't bat an eye at the falling planet sized meteors. Even more, the gravity of the planet they were on seemed unaffected, making Madara believe wherever they were was bigger than their own sun. In his musings, he felt a soft whisper pass his ears and looked up when he heard a light rustle before him. Those same ten meteors were gone as if they never existed, but Madara knew they did. His wonder turned to horror when he felt the rain of dust pour over his body and cloud the entire place he was standing in light debris. Ten planet sized objects had been reduced to near nothingness in half a second, breaking his current thoughts with panic induced anxiety. There was no way someone that strong existed in the world.
His Susano'o cleared the particles in the air and on the ground with a single swish of one sword, allowing Madara to see once again. He looked around the landscape and couldn't believe his eyes. For tens of thousands of miles, there was nothing but ash. He cleared his thoughts and went about looking for his opponent, yet his eyes still couldn't track their chakra signature. It was like they weren't alive to begin with, yet he clearly saw them standing before him seconds ago. He was quickly stalled more thoughts when he felt something slam on top of his Susano'o and looked up again. What he saw left a massive chill down his spine. A hand of pure wind was actively pushing down on him, causing Susano'o's knees to buckle and give out. The same hand twisted to the right and snapped his chakra giant's neck, then ripped the head right off and crushed it after becoming a fist. Madara barely escaped the assault, mind still caught up on what he'd seen.
It wasn't just a single hand, but a massive figure of pure wind. He couldn't feel an ounce of chakra from the being, yet it was physical and held a near divine power he couldn't fathom. As he was about to land on the ground, he felt another hand slam down onto his person, nearly killing him if he didn't use the Izanagi to escape the death. He panicked when one of his eyes closed and wouldn't open again, causing him to miss the next hand that slammed him into the ground again, and again he escaped with the Izanagi. In his own hubris, he'd woefully underestimated his opponent. That said, he felt the oppressive divine power vanish not a second after he revived, but as it disappeared, so did his will to continue the fight. He'd touched the realm of divinity, yet he was outgunned and outmatched by another person.
As he collapsed on his back, he heard footsteps walking up to him and couldn't hold back a snide remark.
"Come to brag?"
A pregnant silence was all the answer he received before an object was dropped next to his still form.
"Take that to hell with you."
The cold voice didn't sound happy about its victory, but Madara respected it. No bragging and no bullshit. Just acceptance of their victory. Madara smiled when he felt a small chakra burst from the man before he and the object next to him were shredded by a small burst of wind from the man's mouth.
As Danzo was teleported away, he collapsed to his knees inside his office. His chakra reserves were burnt away and unusable for the small remainder of his life, but he had seen a glimpse of something before he was transported again. Two figures with white horns and near transparent veils covering their faces.
He shuddered at the reminder of the clan of gods, then collapsed forward. Sprawled against the cold and unforgiving floors of his office, the clone lookalike faded away and he whispered something, hoping he would be heard before he died of blood loss.
"Kabuto."
Missing an arm at the shoulder with exposed and broken ribs would be hell to heal if he wasn't seen to. His vision blurred just as three people burst into his office and surrounded his prone form.