He had faced many monstrosities. Giant spiders. Giant ape-like creatures with four sets of teeth and arms down to the ground. Giant centipedes. Those damned giant squids that plagued the waters in certain areas. The octopuses. Lizard-like hell spawn creatures that dwarfed the entire landscape itself. Those relentless, never tiring, always hungry pack hunters. But, those all paled to what he was up against now.
Destruction was so wide spread that he couldn't begin to comprehend it all. All he could do was move and react to what he seen. Years of training and experience allowed him to move without a second thought. His joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bones all moved in sync with each other. Stamina wearing, there were some small miscalculations, but nothing too drastic.
Over time those minuscule miscalculations would turn into gashing fractions. Those fractions would provide more than enough time and opening for himself to slip up, get struck by debris, or be on the wrong end of the gorog's massive limbs. However, he wasn't fighting alone. He could make those small mistakes, but he had a partner that would cover those mistakes, as he had always covered for her own.
Mikito would flank him. When he attacked, she would. When they coordinated, at times, she would lead. Her movements were always like wind and water. Elusive. Intangible. Hard to read. Harder to follow. Even harder to anticipate. He could pinpoint vitals and surge across an entire battlefield with her by his side, much easier than he'd be able to achieve, alone.
Madara ran for his life, panting, barely able to avoid being crushed like a bug under the megatons of debris. It was raining and cascading. Like torrential rainfall. He tried to dash forward and thought to slam his elbow against the gorog, but a swath of rocks slammed into him, careening him back. By the time Madara recovered he already had to evade at full speed. He had no reprieve, and the jolt of that speed, wore on him.
Madara recovered quickly enough dropping down into a giant depression that had formed just a few minutes ago. He ran across its inside length, jumping back and forth between the gap. He was anticipating, that soon, he was going to get whacked. When that happened, he was going to be a battered mess. He could either get his hits in now, and take the hit later, or take the hit.
It wasn't a hard choice for him to make. Madara ran faster, following rising ground, pushing his way through tons of debris, hacking his way through any pieces that lingered in his way. Part of his focus was being covered in a haze that came from the relentless fighting. It almost obscured his vision.
Mountains and formations of land rippled across the landscape, forming and collapsing with every passing second. Swathes of debris and gusting winds tried to hamper his movements. He moved across the treacherously changing terrain, making his way to the closest high piece of land he could find. The trek was difficult, but remained consistent enough.
He finally made headway. Madara was about to take a breath. He banked sharply, spinning on an axis. He drew his sword a moment later, tucking into his next swipe. When the building slopes and mountains got steeper, Madara hacked his way through the obscene obstacles. Sometimes his arms jarred from swinging his blade too hard, but he kept attacking.
When the landscape got too treacherous for him to navigate with consistency, he used his blade to tear across it, jabbing, stabbing, heaving himself up. Other times he'd hack away at the debris that got in his way, constantly testing the durability and sharpness of his blade. Constantly bruising his wrists and forearms from the repetitive brutality of the strikes.
Can't afford to hold back...
Madara smirked for a second.
Not sure if I have the stamina...In that case...
Mikito charged right for the gorog.
She was tired of being evasive and playing it safe. She couldn't do that. It was either fight with all she had or die. There was no middle ground. Thrive within madness, or be utterly consumed by it. Was there a difference? She turned away from the lumbering, slow, but far reaching swipe of the monster's arm, darting in a tight zigzag. She charged chakra, surging it into her palm and turning it to lightning. A column struck the gorog, launching into a nearby face of debris.
She looped. Plummeting shrply towards the ground, before angling herself up, rifting like a sail. In her wake, the monster swung for her ribs. Its hand could easily smear her, but it was focused on her torso, in particular. In the last second, just before there was a gap, a sphere of fire and chakra detonated viciously, and it only served for the monster to push its attack even more.
It swung around. It swung around, again, this time, just missing. The first portion of the landscape had been ripped away on the first swing. The second swing had added more of the landscape into the tornado of destruction. The ending result was a cascading torrential rainfall of debris and earth. Mikito, hastily, violently, jerked herself down. Pushing her chakra into her core and surging it into her heels.
She evened it out, swinging downward in a tight arc.
She had its attention!
"Madara!"
Mikito caught him, barely able to divert her course, slamming side first into the ground. She kept herself pressed into the ground, reducing Madara's impact. They rolled to an abrupt stop, finally separating.
"You fool, now you're hurt."
"I'll be okay..." Mikito insisted, struggling to stand, balling her fists and gritting her teeth.
Madara focused some his chakra, getting a slight glow around his hands.
"It's not much, but it should help a little."
Mikito nodded with a grateful smile.
The air shook, and Madara could clearly see veins rolling through the gorog's muscular torso. Its power was so great, that when it was charging up for an attack, that was enough to send thunder and lightning crashing everywhere. The ground heaved, the landscape gave in.
The entire world crumbled. The air itself whipped, threatening to split reality in two. There was no stable ground, no stable base. Everything was overturned. When lightning struck close to the gorog, it would reach out with its enormous limbs, and roar as it surged through its body.
Madara couldn't help but be anything but afraid.
"Cover..." Madara said, struggling to breathe. "We need cover."
But, he knew that was futile. The gorog towered high into the clouds, its tusks hung down like menacing talons, threatening to impale the ground he stood on. Its eyes were large, narrow, and yellow in color. Judging from its contorted expression, it was glowering down at them as if they were mere insects.
Perhaps in its eyes, staring at their tiny forms, pitiful and puny, they were insects. Their status in the world didn't matter nor their place, nor the people who feared them. This creature didn't fear them, and it had no reason to.
Its hands were as large as landmasses, and its terrible fingers clutched mountains, plucking them from the earth, as if they were pesky weeds. It could have taken out a handful of the landscape itself. Maybe it would just rip the whole desert apart and beat them with it.
Of course, the mountains resisted, and in turn the landscape began to cry out in a protest, but that did little to stop anything. Whatever backlash the landscape was escalating, it was paltry in comparison to the gorog. Madara would have rather faced off with one of his giant apes.
But, beggars couldn't be choosers, now could they?
But, when pushed...
He shot across the ground, staying parallel to the capes of land that were forming and being destroyed over and over. Madara glanced over his shoulders every few steps he took. There was no balance. It was chaos. It was a frenzy. He couldn't get his footing. He could barely run. An impact slammed into them, driving them further across the changing landscape.
Madara pushed himself as far as he could go, not holding back anything. If it killed him, he would be okay with that. It would be better than being smeared across the landscape by this monstrosity. He wasn't sure if Mikito was flanking, ahead, or behind him, but she continued moving with exhausted agility. She had no choice. Madara knew that. She knew it as well. Only they stood between certain death, and it was a race against time.
As she waded out towards him, Madara watched the gorog slam its body into part of the landscape it had shifted, flooding it out in every direction. It lashed out with its other hand, sweeping its own destruction aside.
"We can't run away, we'll never escape!"
Madara hissed, struggling to not to whirl on Mikito and snap at her.
But, she was right.
Unfortunately.
When pushed, one could run.
When cornered, one could only fight.
They couldn't escape, and running away would only leave them as bigger targets. There was only one option for them to take, but it wasn't in the human condition to do such a thing. When faced with a threat. A creature. A monster. A force of nature. Something beyond the human comprehension, a human would back away, fearful, wary, not interested.
To fight the gorog would be suicide. It was going against every fiber that made them who they were. People. Human. Everything inside of Madara was screaming at him to run, and he was running with everything he had, and evading like he had never evaded before in his life, but he knew...It would be short lived.
Eventually, he would falter, or the gorog would catch him off guard, and he would die.
He had to fight. They had to fight, but...
"We're going to find cover!" Madara insisted.
"Get ready! It's about to attack again!"
Another network of veins bulged out more across the gorog's dense torso, and its chest began to expand, it grew wider, and began to get taller. An black aura surrounded the creature as it grew even larger than before, oozing off of its form like thick mucus. Its limbs thickened and lengthened. Its torso widened, rippling with muscles and leathery veins.
It bellowed, and swung its hand down. It moved with frightening speed, and smashed through the ground with equally frightening force. It took everything Mikito and Madara had to hang onto each other as they sprung off from where they were, scarcely avoiding the backlash of the strike. Because of this, when a piece of debris came into their blind spots, they were to slow to react.
They were pelted from the air like flies.
"What in the hell?"
Madara coughed, mouth open as he gasped for air. He could feel a sticky trickle running down from the center of his skull. He tried to ignore it and instead focused his efforts on mustering the energy to stand up.
"We're going to find cover." Madara remained firm on his objective, even with blood leaking between his brows. "It's too big...Even with what we do with my Susano'o...We wouldn't be able to scratch it!"
Madara had no time to ponder it over. In the few seconds it took him to deduce this fact, which was obvious, the gorog launched another attack, this time its fingers reaching out and clutching at the air, until they met his flesh.
Mikito snarled, putting on a burst of speed darting to the side just as its finger crashed into the earth where they had been. She struggled to maintain her focus, shutting one eye to have more clarity, she put on another burst of speed. It was none too soon either as the gorog lashed out with its other hand, mountain and all, sweeping from the side, and knocking part of the landscape into shambles.
Madara likened it to a child knocking over their building blocks. He managed to unleash a fire jutsu, keeping some of the debris from whacking into them. Thankful for the opening, Mikito, grunted, heaving herself up into the sky.
"Behind!"
Mikito clenched her teeth, using whatever she had left to move faster. Chakra. Will. Strength. Endurance. Stamina. She used every last bit of what she had left, all of escape. The act of humility was ingenious. Just as the gorog launched another attack, she ricocheted and spun at sharp, uneven angles, narrowly escaping its grasp and reach.
"Persistent..."
Mikito hissed, shooting to the side, forcing herself into a corkscrew, and luckily enough, weaving through another strike, but didn't see the follow up wave of debris and was smacked to the ground once again, this time bouncing spine first off of a nearby mountain, flying through it, along with Madara, and hit the ground.
Madara jammed his shoulder into the ground when he had the chance, hoping to some extent, it would lessen Mikito's impact. Just as they hit the ground, he was able to scoop her into his torso, in effect, making himself the target of pain. The impact to his spine jarred him back to reality-the haze of exhaustion and sweat washed away in a heartbeat.
"Are...Are you okay?"
Madara dug his hand into the ground, dirtied nails about to split as he gripped into the sandy crust, struggling to move an inch. He could hear their foe taking slow steps forward, shaking the landscape around them. Sending the landscape into waves of destruction and obliteration. It had ripped more than a huge section of the desert asunder, the sand, what was scattered, was mounted atop clay and moist soil that had been buried beneath eons of barren waste.
He found himself shaking his head. It was pure destruction and nothing less than that. The gorog caused destruction. It was destruction. The landscape, mountains, the desert, the clouds, everything paled in comparison to it. Mountains were ripped from the ground. The landscape was gripped, turned, flipped, and hauled a million times over onto itself and inside out.
Truthfully, jutsu wouldn't work against this monster. No jutsu. It didn't matter. This monster had chucked more than one mountain. When it set its eyes on him, it had pushed two mountains aside, like it was shoving aside a curtain that had always hid its presence. Madara had been awe struck then. But, now, there was severe doubt setting in.
"Physically, for now. Mentally, I am not sure."
The gorog stomped a foot down. While it was a distance away from them, as they couldn't see its lower body entirely, the reverberating backlash still reached them with treacherous effects.
"Good thing we put some distance between ourselves and that monster." Madara said, tone low.
That stomp would have snuffed out anything within miles.
"Doton!"
Mikito slammed her hands together, plunging her chakra into the ground beneath her. She had just enough time to brace herself for the impact, but no amount of bracing could cushion this. There were horrendous cracks spreading deep under the earth, though unseen, she could feel the veins with her chakra.
She let out an ear piercing scream, her back hyper extending as her body convulsed from the surge of power. She seethed clenching her teeth, gripping her fingers tighter, squeezing her hands, forcing the jutsu to stay active. The pain at this point was beyond overwhelming. It was so painful, her body was numb to that very pain, but she still pressed on.
"You...Big...Shit..." Mikito hissed, body shaking.
The gorog slowly lifting its arm, and like swiping a fly, it sent Mikito's earth jutsu, and miles of landscape, flying with ease. Mikito felt the full backlash of the attack and couldn't brace for it. She howled in pain, tenketsu and body heaving at the sudden, oppressive force. If it had been any other creature, Mikito would have been hurt, severely hurt, but the fact the gorog dwarfed every other creature they had encountered...
She collapsed, mouth gaping open as a silent scream struggled to burst free.
T-This is fucking ridiculous! How could that fucking thing just knock aside her jutsu!? Madara screamed mentally, unable to move an inch, rooted in place by disbelief.
He had come to the conclusion, seconds, perhaps, minutes ago. The conclusion that jutsu couldn't and wouldn't work against this monster. They had to defeat this monster through another means. When something could just wave its hand, and destruction ensued on a massive scale, there was little that could be done against that.
"Damn it..."
Madara gripped Mikito's shoulder, flinching when his ears caught the low growl coming from the back of her throat.
"It is just like the last time."
"What do you mean?"
Mikito eyed the gorog, refusing to turn her gaze away from it. This is what she had been avoiding and now that she was here, fighting it head on no less, she refused to look away from it. Whatever emotions and instincts burned through her, she would deal with them in the only was she could at this point.
"I've fought it before, like I told you. I didn't manage to wound it, like some other Domou have."
Madara smirked for a brief second.
"It's flesh and blood."
Mikito wasn't amused. She struggled not to grab Madara by the neck and pound his lights out.
"Do not make that mistake. Now that we have confronted it, we have to either kill it, or force it to retreat. We aren't escaping."
"Who said anything about escaping?"
There has to be an opening! Somewhere, everything has a weakness!
Come on, come on...
The gorog shifted an inch, swinging its arm down with its fingers fully extended, shortening the gap between them by the second. It'd be over in a few seconds, himself or Mikito would be crushed. One of them would survive, but be crushed later.
There! An opening!
Madara spotted it clearly, even without his Sharingan. The gorog's face was unguarded. Its one finger, was just a little too bent to the left, and with an extra inch to go, it'd be snapped.
He gathered what chakra he could into his right hand, waiting for the moment. Just as it seemed the earth would be plunged through, Madara launched his arm high. A huge shimmering ball of indigo chakra burst from his palm passing through the gap between, and colliding with four of the beast's fingers.
With a loud and mighty thud that shook the area for miles around, the gorog rammed its hands into the earth, and much like a child would tear it grass, it began to scoop handfuls of the ground, sending the remains toppling down.
Madara tried to ignore the avalanche of destruction, darting right towards Mikito. He banked four seconds in, using a mountain as a pivot point, and began twisting past the gorog's brutish banked again, looping around some debris, and snatched Mikito by the waist.
She didn't remain idle while in his grasp. Mikito shouted, readying one hand back with a blast of chakra at the ready. With no hesitation she launched the blast of pure chakra forward, enraging the gorog further as it was pelted. It staggered back once, confused, before it went on the attack.
With a blinding swing the gorog smacked Madara out of the air and towards the ground, and quickly turned towards a mountain that had escaped its wrath up to this point.
It roared again, swinging and turning at the same time, narrowly missing Madara who was moving in a tight arc to gather speed. He swiveled through the chaotic and clumsy attacks, making sure to not even let them graze him, he locked eyes with the giant monster's, and sent a blast of power forward, only for the gorog to shield itself with the mountain.
It felt like the whole planet was shaking.
"HAAAAAA!"
Mikito shouted, throwing her arms forward, unleashing the white-blue beam of chakra, pouring everything she could into it. She trembled once, feeling true fear, as the gorog raised one hand and flicked her blast aside as if it were a mere gnat carried off by the wind.
But, it exploded, forcing it to stagger. So, while it did knock it aside with ease, it didn't do so, without suffering any consequences.
"Madara. Clones."
"I got it."
Madara wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of it before, but he quickly created some clones and sent them into attack mode. He blinked, focusing with all intent as his clones and Mikito's swarmed around the gorog like angry hornets fending off their nest to no avail.
They joined the fray, hoping to find an opening, but it did them little kept getting knocked down and were starting to sustain critical damage, and the gorog's chakra and life force was purely... Unbelievable.
This was one thing they couldn't beat.
That couldn't be beat.
Even those enormous lizards and other beasts would be powerless before the gorog. They would fight to no avail, they would definitely leave scars, but they would be crushed in the end.
Madara struggled to recover as they were smacked aside. He hissed, losing his grip on Mikito, and in effect, flipping wildly across the landscape. He snapped his arm towards the ground, making to grip and pull into it, but Celera he slammed his palm down instead, using the momentum to carry him, and a split second later flipped up to his feet.
He cried out in fury and pain, launching a massive sphere of chakra at the gorog, foregoing any of his usual tactics at this point.
With surprising speed, the gorog slammed both hands against the blast holding it bay as it drove it back a few inches at a time, with a start, its hands pressed inward, destroying the blast completely, but the explosion shocked its simple mind forcing it to stagger back.
Mikito dashed with everything she could muster, being the closest, she dashed with thrice the speed than she did the first time, jumping off of the ground and twisting her torso as she sent her whirling blade of chakra forward.
It shot forward in a tight arc, homing towards the monster's face, but at the last second, it moved its head to the side, dodging the majority of the disc, but some of the disc sliced into its cheek.
"Thanks!" Madara roared.
He grabbed what chakra was nestled deep within him, and pushed it to the surface. It was painful, but the surge of power was enough to quadruple his speed.
An aura of indigo burned around him, and like a flash of lightning he was above the gorog, chakra erupting from his palm like a geyser. He controlled the maelstrom of power by swinging one arm forward, condensing it, and then forcing it out into a beam-like blast of fire. Ultimately it tore itself free from his grasp, turning into a wall of pure inferno.
This time his attack made full contact swarming with a ravenous hunger, the wall dispersed out around the monster like chains, trying to constrict it. A guttural roar of pure power, that shattered the earth, the heavens, his eardrums, and the very sky itself forcing it bleed rain was what rebuffed his last chance attack.
A wave of sheer force, chakra and debris was what slammed against him effectively hurdling him along with Mikito, and everything else around them for miles, each of them dispersing in different directions.
Part of the gorog's fist smashed through the ground. Madara flew to the side, partly carried by the impact, and he lashed out again with a blast of chakra, turning it into fire at the last second, launching another attack from his freehand. Both attacks sailed and hit, though caused little damage.
He sailed to the ground, gathering himself for his landing, but still managed to launch another fireball. The attack was more of a diversion. Used to cover his hasty sprint forward. His clothes, tattered as they were, began to wither from the force and velocity at which he traveled.
Mikito was going on the attack!
He had to flank her, even if it was insane.
Slow down! Damn it!
Slow down!
Mikito put on a burst of speed, shifting sharply to her right, her left, and then backwards. She moved forwards, and then pivoted at odd angles, kicking up tons of dust. The movements were wild and sporadic, and so was her trajectory as she was forced to clench her teeth, corkscrewing.
She spun above one piece of debris, and dashed up another chunk of debris that had been primed to smack her. With a blast of chakra burning in the palm of her hand, she threw her arms forward. The gorog lashed out with its hand, sweeping from the side, and knocked her face first into the ground. The blast erupted in reds and oranges, spreading smoke and destruction for the next several dozen miles.
Mikito grunted, heaving herself up, just barely. She huffed out a breath as crimson slid into her vision. There was a nagging feeling, that she couldn't wipe away the haze, so she turned her focus onto Madara, glancing back, and just in time.
Madara launched another punch. He was charging the gorog head on. The sheer fierceness and density of his chakra was keeping him afloat. He came rocketing back down, propelled by the force of being struck. She flew to the side, narrowly escaping a shower of destruction that proceeded her husband, and shot around, banking harshly and twisting into a vertical ascent.
Madara's indigo aura burned as he recovered from the bone breaking blow, weaving through another sweeping attack, but didn't see the follow up and was smacked to the ground once again, this time bouncing spine first off of a nearby mountain, denting it.
His skull was saved as Mikito slid under him at the last second, blasting wind behind her to slow their travel. It was just barely enough to allow her to skid on her side, but she didn't break anymore bones than what had been broken up to this point.
"Thanks..."
Madara panted, one eye swollen shut-crimson leaked from another gash in his skull.
Mikito was in similar or worse condition.
They remained standing because they supported each other with their arms.
They could still fight.
"Don't mention it."
"Chakra..." Madara rasped, extending his hand forward.
Mikito clutched his hand tightly, kneading her chakra and allowing it to enter Madara's body. At the same time, she allowed Madara's chakra to enter her body, and the chakra-that had combined, at the second they began to knead into each other, also entered their bodies.
Something new to behold.
"I regret we couldn't do this in a more suitable place."
"What do you mean? This is the best way, right?"
"Follow my lead, in that case."
Mikito nodded, racing behind Madara. Clones dispersed around them, running with the same vigor. Without any fear. They fed of their masters' fury and rage, and forewent anything that would prolong their time, knowing they could cut loose.
Madara forced himself into a rotating axis, latched onto Mikito's ankle, and whipped her into the sky, right towards their foe, turning, he sent one of his clones flying towards the gorog with a flick of his wrist.
He turned his focus back on Mikito, but the by the time he did that, one of his clones had been batted aside, while four began to scale up to gorog's frame. He used a quick Shushin, jumped, over to Mikito, grabbed a hold of her, and repeated the jutsu, appearing a few feet away. They rolled across the ground, shredding their already tattered clothes, finally sliding on their sides to an abrupt halt.
They charged the monster again, adding more clones to fray, unleashing everything they were capable of, but the gorog took it and dished it back out over a million fold. Their strongest and best attacks, their strongest jutsu, they were all rendered obsolete before this mammoth of a creature. With one hand it batted away lightning, while with the other, it held off spears of water.
Madara slid across the ground, eyes zoning in on a part of the gorog's midsection.
"Good eye as always!"
Mikito followed his lead, firing off a quick fire jutsu. Certainly it wouldn't be enough to seriously wound or even harm the gorog. However, perhaps it would be enough to scorch its leathery skin. Offer a small blemish in its unstoppable form. He wouldn't hold his breath on it, but both of their combined attacks, should do the trick.
Fear and relief consumed him as the attacks met their mark, exploded, and sent scorched flesh flying. It was barely peeling into the first layer, but it was enough to show weakness. It was also enough to make the gorog angry. It swept the landscape asunder with its body and hands, forcing an overflow of pure destruction to flow out from its form like a ripple in a pond.
Mikito was smashed first. Debris far too massive and numerous rolled right towards her like a hurricane. It was all she could do just to brace. Even bracing couldn't possibly be enough to not walk away unscathed from such a pelting. Her body had limits.
Those limits were broken. It was a strange feeling. Pain coursed through her, but she couldn't feel it. She was paralyzed to the pain or her body just went numb.
"Mikito!"
Madara's shout roused her back.
"My..." Mikito struggled to speak. "Body...It's thrashed, it seems."
There's no other way! Here goes nothing...
Madara took a deep breath, focused on his chakra, and flared it as violently, and as high, as he could.
He didn't care if it hurt him.
This was his last chance!
"Hhh... HYYAAAAAAGGHH!"
Focus... Focus...
"YAAAUUUGGHHHH!"
Madara's roar shook the rain soaked heavens, the indigo aura which burned around him, surged wildly, striking out as if it weren't under his control. It flickered violently morphing into a bright violent, his hair flashing into the same color.
"R-R-Rahh...Raaagghh!"
He beamed forward, tearing the ground where he stood, his charged fist slammed into the gorog's jaw, exploding like a blast of a thousand jutsu colliding. He flipped along his trajectory, once, twice, thrice, four times in total. The aura flicked beside the gorog's arm, phasing out of sight just when Madara's foot smashed squarely in its arms socket.
Madara hissed softly, shooting back, feeling like his sweat was starting to evaporate along with whatever else his physical body held.
He howled in agony, entire body convulsing His chakra spiked, and he felt everything inside of him pop. It made him scream. Every single nerve and cell felt like it was on fire. He hit the ground, groaning in agony. He couldn't move. Whatever had popped inside of him, forced something to flood him without reprieve. Pure and unbridled agony.
Whatever he had done, was bad...
And, even worse.
His power vanished.
The chakra roaring out of him began reacting, clashing, thrashing, flaring, just aiming to viciously tear him into a million pieces. Madara gasped out a pained scream, gaping his mouth open to such in oxygen. It was all he could do to keep himself conscious. His power was gone, and worse-something happened with his tenketsu, or his chakra gates.
A combination of both?
He knew it wasn't good.
The only thing he could hear was the thumping of his heart like a bass drum in his chest. The pop of his chakra, and his chakra system, breaking into pieces. He felt weightless, like his chest was hollow, his entire body was burning inside and out.
Touching on his chakra was like feeling a trillion needles piercing through his eyes at the same time. It was a simple impulse to not touch on his chakra, and not knead, but he fought against that impulse.
"M...Mikito..." He rasped.
"Still here..." She replied, not too far away.
"I feel like my body is broken..."
"Same..." Mikito coughed, struggling to move her head. "I think, perhaps it's time we use that."
"Eight Gates? That may do us more harm than good."
Madara could concede that anything was better than their current predicament. However, he wasn't quite sure if suffering the after effects of opening just the first gate would be favorable at this point in time. That could only mean, he would need to open the higher gates. The sixth and the seventh. He was damn certain that would kill him at this point, and if it didn't...He would not be the same afterwards.
It was his best chance of survival. He would need to rely on his resolve, will, and determination to keep his body and mind together. It would be so easy to slip away into a realm of madness when one was in the condition that he was in. He had to resist that. He had to resist a lot, now that he thought about it, and he wasn't sure if his body would be able to handle it.
He wasn't sure if he would be able to.
But, he would not taste the bitter defeat of death.
"Fair enough, let's do it."
"We should use Senjutsu as well."
Madara was severely wounded, but he managed to widen his eyes. He had heard about the esoteric and mysterious technique, and energy source, but few were ever able to tap into it. It was said that one had to learn from a Sage. A Sage was normally a high ranking summoning within a summonings caste. The Toads had a Sage. The Tigers had a Sage. The Dragons had a Sage. So on and so forth.
Shinobi alone were able to tap into this energy source. Doing so required careful balance. But, they didn't have a mastery of it. They weren't called Sages. They could only brush the surface of this power. The basics were that in order to attain this careful balance, one had to be totally still and meditate. That was the general idea. However, there were ways to absorb and manipulate it passively.
If they were off by just a thread, strange things happened. They could become an animal, a statue, they could transform, they could gain animal features. They could burn up completely. Manipulating it passively allowed one to brush the surface of the power, but it was highly unstable. The energy couldn't be properly controlled. It was like trying to fit an entire waterfall into a sixteen fluid ounce bottle.
"It's worth a try. Technically, we all know the basics of it. Only the Jugo clan can actively, passively, and aggressively absorb and utilize it."
Certainly, he could die, but at least he would die by his own hand. If he didn't die, perhaps something else would happen. Maybe he would be turned into a half human and half animal, or a statue. Maybe he'd have a transformation where his hair was as hard as iron and he was bathed in pure chakra. His Sharingan wouldn't even have tomoes-it'd just be pure crimson energy oozing from his eye sockets.
The thought amused him. He deduced it was because he was delirious.
Mikito chuckled, smiling.
"I am thankful you are so open minded. You weren't so open minded before, remember.."
Madara settled himself the best he could, centering his breathing.
He smiled.
"I have no choice this time around. You're stubborn."
They brushed the surface of Senjutsu and took a firm hold of it.
The more they clenched it, the more it hastened away.
Desperate, both Madara and Mikito had one thought.
My will is far greater.
With that will, they took that power they were brushing against, and delved into it. As hasty and as stupid as it was, they did just that. They had always faced death. Put on war zones as children, they had to fight for their lives. They seen children die, cut down. They seen adults die, cut down in hordes. Innocence driven to massacres in droves.
Those years of cruelty and ruthlessness hardened Madara and Mikito. They weren't afraid of battle. Thy didn't yield. More than anything, they didn't fear death of what lied on the other side. They believed that their will, would surpass that. Their spirit would surpass that. They would not succumb to death. They would not. They were too strong.
Only old age would take away their breath-they would never fall in combat.
That had been the promise they made to themselves, when they were mere children.
The power engorged them like no other. It melded with their chakra, but it was not seamless. It was abrasive. It not only infused with their chakra, but it threatened to overtake it completely. They understood the risks, as all shinobi did. Even touching on this power passively was dangerous. But, they were far beyond that. They had delved into the well of power, and dived deeper.
They forged on. The power was a bright, white light. Columns of sky, or something sky blue in color, flashed through the blinding light. Unlike the light, which was only blinding, and assaulted their eyes. The blue columns they could feel, and it did effect them. Immediately, it felt like their bodies had been peeled raw. What remained was squeezed.
There was no pain, but they didn't feel the need to resist either. But, both knew it was just a death lull. To give into that sensation would mean to...
With their will, they resisted.
"Ready, Madara?"
"Heh." Madara chuckled. "As I'll ever be."
"I'm going to open the Seventh Gate."
Madara set his eyes.
"I understand. I'll follow suit."
He touched on his chakra, and began to knead it. Once he managed to do that, he tried to flare it, but the same thing that happened before happened. That pop deep within himself came back, but this time he jerked so hard and fast-he swore he must have broke at least one of his limbs. It was pure and distilled agony. His fists clenched, his teeth grit, and he screamed.
"Kyomon…"
Both humans inhaled as deep as they could, forging into the infinite well of Senjutsu. They could feel themselves fading away, almost disintegrating. Turning into pure chakra. The blinding light consumed them wholly. The columns of energy swelled like blisters, exploding and dispersing. The impact of the explosions was unimaginable. Reality itself shook.
"Open!"
"RAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH RAAAAGGHHHH!"
His voice distorted before cracking as he howled in pain.
He shook, struggling to move-he swore his voice wasn't pitching that high, as much as he was screaming. That could only mean Mikito was screaming in pain, just like he was, going through something similar or worse. He couldn't guess. He couldn't stop himself from drooling or keep his mouth from gaping open. His body burned, his sweat was pulled from his pores.
Opening the Gates required inhumane physical training. He was trained to open Seven. His father wouldn't allow him to learn how to burst open the Eighth Gate. His father didn't know. The Uchiha deemed it to be counterproductive. He knew Mikito was trained to open Seven, but she could possibly open the Eighth if she pushed herself.
The pain of opening them was beyond comprehension. The distilled agony he felt before was nothing compared to what ripped him apart nerve by nerve. It had been a gamble. A fool's gamble. Something he hadn't been banking on, but since he had to lay it all on the line, he had to lean on this. This was his best chance. The internal popping he suffered turned into internal gashing, and Madara let out a scream.
Chakra flooded his system without any reprieve or hesitation. It came so hard and fast his entire body stiffened. What bones had been broken snapped back into place, healing within an instant. The pain was unbearable, and steam surged through his pores, sizzling through the air, as even the smallest of tendons and ligaments refastened themselves together.
Mikito let out a shriek of agony that burst his ears like corks and forced him to grimace. The explosion of chakra from her signaled that she opened one or more of the Eight Gates. Chakra was flooding her system, but just like him, there were quadrillions of pricks piercing through her very system. Ripped and torn asunder, shattering and dissipating into nothing.
A growl left his throat. Something inside of him reacted violently...Angrily... and Destructively. Mikito's agony drove him over the edge, but his own snapped into him like a whip lashing across his back.
His head smacked the ground.
"RUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!"
"RAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHH!"
The pain only increased, but so did the fire in their veins, so did their power. So did their chakra. Every single part of them was popping and shattering to be rebuilt anew, expanding and stretching to house what was to come after this, if they survived.
The Senjutsu chakra was only received passively, just barely. It was enough to turn them to stone should they lose control, but it was enough to feel and adjust to it.
Concentrating on both of the sensations was complicated. Raging vs calm. Torrential vs serene. It was like being enveloped in a mass of hurricanes and tornadoes, but mixing in water and snow as well. Opening the Gates was like becoming a mass of hurricanes and tornadoes. Senjutsu was like a serene drizzle in the morning, or a light snow under the moonlit sky.
Two total contrasting energies.
"Raaggghhh!"
The gorog took sight of its two foes, slowly turning its massive weight towards them. The rain pitched, increasing in ferocity and depth. It opened its maw, showing off its sets off broken, sharp, and jagged teeth. Mikito would have screamed, if she wasn't already, for different reasons. The four tusks that protruded from its jaws were crusted with blood.
It was like staring at death, and with a sweep of its hand, it sent Mikito and Madara flying without control.
They were broken by the time they stopped.
But, that did not stop the gorog from going on the attack. It hefted its hand high, and brought it down with terrifying speed, desiring nothing more than to split the very earth in two like a loaf of bread. Both Madara and Mikito braced themselves for the impact, but no amount of bracing could cushion this. There were horrendous cracks for miles as the gorog's attacks met their marks.
Both humans let out an ear piercing scream, it had been a long time since they actually screamed at the top of their lungs. Madara seethed clenching his teeth, gripping his forehead with one hand, panting harshly. Mikito only managed to gasp, struggling to move every few seconds while clutching at the ground. The pain beyond overwhelming.
T-This is fucking ridiculous! Madara screamed mentally, unable to move an inch.
He glanced up, struggling to fight through the haze of pain, agony, exhaustion, and delusion. His vision was more than blurry. He lost track of how much time he had been laying, broken, battered, and crushed. His vision slowly sharpened, and he could make out the sky and the sun. It got darker, and it was light again, but he remained where he was.
The gorog turned its sight onto him. He could see the bloody stumps of where its fingers had been. Though they couldn't defeat this creature, they definitely wounded him. They left their mark. They survived this long, and he was okay with that. He wanted to win-wanted to conquer this monster, but he knew that was a fool's thought, and a fool's gamble.
But, this didn't deter Mikito nor Madara. Instead, they fought on. The Seventh Gate being open granted them access to secret techniques that could only be executed when the Seventh Gate was open. That, or when a monstrous and absurd amount of chakra was exerted and focused.
But, his conclusion from before had haunted him.
For five days and nights straight, it haunted him.
He fought hard, he fought with everything he had, but he knew it wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough.
A scowl was Madara's only answer to the overall scenario he found himself in. That, and a scream. Fire fanned around him, blurring into existence as his entire body, seemingly, convulsed. To the untrained eye, the flames appeared to be like a peacock charging, its magical tail sweeping vastly. To the untrained eye, it appeared that Madara was convulsing.
"RAAHHH!"
To the trained eye, one would see this was a secret technique.
That the convulsing motion, was actually Madara striking out, punching through the air itself-so hard and fast, it couldn't be traced.
He dashed in, striking his feet across the ground to propel himself forward.
He dashed through the fire.
Stepping through the tail of the flaming peacock, he honed in on his target.
The air distorted. It turned. The fabric warped.
Madara fuzzed out of sight.
It can't see me!
He continued his wild barrage, using the accumulated force to thrust both of his feet forward, smashing the gorog in the chest, using every last bit of force and velocity to drive pain and agony into the monstrosity. He snarled, extending an arm forward and launched several hundred spheres of inferno, hoping to keep the gorog's attention negated long enough so he could land another decisive strike.
Despite the mass of energy and flames obliterating on contact, the gorog remained standing, sweeping through the wall of inferno flames. Madara snapped his arm forward, swung it around, and slammed his foot into the ground. Fire surged around him like a monsoon, and with a shout, he sent the mass forward. Mikito, flanking his attacking launched one arm forward, letting out her own cry as lightning speared from her palm, forcing her to skid back on her feet.
The gorog let out what one, could, consider to be a feral roar, though many, would consider it to be more like an earthquake and explosion of power. The monstrosity moved towards them. The combined array of lightning and fire melded together. Coalescing into a spear, it shred into the gorog's bare hand, sending blood oozing out.
Mikito swayed around the spear, the force cracking the ground all around her and sending a monsoon of force shredding across the landscape around her. She arced down towards the earth, speeding ahead of the falling debris, and Madara, hastily, copied her movements.
It wasn't until a wave of the desert, and part of the ocean itself, struck the surrounding landscape, that Madara put on a boost of speed so great his body jerked like it was contorted, and the air, let out a loud thunderous clap. The force was great enough to send him careening out of control, only because he sized his trajectory, and tooke the necessary precautions in case he lost that trajectory, was the reason he was able to maintain it.
The fact he could maintain it meant that the explosive force of the thunder clap, which propelled him, along with any velocity and momentum gathered, fueled his strike. He was moving too fast to be seen, so fast that the air was starting to rip away like a fabric.
Now, he could land a decisive blow.
And, he did.
Like a rocket, his body shot up to the gorog's mouth, his fist primed for attack, first and foremost, struck. It felt like every bone in his body was about to shatter, and every muscle was ripped, but Madara screamed, just as the thunder clap surged around him.
The concussive force was like a another blow, and it moved under the monster just as it began lashing out with its other fist smashing it square on his jaw, breaking one of its tusks in half, forcing blood to fly from his mouth, and for a moment, sent it staggering towards the ground.
This thing is indomitable, but...If I can hit it decisively one more time, or if Mikito can...
We can knock it down!
I can feel it in my bones!
Another bash of thunder rifled through the area. The gorog surged, Ready to attack. Ready to wreak havoc. Every attack it unleashed was slow, lumbering, and pointed. But, despite all of that, its speed was great enough to arc, and force wind to blast from its center. It lashed out in tandem with the gale force winds, chipping away at the landscape.
Madara swayed slightly, wincing as blood oozed from a wound on his skull. He was more than shocked to see Mikito catch the monster by the wrist, snarling and roaring like a wild animal. The force of the swing began to drive her back, but her expression hadn't changed in the least still as wild and crazed as before. Destruction and shockwaves of force dispersed behind her.
She grunted, slowly, impossibly slow, but certainly, pushing the gorog's limb away.
The monster realized, it actually had to resist.
It realized, that...
This human was still alive and not meat confetti after that.
Damn! Here it comes!
Mikito flared her chakra, and just as she felt force, let it jerk her.
The gorog pulled her in. There was nothing Mikito could do to prevent being pulled, but she didn't want to. She used that force to fling herself even more, trying to pick up as much speed as she possibly could. The chakra strummed her body, contorting it and bending it into a ball. Uncertain, she still arced herself into a series of flips, and on the last one, kicked her leg so her knee was pointed.
She clenched her teeth, feeling her entire body jerk, and nearly stop. It was the equivalent of being picked up by the head and legs, and then being bent until her spine snapped. With a scream, she pulled herself, contracting her entire body, letting the rest of the velocity and impact snap its head back.
She spun away, slowly recovering enough where she could angle her spine and float until she was upright.
"Hey..." Madara floated beside her, grimacing as some blood oozed from a wound.
Mikito panted, clenching her fists tightly. "What?"
Madara tried to regain his breath, but he had been pushing himself hard.
"We can knock it down, one more decisive strike. Then we can bombard it."
Mikito clenched her fists tighter, struggling. "We, three, certain, decisive, and definite hits..."
"One more." Madara said, struggling to breathe. "One more."
Mikito nodded.
"Should I provide the distraction?"
"Let's stick to our roles."
"You have a good eye."
"Your eyes are sharper, however. I'll use Hirudora, I should be able to manage that." Mikito said.
"Then what?"
Mikito frowned for a moment. "We'll hit it with a fire jutsu, a lightning jutsu, a wind jutsu, and an earth jutsu. If that doesn't finish it..."
"It will." Madara said. "A sound plan."
"This is going to be the pinnacle of our abilities and all our training, up to this point." Mikito said, tone stern.
Madara looked at her sharply.
"As shinobi, born shinobi. This will be our utmost of those abilities. If this doesn't work..."
"It will!"
"If it doesn't. It will prove Hagoromo is and was, ultimately, useless, and that our hypothesis is even more correct. Ninjutsu, at its current level, is useless. Ninjutsu is useless. We have to...We have to... "
Madara remained silent.
"Destruction and break our shells. Shatter our masks. Obliterate our limitations. We must shatter everything. Even power itself! Even despair! Even hatred! We must shatter all of it!"
The gorog made a full one hundred and eighty degree turn.
"Let's do it, Mikito!"
Part of the desert cracked, and another part was heaved upward. With its terrible hands the monster ripped chunks of it with vigor, launching them like stones. The impact forcing her to skid to the side each time, hastily putting on a jolt of speed that she could feel her entire body starting to breakdown from the action.
She pressed her advantage, beaming through the smoke and debris, using the screen to slam her entire body into its side as if she were trying to push down a tree. Her aura flared behind her the moment she made contact, it flared seconds later as she screamed. To her shock and surprise the monster had almost taken it without any trouble, but, the resounding earthquake, meant that she staggered it.
Mikito hastily flared her chakra, and used it to careen herself away. The sudden movement would have been enough to snap her neck in four different place. It could be likened to ascending thousands of feet, then, in a second, shooting down and arcing at three hundred degrees. The end result would be a shockwave ripping through the air. The person's body would have been contorted and atomized.
But, because chakra cushioned her, Mikito was only mildly effected by the movement, but had enough reflexes to angle herself.
She thrust a palm forward right in front of her face with and slammed her other hand atop it, fingers clenching forming into a fist. Fissures and geysers of force surged around her as a massive amount of air pressure gusted like a tornado. Mikito held on tight, screaming when she felt a sharp pierce strike her back.
"Hirudora!"
The air pressure, that had been like a thunderstorm around Mikito, rocketed forward, surging wildly as it bounded forward, slowly, but surely, definitely, taking the shape of a gigantic tiger. As the shockwave, behind the air pressure, guzzled, the tiger grew in size. It began condense as it bounded across the landscape.
Unknowingly, the gorog decided to reach out and try to wrestle the oncoming force. It could comprehend the technique was an esoteric one, it had seen it a few times now. The mammoth tiger struck against it with ferocity, mouth closing, claws latching and lashing out onto the behemoth as if it were prey.
Both monstrosities fought for supremacy. The gorog wrestled and thrashed with the indomitable force that just seemed to keep on pushing and pushing. But, it could feel a limit to the beast. Searching for that limit, the gorog found it, and it prodded into it. With its fingers, it carved into that limit cruelly. The attack, however, wasn't fueled by chakra.
Mikito screamed, entire body going stock rigid as if she had been electrocuted. To move a centimeter was nothing but murder. It was through inhuman willpower, that Mikito surged forward with her fist. True, the air pressure and shockwaves were right in front of her, but she was still affected by them, and trying to lay another punch in was like pushing through a energy mountain.
It felt like every bone in her arm was shattering the more she pressed ahead. The pain didn't daunt or stop her. It didn't hinder her. The pain only made her thrive.
The blast of force, surged, traveling with insane speed. The gorog, not expecting the sudden surge, was forced back. Debris and sand whipped across the landscape, as it was visibly moved by the oppressive force. The blast of force smacked the landscape, took a physical form of steam, and spread outwards in a vacuum cloud of pure destruction.
"EXPLODE!"
On Mikito's command, the built up air pressure and force was released in an instant. There was no moderation of duration of release. Every last shred of pressure and power came out, all at once.
It could only be likened to massive explosion. The explosion ripped apart the landscape from its center, like a cylinder, and then sent the rest of it spiraling upward. It all happened in a second, before another explosion erupted, sending a shockwaves lashing out that could be felt, hundreds, of miles away.
The gorog was completely and utterly consumed by the attack. The clouds that it had amassed into a swirl were kicked out of their solitary stance, forced into whirling twisters that spouted storms of debris on the ground. The whole landscape began to jolt and crack, almost surging like waves in the ocean.
Incredible! I knew I could count on Mik-chan!
That's it!
Madara pulled back on his speed, focusing on arcing himself at the right angle. He wasn't going to hold back at all this time. The chakra he stuffed into body converted into fire. It surged through him like blood, intoxicating him. It rounded into his palm, burning at his finger tips.
It erupted forward in the form of an enormous fireball. It gained speed as oxygen sweltered into it, slowly, but surely, turning into a sheer wall. The fireball still gained momentum and size, getting much bigger, larger, and wider until the whole landscape was sweltered. It struck its target with a thunderous rumble. The damage was comparable to that of the Amaterasu, he dared to say.
The jarring impacts leveled the entire patch of ground in clattering rock and mountains. Parts of the fireball spread across the landscape in large, massive waves. It never reached the ground, only surging high above it like a funneling network of highways.
I'll handle fire and lightning...
Madara slammed his hands together, gritting his teeth. Now it was about precise chakra control. Instead of creating a lightning cutter sort of technique, or a lightning jutsu geared towards cutting, like most shinobi utilized. Madara was more more focused on concentrating his lightning chakra within his body, that highly concentrated-to-just-a-single-point-lightning weapon.
Madara's body quickly, and violently became flooded by sparks emitted from his concentrated and pinpoint focused chakra. The prowess of this jutsu was incredible enough to even be able to severely damage a bijuu in just a single blow even though, it was, a mass of chakra. Madara could feel its power. Luckily, he had a slight affinity towards lightning.
He smoothly fused nature transformation chakra with the initial one he used to form the technique. As a child, he tried to utilize all the nature types, and he had an affinity for three, with a slight affinity for two. The training was coming back full force.
Teeth grit. The sparks from before became torrents of pure electricity and lashing power. Coils struck the ground and the air high above, aiming to incinerate the very clouds. Madara maintained his iron control more than even before. One slight, minute, tiny, insignificant miscalculation on his part was going to lead to nothing but being charred flesh. The lightning would consume him so quickly and violently, he wouldn't have anything left of his physical existence.
I can't pinpoint it. Can't see. Too much smoke and debris. My stamina is...Depleting...Broader...
Broader focus...
Madara chose to let the lightning engulf him, rather than remain concentrated. It would have made more sense to to add more power to the overwhelming piercing prowess of his technique, to the point of being capable of penetrating through everything, even a bijuu, he fared to say. Still, it took a lot to maintain control, and lightning was one of the most radical, and chakra consuming nature types.
But, the end result was something magnificent. With finely tuned, inhuman control, Madara separated his hands from each other. As he did, the sparks of power centered within the growing gap. Bright, luminous, and uncontrollable, the ray of power became blinding. The air crackled and thundered. The ground trembled. Madara trembled, teeth grit so hard his gums were starting to bleed. He could feel the power. Overwhelming. Wrathful. It was barely restrained.
It coalesced. It condensed. Sharp. Thin. Agile.
Madara took a breath, and it spun a few degrees...
Then, it vanished.
A ring of lightning tore through the landscape of reality-the force was dimension shattering.
Mikito had been storing what chakra for the last several minutes. There were two seals on her that had been stored with chakra as well. It was enough, definitely. She knew she had a few seconds to act before Madara's two awesome attacks made their true impact. She slammed that stored chakra with an iron fist and let it flare. She opened those seals on her body. Her arms shook as she thrust them forward. putting her hands forward as well.
Her feet dug for purchase in the ground. Her body stretched. Her hair whipped forward. A fiery wind engulfed everything around her, forcing her spine and body to totally hyper extend, like she had been forced onto her tiptoes. The center of the maelstrom focusing around her palms and body, first and foremost. The energy was so dense and uncontrollable, it felt like it was crushing down on her arms.
Mikito strained, feeling a jolt of fear, just for a second, as her right leg slid forward. She planted herself more firmly, driving her left leg into the ground by the instep. Various, smaller spiral winds coalesced with the larger fiery mass. Mikito had to widen her stance and crouch into a horse stance, forcing chakra into her legs and soles of her feet.
To say she was controlling it would be a gross overstatement if there ever was one. It would be more accurate to say she was in the middle of the fiery mass, being the conduit and center, to which it revolved and originated from. For this reason alone was she not consumed entirely and shredded down to her bones by the fact she was in the center of it.
Sh condensed it all into her hands, letting it gush out towards the monster. This time, instead of being pulled by her attack, she pushed. There was nothing she could do to brace or stop herself. Being pulled, she could plant herself, but being pushed was a different story.
The back lashing power of the technique sent her rocketing away like a missile, high into the sky.
No need...
She rammed her hands together and stabbed her chakra. It turned into a beam of radical light, that speared high into the heavens, and deep into the earth, creating an earthquake. This, however, wasn't enough for Mikito. It had been something to purchase herself. It wasn't even the beginning of her attack. She wanted total and utter obliteration, her chakra was like a storm of malice. Her will shaping the ground and entire landscape into jaws, fissures, rifts, and shredding apart part of the landscape.
The earthquake increased in size and magnitude. There was no way to measure it. There was destruction all around. The entire landscape was like jaws snapping for blood and cracking from that blood lust. It could only be ascertained that Mikito wanted to ensure that this enemy, and any others that may come, would end up being swallowed by the earth itself. The area would eventually close, but she knew...It wouldn't be enough to fell the gorog.
It would not be enough.
Cataclysm.
Mikito and Madara shared the same thought.
The ground peeled itself apart. Four massive attacks converged, coalescing into a sphere of pure light that spread from the point of impact, to encompass everything within sight, going as far into the ocean. The overall destructive impact filtered down into the earth like a beam of light, surging outwards like a shockwave, sending entire levels of everything flying away.
It was like the landscape was being shaved off layer by layer, like someone would shave off their hair. Each shockwave was another wound. Another wave. Another tsunami of destruction. The attacks collided, and with the thunder, lightning, rain, and gorog all raging around them...
Those elements fused into a maddening storm of frightening proportions. Thunder ripped the ground asunder, lightning cracked for hundreds of miles. It looped and spread out as it made the crazy arcs. It struck the ground with destructive force, peeling blackened, raw, wounds into the landscape. Water flooded in, striking the landscape as if it were as solid as mountains.
Typhoon winds struck the torrential waves, throwing them into a monsoon and hurricane into one. It intertwined with the storm above, rocking through the landscape as it fed off the lightning. Fire wound around the circumference of the obliteration, like interstate highways and bridges, they made more widespread destruction possible. It fed the wind, it made the water boil, it blackened and heated the earth, it melded with lightning.
The destruction was far and wide. More than a few million kilometers. The storm above and below continued to surge, destroying, reforming, shredding, obliterating, and fusing the landscape together. Cylinders and jaws of destruction wrapped around everything.
It was some time before the debris stopped raining. Roaring waves of water, sliding down and across jagged land formations, pushing through plumes of smoke and circles of lightning permeated the landscape. More than five receding shrouding and mushroom plume clouds of smoke stretched high, slowly, but surely, on their way to receding.
Madara didn't quite concede with his defeat, or accept it, but he couldn't exactly fight against it either. After all, even if he weren't so wounded, his chakra and chakra system were clashing and thrashing, still. It was a miracle he could even maintain consciousness for so long under such stress. The pain rushing through his body over the simple fact it was touched made him scream.
It was a miracle that they hadn't died from keeping the Gates open for so long. Perhaps when they lose total consciousness-their bodies will finally shut down.
Right now-their will and spirit surpassed their flesh.
"Nggghhh...It survived..."
Mikito seethed, her head craning up as she looked at the gorog then back at Madara. She was so close to blacking out, but seeing the enormous mass moving towards Madara, knowing it would crush him into a bloody pulp...
It brought her back and a snarl tore free from her mouth as she let out a feral shriek. Chakra exploded from her body, every single pore was bursting with power, burning like her insides. It burned bright red and orange, forcibly glowing brighter and brighter. For all of its intensity, it bore down on her. She took hold of the pain, dug into it, and screamed as she held onto it.
It offered her a small reprieve. Just enough of a push to grab Madara, and speed away until she finally stumbled and collapsed. Madara couldn't recover in time, and he went crashing face first into the ground, rolling a few times. Mikito continued in her stumble, finally skidding to a stop.
"It didn't work..." Madara managed to grit out, eyes narrowed. "The Gates and Senjutsu-the energies clashed."
"Did they?" Mikito questioned.
Madara tried to sense the chakra deep within him, and realized with horror-senjutsu was flaring as wild as his own chakra.
And, he could not control it.
"This is bad."
Madara cursed.
"This is really bad. Shit! Fuck!"
They were clashing and trying to meld at the same time.
It was a vicious contrast.
"Considering the gorog is attacking the way it is...I guess we both opened every gate, up to the Seventh. Even at the Fifth Gate, maps need to be redrawn. And...In that case..."
Madara looked ahead for the first time, in a long time, and found himself staring into Mikito's eyes.
"Don't say it."
"We have to resist. We have to resist the Seven Gates tearing us apart and Senjutsu trying to consume us."
"Can we?"
"I..." Mikito trailed off. "If we don't..."
Madara blinked.
"We don't have a choice but to overcome it. It is just something we have to break."
For a moment, he felt relief.
There had been a fleeting second, unconsciously so, that he thought Mikito would have despaired. It was more than perfectly reasonable, and he would have despaired right along with her. They would be petrified in stone, and their remains would shatter, and eventually turn into dust. But, the fact she didn't despair, and kept fighting, was enough for him to do what she said.
He began to resist being overtaken by his own torrential chakra, resisted every single part of him being ripped apart by the Seventh Gate, and resisted being consumed by Senjutsu chakra. It was no easy task, and he wasn't sure what was keeping himself or Mikito going at this point. Personal drive and intensity could only go so far. Determination and resolve could only go so far.
Those things could waver.
They would waver.
It had been proven multiple times now.
Perhaps it was the fact all they knew was to fight. If they put their heart and soul into anything they wanted to accomplish, they believed with that, they could accomplish anything. If I put my all into it, of course I can do it. Mikito followed that same logic.
Maybe his mind was just flipping over and over, trying to keep itself stable so he didn't go insane. He wasn't sure where that thought came from.
With bloody realization, did he come back to reality. There was a fine ooze coming from inside of Mikito's mouth. Her good hand, remarkably something that hadn't been broken, clutched the ground. Madara felt a pang in his heart, and with urgency, he crawled to Mikito. He couldn't remember the last time he moved so swiftly. He clutched her hand with his own, trembling.
"Hey..."
Madara felt tears well in his eyes-different tears. They were not tears of physical and mental agony. They were tears of sorrow. The tears that came when someone lost someone close...To them. Someone precious. Madara knew the feeling too well. He clutched Mikito's hand tighter, coughing from the hasty action. He noted, that blood was mixed in with his saliva.
He wasn't sure why the tears were coming, but they were. They continued to flow, and no matter how hard h tried, he could not stop them.
"Madara..."
Mikito took in his broken and battered visage-the blue and green aura that consumed him from opening the Seventh gate. The glow of his aura due to the Senjutsu chakra flaring out control. But, more than anything-she looked at his face. Bloodied, bruised, and broken. Covered with facial hair. It was a far cry from the perfect, chiseled, clean shaven handsome features she had admired over time since their first meeting.
But, that was okay...
"Madara..."
Madara growled.
"Don't talk like that, damn it. Don't...Don't..."
Mikito looked at the ground, thinking.
Some things never change, but that makes me happy.
Madara didn't respond verbally. He may have responded non verbally. He may have raised his brow. He may have blinked. He may have firmed his lips. He could have done any number of things, but he knew he wasn't stoic. Anything but that. This seemed like something Mikito had been wrestling with for a long time, and she was about to show her guts to him.
And, for that reason he stayed silent. As husband and wife, they could show each other their guts. There was nothing to worry about. There was no betrayal. There was no deceit. There was no want to get ahead by using that weakness against that single person. As husband and wife-both could confide in each other. Just like brothers could confide in each other.
Just like he confided with his brothers and vice versa.
Emotions from the past were starting to boil to the surface-perhaps the fact he was nearing death's door, or just on the razor's edge of getting there, was the reason these dormant thoughts were starting to surface.
"Tell me." Madara said, focusing his waning mind on the present.
Mikito bit her lip, drawling blood from a wound on it.
"I trust you, yes. I trust you a lot, yes, You are my husband, yes. I love you. I trust you. I can cry in front of you, yes. I don't have to be strong all the time in front of you, I can...I can cry...Right...I can confide in you, yes. I can tell you everything about myself, no secrets in that regard, yes..."
Madara struggled to bring her close, the wounds of battle and their failed experiment coming back to haunt him. Blood oozed out from a wound by his ribs, and he found himself short of breath.
Bad didn't begin to describe his current situation.
It was a fucking disaster.
"I know why you refuse to drop your guard, but you can trust me. I am your husband. I should meet you halfway, and drop my guard, and trust you as well."
"Thanks...That means a lot to me. The only people I drop my guard around are my siblings."
Mikito gripped his hand tighter.
"I get it." Madara nodded in acknowledgement.
"I want to tell you...Things that I have suppressed and try to, I want to tell you everything, but..."
Madara shook his head. "In that regard, I think we've said enough."
"But, if we suffer..." Mikito muttered. "Would it not be better that we share our suffering?"
Madara set his forehead on her fingers. "We can."
"That makes this a lot easier for me to do...
"Do what?"
"We did something so...Incredibly...Foolish."
Madara was given no chance to even ask or consider what she was talking about. Mikito began to scream as she said those words. Her teeth were clenched to their limit. Her eyes were as wild as he'd ever seen them. She was resisting and straining with every ounce of her being, and it was ripping her apart. He was seeing it for himself.
From the inside out, Mikito was being ripped apart.
And, he was right along with her.
The force and heat of their auras was enough to throw the gorog's hands back and up towards the sky. It surged around them, whipping through the air, licking like vicious flames. It towered high above them, ripping at the landscape as it grew. Though both were oblivious to it-Madara had managed to see it from the corner of his eye.
The train of thought was derailed completely. Madara's body tensed as much as it could. He screamed louder than he had before. So loud and long that even when his voice cracked and stopped, his mouth was still open. No sound left, but it was a silent scream. A scream of pure...
Madara couldn't begin to describe what it felt like, but he couldn't move any longer.
Mikito was trembling and shaking, blood was oozing from her mouth, and her body was tense and unyielding. Vaguely, he could see that her mouth was open. He wondered why her scream wasn't reaching his ears. Perhaps he had finally gone deaf, or she simply lost her voice, like he was coming close to losing.
They did something.
Extremely foolish.
I can't...Move...
My body...
My Chakra Gates...
From the first to the seventh...
My Tenketsu, all of them...
Shit! It feels like...
They're all on fire!
Like they're actually burning.
Disintegrating
About to erupt.
Incinerated...
Forever...
Maybe...
I...
We...
Did something extremely foolish.