Chapter 609: Retrieving the Tailed Beasts II
Sasuke, who had barely managed to fire his strongest arrow using Tagitsuhime's Senjutsu chakra, was taught a lesson by Madara Uchiha as soon as he finished his boasting.
Having his Susanoo blown apart wasn't the most serious issue; the gravest danger was that Madara Uchiha's four Limbo clones were nearby, potentially launching a fatal strike at any moment.
Sasuke sat up from the ground, looking at Madara Uchiha with a face full of humiliation.
"Senpō: Amaterasu (Sage Art: Amaterasu)!"
Sasuke focused his gaze on Madara Uchiha's Susanoo, utilizing the remaining Senjutsu chakra within his body to unleash Amaterasu.
Such was Sasuke's personality; saving face seemed more important than life or death. Feeling utterly humiliated, he completely disregarded his own safety.
Instead of guarding against the Limbo clones' sneak attacks, he launched an attack on Madara Uchiha.
The next moment, black flames immediately ignited on Madara Uchiha's colossal Susanoo.
Madara Uchiha activated the Rinnegan's ability to absorb ninjutsu, but due to the presence of Senjutsu chakra, Sasuke's Amaterasu flames were not something the Rinnegan could absorb.
Seeing this, Madara Uchiha snorted coldly. While controlling the Limbo clones to finish off Sasuke, he actually peeled off a layer of his Susanoo's outer shell like shedding clothes.
The Amaterasu flames fell to the ground attached to the shed Susanoo fragments.
And that shed portion of the Susanoo was quickly consumed by the Amaterasu flames.
Seeing his full-powered Amaterasu easily neutralized by Madara Uchiha, Sasuke felt a sense of despair.
Just then, Kisame, who had been forming seals all along, had a glint in his eyes. Opportunity!
"Suiton: Suirenju (Water Release: Water Rosary)!"
As Kisame's words fell, a heavy rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.
Only, every drop of this heavy rain smashed a bottomless, narrow pit into the ground upon impact.
The range of the heavy rain wasn't large, mainly concentrated in the area where Sasuke was.
Under Kisame's deliberate control, the heavy rain happened to avoid Sasuke. Seeing the ground around him immediately riddled with deep pits under the impact of the rain, Sasuke was startled.
If every drop of water had this kind of power, then how great must the overall attack power of this Water Release be?
Sasuke looked up ahead. Hmm?
Not far in front of Sasuke, there were four spots that were clearly amiss.
Although it looked like there was nothing there, the rain couldn't fall to the ground.
Are those the invisible enemies? There are actually four of them.
Before Sasuke could act, Kisame's hand seal changed. The next moment, all the rainwater suddenly converged toward the center, finally concentrating entirely on those four figures.
Moreover, Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan could clearly see that as the rain became denser, the power of each drop was also increasing.
Sasuke saw the ground around those four figures quickly beaten down, starting to collapse downwards.
And the blows suffered by the ground could only be considered aftershocks; the attacks received by those four phantom figures were the main focus.
One could imagine how immense the attack these four were receiving was.
However, Sasuke found it strange. Why didn't these four move? It seemed they only moved a short distance at the beginning and then suddenly stopped moving.
Sasuke shifted his gaze from the four figures and soon landed on Hinata.
Sure enough, Hinata's Jōgan was flashing with inexplicable light, staring fixedly at the four phantom figures.
It turned out Hinata had used her dōjutsu to restrict the movements of the four phantom figures.
But looking at Hinata, she was obviously struggling. Who knew how long she could maintain this state?
However, before Sasuke could see the result, with a swish, Minato Namikaze suddenly appeared beside him, then teleported again, bringing him to Naruto's side.
Naruto had just been knocked far away by Madara Uchiha's Perfect Susanoo and suffered some injuries. He had only just recovered.
Minato Namikaze said to Sasuke and Naruto, "Combine Susanoo and the Nine-Tails. That's how Madara Uchiha fought Lord First back in the day."
Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other, then nodded simultaneously.
The next moment, Naruto re-entered Kurama Mode, while Sasuke reactivated his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, clothing the Nine-Tails in Susanoo armor.
The Majestic Attire: Susanoo finally had a size barely comparable to Madara Uchiha's Perfect Susanoo.
Madara Uchiha chuckled lightly, "Heh, just tricks I've played before."
Madara Uchiha wasn't surprised by Naruto and Sasuke's alliance; he was more surprised by the attack power of Kisame's Water Release ninjutsu.
Madara Uchiha didn't deliberately interrupt Kisame's Water Release; he just watched quietly.
A moment later, the Water Release stopped, and Madara Uchiha clearly felt that his four Limbo clones had been riddled with holes and lost their ability to move.
Bear in mind that the physical strength of those four Limbo clones was about the same as his main body.
Although Kisame accomplished this with Hinata's cooperation, and although Kisame's Water Release attacked for a long time to achieve this, it was still very impressive.
It seemed that Kisame had walked very far on the path of a single nature transformation over the past two years.
Madara Uchiha looked at Kisame with surprise and said, "To reach this level with Water Release alone, you have surpassed that guy Tobirama Senju."
"Fifth Mizukage Kisame Hoshigaki, is it? I, Madara, acknowledge you as the strongest Water Release user."
"Unfortunately, your understanding of the essence of chakra is still lacking!"
As soon as his voice fell, those four Limbo clones were absorbed directly back into his body.
Limbo clones were just a dōjutsu. No matter how heavy the injury, as long as they returned to the body, they could recover in a while.
After retrieving the Limbo clones, Madara Uchiha was about to launch an attack when he suddenly stopped and turned to look in another direction.
There, a figure was approaching rapidly.
The newcomer had black hair, wore armor common in the Warring States Period, and had black eyes. Clearly, he was also an Edo Tensei body.
Upon seeing this person, Madara Uchiha had eyes for no one else. His continuously calm expression vanished.
Madara Uchiha shouted excitedly at the newcomer: "Hashirama!!!"
His voice was filled with excitement and fighting spirit.
If one listened carefully, there was also some boasting and smugness, as if saying: Look at the achievements I've made now. Are you surprised? Am I much stronger than you? Praise me quickly, praise me quickly!
The newcomer was indeed Hashirama Senju's Edo Tensei body; he had been summoned by Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto Yakushi's goal was clear: to buy time for Orochimaru, who was on the moon.
Although Kabuto Yakushi was also worried about Orochimaru's safety, feeling that Orochimaru's chances of winning weren't high.
But what if Orochimaru won? Kabuto needed to buy him time before his return.
Among everyone currently in the ninja world, only Madara Uchiha showed a threat to Orochimaru.
So Kabuto decided to find something for Madara Uchiha to do.
Hashirama Senju arrived at the battlefield quickly, but he didn't respond to Madara Uchiha immediately. Instead, he went to the side of Mito Uzumaki, who had been knocked down by Madara Uchiha.
Hashirama Senju helped Mito Uzumaki up before looking at Madara Uchiha.
He scratched his head and said, "Madara, stop it quickly. You're wrong!"
"Hmph!" Madara Uchiha snorted coldly. The excitement from earlier had completely vanished.
He said coldly, "Hashirama, you can no longer stop me."
After speaking, he actually controlled Susanoo to charge directly at Hashirama Senju, with a posture suggesting he was completely disregarding Naruto and Sasuke's Majestic Attire: Susanoo.
Hashirama Senju naturally sensed Madara Uchiha's current power, but he showed no intention of backing down. He clapped his hands together and immediately conjured a gigantic Wood Golem to meet the attack.
Seeing this, Naruto and Sasuke didn't delay either, similarly controlling the Majestic Attire: Susanoo to join the fray.
Three monsters, whose sizes had already exceeded everyone's impression of giant summons, soon battled together.
The others in the Alliance couldn't participate in this kind of great battle. Only Minato Namikaze, with his Flying Thunder God, might be able to help, so he kept roaming on the edge of the battlefield.
Hinata, having just used a dōjutsu completely exceeding her capability limit, was now somewhat exhausted. She immediately gathered the people from the Alliance side to her.
At the same time, she looked at the opposing Iwa ninjas.
The Iwa ninjas were also fighting, but their opponent wasn't Madara Uchiha; it was the Gedo Mazo.
Of course, Hinata could tell that the Iwa ninjas weren't going all out. They seemed to be waiting for Madara Uchiha and the Alliance to suffer mutual losses.
Otherwise, a mere Gedo Mazo wasn't enough to handle the remaining Edo Tensei bodies of Iwa.
The Gedo Mazo had only absorbed five Tailed Beasts; it hadn't reached the point of qualitative change yet.
Hinata was somewhat worried. She could see that Madara Uchiha seemed to be holding back in his attacks because of Hashirama Senju's arrival.
But this was definitely temporary. Madara Uchiha would sooner or later finish off Hashirama Senju, Naruto, and Sasuke.
And with the Iwa side having absolutely no intention of helping, the prospects for her side were worrying!
Just then, Hinata suddenly thought of something. Her gaze fell on the spot where the Gedo Mazo had stood earlier, where three corpses were lying.
They were Gaara of the Sand, Fū of Konoha, and Ao of the Mist.
After hesitating for a moment, Hinata reached out and pulled Ao's corpse to her side.
She squatted down, undid the seal on Ao's left eye, and dug out the Byakugan from Ao's eye socket.
The seal on Ao's eye had a summoning function. If someone tried to undo the seal or attack it, the Byakugan would be summoned away immediately.
However, Hinata's dōjutsu had the effect of confining space, so the Summoning Jutsu didn't work.
This was her grandfather's Byakugan, snatched by Ao during a Ninja World War long ago.
Hinata hadn't even been born then.
After many years, this Byakugan finally returned to the Hyūga clan.
Kisame and Mei Terumī were standing nearby. Both saw Hinata's action, but neither stopped her.
Hinata just glanced casually at the Byakugan in her hand, then looked back at the two battlefields.
But in the next instant, she suddenly felt something was wrong. She looked down at the Byakugan again.
This Byakugan seemed different from normal Byakugan. This difference couldn't be felt by others.
But Hinata possessed the Jōgan evolved from the Byakugan. To her, this slight difference didn't escape her senses.
Hinata looked down at Ao, then cast her gaze toward the Gedo Mazo.
Could it be because of the Tailed Beast chakra? Ao seemed to have been the Three-Tails Jinchūriki for four years.
Just then, exclamations from Kushina Uzumaki and Mei Terumī suddenly came from beside Hinata.
Hinata was startled and immediately turned her head to look.
"How is that possible? How did those people come back to life?" Seeing the scene before her, Hinata exclaimed subconsciously.
It turned out that after a period of time, Madara Uchiha's Limbo: Border Jail was usable again.
This time he sent the Limbo clones to deal with the Jinchūriki on the Alliance side.
For some reason, the one Madara Uchiha targeted turned out to be Mito Uzumaki.
At this moment, Mito Uzumaki had been blown apart by four Limbo clones and was flying rapidly toward the Gedo Mazo.
Mito Uzumaki was truly blown apart; the four Limbo clones disregarded the other Alliance members close at hand and focused all their fire on her.
Her Edo Tensei body was regenerating as it flew, and by the time it reached the Gedo Mazo's mouth, it hadn't finished regenerating.
In the distance, Hashirama Senju, who was battling Madara Uchiha's Susanoo, saw this scene, and the movements of his Wood Golem paused for an instant.
Mito Uzumaki didn't die from the sneak attack. After losing the Nine-Tails chakra in her body, she recovered again.
However, the Gedo Mazo didn't let Mito Uzumaki go. It extended a chain directly from its mouth and bound Mito Uzumaki.
Then the Gedo Mazo opened its mouth and swallowed Mito Uzumaki.
Just like that, Mito Uzumaki was easily sealed by Madara Uchiha.
Hinata, however, had no mind to care about Mito Uzumaki at this moment. While putting away Ao's Byakugan, she looked around.
Those invisible enemies would likely strike again.
Reacting faster than Hinata was Mei Terumī. She opened her mouth and spat out a large expanse of Lava Release magma.
The magma spread rapidly toward the surroundings with the Alliance members as the center.
Mei Terumī was imitating Kisame's method just now, hoping to use indiscriminate attacks to find the Limbo clones.
However, even after all the magma landed, it hit nothing.
Not reassured, Mei Terumī cast another Lava Release for reconnaissance. This time the magma spread slowly, but the result was the same—nothing found!
She wanted to try again, but Kisame waved his hand to stop her.
Because at this time, a change occurred on the distant Iwa battlefield.
Killer Bee and Iwa's former Four-Tails Jinchūriki and former Five-Tails Jinchūriki were all ambushed.
These three Jinchūriki were blasted toward the Gedo Mazo's mouth by Limbo clones, just like Mito Uzumaki earlier.
What puzzled Hinata was that the Iwa side didn't seem surprised by this scene; they didn't even attempt to rescue Killer Bee and the other two.
The outcome for the three Jinchūriki was the same as Mito Uzumaki; the Tailed Beast chakra within them was drained dry.
However, the three didn't receive the special treatment Mito Uzumaki got; they weren't sealed.
On the Gedo Mazo's head, there were nine closed eyes. Originally, after absorbing the One-Tail, Two-Tails, Three-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails, five of the eyes had opened completely.
Now that the Gedo Mazo had absorbed the Tailed Beast chakra from four more Jinchūriki, the last four eyes on its head also opened a little.
It was just that because these four Edo Tensei bodies only contained a small portion of Tailed Beast chakra, the four eyes only opened a tiny bit.
When all nine eyes opened slightly or completely, the aura of the Gedo Mazo also began to change.
This change made the Gedo Mazo feel transformed from ordinary to insurmountably powerful.
However, perhaps because the absorbed Tailed Beast chakra wasn't balanced, this change made the Gedo Mazo appear somewhat irritable.
So much so that the Gedo Mazo briefly broke free from Madara Uchiha's control and stopped attacking the Iwa Edo Tensei bodies.
Suddenly, Hinata's heart stirred. She whispered a few words to Kisame, and then her body suddenly disappeared from in front of Kisame and the others.
On the Iwa side, Sakura followed Ōnoki's request and allowed Madara Uchiha to snatch the chakra of the three Jinchūriki.
Iwa wasn't afraid of Madara Uchiha's Limbo clones. They were Edo Tensei bodies anyway; no one was afraid of death.
Madara Uchiha's Limbo clones also lacked sealing abilities.
However, Ōnoki didn't tell Sakura to do nothing.
Upon learning that the Gedo Mazo had absorbed all nine Tailed Beasts, Ōnoki immediately ordered Sakura to act according to the plan.
Thus, Obito Uchiha suddenly appeared behind the Gedo Mazo. He placed a hand on the Gedo Mazo's shoulder, activating Kamui in his eye.
Sucking the entire Gedo Mazo into the Kamui dimension was naturally unrealistic, unless Obito Uchiha also reached the Sage level.
Obito Uchiha's Kamui only acted on the Gedo Mazo's shoulder.
When a part of the Gedo Mazo's shoulder entered the Kamui dimension, Obito Uchiha stopped Kamui directly.
The next second, an arm of the Gedo Mazo separated from its body and fell.
At this time, the Gedo Mazo felt no pain, or rather, all its sensations were focused on the changing chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts within its body.
Obito Uchiha leaped off the Gedo Mazo. He wanted to take advantage of Madara Uchiha being occupied to put this arm into the Kamui dimension.
But as soon as he landed, with a bang, he was blown apart by someone.
Sakura, controlling Obito Uchiha, was startled and blurted out, "It's Hinata Hyūga."
Because Obito Uchiha was clearly in an intangible state just now, yet someone forcibly broke through the Kamui intangibility effect and blew him apart directly.
The only one who could do this was Hinata with her space-confining dōjutsu.
Sure enough, right beside Obito Uchiha, Hinata revealed her figure.
Hinata didn't stop after blowing apart Obito Uchiha with one strike. She grabbed the regenerating Obito Uchiha and prepared to run back.
At this moment, on the Iwagakure side, Shizuka Minamoto suddenly shouted, "Sakura, quickly control Obito Uchiha to release the Edo Tensei himself."
"The Hokage is still in the Kamui dimension. Never let Hinata Hyūga release the Hokage."
The reason for having Sakura control Obito Uchiha to release the Edo Tensei himself, rather than Sakura releasing it actively, was because Sakura controlled many Edo Tensei bodies alone. Once she formed the seal, the other Edo Tensei bodies would also be released.
Sakura's reaction wasn't slow either; she had a contingency plan for this situation. Before Shizuka Minamoto finished speaking, she was already controlling Obito Uchiha to form the seals.
Hinata had only run two steps after grabbing Obito Uchiha when she felt the Obito Uchiha in her hand disbanding the Edo Tensei.
"Damn it!" Hinata cursed through gritted teeth.
She had sneaked over invisibly, indeed intending to capture Obito Uchiha and then find a way to release Kakashi.
Having made a wasted trip, Hinata looked around, and her gaze landed on the arm that had fallen from the Gedo Mazo not far away.
She could sense that this huge arm contained the chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts.
At this time, she thought of the situation she had just sensed from Ao's Byakugan, and then looked at Naruto and Sasuke, who were struggling against Madara Uchiha in the distance.
Hinata gritted her teeth and used Body Flicker several times to reach the Gedo Mazo's arm.
Then she placed her hand on the Gedo Mazo's arm, activated her Jōgan, and began absorbing the chakra within this arm.
Although it was only one arm, the chakra contained within it was immense.
Hinata didn't have the terrifying suction force of the Gedo Mazo; she couldn't absorb it all in a short while.
Sakura naturally saw this scene through the Edo Tensei bodies. She was furious. This woman dared to snatch her spoils of war!
So she immediately called upon Natsuki and Yakumo Kurama, controlling numerous Edo Tensei bodies to charge over.
Seeing this, Kisame and the others also came over to help immediately.
Thus, around the out-of-control Gedo Mazo, centering on Hinata, Iwa and the Alliance engaged in slaughter once again.
This left Madara Uchiha's four Limbo clones with nothing much to do.
On the Alliance side, Naruto, Sasuke, along with Minato Namikaze were tangled with Madara Uchiha.
Mito Uzumaki was sealed, and Hinata was busy absorbing the arm and couldn't free her hands.
On the Iwa side, just because the former Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchūriki had their Tailed Beasts extracted and their strength greatly damaged, and Obito Uchiha had released the Edo Tensei himself...
Killer Bee was still Kage-level without his Tailed Beast.
So the Iwa side held the absolute upper hand.
At this time, while absorbing the chakra from the Gedo Mazo's arm, Hinata whispered a few words to the Little Katsuyu on her body.
Then, Danzō, who had been watching from the sidelines, also joined the battle.
It could be seen that at this time, Danzō's self-awareness had been completely suppressed.
Danzō's joining gave the Alliance a brief respite.
However, although Danzō's Wood Release was decent, he couldn't match the numerical superiority of the Iwa ninja.
Used by Hinata as a shield and standing at the very front, he was the first to be blown apart by the Iwa ninja.
Then Shisui Uchiha sent him directly back to the Pure Land with a Genjutsu.
This wasn't over. Following Danzō, the Mist's former Six-Tails Jinchūriki was also taken care of by the three Mangekyō Uchiha on the Iwa side.
Fortunately, at this time, Hinata finally finished.
After absorbing the chakra in the Gedo Mazo's arm, Hinata rushed into the middle of both camps, waving her palms rapidly, sending the numerous Iwa Edo Tensei bodies into disarray.
The Iwa side quickly recovered from Hinata's outburst. They adjusted their formation, preparing to counterattack again.
But just then, the chakra fluctuations inside the Gedo Mazo stopped.
At the same time, Madara Uchiha, sensing the change in the Gedo Mazo, suddenly let out a burst of wild laughter.
"Hashirama, next is the new ninja world I want to create. Watch closely!"
He stopped playing cat and mouse with Hashirama Senju, Naruto, and Sasuke.
He formed seals with both hands, immediately creating a group of clones. Each clone unleashed a Perfect Susanoo the same size as the main body.
Before the group could despair, these Susanoo exerted force together, blowing apart Hashirama Senju and the Majestic Attire: Susanoo in the blink of an eye.
Madara Uchiha didn't stop. His main body quickly approached Hashirama Senju, grabbed Hashirama by the neck, and instantly absorbed Hashirama's Senjutsu chakra.
Meanwhile, his numerous clones rushed up quickly to kill Naruto and Sasuke.
Sasuke's corpse was casually tossed aside by Madara Uchiha, while Naruto was thrown toward the Gedo Mazo.
Sensing more prey coming, the Gedo Mazo instinctively opened its mouth and began to absorb.
Even the mighty Nine-Tails couldn't resist the Gedo Mazo's absorption. This suction force was equivalent to bloodline suppression for it.
Facing this crushing difference in level, it couldn't resist at all.