"Daytime Tiger!"
With a sharp hand seal, Guy unleashed his chakra at full force, blue steam erupting from his body like blazing fire made liquid. Against a legendary warrior such as Uchiha Madara, Guy skipped all hesitation—he launched straight into an all-out assault.
The Blue Beast of the Hidden Leaf had arrived!
At the same moment, Senju Haruto caught sight of Guy's movements and immediately responded. He commanded his fully manifested Susanoo to press its massive hands onto the Wooden Golem's shoulders, locking it firmly in place so that Madara's jutsu could not hinder Guy's strike.
"The Seventh Gate…"
Madara's eyes met Guy's, and in a heartbeat he recognized the technique. The Eight Gates Released Formation. So there was still someone in the Leaf capable of such a forbidden art.
But if Guy thought the Seventh Gate alone could defeat him, then he was gravely underestimating Uchiha Madara.
Madara stood motionless, arms folded across his chest, rooted to the ground. He neither dodged nor defended—at least not in the way one might expect. His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan whirled to life, and a skeletal Susanoo instantly encased him.
In the next instant, Guy's Daytime Tiger roared forth, a compressed shockwave of raw physical might colliding directly into the Susanoo.
BOOM!
The explosion thundered across the battlefield. Cracks split along Susanoo's bones.
Madara's eyes narrowed. He hadn't expected this—Guy had actually pierced his Susanoo's defense. Even though this was only a half-complete manifestation, the feat alone proved Guy's strength.
"In sheer power alone," Madara admitted, "your technique is on par with Hashirama's taijutsu."
He had his ambitions—ambitions bordering on madness—but Madara was not arrogant enough to deny another warrior's ability. When he encountered true strength, he acknowledged it.
But to Guy's ears, those words cut like knives.
Daytime Tiger was his strongest technique within the Seventh Gate, and yet Madara compared it only to the First Hokage's raw combat ability—as if it were nothing more than a match, not a threat. Was Hashirama truly so powerful? Or was Guy himself simply too weak?
And worse—the Tiger had only fractured the Susanoo's bones. It hadn't pierced Madara's true defenses at all. Meanwhile, Guy's body screamed in protest, bones cracking under the recoil of his own unleashed power.
Madara countered with a casual sweep of Susanoo's massive fist. Guy, still suspended in midair, had no chance to evade.
CRACK!
The blow smashed into his waist, hurling him downward like a meteor.
At the same time, two wooden dragons burst from the shoulders of Madara's towering Wooden Golem, coiling instantly around Haruto's Susanoo.
The sight of Haruto summoning a full-body Susanoo had genuinely surprised Madara. But that surprise ended there.
With a single wrenching motion, the Wooden Golem tore free, shattered Susanoo's defenses, and left Haruto vulnerable.
Madara leapt skyward, descending with monstrous force. His hand clamped around Haruto's throat as they plummeted together.
KRAAASH!
The earth split apart on impact, a massive crater swallowing them whole.
Haruto's Susanoo shattered, fragments dissolving into chakra smoke. Haruto fought desperately against Madara's iron grip, but his strength could not compare. Without Susanoo, he had no hope of resisting.
Madara released his throat at last. Haruto slumped, broken and battered, utterly spent. Alive, but stripped of all power.
The other Konoha shinobi froze in place, their hearts seized by fear. In mere moments, Madara had crushed both Senju Haruto and Might Guy.
The legends were true.
This was Uchiha Madara—the strongest of the Uchiha, the only man ever spoken of as an equal to the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama.
"Is this really all you've got?"
Madara's voice was quiet, yet it echoed across the battlefield like thunder.
Every shinobi he turned his gaze upon instinctively staggered backward, their courage breaking under the weight of his presence.
Guy fared no better. His bones felt as though they had been smashed one by one, the Seventh Gate exacting its cruel price.
"…Am I left with no choice but to open the Eighth Gate?" he muttered, trembling as he forced himself upright. His voice was faint, almost broken. The thought of burning his life away pressed hard on his heart.
But before that choice could be made—
Kakashi finally arrived. Team 7 stood at his side, and with them, the Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei.
The newcomers scanned the devastation.
"…What a man," Mei murmured, her eyes lingering on Madara. She admired his presence—not only handsome but radiating overwhelming strength. He was unlike any shinobi she had faced. She was no Leaf ninja; even if the Hidden Leaf were destroyed, she could not summon the same anger as those born of the Fire Country.
Madara, meanwhile, ignored the fallen Haruto and Guy. His attention shifted at once to the blond boy among the new arrivals.
"You… you're the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, aren't you?" he asked, his gaze fixing squarely on Naruto.
At the sound of his voice, the remaining forces of the Fire Country surged onto the battlefield—Zabuza, Haku, Uchiha Izumi, Karin, and even the Root's Sharingan Corps. A thousand shinobi at least closed in, surrounding Madara on every side.
"You're… Madara?" Naruto muttered, eyes wide with confusion. The figure before him was nothing like the masked man he had always believed to be Uchiha Madara.
Sasuke's gaze tore away from Madara then, focusing instead on Haruto's broken body. He sprinted to his side, frantic, as medical-nin began immediate treatment.
Madara didn't care. None of them mattered.
Only Naruto did.
Once Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast, life and death alike would lose all meaning.
He took a single step forward toward the jinchūriki.
And then—
Kakashi's body flickered into place before him, blocking his path. "Naruto will never be yours."
With deliberate calm, Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing the Sharingan beneath—the eye that had made his name known throughout the shinobi world.
"You must be Kakashi," Madara said smoothly, his eyes narrowing. "The one who bears Obito's transplanted eye."
Kakashi froze. That name.
"Obito…"
"Yes," Madara continued, his tone cutting like steel. "I know all about what happened at Kannabi Bridge. When I first had White Zetsu bring Obito to me, I made sure everything played out as it did. Even Rin's death was my design—my script."
Kakashi's heart clenched, his mind reeling.
"You… you know Obito?" he forced out, voice trembling.
"Of course. If he had both eyes, he might have reached even greater heights. Perhaps then, I wouldn't need to dirty my own hands to capture the Tailed Beasts."
The words hit Kakashi like a hammer. His breath caught.
Obito… alive?
But Madara had no interest in explaining further.
Kakashi still blocked his way. That alone was enough.
Madara moved to strike.