The increase in strength granted by Sage Chakra was undeniable. Uchiha Madara had no intention of letting such power go to waste.
Originally, he had planned to obtain Senju Hashirama's Sage Chakra, but Hashirama had never been revived. Fortunately for him, there was still another shinobi on the battlefield who had mastered Sage Chakra. As a result, Jiraiya became his target.
Madara placed his right hand on Jiraiya's head.
Violent streams of energy surged up his arm as Sage Chakra leaked outward. The escaping chakra twisted into shapes resembling giant toads, lashing out as though they were trying to bite Madara. Yet none of it had any effect.
An enormous amount of Sage Chakra poured from Jiraiya into Madara's body. Included within it was the immense Sage Chakra maintained by the two Great Toad Sages.
"Wind Release..."
The moment Shima opened her mouth, Madara's Rinnegan shifted toward her. In an instant, both Great Toad Sages were trapped inside his genjutsu.
Sage Chakra was notoriously volatile. For an ordinary shinobi, absorbing it improperly would quickly result in petrification and transformation into a toad statue.
Yet despite absorbing it for the first time, Madara showed not the slightest sign of discomfort.
To him, Sage Chakra was nothing extraordinary.
Of course, those words carried a certain arrogance. Throughout much of his life, this very power had been one of the few things capable of threatening him. Now that he had turned it into his own strength, it was only natural for him to look down upon it.
Madara's sudden appearance caught everyone completely off guard.
Even Hayashi had not expected it.
As their battle escalated, the Shinobi Allied Forces had been forced to retreat again and again. If the fighting continued, they would eventually be driven all the way back to their homeland.
No one expected Madara, who had been battling the Fourth Hokage moments earlier, to suddenly use Limbo: Border Jail and appear directly beside Jiraiya.
In hindsight, however, it made perfect sense.
The natural energy surrounding Jiraiya was overwhelmingly dense. Combined with the constant support from the two Great Toad Sages, he stood out on the battlefield like a blazing beacon.
Jiraiya had once proudly declared in his youth, "A man as extraordinary as me shines like a firefly in the darkness. No matter where I go, everyone notices me."
Among tens of thousands of shinobi, he certainly was conspicuous.
Unfortunately, the one who noticed him was Uchiha Madara.
Hayashi vanished in a flash and instantly appeared behind Tsunade, using the Flying Thunder God kunai he had previously left with her.
The moment Hayashi arrived, Madara stopped absorbing Sage Chakra.
A faint smile appeared on his face for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
"Sage Art: Storm Release: Light Fang!"
A brilliant purple beam erupted from Madara's mouth, slicing straight toward Hayashi's head.
Hayashi did not slow down.
He merely leaned backward slightly, allowing the laser to miss him by a hair.
At the same time, he casually raised one hand.
Lightning crackled between his fingers as Chidori Current enveloped his entire arm.
With a sharp burst of force, he clenched his hand.
Bang!
The Storm Release: Light Fang shattered apart in his grasp.
Madara reached into the air, and another bolt of violet lightning formed in his hand.
"Sage Art: Yin Release: Lightning Dispatch!"
The branching streams of purple lightning spread like the limbs of a great tree as they crashed toward Hayashi.
This time, Hayashi neither countered with Lightning Release nor made any dramatic movement.
He simply drew back his fist.
Invisible natural energy gathered around him.
Another unseen impact exploded outward.
Madara was blasted high into the air as though struck head-on. The second and third Sage Arts he had prepared instantly dispersed before they could be completed.
"Sage Chakra isn't something you can master so easily."
Hayashi threw a Flying Thunder God kunai.
The next instant, he appeared directly above Madara, who had only just regained his balance.
He raised his hand.
Instead of forming a Snake hand sign, he unleashed a palm strike backed by the monstrous physical strength granted by the Four-Tails.
The overwhelming force crashed down onto Madara.
Unable to defend himself in time, Madara was slammed into the ground and sent hurtling across the battlefield.
However, before the dust had fully settled, Hayashi narrowed his eyes.
Within the cloud of debris, a massive skeletal figure of chakra had already risen.
Madara had activated Susanoo.
Not just any Susanoo.
It was the complete Perfect Susanoo.
Madara's expression remained icy.
He had already realized that his control over Sage Chakra was inferior to Hayashi's. Rather than continue fighting in an area where he lacked experience, he immediately returned to the technique he trusted most.
Blue chakra surged from behind him.
In the blink of an eye, it expanded into a colossal warrior.
The Perfect Susanoo.
Madara floated upward and took his place upon its forehead.
Hayashi smiled faintly.
"Perfect Susanoo? I have one too."
A dazzling blue light erupted from Hayashi's body, soaring into the sky.
Moments later, another gigantic Perfect Susanoo stood upon the battlefield.
After testing one another through taijutsu and ninjutsu, both warriors had finally summoned their ultimate weapons.
Two Perfect Susanoo, each towering hundreds of meters high, stood face to face, overlooking the battlefield like gods.
Ōnoki's face turned pale.
His body trembled so violently that he could barely speak.
Beside him, the Fourth Raikage, A, stared upward with disbelief.
"What... is this?"
They had seen Susanoo before.
But those had only been incomplete or armored forms.
The colossal beings before them were several times larger and possessed an overwhelming presence that completely surpassed anything they had ever imagined.
The crushing pressure alone drove countless shinobi toward despair.
Fortunately, Madara and Hayashi had already moved far away from the main forces during their battle.
Had these towering giants appeared in the middle of the Allied Forces, the casualties would have been unimaginable.
"Everyone, retreat immediately!"
The Third Hokage assumed temporary command of the battlefield.
Hayashi was occupied fighting Madara, while the other four Kage remained frozen in shock.
Rasa and Hōzuki Gengetsu, in particular, were trembling uncontrollably.
No one could blame them.
Anyone witnessing such a technique for the first time would question whether what they were seeing was even real.
For years, they had believed the gap between themselves and legendary shinobi like Hayashi or Uchiha Madara was only slightly wider than that of ordinary Kage.
Now they finally understood the truth.
The difference was indeed only "a little."
That little difference simply happened to be as vast as the entire galaxy.
Meanwhile, Tsunade was treating Jiraiya's injuries.
Madara had nearly drained all of his Sage Chakra in an instant.
Had Hayashi arrived even a moment later, Jiraiya would likely have become nothing more than a dried corpse.
In a battle between beings of this caliber, even Jonin and Kage-level shinobi could not safely remain as spectators.
Simply standing nearby was a gamble with their lives.
As Hayashi often liked to say, "Jonin are everywhere, and Kage-level shinobi aren't as rare as people think."
Tsunade let out a quiet sigh.
"So these were the kinds of monsters Grandfather fought."
After a brief pause, she added with admiration,
"Grandmother Mito was even more incredible."
For some reason, several other women also crossed her mind.
In their own ways, they seemed just as remarkable.
Orochimaru paid little attention to those thoughts.
To him, witnessing a battle of this magnitude was a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.
Nothing else mattered.
Still, he had to admit one thing.
This was truly the kind of spectacle worth sitting down to watch with a meal.