[EVERY 100 POWERSTONES = 1 EXTRA CHAPTER]
The air, still thick with the oppressive weight of Indra's declaration, shattered with Toka's movement. It was not the fluid grace of a kunoichi, but the raw, piston-like launch of a predator. She became a blur, the ground cracking under the force of her push-off. Her fist, clenched with monstrous strength honed over a lifetime of battle, aimed not to kill, but to break through the divine shell encasing the man she loved. It was a punch that could shatter boulders, capable of turning a man's head to paste.
It never connected.
It stopped, impossibly, two inches from Indra's face. There was no barrier, no flash of light. It was as if the very space between her fist and his skin had become an unreachable, infinite wall. The force of her blow dissipated into nothingness, creating a shockwave of air that whipped Indra's hair back but left him utterly untouched. The Six Eyes, glowing with cosmic indifference, had not even flinched. He had not moved. The power of Infinity, the absolute manipulation of spatial distance, was a passive, insurmountable defense.
In that frozen moment of failed contact, a voice, warm and ancient, echoed simultaneously in the minds of Toka, Hashirama, and Madara. It was Agni, her telepathy a calm center in the storm.
"Do not despair. He is acting. His rage is real, his grief is a bottomless well, but his mind is clearer than it has ever been. He seeks to forge a new legend today, not just for the Uchiha and Senju, but for every spy from every clan watching from the shadows. He must show them a power so absolute, so terrifying, that the very thought of war becomes synonymous with self-annihilation. He is becoming the ruthless guardian this world needs, so that the naïve protector he was can finally rest. He does this to protect Izuna, to protect Tobirama, to protect all of you. He will bear the mantle of a monster so you can build a world of peace. Support him. Fight him with everything you have. Show the world that even the combined might of the Senju and Uchiha heirs cannot defeat him."
The revelation was a lightning bolt. The pieces clicked into place. The public demand for a scapegoat, the overwhelming display of power—it was all a performance, a brutal, necessary theater. Indra was not losing his sanity; he was sacrificing his humanity. He was building his own cage of fear to protect them all.
A new, grim resolve settled over the three of them. They exchanged a single, fleeting glance, a silent pact forged in the crucible of this terrible understanding. They would not stop him. They would help him.
Madara was the first to move, his Eternal Mangekyo spinning with a furious, brilliant light. "Very well, Elder Brother!" he roared, the title a challenge and an acknowledgment. "If it's a show of strength you want, then witness the pinnacle of the Uchiha's power!"
Simultaneously, Hashirama slammed his palms together, his face a mask of sorrowful determination. "We will match you, Indra! For the future!"
Their hands flew through seals in perfect, mirrored synchronicity, a testament to their deep, rivalrous bond. The very air groaned in protest.
"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Jutsu!" Hashirama bellowed. From the earth erupted a colossal dragon of dark, living wood, its maw wide, its body coiling with the intent to bind and absorb chakra.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon!" Madara countered, taking a massive breath and exhaling a cataclysm. A dragon of pure, blue-white flame, hot enough to vitrify stone, roared into existence, its form mirroring Hashirama's creation.
For a breathtaking second, the two elemental opposites, wood and fire, surged toward each other. But instead of canceling each other out, they merged. The wood became a superheated, burning skeleton for the fire, and the fire became the incandescent flesh of the wood. The result was the Great Firewood Dragon, a terrifying chimera of creation and destruction, its very existence warping the air with its conflicting, immense energy. It was a technique born of their combined genius, a power stronger than anything the shinobi world had ever witnessed.
The spies hidden in the trees, from the cunning Shimura and Nara to the proud Hyuga, felt their blood run cold. This was a power that could erase clans from history.
Indra watched its approach, his golden Six Eyes analyzing every flicker of chakra. He did not retreat. He simply raised a single hand. No seals. No incantation. The air in front of him condensed, pulling immense moisture from the atmosphere and the very river miles away.
"Water Release: Great Water Dragon Bullet."
A dragon of water, so vast it blotted out the sun, materialized from nothing. It was not a mere counter; it was an overwhelming force. It met the Firewood Dragon in a cataclysmic collision. The sound was not an explosion, but a world-ending hiss of superheated steam that instantly filled the valley, reducing visibility to zero. The Firewood Dragon was extinguished, its energy dissipated into a scalding fog.
In the heart of the steam, Toka moved. Her sensory abilities, enhanced by her own Sage Mode, pinpointed Indra's location. She dropped from above, a heel kick aimed at his head with the force of a meteor strike. Indra, his perception limitless, simply ducked, the kick passing harmlessly over him. As he rose, he drove his own fist into her stomach, the impact launching her backward through the steam cloud. She twisted in mid-air, landing in a skid that tore a furrow in the earth.
Without pause, she formed a single hand seal. "Wood Release: Golem Jutsu!" The ground erupted as a humanoid golem of immense size, fifty feet tall, formed from interwoven roots and hardened wood, its fist already swinging down to crush Indra.
Indra finally moved his hands, a series of seals so fast they were a blur. His chakra nature shifted, becoming arid, hostile, and unbearably hot.
"Scorch Release: Scorching Sun Wildfire."
It was not a stream of fire. It was a wave of pure, concentrated heat. There was no flame, only a visible distortion in the air that hit the wooden golem. The result was instantaneous and absolute. The golem did not catch fire; it disintegrated, turning from solid wood to superheated ash in the space of a heartbeat, the particles themselves seeming to burn away into nothingness. The Scorch Release, a Kekkei Tōta combining Fire, Wind, and Earth, was the ultimate desiccation, and he wielded it with the ease of a god of drought.
Then, Indra took a single, deep breath, the Sage markings around his eyes blazing. "Scorch Release: Great Sun Supernova."
combination of Sun breathing Sage chakra and scorch release combined into an small spark of Light.
In the palm of his hand, a sphere of light began to form. It was small, no larger than a fist, but it was wrong. It was so bright; at the same time it was darker than the surrounding steam, a miniature void that drank the light, at the center of which was a pinprick of unbearable intensity. It emitted a heat that they could feel in their bones, a heat that promised the end of all things. The very metal on their weapons began to glow a dull red simply from proximity.
"This place is too confined," Indra stated, his voice cutting through the hiss of the steam. "We move."
In a flash of golden light, he, Agni, and the very ground the three progenitors stood on were gone, teleported miles away to a barren, deserted canyon, leaving the stunned clans and spies behind. The message was clear: the main event was not for their eyes, but the preview had been enough to seed a legend of terror.
[EVERY 100 POWERSTONES = 1 EXTRA CHAPTER]
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