Because the location of the battle between Hashirama and Uchiha Madara was too far away, Fūmori Masaki could no longer feel any major disturbances at Konohagakure; only the faint, erupting light of Chakra in the distance could tell everyone just how intense the battle between those two was.
If the battlefield had been here, Konohagakure would likely have been razed to the ground long ago.
Such overwhelming power had even altered the terrain, leaving behind a deep canyon; this site of the decisive battle would later be known as the Valley of the End.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Fūmori Masaki probably wouldn't have believed that there existed in this world powerhouses capable of altering the very terrain.
For a thousand years, since the battle between Kaguya and the Six Paths Sage's brothers, only the battles between Ashura and Indra could have had such a scale.
Yet, coincidentally, Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were the "Ashura" and "Indra" of this era.
At this moment, the experts within the Village had all headed to the battlefield, but they dared not approach, only lingering on the periphery, while young people like Fūmori Masaki remained in the Village.
If they saw the signal of defeat, they would have to immediately take the young children in the Village and get as far away from here as possible.
Everyone's face wore an expression of unease and fear.
They had thought a peaceful life had arrived, only to encounter an unprecedented crisis.
How could these young Ninjas who grew up in Konohagakure remain calm?
Fortunately, they had undergone training and did not lose control of their emotions.
Satomi nervously gripped Fūmori Masaki's hand, her eyes fixed on the sounds and lights that flared up in the distance from time to time, praying in her heart that Hashirama would win.
Fūmori Masaki breathed slowly, sensing the flow of Natural Energy.
At this moment, there were no signs of a massive depletion, which proved that Hashirama had not yet used Sage Mode.
Hashirama was still locked in entanglement with Uchiha Madara.
With the assistance of the Nine-Tailed, Uchiha Madara's strength was already very close to Hashirama's.
Since both Hashirama and the Nine-Tailed possessed immense amounts of Chakra, this battle would be extremely long.
Hashirama had anticipated that the Nine-Tailed's power would be very strong, but he hadn't expected it to reach this level; every one of its attacks required him to deal with it seriously, and Uchiha Madara was still watching from the sidelines, ready to pounce.
To ensure he wouldn't be attacked from both sides, Hashirama hurriedly used the Wood Dragon Jutsu to bind the Nine-Tailed.
The Wood Dragon could absorb Chakra, enough to temporarily hold back the Nine-Tailed's movements.
Even though he had temporarily lost the assistance of the Nine-Tailed, Uchiha Madara's fighting spirit remained high; his movements were not in the slightest bit chaotic, and his offensive was exceptionally fierce.
While Hashirama focused his energy on dealing with Uchiha Madara, the Wood Dragon, having lost Hashirama's control, slowly loosened its binding.
The Wood Dragon had never been able to completely hold back the Nine-Tailed in the first place, and now, it only accelerated the Nine-Tailed's speed of breaking free.
— How much time had passed?
A thought popped into Hashirama's mind: this battle with Uchiha Madara was undoubtedly the most dangerous one in his life.
He had to go all out, and for the first time, he even felt a sense of fatigue setting in.
Even the battle with Uchiha Madara before the Village was founded hadn't pushed Hashirama to this point, but he had now truly been forced into this situation.
His attention was entirely focused on Uchiha Madara and the Nine-Tailed, causing him to forget the passage of time.
It wasn't until his Chakra gradually couldn't keep up that he suddenly realized how long the battle had lasted.
Now, Uchiha Madara had unleashed his new technique, fusing his own Susanoo with the Nine-Tailed.
Its power far exceeded either one alone; Hashirama's Wood Golem could no longer stop the opponent's attacks.
"Uchiha Madara, do you really intend to destroy our dream?" Hashirama stared at Uchiha Madara, who was encased in blue Chakra, and said in a deep voice.
Because of the prolonged battle, Hashirama's voice sounded exceptionally hoarse.
Upon hearing this, Uchiha Madara gazed at Hashirama for a moment and said: "Hashirama, I have already said it: to achieve true peace, you are the obstacle."
"Is that so?" Hashirama felt a sharp pain in his heart, making him almost unable to breathe.
He still held onto thoughts for Uchiha Madara, which was why he had dragged it out until now, but it seemed Uchiha Madara had already resolved to sever their bond.
Since that was the case, Hashirama would also use all of his power.
He brought his hands together, using the Wood Golem to temporarily block Uchiha Madara's attacks, while he himself began to rapidly absorb Natural Energy.
senmon appeared on his face; at this very moment, Hashirama truly entered Sage Mode.
"This is..." Uchiha Madara had never seen Hashirama use this kind of power before.
His Mangekyo Sharingan clearly saw the powerful Chakra within Hashirama, and he said in shock.
"Come, Uchiha Madara!" Hashirama shouted.
Meanwhile, Fūmori Masaki, inside Konohagakure, widened his eyes.
He felt the flow of Natural Energy; there was no doubt that Hashirama had used Sage Mode, and the battle was about to come to an end.
"W-what's wrong, Masaki?" Satomi asked.
The moment she spoke, she realized how hoarse her voice was.
The battle between Uchiha Madara and Hashirama decided the survival of Konohagakure, and the battle between the two was exceptionally long.
Everyone, harboring fear for the future, remained in a state of nervous tension, waiting for the outcome of the battle, forgetting to even rest.
Even though they knew they should conserve energy and be ready to evacuate at any time, how could they rest peacefully in this situation?
"The battle is about to end," Fūmori Masaki said in a low voice.
Satomi was a bit surprised; how did Fūmori Masaki know?
From what she could see, the disturbance in the distance hadn't weakened at all; on the contrary, it was intensifying.
How could he say the battle was about to end at a time like this?
Fūmori Masaki stared intently at the activity in the distance.
He could only sense Natural Energy, but could not perceive Chakra, so he could not judge who would achieve final victory.
Although in normal history, Hashirama had achieved final victory, who knew if any accidents would occur?
However, the following events told him that he had been worrying unnecessarily.
The pre-arranged signal from Tobirama was transmitted from the distance; this was not a signal of failure, but a signal of victory.
Everyone staying in the Village suddenly cheered in surprise.
As their spirits relaxed, fatigue instantly surged up, and they sat down on the ground, powerless, though luckily, they hadn't fainted.
Fūmori Masaki breathed a sigh of relief.
Unlike the others, because of Natural Energy, he was very energetic.
Therefore, he prepared to rush to the battlefield over there.
He knew that Uchiha Madara had previously hidden the Izanagi technique within his Mangekyo Sharingan, which would be activated as soon as the timing was right.
Uchiha Madara was counting on the idea that Tobirama would definitely keep his corpse, thereby allowing him to resurrect and escape.
His goal was to prevent the Rinnegan from being born into this world.
The best way was to make it impossible for Uchiha Madara to resurrect, and Izanagi was the biggest threat.
This Dōjutsu could turn even death into a dream; it was the ultimate Dōjutsu of the Uchiha Clan.
However, Izanagi was not without weaknesses.
It wasn't Izanami, but rather its prerequisite—only when activated could Izanagi be the strongest Dōjutsu capable of avoiding all unfavorable situations.
However, Uchiha Madara hadn't activated Izanagi immediately, but instead set it to activate at a specific time, which gave Fūmori Masaki an opportunity to resolve it.
The carrier of Izanagi was the Sharingan; as long as the Sharingan was lost, Izanagi would have no basis for activation, and naturally, it would be unable to display its ability to avoid everything.
Fūmori Masaki didn't know how Hashirama was handling Uchiha Madara's corpse, but at least Tobirama had secretly hidden Uchiha Madara's corpse.
He had to ensure that in the process of moving Uchiha Madara's corpse here, it wouldn't be secretly hidden away by Tobirama.
As long as he could ensure Uchiha Madara's corpse was real, he could find a way to cremate it.
Before Izanagi was activated, there was no way to prevent anything from happening to Uchiha Madara's corpse, but the moment that pair of Mangekyo Sharingan of Uchiha Madara disappeared, the prerequisite for Izanagi's activation would no longer exist.
Fūmori Masaki had also thought about whether to keep the Mangekyo Sharingan; after all, it was the only Mangekyo Sharingan in the world that could never lose its light.
But he couldn't guarantee whether the Mangekyo Sharingan would still trigger Izanagi after being removed.
This technique was too bizarre, and considering Black Zetsu, he still decided to destroy the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Seeing Fūmori Masaki's actions, Uchiha Kagami, who was also sitting on the ground, hurriedly called out to him, saying: "Masaki, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to see how Lord Hashirama is doing. Uchiha Madara brought such a powerful monster over; even if he won, Lord Hashirama might have met with an accident," Fūmori Masaki said without looking back.
"Wait! I'm going too!" Uchiha Kagami didn't begrudge Fūmori Masaki's disrespect towards Uchiha Madara.
Honestly, after this matter, he was really very disappointed in Uchiha Madara; even if their ideologies were different, there was no need to attack the Village; this was the hard work of Uchiha Madara and Hashirama.
Even so, Uchiha Madara had, after all, raised Uchiha Kagami to grow up healthy.
Now that Uchiha Madara had failed, the outcome couldn't possibly be good, and he felt he should at least go see Uchiha Madara one last time.
Seeing Uchiha Kagami's expression, Fūmori Masaki originally wanted to refuse, but on second thought, if Uchiha Kagami went along, perhaps he could be the one to watch over Uchiha Madara's remains, and the chances of cremating Uchiha Madara's corpse would also increase.
He nodded and said: "If you want to follow, then come along."
Fūmori Masaki immediately rushed out, and Uchiha Kagami followed closely behind.
Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others also wanted to follow, but the Village also needed people to look after it, so they didn't act rashly and instead waited within the Village.