Time seemed to freeze.
The finger wrapped in black lightning—hailed as the strongest spear—stopped just one centimeter from Uchiha Tobirama's back.
The speed of this strike was terrifying.
The Third Raikage was already famous for his monstrous physique and extreme speed. Now, with that strange chakra layered on top of his Lightning Release, this thrust carried a killing power that surpassed common sense.
The distant onlookers' pupils shrank—it was already too late to intervene.
Kurotsuchi and the others, still bound, screamed in terror, as if they had already seen that godlike man pierced straight through the heart.
However—
"Oh?"
A contemptuous sneer suddenly rang out.
Just as the finger was about to touch Tobirama's divine robe—
Boom!!
Tobirama did not even turn his head. His right leg snapped backward at an angle that completely defied human anatomy!
"Spinning kick."
"Get lost."
Bang!
A heavy impact exploded through the air, a sound so violent it felt like it could stop one's heart.
The Third Raikage's massive, mountain-like body was launched away like a baseball struck by a full swing, sent flying backward in an instant!
The so-called strongest spear shattered the moment it collided with Tobirama's heel, the bones breaking apart completely.
Then came the arms, shoulders, sternum—
Rumble!!
The Third Raikage turned into a black meteor, smashing through the ground behind him and carving a trench several kilometers long through the sea, sending waves hundreds of meters high!
In the end, he crashed violently onto a distant deserted island.
The entire island shattered on impact and sank beneath the sea under that terrifying kinetic force.
The dust slowly settled.
Tobirama stood with his back still turned, calmly retracting his right leg and lightly brushing nonexistent dust from the hem of his clothes.
"A sneak attack?"
"With such low-class tricks?"
He turned around and looked indifferently toward the massive figure lying in the distant sea.
But the next moment, Tobirama's brows furrowed slightly.
Something was wrong.
After capturing the Third Raikage, Tobirama had placed him under Kotoamatsukami, intending to later use him as a hidden piece after Kumogakure paid his ransom.
What he had not expected was that the so-called filial Fourth Raikage would not only refuse to rescue his father, but would even ascend to the position himself and abandon him outright.
But that wasn't the real issue.
The problem was this—
Kotoamatsukami was the strongest genjutsu capable of rewriting a person's will.
Logically speaking, even if ordered to commit suicide, the Third Raikage should have obeyed without hesitation.
Yet just now…
That killing intent had been real.
And the chilling chakra clinging to the Lightning Release was not something the Third Raikage should possess.
"Is Kotoamatsukami no longer working?"
Tobirama narrowed his eyes.
"Or… has some higher-level force forcibly overridden my command?"
In the shinobi world, only beings of that legendary level could accomplish such a thing.
Splash!
Far out at sea, towering waves surged once more.
The figure that should have been reduced to dust… stood up.
The Third Raikage was covered in blood, his body crushed and broken.
Yet he had not died like an ordinary shinobi.
Instead, Yin–Yang Release and immense vitality surged through him, repairing his body at a frantic pace.
In the blink of an eye—
That nearly destroyed body was completely restored.
"What?!"
Madara, watching from afar, was stunned.
"That was Tobirama's kick! That's no ordinary taijutsu!"
"Even my Complete Susanoo would have been shattered by that!"
"That brute Raikage… he's actually fine?"
The "Third Raikage" stepped across the waves, walking slowly toward the shore.
His movements were steady and deliberate, completely devoid of the former Raikage's wild, violent nature.
Instead, there was an ancient majesty about him—aloof, lofty, and seemingly compassionate toward all life.
He stopped about a hundred meters from Tobirama.
The once empty and impure eyes had transformed into an eerie purple.
Ripples spread across them.
The Rinnegan.
"Uchiha… Tobirama."
The Third Raikage spoke.
The voice was no longer rough and booming, but aged and hoarse, as though it had traveled across a thousand years.
"Your power is too dangerous."
"Your existence has severely disrupted the balance of the shinobi world and disturbed the cycle of life and death."
"If you are not eliminated, the shinobi world… will inevitably be destroyed."
Hearing these righteous, preachy words—
Tobirama froze for a brief moment.
Then he burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha!"
He covered his forehead, his shoulders shaking with laughter.
"Disrupt the balance? The cycle of life and death? I'll destroy the shinobi world?"
"I'm sick of hearing this tired nonsense."
The laughter stopped abruptly.
Tobirama's gaze turned sharp as blades, locking directly onto the puppet standing before him.
"That brute Third Raikage would never spout such refined garbage."
"And there are only two people in this world who can take a sixth-path-level kick from me and survive."
"One of them is sealed on the moon."
"The other…"
Tobirama took a step forward, violent chakra erupting from his body, clashing head-on with the opponent's divine aura.
"A rat hiding its head and tail."
"How long are you going to keep up this act?"
"Come out."
"Otsutsuki Hagoromo."
"Or should I call you…"
"The Six Paths Sage."
Boom!!
The moment those words were spoken, everyone present was stunned.
Hashirama, watching from afar, nearly lost his composure.
"The Six Paths Sage?! The legendary progenitor of shinobi—he's still alive?!"
Madara's expression shook violently as his Rinnegan fixed on the figure ahead.
"The old man of the Six Paths… the creator god of legend?"
Kurotsuchi and the others were completely dumbfounded.
What was going on today?
First, they had witnessed Uchiha Tobirama's miracle that defied time itself.
And now—even a god from ancient legend had appeared?
Faced with Tobirama's exposure, the Third Raikage fell silent.
Then he let out a long sigh.
That sigh seemed to carry endless vicissitudes and helplessness.
"As expected… I couldn't hide it from someone who possesses those eyes."
Buzz!
The Third Raikage's body began to glow.
The rugged form that once belonged to the Raikage gradually dissolved into light.
In its place—
A semi-transparent, floating chakra spirit appeared.
He wore ancient white robes, six red magatama hanging around his neck.
A black staff rested in his hand, with several Truth-Seeking Orbs floating behind him.
His face was aged and deeply wrinkled, and a third eye bearing the Rinnegan opened on his forehead.
The legendary founder of ninjutsu—
The Six Paths Sage, Otsutsuki Hagoromo.
Though only a chakra manifestation, the vast, star-sea-like pressure he emitted instantly suppressed the entire region.
The sea went still.
The wind ceased to blow.
"I am Otsutsuki Hagoromo."
Hovering in midair, the Six Paths Sage looked at the young man before him with a complicated expression.
"A descendant of the Uchiha…"
"You have gone too far."
"I could tolerate you unifying the shinobi world, establishing an empire, slaughtering countless lives, and even… altering time itself."
"But you intend to resurrect my mother."
"I will not allow you to act so recklessly."
"What you are doing is pushing this world into an abyss."
"I have slept in the Pure Land for a thousand years and had no intention of interfering with the present era."
"But your ambition has forced me to awaken."
His voice rang like a great bell, carrying an innate sense of authority.
As though he were justice incarnate, the arbiter of the world.
However—
Faced with this legendary existence, Tobirama simply shoved his hands into his pockets, tilted his head, and looked at him with open disdain.
"Too far?"
"An abyss?"
Tobirama sneered, his contempt for the so-called sage unmistakable.
"Old man, are you still half asleep in the Pure Land?"
"Your so-called peace was nothing more than distributing chakra to mortals and watching them slaughter each other for a thousand years."
"And preventing Kaguya's resurrection by letting your unfilial son, Black Zetsu, scheme in the shadows and revive her anyway?"
With every word Tobirama spoke, the pressure around him intensified.
Finally, he pointed straight at the Six Paths Sage's face and shouted coldly:
"Your era is over."
"If you failed to bring true peace a thousand years ago, then your path was wrong from the very beginning."
"Now, this shinobi world belongs to me."
"I can do whatever I want."
"Don't throw around the title of Six Paths Sage."
"Even if the King of Heaven himself stood in my way—"
Tobirama's right eye, the Rinnegan, suddenly contracted, gleaming with a terrifying golden light.
"I would slaughter him without hesitation!"
Boom!!
At that instant, two forces that surpassed mortal comprehension collided violently.
The air let out a strained, cracking scream.
Space itself fractured, splitting open with countless fine fissures.