A solemn crown materialized above the girl's head. The ability that defied all physical laws in the world unreasonably plundered the surrounding heat, causing the extreme cold to finally break through its long-standing barriers and reach the physical definition of absolute zero.
Crack!
The scorching ray traveled through the air, but upon invading the kingdom covered in ice and snow, it suffered the same fate, its heat plundered and transformed into pure white ice crystals.
"Phew, it's true that you never know your potential until you push yourself, don't you agree, Madara-san?" Sakura, raising her hand to touch her fair and delicate skin, looking dashing and heroic, flicked her long hair, which had been tied into a ponytail by frost.
Ever since her encounter with Imu at Wano, Sakura had been seeking a way to awaken her Devil Fruit ability.
After referencing the powerful enemies she had fought and two ready-made awakened users at her side, like the Logia user Naruto and the Mythical Zoan user Leviathan, Sakura reached a conclusion.
The awakening of a Devil Fruit's ability was, in essence, a phenomenon of the fruit's will further eroding the user.
As is well known, Devil Fruits possess a certain degree of will, selecting consumers whose personalities and desires match their own. Awakening, then, is the manifestation of the fruit's will further fusing with the individual once the user's mind and body have grown to match the fruit's ability.
Sakura's mental and physical strength had long been honed to their peak through years of physical training and Haki cultivation. Yet her ability's awakening remained perpetually stuck at 99.9%, like a magnet link in a download software that never finishes.
The reason for this was that her own will was too powerful, preventing the fruit's will from ever finding an opportunity to fully fuse with her.
Later, aboard the Leviathan, having become aware of this discrepancy, she used Katsuyu's knowledge to develop the fourth stage of the Senjutsu Evolution technique, comprehensively weakening her own spirit and life, actively creating an opening to give the fruit's awakening an opportunity.
Finally, after enduring the fierce battles against two Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki, she achieved fusion with the fruit's will, sublimating her Devil Fruit ability.
"Excellent! This is it. Such an opponent is truly rare."
Madara, his heart filled with joy, spun the khakkhara in his hand and stepped forward. "After fifty years, let me once again experience the power of this generation's strongest in the Ninja World!"
At that moment, all the land in the Land of Water emitted a piercing hum. The planet's gravity was distorted by the Ten-Tails' powerful Chakra.
Pale space-time fissures shattered, covering the entire battlefield.
Amidst Madara's laughter, darkness surged from the space-time fissures like a tide, ignoring the planet's gravity and its stabilizing effect on space-time, descending upon the earth.
The land washed over by the tide turned to nothingness. The venomous tide thus rushed fiercely toward Sakura.
And the world before them made a sound of splitting.
"Not good, that thing is very dangerous!" Sasuke reached out and pulled Naruto. "Quick, use your Chakra to protect the Ninjas on the battlefield."
"That thing is a product of Yin-Yang Release. My Chakra alone can't stop it!" Naruto threw the black rod in his hand, stabbing it into the black tide.
But the moment the black rod touched the tide, it dissolved quite naturally, without causing the slightest ripple.
"Leave this to me, Naruto. You use Chakra to connect everyone. I'll take away all those connected by Chakra!" Catching the Flying Thunder God kunai that Naruto had been holding in his mouth, Minato teleported to Naruto's side.
Nodding, Naruto quickly formed hand seals and released a large number of shadow clones, which rushed toward the allied forces. After touching them with his arms, he used the characteristic of the Nine-Tails' Chakra link to connect everyone.
"Ready, Dad!" Naruto opened his eyes, and thousands of transparent Chakra hands extended from his body, firmly grasping the entire allied force.
"Good, get ready!" Minato reached out and placed his hand on Naruto's back, closing his eyes as he sensed each target of the Chakra link.
Swish!
The members of the entire allied force were instantly wrapped in the illusory light of space-time. The next moment, they were teleported to a hill several thousand meters away.
In the sky, Madara did not stop them, instead focusing all his attention on guarding against Sakura. "Hmph, that Senju Tobirama actually has such a fine successor. God is truly blind."
"Hahaha, perhaps evil lives on for a thousand years!" Sakura laughed.
Then, she spread her five fingers toward the surging black tide and clenched her fist.
The low, rumbling sound spread, kicking up a storm-like cold wave. Streams of cyan light descended from the heavens, enveloping the space-time fissures around them, instantly solidifying the world.
—Awakening: Mahapadma!
Within a certain range, the heat causing the expansion of the universe was interfered with and plundered by Sakura's ability. All molecular motion came to a halt. The surging Yin Release Chakra around them was frozen along with space-time.
"Phew!"
In this absolutely stagnant world, Sakura's soft exhalation became the only thing that could still move.
Clad in a snow-white garment, she raised her slender, jade-like foot and slowly stepped forward, walking to stand directly before Madara.
"How about it? Do you want to be buried along with your ideals in this pure white world?" Sakura raised her hand. Flowing Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki covered her fingertips with a thin film.
Madara, who had lost his color along with the world, felt the extreme danger and pulled his consciousness free from the darkness brought by absolute zero.
He activated his Mangekyo's Dojutsu on himself… Ame no Tokotachi!
Unlike Sasuke's Ocular Power, used to determine the order of all things, Madara's Ame no Tokotachi symbolized the flow of time.
The Yin Release Chakra, created from nothingness, transformed into the Ocular Power of the Sharingan, forcibly opening up a stream of particles in this completely still world, allowing Madara's frozen time to flow again.
"Armament: Majestic Attire!"
Uchiha Madara quickly released his Ten-Tails Chakra Mode, entering a half-Tailed Beast state.
At the same time, he used Susanoo to wrap another layer of Susanoo armor around his Chakra for defense, resisting the low temperature that could freeze space-time itself.
"You're truly as strong as a monster. If my Chakra hadn't been enhanced by the Ten-Tails, I would have already lost just now!"
Now, Madara finally understood why the time cocoon he had created with his Ocular Power had been so easily broken by the other.
As fellow strong individuals who could interfere with space-time, such petty tricks were indeed a bit laughable when used in battle against each other.
"Since you're going to be defeated anyway, why not just let me have this victory?" The girl revealed an arrogant smile that was completely at odds with her dignified and elegant appearance. "At least I will defeat you beautifully, and I even offer ice coffin carving services~"
Not catching the implication in Sakura's words, Madara frowned, raising his hand to grab the metal forehead protector on his forehead.
"Don't underestimate the ideals that Hashirama and I fought for our entire lives, you arrogant brat!"
Crack!
The forehead protector shattered. A crimson tomoe eye opened on Madara's forehead, overlooking everything around it.
"Since techniques and Chakra are useless against you, I will use this to defeat you!!!"
Clad in a white robe, he took a deep breath, formed hand seals, and his deep, low voice echoed like thunder in everyone's ears.
—God: Nativity of a World of Trees!