Madara opened his eyes, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan sweeping across his surroundings at blinding speed.
In the end, his gaze landed on Kabuto.
"So you're the one who woke me from my slumber, brat."
"Where is Nagato's Rinne Tensei no Jutsu (Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth)? And how far has the plan progressed?"
Kabuto stared at the Madara before him—there was no way he wasn't excited.
"Madara-sama, first, welcome back. There were some accidents during the plan's execution," Kabuto answered respectfully. "Nagato betrayed us. And now the shinobi world is unfortunately under the control of a brat called Shinju."
"Shinju? What clan is that supposed to be? Never heard of it."
Madara's brow creased slightly.
He didn't bother with Kabuto any further, instead lifting his head to look upward.
"Hashirama… did you see it? This world is still just as filthy. You changed nothing. How ironic."
"Looks like… it's time to dance!"
A vast blue chakra—so immense it made the very earth wail—erupted skyward from his body.
A dual-bladed Susanoo skeleton crashed straight through the cave's ceiling, blasting it apart.
Uchiha Madara, in the most overbearing and dominant way possible, announced his return.
A shrieking alarm tore through the calm of God's Court HQ.
This wasn't a drill.
It was the doomsday alarm—one that had never been triggered before.
Inside the command center, dozens of operators responsible for monitoring intelligence across the shinobi world froze with their hands on the keyboards, then lifted their heads in a daze.
In an instant, their screens were dyed blood-red as countless strings of meaningless garbled code went berserk, flickering wildly.
"What happened?!" Kakashi was the first to snap out of it, his voice carrying unquestionable authority.
One hand pressed to his earpiece, the other braced on the console in front of him, his eyes locked on the massive holographic sandbox map in the center of the hall.
"Report! The system is suffering severe interference from an unknown energy source! All conventional detection channels have failed! We've lost surveillance of the eastern region of the Land of Fire!" a young ninja shouted, sweating buckets.
"The interference source? Hurry—lock down its position!"
"No good, we can't lock it! The energy level is too high—our system is like it's slammed into a wall!"
This was the heart of God's Court, the super command center Shinju had built by integrating resources from the entire shinobi world.
The system here could monitor chakra flow in any corner of the world.
Until now, it had never suffered such a large-scale collapse.
Jiraiya rushed over from the lounge area in the corner.
Staring at the red screens, he asked in a low voice, "Is this a new move from Akatsuki? Or the Otsutsuki?"
Right then, Itachi—silent until now—raised a finger and pointed toward the central holographic sandbox.
"There."
Everyone's eyes snapped over.
On the huge holographic map of the shinobi world, within the Land of Fire's territory, a tiny red dot appeared out of nowhere.
The red dot abruptly expanded.
The glow grew more and more blinding, ultimately becoming a massive red blot that completely covered a large swath of the Land of Fire's eastern area.
"This is…" A veteran jonin analyst stared at the preliminary data popping onto the screen. "Chakra reaction… the value… the value has exceeded the upper limit the system can measure!"
"Kage-level?" Kakashi pressed.
"No!" The analyst's words nearly fell apart. "Not even close! The system's judgment… judgment is… world-destruction class!"
World-destruction class.
Even Jiraiya—battle-hardened as he was—took on a gravity he'd never shown before.
World-destruction class.
He'd seen Pain's power, and he'd faced the terror of tailed beasts head-on, but he had never heard of an energy rating this absurd.
"Pull the visuals! I want to see what the hell is there!" Kakashi issued a new order.
The technicians moved at once.
A few seconds later, the central main screen displayed a clear real-time feed for everyone to see.
In the footage, the earth was splitting apart.
Enormous rifts spread outward from a single point, tearing across the land in every direction.
Forests were uprooted, mountains collapsed under violent tremors.
At the center of the destruction, a colossal presence was rising from underground—
A blue giant skeleton formed of pure energy.
No flesh—only savage bone and eye sockets burning with eerie flames.
Its upper body had already broken through the surface. In its hands were two massive chakra greatblades, and merely existing was enough to warp the surrounding space in visible distortions.
"Susanoo…" Itachi stared at the blue energy skeleton. "But… impossible. A Susanoo on this scale is beyond comprehension."
His own Mangekyo Sharingan could manifest Susanoo, but compared to the monster on the screen, his was as insignificant as a child's toy.
This was power worthy of a god made to destroy the world.
The entire command center fell to nothing but the alarm's shrill, rapid scream.
They were the shinobi world's elite—the ones standing at the summit.
Yet before this absolute power, for the first time, they felt their own insignificance and helplessness.
From the moment the alarm sounded, Shinju hadn't said a single word.
No panic on his face. Not even a flicker of surprise.
More than anyone there, he knew exactly what it was.
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei.
Uchiha Madara.
A legend that should have lost at the Valley of the End and been buried by history had reappeared in the worst possible way…
And judging by the look of it, Kabuto had used some method to strengthen him—bringing him close to his peak.
The plan had been forced early.
The true final battle had arrived in a way no one could have imagined.
Kakashi turned to Shinju, his voice hoarse as he asked, "Shinju-sama… what do we do now?"
Everyone's gaze gathered on Shinju.
He was the founder of God's Court, the leader of this new era.
He was everyone's anchor.
Shinju didn't answer Kakashi's question.
He simply lifted his hand and lightly drew a line through the air in front of him.
A pale-golden interface—visible only to him—appeared.
Eireiden (Hall of Heroes).
Below it was a long list of names that could be summoned, most of them grayed out and unavailable.
Only a small number of names flickered with different tiers of light.
Shinju's gaze passed over the ordinary names, passed over the elite names, and went straight to the very top of the list.
Two names sat side by side.
Legend · God of Shinobi — Hashirama
Legend · Avatar of Asura — Madara
Behind each name was an astronomical summoning cost.
Together, the cost of these two names would nearly drain every last reserve God's Court had accumulated since its founding.
It was a gamble.
Betting the entire future of the shinobi world for even a chance at victory.
Shinju didn't hesitate.
He could feel the domineering will spilling from the screen, feel Madara's madness—the kind that would drag the whole world into Infinite Tsukuyomi.
To deal with a madman… you needed another madman.
To face a god… you needed another god.
If one wasn't enough, then bring two.
His intent locked onto those two most expensive, most powerful names at the same time.
The alarms in the command center seemed to grow distant in that instant.
All eyes were fixed on him.
"System, Dual Legend Revival!"
The points saved up over so long emptied in an instant like floodwaters released from a dam.
The next moment, two massive and intricate summoning arrays lit up across the command center floor.
One array burst with warm, surging golden light, brimming with the aura of life.
The other ignited with deep, tyrannical violet flames, filled with destruction and conquest.
Two completely different—yet equally soul-shaking—presences surged skyward from the arrays.
"Come forth. My strongest trump cards."
"Hashirama!"
"Madara!"
(End of Chapter)
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