Land of Iron, First Joint Training Base.
The plaza was packed with young shinobi from the Five Great Villages.
Uchiha Madara stood before them as their Chief Instructor.
For the first time, Naruto and Sasuke teamed up to challenge the legendary shinobi.
"Ready, Sasuke?" Naruto asked in a low voice.
"Does saying that change anything? Let's go." Sasuke's voice carried absolute confidence.
Naruto and Sasuke of Konoha, Darui of Kumogakure, Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure, Gaara of Sunagakure—everyone was watching this match.
Even if they all knew…
It would be nearly impossible to defeat a legend like him.
Madara wore red armor and held the flaming gunbai in his hand.
"Come on. Brats—show me what you've got." His tone was laced with disdain.
Naruto moved first, going straight for a finishing move.
In Sage Mode, his speed was terrifying.
The ground cracked under his feet. His body became a yellow flash, appearing in front of Madara in an instant.
"Rasengan!"
At the same time, Sasuke's attack arrived as well—he didn't dare hold back at all, throwing out his strongest technique immediately.
"Kagutsuchi!"
This was a lethal combo meant to seal off every route of retreat.
Yet Madara's expression didn't change in the slightest.
Against Naruto's Rasengan, he simply raised the gunbai across his chest like it was nothing.
Naruto's senjutsu chakra… was blocked?
Before Naruto could even process it, an irresistible force surged from the fan's surface.
It felt like he'd slammed into a mountain—his entire body was blasted backward.
On the other side, Sasuke's black flame arrow had already shot toward Madara.
Madara lifted his free hand, spread his fingers, and directly reached for the arrow burning with inextinguishable fire.
"Is he insane?!" Sasuke's heart lurched.
A thin layer of chakra coated Madara's palm, and he precisely caught the arrow.
The Amaterasu black flames—capable of burning everything—couldn't advance even an inch through his chakra.
With a flick of his wrist, Madara forcibly redirected the arrow. It skimmed past his cheek and shot into the far sky.
From Naruto's first strike to Sasuke's arrow being neutralized…
The entire exchange took less than a second.
Madara hadn't even taken a single step.
Naruto climbed up from the ground, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Too slow."
Madara's voice sounded again.
His figure vanished from where he stood.
Naruto's Sage sensing screamed warnings. He leapt backward instinctively—
But a foot slammed hard into his abdomen.
Naruto felt like his organs were about to shatter. His body flew like a cannonball into the training barrier, then slid down to the ground.
Sage Mode instantly dispersed.
"Naruto!" Sasuke roared, and Susanoo's fist—wrapped in purple energy—smashed down where Madara had appeared.
The ground exploded. Dust surged.
He hit nothing.
"Above!" Gaara's voice rang out.
Sasuke jerked his head up.
Madara had somehow already appeared on top of Susanoo's head. The gunbai in his hand lifted high—
Then chopped down with crushing force.
A deafening boom.
Sasuke's pride—Susanoo's chakra armor, said to be absolute defense—cracked from the head down under that strike.
The fractures spread like shattered glass.
"How is that possible…"
Madara's strength… could shake Susanoo?
The gunbai rose again, then fell.
Each chop widened the cracks. Inside, Sasuke endured brutal shockwaves—blood began to leak from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Finally, after the fifth strike—
The purple chakra giant shattered completely.
Sasuke fell from midair.
Madara caught him by the throat and slammed him to the ground.
Naruto struggled to push himself up—
A foot stomped onto his back, pinning him in place.
Just taijutsu.
Just a fan.
Konoha's two greatest geniuses were defeated without any ability to fight back.
Madara stepped on both of their backs, his gaze sweeping across the other young shinobi whose faces had gone pale.
"Sage Mode? Susanoo?"
He spoke, his contempt undisguised.
"That's all you've got, and you dare call yourselves geniuses? You're still far from what it means to truly dance!"
"Bastard!" Darui of Kumogakure was the first who couldn't stand it.
"Ranton: Laser Circus!"
Several beams fired from his hand like light whips, stabbing toward Madara from all directions.
"Yoton: Quicklime Jutsu!"
Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure attacked as well, spewing a huge wave of quicklime that rapidly hardened, trying to lock Madara down.
Sand erupted beneath Gaara's feet, forming gigantic arms that reached for Madara's body.
Kirigakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure…
Dozens of elite shinobi from every village struck at once.
Brilliantly colored ninjutsu, loaded with destructive force, surged toward Uchiha Madara from all directions.
Facing an assault powerful enough to flatten a small mountain, Madara's expression finally changed slightly.
His eyes—
The three-tomoe Sharingan began to spin, transforming into a complex pinwheel pattern.
Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Good."
His voice was soft.
His body flickered, slipping past Darui's lasers.
He twisted, avoiding Kurotsuchi's lava.
With a tap of his toe, he leapt into the air, and Gaara's sand arms grabbed nothing but empty space.
His movements didn't look fast—
Yet he always dodged with the smallest possible motions, in the instant before every attack landed.
Under those eyes, every ninjutsu and every strike became a laughably slow motion.
"Your understanding of chakra is too shallow," Madara said in midair.
"That's not how ninjutsu is used."
As his words fell, blue chakra erupted around his body.
A massive ribcage armor appeared out of thin air, enclosing him.
Susanoo—First Stage.
Blue chakra arms extended from the ribs, and a massive chakra katana formed in its grip.
"Let me show you what battle really is."
Madara controlled Susanoo and descended from the sky.
The enormous blade swept out in a horizontal arc.
He didn't use any ocular jutsu—only the most basic swordsmanship.
The edge cut through the air, dragging a violent pressure wave behind it.
Every swing sent a cluster of shinobi flying.
These "geniuses" from their villages were now like children facing a giant—only able to dodge in terror and flee in disgrace.
Their attacks couldn't scratch Susanoo at all.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
Gaara poured all his sand into forming a gigantic sand shield.
"Absolute Defense!"
It was his strongest defensive technique.
The blue blade came down—
And the sand shield shattered on contact.
Gaara spat out a mouthful of blood, was blasted backward, and lost consciousness.
Chojuro swung his twin blades, Hiramekarei, releasing a massive chakra cannon—
Susanoo simply used the back of its other hand and swatted the blast apart.
Less than three minutes after the battle began…
Not a single person in the training ground was still standing.
Naruto and Sasuke lay on the ground, forcing their heads up as they stared at the blue chakra giant.
The talent and strength they had always been proud of…
In front of this man, it all looked childish and ridiculous.
Madara dismissed Susanoo.
He walked up to Naruto and Sasuke.
"Remember this feeling, brats."
"You're weak."
He turned and left, abandoning a field of groaning "geniuses."
Every day, all the new-generation elites had to face Uchiha Madara.
And unfortunately—because they were facing a legend—
They were beaten into the ground in every way imaginable.
Madara used real combat experience to point out their flaws.
Naruto's Sage Mode relied too much on static sensing. In high-speed combat, it was easy for old instincts and habits to drag him down and ruin his timing.
Sasuke's ocular techniques were flashy, but his foundation wasn't steady. His taijutsu and chakra control were comparatively weak.
Gaara's defense depended too heavily on sand—his own movement and close-range ability were fatal weak points.
Darui's Ranton was extremely powerful, but his hand seals were too slow and could easily be interrupted.
Every person was read clearly by Madara.
Too many openings.
With the detailed data Shinju provided, Madara's instruction became brutally precise.
He became a demon instructor, shattering these youths' pride completely—then forcing them to grow in despair.
At first, they couldn't last even one minute under him.
A week later, they could last five.
A month later, Naruto and Sasuke working together were already able to force Madara to activate First Stage Susanoo to respond.
The overall strength of the Allied Shinobi Forces rose at a terrifying pace.
The shinobi world was developing and preparing for war at a speed never seen before.
To face an unknown threat, everyone twisted into a single rope, all pulling in the same direction.
Far away, on the moon.
In the white world, a massive palace stood in silence.
Deep within the palace, a figure who had slept for a thousand years—his eyelid twitched.
He opened his eyes.
Strangely, he had no pupils—only eyes that emitted a pale blue glow.
Otsutsuki Toneri.
He rose from his stone seat and walked to the enormous Tenseigan.
Through that giant eye—formed from countless Byakugan—he looked down at the world below.
Shinobi from every village training together in one base… it was simply unbelievable.
The whole world was showing a prosperity and unity he had never seen in his memories.
And he saw an unbelievably massive chakra source.
Shinju.
"A descendant of Hamura… forgetting the mission and living in peace with the insects of the surface? How dare they?!"
Confusion and fury twisted across Toneri's face.
Then his gaze shifted toward the Hyuga clan's settlement.
"Has the Hyuga's Byakugan fallen too? Has it become this filthy and tainted?!"
"Then it's time to carry out destiny."
He turned and walked toward the palace's control core.
"Use the moon to cleanse this mistaken world!"
A threat from the stars was about to descend.
And on the ground, Shinju had already sensed everything through the White Zetsu network spread across the world.
(End of Chapter)
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