Chapter 59: Edo Tensei vs. Perfect Susano'o
"Damn it. Hiashi's timing is impeccable."
After being forcefully evicted from Hyuga territory by a rightfully enraged clan head, Ren retreated to the modest comfort of his apartment, a sense of unfinished business lingering. He wasn't truly worried about pursuit—the head of the Hyuga clan had far too much dignity to publicly chase a ten-year-old through the streets over a kiss, no matter how scandalous. And involving the authorities would only risk his daughter's reputation.
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[VIP Highlight: Soul Arena - Tobirama Senju vs. Uchiha Madara]
"Huh? Tobirama and Madara are fighting?"
As he settled, Ren noticed the alert. The two titans had entered the Soul Arena, their clash already drawing the entire afterlife's attention.
Uchiha Izuna (Regular Viewer): Big brother! Crush that Senju bastard!
Uchiha Kagami (Regular Viewer): Tobirama-sensei! Give it your all!
Uchiha Izuna: TRAITOR! Whose side are you on?!
Uchiha Kagami: Sighs. My loyalty is to my teacher, but my blood is Uchiha. It's complicated.
Uchiha Shisui (VIP2): Grandfather... you've had a difficult path.
Uchiha Kagami: One does one's best.
Hashirama Senju (Regular Viewer): Tobirama, do your best! Madara, please go easy on him!
Uchiha Fugaku (VIP1): First Hokage... who exactly are you rooting for?
Hashirama Senju: Both! Supporting everyone is the diplomatic approach I honed as Hokage!
Uchiha Fugaku: Incredible. The political savvy of the First is indeed profound.
Hōzuki Gengetsu (Regular Viewer): Finally! After all this romantic drama, a proper legendary battle!
Yagura Karatachi (VIP2): Agreed! My eyes were starting to bleed from all the sentimental displays.
Ōnoki (Regular Viewer): The Second Hokage, master of forbidden jutsu, versus the legendary Uchiha Madara. A spectacle for the ages.
Since Minato Namikaze had pioneered its romantic use, the Soul Arena had gradually devolved into a venue for spectral dating and emotional reunions. For many of the battle-hardened dead, this return to its original purpose—glorious, violent conflict—was a welcome change.
The challenge had been issued by Madara, but the arena's environment made Tobirama's hand obvious. They stood not on solid ground, but on a vast, endless ocean under a stormy sky—Tobirama's elemental domain. Not a single piece of land was in sight.
"You believe a favorable environment will bridge the gap between us?" Madara stood arrogantly upon the churning waves, arms crossed. As his aura swelled, the sea around him flattened outward in a perfect circle, repelled by the sheer pressure of his chakra.
"We shall see," Tobirama replied, his voice calm but his posture taut. He recognized the power before him—this wasn't the wounded, desperate Madara of the Valley of the End. This was Madara in his prime, infused with Hashirama's cells and decades of planning.
The battle began without ceremony.
Tobirama's hands flew through a rapid, complex series of seals, ending with a slam of his palms together.
"Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!"
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
From the dark waters around them, dozens of somber coffins erupted vertically, seawater cascading from their lacquered surfaces. Lid after lid swung open, revealing figures clad in the armor of the Warring States period. Their eyes snapped open, pupils marked with the characteristic cross-hatching of the reanimation jutsu.
Nearly a hundred figures now stood upon the water, a ghost army spanning generations. The weakest among them radiated the chakra of seasoned jōnin; several at the forefront burned with the fierce light of kage-level fighters from bygone eras.
Uchiha Fugaku: He can use that forbidden technique here? To summon the dead... among the dead?
Ren Arakawa (subvocalizing): The arena simulates all known techniques. If you know it, you can use it.
Uchiha Izuna: That coward Tobirama! Using such underhanded tactics against my brother!
With a mental command, Tobirama set his army loose. The reanimations surged forward, a tidal wave of historical violence—fireballs, lightning spears, earth pillars, and hurricane winds converging on the solitary Uchiha.
Tobirama himself didn't join the charge. As the first jutsu flew, he dissolved into the water, his chakra signature vanishing—the master tactician becoming the unseen director of the symphony of destruction.
Facing this apocalyptic onslaught, Madara Uchiha didn't move. He didn't even uncross his arms.
A faint, contemptuous smile touched his lips.
"Ants."
The air crackled. A dark blue, skeletal ribcage materialized around him instantly, blocking the first wave of attacks without a shudder.
The skeleton grew, bones layering upon bones, muscle and armor of pure chakra weaving over them. In seconds, a titan stood upon the sea—a dark blue, winged warrior clad in samurai armor, two immense chakra blades sheathed at its waist. It towered nearly a hundred meters, its presence warping the very atmosphere.
This was no ordinary Susano'o. This was the Perfect Susano'o—the ultimate defense and offense of the Uchiha, a manifestation of power that could level mountains and split the earth.
Uchiha Izuna's earlier display was a pale shadow in comparison. Where his had been impressive, Madara's was divine.
The reanimation army didn't falter—they had no fear. They pressed the assault. A legendary spearman from the Land of Lightning launched himself, his chakra-coated spear aimed at the giant's knee. A kunoichi from the early days of Konoha weaved hand seals for a sealing chain technique.
Madara, ensconced within the Susano'o's forehead crystal, finally moved.
A single, lazy gesture.
The Susano'o drew one of its swords.
The motion was too fast to track. A crescent of dark blue light swept horizontally across the battlefield.
Silence.
Then, the sea parted. A canyon of air and vacuum carved through the water, stretching to the horizon. Every reanimated ninja in its path disintegrated into swirling paper ash before they could even register the attack.
Hōzuki Gengetsu: By the gods...
Third Raikage: That's... that's a different realm of power.
Ōnoki: So this is what my father feared...
From the depths, Tobirama's voice echoed, calm but strained. "Impressive. But the Edo Tensei are infinite. You cannot erase them all."
As he spoke, the ashes of the destroyed reanimations swirled, already beginning to reform.
Madara's laughter boomed across the spectral ocean, rich with genuine amusement. "Infinite? Senju, you still fail to understand. Against true power, quantity is meaningless."
The Perfect Susano'o raised both swords now, crossing them before its chest. The chakra concentrated, compressing into a sphere of annihilating light between the blades.
"This ends now."
But beneath the waves, Tobirama smiled a thin, calculated smile. His hands were already forming another set of seals—not for summoning, but for binding.
The battle between the legendary rivals had truly begun, and in the living world, Ren watched with rapt attention, absorbing every detail, every technique, every flash of strategic genius.
Some lessons couldn't be donated. They had to be witnessed.
And somewhere in the darkness between realms, Black Zetsu watched the stream too, recording the techniques, the power levels, filing it all away for the day his mother would return.
The moon, as ever, watched silently, its pale face reflecting the chakra light of battles fought long ago, and those yet to come.