Sweep the Table!
This was the first time Yuu had ever rolled this effect while using Mad Gamble.
The instant the trait activated, the speed of his slash nearly doubled.
His blade became nothing more than a hazy streak of golden light in midair, pale-white shockwaves blooming along its edges as it tore forward in a single instant!
Whoosh—!
The sword light descended!
The moment the Sword of the Thunder God touched Susanoo, its blade slowed for the briefest instant—
then continued downward!
Like a heated knife slicing through butter, it effortlessly cut through Susanoo's armor and body before plunging deep inside!
At the same time, countless smaller yet incomparably sharp sword waves scattered from the blade and erupted inside Susanoo, wildly destroying the internal structure of the blue giant!
These were precisely the Critical Hit, Penetration, and Splash effects granted by Sweep the Table!
This strike could be called the strongest slash Yuu had personally unleashed thus far.
It was also a combined finishing move produced by three members of his "harem"—
Super Strength.
Hatake Swordsmanship.
Cell Activation Technique.
In a certain sense, it was already comparable to a self-created Bond Trait.
And at the exact moment Susanoo was cut open—
Madara, standing inside it, suddenly felt a chill across his chest.
A crimson arrow of blood burst outward!
The wound appeared in exactly the same location where the Susanoo giant had been struck.
It was as though Yuu's slash had landed directly on Madara's own body!
The wound nearly split his entire body in half from the middle.
It was horrifying to behold!
"?!"
What the hell was going on?!
Madara was stunned.
Earlier, you actually hit my physical body and killed the Shapeshifting Clone in one slash.
Fine.
I won't complain about that.
But now—
there's an entire Susanoo between us, and you can still cut me directly?!
What kind of swordsmanship is this?!
Does it have to be this disgustingly underhanded?!
In the brief instant Madara was distracted,
the twin swords of Susanoo, still moving from their previous momentum, arrived behind Yuu.
They crossed into a gigantic X-shape and engulfed his entire body—
only for Yuu to evade with a Substitution Technique and immediately widen the distance.
"Haa…"
Yuu adjusted his breathing.
Then he tossed two military ration pills into his mouth, quickly chewed, and swallowed them.
Tonight alone,
he had already used Mushin: One Slash twice,
fired one Three Dragons Turning Destruction,
and engaged Uchiha Madara in an extremely passionate ninjutsu bombardment.
Even with chakra reserves equivalent to five or six Kakashis,
he was nearly drained by now.
He needed to recover as quickly as possible.
However…
Yuu estimated that this battle was almost over.
Because the Line of Life belonging to Madara's current Shapeshifting Clone had already been severed.
That meant its life was rapidly approaching its end.
Even someone as powerful as Uchiha Madara couldn't violate a conceptual-level ability like this.
Besides,
Yuu had already sensed the arrival of a certain mysterious reinforcement.
Which meant Rin's problem should soon be resolved as well…
Across from him,
Madara took a deep breath.
He was beginning to feel completely hollowed out.
How should he put it…
after taking Three Dragons Turning Destruction head-on earlier, this body had already been close to its absolute limit.
He had only managed to keep fighting through the tenacious battle will of a veteran from the Warring States Period—
and because victory had seemed so close.
He had thought Yuu was already at the end of his rope.
He expected to finish the battle quickly, scoop up Obito, and return triumphantly.
Who would have expected him to eat another monstrous slash so soon?
At this point,
Madara could barely maintain Susanoo.
He could only compress Wood Release chakra around the enormous wound to keep himself standing.
Then he raised his right hand, brought two fingers together, and spoke.
"I originally had no intention of using this here.
"But…"
His lips curled faintly.
"Allow me to show you—
"the despair that comes after hope."
"Do you still possess the strength to deal with a tailed beast that has completely gone berserk?"
As he spoke,
Madara suddenly exerted force.
Chakra surged through his body.
"Cursed Binding Technique—
"Release!!"
The so-called Cursed Binding Technique was the seal Madara had used to temporarily place the Three-Tails inside Rin.
Compared with techniques like the Four Symbols Seal and Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, this sealing formula was extremely crude.
Its effects usually lasted only a few hours before the jinchūriki faced the risk of losing control and going berserk.
But that didn't matter for Madara's plan.
After all, he had never intended to give Konoha a functional jinchūriki.
And now—
Madara chose to artificially accelerate the process.
He would bring forward the stage play originally intended to unfold inside a Konoha stronghold.
Madara was already looking forward to seeing the expressions on Yuu and the others' faces when a tailed beast suddenly appeared in the distant forest.
However…
"…Hmm?"
This feeling…
was wrong.
Extremely wrong.
Ten parts wrong—
or at least nine.
Madara's eyelid twitched.
He abruptly raised his head and looked toward Rin's direction.
Dense layers of forest obscured her from view.
But Madara could clearly sense that after his hand seal just now,
the technique he had placed on Rin showed no signs of loosening.
Instead—
some other external force was actively suppressing it.
Looking around,
Fugaku, Kakashi, and Obito were all visible.
The only people supposedly remaining with Rin were Shisui and Hizashi.
In theory, Shisui's Mangekyō might indeed be capable of suppressing the Three-Tails through genjutsu.
But the power Madara had just sensed clearly wasn't genjutsu.
It was—
sealing ninjutsu!!
Could it be…
A somewhat absurd yet extremely plausible possibility surfaced in Madara's mind.
As though to confirm his suspicion—
the next instant,
the wind whispered.
A streak of golden light quietly crossed the sky.
A young man wearing a dark-green Konoha jōnin vest appeared like a bolt of lightning.
He radiated an aura like a miniature sun.
Landing in a half-crouch a little over ten meters in front of Yuu, he held a three-pronged kunai engraved with the words—
Sword of Shinobi Love.
He calmly looked around once.
Then he smiled.
"Am I late, Yuu?"
"…Not at all."
The corner of Yuu's mouth rose into a faint smile.
"Your timing is perfect."
Silence.
Several full seconds of silence.
Then—
Obito suddenly jumped out of the crater where he had been hiding.
He stared excitedly at the golden figure and shouted in delight.
"Minato-sensei?!
"Kakashi, look! It's Minato-sensei!"
"Awesome! Minato-sensei is here!
"We're saved!!"
"…"
Faced with Obito's wild celebration,
the blond young man merely smiled.
Then he looked toward Yuu and exchanged a brief glance with him.
That was right.
The person who had appeared here—
was none other than Namikaze Minato!
And the reason he had come…
was because Yuu had arranged it in advance.
Back on the Sunagakure front, Minato had once given Yuu and Kakashi a Flying Thunder God kunai to use as an emergency support beacon.
Because Yuu's sudden rise had made it unnecessary at the time, the kunai had never actually been used.
But they had kept it.
Kakashi had originally carried it.
After Yuu was promoted to jōnin, it was transferred to him instead.
A Flying Thunder God kunai was fundamentally nothing more than a teleportation coordinate.
It possessed no communication function.
Even if it did,
it wouldn't work across thousands of kilometers.
And if Yuu wanted to break Madara's trap,
Namikaze Minato was the most suitable reinforcement available.
After all, there weren't many people in Konoha capable of fighting Uchiha Madara.
And among those who also possessed advanced sealing techniques and could restrain tailed beasts—
there were even fewer.
Excluding Uzumaki Kushina, who was confined to the village,
Minato was the best option.
So…
before Yuu departed to rescue Rin,
he had created a shadow clone containing ten percent of his chakra.
He sent that clone together with Black Wing toward the Kumogakure front to find Minato.
The clone informed him of the general situation and asked him to use Flying Thunder God to reach this area as quickly as possible.
Since the situation on the Kumogakure front had already largely stabilized,
Minato immediately informed Jiraiya after hearing what had happened.
Then he secretly left the camp.
He traveled thousands of kilometers—
from the Land of Hot Water all the way to the Kirigakure front.
Earlier,
when Yuu used Mushin: One Slash,
he had already received a reminder from the Summoning Technique and learned that Minato had arrived nearby.
However,
Minato hadn't come directly to the battlefield.
He first went to check Rin's condition.
After discovering the unstable seal inside her, he added another Four Symbols Seal over it.
That was why Madara had just failed to release the Three-Tails.
Of course,
a single Four Symbols Seal wasn't enough to completely seal a tailed beast.
But it was more than sufficient to stabilize Rin temporarily and remove the immediate risk of her going berserk.
Everything else could be handled slowly after the current danger was resolved.
Afterward,
Minato used Flying Thunder God again and arrived beside Yuu.
His timing was perfect.
Across from them,
Madara's uncertain gaze moved several times between Yuu and Minato.
His thoughts churned.
He was, after all, a veteran powerhouse who had fought countless battles.
Although he hadn't known anything beforehand,
working backward from the outcome allowed him to roughly reconstruct what had happened.
But the more he thought about it…
the more wrong it felt.
Why did it seem like this brat had somehow read the script in advance?
As though he already knew Madara was Uchiha Madara—
and knew that he intended to use a tailed beast as part of the plan?
Otherwise,
how could Yuu have prepared such targeted countermeasures so far in advance?
Even Madara's intention to make the Three-Tails go berserk seemed to have been within his expectations.
That was why he had just happened to summon Namikaze Minato—
someone capable of solving exactly that problem.
Was that really reasonable?
Could it be…
that this inherently evil white-haired old ghost, after reincarnating, had dug through Madara's grave in Konoha—
discovered clues suggesting that Uchiha Madara might have faked his death—
then connected that information with Kirigakure's Bloody Mist policies over the past several decades and deduced Madara's relationship with the village?
The theory was admittedly absurd.
But once the option of "Mikami Yuu has a cheat system" was excluded,
it was actually the most logical explanation.
After all, Senju Tobirama had always been calculating, cautious, and deeply scheming.
After being tricked to death once by Kinkaku and Ginkaku using the Sage of Six Paths' ninja tools,
he would only become even more cautious.
Anticipating possible unexpected situations and preparing multiple contingencies in advance—
that wasn't strange at all.
However…
none of that mattered anymore.
What mattered was that the instant Namikaze Minato appeared,
Madara's plan had completely collapsed.
And after today,
the news that "Uchiha Madara is still alive" would probably spread throughout Konoha—
and eventually the entire ninja world.
Perhaps…
it was time to start considering his own retreat plan.
Madara thought.
…
"By the way…"
Minato carefully examined Madara and spoke quietly.
"This person—
is he the Uchiha Madara you mentioned to me before, Yuu?"
"The Mangekyō's ultimate ocular technique, Susanoo…
"So this is what it looks like.
"It really is spectacular."
"Yes."
Yuu nodded and replied quietly.
"It was only a guess.
"I never expected him to actually still be alive.
"Truly unbelievable…"
He smiled faintly.
"Fortunately, you arrived in time, Minato-sensei.
"Otherwise, we probably would've all died here."
"Heh."
Minato chuckled.
"You're still as modest as ever, Yuu."
"To fight the legendary 'Ghost of the Uchiha,' someone spoken of alongside the First Hokage, to this extent…
"your strength may already have surpassed mine."
"It's unfortunate Jiraiya-sensei isn't here.
"I'm still not particularly good at dealing with opponents like this."
That was actually true.
Minato was an assassin-type ninja.
He possessed extraordinary advantages against human opponents.
But against tailed beasts and Susanoo, he was relatively less comfortable.
He couldn't fight such enemies as naturally as artillery-type ninja like Jiraiya or Ōnoki.
Jiraiya also possessed Sage Mode as a hidden trump card.
If he successfully entered it,
he could probably be considered Konoha's strongest active combatant at present.
Still—
not being specialized against this type of opponent didn't mean Minato lacked options.
For example…
"Summoning Technique!"
Minato bit his thumb and slammed his palm against the ground.
Smoke erupted.
Gamabunta's enormous figure appeared and immediately lifted both Minato and Yuu more than ten meters into the air.
"Boss Bunta, sorry to trouble you.
"This opponent may be slightly difficult…"
"?"
Gamabunta stared at the towering Susanoo across from him.
The entire toad went numb.
No, seriously…
You want me to fight Uchiha Madara?
For real?
Are you trying to get me killed so you can inherit my property back at Mount Myōboku?
Minato ignored Gamabunta's expression.
He immediately pulled a large handful of Flying Thunder God kunai from his ninja pouch and scattered them in every direction.
Some landed on the ground.
Others embedded themselves into trees and rocks.
While doing so,
he explained to Yuu beside him,
"I've also developed a few new techniques recently.
"I tested them several times on the Kumogakure front.
"I'm not sure how effective they'll be against Lord Uchiha Madara…"
Minato smiled.
"But for now—
"let's give them a try."