Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its character belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I make.
Chapter 206: Madara VS Raiken Final
Madara finally takes this fight seriously. If before he was using 80% of his power, right now he is using 200% because he is no longer holding back.
His chakra grew darker, and a blue chakra formed a skeleton that swelled into a huge armored giant of pale bone and swirling chakra, standing about a hundred meters tall, its massive body casting a long shadow that completely engulfed Raiken.
The figure lifted a gigantic sword, and the force of its movement alone split the ground over a quarter mile in all directions, dust and displaced stones rising into the artificial sky.
Raiken looked up at it, which towered over him and didn't run.
The sword came down. Raiken delayed his teleportation until the very last possible moment, appearing directly on the forearm of Susanoo and then beating his palm against the chakra-armored plating there, which caused a golden sigil to flash into life at the point of contact, a restraining spell temporarily entering the flow of the construct's chakra and freezing that part of the armor.
It didn't stop the giant Susanoo completely. Still, it slowed the counter-swing, and Raiken used that brief moment to teleport again and materialize directly in front of Susanoo's chest plate, his fist already filled with Conqueror's and Armament Haki.
The Haki-enhanced punch hit the armor, and the sound that resulted was not an explosion but a deep, resonant crack, the chakra-plated armor splitting in a spiderweb pattern and spreading over nearly one-third of Susanoo's torso.
Madara, sitting inside the ribcage of the thing he had made, felt the effect through the connection, as if it had struck his own chest.
He thought it shouldn't be possible, and blood formed at the corner of his mouth from the feedback.
Anyway, he pushed Susanoo forward, and the giant swung its sword in a wide horizontal arc, so Raiken just managed to teleport away, the blade's edge coming close enough to burn the fabric along his arm.
For several minutes they carried on the exchanges, Susanoo advancing with great force while Raiken sped between the gaps, carefully striking him. Each blow made Madara show visible strain; whatever attack hit Susanoo also hurt Madara.
Eventually, a blow struck the chest of Susanoo, Raiken's fist driving straight into the exposed inner structure, whereupon Susanoo shuddered violently and then broke down into chakra, leaving Madara standing uncovered on the cracked earth, breathing heavily and with blood flowing freely from both his mouth and nose.
Although he had lost Chakra, Madara smiled, thinking this fight was harder than his fight with Hashirama. Their last fight took more than a day before finally stopping. But with Raiken, it took only half an hour, and Madara felt Raiken wasn't using his power fully.
His Rinegan activated, and alongside him a second version of himself appeared, glowing and semi-transparent and not susceptible to physical harm, being a Limbo clone taken from a technique which Madara had not used for decades and had never anticipated ever needing again.
The clone completely disappeared from view and became invisible to ordinary perception, at which point Madara appeared and attacked Raiken.
He launched a clear attack, rushing forward with great force, and at the same time extended his chakra arms from his back to grab Raiken from several directions.
The Raiken's spider-sense screamed a warning which had nothing to do with the visible attack.
Acting on instinct, he twisted his body half a second before the invisible Limbo clone attack would have neatly passed through his back, the strike instead hitting only the air where his shoulder had been.
Raiken evaded the Limbo attack; Madara's eyes widened. He didn't expect Raiken to sense his Limbo clone, but he left his left side wide open.
Madara took the opportunity, using his chakra arms to grab his limbs as the invisible clone moved into position for another attack, and a second orb exploded so close it made his teeth rattle.
For several seconds, Raiken stayed entirely on the defensive, using teleportation to move only short distances to survive the coordinated attack and finding no opportunity to counter.
Then his spider-sense picked up a pattern. Although the Limbo clone was invisible, it still had to pass through the same physical space as all the other things, and every time it prepared to strike, there would be the slightest pressure change in the air around Raiken a half second before the impact, the change being consistent each time.
He put it aside and waited for the next one. The same noticeable change in pressure occurred three seconds later, and this time Raiken didn't just dodge.
He teleported straight into the space the clone was about to take, matching the timing to the pressure warning rather than reacting afterward, and brought his elbow, enhanced with Haki, directly into air that was, in fact, not empty.
The solid impact made the Limbo clone flicker violently, becoming unstable from a blow it hadn't expected to be intercepted before it hit the ground.
For the first time in the entire battle, Madara swayed noticeably as he felt the strain transmitted through his chakra.
Raiken did not let the opening close. Once more, he teleported, appearing directly in front of Madara's main body even though the link to Limbo was still being disrupted, then cast a golden restraint sigil onto the ground beneath both of Madara's feet, the spell forcing him to stay in place for that one crucial second.
In a last-ditch attempt to counter, Madara's chakra arms extended out to catch him before he completed the exchange.
Raiken had already expected it. He teleported one last time and appeared not in front of Madara but directly above him, then dropped down with his fist already encircled by the full force of his condensed will, all the Haki that he had held back during the entire battle concentrated into a single point of impact.
The strike hit directly at Madara's heart. The sound wasn't one of an explosion. Rather, it was a single, deep, resonant blow that seemed to travel through the whole battlefield at once, the ground beneath them buckling outward from the force. Madara's body folded backward with the restraint that had been holding his feet in place breaking under the sudden twist as he was pushed into the earth.
For a long time, nothing moved. The system's voice then resonated throughout the simulated sky.
WINNER: UZUMAKI RAIKEN.
.....
The world disappeared around them, replaced by a calm white space, and the pain left both of them as the simulation let go. Madara rose slowly, placing one hand on his chest at the spot where the last blow had struck, even though the injury was no longer real, his breathing still irregular.
"That last attack," Madara said, looking at his hand. "My Rinegan didn't register it as chakra. It wasn't fire, it wasn't wind, and it wasn't any nature transformation that I have ever come across. What on earth was it?"
"It isn't chakra," said Raiken, and offered him a hand, which Madara looked at for a moment before taking. "The stronger Otsutsuki didn't need chakra to launch an attack; that is why I have prepared new jutsu or techniques for them."
"The Otsutsuki," said Madara. Now he had become really interested in the Otsutsuki because Raiken himself was this strong; it took Hashirama a whole day to defeat him, but Raiken managed to defeat him in a short time. Furthermore, he got an upgrade that could defeat Hashirama: the Rinegan.
Yes, it was the Otsutsuki, Raiken confirmed. All I did in there today wasn't really aimed at defeating you; it was to show myself that what I have built can withstand someone at your level, so when the actual fight takes place, I will already know it works.
Madara remained silent for a moment, checking the strength of his own legs and finding that the chakra reserve slowly filled.
Finally, he said, "You didn't need to show me anything." Because Madara now understood what Raiken was really scared about.
As soon as the VR system voice announced the winner, the crowd around the stadium platform shifted from tight silence to intense noise. Shinobi, who after many years had merely wondered how strong the strongest man in their village actually was, finally had something definite to grasp: a confirmed victory over a legend history had never expected to be surpassed.
Sakumo exhaled, not realizing he had been holding his breath.
"Should he ever turn against us," said Hikaku in a quiet voice as the screen faded to black, "we should have had no chance at all."
Meanwhile, inside the live-streaming platform, Raiken managed to get the biggest donation after Kaguya's reveal. During Kaguya's reveal, he got around 800,000 stars in donations, but this time it was 1.3 million stars.