"He was the one controlling the Gedo Mazo during its attack on Duy."
Minato's words fell into the tense silence like stones dropped into still water, their implications rippling outward with devastating clarity. His analytical mind had been working through the tactical puzzle even as the confrontation unfolded, piecing together fragments of evidence that painted a horrifying picture.
The logistics alone should have made Madara's involvement impossible. Even someone of his legendary capabilities couldn't maintain control over the massive golem from the vast distances that would have been required for a normal hiding place. But if he had been concealed within the creature itself, using its body as both transportation and camouflage...
Based on what Minato had witnessed of Might Duy's Eight Inner Gates technique—the desperate final battle that had become legend among Konoha's elite—Madara would have needed to observe the fight directly to make the comparisons he had just voiced. The only way that could have happened was if he had been piloting the Gedo Mazo during that fateful encounter.
The realization struck Guy like a physical blow, confirming suspicions that had been growing in his mind since Madara's casual reference to his father's abilities. His normally cheerful expression transformed into something far darker and more dangerous as murderous intent began to crystallize in his eyes.
For years, Guy had carried the weight of his father's sacrifice, drawing strength from the knowledge that Might Duy had died protecting his son and comrades from an enemy too powerful to defeat through conventional means. The Eight Inner Gates technique had been both his father's ultimate gift and his final curse—a legacy of incredible power balanced against the certainty of death for anyone who dared to open all eight gates.
Now, to learn that the entity responsible for necessitating that sacrifice was standing before him, alive and transformed into something even more terrible than the creature that had originally threatened them...
"Seeking revenge against me?" Madara's chuckle carried the casual amusement of a god observing the anger of mortals. There was no fear in his voice, no concern about the waves of killing intent radiating from Guy's enhanced form. "How utterly predictable."
The truth was that even if Might Duy himself stood before him now, even if the man who had once forced him to retreat appeared with all eight gates blazing and death's certainty burning in his eyes, he would pose no meaningful threat to what Madara had become. The gap between a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and any mortal warrior, no matter how enhanced, was simply too vast to bridge through courage or technique alone.
"Hmm?"
But even as he dismissed Guy's potential for revenge, Madara's enhanced senses detected something that shifted his attention back to his primary opponent. His cosmic awareness, attuned to the ebb and flow of chakra throughout the battlefield, picked up a familiar energy signature rebuilding itself with impossible speed.
His ancient eyes fell upon Minato, and what he saw there caused a flicker of genuine interest to cross his features.
"Here I come!"
The declaration erupted from Minato's lips with renewed determination as dark golden chakra began to envelop his form once more. The energy patterns were unmistakable—somehow, impossibly, the Fourth Hokage had regained access to the Nine-Tails' power despite having been drained of it moments earlier.
The answer became clear as Madara's enhanced perception traced the flow of energy back to its source. Kushina, safely transported away from the immediate battle zone, was sharing her own connection to Kurama's chakra with her husband through their spiritual bond. Half of the fox's remaining power flowed across the dimensional gap created by the Flying Thunder God technique, restoring Minato's strength with the speed of thought itself.
But this was more than simple chakra restoration. As the golden energy settled around Minato's form, he immediately began drawing in the natural energy that permeated the world around them. The atmospheric chakra responded to his call with unprecedented enthusiasm, rushing toward him like iron filings drawn to a magnet.
This sudden concentration of natural energy did not go unnoticed by the God Tree. The massive entity's sensory capabilities extended far beyond its visible form, and the surge of senjutsu chakra registered as a priority target worthy of immediate attention. Thick trunks that had been pursuing other prey suddenly shifted direction, their movements coordinated as they converged on Minato's position with predatory purpose.
Madara raised the arm that held his black staff, the gesture casual but carrying absolute authority. At his unspoken command, the approaching tendrils froze in place as if they had struck an invisible wall. The God Tree's assault ceased instantly, its ancient intelligence recognizing and obeying the will of its master.
"What exactly do you hope to accomplish with merely half of the Nine-Tails' chakra?"
The question carried the weight of divine judgment, Madara's tone suggesting that he found Minato's continued resistance more puzzling than threatening. The Fourth Hokage should have learned from their previous exchanges that the gap between them had transcended anything that conventional power could hope to bridge.
Yet here he stood, preparing for another attempt despite having experienced firsthand the futility of opposing a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. Such persistence in the face of absolute certainty was either admirable courage or dangerous delusion—and Madara had little patience for either quality in his enemies.
The continued defiance only served to strengthen his resolve to end this confrontation permanently. As long as warriors like Minato existed, as long as there were those who refused to accept the inevitable superiority of his vision, there would always be threats to the perfect peace he intended to create.
With a casual motion of his staff, Madara commanded the Truth-Seeking Orbs that had formed his previous defense. The black spheres responded instantly, their shapes flowing like liquid as they transformed from shield configurations back into their original perfect spheres.
Whoosh!
Another slight movement of the staff sent several of the orbs hurtling toward Minato with the speed of bullets fired from divine artillery. Each sphere moved with supernatural precision, their trajectories calculated to account for every possible evasive maneuver their target might attempt.
Ding! Ding!
But Minato was already in motion, his hands blurring through seals as he channeled both the Nine-Tails' chakra and the natural energy he had been gathering. In his palm, white wind blades began to vibrate with visible intensity as they condensed around a core of pure destructive force.
"Sage Art: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken!"
The technique that formed in his grasp was a masterwork of chakra manipulation, combining the raw power of the Nine-Tails with the enhanced capabilities that only senjutsu could provide. Wind blades sharp enough to cut through space itself swirled around a core that contained enough energy to level mountains.
Bang!
Minato hurled his creation with all the force his enhanced body could provide, the massive technique carving through the air as it raced toward a collision with Madara's approaching Truth-Seeking Orbs. The meeting of these forces should have resulted in an explosion that reshaped the landscape for miles around.
Instead, something impossible happened.
The ninjutsu that was powerful enough to flatten mountains simply... stopped. Upon contact with the black spheres, the Rasenshuriken's rotation began to slow, its wind blades losing their cutting edge, its core of concentrated chakra dissipating like morning mist. But there was no explosion, no violent release of energy—just a gradual dissolution that defied every law of physics and chakra manipulation.
Swish!
Minato, who had launched himself forward immediately after releasing his technique, found himself forced to pause mid-charge as he witnessed something that challenged his fundamental understanding of how ninjutsu worked. His analytical mind raced to process what he was seeing, searching for explanations that might make sense of the impossible.
"It can actually compete with the Truth-Seeking Orbs?" Madara's voice carried a note of genuine interest as he observed the interaction between the techniques. His cosmic awareness allowed him to perceive details that would be invisible to normal sight, and what he saw confirmed suspicions that had been forming in his mind.
The Truth-Seeking Orbs were among the most sophisticated techniques available to a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, incorporating not just the five basic chakra natures but also the advanced principles of Yin-Yang Release. This combination allowed them to interact with the fundamental forces that governed the existence of chakra itself, rendering normal ninjutsu completely ineffective through simple negation.
Yet Minato's technique had not been instantly dissolved. It was failing, certainly, but the process was gradual rather than instantaneous—suggesting that some element within the Sage Art was proving resistant to the orbs' negation effects.
"It must be because of the senjutsu enhancement..." Madara murmured to himself, his ancient mind cataloguing this unexpected variable for future reference. Natural energy operated according to principles that predated even the Sage of Six Paths' innovations, drawing from sources that existed independently of the chakra manipulation techniques that formed the foundation of modern ninjutsu.
This discovery was both fascinating and concerning. If senjutsu could provide even partial resistance to Truth-Seeking Orbs, then opponents who had mastered natural energy manipulation might prove more troublesome than anticipated.
But such considerations could wait for later analysis. At this moment, Minato was closing the distance between them with speed enhanced by both the Nine-Tails' chakra and sage mode, and Madara found himself genuinely curious to see what other surprises his opponent might reveal.
He swung the black staff of his weapon toward the approaching Fourth Hokage, the movement casual but carrying enough force to shatter mountains.
With the combined amplification of half the Nine-Tails' chakra and senjutsu enhancement, Minato found himself actually capable of matching Madara's movements—at least temporarily. His enhanced reflexes allowed him to track the incoming attack, while his improved speed gave him the option of responding rather than simply trying to survive.
Buzz!
In his palm, chakra began to concentrate and compress with devastating intensity. The energy took on a familiar spherical shape, but this version carried power that dwarfed anything he had previously been capable of creating.
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
The orb of destruction that formed in Minato's grasp contained enough concentrated energy to vaporize entire city blocks. It was a technique that normally required the full cooperation of a Tailed Beast to create, yet his enhanced connection with Kurama's chakra made such power accessible even with only half the fox's strength at his disposal.
The moment the staff formed from Truth-Seeking Orbs made contact with the Tailed Beast Ball, the latter began to deteriorate in a way that sent chills through Minato's enhanced awareness. This wasn't the violent collision of opposing forces that should have resulted from such an encounter—instead, the sphere of compressed chakra simply began to fade away, as if its very existence was being gradually denied.
"How is this possible?"
Minato's pupils contracted as he witnessed the impossible sight. The energy contained within the Tailed Beast Ball was significantly greater than what his previous Rasenshuriken had possessed, yet it was being neutralized with even greater ease. The Truth-Seeking Orbs weren't destroying his techniques through superior force—they were somehow making them cease to exist entirely.
"It's not decomposition, and it's not melting," he realized with growing horror. "The techniques are simply... disappearing."
The observation confirmed what he had suspected from watching Ōnoki's Dust Release fail so completely. These black orbs operated according to principles that transcended conventional understanding of chakra interaction. They didn't counter techniques—they negated the very possibility of those techniques existing in the first place.
But Minato's analytical mind had been working throughout the encounter, and the pattern of what worked and what didn't was becoming clear. His sage-enhanced Rasenshuriken had shown resistance where normal ninjutsu failed completely. The conclusion was as dangerous as it was promising.
Swish!
Just as the Tailed Beast Ball in his palm was about to fade completely, just as the Truth-Seeking staff was about to make contact with his exposed hand, Minato vanished from his position. The Flying Thunder God technique activated with split-second timing, whisking him away to one of the markers he had strategically placed during his approach.
The exchange had been so fast that Konan, Ōnoki, and even Guy—enhanced as he was by seven opened gates—found themselves unable to follow the movements with their eyes. The battle between Minato and Madara was being conducted at speeds that pushed the boundaries of what enhanced human perception could track.
When Minato reappeared at his predetermined location, he immediately began sharing his tactical analysis with his allies through enhanced communication techniques.
"Ordinary ninjutsu appears to be completely ineffective against Madara's black orbs," he reported, his mental voice tight with concentration. "The only thing that showed any resistance was sage technique enhancement. If we're going to have any chance of hurting him, all of our attacks must incorporate natural energy!"
The conclusion was both a breakthrough and a limitation. Minato had only recently begun incorporating senjutsu into his combat repertoire, and the amount of natural energy he could currently access was insufficient for sustained high-level techniques. The power requirements for a sage-enhanced Tailed Beast Ball were enormous, and he simply didn't have the reserves to use such techniques repeatedly.
But the difference in effectiveness between his enhanced and normal techniques was stark. The Rasenshuriken had shown resistance precisely because it incorporated natural energy, while the raw Tailed Beast Ball had been negated with ease. The distinction wasn't about raw power—it was about the fundamental nature of the chakra being used.
This meant that every technique they employed against Madara would need to be carefully crafted to include senjutsu enhancement, drastically limiting their options and requiring precise chakra control under combat conditions.
"You identified the weakness of the Truth-Seeking Orbs so quickly!"
Madara's voice carried a note of genuine surprise as it reached Minato across the battlefield. The Ten-Tails Jinchuriki's enhanced perception allowed him to observe the chakra flow patterns within his opponent's body, and the adjustments Minato was making were immediately apparent to his cosmic awareness.
In a single exchange, through nothing more than direct observation and analytical deduction, the Fourth Hokage had identified both the nature and the limitations of one of the most sophisticated techniques available to a divine being. Such tactical brilliance was exactly what made him so dangerous despite the vast gap in raw power between them.
In Madara's opinion, this kind of analytical genius represented the most troublesome aspect of facing Minato in combat. Physical superiority could be overwhelming, but it was useless against an opponent who could deduce countermeasures faster than techniques could be deployed.
However, analysis without the power to act on those insights was ultimately meaningless. And while Minato had been busy placing Flying Thunder God markers during their exchange, Madara's enhanced senses had tracked every single one of those placements with perfect clarity.
When the Fourth Hokage vanished and reappeared, Madara was already in motion. His speed transcended the normal limitations of physical movement, allowing him to cover the distance and position himself behind his target before the space-time technique had even fully completed.
The Truth-Seeking staff swung downward with devastating force, aimed at ending this troublesome opponent once and for all.
"So fast!"
Minato's enhanced reflexes screamed warnings, but even his legendary speed proved insufficient to fully track Madara's movement. One moment the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki had been dozens of yards away—the next, he was directly behind Minato with a weapon already descending toward his exposed back.
There was no time to turn and defend properly, no opportunity to activate another Flying Thunder God technique for escape. The attack was coming too quickly, the positioning too perfect, the timing too precise.
In desperation, Minato forced the dark golden chakra covering his body to shift and condense, forming defensive claws that incorporated every scrap of natural energy he could gather on such short notice. If he was going to survive this encounter, if he was going to have any chance of blocking a Truth-Seeking weapon, the defensive technique would need to include sage enhancement.
"What good is discovering the secret if you're too weak to exploit it?"
Madara's voice carried the cold certainty of divine judgment as his staff completed its downward arc. The chakra claws that Minato was desperately trying to form were still incomplete, their sage enhancement only partially integrated when the Truth-Seeking weapon struck.
Boom!
The collision between Madara's staff and Minato's emergency defense created a moment of resistance that defied expectations. The dark golden chakra, enhanced with whatever natural energy Minato had managed to incorporate, actually managed to slow the weapon's progress for a brief instant.
But a brief instant was all it could manage. The partially formed technique lacked the complete sage enhancement that would have been necessary to provide meaningful resistance, and after that momentary stalemate, the defensive claws were dispersed like smoke in a hurricane.
Even as his improvised defense crumbled, Minato completed the chakra mobilization necessary for another Flying Thunder God technique. His fingers found the seals with desperate speed, his consciousness reaching out toward the spatial anchors he had prepared for exactly this kind of emergency.
But as the technique began to activate, as the familiar sensation of dimensional folding started to carry him away from immediate danger, an unexpected force suddenly interfered with the process. The same chakra-negating ability that Madara had demonstrated earlier reached out to delay and disrupt the space-time manipulation, slowing Minato's escape just enough to make the difference between safety and catastrophe.
"No!"
The realization hit him with clarity as he felt his soul-level perception detect the same invasive force that had paralyzed him during their previous encounter. He could sense the interference, could recognize it for what it was, but his current reserves were insufficient to overcome or resist such cosmic-level manipulation.
Puff!
The Truth-Seeking staff made contact with Minato's left shoulder, and the result was both swift and terrible. There was no dramatic clash of opposing forces, no heroic last-second defense—the weapon simply passed through flesh and bone as if they were made of paper, severing his entire left arm with surgical precision.
The speed of the amputation was so great that Minato's nervous system didn't have time to register the trauma properly. His consciousness was still processing the fact that he had been struck when his severed limb hit the ground several feet away, still crackling with residual chakra.
Minato vanished once more, the delayed Flying Thunder God technique finally completing its activation and carrying him to safety near Guy's position. Only when he materialized and caught sight of his missing arm did the reality of what had happened truly sink in.
The pain, when it finally reached his brain, was extraordinary—but there was no time to process the loss or treat the wound. Every second of delay brought Madara closer, and the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki's enhanced speed meant that distance provided only temporary respite.
Gritting his teeth against the agony, Minato forced himself to concentrate all of his remaining natural energy into a single, decisive technique. This would likely be his last chance to mount a meaningful attack, and it needed to count.
"Sage Art: Tailed Beast Rasenshuriken!"
In his remaining hand, the most sophisticated technique he had ever created began to take shape. It started as a Tailed Beast Ball, that sphere of pure destruction that contained enough power to reshape landscapes. But around that core, wind blades enhanced with natural energy began to form, creating a hybrid technique that combined the raw power of Kurama's chakra with the piercing capability of the Rasenshuriken and the reality-affecting properties of senjutsu.
Ding! Ding!
The finished technique, containing every scrap of magical power Minato could access, left his hand with the force of a comet. It traced a perfect parabolic arc through the air, its trajectory calculated to intercept Madara's position regardless of which evasive maneuver the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki might attempt.
Minato could no longer track his opponent's location through sight alone—Madara's enhanced speed had transcended normal visual perception entirely. Instead, he relied on the soul-level awareness that came with sage mode, using spiritual senses to predict where his target would be when the technique arrived.
Buzz!
The massive Sage Art Tailed Beast Rasenshuriken carved through the air with visible distortion effects, the space around it bending under the influence of concentrated natural energy. This represented everything Minato had learned about chakra manipulation, every innovation he had developed, every desperate gambit he could devise—all compressed into a single attack that might represent the ninja world's last hope for victory.
The technique appeared directly in front of Madara's position, its enhanced wind blades spinning with enough force to cut through dimensions while its core pulsed with the concentrated fury of the Nine-Tails itself.
Now they would discover whether sage enhancement could truly overcome the absolute defense of the Truth-Seeking Orbs, or whether even this ultimate technique would prove insufficient against the power of a god.