Boom!
The two clashed head-on. Mito's iron-hard fists came crashing down, but Madara slipped aside with ease. Behind him, the stone pillar split apart inch by inch — her terrifying strength caused it to crumble entirely.
"Senju-style monstrous strength, huh? You've mastered that too?"
Ever since defecting from Konoha, Madara hadn't seen Uzumaki Mito. They'd rarely met even before that. He hadn't expected her to learn the Senju's monstrous strength technique… though that hardly mattered to him.
Their fists collided once more before they separated. Madara glanced down at his fractured knuckles, expression unreadable. He knew all too well the power behind that punch — back when he fought Hashirama, he'd never dared meet him fist-to-fist. Doing so would only end with him injured.
But now, Mito's raw power seemed to rival Hashirama's from those days. Their chakra reserves were practically equal, after all.
Kiyosuke rushed in, joining the fray alongside Mito. Together, the two closed in on Madara — one in front, one behind.
The earth beneath Madara's feet heaved upward.
"Super Giant Rasengan!"
Naruto raised the massive sphere of chakra and slammed it down.
A colossal blue skeletal arm rose to meet it, deflecting the attack with ease.
"Those eyes… the Mangekyō Sharingan?" Ōnoki's heart sank. But before he could react further, Mito and Kiyosuke charged together, fists cocked back, and struck with all their might.
That force…!
Crack!
Madara's eyes narrowed. His Susanoo's armor — shattered so easily?
How amusing.
He slipped through their combined assault. The First Raikage, still under Kabuto's control, rushed in to assist, only for Madara to seize him by the arm and hurl him aside.
"Out of my way. This is my fight!"
Without another glance, Madara dove back into the battle. Even when wounded, it didn't matter — this Edo Tensei body could endure anything. He fought recklessly, unrestrained.
"Haha! Impressive, Asakawa Kiyosuke! Uzumaki Mito! Your power truly surprises me!"
Madara laughed — a low, thrilled sound. His interest had been piqued. The Susanoo flared back to life, evolving this time past the skeletal form — into its second stage.
A half-bodied blue Susanoo emerged, bearing two faces and four arms, each gripping serpent-shaped blades. With a swing of its fist, four chakra blades sliced through the air.
Itachi's Susanoo appeared in front, intercepting the strike.
"Susanoo as well… another of my clan," Madara said, smiling faintly. His gaze lingered on Itachi's form — intrigued — but he didn't move closer. Instead, he attacked from his own position, exchanging long-range blows.
Itachi's strength lay in his Yata Mirror and Totsuka Blade. But since Madara stayed hidden within his Susanoo, only the Yata Mirror could block — the Totsuka Blade couldn't reach him.
"Kamui!"
Obito, lacking one Mangekyō eye, couldn't manifest a Susanoo — but Kamui was more than enough. The space before Madara's Susanoo warped and vanished, tearing open a massive hole. The chakra barrier couldn't reform in time.
A surge of golden sand flooded in, dragging Madara out of his Susanoo's protection.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
Naruto hurled his spiraling shuriken.
Madara spread his hands, and his eyes shifted — the tomoe of the Mangekyō rotated, merging into ripples.
The Rinnegan.
Using its chakra absorption power, he swallowed the Rasenshuriken whole.
"How the hell does he have the Rinnegan?!" Naruto shouted, disbelief etched across his face.
"Because Nagato's Rinnegan originally belonged to him," someone explained. "The one you see now — Kabuto crafted it when he reanimated Madara. He fused Senju and Uchiha cells into the Edo body to recreate a copy — one that mimics the Rinnegan's abilities, but not all of them."
Otherwise, Madara could've broken the rules — casting the Rinne Rebirth on himself even in Edo form to return to life.
But this version could only use part of the Rinnegan's power — far from the full might of the Sage of Six Paths.
"So it's true after all," Kabuto murmured as he observed. "Combining Uchiha and Senju — that's the key to the Sage's power."
He and Orochimaru's research had been correct.
"This isn't your achievement," Madara said flatly, appearing beside the First Raikage's corpse-like body. "This power… I possessed it long before I died. But tell me — what did you do to this body?"
He clearly despised Kabuto's modifications, though he now understood why — even after giving his Rinnegan to Nagato before death — he could still access them here.
He pulled open his collar, glancing down at the grotesque human face embedded in his chest. Disgust twisted his features — yet somewhere deep down, an inexplicable sensation stirred, something he couldn't quite name.
"Very well. Let's see how far this power can go!"
His Susanoo reappeared — this time, all four arms formed seals simultaneously. Madara's true body mirrored them perfectly.
The sky darkened.
A vast shadow consumed the battlefield as clouds parted under the sheer weight of something descending.
A meteor.
"Calling that a 'raindrop' is pushing it, don't you think?" Madara said coolly.
Tengai Shinsei!
"Damn it… our power isn't even in the same league," Gaara muttered, awestruck and horrified.
Kiyosuke turned to Itachi.
"Itachi — throw me up there using your Susanoo!"
"But if I do that—"
"It's fine. Hurry!"
"Understood!"
Itachi didn't hesitate. His Susanoo's massive hand seized Kiyosuke and hurled him upward toward the falling meteor.
As Kiyosuke soared, a burst of flame erupted beneath his feet, propelling him higher.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Dozens of flaming clones appeared around him, accelerating together toward the meteor's core.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of explosions tore through the sky. The once-mountain-sized meteor broke apart piece by piece under the relentless assault.
Madara tilted his head upward, smiling faintly.
"And how will you handle the second one, Kiyosuke?"
His voice carried amusement — he wanted to see how this young man would respond.
Kiyosuke burst through the lingering smoke, eyes fixed on the second, even larger meteor plummeting from above.
Flames surged around his right arm, compressing tightly — until his entire body trembled with pressure. Then he struck.
A single, devastating punch crashed into the meteor's core.
For half a second, silence reigned.
Then—
Crack!
A sound like the world itself breaking.
Madara's lips curved into a genuine smile.
"He actually did it… He's earned the right to be my opponent."
Kiyosuke's power — it reminded him of Hashirama's.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The shattered meteor fell in countless blazing fragments. Even broken apart, its destruction was unimaginable.
Gaara summoned layers of sand, reinforcing Itachi's Susanoo with a towering barrier. Itachi raised the Yata Mirror, shielding Naruto, Gaara, Ōnoki, and himself beneath its glow.
Obito simply phased through the debris, his body intangible, while the Edo Tensei fighters stood unflinching — they had no reason to fear death.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amid the roaring detonations, the meteor fragments crashed to earth — and Kiyosuke fell with them, swallowed by the storm of fire and dust.
----------------
Fanfic is finished on Patreon (536 chapters in total.)
Patreon(.)com/Jixo (for only $4.50, read this entire fanfic)