The battle between Yuto and the others had shaken the entire Shinobi World to its core.
The terrifying chakra…
The endless stream of jutsu…
The sheer strength to alter the landscape with a wave of the hand…
It all completely rewrote what the world thought was possible.
Everyone already knew that Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, and Yuto were monsters…
But just how monstrous?
No one had truly understood—
Until this battle, which lasted three full days.
From Konoha to Kirigakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure—
the Five Great Villages watched from afar, their most powerful shinobi secretly observing the clash at the heart of the battlefield.
Even with their sharpest senses, they could only barely glimpse three entangled figures.
It wasn't that they didn't want to get closer—
it was that even the shockwaves alone could kill them a thousand times over.
They were simply not on the same level.
Only the shinobi from Konoha and Kirigakure wore conflicted expressions.
The others?
Their faces were unusually calm.
To them, it didn't matter who won.
They had no say in the outcome.
All they could do… was accept it.
As for resisting?
If you didn't want your village to be wiped off the map—
don't even think about it.
---
BOOM! BOOM!
The thunderous explosions still rumbled across the land, though they had lessened from the initial fury.
And then…
A roar of rage tore through the sky—
only to vanish just as quickly.
At that same moment, the blasts and tremors ceased entirely.
All the shinobi watching from afar tensed at once.
A single thought surged through every mind:
> It's over.
---
In the Kirigakure camp, hidden far away, shinobi's faces turned pale with despair.
They knew that roar all too well—
It was the voice of their Mizukage, Yuto.
> Hide.
Wait for Lord Yuto's return.
Messages were quickly passed through the Kirigakure ranks, carried swiftly back to the village.
---
At the battlefield's center—
Hashirama and Madara looked… utterly wrecked.
Their clothes had been blasted to scraps, barely enough to cover them.
Wounds covered every inch of their bodies, blood flowing freely, soaking them like they'd been dipped in a pool of it.
And across from them stood Yuto—
His back straight.
Unmoving.
But his life force had nearly vanished.
With his only remaining hand, he raised a middle finger toward Hashirama and Madara.
"…This guy… even in death, he has to look down on us?"
Hashirama wiped blood from his mouth and gave a bitter smile.
Madara's eyes narrowed with a complex mix of regret and relief.
"A man like this… was truly a thrilling opponent.
If he'd had more time to prepare—
If he hadn't recklessly absorbed the Three-Tails on the spot…
Who knows who would've won…"
Proud as he was, even Madara couldn't muster arrogance in front of Yuto.
He remembered Yuto's last counterattack before dying.
The sheer ferocity of it…
If they hadn't both kept backup plans, one of them might've actually died with him.
"It's over, Hashirama.
Before he revives, use the Uzumaki clan's sealing jutsu."
Madara clutched his chest, his voice low.
Hashirama nodded.
He pressed one hand to the ground, using what little chakra he had left.
From the earth rose a coffin made entirely of wood, encasing Yuto's body completely.
Hashirama bit his finger and slapped the ground.
Poof!
A massive scroll—nearly a meter tall—appeared before him.
He unrolled it and with a sharp flick, hurled it toward the coffin.
Black markings and mystical seals burst forth from the scroll, as if alive, burning themselves into the surface of the wooden coffin.
Only then did Hashirama finally exhale, collapsing to the ground, utterly spent.
---
Madara stared at the coffin, still uneasy.
He quickly formed hand seals.
The earth rumbled.
Mud and sand surged upward, burying the coffin completely.
Then—
WHOOSH!
Madara spat out a giant fireball.
The softened earth rapidly hardened into solid stone.
Madara repeated the jutsu over and over, until the dirt fused into a massive, hardened lump nearly a hundred meters tall.
Only then did he stop.
"Hashirama, where do you plan to put Yuto's body?" Madara said with a serious voice.
Hashirama frowned and replied:
"Banish it to a different dimension.
There's no place safer than that… and at least it'll be quiet there." He looked at the towering boulder with a twitch of his lip.
Madara had hardened it so thoroughly that it was likely harder than steel.
Even if Yuto hadn't been sealed, escaping from this thing would've been nearly impossible.
What's more, to prevent Yuto from using his energy absorption, the stone contained not a trace of chakra.
Even if he could absorb energy, there was nothing to take.
As soon as Hashirama finished speaking—
BOOM!
The mountain-sized rock turned to white mist and vanished.
---
One year before the founding of Konoha:
The Three Great Legends' Battle finally came to a close after three days.
First Mizukage Yuto fell.
And with that, the era of Konoha truly began.
---
Year 3 of Konoha:
Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha fought their final battle at the Valley of the End.
Madara was defeated.
And not long after returning to Konoha… Hashirama died.
With the final death of the last of the Three Great Legends,
a storm quietly began to brew in the shinobi world.
But as for what came next…
It no longer had anything to do with Yuto.
---