"Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan!"
Naruto's hand flared with natural energy as he formed a massive Rasengan, enhanced by Sage Mode. He hurled it forward, the spiraling sphere smashing directly into Senju Tobirama.
The Second Hokage's body was torn apart in an instant—shredded almost to pieces.
Gasps rippled through the onlookers, but their shock quickly turned into disbelief. Tobirama's shredded form knit itself back together, his body reforming like crumpled paper smoothing out.
An immortal body—completely unharmed!
Having already experienced death, Tobirama's expression grew more severe as he regarded Naruto with new weight.
He immediately leapt back, widening the distance.
"Ninja, fall back!" he barked.
At once, countless Water Release techniques surged toward Naruto. With his Edo Tensei body, Tobirama had no need to conserve chakra—his attacks poured forth endlessly.
The battlefield had already been reduced to rubble by Naruto's earlier attacks; a little more destruction made no difference.
Naruto watched the flood of Water Release and muttered, half to himself, "So this is the legendary master of Water Style… the one they say forged a pact with the sea?"
Then, raising his voice, he called out mockingly:
"With Water Release like that, why aren't you the Mizukage instead?"
Faces around him stiffened. Everyone understood what he meant.
It wasn't wrong.
If shinobi from Kirigakure were present, they would be furious.
The Land of Water prided itself on its mastery of Suiton, but here was the Second Hokage—outclassing even the Mizukage in his control. If Terumī Mei herself had witnessed this, she might have demanded to know who truly deserved the title.
The sheer scale of the Water Release drowned the battlefield, but Naruto only grinned. When it came to chakra, he feared no one.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The ground shook as a massive barrier of earth surged upward, blocking the flood.
Unlike the cooperative version seen during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto performed it single-handedly, his wall no less formidable.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
He slammed his hands together again, mixing earth and water chakra. The battlefield quaked as the ground liquefied into a vast mire, rising up into a massive hand that reached toward Tobirama.
The Second Hokage's eyes narrowed sharply. This brat… his grasp of Ninjutsu is terrifying. He adapts and counters on the spot!
[Chakra Control +2, Ninjutsu Theory +3]
[Sage Mode Proficiency +1]
Naruto's smile widened. Perfect. Time to grind some proficiency.
He rarely got such a golden opportunity.
"Sage Art: Rasenshuriken!"
Natural energy surged wildly as a bladed sphere of pure destruction spun into existence in Naruto's hand, its edge shrieking against the air.
The pressure alone weighed heavily on the hearts of everyone watching.
Tobirama's gaze hardened. This sensation—this overwhelming power—he had only ever felt from two people: his brother, Senju Hashirama… and Uchiha Madara.
For the first time, a hollow helplessness crept into his chest. How can one fight against such a force…?
Naruto hurled the Rasenshuriken.
The massive construct screamed through the air. Tobirama's instincts screamed louder—he instantly vanished with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
The jutsu struck a distant building, detonating with catastrophic force.
A crater dozens of meters wide yawned open. Shockwaves rolled outward, scalding the faces of everyone nearby as a roaring gale swept across the ruins.
Naruto winced slightly. That was overkill… like using a cannon on a mosquito.
[Sage Art: Rasenshuriken Proficiency +2]
Godlike power. The kind that crushed hope and left only despair.
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed, feverish with obsession. Such power—greater even than most Mangekyō abilities—was intoxicating.
Tobirama's face was grim as he turned to the shinobi nearby.
"Stay back. This battlefield no longer belongs to you."
The shinobi scattered at once, leaving the fight to the two titans.
From a distant vantage, Jiraiya landed lightly on a high ledge. He had no desire to fight Minato's child. In Naruto, he saw a light unlike anything he had witnessed before.
The Second Hokage stood calm and unreadable, though his mind was racing.
Naruto tilted his head with a faint smile. That composure alone set Tobirama apart.
Then Tobirama moved.
"Mutual Explosive Tags!"
With a sharp command, the battlefield lit up. Explosions thundered, detonations chaining one after another in a storm of fire and destruction.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Smoke and sparks swallowed the ruins. The already drenched ground hissed under the heat as the shockwaves blasted outward, turning damp air into scorching dryness.
For several long minutes, the sky was nothing but fire and sound. Light waves of endless explosions rolled out in every direction, smothering everything in sight.
Some shinobi watching from afar felt giddy relief. Surely, after that storm of annihilation, the brat had been blown to pieces.
A few minutes later, the deafening chain of explosions finally subsided. The smoke thinned, revealing a battlefield pockmarked with devastation.
The ground had sunk into a massive depression, riddled with countless uneven craters.
The reddish earth was now scorched black, still radiating heat.
Amidst the destruction, the Second Hokage's Edo Tensei body began to knit itself back together.
Although the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags was said to be infinite, its principle was simple: from one tag, countless others are continuously summoned, causing an endless chain of detonations.
But in truth, "infinite" wasn't quite accurate. The technique still required chakra.
An Edo Tensei body supplied chakra endlessly, yes—but in a peculiar way, like a container constantly refilling as it empties. The tags demanded an instant surge of chakra, more than the body could replenish in real time. That gap in replenishment was why even this forbidden technique eventually ceased.
(A.N:The original description of the jutsu felt unreasonable, so I've adjusted it here with a limitation.)
Even so, its destructive power was overwhelming.
The sheer scale of the blast was enough to leave even Konan or Kakuzu pale. In terms of devastation, it rivaled Konan's sea of six hundred billion explosive tags… perhaps even surpassing it, given its density and precision.
As the dust settled, Tobirama's body reformed. When his eyes fell on the battlefield, his pupils contracted sharply in shock.
Because in front of him, there was a small mound of earth—emanating Naruto's chakra.
The mound crumbled, and Naruto emerged, his clothes ragged but his expression more surprised than afraid.
He hadn't expected the technique to be this powerful. He had underestimated it—by a lot.
If not for his precautions, he would have been obliterated. He had deployed multiple Earth-Style Walls, used the Substitution Technique, raised barrier ninjutsu, and split Shadow Clones to bolster his defenses.
In truth, Naruto could have tried to endure it with his Sage-enhanced body—but even then, he would have been gravely injured.
After all, even the Ten-Tails itself had been wounded by this very technique.
Only by layering hundreds of defensive jutsu had he managed to survive the inferno.
Naruto's gaze sharpened on the Second Hokage. As expected of Senju Tobirama… truly the master of forbidden techniques.
This time, Naruto regarded him with genuine respect.
And his gains were significant as well.
[Shadow Clone Proficiency +45]
[Earth Release Mastery +15]
[Substitution Technique Hand-Seal Simplification +5]
[Barrier Ninjutsu Proficiency +20]
Indeed—the greater the danger, the greater the growth.
When Naruto stepped forward from the dust unscathed, most of the shinobi watching were struck dumb. A few—like Jiraiya and Kakashi—exhaled in relief.
Sasuke and the others had long since withdrawn from the blast radius, but even at a distance, the clash left them shaken.
For the first time, Sasuke understood the true meaning of a battle between legends.
It wasn't only Tobirama's fearsome ninjutsu—it was his instinct, his timing, and his terrifying depth of experience.
...
TN:
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