Swish! Swish! Swish!
BOOM!
BOOM!
After exchanging only a handful of rapid-fire physical blows with the giant white entity, Hiruzen's initial confidence was completely shattered, replaced by a wave of genuine horror.
It was that damn wheel.
Every single time the golden, eight-handled wheel floating above the monster's head completed a heavy rotation—CLACK!—the creature's entire baseline changed. It got visibly faster, absurdly stronger, and significantly more aggressive.
During their very first clash, Mahoraga's physical stats had been somewhat inferior to Hiruzen's chakra-enhanced state. But after that wheel completed its first spin, the creature's speed and raw power instantly spiked to match him. At that point, Hiruzen had naively assumed the shadow was just hiding its true strength earlier.
Then came the second spin.
And then, the third spin.
By the time the wheel completed its third rotation, Mahoraga didn't just match Hiruzen—it completely surpassed him in every single combat metric! Power, movement speed, reaction time, and even sheer hand-to-hand combat efficiency. The monster was literally reading his movements, predicting his angles, and counter-striking before Hiruzen could even finish throwing a punch!
What the hell is going on with this thing?! Hiruzen thought, his mind momentarily wandering as panic seeped into his thoughts.
That tiny, fraction-of-a-second distraction was a fatal mistake.
Before Hiruzen's eyes could even refocus, a massive, pale fist exploded through his guard, traveling at a speed that defied its massive size.
CRACK!
The heavy punch landed square on Hiruzen's left cheekbone.
The Third Hokage instantly felt the bone beneath his skin deform under the bone-crushing impact. Acting on pure survival instinct, Hiruzen violently pushed off the ground with his legs, using the backward momentum to ride the force of the blow and prevent his skull from getting completely shattered on the spot.
He flew backward through the air like a cannonball, finally crashing into the dirt and skidding dozens of meters across the training field, tearing a deep trench into the earth before coming to a halt.
Groaning through the blinding throbbing in his head, Hiruzen pushed himself up on one knee. He felt a hot, thick liquid flowing freely from his nose and down his chin. He wiped his face with the back of his sleeve, looking down to see his arm smeared in bright, crimson blood.
The surrounding crowd went completely dead silent for two solid seconds before exploding into chaotic chatter.
"Holy crap... did Hokage-sama just spit up blood?!"
"No way! Are you blind?! Hokage-sama hasn't even used Ninjutsu yet! He's clearly just holding back so he doesn't accidentally kill a kid's summon!"
"Holding back?! Dude, he literally just took a punch that almost caved his entire head in!"
"Is the Hokage seriously getting his ass beat by a summoned monster created by a five-year-old?!"
Listening to the crowd's wild chatter, Hiruzen felt an intense, burning wave of humiliation wash over his entire body.
Sure, his cheek was throbbing with excruciating pain, but his old pride was hurting ten times worse. He couldn't back down now even if he desperately wanted to! Blood was literally dripping onto the grass from his mouth. If he called off the match right here and now, the villagers and shinobi present would draw only one logical conclusion: The summon was completely fine, but Lord Hokage got beaten until he coughed up blood!
If that rumor got out, his reputation as the "God of Shinobi" would be flushed straight down the toilet! Danzo would probably throw a village-wide party just to celebrate his humiliation!
He had originally wanted to keep this a simple physical test without escalating to destructive Ninjutsu, but at this point? He had no damn choice left!
Poof!
With a quick flick of his wrist, Hiruzen dispelled the Adamantine Staff in a cloud of smoke. He lunged forward, charging directly toward Mahoraga while his fingers blurred into a blinding sequence of hand seals.
Snake — Ram — Monkey — Boar — Horse — Tiger!
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Closing the distance in the blink of an eye, Hiruzen took a deep breath and expelled an enormous, swirling inferno directly into Mahoraga's face at point-blank range!
The sheer volume of fire was massive, roaring like a furnace as it engulfed the entire area in a brilliant, blinding orange light.
Mahoraga's instinctual combat reflex was to immediately leap backward and dodge the slow-moving projectile. However, right as its feet left the dirt, a clear, direct instruction from Rei echoed directly inside its mind:
Don't dodge. Anchor down and take the whole thing head-on.
Obeying its summoner's command without a single second of hesitation, Mahoraga slammed its heavy right leg deep into the earth, locking its body firmly in place, and willingly absorbed the full force of the blazing inferno directly onto its chest!
Out on the field, Hiruzen skidded to a stop, his eyes narrow.
Naturally, he didn't expect a simple Great Fireball Jutsu to catch a monster of this speed if it actually tried to dodge. The jutsu carried massive lethal heat, but its projectile speed was notoriously slow for Kage-level combat.
However, as the roaring flames slowly burned out, Hiruzen's body completely froze. His eyes bulged, and his breath hitched in his throat.
What... what the fuck?!
As the scorching heat dissipated into thin air, Hiruzen witnessed the most unbelievable, horrifying sight of his entire life.
The point-blank inferno had completely incinerated the giant entity. Its head, neck, arms, torso, and upper legs had been utterly vaporized into microscopic ash, leaving absolutely nothing behind... except for a single, charred, severed right leg still rooted deep inside the scorched dirt.
Hiruzen stood dumbfounded, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
Did... did I kill it? Was it really that easy?!
But right as that thought crossed his mind, the solitary, burnt leg twitched.
Twitch.
BOOM!
Before Hiruzen or anyone in the arena could even process what was happening, massive, grotesque strands of pale muscle, bone, and flesh began sprouting explosively out from the severed leg stump!
It was a terrifying, miraculous display of rapid cell division—looking almost identical to the legendary First Hokage's Wood Release, except far more organic and disgusting. Muscle fibers knitted together in milliseconds, bone structure snapped into place with loud cracks, and pale skin wrapped seamlessly around the frame!
In the single blink of an eye, the ten-meter behemoth was standing tall once again, completely restored to its original state.
The entire training ground fell into an eerie, suffocating silence. Everyone's eyes were wide to their absolute limit.
What the hell did they just witness?! Did that monster just regenerate its entire ten-meter body from a single, leftover leg in less than two seconds?!
Outrageous! Absolutely fucking outrageous!
And yet, an even more absurd scene unfolded immediately after.
Hiruzen stared as the monster stood before him, completely unblemished, without a single scratch, dent, or speck of soot on its pale body.
No... There was a difference.
Above the monster's head, the golden, eight-handled wheel slowly completed another full rotation.
CLACK!
An overwhelming, sickening feeling of pure dread instantly welled up from the bottom of Hiruzen's stomach. A terrifying hypothesis suddenly popped into his mind.
Desperate to disprove his own horrifying thought, Hiruzen rapidly wove the same hand seals again.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Another massive, roaring sphere of intense fire shot forth from his mouth, expanding as it hurtled straight toward the white giant's chest.
This time, however, a completely different outcome occurred.
As the massive fireball reached Mahoraga's face, the monster didn't dodge, nor did it anchor its feet to tank the hit. It simply raised its left arm and gave the air a casual sweep.
SWISH!
In Hiruzen's utter disbelief, the massive fireball instantly vanished into thin air, dispelled like a popped bubble, leaving behind nothing but a faint burning smell floating in the morning breeze.
Adaptation...
The horrifying realization dropped into Hiruzen's mind.
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