Malphegor
patreon
GSiN: Ch. 127
🕑 Added 2025-06-24 22:30:39 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
"Roar!"
It was as if a long drought had finally ended in sweet rain, after being drained by Madara for so long, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was finally revitalizing today.
Four of its nine eyes opened, and it let out an excited, earth-shaking roar. The deafening soundwave forced the Iwa ninjas below to cover their ears in pain.
Thanks to the statue's feedback, Madara's white hair also began to turn jet black again. Of course, this didn't mean he had become younger, it was similar to the effects of a Yin Seal: purely a change in appearance, with little to no impact on lifespan.
But Ōnoki didn't know that. He watched in stunned disbelief as Madara transformed from an old man to a youthful figure in the blink of an eye, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
"What is your true purpose in capturing the tailed beasts?"
"My purpose? Even if I told you, what could you do about it? Do you really think you can stop me?"
Madara let out a cold laugh, raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and felt the state of his body. He figured, since his plan would eventually pit him against the entire shinobi world anyway, why not use this opportunity to weaken Iwa's forces now, reducing resistance to Black Zetsu's future moves?
Having made up his mind, he jumped down from the statue and began walking slowly toward the Iwa forces.
"Let me show you once again... what it means to be Madara!"
His pace quickened. The pressure emanating from him became overwhelming. The Iwa ninjas in front began to sweat profusely, especially those with weaker wills. They had overheard Ōnoki's conversation with the enemy just now. Though it was hard to believe, the gap in power was painfully real.
"H-Hey, are we seriously supposed to fight Madara?"
"Wasn't he killed by the First Hokage? How is he even alive?"
"This is insane!"
Madara didn't give them time to think. He dashed into the crowd like a whirlwind. Using fluid and deadly taijutsu, he turned every part of his body into a weapon.
Several members of Iwa's demolition corps charged in without fear of death, attempting to take him down in a suicidal explosion.
Their chakra surged out violently like a volcanic eruption, transforming into blazing red flames that exploded outward with a ferocious roar, a sea of fire engulfing everything.
But Madara didn't even bother using the Preta Path's chakra absorption ability. Instead, he raised both arms.
A repulsive force field invisible to the naked eye compressed the entire Iwa base!
Centered on him, dust and debris spread outward, sweeping up all the buildings and ninjas in their path.
The shockwave expanded further and further, unstoppable, crashing through the outer walls of the base and leaving a massive, lifeless crater in the center.
Crack... crack...
Ōnoki shoved off the rubble pressing down on him. Realizing Madara was fighting seriously, he quickly used a combination of Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique and Hardening Technique to protect himself as much as possible.
Unfortunately, most of the other Iwa ninjas had no such means.
He looked around. Of the thousands-strong Iwa force, fewer than one in ten remained.
"Tsuchikage-sama! It's such a relief you're okay!"
"What should we do now?"
Several surviving Iwa ninjas from the outskirts rushed over upon seeing Ōnoki, clinging to him like a lifeline.
But Ōnoki couldn't respond to the hope in their eyes. He was known throughout the shinobi world as the "Ōnoki of Both Scales," because no matter how dire the situation, he could always calculate a path that best benefited Iwa. But now, faced with an opponent like Madara, someone entirely beyond conventional power scales, even he was helpless. In this era, with the First Hokage long gone, who could possibly be Madara's equal?
Whoosh.
Minato appeared on the outskirts of the Iwa base, at one of his Flying Thunder God kunai locations, bringing along Ryouma and Shukaku. Gently and cautiously, he pulled out the four black rods embedded in Ryouma's body. He stared bitterly at the one lodged fatally in his heart, his heart filled with regret.
If only he had noticed the trap on Jiraiya sooner...
If only he had been faster in removing that cursed seal…
Things might have turned out differently.
"What Yellow Flash? I don't deserve that name at all..."
He didn't know how he'd face Obito when he returned to the village. If he had a choice, he'd rather be the one lying here instead.
"Don't say that. You're the one who deserves that title the most."
To Minato's shock, the supposedly lifeless Ryouma reached up and gripped the black rod impaled in his heart, yanking it out with a burst of blood.
"Ryouma, you—?"
"No need to be surprised," Ryouma slowly stood up. "This is the Second Hokage's forbidden technique."
This jutsu was actually a half-finished creation. Tobirama originally intended for the technique to fix the soul within the body, making the user unkillable no matter the injuries. Its effect resembled Hidan's form of immortality.
However, the final version had flaws. While it could indeed anchor the soul, it left the body immobile, essentially a vegetative state.
Ryouma, unlike Tobirama, didn't have any particular gift for soul techniques. He could barely activate it at all.
But he had something Tobirama never did, the Dark Factor.
How should he call the technique? Yomi no Tsurugi? Yeah, that could work.
So, powered by the dark chakra, Yomi no Tsurugi worked exactly as Tobirama had envisioned: granting broad-spectrum immortality.
There were downsides, of course. Once activated, the body would stop growing. There were also minor side effects, like loss of taste and... other inconveniences. Those who knew, knew...
If he hadn't already planned to use Ōtoshi that Homura had given him, he really wouldn't have resorted to this technique.
Minato didn't fully understand, but he was absolutely stunned. "Can you return to your original state?"
"Of course," Ryouma replied. "But before that, I have a score to settle with Madara."
As he spoke, he knelt down and gently patted Shukaku's body, continuing, "Besides, he still has Shukaku's chakra. I'm going to take it back."
Minato handed him a Flying Thunder God kunai. "How do you plan to deal with Madara's technique?"
Ryouma formed a hand seal with his right hand, summoning back Lostvayne into his palm. Raising two fingers, he smiled confidently.
"Simple, I'll use my second phase. Going full Super Saiyan."
---
Madara used the power of the Deva Path to fly into the sky, looking down at Ōnoki from above.
"To be able to dodge that move... Seems like the brat from back then has grown a bit."
Ōnoki began forming a cube in his palm, ready for a desperate last stand.
Seeing their Tsuchikage hadn't given up, the surviving Iwa ninjas around him also gripped their weapons tightly.
Rumble!
A thunderous roar echoed across the battlefield. The recently quieted ground suddenly began to shake inexplicably.
Ōnoki looked toward the source of the sound, only to see a golden pillar of light piercing through the heavens outside the barrier, and it was still rising. The next second, the golden light, trailing an orange-red tail like a meteor, hurtled unstoppably toward the barrier.
He seemed to realize something. He quickly formed hand seals to open a gap in the barrier.
That barrier had originally been created to guard against Black Zetsu, he had never trusted him from the start. But even after all his precautions and calculations, things had still ended up like this.
"What is that?"
The commotion was far too great, Madara had obviously noticed the anomaly. Seeing that the golden meteor seemed to be targeting him, he raised his right hand, unleashing a repulsive force field. Whatever it was, he believed it would be useless before the power of the Rinnegan.
The golden torrent burst through the barrier and slammed directly into the Shinra Tensei force field without hesitation. There was no dramatic rebound or clash of equal forces, at the moment of contact, the repulsive field simply shattered.
"What?!"
He didn't even have time to lament the failure of Shinra Tensei before the golden meteor struck him square in the face, the immense force slamming him straight into the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground for dozens of kilometers around was instantly torn apart. The shattered earth opened like a monstrous maw, swallowing everything in its path. Even the groundwater buried deep below erupted upward from the cracks under intense pressure, shooting straight into the sky.
"Ultralight-Weight Rock!"
Faced with the chaos, Ōnoki quickly used his jutsu to lift the surviving Iwa ninjas into the air, helping them escape the massive earthquake.
Also rising into the air was Madara, who had just been smashed into the ground. His clothes were in tatters, and he no longer bore any of the majestic aura he had just minutes earlier.
Ryouma? He's still alive? And why is he suddenly so strong?
Madara's mind was overwhelmed with questions. If he hadn't swapped places with one of his Limbo shadows outside the battlefield at the last second, that blow might have killed him.
---
Meanwhile, underground, when Ryouma saw Madara's body vanish, he immediately reacted, slashing out with his blade. The Full Counter field expanded rapidly, shattering the Limbo shadow.
Although the Limbo shadows were of high priority and could only be affected by senjutsu or Six Paths powers, the Full Counter still shattered it. After all, Full Counter plus Rikugan with cheat-like chakra control was just too extreme.
"First one." he murmured, counting softly.
He pushed off the ground with explosive force, shattering the surrounding rock layers like a cannonball and soaring rapidly from the depths to the surface.
At that very moment, Madara, still mid-air and having barely caught his breath for two seconds, heard another deafening boom from the unknown depths below. A golden light surged upward in the blink of an eye.
No time to think, his eyes snapped open wide, his ocular power pouring out frantically like a flood. In an instant, his Complete Body Susanoo took form, slashing its colossal sword toward the incoming golden torrent.
The moment they collided, it was as if history repeated itself.
Just like Shinra Tensei before it, the chakra blade of the Susanoo shattered instantly, without lasting even a second.
Mid-air, Ryouma delivered a brutal kick, smashing through Susanoo's head and sending Madara flying with it, crashing thunderously into a towering forest of giant stone spires behind him.
Boom!
Ryouma landed in a superhero pose like a certain C-rank bald hero, cracking the ground beneath him as dust erupted into the air, Gaia herself would have given that landing a perfect score.
Only now did Ōnoki finally see clearly what the golden stream of light really was.
"Ryouma?"
His voice was filled with disbelief. And it was no wonder. After all, he had basically watched the boy die. What stood before him now looked completely different.
Not only was his body wrapped in a golden aura of chakra vapor, but he also wore a radiant golden chakra robe, with a black sealing formula glowing behind him. His hair had grown longer and swept upward in sharp, glowing strands, as if charged with raw energy.
This was Ryouma's once-in-a-lifetime transformation: "Super Saiyan Mode."
It was a forbidden technique he had developed long ago, inspired by Naruto's Baryon Mode and of course the Super Saiyan Transformation.
By harnessing the Rikugan's atomic-level chakra control, he would forcibly destroy all the chakra within his body through a fission-like process, allowing him to sustain an immense energy output for a short time.
In principle, it was similar to the Gate of Death.
Both techniques relied on destroying chakra to achieve greater power. The cost of this power was simple: once activated, it cannot be turned off, continuing until every cell in the body was burned out and died.
The one advantage he had was that he had etched a delayed seal array onto his own back, which, combined with the Rikugan's control, let him prolong the use of the Super Saiyan Mode for as long as possible.
Through the Rikugan, he located Madara's current position. He bent his knees slightly, then burst forward with explosive speed. The ground beneath cracked open in a web of fractures stretching hundreds of meters.
Like a human warhead, he blasted into the boulder-filled area where Madara had landed.
Sensing Ryouma crashing toward him again, Madara coughed up blood and rapidly formed hand seals.
With the power of Wood Release, massive tree trunks dozens of meters thick erupted from the ground, transforming the surrounding kilometer into a vast forest.
Five colossal wood dragons emerged from the thickest trunks, blending with the forest and simultaneously lunging at Ryouma in an attempt to halt the golden torrent.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Faced with this assault, he didn't even bother using Full Counter. Relying solely on brute strength, he headbutted straight through all five wood dragons.
Seeing Ryouma's raw physical might, Madara twitched at the corner of his mouth and clapped his hands together.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Giant wooden masks sprouted from the ground and interlocked layer by layer, forming a multi-tiered defense to encase and protect him inside.
This was the strongest defensive technique in all of Wood Release. He had extracted a massive amount of chakra from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to use it nine times in a row.
Hidden inside, he caught his breath.
"This should hold… What the hell is going on with him?"
