The tidal wave of flame collided with the enormous water screen, producing a thunderous explosion in an instant!
Countless plumes of steam erupted from the point of impact, blanketing nearly the entirety of Konoha's forward defensive position.
In an instant, everyone's vision was completely obscured!
"Hyūga clan ninja! Use your Byakugan to track the enemy's position!"
From another section of the Konoha battlefield, Kakashi barked the order with a grim expression.
Naturally, Kurenai and Asuma weren't the only jōnin assigned to this sector of the battlefield.
Nearly all of Konoha's jōnin had been distributed between the two battle zones.
At Kakashi's command, the Hyūga ninja who had been standing by immediately activated their Byakugan and began scanning the wall of white steam ahead.
"Uchiha Madara is charging through!"
"He's coming from the west side, moving incredibly fast..."
"No good, he's already at the front line!"
One Hyūga ninja after another reported in panicked tones.
Madara's speed was simply too fast!
They could barely keep track of his movements, and by the time the Hyūga ninja finished speaking, Madara had already broken through from the center of the battlefield straight into the Konoha defensive position.
Madara's figure burst through the white steam, appearing before the Water Release users in the blink of an eye.
The closest Water Release ninja hadn't even had time to react!
They watched helplessly as Madara grabbed two of their fellow Konoha shinobi by the neck, lifting them clean off the ground and slamming them down hard.
Two heavy, muffled impacts rang out across the battlefield. Those two Konoha ninja were pinned beneath Madara's feet, their bodies pounding craters into the earth.
The two shinobi went completely limp — even the hardest bones in their bodies had been shattered. They were undoubtedly dead.
Having casually dispatched two Konoha ninja, Madara didn't pause for even a moment. He spun around and appeared beside several more Konoha shinobi, kicking one of them clean across the battlefield.
At the same time, he snatched the kunai right out of that shinobi's hand and flashed past the others at blinding speed.
By the time those ninja realized what had happened, they looked down in horror to see blood spraying from their necks and agonizing pain tearing through them.
The group of Konoha ninja clutched their throats, eyes wide, and collapsed to the ground.
In less than thirty seconds, dozens of Konoha ninja had already fallen to Uchiha Madara's hands.
Madara stood perfectly upright amid the carnage, his face cold and expressionless as he gazed at the still-stunned and just-recovering Konoha forces in the distance.
"Is this really all you've got?"
"You don't even have what it takes to serve as a proper warm-up."
Madara tossed his blood-soaked kunai aside, his tone flat and utterly dismissive.
In that moment, Madara's overwhelming dominance was on full display!
He was just standing there, a single man, not even releasing any of his terrifying aura.
Yet every Konoha ninja felt an instinctive, crushing sense that he was utterly beyond them.
For a long moment, not a single person dared to step forward!
Asuma stared at Madara, who was standing among the bodies of Konoha ninja, his face twisted with rage as he clenched his fists tight!
With a low, furious roar, Asuma charged forward, his chakra-enhanced trench knives drawn, leading the assault against Uchiha Madara.
Spurred by Asuma's actions, the other Konoha ninja also snapped out of their daze. One after another, they howled with fury and surged toward Madara like a tidal wave.
Madara offered no attempt to hide his grudging praise for Asuma being the first to act.
But that was as far as it went.
Madara stomped on the ground, a shockwave erupting from his feet as his figure vanished from sight — as though he had teleported!
In the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of Asuma.
Asuma's pupils shrank violently. He rapidly channeled chakra into the blades in his hands.
Chakra Blades — Shin'ichimonji!
Asuma poured Wind Release chakra into his trench knives and slashed two cross-shaped chakra strikes infused with wind properties toward Madara.
Two intersecting blue chakra slashes appeared before Madara.
At the sight of this, Madara simply reached out with an impassive expression and casually grabbed at the incoming attacks.
Despite being purely energy-based chakra attacks, they shattered like glass in Madara's grip!
A heavy impact rang out as Madara's fist drove straight into Asuma's chest.
Asuma's body bent like a boiled shrimp, blood spraying from his mouth as he was sent flying across the battlefield.
Seeing Asuma get launched through the air, Kurenai screamed his name.
Kakashi's figure dashed in from the side, leaping into the air to catch the airborne Asuma firmly in his arms.
But the moment Kakashi caught him, his own face twisted from the sheer force of the impact.
The kinetic energy transferred through Asuma's body was enough to send Kakashi skidding backward a considerable distance.
Kakashi held onto Asuma and twisted midair to absorb some of the momentum, landing on the ground and stumbling back several steps before finally coming to a stop.
Asuma's face was pale, blood streaking from the corners of his mouth, as he spoke in a weakened voice.
If Kakashi hadn't caught him and absorbed most of the force from Madara's punch, Asuma might not have survived at all.
Even so, Asuma was still badly wounded.
Kurenai's figure rushed over from the other side.
"I'm sorry, Kurenai. I made you worry."
Seeing Kurenai appear before him with a face full of worry, Asuma spoke with an apologetic, feeble tone.
"You idiot." Seeing that Asuma wasn't in mortal danger, Kurenai breathed a heavy sigh of relief, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"Now's not the time for chatting."
Kakashi shot the two of them a resigned look, then raised his head to look toward Madara's position.
There, a large number of Konoha ninja had Madara completely surrounded.
But it was completely useless. Madara moved through them like a tiger through a flock of sheep — not a single Konoha ninja could withstand even one of his attacks.
The shinobi who charged in were sent flying back out at even greater speed.
"Uchiha Madara is too powerful. Aside from Lord Senju Hashirama, there's absolutely nothing we can do to stop him."
Kurenai's voice carried a note of despair.
It was hard to blame her. Asuma, an elite jōnin, hadn't lasted a single exchange against Madara.
And now the entire Konoha force was being pinned down by Madara alone. No one could halt his advance.
Given the situation, the fact that Kurenai was merely discouraged rather than completely broken spoke well of her mental fortitude.
"It's going to take some time for Lord Senju Hashirama to arrive."
"But before he gets here, we can't just let Uchiha Madara keep attacking with impunity."
Kakashi rose to his feet, his expression grave.
At that moment, the sound of projectiles cutting through the air came from every direction across the battlefield.
One after another, several Konoha jōnin appeared beside Kakashi and the others.
"Exactly. Even if we can't stop Madara, we at least need to keep him from running completely unchecked."
Yamashiro Aoba adjusted his glasses as he took his place beside Kakashi.
"Agreed. If this keeps up, the morale of our forces is going to hit rock bottom."
Namiashi Raidō and Shiranui Genma also spoke with equally grim faces.
Mitarashi Anko appeared beside Kurenai, her face etched with concern.
"I'm not hurt, Anko." Kurenai gave a gentle shake of her head.
And it wasn't just those few. Aburame Shibi had also arrived, along with Shizune, who had rushed over as quickly as she could.
"I'll treat your wounds right away."
Shizune wiped the sweat from her brow as she hurried to Asuma's side, her hands glowing with green medical chakra as she pressed them against his chest.
The busiest unit on the Konoha side right now was Shizune's medical corps.
While treating Asuma's injuries, Shizune looked up at Kakashi.
"All we can do right now is try to contain Uchiha Madara for as long as possible. Let's hope Lord Senju Hashirama gets here soon."
Kakashi's face remained grave as he signaled the surrounding jōnin with a series of hand gestures.
The jōnin present nodded in understanding and vanished from their positions in an instant.
As these jōnin sprang into action, the Konoha forces across the battlefield began to shift their formation.
The first to notice the change was naturally Uchiha Madara.
The number of Konoha ninja coming at him had started to decrease.
Madara casually snapped a Konoha shinobi's neck with one hand, tossed the body aside, and surveyed the battlefield with calm, calculating eyes.
He made no move to stop them. Madara seemed curious to see how Konoha planned to deal with him.
Of course, that wasn't the main reason.
Just as Madara had said at the start — this was merely a warm-up.
He was here, waiting for Senju Hashirama to arrive. Everything up to now had been nothing more than pre-battle exercise.
Seeing that Madara wasn't interfering, the Konoha jōnin saw no need to hold back any longer.
Their previously cautious movements immediately accelerated!
Konoha units gathered at every corner of the battlefield.
Almost simultaneously, these large numbers of ninja formed hand seals and slammed their palms against the earth.
First, a massive quantity of Water Release jutsu was unleashed simultaneously, combining into an enormous torrent that surged toward Madara like a crashing ocean wave.
A flicker of disappointment crossed Madara's face. He had expected these Konoha ninja to try something more inventive.
Just as Madara was about to move, he discovered that his body was temporarily unable to budge!
A rare look of surprise crossed Madara's face. He glanced down at his own shadow.
There, connected to his shadow, were over fifty Shadow Imitation jutsu cast by Nara clan ninja!
Using the debris and corpses scattered across the battlefield as cover, the Shadow Imitation jutsu was indeed hard to detect in this environment.
And with over fifty Nara clan ninja casting it simultaneously, even Madara couldn't break free in an instant without using a jutsu.
At that moment, the surging torrent of water swallowed Madara whole.
Immediately after, the ground around Madara erupted with a thunderous boom as massive amounts of earth rose from below.
Mingling with the water, it formed vast quantities of clay that began piling up around Madara!
In just two or three breaths, a mound of clay over twenty meters tall had risen before the assembled forces.
But it didn't end there. Large numbers of Fire Release ninja stepped forward, blasting scorching flames from their mouths onto the clay mound.
Under the intense heat, akin to a sea of fire, all the moisture within the clay mountain evaporated at an incredible rate, hardening and solidifying the structure.
The successive layers of jutsu transformed the clay mound into an extremely dense, fortress-like state!
Kakashi and the other jōnin simultaneously left their positions and appeared around the base of the twenty-meter earthen structure.
Each of them took up a position and began forming hand seals in perfect unison!
Tiger — Serpent — Ram — Rooster — Hare — Tiger — Serpent — Ram — Horse — Serpent — Ram!
Each jōnin completed the ten hand seals at almost the exact same moment, their faces grave with concentration as they slammed their palms onto the earthen structure.
The instant their palms made contact, thick black patterns began spreading from their hands across the surface of the mound. In just one or two breaths, the dark markings had covered the entire structure.
[
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