"Better not"
Mitsuki slowly drew Mistcutter, from his back, pointing its edge straight at Uchiha Madara.
"Your so-called dream, your peace, the Infinite Tsukuyomi — all of it was given to you by someone else. If you had stayed true to your original ideal — uniting the shinobi world under Konoha — maybe I'd have actually been convinced by you."
Madara's eyes narrowed, his expression turning sharp.
"You… how do you know about the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
That name was carved into the Uchiha clan's sacred stone tablet — passed down from generation to generation.
And to read the section about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, an ordinary Sharingan wasn't enough. Only someone like him — one who had awakened the Mangekyō — could see it.As far as he knew, the only one in the clan who might have achieved that was Shisui.
Mitsuki shook his head lightly. "How I know doesn't matter. What matters is that the tablet you read was already tampered with."
Madara gave a low chuckle. "Heh. The Uchiha Stone Tablet requires ocular power to decipher. And you — who doesn't even possess the Sharingan — dare to speak so boldly?"
"Just as I thought — words won't reach him."
From the very start, Mitsuki expected this. Madara had spent decades preparing for the Eye of the Moon Plan. No mere conversation could make him waver.
And Mitsuki had no solid proof anyway. Which meant there was only one way left — through battle.
"Then, pardon my rudeness."
With Chidori surging at full output, Mitsuki burst forward, his body glowing in silver-white lightning. In a blink, he closed the distance and slashed.
Madara's three tomoe spun rapidly, morphing into the pattern of his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.With his unparalleled perception, he easily tilted his body to evade the strike and countered with a powerful kick toward Mitsuki's ribs.
But Mitsuki's Six Eyes weren't inferior to the Sharingan in terms of reaction. Pushing off the ground, he flipped backward — Madara's heel grazing just past his chest.
Landing smoothly, Mitsuki flicked his wrist. Three kunai gleamed between his fingers before he hurled them toward Madara.
Madara formed a seal with one hand — summoning light patterns flaring from his wrist. With twin puffs of smoke, a scythe and a massive war fan appeared in his hands.
A metallic clang-clang-clang echoed.
With a single sweep of his scythe, Madara knocked away all three kunai — fully aware of their danger thanks to Zetsu's earlier report that these were Mitsuki's mediums for space-time teleportation.
Mitsuki didn't pause. He lunged again, blade sweeping upward in a reverse diagonal slash — lightning surging along the Mistcutter's edge.
Madara raised his war fan to block. The blow connected, lightning crackling violently, only to be drawn into the fan's surface and transmuted. Madara redirected it as a burst of compressed wind right back at Mitsuki.
"Uchiha Return!"
But Mitsuki, dragging his blade across the fan's edge, unleashed his own technique.
"Full Counter!"
An invisible field expanded from his body — rewriting the laws within.
Madara's wind blast reversed midair, roaring back toward its origin.
Madara braced the Gunbai in front of him, sweeping it once more. The redirected gale dispersed instantly. He stepped forward and swung his scythe straight for Mitsuki's neck.
Mitsuki reacted instantly — lightning bursting from his left hand as a rope-like bolt shot forth, wrapping around the scythe.
Electric arcs crackled along the weapon, racing toward Madara's arm. Madara released the scythe without hesitation, leaping back while forming seals.
He inhaled deeply — then unleashed a torrent of searing flames that scorched everything in their path.
"Great Fire Annihilation!"
Ordinarily a large-area B-rank jutsu, but in Madara's hands, it struck with S-rank might — a wall of fire devouring the forest.
Mitsuki dispelled his lightning chain and formed new seals. Water surged beneath his feet, rising to envelop him in a shimmering sphere.
"Water Formation Wall!"
The spherical barrier absorbed the firestorm completely. Within, Mitsuki's left palm rotated, condensing chakra into a dense whirlpool of water — the vortex elongating, reshaping into a sleek, spear-like weapon.
Even through the blaze, Mitsuki's Six Eyes perceived everything clearly. Stepping forward, body twisting with precision, he hurled the spear.
"Hard Whirlpool Water Blade!"
The inferno split apart as a massive lance of pressurized water tore through, gleaming with a metallic sharpness that belied its liquid form.
"Hm? That's Tobirama's jutsu…" Madara muttered, frowning.
He stopped maintaining his fire technique. Chakra flared from his eyes — and once again, the half-body, twin-faced Susanoo erupted around him.
The spectral warrior crossed its dual chakra blades into an X and cleaved forward — intercepting the incoming attack.
The two forces collided like solid steel.
Boom!
After a few seconds of struggle, the clash detonated, leaving a crater over a hundred meters wide. Steam and water shot skyward, falling like rain across the battlefield — extinguishing the last remnants of Madara's flames.
The two shinobi now stood at opposite ends of the clearing, facing each other.
That brief exchange had yielded no clear victor. If anything, Mitsuki now held the advantage — Madara had lost his scythe.
"Susanoo, huh… first time I've seen the real thing," Mitsuki murmured, awe flickering in his eyes.
"Oh? So you've heard of this power," Madara replied, not surprised. After all, Mitsuki had mastered Tobirama's secret Water Release. It made sense he'd know of the Mangekyō's might as well.
Mitsuki formed a seal. Chakra surged — and nine glowing orbs of pure energy manifested behind him, orbiting slowly.
"Of course I've heard of it. But tell me, Madara— you're not going to use your Complete Body Susanoo?"
Madara let out a low laugh. "Such arrogance…"
"In this world, only Hashirama has ever been worthy of seeing my full Susanoo. If you wish to witness that power—"
He raised his arm, eternal eyes burning with power.
"—then dance for me with everything you've got."