"Hateful…!"
Raizen's roar tore across the battlefield just as his Byakugan caught the truth too late. Madara's goal hadn't been Raizen's guard. It had been Raizen's back.
Madara's right Mangekyō spun like a drill, and a crimson shell of chakra surged up around him. Susanoo's ribcage began to form.
But it wasn't fast enough.
Madara's blade ripped through the half-formed chakra and came down toward Raizen in a clean, merciless arc.
If that lands, I die.
Raizen's right eye shrank to a pin. Instinct and terror fused into movement. His body twisted, and in a flicker of warped space, he vanished.
"Boom!"
The sword light cleaved the world open. Air shrieked. The plain split in two, leaving a vast trench gouged through the earth. Dust and debris swallowed everything.
"Teleportation? Flying Thunder God?"
Madara clicked his tongue, staring at the spot where Raizen had disappeared.
It had been a perfect chance. A clean hit from Susanoo at that range would have shattered any shinobi.
Raizen included.
──────
The air rippled, and Raizen returned, boots skidding across shattered stone. The act of moving had nearly emptied him. His body screamed. Chakra thinned into threads.
But he wasn't alone in that state.
"Still… that was close," he muttered with a bitter laugh. "I actually smelled death on that one."
He lifted his eyes to the two legends facing him.
Senju Hashirama's breath rasped, shoulders rising and falling in ragged waves. His eyes were sharp but dimmed by fatigue.
Madara looked unhurt at first glance, but the dried blood beneath his eyes and the fading color of his armor told the truth: maintaining Susanoo had pushed him to the edge.
"Raizen," Madara said, Susanoo lumbering forward with a grinding growl. "You're done. Surrender."
Raizen laughed softly, cracked but defiant. "The limit, huh?"
He lifted his right hand. Chakra swirled, coalescing into a shrieking storm. The air knifed outward with every rotation.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
He hurled it.
Madara's pupils widened. He hadn't expected Raizen to still have enough chakra left to form something that vicious.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Madara roared and swung Susanoo's massive blade to intercept.
"BOOM!"
The impact detonated the air. Wind screamed. Susanoo, already unstable, fractured. The spectral armor shattered into shards of crimson light.
The blast flung Madara across the plain until he smashed through a boulder, collapsing in a spray of dust.
"Ghh—!"
Blood spilled from his mouth. His armor crumbled like rusted iron.
"You had that much left?" he rasped, disbelief creeping in.
Raizen stepped onto a cracked stone shelf overlooking them both. His posture swayed with exhaustion, but a mocking half-smile tugged at his face.
"Did I ever say I'd reached my limit?"
Madara's jaw clenched as he retrieved the gunbai from his back and began walking toward Raizen, step by heavy step.
Hashirama followed, gripping an enormous wooden blade, eyes steeled.
"Raizen," Hashirama said, "you've reached your limit. We all have."
Raizen shook his head, almost pitying them.
Then the glow began.
His Eternal Mangekyō flickered from black-red to violet-gold. Power surged behind his eyes, a pressure that made his skull ring.
So it's happening… finally.
He had controlled Wood Style. He had consumed chakra like a monster. He had fought legends.
Yet the Rinnegan had never stirred.
Until now.
His chakra coils twisted. The life-force of his Sage Body and the power of his Mangekyō collided, merging, spiraling, threatening to reshape everything inside him.
The pressure was terrifying.
The potential was intoxicating.
"Raizen," Hashirama called again, slowing. "Let's end it here."
Madara took a step, ready to argue—
—and froze.
Raizen's wounds were knitting together. His breathing evened. His chakra erupted like a wellspring breaking open beneath his feet.
Madara's stare trembled.
"Impossible…"
Every injury vanished. His chakra surged back toward peak levels. If this continued, Raizen would return to full combat strength.
And neither of them could handle Raizen at full strength. Not anymore.
"Is it over?" Raizen murmured.
He felt the storm in his body and understood Hashirama's hesitation.
He wanted to finish this. To end it here.
But the power inside him wasn't stable. It shifted, writhed, almost alive.
One wrong move and he might lose control on the spot.
So he forced his ambition down, clenched his jaw, and nodded.
"…Fine. Today ends here."