"Madara! Surrender! The Uchiha can't withstand Konoha's full force!"
My voice carried across the field, chakra vibrating the air so even the wounded could hear it. Twenty thousand Konoha shinobi braced behind me, a wall of steel and wills. And out there, framed by smoke and ruin, stood Uchiha Madara — stubborn enough to fight heaven if it looked at him wrong.
"There are only Uchiha who die in battle," Madara answered, voice cracking like firewood under strain. "Or Uchiha who keep their pride!"
Yeah. Sounds exactly like something he'd yell while ignoring common sense. Classic Madara.
I exhaled once, long and tired. He wasn't going to bend. Not to Konoha, not to me, not to anyone breathing.
So I raised my arm and brought it down.
"Kill!"
The word felt like rust in my mouth, but hesitation gets you a kunai in the spine in this era. The Konoha forces roared back as one, tens of thousands rushing forward, a living tide of rage, desperation, and orders I just signed off on.
Across from us, barely half our number — the Uchiha line tightened, hands whitening around weapons.
"Attack!" Madara's voice ripped through the storm. His chest expanded with a breath that meant only one thing.
Katon: Goka Mekkyaku.
A rolling inferno burst from him, followed instantly by a dozen more Uchiha lining up behind him, vomiting flames like an army of dragons. The sky blazed red, heat slashing across the field.
"Hashirama!" I called, already stepping forward. "Leave the Uchiha forces to Konoha. Madara is mine."
He hesitated — the way someone hesitates before stabbing an old friend. But he nodded. Duty wins here; feelings get buried with the bodies.
I didn't wait for his reply. The world around me stretched, chakra gathering behind my right eye as the pupil rippled, then bled outward into violet rings.
Rinnegan open.
Hashirama's breath caught. "That… that's impossible. Raizen… that eye…!"
I could practically hear the legends screaming in his memory.
I didn't bother explaining. Storytime can wait until we aren't, you know, trying not to die.
I kicked off the ground, chakra bursting under my feet. The air cracked around me as I shot upward, gaining height over both armies.
Instantly, their gazes snapped up.
"Raizen-sama!"
"What kind of eye is that?!"
Uchiha Madara's Sharingan flared as he stared at me, pupils narrowing. Shock flickered across his face, an expression I'd blast onto a painting if cameras existed yet.
"Rinnegan," he whispered. "The stele… the combination of the Sage's body and eyes… So you completed it. Was it during our last battle…?"
He figured it out faster than half the readers would. Great.
I hovered above him, the battlefield spread beneath like a painting of hell. Smoke. Steel. Flames. Screams. On days like this, reincarnation feels like the worst gacha roll imaginable.
Madara bared his teeth at the look in my eyes — the look I couldn't quite hide.
Disdain. Not personal. Just… exhaustion.
"It's unforgivable to look down on me like that!"
He hurled a massive fireball upward. The kind that could erase a squad in one breath.
I raised a hand.
Pressure dropped. Air buckled.
The flames crumpled midair, crushed as if the world swatted them down.
Madara's face twitched. "What ability is that…"
"Universal Pull."
Gravity snapped open like a hungry mouth. Madara jerked upward, armor rattling, chakra scattering as he flew toward me.
His curse was halfway formed when blue chakra erupted around him, swelling outward into a colossal armored figure.
Complete Susanoo rose to full height, shaking the ground as it materialized — ribs, armor, its massive dual-bladed weapon gleaming with killing intent.
Susanoo slapped aside my gravity like it was nothing.
Madara's voice thundered from inside the titan. "RAIZEN!"
The blade came down. The air split in two.
I thrust my palm forward.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The world convulsed. Repulsive force exploded outward, slamming into Susanoo's weapon. The collision detonated with a sound that stabbed straight into bone.
A shockwave burst across the field.
Uchiha on the front lines clutched their heads, blood spilling from their ears as they collapsed. The ground cracked. Trees whipped like grass in a storm. Chakra scattered like broken glass.
Standing in the sky, I looked at the chaos below and thought:
Great. Another day in the Warring States. Peak reincarnator experience.