"Madara… do you really want this?"
Hashirama's voice trembled, not with fear, but with hope dying in real time. "We were supposed to build a village one day. A place where shinobi didn't have to lie or bleed for clan grudges."
Madara didn't answer with words.
His Susanoo did.
The giant's fist crashed down like a falling star, splitting the creek so violently that water exploded in every direction. Hashirama shot out of the smoke, skidding across wet soil.
Madara's voice echoed from inside the blue armor. "If you really believed those old dreams, then you wouldn't have dodged. Everything from our childhood—"
He pointed to the shattered stream.
"Ends here."
Hashirama flinched as if struck.
I, Amamiya Raizen, had been watching in silence. The kind of silence where you can practically hear your future collapsing. Modern me would've made a joke. Warring States me? I just stepped forward.
"Madara."
My Rinnegan burned violet, the way it always did right before things got stupid.
"You're really choosing this fight?"
Madara's chakra jolted for a heartbeat. Even he felt it.
"Hmph. I'll say it straight, Raizen."
His eyes spun like a wrathful hurricane.
"I don't care how you got the Sharingan or the Wood Style. I don't care about the tricks you hide. Whatever power you crawled your way into…"
His Susanoo drew its blade.
"I'll crush you myself."
"So that's your choice."
I exhaled, already tired of today's nonsense.
Crimson chakra erupted from me, rising into the shape of my own Susanoo. A warrior with a greatsword materialized, towering like a scarlet mountain. I stepped onto its forehead and aimed my gaze at the boy I used to skip stones with.
"If you want a fight, I'll give one. Not as Senju or Uchiha… just as the idiots who first met at this creek."
"Raizen… Madara…"
Hashirama's sorrow twisted into resolve.
"I never wanted this. But if battle is all that's left between us… then let's end it properly."
Madara snorted. Twice.
Then he laughed.
Hard.
The kind of laugh people give before cutting away everything human inside them.
"Fine then," he roared. "Come!"
The valley shook.
Madara's Susanoo swung its katana in a brutal downward arc.
"Good!"
I lifted my Susanoo's blade to meet him.
Steel met chakra. The shockwave uprooted entire rows of trees.
"Raizen!" Madara yelled, pulling a second katana and slashing again.
"Amaterasu Shield!"
Black flames burst from my Susanoo's right arm, forming a shield that slammed into Madara's strike. The collision cracked the ground into a spiderweb of fractures.
Hashirama skidded back, eyes narrowing.
Then he did something that sent a chill up my spine.
"Oh, don't ignore me."
His voice dropped an octave, chakra swirling.
Sage markings bloomed around his eyes.
"Wood Style… Wooden Golem Jutsu!"
The earth erupted. A colossal wooden titan rose from the torn soil, towering even above our Susanoo. Hashirama leaped onto its head, hands flying through seals.
"Wood Dragon Technique!"
A serpent-like wooden dragon uncoiled around the golem, its roar rattling the treetops.
"Madara!"
The Wooden Golem swung its titanic palm.
Madara didn't dodge fast enough.
The impact sent his Susanoo stumbling, armor cracking.
Before he recovered, the Wood Dragon lunged, wrapping around him and tightening with crushing force.
Madara snarled. His Mangekyō burned with lethal light.
Susanoo swelled, chakra surging.
The dragon splintered apart as he tore free.
"Hahahahaha!"
He sounded drunk on the violence.
Which is exactly when I hit him.
My Susanoo's blade, wreathed in black Amaterasu fire, came down in a blazing arc.
Madara staggered back several steps, armor melting.
And Hashirama's Wooden Golem came in again.
"Don't underestimate me!" Madara roared, raising a katana to block—
The Golem grabbed the sword with one massive hand.
Then slapped his entire Susanoo across the battlefield.
Madara skidded, trembling with fury.
"Madara!" Hashirama shouted. "Stop! You can't win this. We don't want to kill you!"
Madara's eyes widened, then narrowed into slits of pure rage.
"You think you can kill me?"
He spat the words like poison.
"Or worse… that you pity me?"
"Madara—" Hashirama tried again.
"Shut up, Hashirama!"
Madara charged, a storm of blue armor and hatred, and the three of us collided again in a roar that swallowed the valley whole.