"Heh heh, Lord Raikage, it's not over yet."
Standing on the Nine Tails' head, Uchiha Gen let out a quiet laugh and glanced toward Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
Both nodded. Gen grabbed their shoulders and flickered upward, carrying them toward a nearby mountain peak. There simply wasn't enough space on Kumogakure's cliffside for the three of them to stand, let alone unleash large techniques.
Once they landed, Gen set Hashirama down, then shot back into the air with Madara.
On the peak, Hashirama immediately entered Sage Mode. Red markings spread across his face. He brought his hands together and slammed his palms forward.
Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.
Vast blue chakra burst from his body, scattering the intense winds at the summit. A colossal Buddha statue rose up from the earth, lifelike and overwhelming, towering like a mountain of its own.
The statue sat with both hands clasped. A wooden halo stood behind its back, lined with rows of massive arms. The sheer weight cracked the mountaintop beneath it, the peak collapsing in a thunderous roar as boulders tumbled down the cliffs.
The statue dropped with the collapsing rock and crushed an entire third of the mountain, yet it still remained firmly seated where the summit had been.
Even after destroying so much terrain, its shadow engulfed all of Kumogakure. The Village was swallowed in darkness.
This version was still far weaker than what Hashirama could unleash in life. Edo Tensei bodies recovered chakra quickly, but their immediate output was limited. It could never match the staggering power of Hashirama's original body, nor the vitality he once possessed.
At full strength, the True Several Thousand Hands could grab a complete Nine Tails with a single palm. This one barely reached a third of that scale.
Even so, the six Tailed Beasts, no—seven of them—were like children beside the statue.
If a peak Hashirama had appeared during the Fourth Ninja War in the original timeline, he truly could have fought the Ten Tails and Six Paths level beings head-on.
While the Buddha took shape, Madara and Gen released their chakra as well. Deep blue and pitch black energy surged outward, rapidly forming skeletal frames, then muscle, then armor, wings, and weapons.
Two Complete Body Susanoo rose into the sky, wings spread wide over the abyss. Pale gold eyes and blood red eyes stared down at Kumogakure.
Only one Susanoo stabilized immediately. Gen's remained incomplete at first.
Countless specks of white light streaked toward the black Susanoo like swallows returning home. Fire dragons, thunderclouds, azure birds, long blades of chakra, all shot into the black titan's frame and vanished like stones dropping into a deep lake.
With every force absorbed, the black Susanoo swelled larger. It grew steadily, the expansion smooth and proportional, like a staff extending skyward.
Soon, Gen's Susanoo surpassed the height of the True Several Thousand Hands. It continued to rise until, a breath later, it stopped growing. The finished form was taller than Hashirama's full-power statue by about one fifth.
A soft hiss filled the air.
A massive swirl of green chakra appeared at the titan's feet, climbing up its legs. Part of it condensed into glowing patterns etched across its shins.
Red flames and blue-white lightning wrapped its arms, the two energies spiraling side by side. Some coiled outward, some carved themselves into the armor, forming crimson and blue-white sigils along the limbs.
Clang.
The colossal black blade slid free. The ringing sounded like thunder rolling across the land, shaking the air for dozens of miles. The blade extended endlessly, cutting open the clouds in a sweeping arc. Sunlight poured through the torn sky.
But nobody in Kumogakure felt warmth. Only a cold that reached the bones.
The entire Village lay beneath the three giants. True Several Thousand Hands, Madara's Susanoo, and Gen's Susanoo blotted out the heavens. Sunlight simply couldn't reach inside.
Shinobi and civilians stared upward in shock, their minds blank, their hearts hollow.
Somewhere in the Village, a sleepy shinobi stepped out of his small house, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the dim sky overhead.
"Huh?"
"I must still be dreaming. I'll go back to sleep. I have a night shift later."
He walked back inside, lay down, and pulled the covers over his head.
At the entrance, the Fourth Raikage stared at the towering figures, his expression frozen in despair. Killer Bee and the other senior officials were no different.
They could barely imagine resisting one godlike presence. But three? Each stronger than the last?
Even the six Tailed Beasts waiting at the Village gates were nearly impossible for them to overcome. If Kumogakure mustered every shinobi they had, the odds were still grim.
And in Konoha, those watching from afar were just as stunned. No one knew what to say as the three impossible giants filled their vision.
Tobirama, Hashirama, and Madara themselves were struck silent by the scale of Gen's Susanoo.
Far away in the Land of Water, the Sage of Six Paths halted mid-stride in a desolate field. His gaze locked in the direction of Kumogakure.
He hovered for a moment, then vanished, heading straight toward the Village.
Back at the entrance, Madara and Hashirama recovered first. They burst out laughing at the same moment.
"Hahaha, this isn't just the next generation pushing forward. We've already been washed up on the shore."
"You surpassed my peak a long time ago."
Their laughter faded. Awareness flickered between them. They turned away at the same time, both looking a little awkward.
"Thank you for the praise, seniors."
Gen bowed, then looked directly at the Fourth Raikage.
"Lord Raikage, do you surrender? If you refuse, Kumogakure will be destroyed. If you submit, the Village still has a future."
"We didn't come to wipe out Kumogakure. Don't force us into killing."
"The shinobi world has been fragmented for over a thousand years. Today, it's time to unify it. Only unity can bring lasting peace."
The Fourth Raikage finally exhaled. His voice was bitter.
"Before such power, do I or Kumogakure still have a choice?"
He wasn't a fool. A man needed the wisdom to survive. If the Village died here, everything ended.
"To live is to have hope, whether for a person or a Village."
"We surrender."
Gen's method was nothing like the Infinite Tsukuyomi. That illusion could never be accepted by people with true ambition, the ones who would rather struggle in hardship than escape into false bliss.
"What about the rest of you?" Gen asked, turning to the other Kumogakure leaders.
"We surrender," they answered together, heads lowered. Even Killer Bee.
"Haha, very good."