Chapter 266: Uchiha Body Slam

In the silent hospital room, Uchiha Gin, who was feeling truly overwhelmed while watching his young cousin's shoulders twitch slightly, reached out and patted Uchiha Izuna on the shoulder, saying,

"Izuna, let's go see how Madara is doing together!"

He was afraid that if he stayed there any longer, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"Damn Senju, is Big Brother injured too?"

Wiping the tears from his face, Uchiha Izuna stood up with red, swollen eyes. With killing intent overflowing from his gaze and his teeth tightly clenched, he asked Uchiha Gin,

"Not exactly. Your older cousin received our late uncle's inheritance and just finished surgery."

Uchiha Gin shook his head, a trace of melancholy in his eyes. He pointed to the sunken eyelids of Uchiha Tajima on the hospital bed and explained the situation to his young cousin, who was still in the dark.

"Mm."

Uchiha Izuna, numbed by the shock of the tragic news, simply responded with a sound before following Uchiha Gin out of the hospital room, heading toward the room where Uchiha Madara was being kept.

"Uh, older cousin, you're awake!"

Just like that, Uchiha Gin led the somber-faced Uchiha Izuna and pushed open the door to Uchiha Madara's room. The first thing they saw was a familiar back standing by the window. He hadn't expected his older cousin's physical constitution to be so good; the anesthesia should have kept him unconscious for three hours, but it had only been one, and he was already moving about as if nothing were wrong.

"Wuu wuu wuu~ Big Brother, I'm sorry~"

Uchiha Izuna, whose emotions had only just calmed down, broke into tears once again upon seeing his older brother. Sad tears flowed freely as if they were worthless.

"Cousin, Izuna."

Hearing the familiar voice, Uchiha Madara, who was standing by the window, slowly turned around. His eyes were wrapped in a thick layer of bandages, making it impossible to read his mood. The voice that came from his mouth was as biting as a cold wind.

"I will avenge Father..."

Uchiha Madara spoke to himself, then reached out both hands to unwrap the bandages from his eyes. As the strips of white cloth were peeled away, a pair of bewitching patterns, a fusion of two designs, appeared before Uchiha Gin and the others.

"With these eyes, the God's Eyes awakened only through Father's sacrifice."

Feeling the clarity he hadn't experienced in a long time, Uchiha Madara spoke slowly. The veins on his hands, which were gripping the bandages, bulged, and his slightly heaving chest was filled with hatred. With his words, an icy, obscure aura instantly flooded the entire hospital room, and the overbearing pressure made Uchiha Gin look away involuntarily.

"Older cousin, you just transplanted the Mangekyo. If you lose to that bowl-cut brat again, wouldn't our uncle's sacrifice be in vain?"

Facing his older cousin, whose fighting spirit was soaring, Uchiha Gin tried to persuade him with "earnest advice," though a hint of awkwardness flashed in his dead-fish eyes.

"No need. I am terrifyingly strong now."

The surging pupil power within his Eternal eyes gave Uchiha Madara unprecedented confidence. He beckoned to the shocked Izuna and ordered,

"Izuna, go issue a declaration of war to the Senju clan. Tomorrow is the day of the final battle."

"Yes!"

Uchiha Izuna, who had been immersed in shock, was pulled back to reality by Uchiha Madara's call. His eyes could perceive that his brother's Eternal eyes had been reborn. He stood up immediately and replied loudly.

"Uh... may your martial fortune be ever prosperous~"

Seeing that his "persuasion" had failed, Uchiha Gin could only show a troubled expression. He sighed softly, looked at his older cousin, and offered a quiet blessing.

"I will surely trample the Senju and unify the Land of Fire!"

The next day, at dusk.

The designated site for the final battle was in the canyon not far from the Nanhechuanhe. Uchiha Madara brought several guards and waited for the arrival of Hashirama Senju.

Before long, Hashirama Senju, clad in red armor, arrived as promised with his younger brother and several guards.

The moment they met, the atmosphere between the two sides became tense.

"Madara, is your father doing alright?"

Seeing his close friend, Hashirama Senju, feeling guilty, showed an apologetic expression and prepared to explain what happened yesterday to Uchiha Madara.

"My father is dead. He died of his wounds."

Gone was the atmosphere of their usual lighthearted friendly matches. Uchiha Madara, with his cold face and scarlet eyes filled with heart-wrenching hatred, made Hashirama Senju feel like a stranger.

"So, stop prattling on with your childish words. Let us fight, Haxi-lama!"

Uchiha Madara, whose mind had been clouded by hatred, saw the three tomoe in his scarlet eyes spin rapidly and fuse, finally transforming into a complex, bewitching pattern. As a dense chakra rose from his body, a towering blue demon god condensed behind him.

Facing his close friend's resolve, Hashirama Senju's expression changed. Seeing the giant, which was more solid than ever before, he frowned and rarely began to weave hand seals. As the massive Wood Release power churned within him, he prepared himself and shouted,

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Bloom!"

Thick wooden branches instantly burst from the ground, coiling toward the arms of the blue Susanoo. The menacing iron fists were restrained by the sudden appearance of the branches, causing Uchiha Madara, who had been full of confidence, to frown deeply.

"Hiss~ Hiss~"

Just as Uchiha Madara prepared to shake off these annoying branches, a series of massive sounds of earth breaking alerted him. Looking around, he saw thick, life-force-rich branches encircling him.

Each one was larger than his Susanoo. These branches, like countless tentacles, swept toward him endlessly, catching him off guard and causing his Susanoo to sway left and right.

"Hoo~ Hoo~"

Barely dealing with the intrusion of these tentacles, Uchiha Madara caught his breath, only to catch a whiff of a strange floral scent in the air. In surprise, he saw countless giant red flowers blooming on the battlefield, shaking their stamens and scattering yellow pollen into the air.

"Pollen poison?"

After accidentally inhaling a few breaths, Uchiha Madara felt the speed of his chakra refinement slow down, and his body felt a wave of numbness. The Susanoo he was controlling also felt its legs go weak and knelt down. If he couldn't guess that Hashirama Senju was behind this, he might as well have been blind.

"Stop it, Madara!"

Seeing Uchiha Madara hard-controlled by his Wood Release, Hashirama Senju pressed his palms together. With a look of exhortation, he spoke to his close friend in a very sincere tone,

"There is no meaning in continuing this fight."

"You say it's meaningless? Then why did my father die?"

Taking advantage of the gap in the other's speech, Uchiha Madara, who had recovered his strength within the Susanoo, gritted his teeth and issued a soul-searching question.

"..."

Hearing this, Hashirama Senju, feeling guilty, lowered his head in shame, not knowing how to answer. Because his own father had also been stabbed to death in front of him, he understood Uchiha Madara's current feelings very well.

"Because it was you... it was you who killed him..."

Bringing up his father, who had died tragically at the hands of Tobirama Senju, once again, the power in Uchiha Madara's eyes was magnified by this grief. As the Eternal eyes spun rapidly, his Susanoo erupted with an extremely powerful aura. The resulting shockwave forced the two sides fighting nearby to bow down and dodge to avoid being swept away by the blast.

Uchiha Madara's previously thin Susanoo began to grow taller and taller, from a ten-meter giant to a height that blotted out the sky. A layer of heavy armor was fitted onto its body, and a pair of huge wings sprouted from its back. As a ferocious tengu mask covered the face of the Susanoo, a Complete Body Susanoo with the intimidating presence of a demon god appeared before everyone.

"That is!"

Tobirama Senju, hiding behind the wooden branches, looked up in surprise at the blue giant that reached the heavens. His mouth hung slightly open, and after looking at the long sword in his own hand, a deep sense of powerlessness arose in his heart by comparison.

Inside the cockpit at the top of the Susanoo, Uchiha Madara crossed his arms and looked down at Hashirama Senju. Although he had previously been able to barely condense a Complete Body Susanoo by relying on the amplification of his Mangekyo's ocular jutsu, its size had not been as massive as the one manifested by his Eternal eyes.

"Wood Release: Wood Human Technique!"

Seeing the tall giant he had never seen before, Hashirama Senju felt a hint of crisis and decided to stop holding back. He wove hand seals again, performing the Wood Human Technique at full power for the first time. As countless intertwined wooden branches emerged from the ground, the thick smoke instantly covered the entire battlefield.

When the choking smoke cleared, a naive-looking Arhat wood man, wrapped in a wooden dragon, stood before Uchiha Madara's Susanoo.

"HA! SHI! LA! MA!"

Although he was very surprised—after all, the wood man Hashirama Senju had used before was not even half as tall as this one—Uchiha Madara, possessing the Eternal eyes, had his confidence inflated to the point of arrogance. He reached out his hands and manipulated the Susanoo to grab at the wood man.

"MA! DA! RA!"

Hashirama Senju, standing on the head of the wood man, did not intend to retreat either. He commanded the wood man to engage in a direct, head-on collision with Uchiha Madara's Susanoo.

"BOOM!!!"

The two heaven-reaching giants collided passionately, and the resulting shockwave forced everyone around them to retreat.

"Wood Dragon Technique!"

Hashirama Senju took advantage of the gap to perform the Wood Dragon Technique. Facing the incoming giant dragon, Uchiha Madara raised an eyebrow. Having a major vulnerability behind him, he had long since installed an extra pair of arms on the back of his Susanoo. He reached out two iron fists and instantly hammered the wood dragon to pieces.

"Wood Dragon Technique!!!!"

Not expecting his sneak attack to be so easily resolved by Uchiha Madara, Hashirama Senju frowned. He pressed his palms together, and four more wood dragons grew from the wood man, sweeping toward the Susanoo once again.

"Did I win?"

Seeing the four wood dragons hit their target, Hashirama Senju, who could not see the result through the dust and smoke, slowly lowered his hands. His heart began to pound, and his handsome face was filled with worry.

"Oh my~ I forgot to pull my punches. I hope Madara is okay~"

However, as the smoke cleared, even the usually composed Hashirama Senju couldn't help but click his tongue in secret at the shocking scene before him.

The four giant dragons that had emerged from the wood man were being held tightly in the arms of Uchiha Madara's Susanoo. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake them off by even a fraction. Just as he was at his wit's end, a cold voice rang in his ear,

"Hashi-lama, have you ever witnessed the Uchiha Body Slam?"

Still coding, there is a wrong chapter, wait a moment.

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(End of chapter)