Chapter 126: Have You Ever Been Kicked by Light?
On the small hill, a wave of heat rushed over them. Even from a distance, the scorching temperature was palpable.
Tsunade's hair curled slightly from the intense heat, and the skin on her face burned from the baking air. She stood motionless, her eyes fixed intently on the battlefield below.
As far as the eye could see, the once lush mountain forest and grassy fields had been reduced to a scorched wasteland. Flames danced across the ground, licking at the rocks and soil, reducing everything to ash.
The night sky was cast in a dark crimson hue by the glow of the fire, making it look from afar as if the earth itself were ablaze.
Tsunade's eyelids twitched slightly. She took several deep breaths, feeling the scalding air fill her lungs with every inhalation.
Her fingertips trembled slightly—an instinctive physiological reaction to facing a power that vastly exceeded her own.
As one of the Sannin of Konoha, she had seen many powerful ninja and experienced countless battles, but the scene before her still sent a chill seeping deep into her bones.
Yugito Nii stood beside her, her body as taut as a drawn bow.
Her eyes were glued to the battlefield, unblinking. Her breathing had grown heavy, the two figures reflected in her pupils.
Her hand rested on the ninja blade at her waist, her knuckles white, but she didn't make a move. She knew she couldn't intervene.
Shizune hid behind the two of them, crouching on the ground with her body curled into a ball.
Peering through her fingers at the battlefield, she watched the two figures standing amidst the sea of fire. The flames danced around them without causing the slightest harm. Her teeth chattered, letting out faint clicking sounds.
In the center of the battlefield, Uchiha Taiga and Uchiha Madara stood facing each other, separated by twenty or thirty meters.
Flames raged around them, distorting the air with their heat, yet neither seemed affected in the slightest.
The fire licked at the hem of Uchiha Taiga's clothes, but the fabric did not catch.
The flames swept over Uchiha Madara's armor, yet the metal did not heat up.
They simply stood there like two statues in the fire, remaining completely unmoving as the inferno roared around them.
Their auras were steadily rising, radiating a battle intent that seeped from their very bones.
Uchiha Taiga's gaze was scorching, like two burning fires. He stared at Uchiha Madara opposite him, the smile on his lips growing wider.
Uchiha Madara's expression was stern, but his heart was not as calm as his exterior suggested.
Their previous probing attacks had allowed him to clearly see this boy's immense strength.
Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, Ninjutsu—every single aspect had reached an incredibly high level. He wasn't a one-trick genius; he was exceptionally well-rounded.
What was even more terrifying was his age: fourteen.
What was he, Uchiha Madara, doing at fourteen?
Training within the clan, slaughtering on the battlefield, and struggling to survive in the endless war between the Uchiha and the Senju.
He was already strong back then, but nowhere near this boy's level.
If a genius like this was given a few more years, what heights would he reach?
Madara didn't dare to imagine.
A vicious glint flashed in his eyes as killing intent overpowered his curiosity.
He knew very well that a genius like this could never be subdued by force. They had their own pride, their own path, and would never submit to anyone.
Rather than letting him become an asset to his enemies, it was better to destroy him right now.
With that thought in mind, Madara slammed his hands together.
Clap!
The next moment, the earth beneath their feet began to tremble slightly, vibrating as if something was churning deep underground.
The ground then began to bulge. Fissures spread outward from Madara's feet, and thick tree roots burst from the cracks. The roots writhed in the soil like living creatures before violently tearing out of the earth.
One, two, ten, a hundred...
The moment they breached the surface, the roots began to grow, thickening, lengthening, and branching out at a visible rate.
Trunks shot up from the roots, branches stretched outward in all directions, and leaves unfurled densely across the boughs.
A forest sprouted right out of the scorched earth.
The speed only increased.
Roots became trunks, trunks became a forest, and the forest surged toward Uchiha Taiga like a tidal wave.
The massive timbers twisted, coiled, and extended through the air like giant pythons, lunging at Taiga.
Some attacked from the front, some flanked from the sides, and others burst from underground to snare his ankles.
The entire forest bore down on him, moving like a solid wall of green.
Taiga watched the incoming forest, his eyes lighting up.
He didn't panic, nor did he retreat. He simply raised his ninja blade, its edge catching a cold gleam in the firelight, and swung it down.
The blade tore through the air, sending an invisible edge shooting from the steel to strike the thick wood rushing at him.
Crack!!
The massive timber was cleanly severed down the middle. The upper half flipped through the air a few times before crashing to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
He didn't stop. He swung his blade repeatedly, strike after strike. Invisible slashes flew from his sword, chopping down the incoming trees one by one.
One on the left—severed.
One on the right—severed.
Three from the front—a single slash cut all three simultaneously.
But for every tree he cut down, ten more surged forward to take its place.
For every ten he cut, a hundred more followed.
The forest's growth rate far exceeded his cutting speed. As the severed trees fell, new ones bypassed them, continuing their relentless advance.
Taiga fought as he retreated, his feet moving rapidly across the ground, each step taking him several meters back.
His blade never stopped. Slashes flew out one after another, cutting down the encroaching timber. Yet, there wasn't a hint of panic on his face. Instead, he looked increasingly relaxed, the smile on his lips growing wider.
"Wood Style, huh? Not bad!"
He swung his sword to sever a thick branch winding in from the side. The moment it snapped, another tree crashing down from above reached his face.
He leaned back, letting the tree graze his chest as it smashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater in its wake.
Pushing off his toes, he floated backward several meters, simultaneously unleashing a slash that severed the roots trying to entangle his ankles.
"But it's not enough!"
His voice rang out from amidst the flashing blade, laced with amusement.
"Keep going! Hahaha!"
Up on the small hill, Tsunade's expression changed drastically the moment she saw the forest.
Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat.
That wasn't an ordinary Ninjutsu. That was Wood Style... the Kekkei Genkai belonging to her grandfather, Senju Hashirama. A power capable of creating forests and altering the very terrain.
Shizune saw the forest through her fingers and cried out in shock.
"Wood Style! How is that possible? That's the First Hokage's Kekkei Genkai!"
Tsunade's face darkened.
Her eyes were locked onto Uchiha Madara on the battlefield, her heart sinking.
Not only had Uchiha Madara been resurrected, but he also possessed the power of Wood Style.
What did this mean?
It meant that the boy wasn't just facing Uchiha Madara, but a monster wielding both the Sharingan and Wood Style.
Yugito Nii's pupils also contracted as she took a deep breath.
Looking at the forest that had sprouted from the ground in mere seconds, and feeling the suffocatingly massive chakra fluctuations, she lowered her voice.
"So this is Wood Style? It really is powerful..."
She gripped her ninja blade tightly, her palms slick with sweat.
On the battlefield, the original small mountain forest had completely transformed.
A dense forest had grown over the scorched earth. The trees were towering, their lush branches and leaves blotting out the sky.
The glow of the sea of fire seeped through the gaps in the trees, casting mottled shadows on the trunks.
The forest spanned hundreds of meters in diameter and was still expanding outward.
Uchiha Madara stood at the very top of the tallest tree. It towered over the rest, boasting a massive trunk and a broad canopy.
With his arms crossed over his chest, he stood on the treetops, his body gently rising and falling with the swaying branches. He looked down at the forest below, watching the figure darting between the trees and swinging his blade.
A smile crept onto his face, carrying the satisfaction of a hunter watching his prey struggle in a trap.
But a second later, his smile froze.
A flash of bright light appeared in the forest.
It was a blindingly white light that pierced through the gaps in the trees, looking exceptionally striking against the dark crimson night sky.
That flash of light rapidly expanded in his pupils, transforming into a straight beam that shot directly toward him.
The beam's speed was astonishing, reaching him in the blink of an eye.
Madara leapt from the treetop just as the beam swept beneath his feet, slicing off half the canopy of the tree he had just been standing on.
The canopy split silently in the light. The upper half plummeted from its height, crashing into the branches below with a series of loud snaps.
Flipping through the air, Madara looked down and saw it clearly.
Two perfectly straight beams of light shot out from Uchiha Taiga's position—one to the left, one to the right, extending in completely opposite directions.
They glowed a brilliant white in the night, brighter than the flames, like two white arrows piercing the darkness.
Then, the two beams began to rotate.
With Taiga's body as the axis, the beams swept clockwise.
Wherever they passed, trees were sliced cleanly in half. One, ten, a hundred... every single tree touched by the light fell at the exact same moment.
The small hill was also caught in the crossfire.
The beam sliced through the hillside. The solid rock was as fragile as tofu before the light, leaving a deep, clean gash across the slope.
Tsunade and Yugito ducked simultaneously as the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.
Tsunade looked down and saw the blindingly bright light sweeping across the hillside, her heart skipping a beat.
The beams completed a full rotation and then stopped.
Uchiha Taiga stood in the center of the forest, his arms outstretched to his sides, palms facing outward.
The two beams of light were erupting from his palms, looking like two ribbons of light growing out of his body.
Originating from his hands, the light extended outward for hundreds of meters, seemingly endless.
His body had slowly turned, and the two beams had rotated with him, sweeping across the entire forest.
The beams dissipated.
Taiga lowered his hands. A trace of white light danced in his palms before slowly fading away.
He looked up, surveying his surroundings.
The entire Wood Style forest—every single tree—had been sliced in half.
The massive trunks were split into two. The upper halves lay on the ground, while the lower halves remained standing. The cuts were perfectly smooth, yet charred pitch-black as if they had been scorched.
Leaves were scattered everywhere, blanketing the ground in a thick layer.
The fresh scent of cut wood filled the air, mingling with the burnt smell of the fire to create a peculiar odor.
Uchiha Madara descended from the air, landing on one of the severed stumps.
His feet touched down on the smooth cut. He looked down at the fallen trees around him, then raised his head to look at Taiga.
The amusement was gone from his eyes, replaced by a heavy solemnity.
Standing in the center of the clearing, Taiga looked up at Madara perched high above, his lips parting into a wide grin.
"This Wood Style really is terrifying. It's like a monster."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Taiga didn't wait for Madara to react. His body dissolved into motes of light and vanished, reappearing instantly at Madara's side.
His long leg whipped out like a lash, aiming straight for Madara's head.
"Have you ever been kicked by light?"