Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

The Fudo Myoo statue and the Kannon statue collided.

The earth seemed to tear apart in that instant. Beneath the feet of the two colossal statues, the ground twisted and shattered like a wrung-out cloth, with fissures erupting in all directions and extending to the foothills miles away.

The Kannon statue's thousand arms shot forward simultaneously, crashing down layer by layer like a tidal wave.

The front row of arms extended first, fists clenched tight, smashing toward the Fudo Myoo statue's chest.

Immediately following were the second, third, and fourth rows—a dense, overwhelming flood of arms surging forward.

Each arm was hundreds of meters long, and each fist was the size of a house. As they struck, the compressed air let out sharp, piercing shrieks, echoing like rolling thunder.

The Fudo Myoo statue swung its four arms, tracing arcs through the air with four golden swords.

Wherever the blades passed, the air was sliced open with ear-splitting screeches.

The first strike slashed into the leading row of arms. A flash of golden light swept past, and over a dozen arms were cleanly severed. The smooth, wooden stumps plummeted from the sky, crashing into the ground with deafening booms and kicking up billowing clouds of dust.

The second strike hit the second row, severing another dozen arms.

The third strike, the fourth strike—the four longswords swung in alternating rhythms, each swing cleaving through a swath of wooden limbs.

The severed arms rained down from the heavens. Some smashed into distant hills, collapsing half the slopes. Some crashed into the forest, gouging out massive craters. Others slammed into the plains, leaving deep trenches in the earth.

The thunderous impacts of the falling limbs echoed endlessly—boom, boom, boom—like a thousand cannons firing at once.

Shockwaves erupted from the clash between the two behemoths, churning everything in their vicinity.

Gale-force winds surged from the epicenter, carrying wood splinters and shattered stone, pushing outward in all directions like a solid wall.

Massive ravines were carved into the earth by the sheer force of the shockwaves. Some were as straight as a blade's cut, while others snaked like serpents, the longest stretching for miles.

But the True Several Thousand Hands simply had too many arms. Even though the Fudo Myoo statue's four longswords were razor-sharp and swung with blinding speed, two fists could not block four hands, and four swords could not fend off a thousand arms. Inevitably, some slipped through the net of blades and struck the Fudo Myoo statue.

A fist slammed into the Fudo Myoo statue's chest. Stone and sand fractured, debris tumbled down, and a deep fist imprint was left behind.

Another fist struck its shoulder, shattering a massive chunk of rock that plummeted from the sky.

A third fist pounded its abdomen, cracking a long fissure across the stone plating.

The Fudo Myoo statue began to sustain damage.

The fist imprints on its chest multiplied, the chunk missing from its shoulder grew larger, and the fissure across its abdomen lengthened. A fist smashed into its left elbow, sending stone chips flying and leaving a deep crack along the arm.

Yet, it did not retreat. It did not even sway. Its four arms continued to swing, and its four swords continued to slash.

The Fudo Myoo statue's counterattacks were even more terrifying.

Every swing of those golden longswords unleashed a massive arc of light. Wherever the light passed, the Wood Style arms were sliced open as easily as paper.

After just a few swings, more than half of the wooden arms had been severed.

The severed limbs detached from the Kannon statue and rained down from the sky, slamming into the earth with earth-shattering rumbles that felt like the end of the world.

Out of a thousand arms, over six hundred were cut down.

The arms on the Kannon statue dwindled, shifting from a dense thicket to a sparse scattering, and finally to a few isolated limbs.

Most of the remaining arms were heavily damaged. Some were sliced in half, some were missing fingers, and others were split wide open down the middle. Every sword strike landed solidly on the wood, taking away a swath of arms with each slash.

The battle of the behemoths reached a boiling point from the very start.

Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama stood atop the Majestic Attire Wooden Golem on the Kannon statue's head, both of their hands trembling slightly.

It wasn't out of fear, but because the chakra output was simply too massive—so massive that their bodies in the Reanimation state struggled to endure it.

Although the Reanimation state supposedly granted infinite chakra, the limitations of their sacrificial vessels placed a hard cap on their maximum output.

And right now, their chakra output had reached that absolute limit.

The two maintained their hand signs, shouting continuously as chakra surged from their bodies, channeling through the Majestic Attire Wooden Golem into the Kannon statue to sustain its form and movement.

Senju Hashirama still wore a smile, but it was no longer as relaxed as before; it now carried a hint of strain.

Uchiha Madara had no smile at all. His Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan spun rapidly in his sockets, bleeding crimson light onto his tense face.

Uchiha Taiga also stood atop his Majestic Attire Wooden Golem, his hands clasped together in a hand sign.

The pale-gold chakra flames around him burned fiercely, and the five pale-gold chakra spheres behind him spun rapidly, emitting a loud hum.

He was laughing loudly, his laughter echoing across the battlefield, carrying an uncontrollable excitement.

At this moment, blood was still weeping from the corners of Uchiha Taiga's eyes. Coupled with his maniacal laughter and the twin trails of blood, he looked somewhat deranged.

Only two or three minutes had passed, yet both colossal statues were already riddled with scars.

The Fudo Myoo statue had lost three of its arms.

One snapped at the elbow, one was severed at the base, and only a small stump remained of the third. The breaks revealed the pale gray rock beneath, with loose gravel constantly crumbling from the edges.

Its relatively intact right arm had a massive gash torn into the shoulder, a crack extending all the way down to its chest, looking as though it could snap off at any moment.

The halo of light behind it had dimmed significantly, no longer as blinding as before. Its body was covered in fist imprints and fissures, shedding debris that piled into small hills on the ground below.

The True Several Thousand Hands Kannon statue had suffered even heavier damage.

Ninety percent of the thousand arms on its back had been destroyed. Less than forty remained attached, and even those were battered—some reduced to half their length, some split wide open, and others completely missing their fingers.

The main body of the Kannon statue was also heavily damaged. A long gash had been carved into its chest by the golden swords, a massive chunk was missing from its abdomen, and a large section of wood had been sheared off its shoulder.

The Kannon statue stood there, wood splinters still raining down from it, looking like a person whose skin was being peeled away in the wind.

Overall, the Fudo Myoo statue held the upper hand.

This was because the four golden chakra swords it wielded were no ordinary weapons; they were the chakra form manifestation of the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

That power could cut through anything. Before it, the wood of the Wood Style was as thin as paper and as soft as tofu.

It wasn't that Senju Hashirama's Wood Style wasn't strong enough, but rather that the golden sword light was simply too sharp.

Senju Hashirama realized this. A look of resolve settled on his face, and he spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but Uchiha Madara beside him heard it clearly.

"Madara, you maintain the chakra. I'm going in."

Uchiha Madara's expression shifted slightly. His hand signs didn't change, and his chakra continued to surge, but he turned his head to look at Senju Hashirama, his brows furrowing.

"No."

His voice was stiff. "You stay. I'll go."

But before he could finish his sentence, Senju Hashirama had already moved.

Senju Hashirama leaped straight off the head of the Majestic Attire Wooden Golem, landing on one of the Kannon statue's arms, and sprinted forward along it.

His pace was incredibly fast, every step planted firmly, running across the massive arm as if on flat ground.

Standing atop the Majestic Attire Wooden Golem, Uchiha Madara watched Senju Hashirama's retreating back, the corner of his mouth twitching as the muscles in his face spasmed slightly.

"That bastard!"

Despite his words, he refocused his attention on the battlefield. Chakra poured from his body, continuing to sustain the Kannon statue's existence.

Senju Hashirama sprinted along the Kannon statue's arm, darting from limb to limb, rushing from the base all the way to the front.

As he ran, something began to seep out from behind him, condensing like water to take shape.

The texture of wood, the color of wood, the feel of wood.

The wood rapidly molded into his likeness—a head, a torso, limbs, and a face identical to his own.

One, two, three, four.

Four Wood Clones separated from his body, running right behind him.

Four Wood Clones, plus Senju Hashirama's original body, making five in total.

The five Senju Hashiramas sprinted along the Kannon statue's arm, shooting toward the Fudo Myoo statue like five arrows.

Atop the Majestic Attire Wooden Golem, Uchiha Taiga stood still, watching the five figures leap from the Kannon statue's arm and fly toward him, finally landing right in front of him.

The five Senju Hashiramas formed a semicircle, surrounding him in the center.

Uchiha Taiga didn't move, nor did he even change his posture. He merely looked at the five Senju Hashiramas before him and broke into a grin.

"You've lost."

Senju Hashirama looked at him and sighed.

"You are very strong, but you are also too dangerous."

As he said this, his expression was completely serious.

"So, for the safety of the ninja world, I must defeat you."

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