Senju Hikaru stood calmly in place, as if everything that had just happened meant nothing to him.
Of course, that calm was only on the surface.
Deep down, even he felt a lingering chill.
Until now, he had always been the one using Tailed Beast Bombs against others. Even when he had faced the Nine-Tails’ attack, he had prepared in advance to deal with it.
This time, although he had the Wood Human as his foundation, it was still his first time using the technique in actual combat.
He knew the technique was powerful, but knowing and experiencing were two different things.
If he had used another technique he was more familiar with, he naturally would not have felt this uncertainty.
Blocking the Fourth Raikage was only basic operation. After all, the Fourth Raikage’s attacks were still within the range of nin-taijutsu.
But a Tailed Beast Bomb was different.
It was the most destructive attack a tailed beast possessed.
As a hidden jinchūriki himself, Hikaru understood better than most how dangerous that attack truly was.
Fortunately, the Wood Human’s defense had not disappointed him.
"But I can’t keep dragging this out."
Hikaru murmured inwardly.
His chakra was still relatively abundant. After all, his recovery ability was reliable.
However, his eyes were beginning to feel fatigued, and his Sage chakra was starting to reach its limit.
That was not good news.
It meant he could no longer maintain both Jōgan Chakra Mode and Sage Mode for much longer.
Under these circumstances, the best choice was to end the battle quickly.
At this point, Hikaru had basically achieved everything he wanted.
All of Kumo’s shinobi had been trapped within Deep Forest Bloom. Although some were showing signs of escaping, that was only because Hikaru had stopped continuously feeding chakra into the technique.
Even so, breaking free from those branches and vines would not be easy.
After all, this was Deep Forest Bloom.
Beyond that, the Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails jinchūriki had been pushed close to their limits.
Even if they had not reached their absolute peak, it was already enough for Hikaru.
What he needed to do now was finish this.
Completely crush this battle and bring it to an end.
With that thought, Hikaru took a deep breath. Chakra surged wildly through his body, and that movement immediately made the Fourth Raikage and Killer B react.
"There is no need to struggle."
Hikaru looked at the two of them indifferently and shook his head.
"Your struggles have no meaning."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hikaru slowly floated into the sky.
His blue eyes, glowing with flowing light, looked mysterious and divine.
Flight.
It was the dream of countless shinobi.
Yet in the current shinobi world, the only known shinobi capable of flying was Ōnoki.
But today, Hikaru shattered that concept.
He, too, was a shinobi capable of flight.
And his deterrence was far more terrifying than Ōnoki’s.
Ōnoki stared at Hikaru’s figure from afar, and in that instant, his heart sank completely.
Previously, he had thought that he might be able to restrain Hikaru.
His greatest advantage was flight. He could stay in the sky and use Particle Style against Hikaru from above.
But now, his greatest advantage had been silently broken by Hikaru.
To Ōnoki, this was nothing short of disastrous news.
"Stop him!"
The Fourth Raikage roared.
He did not care whether Hikaru could fly or not.
He leapt up and charged toward Hikaru again.
Killer B controlled the Eight-Tails and let out a roar, then rushed toward Hikaru as well.
But before they could reach him, the Wood Human and Wood Dragon moved.
The Wood Human stepped down heavily.
Boom!
A thunderous rumble erupted.
The earth seemed especially fragile beneath that foot.
Under the Wood Human’s stomp, countless cracks spread through the ground like a spiderweb. Then the earth collapsed outright, and countless stones shot into the air.
The tremor spread extremely far.
Those cracks rapidly extended along with the shock, while only Deep Forest Bloom remained unmoved amid the upheaval.
Dust flew wildly.
Compared to such destruction, the Fourth Raikage’s body looked tiny.
Although he was fast, in an instant, he was swallowed by smoke, dust, and shattered stone.
On the other side, the Wood Dragon attacked the Eight-Tails.
The Wood Dragon possessed terrifying binding power.
Back during the Nine-Tails Incident, Hikaru had used the Wood Dragon against the Nine-Tails, though the Nine-Tails had not been in the best condition then.
Of course, Hikaru back then had not been as strong as he was now.
At that time, his beginner-level Wood Release combined with intermediate Sage Mode had been roughly equal to the weakened Nine-Tails.
Even then, Hikaru had pinned the Nine-Tails in place, leaving it unable to move.
This time, Hikaru’s power had reached an entirely different peak.
He not only had intermediate Wood Release, but also advanced Sage Mode and Jōgan Chakra Mode.
Under the enhancement of all these powers, the Wood Dragon he released carried many mixed forms of chakra, but its might had also risen to a terrifying level.
Under Hikaru’s control, the Wood Dragon instantly coiled around the Eight-Tails and tightened at once.
"Roooar!"
The Wood Dragon’s terrifying restraint forced a pained roar from the Eight-Tails.
At the same time, the Eight-Tails’ body began to shrink slightly.
Like traditional Wood Release, the Wood Dragon could absorb chakra.
Once it wrapped around the Eight-Tails, it rapidly devoured the beast’s immense chakra.
In only moments, the Eight-Tails lowered its head.
Clearly, it no longer had much combat strength left.
Hikaru floated in the air, his chakra already pushed to its limit.
In truth, he did not need this much preparation to release the technique.
He was only deciding which technique to use to end everything.
He had already made up his mind.
He would not spare a single one of these seven thousand Kumo shinobi.
Even if the Eight-Tails jinchūriki and the Fourth Raikage were unlucky enough to die here, it would not matter.
Changing the so-called plot placed no burden on Hikaru’s conscience.
And he had the power to wipe out every shinobi here.
The only thing he hesitated over was his choice.
Should he use the power innate to the Jōgan, the ability similar to Shinra Tensei that he had comprehended during his battle with Pain?
Or should he use the ultimate secret art of the Senju Clan, the strongest Wood Release technique said to be wieldable only by the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama?
True Several Thousand Hands.
In truth, Hikaru had never used either technique before. To him, the difficulty was about the same.
"But compared to True Several Thousand Hands, Shinra Tensei does not require hand seals, and its exact effect is harder to judge. Besides..."
The blue light in Hikaru’s eyes flickered slightly.
He had already decided.
"Ōnoki is here. It is a shame that fool Rasa did not come as well, but Ōnoki alone is enough.
"After all, he is someone who lived through the end of the era of the twin gods.
"Then let me help you remember it properly."
With that thought, Hikaru no longer hesitated.
The power within him erupted completely.
Rarely, he brought his hands together.
Vast chakra poured out wildly.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
The moment Hikaru’s chakra surged, the earth trembled once more.
But this time, the entire world seemed to fall into absolute silence.
Everyone could feel the earth shaking beneath them, yet their ears seemed unable to hear anything at all.
The sky gradually darkened.
In this world of silence, the ground was covered by a layer of shadow.
Under that shadow, everyone fell silent at the same time.
They stared blankly at the colossal figure rising from the earth.
At that moment, regardless of whether they were enemies or allies, their hearts seemed to suffer an unimaginable impact.
At that moment, silent fear became the shared feeling in every heart.
Clang.
Within Deep Forest Bloom, a Kumo shinobi with excellent luck and decent strength stared at the scene before him.
He could no longer hold on.
The kunai in his hand fell to the ground.
He stood there, dazed and helpless, staring at the enormous figure slowly rising, blotting out the sky.
"Is... is this a lie?"
The Kumo shinobi who had been bound by branches and vines, now awakened after the poison pollen had been burned away and dispersed, were filled with blankness, terror, and despair.
For a moment, they truly wished they had never woken up.
That way, they would not have had to face this scene of absolute despair.
"Am I dreaming? If I am, hurry up and wake me!"
"Is this really something a shinobi can do...?"
"I don’t want to die... someone save me..."
"Damn it... why does a monster like this exist?"
"Are we even from the same world?"
At that moment, even Dodai had lost all fighting spirit.
He knelt on the scarred earth, staring blankly at the colossal figure before him.
Despair echoed endlessly in his heart.
Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
"It’s over... everything is over..."
At this moment, he no longer looked spirited.
At this moment, he no longer looked like a strategist in control of the battlefield.
At this moment, all that remained was endless self-blame and despair.
The Fourth Raikage pushed away the massive stones that had buried him.
When he had charged earlier, the Wood Human had stomped the earth apart, causing him to fall into a deep pit.
His body had been buried under boulders, and he had spent tremendous effort pushing them away.
But he never expected that this would be the scene he saw after breaking free.
He said nothing.
He silently climbed to his feet.
He knew that at this point, anything he said would be useless.
He could not think of any way to stop this.
Slowly, he raised his head.
A deep sense of powerlessness surged from the depths of his heart.
Perhaps, at this moment, he finally regretted it.
He regretted attacking Konoha.
He regretted starting this war.
He regretted failing to test out Hikaru’s strength in advance.
"So this... is despair?"
For some reason, Hikaru’s question from before the battle echoed in his mind.
He had once thought that his fight against Hikaru had already shown him what Hikaru meant by despair.
Deep Forest Bloom.
The Wood Human.
The Wood Dragon.
Those techniques had already let him feel despair.
But now, he realized he had still underestimated the despair Hikaru spoke of.
Perhaps only this moment could be called true despair.
"Are you ready?"
Hikaru gently landed on top of the enormous True Several Thousand Hands.
He looked down at the figures below with a smile.
His voice was very soft, even slightly weak, but it still echoed clearly across the entire plain.
Hikaru was indeed not feeling well right now.
This was his first time using such an ultimate technique, and he had no real experience with it.
In the end, this was his own fault.
Back in Konoha, he had only learned the technique. He had never truly used it.
If he had used it even once, he could have relied on the system to fully master it.
Even if there were still flaws during basic execution, he would not have exhausted his chakra almost completely like this.
Honestly, ever since obtaining the incomplete power of Asura, he had basically never experienced the feeling of having his chakra drained dry.
Now, he was experiencing it again.
And he hated the feeling.
Fortunately, his chakra was still recovering.
Even though he could no longer support Sage Mode or Jōgan Chakra Mode, he could still use his own chakra to control True Several Thousand Hands.
After all, the technique’s core chakra belonged to him.
But he still needed a moment to recover.
The consumption had been enormous.
"Just what are you?"
The Fourth Raikage asked with difficulty.
He had already reached the foot of True Several Thousand Hands.
He looked up at the enormous thousand-armed Guanyin statue that blotted out the sky, his voice weak and powerless.
"My name is Hikaru. Senju Hikaru."
Hikaru spoke softly.
Under the effect of chakra, his voice echoed across the entire plain once more.
"Perhaps Lord Raikage already knows my name. After all, I have never hidden it.
"But to be honest, I have never properly introduced myself either.
"However, it seems our first meeting will not have a pleasant ending, so I will not say anything like, ’Nice to meet you, please take care of me.’"
At this point, Hikaru paused slightly.
He could feel that his chakra had recovered to the level he needed.
He raised his hand lightly and formed a seal.
At that instant, his chakra surged again.
His voice rang out once more across the plain.
"Then let us end it here.
"This unjust invasion war that you started will be ended with your lives.
"Ninja Art: Summit Enlightenment!"
"Run... run!"
When Hikaru’s chakra erupted again and the thousand-meter-tall True Several Thousand Hands began to move, even the slightest movement from such an enormous body produced an earth-shaking result.
The surviving Kumo shinobi had lost all will to fight.
In truth, the moment they saw True Several Thousand Hands, they had already fallen into complete despair.
Those Kumo shinobi who had dropped their weapons and had not yet been caught by branches and vines no longer cared about their comrades.
They ran desperately outward.
They gritted their teeth and squeezed every trace of chakra from their bodies.
They no longer cared whether their bodies could endure it, using Body Flicker again and again to flee.
The Body Flicker Technique placed a heavy burden on the body. Otherwise, there would not be so few people who truly mastered it.
With the way these Kumo shinobi were draining themselves, they could already feel their muscles trembling all over.
That was the backlash of repeated Body Flicker use.
They knew very well that if this continued, they might suffer injuries that could never be healed.
But they did not care.
They did not even care about their comrades anymore.
How could they care about that?
At this moment, they had only one thought.
Run.
Run as far as possible.
They never wanted to see this monster again.
Unfortunately, that was only an unrealistic fantasy.
All of True Several Thousand Hands’ massive arms began to move.
Each hand, large enough to seize the Nine-Tails, clenched into a fist.
Then they smashed down toward Deep Forest Bloom.
When True Several Thousand Hands threw a punch, the entire world seemed to collapse.
The earth was overturned.
A mountain-splitting, ocean-overturning force swept outward.
There was nothing else.
At this level of power, True Several Thousand Hands no longer needed any "technique" to support its attack.
The simplest maximization of force was already the most practical attack.
Most importantly, this attack was not launched only once.
Every fist of True Several Thousand Hands would strike.
This was Hikaru’s limit.
Perhaps in the future, his performance would be better.
But for now, this was all he could do.
Even so, no matter how one looked at it, it was more than enough to handle any problem currently before him.
The mountain-splitting fists descended with suffocating force.
An earth-shattering chakra aftershock swept outward.
Under the guidance of that chakra, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and lightning flickered faintly overhead.
When the first fist struck the Eight-Tails bound by the Wood Dragon, the Eight-Tails immediately let out a scream.
Its body began to collapse rapidly.
Endless cracks spread across it.
Whether it was the Eight-Tails’ blood or Killer B’s blood, blood began to pour uncontrollably from its body.
Unimaginable aftershocks raged outward.
Amid the thunderous impact, the earth completely collapsed.
At that moment, heaven and earth seemed to mourn together.
Boom!
Another fist struck Killer B’s body.
This time, the Eight-Tails shattered completely.
That massive body vanished without a trace.
At the same time, a small figure flew backward.
Even without the Jōgan, Hikaru knew that was Killer B.
Hikaru did not know whether Killer B was dead or alive.
After all, he could no longer use the Jōgan to observe.
But Hikaru did not care.
Whether it was Killer B or the Fourth Raikage, whether they lived or died made little difference to him.
He focused more on the Kumo shinobi within Deep Forest Bloom.
This time, he intended to wipe them all out.
The terrifying giant fists descended again and again with endless wind pressure.
The destructive force continued to spread.
Within Deep Forest Bloom, the Kumo shinobi bound by branches and vines had no time to react before they were swallowed by that power.
The shinobi trying to escape could not get far either.
They did not even have time to scream before that force erased them completely.
"No!"
Some Kumo shinobi refused to wait for death.
Their hands quickly formed seals, and defensive ninjutsu appeared one after another without pause.
But the instant the aftershock touched them, the defenses they had built proved as fragile as paper.
Their entire bodies were crushed beneath that vast power.
Chakra and force continued to surge.
At that moment, the Kumo shinobi had no possibility of survival.
Amid deafening explosions, enormous dust clouds rose between heaven and earth.
The trembling ground shook constantly.
Even places dozens of kilometers away, perhaps even over a hundred kilometers away, could feel the earth quaking.
"Damn it!"
All of Konoha’s shinobi retreated as fast as they could.
At this moment, they only hated that they did not have another pair of legs so they could run even faster.
The terrifying giant Buddha that blotted out the sky was not aimed at them, but its aftershocks were already unbearable.
Wild winds raged around them.
The ground shook from time to time.
Dark clouds covered the sky.
It looked like a natural disaster had descended.
Thundering booms beyond the range of their hearing rolled across the battlefield.
At that moment, everyone was deafened at once.
Some of the weaker shinobi even had thin trails of blood dripping from their ears.
Powerful shockwaves mixed with shattered stone swept toward them.
They could no longer guarantee their own safety.
The only thing they could do was run.
Nara Shikaku deeply regretted it now.
Hikaru had told him to take the troops as far away as possible.
But Hikaru had not told him exactly what he intended to do, or how far he would go.
That had made it impossible for Shikaku to withdraw the army lightly.
And now, it seemed that if he had led the army away back then, they would not be in such a terrible situation.
Not only Shikaku regretted it.
Ōnoki’s heart was also bleak.
He had never dreamed that he would witness such a technique.
This kind of Wood Release had only been vaguely mentioned in his grandfather’s notes.
It seemed to be Senju Hashirama’s strongest technique.
This technique had established Hashirama’s title as the God of Shinobi.
With such a technique, one person could truly destroy an entire village.
"Too terrifying... truly too terrifying!"
Ōnoki’s heart filled with powerlessness.
He had no idea how to face such power.
Because he realized that no matter what he did, he had no way to confront this technique.
If he faced it, the only outcome would be death.
Konoha was still Konoha.
At this moment, Konoha had returned to the past.
It had returned to the Konoha that stood above the entire shinobi world and looked down upon all villages.
Because Konoha had one person.
A man comparable to the God of Shinobi.
A man from the same clan as Senju Hashirama.
That young man’s name was Senju Hikaru.
Only after a long while did True Several Thousand Hands finally stop attacking.
Even then, the suffocating aftershocks still lingered.
The aftershocks lasted for a long time before everything finally calmed.
At that moment, everyone could not wait to look around.
Their ears were still ringing.
They could hear nothing but a constant buzzing.
Yet when they saw the scene before them, they could only open their mouths in silence.
Before their eyes, the entire plain had collapsed completely.
A massive canyon had appeared in the distance.
The earth was devastated.
Crater after crater covered the land.
The surrounding trees had long since vanished.
The battlefield looked like hell itself, chilling everyone to the bone.
Dark clouds filled the sky.
Thunder rumbled.
Heavy rain poured down, as if trying to wash the ruined earth clean.
At that moment, the same thought appeared in everyone’s mind.
"Is this... really something a human can do?"
The vast earth was bleak as far as the eye could see.
After being ravaged by True Several Thousand Hands, only endless desolation remained.
The land was scarred beyond recognition.
The terrain had become completely distorted.
A deep canyon now lay before Hikaru’s eyes.
Deep Forest Bloom had completely vanished.
Countless shinobi lay scattered across the ground.
Some had been turned into mangled flesh beneath the iron fists of True Several Thousand Hands.
Many more had no corpses left at all.
The thick stench of blood spread across the earth.
Hikaru immediately released True Several Thousand Hands.
As he fell from the sky, he actually stumbled slightly when he landed.
Taking a deep breath, Hikaru felt the enormity of his consumption.
This battle had completely exceeded his expectations.
"This really was brutal..."
Hikaru sighed inwardly.
He knew how powerful True Several Thousand Hands was.
After all, it was a technique used to counter Madara’s peak Majestic Attire: Susanoo.
True Several Thousand Hands combined with Summit Enlightenment had completely destroyed the Susanoo-clad Nine-Tails and created the famous Valley of the End.
Even though Hikaru had launched Summit Enlightenment after he could no longer maintain Jōgan Chakra Mode or Sage Mode, the power of True Several Thousand Hands alone still caused unimaginable destruction.
But this destructive force had exceeded Hikaru’s own expectations.
And its consumption was also somewhat unbearable.
Only now did he realize that the resurrected Senju Hashirama in the original story had not been at his peak.
His comment about having roughly seventy or eighty percent of his prime strength had not been a joke.
Hikaru had always thought that with Jōgan Chakra Mode combined with Sage Mode, he should have reached Hashirama’s peak level.
Reality had taught him a lesson.
Perhaps he had reached that level in some respects.
But overall, he was still only close.
"As expected, I still have a long road ahead."
Hikaru slowly exhaled.
Then he turned and left.
He had no interest in checking whether there were survivors.
There was no need.
He was very tired now.
That Summit Enlightenment had drained the chakra he had just recovered, and even though he was continuing to recover now, he was still struggling.
Moreover, the smell of blood here was too strong.
When Hikaru took that deep breath earlier, he had nearly choked.
He did not like this environment at all.
"I wonder how Shikaku and the others are doing. And Ōnoki’s group too."
As he walked, Hikaru thought silently.
True Several Thousand Hands had an enormous range.
Looking at the once-flat plain that he had turned into a canyon, Hikaru would not be surprised if this place became a waterfall years later.
With such overwhelming power, Hikaru was also somewhat worried about the condition of Konoha’s forces.
Although he had told them to stay far away, during the battle, his Jōgan had seen that they had not moved.
That was not good news.
If a large number of Konoha shinobi had died because of the aftershocks of his own battle, that would be extremely troublesome.
"I just hope Nara Shikaku and the others reacted quickly enough.
"And Ōnoki should still be alive, right?"
Ōnoki had not been too far from the battlefield either.
There was a significant chance he had been affected.
Although Hikaru did not care much whether Ōnoki lived or died, if the old man died and Iwagakure blamed Hikaru for it, that would be annoying.
But as soon as that thought appeared, Hikaru could not help laughing.
As long as Iwa’s observers were not all wiped out, everything he had done today would absolutely spread through Iwagakure.
With the help of the newspaper, it might even spread through the entire shinobi world.
At that point, if Iwagakure lost Ōnoki and still dared to come after him, Hikaru could only say they truly were not afraid of death.
Slowly walking forward, Hikaru raised his head and looked at the sunlight in the sky.
The sunlight was dazzling.
It formed a sharp contrast with the desolate scene on the ground.
At this moment, Hikaru had a feeling.
Right now, he was like that blazing sun.
In this era, he had already stood above the clouds.
Far away, within a field of ruins, Killer B lay limp among shattered stones.
Not a single part of his body was unharmed.
Blood continuously seeped from him.
His aura was extremely weak, and even his chakra was almost gone.
But he was still alive.
Perhaps that was the advantage of being a jinchūriki.
As long as the tailed beast had not died or been extracted, the jinchūriki still had a chance to survive.
But Killer B looked utterly lost.
He did not understand how things had become like this.
Eight thousand shinobi had been wiped away in this moment.
His big brother’s life or death was unknown.
Despair spread through his heart.
For an instant, he truly wished he had simply died.
But he knew he could not die.
He still had to return to Kumogakure.
As the Eight-Tails jinchūriki, he still had to protect Kumo.
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