Flames erupted forward in a roaring wave, swallowing the battlefield as they surged straight toward Naruto, who stood his ground without flinching.
He didn't even bother to move.
The inferno completely engulfed him, fire spiraling around his body hot enough to melt stone and scorch the earth black. Yet when the blaze settled, Naruto remained standing calmly at its center. Not a single thread of his clothes had burned.
A transparent barrier shimmered around him, faint ripples dancing across its surface as the flames slid harmlessly away.
Madara's eyes narrowed.
Without warning, he descended from above like a falling meteor, cloak snapping violently in the wind. His hand stretched downward as he roared,
"Shinra Tensei!"
A terrifying invisible force exploded from his palm.
The air itself bent and screamed outward. The ground beneath Naruto caved in instantly, rock tearing apart in every direction. Trees were uprooted, debris blasted skyward, and the battlefield split open under the crushing repulsion.
Naruto reacted in a flash, kicking off the ground and leaping backward just before the force reached him.
BOOOOM!
The place where he had stood was erased into a massive crater, dust and shattered stone raining through the air.
Naruto landed lightly several meters away, skidding back as smoke rolled around his feet.
' He's finally using the Rinnegan… Let's take this seriously now, ' he thought.
The next second, his eyes transformed. Orange pigmentation spread around them as his pupils shifted into a sharp cross shape, radiating primal power. Natural energy surged through his body, making the earth tremble beneath his sandals.
Madara noticed immediately.
"You know Sage Art?" he asked, genuine curiosity in his tone.
Naruto rolled his shoulders casually.
"Yeah," he replied shortly.
Madara's lips curled into a grin. "You might actually be a worthy opponent."
Naruto scratched his cheek. "Thanks… I guess."
Madara chuckled darkly. "Then… you won't mind if I do this."
He brought his hands together.
At once, immense blue chakra erupted from his body like a storm. Bones formed first, then armor, then monstrous flesh of pure chakra. In mere moments, a colossal Susanoo towered over the battlefield.
But this was no ordinary form.
It had two massive heads facing opposite directions, each wearing demonic masks of war. Multiple arms extended from its sides, some forming hand seals. The pressure alone made the cracked earth sink lower.
Naruto stared upward, wind whipping through his hair.
' I was waiting for that,' really, he thought.
Then the sky darkened even further. Thunderclouds churned violently overhead. The atmosphere grew heavy, almost suffocating.
Naruto's gaze lifted. Far above the clouds, a gigantic silhouette slowly emerged. Something enormous had been hidden in the heavens. Now it was falling.
Soon!
Whooosh—
A huge meteorite burst through the clouds with catastrophic force a colossal mass of burning rock and molten earth tearing downward like the fist of an angry god.
The impact on the atmosphere was immediate and violent; the heavy rain that had been pouring across the battlefield stopped dead in its tracks, droplets suspended for a split second before evaporating into steam from the sheer heat radiating off the descending behemoth.
The sky itself seemed to scream, a deafening roar of displaced air and superheated wind that flattened trees for miles and sent shockwaves rolling across the land like invisible tsunamis.
All ninja within a 300km radius could see it
, the giant rock descending, glowing white-hot at its core, trailing fire and debris like a falling star turned nightmare.
Their hearts stopped at the sight. Fear flooded them instantly, cold, paralyzing fear. It froze seasoned veterans mid-strike, turning hardened warriors' blood to ice as they stared upward in horrified awe.
Screams rose in scattered pockets; hands trembled on weapons; prayers were whispered under breath as the shadow of annihilation grew larger by the second, blotting out the sun and casting the entire battlefield into unnatural twilight.
On the other side, Naruto looked at Madara briefly, eyes narrowing at the masked figure floating above, he then shook his head slowly, almost disappointed.
'He should've sent two. Let's handle this, bro,he thought.
'YOSHA!' Kurama roared inside him, voice booming with savage excitement.
Immediately Naruto was surrounded by a crimson cloak, thick, living Vermillion chakra erupting outward in a ferocious blaze.
It grew rapidly in size, expanding and solidifying into the towering, majestic form of Kurama himself.
Nine massive tails whipping behind like banners of flame, golden eyes blazing with power, fangs bared in a feral grin.
Naruto now stood inside the cloak, centered in the fox's chest, fully synchronized, red energy flowing through him like a second heartbeat, every sense amplified to godlike levels.
The meteorite continued its deadly descent, burning brighter, roaring louder but Naruto looked up without fear.
Kurama threw his head back and opened his jaws wide.
A dense sphere of violet-black chakra began gathering inside his mouth, swirling violently as layers of energy compressed into one another.
The air around him distorted from the pressure alone. Wind howled outward in every direction, tearing loose stones from the ground and dragging them into the storm of chakra.
The sphere grew larger… and larger… until it rivaled a small hill.
Then, in an instant, it compressed.
All that monstrous power was crushed into a compact orb no bigger than a boulder, humming with catastrophic force. The surrounding space trembled, unable to contain the density of energy packed inside it.
Naruto's eyes sharpened.
"Fire."
The next second, Kurama unleashed it.
A pillar of light erupted from his mouth as the Tailed Beast Bomb tore through the sky. It moved so fast it seemed to vanish and reappear farther ahead, leaving behind a warped tunnel in the atmosphere. Clouds split apart in its wake. Thunder rolled from the shockwave alone.
Compared to the descending meteorite, it looked like a pebble.
But it sure as hell didn't move like one.
The tiny orb slammed straight into the center of the colossal rock, then punched clean through it.
For one frozen second, everything went silent.
The meteorite hung in the sky with a glowing hole through its core. Tiny cracks spread outward like veins of light. Sparks flickered from every fracture. Chunks of stone began to crumble away.
The battlefield below grew eerily still.
Madara looked up.
Naruto simply watched.
And then—
B O O O O O M!
The heavens detonated.
A blinding sphere of white light consumed the sky, so bright it turned night into day. The meteorite shattered into millions of burning fragments as the explosion expanded outward like a newborn sun.
A thunderous shockwave followed half a second later.
The sound was beyond thunder, beyond artillery, an apocalyptic roar that drowned out all thought. Mountains in the distance cracked. Forests bent flat beneath the pressure. The earth itself rippled like water as the blast wave slammed downward.
A hurricane of fire and debris rained across the battlefield. Flaming stones streaked through the air like meteors of their own, carving trenches wherever they landed.
The clouds above were completely erased, blown apart in a massive circular clearing that stretched for kilometers.
Even the sky seemed wounded. Kurama dug his feet into the ground as his cloak whipped violently.
Madara's hair and armor snapped in the raging winds, yet the grin on his face only widened. Because standing in the aftermath of that impossible explosion… He had found someone truly dangerous.
' He might be stronger than Hashirama. ' he thought to himself.
TO BE CONTINUED