Chapter 368: Fighting For One's Life
"Second Grandpa, stop tangling with Hashirama. That guy ran away," Mito reminded him calmly.
"Don't worry, Mito. He won't get away!"
Masahiko gave Hashirama a hard punch, snapping several giant Wood Release trees, and frowned as he looked up. "Madara didn't appear? Is he messing with me? Is it that miraculous..."
Turning to face Hashirama charging at him again, Masahiko slightly focused his mind. "Eight Inner Gates - Fifth Gate, Gate of Limit - Open!"
The erupting chakra blew apart the continuously growing trees around him. Masahiko used the Body Flicker Technique to appear behind Hashirama, 'riding' him to the ground and locking him in a 'minor joint lock'.
"Second Grandpa, what are you doing? Just use that bone spur of yours..." Hashirama spoke while struggling uncontrollably.
"Hehe." Masahiko smiled. "Sorry, Hashirama."
A sealing scroll automatically flew out from his clothes and opened, releasing eight iron rods that pierced through Hashirama's Edo Tensei body from different angles.
"Sealing Jutsu: Eight Trigrams Blockade!"
Using the eight iron rods to form a sealing formula, Masahiko locked Hashirama to the ground.
"Done." Masahiko clapped his hands, canceling the Sage Mode and the Eight Inner Gates, and took two steps back. "This way, Hashirama, you can catch up with Mito, Tsunade, and the others for a while. That guy won't undo the Edo Tensei anytime soon."
Because Edo Tensei couldn't be canceled individually, and Masahiko didn't know about the unexpected turn of events on Madara's side, he felt that the young man most likely wouldn't easily release the jutsu.
Hashirama was firmly pinned to the ground by the sealing formula of the eight iron rods; right now, only his head could move. He slightly raised his head and smiled bitterly. "Second Grandpa, you're going to let me chat with them like this? Can't you change it to another sealing formula?"
Masahiko smiled. "Other seals waste too much time. Enough idle talk, I have to go chase him, otherwise he really will get away."
"Great-Great-Grandpa, go ahead. Take your time dealing with him. Nawaki, Michiyama, and Itachi should wake up in a bit. Let them see Grandfather and Grandmother too." Tsunade walked over.
"It's fine, Edo Tensei won't be undone just because the caster dies. Well then, goodbye, Mito, Hashirama." Masahiko's figure disappeared from the spot.
Hashirama remained slightly silent, looked up at Tsunade, and suddenly revealed a smile. "Tsunade, did you bring a dice cup?"
Tsunade sat cross-legged on the ground. "Of course!"
Mito, having used a sealing formula to lock her own body nearby, quietly watched the two start gambling, a gentle smile on her face.
...
Five kilometers northwest of the Senju Ancestral Land, Masahiko's figure flickered, appearing in front of the frantically fleeing young man.
"You almost managed to run out of my sensory range," Masahiko smiled and shook his head. "Do you have any other trump cards? Since you appeared at the Senju Ancestral Land, I'm guessing you dug up their ancestral graves, right? Why not call Hashirama's old man out to catch up with me?"
The young man took a deep breath, his gaze fixed on Masahiko, and then used the Body Flicker Technique to flee diagonally forward.
Masahiko shook his head, a bone spur protruding from his right hand. "It seems you don't. All-Killing Ash Bones!"
Clang!
Once again, that bizarre weapon blocked the bone spur. Masahiko smiled, his left arm pulling back. "The same situation, try blocking this time? Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack!"
"Shinra Tensei!"
Unlike before, this time the repulsive force only blocked it for a fraction of a second before the young man spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying by the residual power.
Masahiko took two steps forward, looking at the young man who was still struggling to get up, covered in blood, and shook his head slightly. "Are you afraid of death, or do you still have unfulfilled goals?"
"Masahiko Uzumaki!" The young man suddenly let out a low roar. "Do you... really... not remember who I am?!"
Masahiko was slightly taken aback, his brows furrowing tightly. "Have we really met? Stop lying, Great Ancestor's brain works perfectly fine."
"Hehe..." The young man clambered to his feet, his face covered in blood, and looked straight at Masahiko. "So you never even thought highly of me..."
Masahiko frowned and shook his head, drawing his right arm back. "Stop talking nonsense. For a mortal body like yours to last this long in front of me relying solely on Madara's Rinnegan, no one would look down on you. I'll give you a glorious finale. Eighty... Hmm?"
The young man suddenly rolled sideways, as if triggering some mechanism, and plummeted into the ground.
"There's a secret base here too? No wonder he ran this way." Masahiko took a few steps forward, scanning the ground that had just opened and closed, and pondered slightly. "Hmm... Open Sesame?"
"As expected, it doesn't work?" A moment later, Masahiko sighed. Raising his right foot high, he forcefully stomped down. After a loud boom, a deep and dark hole appeared before his eyes, and he leapt down.
"What a huge underground space... There's another chakra reaction, is it a helper?"
"Then let's go for a wall-piercing headshot..." Masahiko concentrated, locking onto the target with the Mind's Eye of the Kagura. He condensed and spat out a Tailed Beast Bomb from his mouth, which pierced through layers of walls directly toward the young man.
The Tailed Beast Bomb exploded violently, and the underground space teetered on the verge of collapse. Masahiko hurriedly formed seals and used Earth Release to reinforce it. He didn't want any tricks like 'the young man was buried deep underground but luckily evaded his search and escaped'.
"The chakra reaction is still there..." Masahiko used the Body Flicker Technique. After passing through the thick smoke and dust, he saw the young man lying on the ground, covered in blood. A familiar coffin rose in front of him, and a scruffy old man was put inside.
"Not a helper, but a living sacrifice?" Masahiko formed his right hand into the shape of a gun and pointed it at the young man.
"Big Brother Minato! Big Brother Minato..."
"Hmm?!" Masahiko was stunned. The Tailed Beast Bomb at his fingertips shattered as he turned his head to look at the coffin. "The one put inside just now... was actually Nakajiki?!"
"That's right," the young man slowly climbed to his feet. "Masahiko Uzumaki, I originally didn't want to use this trump card..."
Masahiko remained silent for a moment. "So what if it's Nakajiki? In my heart, that naive child already died back in Konoha Year 13. However, you truly are a child with ideas. Using an immortal body as a sacrifice for Edo Tensei, immortal plus immortal, do you think you can ascend to heaven?"
Bang!
The coffin door instantly shattered. Masahiko saw clearly the person inside, and his smiling face instantly stiffened. "You really are about to ascend to heaven..."
He hurriedly thrust his right hand forward, launching a string of miniature Tailed Beast Bombs from his five fingertips, which exploded at the location where the young man had originally stood.
But a figure flashed to the side. A red-haired young man with his eyes tightly closed stood there, half-embracing the young man, a soaring blue light radiating from his body.
The red-haired young man slowly opened his eyes. Taking in the surrounding environment, he was stunned for a moment. "Oh! Sensei, are you dead too?"
Masahiko's face darkened, then he heard the red-haired young man speak again in quick succession.
"Eh? Sensei, who is this in my arms?"
"Eh? How come I've opened the Seventh Gate?"
"Eh? Why won't my body listen to me?"
"Hey, hey, hey, why is this chakra converging towards my heart!"
Masahiko's heart gradually sank. "It seems I unconsciously talked too much nonsense. It turns out the other side is the protagonist making a comeback against the wind."
"I have to fight for my life..."
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