Shirohebi-hime watched Shiraishi, now clad in his shimmering dragon armor, and let out a soft, cold chuckle, her tongue flickering.
What a pity, she thought. If I had only managed to devour this boy back then, I would have already ascended, shedding this skin to become a true soaring dragon.
The Uchiha clansmen nearby stared in disbelief. "That brat... he actually took control of the Amanonuhoko?"
"Impossible! That is the supreme treasure of the Hagoromo. Could he be a descendant of their bloodline?"
"If he were Hagoromo, he would have the distinct whisker marks on his face."
Indeed, the mark of the Hagoromo bloodline was their facial whiskers—the purer the blood, the more vibrant and pronounced the marks.
This weapon of the Sage of the Six Paths was entirely different from ordinary ninja tools; its title as the "Divine Sword of the Heavenly Way" was proof of its transcendent status.
While some claimed it was an avatar of the Ten-Tails' will, the version Uchiha Obito would one day use was merely a construct of Yin-Yang Release and the Ten-Tails' consciousness.
This original weapon held by Shiraishi, however, was the pinnacle masterpiece of the Sage's own Yin-Yang Release.
Throughout his life, Uchiha Madara had never truly acknowledged anyone besides Senju Hashirama. But today, Shiraishi's display forced him into a state of absolute seriousness.
The fact that this stranger could bypass the bloodline restrictions to wield the Sage's weapon proved he was a worthy adversary.
"The full power of the Amanonuhoko... I am curious to see it," Madara stated.
"Then I shall begin."
The Clash of Elements
Under the sacred radiance, Shiraishi erupted with a dazzling silver luster. As silver scales rained down around him, the tip of the Divine Sword reflected a soul-shaking light.
In his Sage Mode, Shiraishi gripped the hilt and slashed twice at the air—as if using the void as parchment to draw a massive cross.
Sage Art: Super Cyclonic Stream!
The atmosphere exploded. The swirling winds above condensed into cyan, crescent-shaped air currents that tore through the sky in a staggered, overlapping formation.
Is this the Sage Mode of Ryuchi Cave? Madara observed. It differs from Hashirama's; the nature of the chakra is more violent, lacking the serene, harmonious feeling of Wood Style.
Madara reacted instantly. He unleashed a Great Fireball, but this was no ordinary sphere; it was a colossal orb of solar-intensity flame that illuminated the entire kingdom.
As it plummeted toward the ground, the heat forced everyone—save for Shirohebi-hime—to retreat.
The wind-blades of Shiraishi's cyclonic stream possessed a cutting force far exceeding standard Wind Style. Even though Fire naturally counters Wind, Shiraishi's crescent blades sliced the massive fireball into four equal parts.
However, the destruction didn't stop. The four segments of the fireball transformed under Madara's mastery into four independent fire dragons.
Madara was a grandmaster of pyrotechnics; even a broken jutsu could be repurposed into a Super S-rank offensive.
Then, the unexpected happened. The four fire dragons suddenly lost their balance and exploded prematurely. Shiraishi stood to the side, silent and unmoved.
"I see," Madara noted. "Within those two wind currents, you mixed a specific Sage chakra nature transformation. It looked like a simple cross-crescent, but you hid a secondary chakra application inside."
The principle was similar to the future Rasenshuriken. By embedding a third layer of transformation within the primary wind blades, Shiraishi had successfully disrupted Madara's control from the inside out.
The Titan and the Guardian
With his armor clanging, Shiraishi kicked off the ground and lunged. His divine sword spun, firing off thunder-fast wind blades that filled the air with flashes of light.
Madara pivoted, his Gunbai fan swinging with tyrannical grace—blocking, parrying, and counter-attacking in a seamless, ironclad defense.
In the midst of the energy surges, Shiraishi's form blurred. The Divine Sword became a streak of lethal light, accompanied by a dragon-shaped hurricane of dust and the trailing roar of a sonic boom.
Shiraishi tried to close the distance, but Madara would not permit it. His Susanoo condensed three more massive magatama gems, weaving them into a vortex before launching them with high-velocity rotation.
Yasaka no Magatama!
Facing the move that had just ended the Hagoromo leader's life, Shiraishi activated his Ancient Sage Seal.
A giant cyan bird mark glowed, manifesting a shimmering water membrane. The Magatama slammed into the barrier, the impact painting the Roran sky a violent, bloody red.
Madara didn't stop. He breathed a stream of white-hot fire directly onto the water membrane, boiling the defense away. As theSeal weakened, the bird mark flashed, and torrents of water poured out to form an automated Water Encampment Wall.
He has a secondary water defense hidden beneath the seal? Madara thought. He immediately commanded his massive Susanoo to draw its twin blades.
The ground trembled as the Susanoo executed a dual-blade cross-slash with a sound that seemed to tear the very fabric of the wind.
Against this terrifying momentum, Shiraishi let his Crane Seal dissipate. He wove a new set of hand signs: Nature's Wrath: Alolan Giant Guardian!
In Sage Mode, the Giant Guardian was far more imposing than its usual form. It drew in every scrap of natural energy in the vicinity.
Responding to the call, the Amanonuhoko dissolved into a cloud of silver scales, coating the Guardian in a layer of divine plating.
The Guardian now mirrored Shiraishi's own dragon-armored aesthetic. It stood tall, wielding two colossal weapons: a Blade of Crashing Thunder and a Sword of Cyan Flame.
With golden electricity arcing and cyan fire burning, the Giant Guardian behind Shiraishi radiated a pressure that stood toe-to-toe with Madara's Susanoo.
"How is this possible?!" Queen Sari gasped, forgetting that her kingdom was being pulverized by the shockwaves.
Even Shirohebi-hime was caught off guard. She hadn't expected Shiraishi to possess a technique capable of manifesting such a massive, physicalized chakra construct.
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