Rōshi surveyed his surroundings and understood immediately.
Swords and blades blanketed the landscape in every direction — embedded in barren earth stretching to every horizon. Massive gears turned slowly in the sky overhead, their mechanisms grinding against nothing.
An alternate dimension. The Air Door from moments ago confirmed it — only space-time ninjutsu could open a passage like that.
Natsuki's intent was obvious.
"Arrogant," Rōshi said flatly.
His reputation preceded him. Natsuki's fame was substantial and well-earned. But Rōshi was a jinchūriki — a man who'd talked back to Ōnoki himself, who'd walked out of the Hidden Stone Village in a fit of rage and lived to tell it.
And this upstart thought he could handle him alone?
Natsuki wasn't looking at Rōshi.
His gaze had settled on the Stone shinobi who'd been pulled in alongside the jinchūriki.
No need to guess. Only White Zetsu's Substitute Technique could produce a disguise this flawless — chakra signature included. The Fourth Databook had classified it as the strongest transformation jutsu in existence, on par with Natsuki's own Complete Mimicry.
Good. He'd wanted to capture a White Zetsu. This one had delivered itself.
What Natsuki didn't yet realize was that this particular White Zetsu was possessed by Uchiha Madara's Shadow Clone — a fusion of observer and weapon, waiting for its moment.
"You dare ignore me?"
Rōshi's aura erupted.
Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Jutsu!
Chakra detonated in the air above him — amplified by the Four-Tails' power, his Lava Release operating at a tier most shinobi would never witness. Molten spheres materialized and expanded rapidly, each one swelling past a meter in diameter, burning white-hot.
Dozens of them. Falling like individual suns.
The heat hit Natsuki's face like opening a furnace door.
True Lightning Strike.
He raised his hand without moving from his position.
Even inside the Reality Marble, thunderclouds obeyed. They gathered, darkened, and discharged.
Lightning cascaded down in a blinding deluge — striking every magma sphere simultaneously. Explosions rippled across the sky. The molten projectiles shattered, spraying fragments of cooling rock in every direction.
Rōshi's eyes narrowed.
The rumors were accurate. Natsuki's strength was genuine.
But it wasn't enough.
Lava Release: Needle of the Deep!
Magma coated Rōshi's body like living armor — dense, superheated, flowing across his skin. He closed the distance in a flash, cocked his fist, and swung.
The impact point radiated heat intense enough to warp the air.
Armament Haki. Reinforcement Magecraft. Iron Mass: Smash.
Natsuki met the punch head-on.
The collision produced a shockwave that cracked the ground in radiating lines.
Rōshi's pupils contracted. His body launched backward — involuntary, uncontrolled — skidding over ten meters before he found his footing.
He stared at Natsuki with open disbelief. Even in Version 2 jinchūriki form, his raw strength had been surpassed.
From his concealed position, Madara catalogued the exchange. Unexpected. His previous encounter with Natsuki had been a single clash — barely enough data. White Zetsu's surveillance reports filled some gaps, but intelligence couldn't capture what he'd just witnessed.
Who would have predicted this kind of physical superiority?
He held back. Ninja battles were intelligence battles. He wanted to see exactly how deep Natsuki's reserves ran before committing.
"Fine!" Rōshi laughed — cold, furious.
His hands flew through seals.
Lava Release: Flower-Fruit Mountain!
Both palms slammed into the earth. A staggering volume of chakra flooded underground.
The ground turned red. Then orange. Then liquid.
Magma spread outward from the contact point at terrifying speed — an expanding sea of molten rock, its surface bubbling and hissing. In seconds, the entire area in front of Rōshi had become a lake of fire.
He snarled.
The magma erupted upward — a wave over thirty meters high, cresting and crashing toward Natsuki like a burning tsunami.
In the original timeline, Rōshi had used this technique to burn the Eight-Tails itself.
Hadō #99: Goryūtenmetsu.
Natsuki raised his hand.
Chakra surged around him in a vortex — then launched skyward, condensing, shaping. Five dragons materialized, each one expanding as more energy poured in, growing until they exceeded thirty meters in length.
They roared and dove.
The dragons hit the magma wave head-on.
The impact was cataclysmic. Lava sprayed in every direction like ocean surf against a cliff. The wave's momentum died. The five dragons tore through the remaining magma, scattering it, and kept coming — bearing down on Rōshi.
His eyes went wide.
"What kind of ninjutsu is that?" Madara's frown deepened from his hiding spot.
Rōshi felt it — the unmistakable sensation of imminent death.
He didn't hesitate.
A roar tore from his throat. His body burst apart — skin splitting, flesh dissolving — and from the destruction, a colossal form emerged.
The Four-Tails. Son Goku. A mountainous red ape wreathed in volcanic heat.
Full Tailed Beast Transformation.
Scorching River Great Eruption!
The Four-Tails smashed both fists into the earth. The ground ruptured, and a volcano erupted from the fissure — a genuine geological event conjured from pure chakra. The volcanic mass surged toward the five dragons, and on contact, it detonated.
Magma geysered in every direction, coating the dragons, smothering them. They thrashed and struggled beneath the molten weight.
The entire Reality Marble shuddered.
From his position, Madara felt a cold certainty settle over him. This was the right decision. If he'd waited even another year — let Natsuki grow further — no force in the shinobi world would be able to stop him.
The Eye of the Moon Plan would die with Natsuki's rise.
His eyes narrowed. The next moment was everything.
Rōshi had exhausted his strongest Lava Release techniques. Only one option remained.
And Madara didn't believe Rōshi could win. But draining a massive portion of Natsuki's chakra would be enough. That was all the opening Madara needed.
"DIE!"
Rōshi's — Son Goku's — jaw opened. The single most devastating technique in a Tailed Beast's arsenal.
An incomprehensible volume of chakra compressed into a sphere at the aperture of his mouth — dense, unstable, radiating destruction.
Tailed Beast Ball.
Natsuki had anticipated this.
He drew Minazuki.
Excalibur.
He raised the blade with both hands.
An aura erupted from the sword — vast, suffocating, equal in pressure to the Tailed Beast Ball itself. The Reality Marble trembled under the combined output.
The Tailed Beast Ball fired.
Natsuki swung.
A beam of golden light split the dimension from ground to sky.
The two forces collided — and the Tailed Beast Ball detonated on contact. White light swallowed everything. The chakra shockwave generated hurricane-force winds that shredded every remaining sword planted in the ground.
The golden beam punched through the explosion.
It struck the Four-Tails' massive body with its full remaining force.
Son Goku was launched backward — thousands of tons of Tailed Beast tumbling across the landscape.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Rōshi's voice erupted from inside the beast.
His condition was dire. The Tailed Beast Ball had consumed an enormous portion of his chakra — no Tailed Beast below the Eight-Tails could fire them consecutively. Combined with the residual damage from the Sword of Promised Victory, he had nothing left.
The colossal red form collapsed. Shrank. Dissolved.
Rōshi emerged — human again, gasping on his hands and knees. Full Transformation was beyond him now.
Madara's astonishment was silent but absolute.
The Sword of Promised Victory's output had exceeded the previous strike — the one that had pierced his Susanoo. And the chakra behind it had been greater than a Tailed Beast Ball.
How much chakra did Natsuki have?
Madara ran through every powerful shinobi he'd ever encountered. Only Senju Hashirama's reserves had definitively surpassed what he'd just witnessed. Among jinchūriki, only the Nine-Tails' host could claim more.
Shave.
Natsuki closed the distance in a single step and knocked Rōshi unconscious with a precise strike.
Then he turned.
His gaze found Madara.
Madara, still processing the battle's implications, met Natsuki's eyes — and understood.
He'd been identified.
Not surprising. His behavior had been obvious — standing idle while a battle of this magnitude raged, studying rather than fighting or fleeing. Only someone with a vested interest in the outcome would behave that way.
"Your turn, Uchiha Madara."
"After expending that much chakra, how much do you have left?" Madara stepped forward, his composure intact.
"Enough to beat you."
"Do you think I'm the same as last time?"
"That's right!" A second voice — White Zetsu, emerging from concealment. "Lord Madara and I together are invincible!"
Natsuki's eyebrow rose.
So Madara had brought backup. White Zetsu possession was a significant force multiplier — in the original timeline, Yamato's combat power had skyrocketed after being taken over.
"You learned Wood Release?" Madara brought his hands together. "Let me show you what real Wood Release looks like."
Wood Release: Wood Golem Jutsu!
The earth convulsed. A tree erupted from below — growing, expanding, climbing. The ground fractured under the weight as the construct took shape.
A wooden golem — fully formed, rivaling a Tailed Beast in scale — towered over the battlefield.
Madara frowned.
Natsuki hadn't reacted. No alarm, no urgency. He was studying the golem with academic detachment.
At Hashirama's level, the Wood Golem matched a Perfect Susanoo and could catch a Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball barehanded. This version — Shadow Clone plus White Zetsu — fell short of that ceiling. But it surpassed a fully transformed Rōshi.
Natsuki raised his hand.
He'd learned numerous Wood Release techniques during the war. But the highest-tier jutsu — Sage Art: True Several Thousand Hands, Summit Illumination — remained beyond his current repertoire.
It didn't matter. He had other templates.
Blood Demon Art: Freezing Clouds — Water Lily Bodhisattva!
Chakra erupted outward. Ice crystallized from nothing, building upward — a towering Bodhisattva sculpture, equal in mass to the wooden golem.
The ground shook as both titans charged.
They collided.
The Bodhisattva opened its mouth. Freezing air poured out — absolute cold that turned everything it touched to ice.
Madara's response was immediate.
Wood Release: Wood Dragon Jutsu!
A serpentine wooden dragon uncoiled from the golem's shoulders and launched itself at the Bodhisattva, wrapping around its body like a constrictor — and clamping its jaws over the Bodhisattva's mouth, sealing the source of the cold.
The freezing breath converted the dragon itself to ice, but the blockage held.
The golem cocked its fist and drove it into the Bodhisattva's torso. The ice cracked. A deep crater caved inward.
Lightning Giant!
Natsuki gestured.
A construct of crackling electricity materialized — humanoid, massive, surging with current. It threw a punch at the golem without breaking stride.
"Troublesome." Madara diverted the golem to intercept.
The fists connected. Both titans shuddered from the impact.
Three giants — Lightning, Ice, and Wood — locked in a grinding melee, none able to gain decisive advantage.
"Eliminating you won't be simple after all." Madara committed his remaining reserves.
Susanoo.
The expected blue spectral giant didn't appear.
Instead, Susanoo materialized as armor — flowing over the wooden golem like a second skin, fusing with its structure.
Majestic Attire: Susanoo.
The golem's power spiked catastrophically. Two punches — the Lightning Giant and the Bodhisattva were both knocked staggering backward, losing ground with every exchange.
The armored golem bypassed both constructs entirely and charged straight for Natsuki.
Its fist descended like a falling mountain — the air pressure alone was suffocating.
Madara's spirits soared. Finally. This obstacle to everything he'd planned was about to—
Natsuki clapped his hands together.
Pigmentation appeared around his eyes.
"You know Sage Mode too?" The words escaped Madara before he could stop them.
He knew Sage Mode himself — but only through the fragment of Hashirama's flesh grafted to his body. Only his main body could access it. A Shadow Clone couldn't.
Sage Art: White Rage Technique!
Natsuki opened his mouth and expelled a crimson dragon. The dragon burrowed into a black orb — and the orb detonated.
Blinding white light and a piercing sonic frequency exploded outward simultaneously.
The golem froze mid-swing. Every sensory input overloaded at once.
Madara's eyes slammed shut involuntarily. Pain lanced through his entire body.
"AAAAAGH!" White Zetsu shrieked from beneath the Susanoo armor.
"You wanted to know how much chakra I have left?"
Natsuki gripped Minazuki.
Excalibur.
The Black Grail trembled. A torrent of chakra — deep, vast, seemingly inexhaustible — flooded into the blade.
He swung.
Golden light erupted.
The armored golem took the strike dead-center and was bisected — clean, absolute, the two halves toppling in opposite directions.
Madara had just broken free from the White Rage's sensory disruption. What he saw stopped his thoughts cold.
This sword strike was stronger than the one that had destroyed the Tailed Beast Ball.
If Natsuki had opened with this — had swung Excalibur at full power from the start — the fight would have been over in a single exchange.
He'd been holding back. The entire time.
But Madara had no time to process the implication.
Because Natsuki swung again.
Mugen Kensei — Infinite Sword Style.
Madara's head separated from his body.
The Shadow Clone dissolved into smoke amid the golden afterglow.
Only the possessed White Zetsu remained — pinned to the ground, unable to flee.
Bakudō #75: Gochūtekkan.
Five iron pillars materialized and drove downward, pinning White Zetsu's limbs to the earth.
Natsuki nodded.
He could have ended Madara and the White Zetsu together with a single Excalibur. He'd used Infinite Sword Style specifically to preserve the White Zetsu intact.
The effort was worth it. This one was finally captured.
He turned to Rōshi's unconscious body.
The consecutive battles had consumed an enormous amount of chakra. What he needed now was replenishment — and the Four-Tails provided exactly that.
The Black Grail emerged.
It enveloped Rōshi's body, reached inside, and dragged the Four-Tails out.
Son Goku thrashed — the great red ape fighting with everything it had. It wasn't enough. The Grail sealed it away.
Natsuki checked the result. Unlike Moryo and other entities he'd previously absorbed, the Four-Tails retained its original form inside the Grail rather than converting to raw chakra.
The distinction likely related to the Hōgyoku's unlock conditions. The Aizen template required absorbing all nine Tailed Beasts. With only one collected, the Grail was preserving it in its natural state — waiting for the set to complete.
He could still draw on the Four-Tails' chakra through the Grail. The access was immediate.
[You have awakened the Sakazuki Template.]
Natsuki's attention sharpened.
Sakazuki. Akainu — Fleet Admiral of Navy Headquarters. The man who'd carved half of Whitebeard's face off with a single punch and fought Aokiji for ten consecutive days.
The connection to Rōshi was clear: both wielded magma. Lava Release and the Magu Magu no Mi were thematic mirrors.
[Name: Sakazuki][Era: Fleet Admiral of Navy Headquarters][World: One Piece][Rank: S-Rank]
[Ability 1: Physical Strength | UNLOCKED]Effect: Gain Sakazuki's physical constitution.
[Ability 2: Magu Magu no Mi | LOCKED]Effect: Elementalize the body into boiling magma. Grants immunity to standard ninjutsu and physical attacks.Unlock Condition: Become Mizukage.
Good grief.
Only two abilities — but both were absurd.
Ability 1: Physical Strength. Sakazuki's constitution was superhuman by any standard. In One Piece, he'd blocked Whitebeard's bisento with a single foot and fought Aokiji across ten days and nights without collapse. That level of physical resilience, layered onto Natsuki's existing capabilities, was transformative.
Ability 2: Magu Magu no Mi. Similar to Rōshi's Lava Release in manifestation, but a full tier above in application. Sakazuki's signature techniques — Meigō, Dai Funka, Inugami Guren, Ryūsei Kazan — each represented a different axis of magma-based destruction.
But the true value was elementalization.
The Smoke-Smoke Fruit he'd previously unlocked granted immunity to physical attacks — taijutsu, ninja tools. The Magu Magu no Mi extended that immunity to standard ninjutsu as well: Wind, Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Yang Release, and Yin Release.
Senjutsu, Yin-Yang Release, kekkei genkai, and kekkei mōra were exceptions. They would still connect.
Even with those limitations, the defensive ceiling was staggering. Among the Five Kage, only Ōnoki's Particle Style and Pakura's Scorch Release could bypass elementalization. The Third Raikage and the Third Mizukage would be completely helpless against it.
The unlock condition gave him pause: become Mizukage.
That appeared to conflict with the Aizen template's Shikai requirement — secretly controlling the Mist and building the Espada. If he took the Mizukage seat openly, the "secret" element vanished.
Natsuki rubbed his chin.
Unless the sequence was flexible. Have Terumī Mei take the seat first, fulfill the Aizen conditions while she governed, then have her step aside temporarily — a nominal handoff, long enough to trigger the Sakazuki unlock, before she resumed the title.
Or simpler still: dual Kage. An honorary Mizukage — a figurehead title with no administrative responsibilities. He and Mei would both hold the designation, but she'd run the village.
Either approach would satisfy the system's requirements without contradicting his existing plans.
A problem with solutions. He filed it away.
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