485. I’ll Take You On, Uchiha Madara

The moment Madara's words left his lips, the entire battlefield seemed to freeze, as if gripped by an invisible hand.

The light dimmed at a visible rate, and the faces of the shinobi around them blurred, swallowed by a thick, suffocating haze.

An oppressive aura crashed over them like a tidal wave, making every breath feel like dragging air through tar. The world itself seemed to plunge into an abyss of darkness.

Hearts pounded wildly. Fear spread like wildfire.

And when they finally looked up—

Their blood turned to ice.

Two meteors.

Each far larger than the first, descending in tandem like twin harbingers of annihilation. Their jagged surfaces, scarred by eons of cosmic decay, reflected a cold, eerie glow—like the eyes of some primordial beast from the depths of hell.

The sight stole all words.

The battlefield fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the whisper of wind and the ragged, terrified breaths of those below.

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, the man who had weathered countless battles, stood frozen, his weathered face etched with something rare—helplessness.

One meteor had nearly broken them.

Two?

This was beyond mortal resistance.

If Hiruzen was shaken, the others were worse.

Kakashi, the ever-calm strategist, had gone pale, his grip on his kunai slack.

Tsunade, the unshakable Sannin, bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, her hands trembling.

And Oyashiro En?

He collapsed to his knees, eyes wide with despair, muttering under his breath like a prayer—

"Lord Danzo… save us…"

"LORD DANZO, SAVE US—!!"

Madara watched, his lips curling into a cold smirk.

His long black hair whipped in the wind, his gaze brimming with absolute certainty.

This was checkmate.

As the meteors drew closer, the weight of doom pressed harder. The shadows stretched, swallowing the land in a countdown to extinction.

Hiruzen looked down at the Enma Staff in his hands—his oldest companion.

He exhaled, slow and heavy.

"Old friend… one last?"

The staff trembled faintly in response—

"To the end."

No more words were needed.

With a sudden, booming laugh, Hiruzen flared his chakra to its limits, the Enma Staff expanding into a colossal pillar that shot toward the sky.

"EVERYONE, FALL BACK—!"

His voice rang out, fierce and final.

"LEAVE THIS TO ME!"

"Teacher—!"

"LORD THIRD—!"

The cries of his comrades echoed uselessly. Madara only scoffed.

"Pathetic."

If his two meteors could be stopped by one old man, then he wasn’t the Ghost of the Uchiha.

Obito, watching from the shadows, smirked beneath his mask.

Once these fools are crushed… the Rinnegan will be ours. The Infinite Tsukuyomi—within reach.

Hiruzen’s figure, dwarfed by the meteors, surged upward—

—only for two shadows to flash in front of him.

"Made it just in time."

Minato Namikaze, his golden hair tousled, breathed heavily—having teleported across vast distances in seconds.

Beside him stood Danzo Shimura, his black cloak billowing, his expression unreadable.

"Minato, Hiruzen—fall back."

His voice was calm, but the power behind it shook the air.

"I’ll handle this."

Then—

His chakra erupted.

A pressure like the ocean’s depths surged outward as he drew his katana, the blade singing free of its sheath.

His eyes burned like twin suns.

"Let’s see what you’ve got, Uchiha Madara."

He raised the sword—

—and the world split apart.

"Divine Severing."

A blinding white slash tore through the heavens, cleaving the darkness like dawn itself.