"One down."
Sasuke stood still, watching the blade of lightning buried in Madara’s chest. The Rinnegan’s chakra absorption was active, suppressing Madara’s ability to form ninjutsu. With his techniques sealed and his Rinnegan pressured on every front, escape should have been impossible.
Or so it seed.
Sasuke’s brow suddenly furrowed.
The body in front of him smiled.
Then it turned to wood.
His pupils shrank.
"A Wood Release clone?" Sasuke muttered.
Lightning flashed. The wooden body split apart, and through the fragnts Sasuke caught sight of Madara already completing hand seals.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Ergence!"
The ground roared.
Massive trees erupted in every direction, growing violently in seconds, swallowing both figures in an instant.
Hidden beneath the towering trunks, Madara exhaled slowly, his mind racing.
The mont Sasuke had charged in with that black-flad Chidori, sothing had felt wrong. The danger sense screaming in his head had forced a decision.
So he had switched.
A Wood Release clone to take the hit.
The real body peeling away behind it, hidden by the clone itself.
And just in ti.
That technique...
Forcing the enemy to change position.
Not movent. Not speed.
A direct spatial exchange.
Madara’s thoughts sharpened.
Not Flying Thunder God. No marks. No lingering seal.
That ant the technique relied on the Rinnegan itself.
Visual range.
Madara’s gaze darkened.
When Sasuke struck the clone, the real body had already escaped his sight. If Sasuke’s ability required visual locking, then once vision was blocked, Madara himself beca untouchable.
That explained the forest.
The Wood Release wasn’t ant to attack.
It was ant to blind.
Still... Madara’s eyes narrowed.
The clone had fallen far too quickly.
"So he used chakra absorption," Madara muttered. "That’s why it collapsed imdiately."
Which also ant sothing else.
When Madara’s real body had briefly reappeared during the forest’s expansion, Sasuke hadn’t used that spatial ability again.
That was important.
Either the technique couldn’t be used consecutively.
Or the cost was too high.
But earlier, Sasuke had used it twice in succession.
Madara frowned.
So there were conditions. Restrictions. Limits.
Good.
Limits could be exploited.
Still... the question remained.
How did one fight soone who could forcibly relocate you at will?
For the first ti in a very long while, Madara felt genuine irritation.
Was he really going to be reduced to stalling with clones?
The thought was almost insulting.
At the sa ti, Sasuke stood among the colossal trees, eyes sweeping the forest.
So that was his answer.
Block my vision.
Sasuke exhaled softly.
Fast decision-making. Perfect execution.
No wonder he was Madara.
If Sasuke had hesitated for even a mont earlier, the fight would already be over.
Now, though...
Madara wouldn’t show his real body again. Any attack would co through Wood Release clones, mixed carefully to prevent easy identification.
And Sasuke knew why.
Anotejikara burned through ocular power far faster than it looked.
When he had briefly seen Madara’s real body earlier, he had wanted to activate it again.
He simply couldn’t.
Not yet.
Anotejikara didn’t swap objects.
It swapped space.
Two spatial points locked by the Rinnegan.
And locking space required clarity, stability, and enormous visual processing.
Objects permanently "tracked" by his eyes—like his marked kunai—were cheap to swap.
Living targets without marks were expensive.
And empty space was worse.
Far worse.
Sasuke flexed his fingers.
He could still switch with his kunai.
Kunai with kunai.
But forcibly relocating Madara again?
Not unless his Rinnegan evolved further.
And that wasn’t happening today.
"...Annoying," Sasuke muttered.
The sound of movent reached his ears.
Wood Release clones.
Multiple.
Approaching.
"Wood Release really is troubleso," Sasuke said quietly.
In a forest like this, ninjutsu was restricted. Taijutsu favored Madara. And attrition favored an Edo Tensei body.
So Sasuke stopped thinking about trading blows.
Instead—
He ford hand seals.
A dark, dense sphere appeared in his palm, radiating terrifying gravitational force.
Sasuke hurled it upward.
"Chibaku Tensei."
The air scread.
The ground tore free.
Trees, earth, stone, and Wood Release clones were ripped upward, crushed together into a growing mass in the sky.
The forest vanished.
What remained was bare, ravaged ground beneath a floating mass of debris.
Madara resisted the pull with ease.
But resistance confird sothing.
That’s the real one.
The clones were obliterated.
The battlefield was cleared.
Yet Madara stood far away, beyond Sasuke’s effective range.
Too far for Anotejikara.
Madara’s severed arm regenerated as he observed Sasuke calmly.
Interesting.
Sasuke hadn’t used that spatial technique again.
Which ant either—
His ocular power was insufficient.
Or—
There was a distance limit.
Madara smiled faintly.
"Probably the latter," he murmured.
Which raised an uncomfortable question.
At this distance, how were they supposed to fight?
Close combat favored Sasuke’s spatial ability.
Long-range ninjutsu was useless against the Rinnegan.
Neither could press an advantage.
Madara sighed.
First the Sixth Hokage.
Now this.
Two battles in a row where his strength felt... restricted.
Sasuke, too, was silent.
If he left now to support Naruto, Madara would be free.
And a free Madara was a disaster waiting to happen.
But staying here ant a stalemate.
He had missed the window.
The first mont.
That single chance.
Now Madara knew too much.
Sasuke closed his eyes briefly.
Tch... this is getting annoying.
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