434 The Shimura Has Ice Release

"Cheer, dead men—you've successfully angered me."

After saying this, Jigen's head sprouted a strangely shaped horn.

His entire aura shifted once again.

"It seems you understand my abilities. Who's the traitor? Amado? En Oyashiro? Or A?"

As he spoke, Jigen had already entered Kāma II.

"Madara..."

Hashirama's expression was heavy as he looked at Madara, whose body had just been rebuilt.

"Indeed… troublesome."

Madara had also lost his earlier arrogance before the battle began; he acknowledged Jigen's strength.

"Then let this guy witness the power of the ghost of the Uchiha clan."

"Oh? You're going all out? Then I will too—Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"

Seeing the blue aura whirling around Madara, Senju Hashirama pressed his hands together, quickly entering Sage Mode, completing his jutsu almost at the same moment as Madara.

"The Rinnegan, Wood Release—you're already going all out? Then let me see just what you two are capable of."

Looking at these two colossal giants in front of him, Jigen's expression didn't change at all. His gaze toward them was like he was looking at two ants.

"Then I will—"

Tobirama didn't even finish his sentence before Jigen kicked him apart with a single blow.

Jigen then swiftly dodged the slash of Uchiha Madara's Susanoo greatsword, leaping onto the blade and sprinting toward Madara.

During this, Hashirama controlled his giant Buddha multiple times to try to drive Jigen away, but those fists capable of punching the tailed beasts' guts inside out were pierced one after another by the enormous black rods under Jigen's control, losing their power.

Jigen himself also used these moments to leap onto the top of the giant Buddha.

"Tch, he's really troublesome."

Even now, Uchiha Madara refused to concede.

But he had to admit—his Rinnegan could no longer fully track Jigen's movements. He could only barely capture his outline.

When he finally caught a single opening and slashed down with full force, he found Jigen standing on the back of his blade like he was taunting him, the mockery on his face completely unrestrained.

"I already told you—Susanoo has enough attack power, but its speed is far too slow."

"Careful, Madara!"

Hashirama hurriedly warned.

Madara also sensed Jigen's next move, but the complete-body Susanoo truly was, just as Jigen said, slow in its movements.

He didn't have time to defend. Jigen charged straight in and kicked him out of the Susanoo, then pinned him to the ground with several black rods.

"Die!"

Jigen prepared to inflict enough damage on Uchiha Madara to prevent him from regenerating for a while, then seal him together with Hashirama.

As for Tobirama—he wasn't worth considering.

"That won't do. After all, this guy is already dead."

Indeed—Jigen had shattered someone into pieces, but the one he pulverized was Tobirama, who had arrived using Flying Thunder God.

He had blocked the blow for Madara.

"You—when did you put your mark on me?!" Madara's face shifted, his first reaction unexpectedly being to question Tobirama's Flying Thunder God marking.

"Don't worry about such trivial things, Madara." As Hashirama spoke, hundreds of hands from the Buddha smashed downward.

He didn't know whether his barrage had hit Jigen, but he used the chance to smash Madara apart, freeing him from the black rods' control.

"As I thought… I've been curious about something since earlier…"

Hashirama was searching for Jigen's position when suddenly Jigen's voice sounded behind him.

"Reanimation bodies should be restrained by Yin–Yang Release. Yet you've ignored my attacks again and again… and regenerated…"

Jigen reached out and grabbed Hashirama by the throat.

"You bastards—your bodies contain Ōtsutsuki cells. Who gave them to you?!"

Sensing the familiar yet twisted chakra similar to his own, Jigen ground his teeth and slammed Hashirama's head into the giant Buddha.

What had they been doing right under his nose?!

Was this also the traitor's scheme?

No… wrong. This chakra felt familiar, but it wasn't his. Nor his…

Kaguya?

In just a few seconds, Jigen's expression shifted many times.

Madara, having regenerated, saw his old friend being brutalized. Immediately he summoned meteorites, intending to test whether Jigen could shrink something that massive.

A shadow filled the sky. Jigen looked up at the descending super-giant meteorite, punched Hashirama into pieces, didn't spare the meteorite a glance, and simply shrank himself.

Two meteorites crashed down in succession. The explosive force shattered even Madara, the caster, into fragments.

But this was his intention.

"Boring."

As Madara and Hashirama slowly regenerated, Jigen restored his body.

After shrinking, he had rapidly moved out of the meteorites' impact range. Now, before any of them had fully recovered, he summoned a black sealing urn.

This endless, tedious style of fighting had exhausted his patience—it was time to end this annoying struggle.

He watched the three damned fools get sealed before his eyes. Just as he was about to search for Obito, who had been silent all this time—

He didn't proceed.

Instead, he activated space–time ninjutsu and withdrew from the battlefield.

He didn't know why the Leaf had sent three Edo Tensei bodies here, but he was certain they still had backup he wasn't aware of.

He still hadn't found a suitable vessel. He needed to return to his base and restore his body. Forget compatibility—he needed someone to imprint his Kāma on quickly.

He had a bad feeling that the Leaf had truly found a way to kill him.

Just as he emerged from the spatial vortex—before even touching the ground—the land beneath him suddenly swelled and transformed into hardened stone spears stabbing upward.

Jigen instinctively reached out to absorb them, but no matter what he did, he couldn't.

"Sage arts? Pride?"

Jigen looked to the side in fury—and indeed, he saw Pride standing there.

Behind Pride stood Envy, grinning grotesquely, seemingly delighted to see Jigen stumble.

"Hey, hey, Jigen-sama, being sent flying by an attack of this level—don't you think that's a bit pathetic?"

Envy stepped forward, looking at the Jigen who had been knocked back by the stone spears, mockery written all over his face.

Jigen wasn't angered by Envy's words. Instead, he calmly observed the surroundings.

After confirming that only the two homunculi and himself were in the room, Jigen finally spoke coldly:

"You two being here… means the traitor is Amado, doesn't it?"