73 - The F1 Engine
Before Madara's words had even fully left his mouth, his figure had already leaped from behind the desk.
As he instantaneously moved toward Kei at high speed, his fingertips flicked, and chakra threads swiftly coiled around the scythe hanging from the cave's rocky wall. The pipes connected to the Gedo Statue extended rapidly, and with a flick of his arm, struck first, its blade slicing straight toward Kei's face.
Yet, Madara's steps did not falter in the slightest. Forming a seal with his hands, he opened his mouth and unleashed four blazing dragons!
"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Release Song Technique!"
Under the illumination of the roaring flames, he strode forward alongside the four fire dragons, exuding an overwhelming aura of bloodthirsty ferocity. He seemed just like the war god he had been decades ago—the blood-red rose that once bloomed upon the battlefield.
Even though he was old, even though his life was nearing its end...
Once he chose to fight, he was still the man who made the entire shinobi world tremble in fear!
"Demonic Illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth Change!"
With a clap of Kei's hands, the world in his eyes rapidly twisted and shattered. The onrushing Madara had already vanished.
---
His eyes closed and reopened, as if he had returned to a time decades ago—to that babbling creek. In his memories, a bowl-cut boy sat idly by the river, skipping stones across the water. This time... Madara picked up a stone by his feet, bypassed the boy, and sent it skipping all the way to the opposite shore!
"Girls really do learn everything quickly..."
The bowl-cut boy slumped forward, tears welling up in his eyes as he crouched in the corner in defeat.
Even though he knew it was an illusion, Madara couldn't help but smile at the familiar scene. After all... when people grow old, they can't help but reminisce about the past.
Wait a second... girls?
He froze for just an instant, only to see that the Hashirama before him had grown up!
Tears filled his eyes as he tightly grasped Madara's hand, looking as if he was about to pass out from sheer emotion.
"Madara, marry me! I will! I will—sob—always treat you well!"
"???" Madara was stunned for a moment before immediately kicking the young Hashirama away.
"Uwaah—Madara, don't treat me like this! Sob sob I'm serious about pursuing you..."
The face, the personality—even the voice was exactly the same.
A top-tier illusion technique capable of deceiving the senses entirely!
But wait... was he actually a girl?!
Madara's face twitched. Just as he was about to forcibly break free from this ridiculous illusion, he saw something even more outrageous.
His younger brother, Izuna... had also turned into a beautiful girl?! And that damn Tobirama, he looked like he had fallen for his brother—er, now sister?!
Unforgivable!
Wait! Hold on!
The story was moving way too fast!
The illusion shifted once again. Now, Madara had reached adulthood and had used his absolute strength to suppress all dissent within the clan.
He—she! Had finally, after Hashirama's relentless pursuit, stepped into the hall of marriage.
And his—her—brother... sister, had also ended up marrying that damn Tobirama at the same time?!
That bastard! How dare he?!
Just as Madara was about to question the twisted mind responsible for conjuring this absurd illusion, the scene changed yet again.
She and Hashirama, now married, had established Konoha together, attracting countless ninja clans who longed for peace to voluntarily join them.
And Konoha was finally built. Everything was moving in a positive direction. Although she and Hashirama occasionally quarreled as a married couple, they always made up afterward, whether in the bedroom or elsewhere. No obstacle was insurmountable.
And after experiencing numerous battles—cold wars, heated arguments, tatami wars, kitchen wars... Hashirama ultimately accepted her suggestion. With absolute power, they subjugated and absorbed the four newly formed ninja villages.
Although conflicts still occasionally arose in the shhinobi world, under the joint suppression of her and Hashirama, the overall situation quickly stabilized into a state of peace.
And after that… Was there really no other plot development besides all that lovey-dovey nonsense?
Having children? Damn it!
---
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
Kei left behind two shadow clones within the cave, ready at any moment to intercept Madara's pursuit. Meanwhile, he himself used the Flying Thunder God Technique to vanish instantly into the Mountains' Graveyard.
His previous experiences with activating powerful traits had taught him one thing: Even if it was just a blue-tier trait, activating it would still have some degree of physical impact.
Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be a big deal. But in front of Madara? Even in his peak condition, Kei wasn't willing to take that risk.
If he got momentarily weakened by the side effects of an activation, did he really want to test just how sharp Madara's scythe was?
After a series of rapid Flying Thunder God teleports, he arrived at a thickly snow-covered glacier, dozens of kilometers away. He concealed himself within the natural crevices of the ice and quickly set up a simple sealing barrier using the sealing talismans in his ninja pouch—one that could completely suppress his chakra signature.
Without any hesitation, he issued a mental command to the system, Activate [Sage Body]!
Buzz—
The moment the command was given, a tingling, almost itchy sensation spread throughout his entire body. Every cell in his body began to undergo a fundamental metamorphosis, elevating to a higher state of existence.
His internal organs brimmed with terrifying vitality, and under the unimaginable power of Yang Release, his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys rapidly completed cellular regeneration.
Powerful, overwhelming, restless...
His transformed organs felt like an old, worn-out car that had just been fitted with an F1 engine. The life-giving energy of Yang Release coursed through his bloodstream, flooding every cell in his body within moments!
Every bone, every tendon, every muscle, every inch of skin… His spiritual energy also began to stir, drawn toward the immense surge of life force.
Under his fully optimized chakra modling method, his chakra now roared like a raging tsunami, endlessly surging within his body!
In the past, no matter how much he searched within himself, he had always been limited by his physical condition, unable to generate any more chakra than what his body allowed.
But now?
A body that could finally match his spiritual energy had given him an unbelievable transformation!
"My physical strength… just straight-up doubled? This is absolutely insane!" Kei clenched his fist, and in the next moment, his body shifted into a Water Transformation Jutsu state.
As his cells rapidly renewed, the waste products of his body's metamorphosis were expelled instantly.
His total body weight and cell count hadn't changed significantly, yet his strength had doubled, and his life force had increased by dozens, if not hundreds, of times! His chakra, which had once trickled like a slow-moving stream, had now become a vast, endless ocean!
Even his control over the five basic chakra natures seemed to have improved significantly in this state of overflowing vitality.
"… Since when the hell have I ever fought a battle this rich in resources?!"
Kei almost grinned ear to ear.
The days of carefully rationing his chakra usage like a stingy miser were finally over!