Book One: The Rise of the Blue-Haired Devil.

      I was standing in the centre of a huge clearing. It was morning. Mito had brought me here five minutes ago. There was concern in her gaze, a silent plea... a plea for revenge for her honour. Madara had raped her and he had nothing to gain for it, given that Hashirama knew about it, but one shinobi God could not go against the other... one of them was too weak... I had become Hashirama's only bastion of hope. By the way, the Hokage was walking towards me now and his condition scared me. He had become much weaker and also his face had aged a lot over the past years. The head of the village was no longer the same as before. He wasn't surrounded by the aura of power that he had a few years ago. This made me sad. Now there would be one less powerful ninja in the world. One who was on my side.       - He's dead. Another month at best. - Morgana said in a calm manner. She had already seen death in her life and a lot of it, even a lot, so the death of one more person, even one so strong, didn't matter to her. - You're thinking about the wrong thing, Mi. Pull yourself together, your battle is about to begin, and most importantly don't forget to loosen your contract. It's important. -added the girl with a hint of excitement in her voice.       - I know, it's a shame about Hashirama. I thought his strength was divine, but it turns out he was just wasting his life force on fighting, and the price was the length of his life. He's shortened it by more than three times. -I said sadly to myself. I really felt sorry for such a man, a ninja... a shinobi god. He would not die in battle, as is the honour of every great warrior, but would die of old age in bed at the age of thirty-four, which he had just recently turned.       - Mi kun, are you ready? - The older Senju asked, looking at me with a very expressive gaze. It was the first time I had ever seen such a feeling of helplessness and powerlessness in that man's eyes. I only nodded my head slightly, showing him that I was focused. He smiled at me in approval, though even his smile was painful. I simply couldn't look at this man in such a state, so I hurriedly looked away. In the distance, three more ninjas could be seen approaching us at a leisurely pace. One of them was my opponent, and the other two were Tobirama and Izuna. The younger Senju was trying his best to convey some important thought or idea to the shinobi god, but I could tell from the way Madara's lips were moving that he didn't care about the albino's words. Tobirama only desperately continued his attempts to agree on something, but the head of the Uchiha clan was adamant.       - Can we start now? - Madara clarified to Mito and Hashirama as he approached. His voice oozed impatience and boredom... Yes, boredom. This man had grown up on the battlefield, and now he just didn't have a normal opponent. Izuna had fallen far behind him over the years, as had Tobirama, and his eternal rival and friend was now at the decline of his power.       - Before you begin, I must explain the rules of combat. - Uzumaki stated quite clearly. - I will weaken the seal restraining Madara, but the effect will be very short-lived. Five hours at best. - Mito went on to explain, but slowed down so that we could realise that time was short.       - That would be more than enough time for me. - The Uchiha grinned. I nodded quietly to indicate that time wasn't that important to me. Ashina's daughter grimaced at Madara's words, but she quickly pulled herself together and spoke again.       - This range is your battlefield. There are many fuin stacked on it. Some of them will put up a barrier to keep you from hitting anyone. Some of them will broadcast your fight in a real arena. It's a complicated jutsu, but try not to destroy everything here. I will be controlling it from that tower over there - she pointed her hand at a tall tower visible in the distance. Try not to kill me. - The red-haired girl was about to finish, but quickly continued. - Oh, that's right, I almost forgot. Madara, you can't kill your opponent. You'll be able to inflict serious wounds, but you won't be able to kill him. I won't be able to weaken this technique that much. - Mito added with a sly squint. Eh, that asshole could have weakened this Fuin that much anyway, she just didn't want to put my life in danger. Oh well, that makes me feel better about it. - Give me your hands so I can weaken the fuin. - Uzumaki finished, waiting for our actions. We quickly shook hands and the girl folded about a hundred seals at that moment. I knew the technique myself, but according to all the rules of Uzumaki, the ninja who placed the seal had no right to weaken it or adjust the effect of the seal without the consent of all parties included in the seal contract in this case. While this action was taking place, I turned my attention to Izuna who was smiling encouragingly at me, however, unexpectedly, he coughed. Tobirama, who was standing nearby, tapped his back in a friendly manner, but what I saw made me very tense. The shinobi god's younger brother was coughing up blood. A huge clot of blood at that. It looked very frightening.       - Izuna, what's wrong with you? - I asked, frowning. It was only after a minute that he was able to answer me. During that minute, he was wiping his face clean of blood with a handkerchief. The albino was writhing unpleasantly as well, looking at it.       - It's alright. - The Uchiha answered me, however, he didn't even try to hide his fatigue and weakness. His condition was terrible. No worse than Hashirama's, however there was little joy in it.       - His body was weakened very badly. His heart was beating weakly. He must be examined. Preferably as soon as possible. - Morgana spoke again, with a note of tension in her voice.       I tensed up even more, but Madara didn't even raise an eyebrow at what was happening, and that was saying a lot... The head of the Red-Eyed Clan knew about his brother's illness, but why didn't he try to help him? What if he couldn't be helped anymore? These speculations were scaring me. I had a serious thought. I was brought out of this state by a sense of alarm. My intuition screamed danger. The Sage mode helped me to physically feel threats to my life, so I responded to my brain's unexpected blow with a counter lunge, relying only on my bare instincts. I got caught up in the attack, but the Uchiha also took a lot of damage in return.       - Not bad, not bad at all, you little brat. - Madara said with a pleased grin. I was up on my feet by this time, too. His chakra-infused punch was just as good as my Sage Mode punch. I was slightly surprised, though I then found just the answer to that. He's a shinobi God... he's just living up to his name.       We drew close again, starting a full fist fight. I used my mixed fighting style, based on snake style, Uzumaki style, and even Riko style. Every move I made seemed very straightforward, but thanks to the grace and flexibility of the snakes, I was constantly changing the trajectory of my strikes. Every movement I made was a deception. Even a sharingan would have a hard time reading such a style. Madara missed the first few strikes, but then he began to gradually get used to a fighting style he had never seen before. With each passing minute, I could see that the gap in close combat experience was taking a bigger and bigger toll. The Sharingan was starting to read my movements faster and easier. I had clearly decided that I would not use the absolute Sage mode in this fight, but with each passing minute I wanted to switch into it more and more, to show this Shinobi God that he was not a God at all....       I was so absorbed in my thoughts during the battle, trying to find a clear plan of action, that I completely forgot about how experienced and powerful my opponent was. Suddenly, Madara sped up, delivering a swift leg kick to my chest. It would have killed any ninja, but my body had phenomenal strength under the influence of the Sage's chakra, though the pain didn't go away. While still in flight, I realised that two of my ribs were broken. Morgana had already fixed them with ice, which was unpleasant but bearable. After landing, I tried to stand up, but was prevented from doing so. Even without lifting my head from the ground, I felt on a reflex level that something terrible was coming. I only managed to somersault away from the precise impact of Madara's punch, who had apparently been holding back until then. His blow created a small crater, three metres in diameter and ten centimetres deep. A truly remarkable force.       - Ice Element, Snake Grip Technique. - I spoke while still lying down. The Uchiha didn't even notice that the place he hit was covered in a layer of ice, allowing me to use my genome ninja. About ten snakes appeared from the ground next to Madara and in an instant they wrapped around his body, immobilising him for only a couple of seconds, but that was more than enough time to activate my trap. - Explosion. - I formed a seal of concentration and spoke, grinning like a beast. At the place where my opponent was, there was a powerful explosion that raised a cloud of dust. A normal jounin would have died from that, but I knew that I was not fighting an ordinary ninja. My gut told me that I hadn't even wounded my outstanding enemy, so I sent five spears of ice infused with spiritual chakra into the curtain of dust to block this jutsu.       - You're really good at making me use Susano. - A joyful voice came from the curtain, which disappeared at the same moment from a gust of wind created by the hand of some creature. I tensed my whole body, realising that it would be much harder than I thought. - This thing is very strong. - said Morgana, watching the fight. In front of me stood a blue coloured human skeleton created from chakra. This skeleton was translucent and in the centre of it stood Madara. The creature made of chakra had no legs, or feet I could not see. Only an upper body with two full arms. Even at half skeleton this monster was about eight to ten metres tall. I didn't even immediately notice that my opponent's eyes had transformed. Now it was no longer a three-tome sharingan, it was some higher stage of sharingan that I didn't know about. The pattern was three commas connected into one overall circle, with a dot in the centre.       - This is Susano. The absolute defence of the Uchiha clan. - Madara clarified, looking at me with a slice of disdain, but as he looked into my eyes, he tensed up considerably. There was no fear in my eyes and he realised it. It made me wonder. Would I be able to break through this absolute defence?