"We better not do this."
Hashirama rubbed his head with an unsure and awkward look on his face.
Hashirama wanted to tell Sato, in a less hurtful way, that Sato was not capable of facing that jutsu at all.
'Do I tell him he is weaker than the nine tails, and I tossed nine tails aside like a puppy?'
'Will Raikage get mad at me for saying this?'
But Hashirama was not good at words; his long, awkward expression pretty much told everyone that he didn't think Sato was strong in the slightest.
"First Hokage, don't look down on our Raikage so much."
Darui said with an ugly face, as far as he were concerned, the First Hokage was looking down on them.
"Yeah, Sato Sama might be as powerful as you were in your prime. He is equal to the eight tails!"
"Understand? Sato Sama is capable of going toe-to-toe with the eight-tailed beast. Do you realize how strong he is?"
Samui chimed in as well, but this extra information only made Hashirama mutter with a confused face.
"Is the eight tails strong? Didn't he go down in one hit back then.."
Hashirama remembered the time he had captured the eight tails. Capturing it was so easy that he didn't know when he beat it down..
Hashirama's mutterings were very clearly audible. This time even Sato's face turned dark, but he knew Hashirama was not joking.
"Hokage, if you weren't so strong, I would have beaten you up."
Sato smiled with gritted teeth, and Hashirama just laughed and apologized.
"Sorry sorry. Madara used to say this to me all the time. Hahaha!"
Hashirama laughed a good-natured laugh, but Sato sighed. Hashirama was such a sage-like guy.
Sato hated such people.
They were impossible to manipulate.
"I know you think I am weak. But my request remains the same."
"Show me that jutsu. It's your strongest jutsu; I want to know how powerful you actually are."
Sato requested Hashirama again, and Hashirama pursed his lips this time.
"Fine. I will show you Raikage."
Hashirama agreed, and Sato smiled happily. It was enough, as long as Hashirama agreed.
"Let's go to the valley of the end."
Sato clapped, and everyone nodded. They used body flicker and rushed out of Konoha.
Sato's group was very strong; the weakest one was Samui, who was also a jonin. Which meant they reached the valley of the end very quickly.
Swish
Sato and Hashirama were the first ones to arrive. They looked at each other with serious faces.
Hashirama was currently feeling the chakra in his zombie body, and he hummed to himself.
He was extremely weak right now. He was about as strong as the third Hokage; it was safe to say he was pathetically weak compared to his prime.
"Raikage, I will need a lot of time to build up enough chakra. My edo body has pitiful chakra reserves."
"How about we fight normally until I prepare the jutsu?"
Hashirama suggested a solution. Hearing this, Sato thought for a bit and agreed.
"Sure, let's begin. We will dial up the intensity bit by bit."
Sato grinned and took his stance. His body flared to life with black lightning.
But this black lightning was different compared to his regular black lightning. This lightning felt more fire-like.
"Did you mix amaterasu with your lightning release chakra mode?"
Hashirama noticed Sato's clever combination ninjutsu immediately, and smiled softly.
"A good idea. But it's not enough."
Clap
"Sage mode!"
Hashirama clapped and bent down; his eyes quickly became covered with purple eyeshadow; he had entered Sage mode in an instant.
"What a strong aura! And he still thinks this is weak."
Darui rubbed his sweat while watching from afar. Anko and Samui felt the same way as Darui.
"Yeah. Didn't First Hokage defeat the One Tail effortlessly a while ago? I don't know why he calls himself weak."
Anko rubbed her hair in a confused way. As far as she could tell, both Raikage and the first Hokage were stronger than Orochimaru.
They were like super-powerful monsters.
"Maybe the hokage is bluffing. He wants to pressure Sato sama."
Samui thought aloud, all three people had reached a similar conclusion. Hokage was probably lying about his maximum strength to confuse Sato.
But Sato, who was on the battlefield, knew this wasn't the case.
"Your chakra is so heavy. This new chakra energy reminds me of Hinata's curse seal energy."
"So this is sage chakra."
Sato smiled and then paused, his eyes narrowing. This was like a trigger for both fighters.
"Wood Style: Wood Clone Jutsu."
Hashirama clapped his hands and vines grew from his shoulders. Three vines turned into Hashirama clones and ran towards Sato.
"Lightning bruiser: Amaterasu!"
Sato vanished immediately and punched a Wood clone.
Bang
Yet when the punch connected, Sato became grim-faced.
The Wood clone had only stepped back from shock. There were cracks all over the Wood clone after it took Sato's punch, but
"It's still standing. I couldn't destroy his wood clone in one punch."
Sato's face was not good; this was only a Wood clone. Sato was in his strongest state, but the clone wasn't dead in one hit.
"This is gonna be troublesome."
Sato narrowed his eyes and kicked the Wood clone, shattering it into bits.
Swarm
But that was a mistake; the shattered wooden bits grew again and curled around Sato's leg.
"What a mess! It's absorbing my chakra this time."
Sato's forehead throbbed; he remembered now that Wood Style can also absorb chakra.
Sato's best solution was to burn the wooden vines with amaterasu.
"But you know I will do this; you won't let me burn them off so easily right?"
Sato chuckled and bent down. At that exact second, a Wood clone attacked him from the side.
Boom
Sato blocked a sage chakra punch from Hashirama's Wood clone, and felt faint pain in his hands.
"Sage Chakra, this is very troubling."
Sato clicked his tongue; the wood vines were still absorbing his chakras; and two wooden clones were flanking him.
As for Hashirama, he was standing still and building up chakra for his ultimate move.
'I can't go on like this. Just three wood clones in Sage mode are giving me trouble.'
'I can feel the third Raikage's sorrow now. He was forced to fight against Naruto's shadow clone in the war arc.'
'This is how he must have felt. Goddam asura reincarnations.'
Sato scolded the aliens and their mother before he took a deep breath and growled.
"Fire release: Amaterasu waves!"
Sato's body burst into black flames, and a wave of amaterasu rushed out of his body.
Sizzle
His sudden burst of amaterasu burned the vines stuck to him and took the wooden clones by surprise.
Bang
Bang
In a few more seconds, they too collapsed under the amaterasu wave.
"Great, you are so strong, Raikage!"
Hashirama happily praised Sato, then clapped his hands once again.
"Be careful; my next Justu is a bit strong."
"Sage Art Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
BOOOOM
RUMBLE
CRACCCCK
Everyone's eyes shook; massive vines were breaking apart the ground. As far as the eyes could see, a deep forest was emerging.
The forest was so large that it had changed the natural environment, it was so massive that it had even reached Sato's team way at the back.
"How did he create such a big forest so quickly?"
Anko muttered in amazement. She bent down and touched a thick tree root in front of her.
"Agh."
Yet she quickly let go. Her chakra was absorbed so suddenly that she was about to fall unconscious.
"These trees absorb chakra so quickly. If I am feeling faint after touching it once, how is Raikage dealing with this? He is in the middle of this death forest."
"How is he hiding from this jutsu?!"
Anko shuddered, terrified at the idea of someone going against this justu. But she was only half right.
Sato was indeed in the middle of this forest, but he wasn't hiding from the trees.
BOOOM
He was fighting against them.
Sato was ripping the endless trees to bits with his fists, and burning the broken pieces with Amaterasu.
Bang
But
"Huff huff, I gotta think of a way! This jutsu is trying to kill me."
"It's endless.."
But Sato was getting tired. Hashirama had already built up a lot of chakra; this justu was way too powerful for his current edo body.
"This is an actual forest of death."
"The vines want to crush me, the wood wants to absorb my chakra, and even the flowers want to poison me."
"Who created this evil Jutsu?"
Sato yelled at Hashirama.
Advanced chapters ahead on patréon
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