Two figures faced each other across turbulent waves.
"Finally we meet, Uchiha Kamihane." Hashirama's gaze held measured scrutiny. "You... were Madara's most cherished disciple?"
"Lord First forgets so easily?" Kamihane's smile held winter chill. "We met eleven years past."
Hashirama sighed. "The boy I saw then and the man before me... worlds apart. Why inherit Madara's will when living in this peace?"
"Your peace." Kamihane countered smoothly. "And you've changed too, have you not?"
"My duty to protect remains constant."
"Your 'peace'?" Kamihane's laugh cracked like ice. "A gilded cage built upon your martial supremacy. Tell me..." His hand drifted to sword hilt. "...does that power still hold?"
Frost-kissed steel gleamed as Shimotsuki no Isshin partially unsheathed. Cyan light bathed the coast, blade's breath frosting Kamihane's wrist.
"I don't wish to kill you." Hashirama's voice deepened.
"Implying you still can?" Kamihane's expression froze.
Hashirama shuddered - the cadence, the defiance - uncannily familiar. "You... mirror him too closely."
"Naturally. I am his heir."
"Kamihane!" Hashirama's plea carried across waves. "Why walk Madara's path? This madness can still be—"
"Too late." Kamihane's shadowed gaze fell. "Unless... you return my brother."
"I'm here!" Kagami staggered forward, tears streaking Sharingan red. "Brother... what more do you want?!"
Kamihane's glance held glacial pity. "I want the boy untouched by Konoha's brainwashing. The brother who didn't parrot 'the Village above all'."
"So you'll follow Madara's footsteps?"
"To the letter." Kamihane raised his blade, edge singing. "Fail to kill me today, and I'll raze Konoha's clans - Hyūga, Sarutobi, Uchiha, Senju - all reduced to ash!"
"Madara-sama built peace. I, Uchiha Kamihane..." The sword fully cleared its sheath with crystalline ring. "...am destruction incarnate!"
He struck his chestplate, challenge booming across waters. "Now! As you struck down Madara-sama... STRIKE ME DOWN!"
"So be it." Hashirama's eyes hardened into jade daggers. "Do you think... Madara would mourn you?"
Kamihane moved first. Shimotsuki no Isshin carved celestial arc through night, jade light splitting sea asunder. Kagami stumbled back from the killing intent - only to find Hashirama's broad back shielding him.
"Wood Release: Tree Wall!"
Hashirama's seal-clasped hands summoned gargantuan timber barrier. Five-meter-thick rampart erupted skyward.
The hair-thin blade slash bit deep into woodgrain, showering splinters before dissipating. Kamihane frowned, Sharingan morphing - tomoe spinning, connecting, blossoming into intricate mandala.
"Kagami, leave." Hashirama never turned from the blooming Mangekyō. "Your mission remains."
"Go. This battle transcends your reach."
The Uchiha hesitated, then pressed a Flying Thunder God seal into wet stone. "Spare him... if you can."
Hashirama turned sharply. "You know he killed Sarutobi's father! Slaughtered Sasuke!"
"I..." Kagami swayed, resolve crystallizing through tears. "My life for his. This tragedy... is my failure..."
Studying the youth's haggard determination, Hashirama's shoulders slumped. "I'll... try."
"Right!" Kagami nodded solemnly before vanishing in a flicker of space-time.
"At last... I can cut loose." Kamihane's lips curled.
His blade became a meteor shower. A hundred cyan slashes tore through the air, their keening vibrations shredding the atmosphere. Hashirama remained rooted, hands dancing like a conductor summoning symphonic timber. Colossal roots erupted rhythmically, swallowing sword energy like quicksand devouring stones.
Splintered branches rained down, yet not a single strike breached the Wood God's defense. Within moments, the coastline transformed into a kilometer-wide primordial forest.
Kamihane crouched midair, water platforms crystallizing beneath his boots. With a hydraulic boom
The forest exploded in his wake, a tsunami of splinters marking his path. The cyan comet plowed through ancient trunks before embedding itself in distant cliffs. Dust settled to reveal Kamihane's blade tip hovering centimeters from Hashirama's lips – caught between the First's prayer-pressed palms.
"Predictable." Kamihane twisted his hilt.
A blade beam erupted. Hashirama slapped the flat sideways, diverting the killing light that bisected a mountain behind him. Seizing the opening, the Senju spun forward, fist blazing with chakra flames that howled like typhoons.
Obsidian ribs materialized around Kamihane – Susanoo's skeletal embrace. For a heartbeat, the fist hesitated... then shattered the spectral armor like glass.
The punch connected. Shockwaves atomized the ground beneath them, seawater recoiling from the blast radius. Yet Kamihane stood unyielding, fingers vise-locking Hashirama's wrist.
"Is this your famed monstrous strength?" He sneered, eyes glinting crimson madness. "Pathetic."
Hips pivoting, shoulders dropping – Kamihane unleashed primordial fury. Hashirama sailed through the air like a comet, crashing through three stone pillars before regaining footing.
Twelve follow-up slashes chased the Wood God, each trailing black flames that set the very air ablaze. Susanoo's skeletal arm materialized, scything downward with Amaterasu-cloaked fury.
The sea itself parted under the onslaught. Hashirama vanished beneath cataclysmic waves as fire and brine collided in steam explosions that blotted out the moon.