Naruto : Hidden Cloud

"Who created this evil Jutsu?"

Sato yelled at Hashirama, but his hands didn't stop shattering the endless woodland.

Sato was not someone born strong, but after a decade of continuous training, he was already a qualified strong man.

He was a legitimate peak human in the world of aliens. Such a Sato wasn't going to admit defeat against this forest of death.

Boom

Shattering a thorny tree with a single punch, Sato jumped. All of his hair was standing upright from the static charge buildup, but he didn't seem to care.

Sato's eyes were focused yet somewhat hollow; continuously fighting against this endless forest had pushed his limits like never before. Sato was in a different state of mind right now.

"Raikage, he is in the zone."

Hashirama narrowed his eyes as he stood with his hands joined. He was manipulating the forest swiftly, but it wasn't much use against Sato right now.

When he had first agreed to this fight, Hashirama didn't think it would be so serious. 

"He's in a similar state of mind as me and Madara back in the day."

"Madara always became like this, before he started cutting through enemy lines like grass."

This was the zone, it was a state of mind very few humans get to experience in their limited lives. He and Madara had only ever experienced this feeling during their youth, and later against each other.

"Raikage, you have the mentality of someone strong."

"Forgive me for trying to deny your desires before; I will honor you with my full strength."

Hashirama smiled, and an insane amount of built-up Senjutsu chakra burst out of his body.

For the first time since his revival, Hashirama was serious.

WHOOOOM

The death forest went completely crazy. The intensity of the trees was dialed up to a 100. Everything including the earth and the pollen-filled air, had come to life.

And they all wanted to kill Sato.

Bang

But Sato mercilessly kept kicking and punching everything; every attack was hitting its intended mark. He missed no attacks, and he took no chances.

Not even the full-sage art deep forest emergency had kept Sato down.

'I can't hold my breath for much longer; I have to finish this quickly.'

Sato thought in a distracted way, and ideas kept flowing into his mind. For some reason, he could use all his fighting experience until today in the most efficient way.

Swap

Sato's head and body switched places as he flipped upside down. The thick root, which was about to hit him like a whip, missed its mark and crashed onto the ground instead.

Sato was upside down in midair, but he seemed to have not have noticed; his hollow eyes were deeply looking at nothing. 

This was because for everyone, time might be flowing normally. But for Sato, his senses were slowed down like bullet time, and his eyes watched everything around him in slow motion.

The destructive roots, the murderous forest, the toxic air, and the swamp-like ground.

"I got it; I know how to break this jutsu."

Sato suddenly smiled, and the world suddenly started moving again.

Thump

Immediately, Sato stopped attacking and let himself fall to the ground. His body smoothly flipped mid-air, and he landed on a particularly thick root.

"What does Raikage want to do?"

Hashirama was suspicious, but he didn't stop attacking. The thick root on which Sato was standing suddenly grew spikes.

"I know what I should do. If everything on the ground wants to kill me, I will go to the sky!"

Sato smiled widely, he ignored the spikes trying to break his ultimate defense, and bent down.

Booom

With one quick jump, Sato shot into the air like a cannonball. The wooden forest tried to stop him, but he broke through the treetops with ease.

"You are going to the sky? That's a bad idea; you won't be able to fight back mid-air."

Hashirama frowned. He didn't understand why Sato was doing this. Raikage was almost bound to lose like this.

"Sceret technique-"

But when Sato took out a few kunai from his pouch and held them in his hand, Hashirama's eyes shrunk.

Not because of the kunais, but because of the sheer energy building up in these kunais.

"Railgun barrage!"

Sato's sleeves burst open from the muscle tension as he pulled his hand back and threw the glowing kunai with a bang.

BOOOM

A dome of energy erupted from the ground when the kunai struck the earth. This explosion instantly destroyed a quarter of the forest.

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

Without stopping, Sato kept throwing super-charged kunais to the ground. Each and every explosion shattered the endless forest bit by bit.

"Hahahaha!"

Hashirama was surprised when he saw his jutsu being utterly destroyed, then he suddenly burst out laughing.

"Great thinking, Raikage!"

Hashirama praised Sato without hesitation. Then he took a deep breath and clapped his hands again.

Hashirama didn't say what he was going to do next, but Sato, who was still in mid-air due to the railgun's recoil, shuddered.

"Here it comes."

Sato whispered, and the air suddenly started to vibrate. 

The energy reaction from Hashirama was so great this time that the air far away in Konoha was also under its effects. The atmospheric vibrations were crumbling the hokage rock with hairline cracks.

"Brother, are you going to do it?"

Tobirama muttered in a distracted way as he looked towards the valley of the end.

It was as if he could see it—the arrival of

"Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"

RUMBLE

Nature shook, mountains collapsed, the wind became both hot and cold, the water sources were evaporating, and rain was starting to fall. 

Everything was changing before Sato's eyes. But his mind wasn't on the environment anymore.

His focus was on the thing that caused the environment itself to change so drastically.

"Isn't this a bit too insane?"

Sato whispered, his eyes looking at the great, thousand-handed statue before him. 

This was a wooden statue so massive that the perfect susanoo was only the size of a little finger.

"Raikage! Here it comes."

"Shin Sūsenju!"

Hashirama shouted out loud, and the wooden titan began creakingly turning towards Sato.

"Ha.. haha."

Sato laughed dryly.

He was the size of an beetle compared to the thousand-armed statue. Despite all the strength in his body, Sato felt powerless.

"An ant challenging a mountain. I can see why this jutsu tossed aside Kurama with Susanoo armor."

Sato murmured hesitantly, but he had no more time to think. The wooden statue had completed his movements, and its thousand arms were beginning to bend backwards.

"What is it going to do? Is that monster trying to punch???"

"Is he going to punch the Raikage with thousands of tailed beast-sized hands?!"

Samui almost pulled out her hair in fear. Both Darui and Anko had a similar state of mind.

This time, nobody thought Hashirama was lying about his full strength.

Darui just wanted to take Sato off the battlefield; he just wanted to save his friend now. But the statue had already pulled its hands back, ready to strike.

"It's going to attack."

BOOOM

A palm the size of a mountain smashed into Sato, shattering the ground and burying him 100 feet below.

"Sato sama!"

Samui yelled.

But then the second hand struck.

BOOOM

The ground trembled. Samui, Darui, and Anko almost fell down.

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

Three more consecutive gigantic hands slapped Sato into the ground, one after the other. Making the crater deeper than 500 feet. 

But this time, Sato's group could no longer sense him.

"I can't sense him; Sato Sama is either too deep inside the ground or..."

"He is about to die."

Darui whispered, with his hands clenched. He wanted to rescue Sato if he was still alive. But the constant rumbling of the statue brought him great despair.

"Wait, the Hokage is still continuing? Will he only stop after he has struck down a thousand times?!"

"Stop it, somebody!"

Darui yelled tremblingly, but he received no answer from the gods.

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

The only thing he got were the increasingly fast hands of the titan, swatting Sato further down into the crater, bit by bit.

The loud rumbling was so intense that Sato's group had to squat down and close their ears to survive. Even then, Anko's ears had started to bleed.

Their minds were buzzing; they couldn't help but pray for the rumbling to stop. But they knew it wasn't possible.

The Hokage had struck only nine times, which means...

"There are still nine hundred ninety-one times remaining."

Samui almost cried after this realization. She didn't think she would make it back to her family this time.

"I am sorry, Shisui; please take care of our children. Mommy won't be able to come back."

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

BOOOM

Samui had tried to hold on, but she had lost consciousness after the 15th attack. And that is why she missed the following event:

Not long after she fell unconscious, the earthquakes suddenly stopped. But the attacks hadn't stopped because Hashirama was done.

"Cough.. You got me, Raikage."

It was because Hashirama had a bloody arm going through his chest. 

This was Sato's arm, and he had stabbed Hashirama from the back.

"Haaah.. haaaah.."

Sato was panting; his entire body was full of blood, and his left hand was hanging limp.

"How did you do it, Raikage? By the time I sensed you, you had already stabbed me."

Hashirama turned his head and asked with a small smile. He was an edo zombie, so the stab hadn't killed him.

But if he was still alive, this would be his end. That's why Hashirama stopped and admitted defeat.

"I used a space-time ninjutsu. It was the Heavenly Transfer Technique."

Sato panted but spoke with a chuckle.

"I had already escaped after the 9th attack. I was waiting for the right time to appear and strike you down."

Sato explained with some tiredness. The Heavenly Transfer Technique was the hidden cloud's only space-time ninjutsu. And it was Sato's trump card.

"I see. That's why I couldn't sense you after that attack. I thought you were buried too deep into the ground."

"I lost this time. I underestimated you, Raikage."

Hashirama smiled and scratched his head. Sato simply removed his hand from Hashirama's chest.

He then watched the hole heal instantly and huffed with relief.

"I was never the strongest, first Hokage. My ninja way has always been this."

"I don't have to be stronger than someone else to defeat them. I just have to be a better ninja."

Sato chucked and glorified sneak-attacking. But Hashirama didn't mind and nodded.

"I got it. I will be careful next time, Raikage."

"Thanks for taking care of Tsuande. Please tell her what I said back in Konoha."

"Goodbye, and thank you."

Hashirama's edo body suddenly glowed and started breaking down. After three more seconds, his body collapsed into ash, and Hashirama's soul disappeared.

Leaving Sato alone on top of the titan-like statue. 

"The world looks very different from up here. Is what the god of Ninja's sees when he looks down?"

Sato carefully sat down on the statue's head. Looking at the world all around him.

It was symbolic in a way; the first god of ninja had disappeared. Leaving his position for Sato to sit on next.