Naruto: About the Fact That my Brother is Madara-Chapter 276: The Father-Son Duel

The sharp sound of blades colliding rang out, clear and jarring, abruptly pulling Haruto out of his furious haze.

What should have been a decisive, lethal blow had actually been intercepted. Not only that—his opponent was clearly a master of Lightning Release as well.

"I see..." A cruel smile twisted Haruto's lips as his eyes narrowed dangerously. His Mangekyō Sharingan locked unwaveringly onto every movement of his enemy.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward, boldly closing the distance to the most dangerous range—close-quarters combat, where a single movement could determine victory or death.

This straightforward maneuver was a testament to his unshakable confidence in his own abilities.

"So this is your Mangekyō, is it?" a hoarse voice rasped out. It was clear the black-robed man was deliberately disguising his voice.

Haruto didn't bother responding. Once he subdued the enemy, the power of his Sharingan would lay all secrets bare.

He pushed his Lightning Release chakra to the limit, striking repeatedly. Each sword slash was faster than the last, interwoven with techniques like the Chidori Sharp Spear.

Even someone as formidable as the black-robed man was forced to retreat.

"This guy's movements..." Haruto's brows furrowed deeply, a flicker of unease flashing in his eyes.

He realized he was unable to gain the upper hand in kenjutsu.

In terms of raw speed, the man was on par with him. But what truly made the difference was the enemy's overwhelming combat experience, which effectively neutralized the advantage granted by his Sharingan.

In a way, that experience dulled the gap in perception that his dōjutsu would have otherwise guaranteed.

This led Haruto to a sobering realization. The face hidden beneath the mask had to belong to a member of the old generation of shinobi. Perhaps even a legendary figure long concealed by the Shinobi Sect.

With this understanding, dazzling blue lightning condensed into purple lightning.

Through his superb chakra control, Haruto compressed the energy onto the blade of his Kusanagi Sword, enveloping it entirely.

His left Mangekyō eye glowed faintly as he suddenly hurled the weapon forward.

What is this…? The black-robed man frowned slightly. Why would his opponent suddenly discard his weapon in the middle of a fight?

He knew who stood before him, and understood the depths of the young man's abilities. Such an uncharacteristic action could only mean one thing—it was a trap.

He shifted slightly to evade the incoming violet streak, only for it to abruptly veer off course and home in on his heart with unrelenting precision.

In that split second, the black-robed man pushed his speed to its absolute limit, but the blade remained fixed on his chest, as if drawn by an invisible thread. It looked as though the next instant would see it pierce his heart.

Anyone else would have already fallen under the sway of Haruto's ocular technique. Without godlike speed and the perceptive insight of an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, dodging a second time was all but impossible.

"What kind of ocular jutsu is this?"

"Magnetism? Telekinetic possession?"

"This boy has grown far stronger than I imagined..."

A sickle-shaped pattern quickly manifested in the black-robed man's pupils, forming concentric purple rings of light.

"Shinra Tensei!"

A surge of repulsive force erupted forth, and the Kusanagi Sword, poised to strike, was instantly flung away.

Seeing this, Kyōsuke let out a quiet breath of relief. If he had truly taken a sword to the chest from his own son, how could he, as a father, ever hold his head high again?

That's right. The one who had defeated Kurama Jun and disguised himself as the enemy to toy with Haruto—the man in the black robe—was none other than Uchiha Kyōsuke himself.

He had originally planned to reunite with his son after a long separation, but along the way, a mischievous thought took root. He decided to hide his identity and test just how much his son had grown.

In terms of taijutsu and ninjutsu, the boy was fairly competent. His reaction time in battle still needed improvement. But it was the ocular technique of his Sharingan that gave Kyōsuke a glimmer of pleasant surprise.

Of course, it was just a glimmer.

Even without activating his Rinnegan, Kyōsuke had countless ways to counter such techniques. He had simply chosen the swiftest and least revealing one.

"There's still a long way to go."

As a father, it was his responsibility to help his son grow stronger.

And today, he would use action to prove that his son was still not yet qualified to stand upon the world's highest stage.

"Is that all?" The black-robed man's tone was calm, but the contempt laced within was unmistakable.

This only further convinced Haruto that the man before him must be a high-level operative from the Shinobi Sect.

"You damned lackey of the Sect... Today, I'll reduce you to ashes!"

Golden wheat-hued light surged into the heavens as an enormous, mountain-sized Complete Body Susanoo took shape.

There was no denying it—Haruro now possessed the strength to contend with most of the world's top-tier opponents.

At the very least, his power was no less than that of Madara or Hashirama during the closing years of the Warring States era.

"Hmph, of course it's thanks to my superior bloodline. If it weren't for me, would the boy ever have reached such heights?" Kyōsuke quietly attributed most of his son's success to himself.

Still, he had to admit—his son was indeed a rare talent. That too brought him a measure of pride.

That being said, Kyōsuke never held back when it came to teaching tough lessons.

So this brat thought the opponent before him was some lackey of the Shinobi Sect? If he ever came face-to-face with one of their truly hidden monsters, his current strength, which remained somewhere in the middle tier of the Super-Kage level, would be far from enough.

Well now, he's even learned Senjutsu?

That would place him near the upper limit of mid-tier strength—but still not quite at the peak of the Super-Kage class.

To reach the high-tier Super-Kage level, one needed power equivalent to Uchiha Madara's Majestic Attire: Susanoo.

Pure senjutsu chakra, while formidable, could not compare to the amplification provided by the full power of the Nine Tails.

Susanoo combined with Kurama's power and enhanced by senjutsu—that was the form Madara used to stand at the very summit of the Super-Kage echelon.

Without summoning the True Several Thousand Hands, even Hashirama would have struggled to defeat him.

At present, Haruto still had a long road ahead before reaching that level. Nonetheless, his current abilities were more than sufficient to dominate most shinobi in the world, as long as he did not encounter one of those truly monstrous beings.

Unfortunately for him, standing before him now was the strongest monster the Shinobi World had ever known.

"What's the matter? Not going to use Wood Release?" With his arms crossed over his chest and an air of smug defiance, a faint violet glow pulsed from the diamond-shaped seal on his forehead. Uchiha Haruto stared down at the masked figure from atop his Susanoo. "Or is it that you don't even know how to use Wood Release?"

That insolent brat—he had certainly learned how to mock his opponent properly.

Yet, it was only then that Kyōsuke finally understood why his precious granddaughter so often stood with her hands on her hips. Clearly, she had picked up that habit from this shameless little punk.

Gripped by a sudden surge of anger for corrupting his beloved little girl, Kyōsuke silently decided to raise the severity of his disciplinary lesson just a notch.

It was time this rascal learned what it truly meant to face the wrath of a grandfather.

Before Susanoo could even react, Kyōsuke stepped forward with just the slightest exertion of strength. Instantly, the ground within a dozen meters cracked and collapsed beneath him, as if the very earth feared his presence.

Haruto's expression shifted slightly, a flicker of unease flashing through his eyes. But he didn't hesitate. He activated his eye technique, forcibly altering causality itself to ensure that Susanoo's mighty blade would land cleanly upon its target.

What happened next, however, left him utterly stunned.

The slash, which carried the force to shatter mountains and split the land, was intercepted—head-on.

Even though the shockwave from the blade's impact laid waste to the forest behind the man, reducing it to splinters and rubble, the figure hovering midair remained completely motionless, not even flinching in the slightest.

Only then did Haruto finally notice it.

The man was floating.

Unaided by wings, jutsu, or any visible force, he was levitating high above the battlefield as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Aside from that little dwarf from the Land of Earth, only a handful of terrifying beings could achieve such flight without relying on external means—like the members of the Ōtsutsuki clan.

"Don't tell me…"

Just as the realization began to take shape in Haruto's mind, the black-cloaked figure calmly ascended to Haruto's altitude, matching his height in the sky.

No elaborate technique. No dazzling display of chakra. Just a simple, fluid buildup of strength.

In the next moment, Kyōsuke unleashed a powerful flying kick, striking with pinpoint precision. The blow shattered the diamond-shaped seal embedded in the Susanoo's forehead with ease and landed squarely against the brat's chest.

Haruto's body shot downward like a cannonball, plummeting from the sky and crashing into the earth with thunderous force.

The impact carved a long, jagged trench through the ground, and he only came to a stop after his body collided violently with a massive boulder.

Even for someone with a Sage Body, such devastating trauma was not easy to withstand.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and as Haruto wiped it away, a fierce glint of resolve flared in his eyes. His right eye, the Mangekyō Sharingan, began to glow with a sinister, otherworldly red light.

Kyōsuke, descending gently from above, was in the process of gradually suppressing his son's potential, testing how far the boy could be pushed in a true battle.

However, what he did not expect was the overwhelming pressure that began to radiate from the battlefield.

A fearsome aura, vast and oppressive, settled over the land like a curtain of dread, intense enough to make even Kyōsuke instinctively grow cautious.

The source of that power was none other than Haruto, who now stood silently, his head bowed.

"This brat… was still hiding something?" At first, Kyōsuke was intrigued, perhaps even a little impressed. But soon, a sense of unease crept in. Something wasn't right.

His expression darkened slightly.

Activating his Rinnegan, he tore through the timeline, causing an attack set to land one second in the future to manifest instantly.

Just as Haruto prepared to unleash everything in a final, desperate strike, a sharp pain shot through his neck.

In an instant, he lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Phew… That was close. Nearly let things go too far," Kyōsuke exhaled in relief, though a strange sense of guilt tugged at the edge of his conscience.

If his wife and daughter ever found out that he had nearly beaten their son within an inch of his life, they would most certainly not be pleased.

"Wait a second… this isn't my fault."

"It's this kid's fault for being so reckless. Always thinking about throwing his life away in a fight instead of considering retreat when necessary."

"Yes. That's right. I've done nothing wrong."

Muttering to himself with self-justifying logic, Kyōsuke picked up the unconscious Haruto in one arm and the barely-awake Kurama Jun in the other. Opening a spatial rift, he vanished from the battlefield and reappeared in the secret laboratory that Yayoi had prepared.

"Ahem… Time to get to work."

Facing Yayoi's cold, unreadable gaze, Kyōsuke, for once, felt slightly awkward.

Not long afterward, both Yuto and Kurama Jun began to regain consciousness.

When Haruto opened his eyes and saw Aunt Yayoi standing beside the hospital bed, he felt a flicker of confusion. Had she traveled such a long distance just to save him?

But that fleeting sense of gratitude vanished the moment he and Jun turned their heads and spotted Kyōsuke sitting casually nearby, peeling an apple.

Their jaws nearly hit the floor.

"Te-Teacher?!" Kurama Jun was utterly dumbfounded. He even wondered whether he had fallen into a genjutsu.

But wait—wasn't genjutsu his specialty?

Haruto, however, calmed down quickly, his sharp mind already piecing things together. He soon reached a conclusion.

That black-robed man… had been his father in disguise all along.

Who else in the entire shinobi world could so thoroughly crush him without giving him the slightest chance to fight back?

"…Damn old man." Haruto clenched his teeth and said in a low voice, "Welcome home."

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