A massive ball of chakra condensed in front of Naruto and shot towards Madara not even a second later.

"[Bijuudama]"

Despite the power behind the attack, Madara was unimpressed and swatted the orb of death away with a black staff formed from multiple truth-seeker balls, causing the attack to vanish behind the horizon while making Naruto grit his teeth.

Currently, Naruto wasn't feeling too good. He couldn't even explain it himself, but the more he fought Madara, the more sluggish he felt. His chakra wasn't flowing as easily as it usually did, and he felt like he was constantly moving through mud instead of air.

'Damnit, what's going on? I only fired a few Rasenshuriken and a Bijuudama; there is no way I would get exhausted by that.'

Indeed, in addition to the previously mentioned problems, Naruto was actually gasping for breath as if he were out of stamina.

'Shit, is this what nee-san was talking about?'

[I guess so.]

Naruto gritted his teeth as he prepared to fend off another one of Madara's attacks. Frankly, the situation wasn't looking too good right now.

Unlike Naruto, Anko couldn't fire city-destroying attacks endlessly. At best, she could shoot one more. Naturally, she could use weaker attacks as well, but would that really work against Madara? Probably not.

Lee and Guy were also on their last leg since both of them had previously opened the seventh gate. Obviously, the gate of death was still an option, but no one had started that kind of conversation yet.

Unfortunately, Hinata wasn't looking too great either. After all, an assassin's most crucial strike is the first one. Now that Madara was aware that she was around, he would pay more attention not to let his guard down again.

Kakashi had a similar problem to Anko, as he was already somewhat exhausted from previously using Kamui. The Mangekyou Sharingan wasn't exactly cost-effective for non-Uchiha. Additionally, due to the side-effects of the Magekyou Sharingan, Kakashi's eyesight was slowly diminishing as well.

Finally, there was Naruto, who was still somewhat holding his ground but was slowly getting pushed back. Madara was stronger, faster, and more experienced than Naruto, and in addition to Naruto getting increasingly sluggish, things were looking quite bad.

As Naruto was fighting with Madara, a lapse in concentration on Naruto's side allowed Madara to land a hit on him, sending him crashing into the ground.

Naruto crawled out of the hole he was just sent into with a click of his tongue while wiping away some blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Shit, when are these damn five minutes over?"

While those words left his mouth, Guy and Lee landed next to him with concerned expressions.

"Are you alright, Naruto?"

"Yeah, no big deal. I'm tough."

Although Naruto didn't show it, he felt like he would faint any moment now. To him, that made absolutely no sense. If it were the usual him, he should be able to go on for days.

Despite Naruto's attempts to look tough, Guy saw that he was close to his limit. He glanced at Madara before looking at Lee, steel-like determination appearing in his eyes.

"It seems like it is time for the Leaf's Noble Green Beast to depart."

Naruto and Lee's eyes widened in surprise when they heard Guy's words. He knew exactly what his words meant. Guy wanted to open the final gate, the Gate of Death, which would undoubtedly kill him in the end.

"Guy-sensei, don't tell me..."

"Yes, it is time for the green beast to be replaced with the red one. I will open the last gate."

As soon as Guy finished speaking, he expected tears to appear on Lee's face, but to his surprise, Lee was looking at him with unbending determination.

"In that case, I will follow Guy-sensei and do the same."

Naturally, Guy was shocked by these words. In fact, he didn't even know that Lee could use the seventh gate when this fight started, and now he was even able to open the last one?

"You can open the eighth gate, Lee?"

"Can or can't doesn't matter. I WILL open it even if I have to do so with my will alone."

"B-But what about your dream, Lee?"

An uncharacteristic grin appeared on Lee's face as he gave Guy a thumbs-up.

"Isn't that obvious? Since Yuna couldn't defeat Madara, won't my dream of becoming the strongest be fulfilled if I defeat him?"

Guy couldn't help but be baffled by that kind of logic. Frankly, he didn't want Lee to die but seeing the resolve radiating out of Lee's eyes; he felt like it would be an insult to Lee if he tried to stop him.

A few moments later, he sighed deeply as he directed he gazed toward Madara.

"Very well, Lee. Let's do this together as teacher and student! WE'LL SHOW THE WORLD OUR YOUTH, LEE!!!"

"OHHHHH!!!"

Both of them hyped each other up as they unbuttoned their flak vests to reveal their undershirts. In order to open the eighth gate, one has to stab their thumb into their heart, so they had to get the vests out of the way. Finally, the duo lifted their hand and pierced their thumbs towards their hearts.

"[GATE OF DEATH: O...]""

"[Forbidden Evil Arts: Steal Ya Epic Moment No Jutsu]"

Unfortunately, just before their thumbs could reach their hearts, two hands appeared, stopping them from advancing.

"""Yuna!"""

"The one and only~"

Meanwhile, somewhat close to the battlefield, a young man with spiky black hair and a pair of crimson Sharingan was racing through a forest. Unfortunately, Anko never managed to find Sasuke, so he initially started running around somewhat randomly. Luckily, the mountain-sized explosions occurring on the battlefield with Madara gave him a good clue about where he had to go.

'Almost there. Just a few more minutes.'

Suddenly, Sasuke heard the sound of something flying through the air at high speed. He was rather confused by that and looked around, causing him to spot a small black dot that was quickly approaching his position.

'Mhh? What is th... IS THAT A F*CKING BIJUUDAMA!?"

*BOOM*