"Why is Neji here too?"
Recognizing the face of a young man among the Five-Village Allied Forces, Naruto (the original, observing through Sekiro) felt a slight surprise. But after a moment's thought, it became clear. The Hyuga clan now possessed two unprecedented trump cards. With the ambition of Hyuga Hiashi and the clan elders, they would undoubtedly seek to advance further. The simplest way, naturally, was to flex their muscles. Hinata, as the Hyuga's direct successor, certainly couldn't be put in harm's way. It seemed Neji's presence here was a matter of course.
"The fate of the Hyuga branch family is not predetermined. You have already successfully broken the shackles of the Caged Bird Seal. Whether the branch family's destiny can be completely reversed in this generation depends on your efforts..." Naruto thought to himself. Since their sparring match, Neji had sought him out several times to ask about the rationality of the Hyuga main and branch family system. So, Naruto had a general understanding of the young man's ideals.
BOOM!
The Perfect Susanoo and the Gedo Mazo clashed.
"The baptism of battle between the shinobi world's top powerhouses... I wonder what kind of growth it will bring you, Neji."
"Lord Sasuke, the shockwaves from your battle are too terrifying! The allied forces can't withstand them! Can you draw your opponent away?" The anxious voice of a sensor ninja reached Uchiha Sasuke's mind.
Glancing over, Sasuke saw the battered state of the allied shinobi and sighed inwardly in frustration. Just as Deidara said, most ninja are brainless... Knowing their strength isn't enough, yet they still insist on getting involved...
The Great Tengu Susanoo's wings beat powerfully. The Gedo Mazo's figure was sent hurtling backward. After a series of deafening roars, their battlefield had shifted far into the distance. Though aftershocks remained, they wouldn't affect the allied forces as severely as before.
"Are they planning to use sheer numbers to overwhelm the Akatsuki members, excluding Nagato, first...?" Naruto mused, watching the main body of the allied forces split up. He roughly estimated that each Akatsuki member would face about two hundred shinobi from the Five-Village Allied Forces. Hidan received even grander treatment, facing three hundred directly.
Under the leadership of Deidara, Yenako, and Chojuro, results quickly emerged.
Hidan was the first to be dismembered. It was a Kumo Jonin who did the deed.
Within Akatsuki, only Nagato was powerful enough to ignore the advantage of numbers. Others might be able to fight one against ten, or even against dozens. But when the number of enemies exceeded a hundred, the outcome would be drastically different.
"Barring any surprises, we're going to be completely wiped out," White Zetsu and Black Zetsu calmly observed from a distance. For them, as long as Nagato was unharmed, the Ten-Tails could be successfully revived. The existence of other members had ceased to be necessary the moment Nagato regained his ability to move.
"We've been deceived." Kakuzu and Hoshigaki Kisame stood back-to-back, covering each other's blind spots.
"Itachi-san once said that those who harm their comrades will all die a dog's death... Perhaps, someone like me is destined to die by betrayal," Kisame said with a calm smile. Compared to Kakuzu, his expression was much more serene.
"Betrayal? I dislike that word intensely, even despise it. I would rather commit suicide than die by betrayal!" Kakuzu glanced behind him; only two of his Earth Grudge Fear hearts remained...
"You were once someone I admired." Yenako looked at Sasori, whose face was even more youthful than her own, her expression complex. Sasori of the Red Sand had been the dream lover of almost every girl of her generation.
"Life, especially a ninja's life, is fragile. A ninja's emotions are even more so." With a thought from Sasori, his puppets charged into the crowd, commencing a bloody slaughter. "Your admiration for me was merely the sexual impulse between men and women during adolescence. It holds no value worth reminiscing."
Hearing this, Yenako's heart stirred. Perhaps this perception, so different from ordinary people's, was precisely what had led this former rising star of Sunagakure to his current state.
"Scorch Release: Extreme Steam Kill!" Seeing the puppets rushing towards her, Yenako focused her will. The scorching fireballs kvinneling behind her incinerated a puppet to ash.
"Time to bail!" Hiruko scanned his surroundings, his heart sinking as he saw the densely packed enemies. "What a pity..." He felt a pang of regret seeing the dismembered Hidan. It had been many years since he had left Konoha, many years since he had spoken so much to one person.
"That guy?!" Hiruko's heart leaped in alarm as he saw the masked man casually strolling through the crowd, heading straight for them. From the very first glance, he had felt something was off about this individual. Subsequent events had repeatedly proven that this grinning, seemingly insane fellow was anything but simple.
"Stop him!" an allied ninja shouted.
"We can't! All attacks pass right through him!"
"Damn it! What in the world is the principle behind this guy's ability?!" A Jonin gritted his teeth; this man's ability felt completely unbeatable.
"His target is the Seven-Tails!"
Vwwooom!
The masked man's palm lightly touched the Seven-Tails' massive body. Space suddenly warped into a giant vortex.
"A space-time ability?" A Kiri Jonin stared wide-eyed as the Seven-Tails vanished from its spot.
"So that's it. When attacked, he absorbs the part of his body being attacked into an alternate dimension." Naruto's (Sekiro clone's) left eye glowed faintly golden as he gradually understood the masked man's ability. "That's why he can nullify all attacks." The masked man wasn't invincible; it was just that the allied forces' ninjutsu couldn't truly hit him. After all, how could ordinary ninjutsu break through the barrier of space?
"I've locked onto the location of your alternate dimension..." Yomotsu Hirasaka, the space-time ninjutsu inherent to Otsutsuki Urashiki's tomoe Rinnegan, allowed free travel between different dimensions. The masked man's bizarre ability, once the location of his dojutsu's alternate dimension was pinpointed, became much easier to deal with. According to Naruto's current observations, this fellow's fundamental strength wasn't high; his dojutsu ability was his main asset. The strain of transferring the Seven-Tails seemed to be too much for even the masked man to bear, and his figure subsequently vanished from the battlefield.
"The Seven-Tails has also been captured. How can I reasonably 'feed' myself (Sekiro) to them now?" Naruto (the original, through Sekiro) fell into deep thought. He suddenly realized that acting, and acting plausibly, was also a difficult task. However, this matter wasn't urgent; Akatsuki still needed some time to extract the Seven-Tails' and Eight-Tails' chakra.
CRACK-BOOM!
A massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky.
Everyone looked up in astonishment. Unbeknownst to them, thick, dark clouds had suddenly gathered overhead.
"He escaped!" A cry of alarm drew everyone's attention.
Focusing their gazes, they saw that Hiruko was no longer within the encirclement.
"Sensor ninja, lock onto his position!" the commanding Jonin shouted.
"Four o'clock direction!"
"After him!"
"I'm taking my leave first." At this moment, Kakuzu's figure was in a wretched state; all his Earth Grudge Fear hearts had been destroyed. He bit down on a large number of black threads in his mouth, and his body suddenly swelled like a balloon. Countless black threads hardened like steel, lashing out in all directions with terrifying force.
Just as he had thought earlier, he would rather commit suicide than die by betrayal.