"...I... lost?"
On the collapsing remains of the Earth Nine-Tails, Urashiki looked down at his mutated hands, then gazed at the two figures in the distance whose aura had not diminished but whose Chakra remained abundant.
The purple-gold Susanoo Nine-Tails stood majestically, its circulating radiance showing no signs of weakening.
"Defeated... by these low-level creatures, merely at the monkey stage?"
Humiliation! Unprecedented humiliation! However, the instinct for survival forcibly suppressed the boiling indignity and madness. His remaining sanity screamed.
His trump card was gone, and the opponents were in perfect condition, perhaps not even having used their full strength.
Although his own Chakra was greatly depleted, he still had a considerable amount left, thanks to the Ōtsutsuki Physique and the reserves he had previously devoured.
If he wanted to live... there was only one path left—escape!
However, as his gaze swept over the ready-to-fight Naruto and Sasuke, if judged by his previous strength, the probability of successfully escaping from the pursuit of these two was infinitely close to zero.
Even if he used all his remaining Chakra for one last desperate struggle... it would probably only be a meaningless death throe, prolonging the despair.
Just then, the massive purple-gold Susanoo Nine-Tails in the center of the battlefield began to dissipate. Naruto released his Full Tailed Beast Transformation.
As the light receded, the figures of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, one golden and one black, reappeared side by side on the scarred earth.
Their auras remained strong and stable, indicating that the fierce battle just now had not caused them much substantial depletion.
Urashiki's golden Rinnegan stared intently at them, his mutated hand clenching fiercely at his side, then loosening.
"—Hah!!!"
Without warning, Urashiki violently swung his arm forward! A red Chakra energy ball instantly formed in his palm, which he hurled with all his might towards Naruto and Sasuke not far away!
However, the two merely leaped casually to their left and right simultaneously the moment the energy ball struck, thus dodging it.
"Boom—!!!"
The red energy ball whistled through the gap between them, slamming heavily into a scorched patch of earth several hundred meters behind, causing a violent explosion that blew out a sizable crater. Flames and smoke rose, but quickly subsided, leaving no other impact except for an additional pit.
"Urashiki," Uchiha Sasuke slowly stepped forward. "Give up. You have no hope left."
This sounded like a final plea for surrender, but Sasuke was merely speaking symbolically; he would not give Urashiki any chance to breathe.
"Qil..."
Sasuke uttered a clear, short syllable.
Almost at the same instant the syllable sounded—
"Boom-crack—!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
From within the clouds, the power of lightning was instantly invoked, and a terrifying pillar of lightning, shining with blinding white light and shaped like a monster, struck down fiercely towards Urashiki!
Qilin!
Ninjutsu that once required complex preparations had, in Sasuke's current Realm, reached a state of near-instantaneous activation!
"Don't underestimate me—!!"
Urashiki roared, abruptly raising his arm. Red Chakra surged wildly, rapidly condensing above his head, forming an incredibly thick energy shield that blocked the point where the Qilin was about to strike!
"Bang—!!!!"
Blinding lightning and red light exploded furiously. The shield sizzled as it was corroded by the violent lightning, but ultimately it was not pierced through in one blow, barely withstanding the furious strike from heaven and earth!
However, this was the limit of Urashiki's hasty defense!
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
Almost at the same moment the Qilin descended, Naruto's attack followed immediately! A giant golden fox head suddenly appeared on him!
The fox head opened its massive mouth, and a Tailed Beast Ball instantly formed, then blasted straight towards Urashiki, who was fully resisting the Qilin!
"[Amenosubaruryūsei no Mikoto·Mitama]!"
Urashiki's eyes were bloodshot. The madness of despair instead ignited his last potential! His other free hand shot forward, and purple Chakra transformed into a slender purple energy ray, colliding head-on with the incoming Tailed Beast Ball!
"Rumble—!!!!!!!!!!!"
The destructive purple-black ray and the pitch-black Tailed Beast Ball violently collided in mid-air! A massive explosion and dust erupted.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The next moment, several golden fox claws suddenly shot out from the dust and energy turbulence stirred up by the explosion!
Taking advantage of the perfect timing when Urashiki's hands were both occupied, they fiercely grabbed at his body and limbs!
"What?!" Urashiki was startled, but it was too late to react effectively.
"Bang!!"
"Crack!"
The giant golden Chakra claws firmly gripped his waist and abdomen, then unleashed terrifying gripping and pulling force!
Immediately after, all the giant claws exerted force simultaneously, clenching into fists, dragging Urashiki's body, and smashing him fiercely into the already scarred earth below!
"Boom—!!!!!!!!!!"
Urashiki's body embedded itself into the earth like a meteor, creating a huge crater over twenty meters in diameter.
"Cough... cough cough...!"
Urashiki's weak and painful coughs and gasps came from the bottom of the pit. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. The continuous heavy injuries and immense psychological blow had left the Ōtsutsuki's aura extremely weak. The shadow of death was clearer than ever before.
If this continued... besieged by these two monstrous, perfectly coordinated, and almost perfectly conditioned individuals... he would surely die, without a doubt.
"It seems..." Urashiki lay at the bottom of the pit, looking up at the two approaching figures, "I... truly... underestimated you."
Naruto and Sasuke hovered at the edge of the pit, responding without any relaxation. They had no interest in the dying enemy's idle talk.
Urashiki's words continued, "However... if you want to completely kill me... with my current defensive posture and remaining Chakra... it would take at least a few minutes, wouldn't it?"
These words made Naruto and Sasuke's brows furrow slightly at the same time. They naturally knew that an Ōtsutsuki determined to defend to the death, even at the cost of self-destruction to buy time, was indeed difficult to instantly kill. A few minutes was a reasonable estimate.
And these few minutes, on a rapidly changing battlefield, were enough for many variables to occur.
Urashiki's voice carried an unsettling calmness. "If... either of you two is diverted by something else... leaving only one to deal with me..."
He didn't finish, but the meaning was obvious—once it became a one-on-one, even for a brief moment, his chances of escaping or even counterattacking would greatly increase.
Naruto and Sasuke did not respond, preparing to launch their next, more ferocious combined attack to completely end this battle. They would not give Urashiki any opportunity to delay or sow discord.
However, just as the attack was about to be launched—
A subtle arc suddenly formed at Urashiki's cracked lips. He no longer looked at Naruto and Sasuke, but cast his gaze behind them, towards the direction of Konoha Village.
"My... last'suggestion' to you. Watch your back."
"Of course, whether you listen or not... is up to you."
"But... will you just leave those... 'ants'... alone?"
'Ants'? 'Behind'?
These two words pierced Naruto's heart! An ominous premonition made his hairs stand on end. What did this guy mean?
Although Urashiki gained a huge power boost after devouring his own Rinnegan, it also meant he temporarily lost the core abilities granted by those eyes—the [Yomotsu Hirasaka] for spatial travel, and [Time Reversal] for avoiding fatal damage!
Therefore, the cunning Urashiki must have prepared other forms of 'backup' that were not spatial abilities, to create chaos and seek a glimmer of hope in his desperate situation!
"Roar—!!!!!!!"
The worst suspicion was confirmed: a roar, slightly distant but incredibly clear and full of violent malice, suddenly came from the direction of Konoha Village!
Naruto and Sasuke abruptly turned their heads!
At the edge of their vision, in the sky above the forest on the outskirts of Konoha Village, a massive Nine-Tails was roaring towards the heavens!
Urashiki's final trump card!
He had secretly hidden a portion of the Nine-Tails Chakra he had stolen from Kushina near Konoha Village before the battle began!
And after using up all the Five Elements Chakra he had taken from the Third Hokage to create the Five Elements Nine-Tails, he had not exhausted all his'spoils'.
The red energy ball he had seemingly futilely thrown at Naruto and Sasuke earlier was not meant as an attack at all! It did not contain Chakra for attack, but rather a byproduct from when he stole the Nine-Tails Chakra.
Uzumaki Clan Chakra!
When this energy ball landed at the predetermined spot, it immediately fused with the Nine-Tails Chakra already lurking there, activating it, and using it as a blueprint and fuel, constructing this last, and closest to Konoha, pseudo-Nine-Tails in a very short time!
A classic 'trolley problem'!
Should they stay immediately, concentrating their efforts to completely kill the heavily wounded Urashiki within minutes? Or must one of them immediately return to Konoha to stop the pseudo-Nine-Tails that was roaring at the edge of Konoha, capable of causing devastating disaster at any moment?
Whichever they chose, Urashiki's goal was achieved—to divide their strength and attention! As long as one of them was diverted, the pressure on him would greatly decrease, giving him more room to maneuver, whether to escape or launch a desperate counterattack!
Naruto's expression was grim, and the coordinates for the Flying Thunder God Technique flashed rapidly in his mind. He was almost ready to activate the technique and teleport back to the Village!
"Buzz..."
Suddenly, at the critical moment of his mental shock, Naruto felt an uncontrollable violent tremor coming from his ninja tool pouch at his waist!
"What?"
Naruto instinctively reached in and felt a storage scroll.
Even stranger, he didn't even need to make hand signs to unseal it!
The scroll automatically opened a crack in his hand, and a strange light shone through it! Then, under the astonished gaze of Naruto and Sasuke, an 'item' actually broke through the Seal on its own and'struggled' out!
It floated silently in the air before Naruto. Was it a sword?
No... perhaps it once was a sword. But now, it was covered in thick rust, its blade twisted, abandoned by the river of time. Rather than a weapon, it looked more like a piece of broken scrap metal roughly shaped like a sword.
It had no Chakra fluctuations, only an ancient texture.
Things happened too fast; from the appearance of the pseudo-Nine-Tails to this broken sword appearing on its own, only a mere one to two seconds passed. Naruto hadn't yet processed what this strange phenomenon meant.
"Whoosh—!"
Just as Naruto was momentarily stunned, the strange light flowing around the rusty broken sword suddenly intensified!
The next moment, it transformed into a streak of light on its own, shooting towards Konoha Village at an astonishing speed!
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