"I'll take the little one back first."
Urashiki's icy voice echoed through the forest. That crimson-black sphere, condensed with annihilative energy, had already locked onto the trembling Boruto.
The shadow of death instantly engulfed the entire battlefield.
"Boruto!"
Shisui's pupils contracted to pinpricks. His Body Flicker was pushed to its absolute limit,but that energy sphere's speed surpassed even sound!
Too late!
At this do-or-die moment.
The middle-aged Sasuke,his face until now as unreadable as an ancient well,had his eyes abruptly shift.
In his left eye, purple ripples churned madly. Six jet-black tomoe materialized, radiating a heart-stopping, terrifying Dōjutsu.
"Ugo no Mei · Banri Ikku!"
No hand seals. No warning.
Weng,
Space, in that instant, underwent a displacement imperceptible to the naked eye.
Boruto,frozen in terror just a second ago, unable to move,vanished from his spot.
In the next second, he appeared dozens of meters away in a safe zone, utterly bewildered.
And the spot where he had stood was now occupied by that one-armed black figure.
The middle-aged Sasuke had used himself as bait, displacing himself directly into the path of the annihilative energy sphere.
"Sasuke-oji!" Boruto screamed.
"Pointless!" A cruel grin stretched across Urashiki's face.
Facing an attack that could raze the entire forest, the middle-aged Sasuke's expression didn't change in the slightest.
His right eye,its Mangekyō pattern spinning furiously.
"Amaterasu!"
Pitch-black flames materialized out of thin air upon the surface of that crimson-black energy sphere!
No temperature. No sound. Only ultimate annihilation.
However, the power contained within the energy sphere was too immense. Amaterasu's black flames couldn't fully consume it in time.
It merely paused for a fraction of a second,then continued its unstoppable advance, bearing down upon Sasuke!
The middle-aged Sasuke's lone hand was already on his sword hilt.
He prepared to withstand it with Susanoo.
[Recording successful: Six-Tomoe Rinnegan · Amenotejikara]
[Recording successful: Mangekyō Sharingan · Amaterasu]
Atop a tree a hundred meters away, Akashi Sora yawned lazily. The system panel's notifications stirred not a single ripple in his heart.
Decent reaction. Knew to use Amenotejikara to save the kid.
But the follow-up was too crude. Taking the attack head-on? Way too unflashy.
This thought had barely crossed Sora's mind,
On the battlefield, a new shift occurred!
The middle-aged Sasuke's spinning Mangekyō shifted patterns once more.
KAGUTSUCHI
The Amaterasu black flames clinging to the energy sphere's surface instantly transformed under his control!
The black flames ceased their simple burning. Instead, they morphed into countless sharp, piercing black spikes, erupting violently outward from within the energy sphere!
BOOM,!
The rampaging energy sphere, attacked from both inside and out, instantly lost equilibrium.
Like a balloon punctured by countless holes, it let out an unwilling, mournful shriek midair and exploded!
Destructive energy ripples spread madly in all directions, carving deep furrows into the already ravaged earth once more.
And the middle-aged Sasuke at the blast's epicenter had already been pulled away by a black lightning bolt, reappearing at Shisui's side.
"Nice coordination." Shisui looked at the unharmed Sasuke and offered genuine praise.
"It's not over yet." The middle-aged Sasuke's voice was icy. His gaze was locked dead onto Ōtsutsuki Urashiki, whose face now showed shock at his attack being neutralized.
"You bastard," Urashiki watched his meticulously prepared attack so easily dismantled. The mocking playfulness on his face finally vanished, replaced by seething anger.
What angered him even more were the inextinguishable black flames clinging to his body, searing his chakra.
"Kagutsuchi · Flame Lightning God!"
The middle-aged Sasuke gave him no chance to breathe. His right eye's dōryoku surged once more!
The scattered Amaterasu embers that had splashed onto Urashiki transformed into coiling black fire serpents, entwined with crackling lightning, madly biting into his body!
"GYAAAAAH,!"
Even an Ōtsutsuki's body couldn't withstand this soul-level immolation. Urashiki let out a scream of agony.
Oh? Playing fancy with the shape transformation, huh? Molding Amaterasu into various forms. Interesting.
Practicality's decent. Style... I'll give it a seven out of ten.
Atop the tree, Akashi Sora watched this scene with keen interest. A thought stirred.
[System, record that fishing rod's ability.]
[...]
Within the system space, no response.
Hm?
Sora frowned slightly, issuing the command once more.
[Record Ōtsutsuki Urashiki's chakra absorption ability.]
Again, silence.
Sora's expression underwent a subtle shift.
He scrutinized Urashiki,tormented into a pathetic state by the black flames, desperately flailing his fishing rod in an attempt to extinguish them.
I see.
Not a bloodline. Not a secret technique. It's the fishing rod itself's ability.
A loser who relies on external tools, huh? How... utterly contemptible.
Akashi Sora curled his lip, undisguised disdain flashing in his eyes.
Just then, Urashiki on the battlefield finally seemed unable to endure Amaterasu's torment.
Gritting his teeth fiercely, his white Rinnegan blazed with light,and he forcibly snapped his own fishing rod in half!
The shattered rod dissolved into motes of fluorescent light and dispersed. The black flames clinging to him also vanished bizarrely along with it.
"You... have angered me!" Urashiki panted heavily, his face a mask of fury.
He abandoned the notion of capturing Boruto. Instead, he fixed Sasuke and Shisui with a gaze filled with venomous hatred.
In the next second, space behind him rippled like water. A pitch-black void materialized out of thin air.
"Leaving so soon?"
A lazy voice, tinged with mockery, echoed spectrally through the forest, reaching the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki, just about to step into the spatial void, froze solid.
That voice seemed to carry some kind of magic. The spatial ripples behind him became unstable, fluctuating.
"Who's there?!"
Urashiki whipped around, his venomous gaze frantically sweeping the surroundings.
Nothing.
Only that one-armed Uchiha and the other Uchiha,fast as a specter,staring at him warily.
Show up and think you can just leave?
Is Konoha your personal karaoke bar? Come and go as you please? Pay your damn tab, buddy.
Atop the tree a hundred meters away, Akashi Sora stretched, finally rising from that comfortable branch.
Those amber eyes,just restored moments ago,silently switched to a pair of purple eyes rippling with mysterious concentric rings in this moment.
The Rinnegan.
In his vision, that Ōtsutsuki Urashiki,seething with "I am very displeased" energy and about to flee,was enveloped in a pale golden glow visible only to him.
「Anchor」 , defined.
"Playing tricks!"
Unable to locate the voice's source, Urashiki dismissed it as empty posturing.
He hesitated no longer, turning to step into that closing spatial passage.
However,
Just as one foot was about to enter that patch of darkness.
Sora's will stirred.
「Divine Exile」
Shua!
The entire world seemed to have its mute button pressed.
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki,right at the passage's entrance just a second ago,abruptly, inexplicably vanished.
In the next second, he appeared in the center of a devastated clearing a hundred meters away, standing on a charred broken branch.
And the spot he had originally occupied was replaced by a windborne dead leaf, which drifted lazily into the slowly closing spatial passage and vanished.
Time itself seemed to freeze in this moment.
"..."
"...Nani?"
Urashiki looked down at the broken branch beneath his feet, then up at the now completely sealed spatial passage in the distance. His brain suffered a full three-second system crash.
What... happened?
Why... am I here?
My spacetime ninjutsu? My door home?
What's with that leaf?!
On the other side.
The middle-aged Sasuke's pupils contracted to their absolute limit upon witnessing this.
What... was that?!
Not Amenotejikara!
Amenotejikara is equivalent exchange. That just now... was a lawless, tyrannical, unilateral forced displacement!
It was treating a person like a chess piece, moving them directly from one side of the board to the other!
His gaze shot sharply in a certain direction.
There, a figure was drifting down lightly from the massive tree canopy, as leisurely as if strolling through his own backyard.
Ash-brown short hair. Comfortable casual clothes. An innocuous, radiant smile on his face.
It was this village's Fifth Hokage.
"Ara ara. Dear guest, leaving without even saying goodbye?"
Akashi Sora ambled forward, hands in his pockets, amber eyes smiling at the utterly bewildered Urashiki.
"In Konoha, that's considered very rude behavior, you know."
"You,!"
Urashiki finally snapped back to reality. He glared fixedly at this suddenly appearing young man. His white Rinnegan brimmed with fury and disbelief.
"You! What did you do?!"
"Me?" Sora pointed at himself innocently. "I'm simply fulfilling my duties as host, insisting you stay for some tea."
This newly acquired Rinnegan... is as tyrannical as expected.
This forced spatial repositioning is practically the bane of all spacetime ninjutsu. Might lack style points, but practicality is maxed out.
From now on, anyone who plays with space ninjutsu in front of me gets swapped with a rock on the moon. Let them play mahjong with Kaguya.
"You wretch! A mere lower lifeform dares raise a hand against this lord!"
The humiliation of being toyed with, coupled with the rage of denied escape, plunged Urashiki into utter madness.
He abandoned all strategy. His Ōtsutsuki chakra erupted without reservation!
"I'll grind you to dust,along with this miserable village!"
Urashiki roared, both hands extended, palms aimed at Akashi Sora. Both his white Rinnegan blazed with light!
He would absorb this man before him,his chakra, his soul, his life,everything!
"Lord Fifth! Be careful! He can absorb chakra!"
Shisui in the distance, seeing this, immediately shouted a warning.
However, Sora merely stood there calmly. That lazy smile on his face didn't even waver.
"Absorb chakra?"
He tilted his head, as if hearing something amusing.
"What a coincidence."
"So can I."
As the words fell, Sora's left eye,those amber irises,was instantly replaced by a demonic blood-red.
Mangekyō Sharingan, silently activated.
『Kōkō Sanrei · Ban sō Kin'yū』!
Weng,
In Urashiki's white Rinnegan vision, the space between him and Akashi Sora abruptly began folding and stacking,like pages,layer upon layer, manipulated by an invisible giant hand!
His all-consuming absorption force pierced the first layer of space, the second, the third...
But the space seemed to have thousands upon thousands of layers!
No matter how he pushed his Dōjutsu, he couldn't reach that figure,so close at hand, yet an insurmountable distance away.
"Wh-what the hell is this thing?!"
The madness on Urashiki's face was, for the first time, replaced by an emotion called fear .
"Game over."
Sora's voice rang out calmly.
He raised his right hand, fingers spread wide, and gave a light squeeze toward that Urashiki, lost within the infinite spatial corridor.
"Spatial Creation · Compression."
The space surrounding Urashiki instantly solidified, then coalesced into an absolutely sealed, transparent cube, imprisoning him firmly within.
Immediately after, that cube began collapsing inward at a speed visible to the naked eye!
"No! NO,!"
Urashiki unleashed a blood-curdling scream.