"Damn it... is it Kanon again?!" Naruto stood atop the Nine-Tails' head, glaring fixedly at Kanon's Complete Body Susanoo.
"To think she could withstand our combined assault!" Minato was clearly caught off guard as well.
"She read our movements! Relying solely on the Flying Raijin Technique is proving to be far too difficult," Tobirama said, eyeing Kanon before shifting his gaze toward Madara, who was currently clashing with Hashirama in the distance. He knit his brows in a deep frown.
"Alright. Next, I'm going to infuse Senjutsu directly into a Tailed Beast Ball." Naruto began manipulating the Nine-Tails' chakra, shaping a massive Tailed Beast Ball before him.
"That's it!" Minato bellowed.
"Don't even think about it!" Kanon roared.
High above, the thunderclouds surged violently, and a sharp, crackling Chidori instantaneously manifested within her Susanoo's hand.
The immense thermal energy generated by the four previous Tailed Beast Balls had already blanketed the entire battlefield in thick, dark storm clouds. It was the absolute perfect opportunity to unleash Kirin.
Without a shred of hesitation, Kanon drew down the Kirin. In a flash of blinding light, the lightning beast clamped its jaws directly onto the Nine-Tails' head. Under Kirin's disruptive impact, the Tailed Beast Ball detonated prematurely right in front of Naruto.
Minato and Naruto were blasted backward once again, tumbling violently across the fractured earth.
Sasuke stood silently in place, staring between Naruto and Kanon as his fists clenched tightly.
You guys... just how absurdly strong are you?!
Obito stepped slowly from behind Kanon. He glanced down at the twin Nine-Tails below, then cast a sideways look at Kanon. He decided it was time to make a preemptive strike.
Naruto was becoming far too troublesome, and though Kanon was aiding him, she was by no means an easy variable to manage. It was time to reclaim all the chakra and initiate the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Obito brought his hands together, summoning the entire Ten-Tails out into the open.
The entire ground began to quake violently. Kanon watched the spectacle with an expressionless face, calling out to Obito, "You're being too impatient. Are you really planning to start the Infinite Tsukuyomi right now?"
"Yes! It begins right here and now!" Obito shouted back at her.
As the Ten-Tails re-emerged, its colossal form began to swell and distort, causing even Madara to frown in the distance.
Madara shared Kanon's precise sentiment. Obito was rushing things far too much.
"Watch out, something feels incredibly wrong," Minato warned Naruto.
The Ten-Tails' eye receded deep into its massive bulk, and a gargantuan, bulbous flower bud began to sprout from the top of its form.
"Kanon, I'm going to drop the barrier first," Obito stated.
"Go ahead," Kanon nodded.
With a swift release from Obito, the Crimson Ray Formation faded away. Seeing the barrier dissipate, the members of the Allied Shinobi Forces stationed outside rejoiced, believing they could finally charge into the fray.
But without warning, a deep, unsettling tremor reverberated through the earth. A colossal tree began to erupt from the ground, growing at a terrifying, near-instantaneous velocity. Its massive roots lunged outward like striking vipers, skewering the battlefield and surging toward the Allied forces.
The sprawling, gargantuan roots spread across the terrain in the blink of an eye. They instantly ensnared Naruto and Minato's Tailed Beast Modes, dragging them toward the perimeter while throwing countless shinobi into the air from the sheer kinetic shockwaves.
From these massive roots, smaller, whip-like branches sprouted, mercilessly snatching the airborne shinobi right out of the sky.
The captured shinobi barely had time to register their shock before they felt their chakra being aggressively vacuumed from their bodies. Within seconds, they were reduced to withered, mummified husks, their very blood completely drained away.
The indiscriminate slaughter was nothing short of horrific. Dozens of shinobi who failed to flee in time were instantly claimed as sacrifices for the God Tree.
"Wheee! Gotta run, gotta fly!" Killer B scrambled frantically across the terrain. As the Jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails, B possessed a reservoir of chakra vastly superior to ordinary shinobi.
Consequently, the God Tree singled him out, sending a massive cluster of vines snaking through the dust to hunt him down.
Lugging Samehada over his shoulder, he sprinted into the distance. Thanks to the Eight-Tails' urgent mental explanations, B understood completely that this was the final, absolute form of the Ten-Tails.
As the survivors looked around at the dried corpses littering the ground, a grim realization settled over them: the chakra Naruto had painstakingly shared with everyone had just been rendered completely meaningless.
Kanon stood her ground as a massive, towering vine came barreling straight toward her.
She turned her head slowly, her cold, detached expression devoid of either joy or sorrow. She simply glared at the oncoming threat. From the depths of her eyes, a devastating aura erupted, a hidden, primordial pressure that barely leaked from her spinning irises.
Swoosh!
The God Tree's vine retracted instantly, recoiling in sheer primal terror, completely abandoning any attempt to target her.
Watching the vines retreat, Kanon casually crossed her arms, shifting her gaze toward the distant chaos.
The battlefield was a scene of unmitigated ruin, a wasteland littered with mummified corpses alongside a relentless, ever-expanding network of wooden roots.
Hashirama and Madara leapt nimbly across the surging roots. Hashirama demanded in utter bewilderment, "What on earth is this thing?!"
Seeing Hashirama's utter confusion, Madara took the opportunity to enlighten his old rival.
"What we call chakra originally belonged entirely to this God Tree. That includes all the chakra present on this field, as well as that immense pool inside of you."
"What?!" Hashirama was left completely stunned.
"Humanity stole chakra from the God Tree in the first place. Now, it is simply taking back what belongs to it."
"What are you talking about?!" Hashirama pressed, entirely out of his depth.
"The passage of endless time casts a shroud of fog over the truth. Do you even know how shinobi came to exist in the first place, Hashirama?!"
Madara then proceeded to recount the ancient origins of the God Tree and the shinobi world. He spoke of the first person to ever consume the Chakra Fruit, a woman named Kaguya Otsutsuki, and her child, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, who would eventually be revered by history as the legendary Sage of Six Paths.
After listening to Madara's history lesson, Hashirama couldn't help but wonder how his rival had unearthed such ancient secrets.
"How could you possibly know all of this?"
"It is all transcribed upon the Uchiha Stone Tablet!"
"The person who plucked the forbidden fruit solely to bring an end to war... do I really need to tell you how she ended up?" Madara looked back at the steadily growing God Tree, his voice dropping into a cold, detached monologue. "That's right. She changed absolutely nothing."
"The conflicts only grew vaster and more brutal. When I discovered this truth, I fell into utter despair. There is no such thing as a true dream in this world, Hashirama!"
"From the very moment humanity laid hands upon that fruit, a curse was unleashed. Human beings are destined to sink deeper and deeper into their mutual hatred."
"Don't you see that the concept of the shinobi itself is the ultimate symbol of this foolishness?"
"Since that is the case, it would be better to..." Before Madara could even finish his thought, Hashirama interrupted softly.
"When that child, Kanon Uchiha, said that the era of shinobi was coming to an end... is this what she meant?"
"Is that why you all intend to harness the power of this God Tree to cast that massive genjutsu you call the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"
In that fleeting moment, Hashirama recalled the words Madara had spoken to him in their past lives: "You cannot see it... what lies further beyond, a far more distant dream."
A massive root slammed down directly between the two of them, forcing Hashirama and Madara to leap backward in opposite directions.
"Is this the 'distant dream' you were talking about?!" Hashirama bellowed.
"Indeed. Though it varies slightly..." Madara replied mid-air.
"Varies?"
"Look closely. The moment the bud of this God Tree blooms, the eye within the flower will reflect itself upon the moon above."
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi will be complete. And the one who will cast it... is me!"
Just as Madara's words echoed across the field, Naruto found himself ensnared by a sudden tangle of branches, which hoisted him violently into the air.
Seeing this, Minato panicked completely, crying out, "Naruto!"
Beside him, Tobirama's fingers blurred into a sequence of hand signs.
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"
Slash! A high-pressure stream of water severed the root holding Naruto, but the moment it broke, a fresh cluster of branches erupted to take its place.
"Damn it, there are too many of them!" Tobirama gritted his teeth. At this rate, even being able to sense Naruto's location was completely useless.
"Fourth Hokage, can you teleport directly to Naruto's side?"
"I can't! The previous Flying Raijin along with the strain of these roots has drained too much of my chakra!"
Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode broke apart, forcing him back into his human form. He looked up at the sky and the looming red moon with a sense of suffocating despair.
The distinct, harrowing sensation of impending death washed over him, causing fragments of his life to flash rapidly before his eyes.
He saw memories of his time with Kanon, his battles alongside Sasuke, and countless moments spent with Team 7 and his beloved comrades.
Just as Naruto's eyes began to heavy and close, a familiar figure materialized in his blurred vision.
Swif!
Two devastating slashes tore through the air, cleanly severing the encroaching roots. Hiruzen Sarutobi caught Naruto mid-fall, pulling him into a secure embrace.
Just as he had during Naruto's childhood, the kind old man had never changed. He was always there, standing firmly by his side, using his warm Will of Fire to illuminate the seeds of the future.
"Grandpa..."
"Forgive me for being late!" Hiruzen shouted.
"Monkey, excellent timing!" Tobirama nodded approval, instantaneously clamping his hands onto the shoulders of both Minato and the Third Hokage.
"Perfect. We fly from here!"
With a sharp snap of space, the four of them vanished on the spot, successfully putting distance between themselves and the God Tree.
As they surveyed the battlefield, now a sprawling graveyard of fallen shinobi, the creeping vines of the Divine Tree finally ground to a halt.
"It finally stopped," Jugo noted quietly to Sasuke.
But the moment the words left his mouth, Tobirama materialized out of thin air, bringing the battered Naruto and the others back to their side.
Sasuke stared at Naruto, his pupils contracting violently as his Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun slowly.
At that moment, Naruto took in the full, horrific view of the battlefield. The dried husks of the dead and the fallen soldiers around him pierced his heart with agonizing pain.
He had promised so fiercely that he would never let his comrades die. He had fought so hard to protect everyone for so long, yet they still couldn't escape this gruesome fate.
In an instant, Naruto's unbreakable will began to crumble, sinking into deep dejection.
————
NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]