Everywhere the Tailed Beast Bomb passed, the air was completely ionized, emitting a sharp, ear-piercing explosion as space itself warped and vibrated.
The smile on Six Paths Obito's face froze instantly, replaced by a trace of genuine astonishment.
He sensed a terrifying power contained within this attack, one capable of threatening even him!
However, as a "God" possessing the perfect Six Paths Body, he now faced an awkward limitation.
He could no longer simply phase the attacked parts of his body into the Kamui Dimension to avoid damage as he once did.
While the Six Paths Mode granted him unparalleled power and defense, it also seemed to have solidified his spatial properties.
Because the moment he became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and possessed the Six Paths Body, conventional Ninjutsu lost all effect on his physical form.
Consequently, his ocular technique, Kamui, was also categorized as a conventional Ninjutsu and could no longer act upon his own body.
Therefore, even if he wanted to enter the Kamui Dimension again, he could only open a spatial portal and walk through it; he could no longer partially enter the dimension as he used to.
If he wanted to avoid it completely now, he would have to pull his entire body into the Kamui Dimension.
But at this moment, standing at the pinnacle of victory and about to plunge all resistors into the abyss of absolute despair, how could he choose to hide?
That would undoubtedly be a desecration of his divine majesty as a "God"!
"Hmph!"
Obito let out a cold snort, standing proudly in place as his thoughts raced.
The nine Truth-Seeking Orbs circling behind him responded instantly, converging, merging, and transforming like living creatures!
The deep, pitch-black matter of the Truth-Seeking Orbs surged frantically, constructing a massive spherical black shield with a dull, flowing luster in front of him in an instant.
This ultimate defense, condensed from the most primal Yin-Yang Release Power, emitted an aura of absolute isolation that made space itself tremble, as it met the howling, destructive Tailed Beast Bomb head-on!
BOOM!!!!
A terrifying explosion beyond description was born in the next instant!
Gold and pitch-black—two lights representing the pinnacle of power—clashed and annihilated each other violently!
An unprecedentedly massive sphere of energy expanded rapidly at the point of contact, instantly swallowing thousands of meters of space!
The blinding light instantly blinded everyone, followed by a roar loud enough to tear eardrums, as if the entire world were collapsing!
The peerlessly violent energy shockwave, like a world-ending tsunami, radiated outward in a perfect circle from the point of collision!
The earth was torn up layer by layer like a fragile cracker, pulverized and vaporized!
Wherever the shockwave passed, whether it was the hastily erected fortifications of the Allied Shinobi Forces, the sturdy rock walls summoned by the Edo Tensei, or the massive craters left from previous battles, everything was leveled and flattened in an instant!
The Allied Shinobi nearby were tossed away like leaves in a gale; the weaker ones spat blood and fell into deep comas from their heavy injuries.
The entire desert battlefield seemed to be pressed into a boiling furnace of energy by an invisible giant hand!
At the center of this world-destroying explosion, the black shield formed by the nine Truth-Seeking Orbs vibrated violently, with faint ripples and cracks appearing on its surface, but it was not completely pierced through in the end.
However, the terrifying impact of the explosion forcibly pushed Six Paths Obito, who was floating in the air, back hundreds of meters along with his black shield!
The space beneath his feet showed unnatural, distorted folds due to the compression of force.
As the dust and energy turbulence cleared slightly, a massive crater resembling a meteorite strike was revealed at the center of the explosion.
And at the spot where the golden light had first erupted, a figure was slowly rising, floating in mid-air.
Naruto!
At this moment, he was completely different from before!
His signature golden chakra cloak had become more solid and brilliant, as if composed of liquid sunlight, covered in profound black markings.
His eyes were no longer the horizontal pupils of a toad, but showed a strange cross-pupil form, with orange eyeshadow around the lids—a sign of the perfect fusion and further sublimation of Senjutsu and Nine-Tails chakra!
This form was none other than... Kurama Sage Mode!
Beside him, Sasuke was also floating.
His right eye was a purple Rinnegan!
His left eye had also changed, evolving from a normal three-tomoe Sharingan into a Six-Pointed Star Mangekyo Sharingan.
Powerful Ocular Power and Yin Nature chakra surged around him, forming an invisible force field that complemented Naruto's warm and vast Yang Release Power, faintly establishing a subtle balance and resonance.
The aura emanating from the two of them, while not yet reaching the all-controlling divine majesty of Six Paths Obito, was filled with infinite possibility and burgeoning new power, like two swords piercing through the abyss of despair!
"Naruto... Sasuke!" Minato was the first to react, uncontrollable joy and hope bursting onto his tired, blood-stained face.
"Is that... a new power?!" Ōnoki clutched his injured arm, his cloudy old eyes staring intently at the two in the sky.
Madara looked at Sasuke's Rinnegan and Naruto's state, an extremely complex light flashing in his crimson Sharingan—shock, scrutiny, and even a trace of battle intent stirred by these new stars who had surpassed the era, a feeling he hadn't even noticed himself.
Takuno leaned against his stone throne, his Six-Tomoe Rinnegan calmly scanning Naruto and Sasuke as they erupted with astonishing power at the center of the battlefield.
Sensing the sudden, extraordinary surge in their energy fluctuations, a look of realization flashed in his eyes.
"Heh..."
A very light, knowing chuckle escaped his lips.
Just as he thought.
After he had taken most of it, the small amount of Otsutsuki Hagoromo's remaining power, even if it barely managed to reconsolidate in this short time, was far from enough to push these two youngsters to the peak Six Paths level they reached in the original story.
However, this residual power was not entirely useless.
That Nine-Tails kid, Naruto, had used this opportunity to cross a critical threshold in a very short time; he had truly mastered Sage Mode.
The golden glow surging from him now, the chakra cloak with black markings, and the slit beast pupils were the manifestation of "Kurama Sage Mode."
This form... Takuno narrowed his eyes slightly, assessing it objectively.
It was indeed the closest thing to the Six Paths level within the Allied Shinobi camp right now.
The quality and quantity of his chakra, as well as certain full-power explosive attacks, already touched the threshold of the Six Paths level.
Such talent and fortune were already rare.
He turned his gaze toward Sasuke.
The descendant of Indra had received nourishment biased toward the power of Yin Release.
His newly born, intricate Six-Pointed Star Mangekyo Sharingan in his left eye was proof of that.
Takuno's gaze lingered on Sasuke's new Mangekyo for a moment, and a very faint, almost self-deprecating sigh crossed his heart.
Thinking back to when he had to open these cursed eyes that symbolized pain and power, what he had experienced... was far from being this "easy and relaxed."
The protagonist's halo, or rather the favor of destiny, was sometimes just that unreasonable.
However, Takuno slowly shook his head, dispelling that trace of sentimentality and returning to a cold, realistic judgment.
Even if Naruto had stepped into the pseudo-Six Paths realm and Sasuke had gained a powerful new ocular technique, and the two of them working together could perhaps burst out with destructive power that barely reached the Six Paths level for an instant, could they really deal with this Obito, who controlled nine Truth-Seeking Orbs and was in a "perfect Six Paths form"?
"It's still... a bit lacking," Takuno concluded in his heart.
Obito's current power level far exceeded that of the previous Nagato or the incomplete Madara; his defense and recovery reached a despair-inducing height.
Naruto's attacks that had just touched the threshold, and Sasuke's Rinnegan and new Mangekyo that he had yet to fully master, seemed so thin in the face of the absolute power gap.
But... Takuno's gaze deepened.
"If it goes like the original story..." he whispered to himself.
In the original, the key to those two boys finally defeating Six Paths Obito wasn't pure power, but relying on the rhetoric of a certain protagonist's halo.
If these two children of destiny could once again trigger their Talk no Jutsu in a desperate situation...
"Then it's not entirely without any chance."
He turned his gaze back to the battlefield with a hint of scrutiny and amusement.
The chances were slim, but not zero.
The way this "drama" would finally end seemed to still hinge on these two young variables.
He was curious: could these children of destiny, whose "Six Paths gifts" had been partially depleted in advance, create a miracle once again?
The dust and energy turbulence from the explosion finally cleared slowly, revealing the figure standing proudly within.
The nine Truth-Seeking Orbs circling Six Paths Obito emitted a deep, eerie glow; the combined Tailed Beast Bomb, which could have leveled mountain ranges, had failed to leave even a single scratch on him!
The pupils of Sage-Kurama Naruto and Sasuke shrank, and a deep, uncontrollable wariness appeared in their eyes.
The golden chakra cloak on Naruto, fused with Natural Energy, flowed with light, while Sasuke's hexagram Mangekyo in his left eye and Rinnegan in his right also flashed with alert light.
That strike just now was not Naruto's power alone, but was fused with Sasuke's newly acquired power originating from the Sage of Six Paths; its power far exceeded any of their previous attacks.
Yet, the result was so chilling—Six Paths Obito was completely unharmed!
"Hmph..." Six Paths Obito's cold gaze swept over the two, finally settling on Sage-Kurama Naruto; that dazzling Nine-Tails chakra cloak made him look thoughtful for a moment.
He let out a disdainful snort, his voice piercing the brief silence with unquestionable pressure.
"The farce should end now. The remaining half of the Nine-Tails... it's time to take it back!"
Before his voice had even faded, Six Paths Obito's figure suddenly blurred. It wasn't high-speed movement, but space itself warping and folding in front of him.
He instantly crossed the seemingly insurmountable distance between him and Naruto, and a hand wrapped in Truth-Seeking Orb energy, carrying a terrifying aura that tore through space, reached straight for Naruto's heart.
His target was exactly where the Nine-Tails was sealed!
"Not good!" Sasuke's Rinnegan instantly captured that lethal trajectory, and the hexagram Mangekyo in his left eye spun frantically, attempting to activate an ocular technique to interfere or shift the attack.
Naruto also felt an unprecedented crisis; his Sage-Kurama chakra boiled instinctively, forming layers of materialized golden barriers in front of him.
However, Obito's speed and power in his perfect Six Paths form had reached an inconceivable level.
That Truth-Seeking Orb hand ignored the distance of space, as if carrying a law of "certain hit," easily penetrating the several layers of Sage-Kurama chakra defense Naruto had hastily gathered.
Just as Six Paths Obito's Truth-Seeking Orb hand was about to pierce Naruto's final layer of defense and touch him to extract the Nine-Tails, his cold Rinnegan suddenly shrank!
An extremely dangerous premonition born of instinct exploded without warning.
He didn't even have time to think; the transcendent reaction speed brought by the perfect Six Paths transformation drove his body to forcibly abort the extraction and retreat at an incredible speed!
"Swish!"
A sharp and peerless, yet invisible and intangible attack, almost grazed the space where he had just been standing!
If he hadn't dodged in time, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Obito floated in mid-air, a clear look of shock and suspicion appearing in his Rinnegan for the first time.
His gaze was sharp as a blade as he scanned the void around Naruto.
What was that?
Even with his Rinnegan, which could see through the essence of all things, he could only barely catch a glimpse of a faint "shadow" between existence and nothingness as it flashed by.
Its trajectory and form were blurred, as if it came from another dimension.
This shadow had just attacked him at an extreme speed and was completely impossible to lock onto with conventional senses.
"Huff... huff..." Naruto, having survived the ordeal, panted heavily, his golden Sage-Kurama chakra cloak fluctuating slightly.
He immediately understood who had saved him and turned his gaze toward his close friend nearby.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke was currently kneeling on one knee, his right hand tightly covering his right eye—the powerful Rinnegan that had recently been transplanted from Madara.
Between his fingers, intense chakra fluctuations and a faint, hard-to-detect trace of blood could be felt.
He gritted his teeth, his face pale from the massive exhaustion.
"Don't be careless, Naruto..." Sasuke's voice was breathy.
"This is the power of this eye; it can split off shadows that cannot be observed or defended against by conventional means to attack or protect..."
He looked up with difficulty, the hand covering his eye trembling slightly.
"But the consumption is too great... I... can't use it many times!"
In that critical moment just now, it was Sasuke who had forcibly activated his newly acquired Rinnegan ability, splitting off an invisible shadow to launch a surprise attack on Obito, successfully resolving Naruto's fatal crisis.
This ability was mysterious and unpredictable; even Six Paths Obito's Rinnegan could only barely sense its existence without being able to see through it completely, catching Obito off guard.
And on the other side.
Madara's Sharingan was locked onto Sasuke, his pupils shrinking slightly in disbelief.
Dust filled the battlefield, and the aftershocks of Six Paths Obito being forced back had not yet dissipated, but Madara's attention was already completely drawn to that young Uchiha descendant.
"Limbo: Border Jail..."