The moment Kaguya Ōtsutsuki opened the Rinnegan on her forehead, an invisible shockwave rippled outward. Weeds withered and collapsed in its wake.
Hanekawa's eyes narrowed. So this is what eating two fruits does.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was operating on an entirely different level now. The raw power radiating from her was suffocating—and she hadn't even attacked yet.
Urashiki's expression hardened. The anger drained from his face, replaced by cold calculation. His eyes darted between them, processing what he was seeing.
He's figured it out, Hanekawa realized. He knows we're from the future.
Urashiki's body convulsed. His transformation began—a grotesque metamorphosis that twisted his human form into something alien. His eyes turned golden. A Rinnegan bloomed on his forehead, surrounded by intricate black markings. His hair sprouted into feathered horns while his legs morphed into obsidian bird talons.
The Crane Form. His ultimate state.
He'd barely completed the transformation when Kaguya Ōtsutsuki moved.
Yomotsu Hirasaka!
Her fist tore through space itself. Countless follow-up strikes materialized, each one a killing blow, each one perfectly placed to leave no escape.
Urashiki raised his arms defensively, the crane form's strength barely holding the line.
"Where did you get a second fruit?" he snarled between blocks. "That's impossible!"
The Sacred Tree's fruit took millennia to mature. Each one required an entire civilization's worth of life force to cultivate. For Kaguya Ōtsutsuki—a branch family member—to have consumed two on this planet while leaving the ninja world intact...
It defied logic.
Then Urashiki felt it. A wrongness. A stuttering in reality.
His body lurched backward through time itself, his crane form destabilizing.
What is this?
Hanekawa smiled faintly. "Time Master."
An S-Rank entry. It rewound targets to their state from three seconds prior. Simple. Devastating.
Urashiki panicked. He seized his red fishing rod and swung it with desperate force.
Tenshō Meteor Fate!
Countless fish hooks erupted across the sky, painting it crimson. An impenetrable net of red light.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki shattered it with a single punch.
Her fist connected with Urashiki's chest just as he exited the crane form. At the last instant, he hurled a black box forward.
Time Stop!
White mist erupted from the container, freezing Kaguya Ōtsutsuki mid-motion.
Urashiki exhaled in relief—
Crack.
The ice fractured. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki broke free through sheer chakra output, shattering the temporal lock like glass.
All abilities, no matter how absolute, were ultimately fueled by chakra. Enough raw power could overcome anything.
Urashiki's face paled. He reached for the crane form again—then hesitated, glancing sideways.
Hanekawa was gone.
"Where—"
Immortal Technique: Earth Style: Earthquake Core!
The ground erupted. A massive stone pillar launched Urashiki skyward. Before he could recover, Hanekawa emerged from the earth itself, snatching the black box from the ground.
"You bastard!" Urashiki snarled, then caught himself. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was staring at him now, her eyes burning with murderous intent. The defeat had infuriated her.
Urashiki felt ice slide down his spine.
Ash Bones!
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's arms spread wide. Two insignificant-looking bone fragments flew from her palms—deceptively gentle, absolutely lethal.
Urashiki's Byakugan shifted to blue Rinnegan. Before the bones could close the distance, his body dissolved into a thousand paper cranes and vanished.
The bones fell harmlessly.
Urashiki reformed nearby—only to find the earth rising beneath him. Massive trees erupted from the ground, growing to impossible heights in seconds, their branches weaving into an inescapable net.
He transformed again, scattering into paper cranes.
But the vines were faster. They interlocked, cutting off every escape vector.
Suspended in midair, Urashiki's Rinnegan shifted to red—six magatama spinning in perfect circles.
Yomotsu Hirasaka!
A black portal yawned open beneath him. One more second and he'd be gone.
"Kaguya," Hanekawa called out, already moving.
He teleported directly in front of Urashiki using Kamui, blocking the escape route. Urashiki's legs were already sinking into the dimensional rift—
Everything stopped.
Time itself froze.
Urashiki's eyes went wide. Again?
Hanekawa had used "I Am a Myth"—another S-Rank entry that froze time for all targets within three meters.
Ash Bones!
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki didn't hesitate. The killing move came without warning, two bone fragments streaking toward Urashiki's heart.
"Ahhhhh!"
Urashiki screamed as his body began disintegrating into light. His form scattered like dying stars.
Hanekawa clenched his fist and drove it forward.
Sage Art: Superhuman Strength!
The explosion detonated against Urashiki's dissolving form. Blood sprayed across the landscape.
But Urashiki was Ōtsutsuki. Immortality was woven into his very being.
He roared. Time resumed its flow. His body fragmented into paper cranes, evading the lethal ash bones by mere inches.
When he reformed, he was a wreck. Three fist-sized black wounds gaped across his chest, weeping blood. His self-healing was already working, but slowly—too slowly.
Urashiki stood there, fishing rod trembling in his grip, breathing hard.
His crane form was his only real advantage. But using it meant risking Hanekawa's time reversal. Without it, he couldn't win. With it, he might escape—but the time freeze had proven that wasn't guaranteed either.
He was trapped in a vicious cycle.
Gamble.
Urashiki made his choice. Time manipulation consumed enormous energy. Hanekawa couldn't spam it. Not in rapid succession.
He transformed.
"Kaguya, Mount Myōboku."
Hanekawa used Flying Thunder God, teleporting both himself and Urashiki away. He'd marked Urashiki's wound with the technique during their earlier exchange.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki followed instantly through Yomotsu Hirasaka.
The moment Urashiki completed his crane transformation, he attacked without hesitation.
Tenshō Ryūsei Mikoto!
Brilliant purple light erupted from his palms like a rain of the sharpest swords, each one capable of piercing through mountains.
Hanekawa clapped his hands.
Shinra Tensei!
The repulsive force met the purple barrage head-on. They collided in a stalemate of raw power.
Hanekawa used the moment to create distance, positioning himself beside Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
"The... the God Tree?!"
Urashiki's voice cracked. In the distance, a towering tree stood silhouetted against the sky—the Sacred Tree itself, rooted in Mount Myōboku's soil.
"What are you planning?" Dread flooded his voice.
"Nothing complicated," Hanekawa said, smiling. "Just making you fertilizer."
"Impossible!"
Urashiki staggered backward. As an Ōtsutsuki, he was immortal—even if absorbed by the Sacred Tree. But there was a catch: he'd need a prepared vessel. Without one, absorption meant oblivion.
He had no vessel.
Yomotsu Hirasaka!
A black portal opened behind him. He bolted for it—
But Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and Hanekawa were already moving.
Tenshō Meteor Destiny Ryugu!
Urashiki raised his hands. The light itself twisted and warped, leaving only purple radiance. His chakra erupted like an endless ocean, and from it emerged a colossal oarfish—a creature of pure destructive power, diving toward them like a dragon.
His strongest attack. His last gambit.
"Leave it," Hanekawa said.
Immortal Technique: Wood Style: True Several Thousand Hands!
A shadow materialized behind him. A wooden statue rose into the sky—taller than the Sacred Tree itself, radiating chakra that made the very air vibrate. Its thousand arms overlapped in perfect formation.
The oarfish crashed into them.
The outermost layer of arms shattered instantly, splintering into fragments.
The creature's charge died. It fell, powerless.
"No!"
Urashiki's scream wasn't about the blocked attack. It was about what Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was doing.
They'd coordinated perfectly. While Hanekawa's statue held the line, she'd acted.
Infinite Tsukuyomi!
The moon descended into Mount Myōboku, transforming into a massive Rinnegan. Urashiki's consciousness shattered under the genjutsu's weight.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki gestured casually.
The Sacred Tree moved. Branches and vines erupted like serpents, coiling around Urashiki layer upon layer, dragging him inexorably inward.
By the time he broke free from the illusion, he was already inside the tree's body.
Suction pulled at him from all directions. His blood rushed outward. His chakra was torn away. He thrashed and screamed, but it was already over.
Hanekawa watched, breathing hard. "Will it hold?"
"Yes." Kaguya Ōtsutsuki raised her hand, channeling a massive wave of chakra into the tree. "He's finished."
Urashiki went silent.
Hanekawa closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses. He pulled the ball of light the tree expelled toward him and absorbed it.
Memories flooded in—fragmented, incomplete, but revealing.
After Urashiki's time travel, Momoshiki and Kinshiki had arrived in the ninja world. The three of them had been ambushed by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and Hanekawa. In the chaos, Hanekawa had deliberately sent Urashiki backward through time.
The rest was history.
But the memories showed him something crucial: their landing point. The moon. Their first target was Toneri.
"When will the tree bear fruit?" Hanekawa asked.
"A month. Perhaps less." Kaguya Ōtsutsuki considered. "He consumed a fruit. The energy is abundant."
"I'll have Tsukihime return the tailed beasts to the tree," Hanekawa said.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki nodded, then paused. "The Ōtsutsuki always travel in pairs. There's another."
"I know." Hanekawa transferred Urashiki's memories to her with a touch. "We'll set an ambush on the moon."
A rare flicker of surprise crossed Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's face.
Three lines of text materialized before Hanekawa's eyes:
[S-Rank Talent Entry: Crane Hunting]
[Trigger Condition: Defeat Ōtsutsuki Urashiki]
[Effect: Freely switch between blue and gold Rinnegan]
Hanekawa examined the entry thoughtfully. The crane form's power was comparable to Sage Mode—a significant boost.
Not bad at all.
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