"Aaaaargh!!!"
Amid a chorus of agonized screams, hundreds of shinobi were skewered to death by Konan's black paper spears.
It had happened far too quickly.
Naruto had sensed Konan's murderous intent, but he never imagined she would strike so decisively, without the slightest hesitation.
He had only just declared that he would protect everyone with his Ninja Alliance Technique.
And in the next instant, reality had slapped him across the face.
"Stop!!"
Naruto roared in fury.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Still trapped inside the cement prison, together with Majestic Attire Kurama, he acted in desperation.
Manipulating the chakra he had bestowed upon the army from afar, he twisted hundreds upon hundreds of streams together, shaping them into giant golden tails tipped with enormous hands that lunged toward Konan in the sky.
Whoosh!
With a single beat of her black paper wings, Konan dove downward at incredible speed, weaving effortlessly through the giant golden hands.
As she flashed between them like a phantom, black paper spears continued to rain down, harvesting lives in the gaps.
That was the problem.
Even though Naruto had bundled the chakra of hundreds of soldiers together, it only increased quantity, not quality.
The defensive strength was nowhere near enough to withstand the piercing force of Konan's black paper spears, empowered by Six Paths chakra.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!"
Under Konan's relentless hit-and-run assault, entire groups of shinobi fell in droves.
Fortunately, the troops were not helpless targets.
Driven by survival instinct, they unleashed every jutsu they knew.
With the enhancement of Naruto's Six Paths: Ninja Alliance Technique, the power of their techniques far surpassed their normal limits.
Combined, they formed a formidable anti-air barrage.
The firepower was indeed impressive.
But every shinobi had their own aim, their own timing, their own understanding.
To Konan, the barrage looked intimidating, but was hopelessly scattered.
Only a tiny fraction of the attacks posed any real threat.
Its greatest effect was simply to limit her maneuvering space.
Rustle! Rustle!
And for the attacks she could not evade, Konan had a solution.
Countless black sheets of paper gathered around her, folding into jet-black umbrella shields.
The shields floated in all directions, spinning at high speed.
They rotated on their own while orbiting rapidly around Konan.
Together they formed an airtight moving defense, blocking every incoming jutsu.
The moment the attacks from below subsided, the umbrella shields snapped open.
Whoosh!
The black paper reassembled into spiral flying wheels and shot downward, spinning at tremendous speed like giant circular saws.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
In an instant, more than ten golden tails were torn apart.
Thousands of shinobi caught in the sweeping blades were shredded into bloody pulp.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
As horrifying screams echoed across the battlefield, flowers of blood bloomed across the land of Peach Blossom Paradise.
Atop the earthen walls, Mei and Kurotsuchi stared in stunned silence, their hand seals faltering.
Kurotsuchi was merely shocked.
But Mei's eyes were filled with sorrow and pity.
"From her perspective, she's doing the right thing."
"I can't bear to watch this, but I have no standing to stop her."
"Naruto… this was a tragedy that never needed to happen."
"Please, stop being so stubborn."
From a purely tactical standpoint, this was not Naruto's failure to act.
Konan's killing intent was simply too absolute.
Her Six Paths-enhanced Dance of the Shikigami was lethality itself.
Maximum mobility.
Her old defensive weakness completely eliminated.
Seamless transitions between attack and defense.
Every motion designed for mass slaughter.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield had become a sea of blood.
Still sealed within the cement, Darui shouted helplessly,
"Naruto! Do something! My Cloud shinobi are dying!"
"I know! I know! I KNOW!!"
In Naruto's perception, clusters of chakra signatures were vanishing by the second.
His face twisted with desperation.
He clenched a Truth-Seeking Ball in his right hand.
The black sun seal of Yin Release on his palm erupted with savage black lightning.
He thrust forward.
Crack!
He blasted a hole through the heavily weighted cement prison and burst free.
The remaining fragments of Kurama's chakra body dissolved, reforming into golden Six Paths cloaks around Gaara and Darui.
"Please!"
"Gaara! Darui!"
"Leave Kurotsuchi and Mei to you!"
"I have to settle things with her personally!"
Naruto locked his gaze on the black figure carving through the ranks.
Two streams of blood tears ran down his contorted face.
"Konan…"
"You forced me to do this!"
"Not good!"
Mei and Kurotsuchi moved to intervene, but a wall of sand and crackling lightning blocked their path.
At that same instant, Naruto launched himself toward Konan at full speed.
A golden streak pierced the sky.
The black lightning in his palm targeted Konan's heart.
But at the critical moment—
A dark figure emerged from a swirling vortex and forcefully inserted himself between them.
Crackle!
Black Chidori erupted from his hand as he thrust forward.
Six Paths: Truth-Seeking Ball Chidori Blade!
I Am Six Paths: Kamui Raikiri!
Boom!
At the moment of collision, the overwhelming force transmitted through the lightning instantly shattered Obito's thrusting left arm into dust.
Naruto's own right hand was torn away by the Kamui vortex and sucked into another dimension.
The clash of chakra triggered a meeting within their hearts.
Obito: "Naruto… I never thought you'd come this far."
"I let Kakashi learn the truth to prevent you from making an even greater mistake."
Naruto: "You're not Obito!"
"The real Obito regained himself through my guidance!"
"He would never side with evil!"
"He would come to my side and help me fulfill his dream of becoming Hokage!"
Bang!
Madara's Limbo attack struck, abruptly ending the encounter.
Naruto either failed to dodge—or chose not to.
He was sent flying.
Behind Obito, Konan asked coldly,
"That Yin-Yang attack just now. Your left arm won't regenerate, will it?"
Obito shrugged.
"Nope."
Konan frowned.
"Jin isn't here."
"No one can reverse time."
"Are you planning to have yourself reanimated again?"
Obito scratched his cheek.
"We'll figure something out."
Konan said flatly,
"Why bother?"
"If I died, the annoying obstacle would be gone."
"Wouldn't that suit you just fine?"
Obito smiled.
"Come on."
"No matter how sharp your tongue is, I couldn't just stand by and watch you die."
Emotion flickered in Konan's amber eyes, though her voice remained cold.
"I'm not grateful."
"But… thanks, I guess."
Obito looked toward Madara.
"What's your assessment?"
Madara folded his arms and spoke bluntly.
"I'll be honest."
"Naruto's latent power right now exceeds even my own when I possessed both Rinnegan and absorbed the Divine Tree."
"Your power and mine are restricted by our Edo Tensei bodies, trapped at the threshold of the Six Paths realm."
"Thanks to Jin's Mizuha ability, we retain the complete mechanics of our dōjutsu."
"But no matter what, we cannot overcome the limitations of our vessels."
Madara turned back with a wicked grin.
"But even if we can't kill him…"
"We can destroy him."
"Just like that girl did."
"Slaughter these useless extras and enjoy watching Naruto lose his mind."
"Isn't that entertaining?"
Obito sighed.
"You know perfectly well…"
Madara nodded.
"Exactly."
"You can't do it."
"You carry two burdens."
"First, your guilt toward Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki."
"Second, Naruto was the one who saved you."
"Obito…"
"When you were evil, you were thoroughly evil."
"But now that you've turned good, you've become the same soft-hearted fool you always were."
Obito rubbed his nose.
"Rin is watching."
"Don't expose me like that."
RUMBLE!!!
The heavens and earth trembled violently.
Madara looked up at the towering blue pillar of light.
"Oh?"
"Has he finally snapped?"
…
Meanwhile, in Peach Blossom Paradise's Second Layer.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki sat in her chair.
Behind her stood a silver-haired woman with Rinnegan eyes and the same face as Sakura Haruno, dressed in a black cloak, combing Kaguya's long hair.
In front of them, Black Zetsu raged indignantly.
"Hagoromo has gone completely insane!"
"He gave all his power to Naruto just to seal Mother!"
Kaguya stared at the crystal ball, which reflected Naruto's completed Six Paths Susanoo.
She could no longer remain seated.
Rustle!
Just as she rose, the Divine Tree beside her began to shake.
Countless branches gathered together, forming the silhouette of a woman.
The woman possessed the exact mature appearance and figure of Kaguya.
The only difference was the elegant black gown trailing behind her.
How could Kaguya fail to recognize her?
After Jin erased the wills of the Nine Tailed Beasts, the Ten-Tails developed a consciousness of its own.
When Jin became its jinchūriki, he used time and causality to divide the Ten-Tails into two.
The second Ten-Tails rooted itself into a new Divine Tree.
And the Ten-Tails' consciousness associated with Kaguya became a Divine Tree avatar:
Tenya.
She descended gracefully, smiling as she walked toward Kaguya with her hands behind her back.
"Kaguya-chan~"
"Hagoromo has come in force this time."
"You know as well as I do that Naruto's power now is no less than yours."
"And with all those techniques specifically created to counter you…"
"This could get troublesome."
Kaguya clenched her fists.
"This is no time to worry about that."
"I have to protect this place."
"I have to protect this village from Hagoromo."
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
As Tenya advanced, nine more cocoons hanging nearby split open and dropped to the floor, joining the already awakened Divine Tree avatar Sakura.
Tenya sat elegantly on the ground, smoothing her black dress beneath her.
Her smile blossomed like a flower.
"That's simple."
"Then let me handle it for you."
"I'm stronger than you."
"My methods are dirtier than yours."
"And my figure is more indecent than yours."
"I'm going to make Jin notice me."
"I'm making my debut."
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