The terrible, beautiful awe of the Gourmet Devils lingered in the air like the scent after a lightning strike. The phantom forms of Palkia, Dialga, Giratina, the Banshee, and the Apocalypse Beast had faded, but the impression they left was burned into the minds of every witness. Konoha's survivors looked upon Indra and Rias not as saviors or even as allies anymore, but as forces of nature that had momentarily taken a familiar shape.
The Deva Path floated before them, its Rinnegan still fixed on the pair, but the absolute certainty that had defined it was gone. It had seen a horizon beyond its own, and it had been found wanting.
Indra was the first to move, the last echoes of temporal distortion settling around him like falling snow. He turned his head, not to the Deva Path, but towards a specific point in the rubble to the east. His Rinnegan, still softly illuminated by its orbiting sigils, focused.
Indra: "The signal is clear. The puppeteer is afraid. He's pouring more chakra into the remaining Paths, trying to regain control of the narrative. The regeneration of the Naraka and Asura Paths has accelerated. He's preparing a final, desperate play."
His voice was calm, analytical, cutting through the stunned silence. It was the voice of a commander assessing a battlefield, not a warrior hyped for battle.
From that direction, two figures landed lightly on a buckled roof. Naruto Uzumaki, Sage Mode markings sharp around his blazing blue eyes, a flicker of red chakra dancing at the edges of his form. Beside him, Sasuke Uchiha, his Eternal Mangekyō a steady, deep purple whirl, his expression cold and focused. They had felt the pressure of the Gourmet Devils too, but unlike the others, it hadn't cowed them. It had clarified their resolve. They were not meant to stand against such things. Not yet. But they could handle what was in front of them.
Indra's gaze swept to them.
Indra: "Naruto. Sasuke."
Naruto: (His voice was harder, older than the boy of minutes ago.) "We're here."
Sasuke: (A single, sharp nod.) "Give the order."
Indra: "The other Paths are re-manifesting. The Animal, Asura, Preta, Human, and Naraka Paths. Their patterns are now reactive, predictable. Nagato is panicking, his tactics becoming brute force. You will handle them."
Naruto: "Handle them? You mean… beat them?"
Indra: "I mean learn them. Dissect them. Their coordination, their individual abilities, their weaknesses. This is not just a battle; it is the final examination of everything you have trained for up to this point. You are the next generation. Prove you understand the threats of the old world well enough to move beyond them."
He spoke not as a peer, but as a teacher assigning a critical lesson. There was trust in his words, but it was the trust of a master sending his students on a dangerous, but necessary, field mission.
Sasuke: "And the Deva Path?"
Rias answered, stepping forward, her green eyes locked on the floating figure. The gentle warmth of her Wood Release was gone, replaced by the cool, calculating aura of a seasoned duelist.
Rias: "I'll contain the Deva Path. His gravity manipulation is… impressive in its way. But it's crude. A single, powerful lever. I wield sound, destruction, and creation. I have an entire orchestra of force at my disposal. His one note won't be enough."
The confidence in her voice was absolute. It wasn't arrogance; it was the simple statement of a mathematician who has already solved the equation before her.
Indra: "Good. Division of labor is the foundation of effective strategy." He then looked back towards the eastern horizon, his eyes narrowing. "Which leaves the source. A mind rotting in a tower of self-pity and borrowed power, believing himself hidden. He isn't."
He raised a hand, and the space in front of him began to fold. Not a tear, but a precise, geometric pleating of reality, like origami made of the world itself.
Indra: "I will find the real Nagato. His spatial signature is a bleeding wound in the fabric of this world, trailing back to the Land of Rain. I will sever the strings. End the puppet show at its source."
He glanced once more at Naruto and Sasuke.
Indra: "Do not die. That is an order."
And with that, he stepped into the folded space. The pleats smoothed out behind him, leaving no trace. He was simply gone, having traversed a distance that would take days in a single step.
The weight of command settled onto the two young shinobi. They looked at each other. No words were needed. A lifetime of rivalry, understanding, and now, shared purpose, passed between them in that glance.
Naruto: (A feral grin spread across his face, the Sage Mode making it look almost predatory.) "Alright, bastard. You heard the man. Let's learn these freaks."
Sasuke: (The ghost of a smirk touched his lips.) "Try to keep up, dobe."
Across the ruined plaza, the ground erupted. The Naraka Path, now fully restored, rose alongside the King of Hell's face. The Asura Path reassembled from scattered mechanical parts with a series of sharp clicks. The Animal Path, though still twitching from the sonic assault, summoned a new tide of creatures—giant centipedes, armored rhinos, and hawk-like birds. The Preta Path and Human Path flanked them, their empty eyes fixed on the two young shinobi.
The Deva Path began to move towards Rias, its hands rising. "You are arrogant. Your power is alien, but my pain is the truth of this world."
Rias: She didn't wait for him to finish. She flicked her wrist, and the hairpin spear expanded into her hand. She pointed it not at him, but at the ground between them. "Sonic Release: Frequency Anchor."
A single, pure note rang out, inaudible to most but felt in the bones. The space around the Deva Path crystallized in a different way. The air became viscid, stratified. When the Deva Path tried to glide sideways, it shuddered, finding the air resisting like layers of thick glass.
Rias: "Your push repels all forces equally in a sphere. My sound can create standing waves, layered pressures, directional harmonics. You have a hammer. I have a scalpel. Let's see which is more useful in a fight."
She launched herself forward, not with a flicker, but with a series of resonant booms as she kicked off pockets of solidified sound, her movement a zig-zagging, unpredictable sonic leap.
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KONOHA'S EASTERN RUINS – NARUTO & SASUKE'S BATTLEFIELD
The Animal Path's summoned horde reached them first—a wave of claws, fangs, and chitin.
Naruto: "Scatter 'em!"
He didn't make clones. He formed a single, perfect Rasengan in his right hand, but instead of charging, he slammed it into the ground. "Sage Art: Rasengan Tremor!"
The spiraling energy didn't explode outwards; it tunneled into the earth and erupted in a dozen different points amidst the charging beasts, throwing them into disarray, creating pockets of chaos.
Sasuke was already moving. His Sharingan had mapped the entire field the moment the Paths appeared. He saw the Preta Path hovering, waiting to absorb a big technique. He saw the Human Path trying to flank. He saw the Asura Path powering up its ranged weapons.
Sasuke: "Naruto! Left flank, thirty degrees! The Human Path seeks physical contact! It's a soul-touch technique!"
Naruto: "Got it!"
As a giant centipede lunged at Naruto, Sasuke didn't even look. He raised a hand, and a spear of Chidori Sharp Wire shot out, not at the centipede, but at a piece of rubble behind it. The wire wrapped around the debris and with a sharp tug, Sasuke whipped the rubble into the centipede's side, knocking it off course just as Naruto ducked under its mandibles.
Naruto: "Thanks! Now, cover me!"
Naruto dashed towards the Human Path, but three of the Animal Path's hawk-summon dive-bombed him. Sasuke's eyes flickered.
Sasuke: "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)
But it wasn't a single fireball. He exhaled a stream of fire that forked in mid-air, each branch curving on a separate trajectory to intercept a diving hawk. The precision was sniper-like.
With the air cover cleared, Naruto closed in on the Human Path. It reached for him, its hand glowing with a sinister light.
Naruto: "Not today, pal! Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
He didn't throw it. He'd learned. He held the screeching, monstrous sphere of wind chakra in his hand and slammed it into the ground at the Human Path's feet. The Path leaped back to avoid the initial impact, but Naruto grinned.
Naruto: "Gotcha. It's not just a bomb."
The Rasenshuriken didn't explode. It expanded, becoming a raging, stationary vortex of countless microscopic wind blades, a swirling wall of annihilation between Naruto and the Human Path, cutting off its advance and forcing it to retreat into the path of…
Sasuke, who had used the distraction to close in on the Asura Path. The mechanical monstrosity fired a volley of missiles. Sasuke didn't dodge. His Mangekyō whirled.
Sasuke: "Amaterasu: Control Seal."
Black flames bloomed not on the Path, but in the air in front of the missiles, forming a rapidly spinning disc. The missiles struck the disc of Amaterasu and were instantly incinerated. Sasuke charged through the gap in the fire, his Chidori screaming in his hand.
Asura Path responded by extending a buzzsaw arm and a hydraulic pile-driver fist simultaneously.
Sasuke: "Predictable."
He feinted towards the buzzsaw, then at the last millisecond, used a minimal Body Flicker—just a few inches to the left—letting the pile-driver fist graze his cloak. His own Chidori-imbued hand stabbed forward, not for the core, but for the joint connecting the buzzsaw arm to the torso. There was a shriek of tearing metal, and the arm went limp.
Naruto's voice yelled from across the field. "Sasuke! Big ugly's charging the big gun again!"
The Asura Path's chest had opened, revealing a glowing energy cannon. Sasuke was too close to dodge the blast.
He didn't need to.
Naruto: "Sage Art: Massive Rasengan Barrage!"
Not one, but five giant Rasengan, formed by five shadow clones that had been secretly gathering natural energy while the originals fought, shot in from different angles. They didn't hit the Asura Path. They hit the ground around it, collapsing the rubble beneath it, causing it to stumble and its cannon shot to fire wildly into the sky.
The synergy was seamless. Naruto created openings and area denial. Sasuke exploited them with surgical, lethal precision. They weren't just fighting together; they were two halves of a single, devastating combat algorithm.
Kakashi, watching from a distance while directing medics, felt a lump in his throat. He saw Minato's brilliance in Naruto's improvisation and battlefield control. He saw Itachi's cold, analytical precision in Sasuke's movements. But he also saw something entirely new: a trust so complete that they didn't need to communicate. They just knew.
Shikamaru, analyzing the fight, muttered: "It's like watching a perfect game of shogi where both players are on the same side. Naruto is the reckless, overwhelming force that reshapes the board. Sasuke is the quiet move that checkmates you from the shadows. And they're playing simultaneously."
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CENTRAL BATTLEFIELD – RIAS vs. DEVA PATH
The Deva Path had stopped trying to move. It floated in Rias's sonic anchor field, realizing mobility was a disadvantage. Instead, it focused on defense and powerful, focused counters.
PAIN: "Shinra Tensei."
A concentrated beam of repulsive force, like an invisible lance, shot towards Rias. It was fast enough to obliterate a mountain.
Rias didn't block it. She sidestepped, and the beam shot past her. But as it passed, she flicked a finger.
Rias: "Harmonic Refraction."
The sonic-stratified air around the beam bent. The invisible force lance was subtly diverted, its path curving. It missed Rias by meters and instead struck the regenerating lower half of the Asura Path across the plaza, vaporizing it.
Sasuke: (Not missing a beat, as he beheaded a summoned rhino) "Thank you for the assist, Uzumaki."
Rias: (A smirk as she kept her eyes on the Deva Path.) "Anytime, Uchiha."
The Deva Path's eyes narrowed. It raised both hands, gathering chakra for a larger, omnidirectional push to break the sonic field.
Rias: "Tsk. You really only have one move, don't you?"
She planted her spear in the ground. "If you like pushing things away so much, let's see you push this."
She took a deep breath, and when she spoke, her voice was layered, multiplied, becoming a chorus.
Rias: **"Sonic-Destruction Fusion Release: Cacophony of the Unraveling World."
From her mouth erupted not sound, but visible, twisting bands of conflicting reality. One band was pure, structured sonic vibration, a golden lattice. The other was entropic destruction, a black, decaying smear. They spiraled around each other as they shot forth, not as an attack, but as a field that enveloped the Deva Path.
Within that field, physics broke down. The sonic vibrations sought to resonate with and dismantle the molecular bonds holding the Path's body together. The destruction affinity simply declared that sections of the Path's form had no right to exist and began erasing them.
The Deva Path shuddered violently. Its Shinra Tensei faltered, the gathered chakra destabilizing. It tried to repel the field, but the field wasn't a solid object; it was a state of being. You couldn't push away a concept.
For the first time, the Deva Path's form showed damage that didn't immediately heal. Cracks appeared in its skin, and flakes of its body dissolved into motes of black and gold dust.
PAIN: (The voice was strained, a crack in the monotone) "What… is this?!"
Rias: "This is what happens when you stop treating power as a blunt instrument. This is finesse. This is understanding the song of creation well enough to sing a verse of controlled collapse."
She was teaching him, even as she dismantled him. Showing him the poverty of his own power in the face of true mastery.
________________________________________
THE SPACE BETWEEN – INDRA'S HUNT
Indra moved not through the world, but along its seams. He existed in the folded, pleated non-space he had created, a realm of geometric light and silent potential. Before him, stretching into the distance like a tangled, glowing thread stained with rust and misery, was the chakra signature of Nagato. It wasn't just energy; it was a story written in pain, each spike of anger, each throb of sorrow, a landmark.
He could feel the desperate pulses of chakra flowing down that thread, towards Konoha, trying to reassert control over the Paths. He could feel the thin, sly presence of Black Zetsu clinging to the thread like a parasitic vine, whispering, encouraging the despair.
Indra: (Muttering to himself, his voice the only sound in the silent between-space) "The thread is fraying. The puppet master's hands are bleeding. The strain of controlling six bodies against two Sovereigns and the heirs of prophecy is breaking him. Good. A broken mind is easier to remodel than a steadfast one."
He followed the thread as it pierced through the membrane of reality, back into the physical world. He saw it terminate in a specific location: a high, hidden tower in the heart of Amegakure, the perpetual rain a fitting curtain for the tragedy within.
Indra didn't rush. He analyzed. He saw the defensive seals around the tower—powerful, ancient Rinnegan-derived barriers that would vaporize any conventional approach. He saw the layers of genjutsu and spatial distortion meant to hide the tower's very location.
They were, to his eyes, child's play.
Indra: "Spatial encryption based on non-Euclidean folding. A basic Giratina-aspected disruption will unravel it. The seals are powerful but static. A Dialga-assisted temporal skip will allow passage before they can react."
He raised a hand. The sigils in his Rinnegan glowed brighter. He didn't tear open a rift here. He began to reweave the space around the distant tower from where he stood, manipulating the fabric of reality across hundreds of miles as if it were clay in his hands.
His hunt was almost over. The division of labor was proceeding perfectly. The students were acing their exam. The specialist was containing the primary threat. And the hunter was at the monster's door.
Back in Konoha, the symphony of battle—the screech of Rasenshuriken, the roar of Amaterasu, the harmonic dissonance of Rias's fusion release, and the crumbling of stone—played on. For the first time since the attack began, the tide was not just holding. It was turning. And it was turning because two teenagers had been given a job to do, and they were doing it with a beauty and brutality that left the old world breathless.
End of Chapter – 105.