Chapter 123– Stop Struggling. It'll All Be Over Soon.
The night sky was clear, with the full moon hanging high overhead.
Tonight's moon was unusually bright—its silver light poured across the land, cold and desolate.
And at this moment, both Chiriku and the monks who had just rushed out of the temple stood frozen, dumbfounded.
Most of the monks were simply bewildered and in shock. They stared in disbelief at the shattered barrier and the mysterious figure hovering in midair.
But Chiriku's gaze had already become wary—and deeply troubled.
"Otsutsuki… Genshiki?"
He had spent many years active in the shinobi world, but he had never heard of such a name.
Yet the oppressive danger radiating from this man was undeniable—a dread that defied reason.
He said the Nine-Tails' chakra belonged to him… What in the world is going on?
"—Aaaagh!"
While he was still piecing it together, Sora let out a furious roar. His chakra surged, becoming even more ferocious. In an instant, his entire body was sheathed in blazing red chakra.
"Oh? Quite a reaction—even more intense than Naruto's back then."
Kitagawa Gen watched, brow arching slightly. He had already witnessed something similar during the incident with Naruto.
But unlike the real Nine-Tails, which at least retained its cunning mind, this was merely a crude aggregate of chakra—grown strong, yes, but utterly mindless.
"Just pure, bestial instinct, huh?"
With that thought, Kitagawa Gen descended to the ground. But before he could approach, Chiriku stepped decisively into his path.
"Oh?" Gen smiled thinly. "So you're still determined to stop me from reclaiming what's rightfully mine?"
"I don't know who you are, or what your goal is," Chiriku said, voice firm, eyes locked on him. "But Sora is a member of the Fire Temple. And the power within him is dangerously unstable. No matter what, I will not allow you to succeed!"
He shouted over his shoulder:
"Everyone—leave this to me! Protect Sora—do not let him near the abbot!"
"Yes!"
All the monks answered in unison. Even those who disliked Sora instinctively pulled him back and spread out to form a protective cordon.
"…Sigh. How troublesome."
Kitagawa Gen let out a small sigh, regarding Chiriku with a faint, almost pitying look.
"To be honest…" His tone was calm, but the air itself seemed to grow heavy. His eyes shifted, turning into twin blue streams of light.
"…I have no interest in fighting you."
As his chakra began circulating in earnest, an invisible pressure rolled outward, pressing down on everyone like the weight of a mountain.
"What… is this monster…?"
Chiriku wasn't some minor figure—he'd faced many powerful foes. But he had never felt anything like this suffocating dread.
"Because…"
The swirling chakra sent the surrounding trees rustling and bowing under its force. His voice came again, soft and echoing:
"…it's very difficult not to accidentally step on ants when I try to restrain my power."
"—No!"
The instant the words left his mouth, Chiriku felt his body lurch out of his control.
A formless force seized him, yanking him helplessly forward—straight toward Kitagawa Gen's outstretched hand.
"Damn it!"
He couldn't even react. In the next heartbeat, Gen flicked a black rod in his hand—
BOOM—!
A dull impact rang out. Chiriku was struck cleanly and hurled backward.
But before he could hit the ground, another sudden repulsive force slammed him down—
CRACK—!
The earth split beneath the impact, fissures spider-webbing outward.
"…What just happened?!"
All around, the monks stared in confusion. But the smarter among them quickly realized—
"Now—hit him with everything! Use ninjutsu! Don't let him approach the abbot!"
"Yes!"
They immediately formed hand seals with desperate speed.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb!"
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
…
A barrage of ninjutsu roared forth, dozens of techniques converging on Gen in a flood of flame and stone.
He only lifted an eyebrow slightly, as though weighing whether it was worth responding.
After a brief pause, he calmly raised his right hand.
A soft blue light flickered around him.
An instant later—
All the attacks landed, their power colliding…
"…Huh?"
"…What is that?"
"…What's going on?"
—But there was no explosion.
Instead, as the jutsu struck, they simply unraveled—dissolving as if swallowed by the shimmering barrier around him.
All that remained was silence.
"…Impossible. Impossible…!"
Chiriku coughed, staggering to his feet, face pale. His voice trembled.
He just—absorbed all of it…?
"…The sealing absorption worked better than I expected."
Kitagawa Gen slowly lowered his hand, inwardly reflecting.
Though I've only just acquired this ability, and my absorption strength isn't fully developed… I suppose it's fortunate these monks aren't especially powerful, or I'd have looked like a fool.
Since he had decided to assume the identity of Otsutsuki Genshiki, he had to maintain a certain… aura.
There are only a few people in this world with this level of "presence." I'm not sure I truly measure up, but…
…I can at least imitate how they talk.
Even if it felt slightly embarrassing…
…it was exhilarating.
"Did you truly believe such petty tricks could stop me?" His voice rang out—calm and resonant.
"Your understanding of me is… quite shallow. After all, at our core, we are worlds apart."
He lifted his hand, as though forming a seal, his tone dropping to a chilling finality:
"Allow me to demonstrate… the true extent of the difference between us."
In that instant, an overwhelming surge of chakra erupted—an unseen repulsive force billowing outward in all directions—
…and the night seemed to shudder.
Accompanied by the relentless surge of repulsive force, the monks could no longer endure it. Almost in an instant, they and the surrounding buildings were hurled into the air together.
The once grand and solemn temple began to collapse. Even the ground slowly caved in under the pressure. In this moment, every monk was seized by a sense of utter despair.
"Is that… really a human being?"
It wasn't only the monks—Chiriku's mind was also blank with shock. But as the abbot, he forced himself to rise, struggling to think of anything he could do.
"Rrraaaah!"
Before he could react, a bestial roar suddenly erupted behind them.
The boy, Sora, was now entirely shrouded in tailed beast chakra. His body had taken on the form of a tailed beast cloak, four crimson tails whipping and lashing behind him.
His eyes were filled with feral rage, no trace of humanity left—only the instincts of a wild beast.
"Damn it—Sora…he's completely lost control!"
Chiriku coughed up a mouthful of blood. The situation was deteriorating so fast he no longer knew what to do.
Perhaps the only small relief was that the so-called "Ōtsutsuki Genshi" had paused. His gaze turned calmly toward the transformed Sora.
"So you finally decided to come out yourself. All the better."
Kitagawa Gen (北川源) felt the raw, familiar chakra of the Nine Tails radiating from Sora and gave a faint nod.
"You were my target from the start. Why make things so difficult? All of you…truly courting your own misery."
"ROAR!"
The Nine Tails chakra bellowed in fury, and a tail abruptly stretched out, sweeping violently toward Gen.
Where the tail struck the ground, it split apart with a deafening crack, and a suffocating miasma of chakra erupted in all directions.
"Everyone, retreat! Get out of here—now!"
Chiriku knew this battle had already surpassed anything ordinary humans could withstand. He shouted with all the strength he had left, desperate to evacuate the others.
BOOM—
But in that same instant, the entire temple shuddered again.
He heard Sora's transformed voice howl in monstrous agony. The next moment, a massive shockwave smashed into Chiriku, blasting him off his feet.
When he managed to look up, Sora—wrapped in the Nine Tails' chakra—had been slammed straight into the temple's outer wall with such force that the entire structure seemed about to collapse in on itself.
Yet even then, Sora rose once more, unleashing another roar before bolting toward the ruins' edge, trying to escape.
"He's…running?"
Chiriku had witnessed firsthand the terrifying rampage of the Nine Tails' chakra. Never had he imagined someone could force it into retreat in an instant.
"Running? That only matters if there's not a chasm of power between us."
Gen's voice rang out again, calm as ever.
A moment later, the smoke dispersed. Sora, still sheathed in Nine Tails chakra, froze mid-stride.
No matter how he struggled, his body was wrenched back through the air, dragged inexorably toward Gen.
"When the gap between us is this vast… …such efforts are meaningless."
The moment Sora came to a halt in front of him, Gen calmly raised the black staff in his hand, pointing it directly at the boy's chest.
"You see? Just like this…I could pierce your heart any time I wish."
"So stop struggling. It will be over very soon."
—
"What the hell is going on over there?"
Below the ruins of the Fire Temple, Uchiha Obito stared in disbelief at the distant spectacle. That chakra—he could never mistake it for anything else.
"That brat Uzumaki Naruto…is he here? No—something's wrong. That isn't a complete Nine Tails…"
"That presence…"
Uchiha Itachi's face was grim. He, too, had once felt the Nine Tails' wrath—he had been among the first to sense it when it attacked.
That cold, crazed, murderous chakra was something he would never forget.
"That's an unsettling chakra…and it seems someone's fighting it."
Kisame spoke in a low voice beside him.
"Should we take a look? Or avoid getting involved?"
"We're going. That might be the Nine Tails."
Obito's tone left no room for argument. His Mangekyō Sharingan began to spin, distorting the air around them.
Itachi did not object. In the blink of an eye, both men vanished.
The next instant, they reappeared within the ruined Fire Temple.
By now, the grand halls had been utterly reduced to rubble. The monks had long since evacuated.
Standing alone amid the devastation was a man clad in flowing white robes and a mask—yet radiating an unfamiliar, inhuman aura.
Before him lay a youth collapsed on the ground, black rods piercing the earth around him.
"That…!"
Obito's eye widened. He recognized those rods—Madara had taught him about them.
Seeing them now, he felt an immediate surge of caution. Whoever this was, he was no ordinary opponent.
"So…you've come."
Yet the masked man didn't look surprised in the slightest by their arrival.
"I noticed you long ago. I was only wondering when you'd decide to show yourselves. I see you didn't keep me waiting too long."
"…Who are you?"
Obito demanded quietly.
But Gen didn't answer.
Instead, he slowly turned to face them.
And in that moment—
A pair of eyes was revealed, shimmering with a blue luminescence that seemed to hold entire constellations within.
Eyes so strange and mesmerizing that both Itachi and Obito felt their own vision waver.
"What…are those eyes…?"
--