As he spoke, Naruto's fingers formed hand seals at an astonishing speed—so fast that even the Sharingan struggled to trace their trajectory.
[Wind Release: Ultra-Big Ball Spiraling Sphere Shuriken!]
In Sage Mode, every one of his actions became faster, and his seal-making speed reached an almost unbelievable level.
Ninjutsu techniques that normally required just a few hand seals now seemed to require none at all when he performed them. Even advanced techniques like Wind Release: Ultra-Big Ball Spiraling Sphere Shuriken became nothing more than a blur.
Moreover, the power of every ninjutsu technique was vastly enhanced under Sage Mode. The once-powerful gusts had now evolved into world-shattering tempests.
Naruto inhaled deeply, then exhaled a hurricane-force wind that could snap tree trunks clean in half. Some trees were even uprooted entirely.
Even if Tobi could turn intangible and evade physical attacks, could he resist being blown away by this wind? Could he even remain unscathed against winds powerful enough to tear through anything living?
Just then, Naruto's sensory abilities suddenly flared an alarm. Something had breached the danger perimeter. He swiftly leaped off the tree branch, narrowly dodging a strike aimed at his back from Tobi.
Tobi's arm was wrapped in spiraling wooden blades, razor-sharp and deadly.
"Hmph, at least you're on your toes," Tobi sneered.
While descending from the tree branch, Naruto turned midair and hurled several shuriken toward Tobi.
[Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!]
Even with hundreds of multiplying shuriken, Tobi glided through them like a phantom, emerging untouched.
"All right! [Lightning Release: Thunderous Shuriken Technique!]"
When the shuriken reached a high altitude, they sparked electricity and transformed into hundreds of lightning bolts crashing down toward Tobi's location.
The ground, previously cleared by Naruto's techniques, now saw the battlefield's last standing trees struck by lightning, erupting into roaring flames.
Naruto kept a safe distance from the battlefield, watching to see if Tobi would try to flee.
"Still don't get it, do you?"
Naruto spun around just in time to see Tobi's space-time vortex form. From within the vortex, Tobi lunged forward, landing a punch straight to Naruto's face that sent him reeling with bone-rattling force.
"No matter what..." Tobi grinned while Naruto staggered and regained his footing to face him once again, "go ahead. I'd love to see what you've picked up over the years from the ninja arts. I mean, you haven't used a single jutsu yet that I could copy—like my Sharingan—but please, continue. I'm dying to see if you've truly understood despair itself."
Tobi's words weren't without reason. Even without actively using the Sharingan, Naruto's arsenal of jutsu alone was formidable. Combined with his natural talent, it posed an overwhelming threat—one that would outright kill others.
"I already told you long ago—I will take everything from you." As Tobi spoke, a small swirling portal appeared before him, and from it launched a massive shuriken larger than his own body, spinning rapidly toward Naruto.
Naruto sidestepped the attack, watching the shuriken slice cleanly through a burning tree.
Before he could even react, another vortex appeared above him. A thick, sharp branch came crashing down from above, targeting his body directly.
[Wood Release: Stocks!]
Naruto dodged again. The branch struck deep into the ground. Then it rapidly grew, sprouting countless roots that reached out to entangle him.
Naruto leaped and twisted with agility, avoiding the root attacks until they transformed into a dense forest, surrounding him completely. The roots twisted like snakes, attempting to ensnare Naruto in a lethal grip.
Suddenly, eighty explosive tags detonated among the roots.
Tobi was visibly shocked by the sudden blast. He quickly jumped away from the flying wooden debris.
[Shadow Clone Jutsu!] When did he replicate this technique? When did he create clones? he pondered.
Maybe it happened when the roots started blocking his vision—Naruto had taken the chance to make a clone. Moreover, this clone was set with a "self-destruct trigger," instead of being controlled remotely.
[Sage Mode!] once again boosted both the jutsu's overall power and the explosive force, since these clones possessed half of Naruto's chakra from the start.
But where was the original Naruto?
Detecting a shift in chakra behind him, Tobi immediately spun around and lunged forward with a punch aimed at what appeared to be a shadowy figure.
"Too slow," he muttered, shifting quickly. Attempting to enter space-time teleportation, he heard a faint metallic sound—the sound of a sword being unsheathed.
For Tobi, activating space-time teleportation took longer than turning intangible, and he couldn't do both at once. Yet he sensed this was his only escape route, as he had already foreseen what would happen next.
However, what came next disrupted his attempt to warp through space.
Naruto's sword pierced through the vortex he created for teleportation, slashing across Tobi's mask.
Feeling the mask split under the sword's strike, the man underneath sharply gasped. But the mask didn't fully break—it was a full helmet. Naruto had only cut away the front portion.
"What a disappointment," Naruto gasped between breaths, clearly worn down by the prolonged battle.
"Why don't you act hurt and mock me again like last time? Why not spew nonsense to provoke me? Aren't you going to threaten my girlfriend, my tailed beast, or my village anymore? Go ahead, say something! Laugh… laugh for me now!" He roared at Tobi, spittle flying with every furious shout.
Beneath the mask's cover, the blade's slash broke the skin, letting blood begin to trickle. Fortunately, the mask concealed everything, or else it would've enraged Naruto even further.
Inwardly, Tobi swore: before taking the Nine-Tails and ending Naruto's life, he would break this man's will first.
"That's all?" Tobi asked, facing off with Naruto once again. On the battlefield, one half scorched with burning debris, the other reduced to wasteland. "Has your spark of hope already been snuffed out? Have you already struggled like a novice flailing in water?"
"How could that be? Are you kidding me?" Naruto grinned, though their situation was dire, his eyes still shone with determination. "I landed a hit on you. I slashed through your portal and left you wounded. I can feel it this time—this is no illusion. Now I know I can beat you."
"I admit miracles do sometimes favor the lucky or the desperate," Tobi said dismissively, blood steadily dripping from beneath his mask—an annoyance, but nothing more. "But unless divine intervention occurs, something like this won't happen again. Unfortunately for you, I don't believe in gods. I only believe in sheer stupid luck."
Naruto raised his sword, smeared with Tobi's blood, pointing its tip directly at him.
"Who said anything about miracles or divine acts? If there really were a god, I'm sure they'd have better things to worry about—like whether some masked bastard and an idiot Jinchuriki wielding an eye that isn't even his deserve attention fighting it out in some random patch of trees, even if they…" Naruto hesitated before continuing, "I'll save my prayers for when I truly need them."
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