The dimension was a void of jagged obsidian beneath a starless, pitch-black sky. There was no wind, no natural energy, and no ambient moisture. It was a dead, sterile realm forged purely by visual prowess, serving exclusively as a quarantine zone.
Momoshiki Otsutsuki stood in the center of the shattered bedrock.
He had consumed his guardian. His physical form was entirely transformed. The pristine white robes had been replaced by a hardened shell of dark red and black chakra. His skin was the color of bruised crimson, and jagged, dark horns curled aggressively from his skull. Embedded in the center of his forehead, a massive, glowing yellow Rinnegan stared forward with unblinking malice.
Despite his overwhelming power, Momoshiki recognized the tactical reality of his situation. He was trapped.
He extended his senses, pushing his massive chakra against the invisible walls of the dimension. He found no weak points. The fabric of this space was tightly woven, isolated from the natural pathways he usually traversed.
He lowered his gaze, his three eyes locking onto the solitary figure standing fifty paces away.
Itachi Uchiha stood perfectly still. His dark cloak hung motionless in the dead air. His hands rested easily at his sides. The black lines of the Karma seal covered the left side of his face, extending down his neck.
"You brought me to a graveyard, human," Momoshiki spoke. His voice was a distorted, overlapping chorus of two entities, resonating with sheer, vibrating power. "You isolated me to spare your fragile village. A noble sentiment. But isolating a predator merely ensures that you will be the only prey available."
Itachi did not respond to the taunt. He maintained his steady, measured breathing. He observed the transformed Otsutsuki, noting the massive spike in physical density and the volatile, dark red chakra radiating from his skin.
"Your previous companion was a creature of immense physical force," Itachi stated calmly. "By consuming his flesh, you have integrated his mass into your own. You have abandoned your reliance on absorbing foreign jutsu in favor of direct, lethal combat."
Momoshiki's yellow third eye narrowed. The arrogant, detached aristocrat had been replaced by a furious, bloodthirsty god.
"I will tear the flesh from your bones and use this dimension as your tomb," Momoshiki declared.
He raised his right hand. The yellow Rinnegan in his palm flared. He did not summon the erratic, chaotic elemental blasts he had used in the stadium. Instead, drawing upon Kinshiki's absorbed arsenal, he forged a massive, glowing red halberd of pure, condensed chakra.
Momoshiki vanished.
The speed of the transformed Otsutsuki was staggering. The obsidian rock beneath his feet exploded into fine powder as he launched himself forward, crossing the fifty paces in a fraction of a second. He brought the heavy red halberd down in a devastating, vertical cleave designed to split Itachi in two.
Itachi's eyes shifted. Fueled by the pure Otsutsuki genetics anchored in his cells, the design evolved further. The blades sharpened, glowing with a faint, unearthly silver light.
He engaged his newly awakened Shinjutsu.
Kagami no Kuni. (Realm of Mirrors)
Itachi did not manipulate the elements, nor did he alter gravity. His Shinjutsu commanded absolute, localized spatial coordinates. He possessed the ability to instantly and perfectly swap the physical locations of any two objects of roughly equal mass within his line of sight.
A millimeter before the glowing red halberd struck Itachi's skull, reality inverted.
Itachi vanished from the point of impact. In his exact place, a jagged, heavy pillar of obsidian rock—pulled from fifty yards behind Momoshiki—materialized.
The red halberd cleaved cleanly through the solid stone, shattering the pillar into fragments.
Momoshiki's momentum carried him forward through the falling debris. Before he could turn, an attack came from behind.
Itachi, now standing in the space formerly occupied by the rock, turned and cast his gaze upon the massive red halberd in Momoshiki's hand.
Itachi engaged his unique Dojutsu, the evolution of his visual prowess.
Omoikane.
The ability was absolute. It did not absorb chakra like the Rinnegan. It perceived the microscopic, binding tethers that held shaped chakra together, and forcefully severed them.
As Itachi looked at the weapon, the red halberd in Momoshiki's grip suddenly unraveled. The dense, lethal chakra simply collapsed, returning to a harmless, inert mist of energy that dissipated into the dark sky.
Momoshiki stumbled slightly, his weapon dissolving entirely in his grasp.
He whipped around, his three eyes locking onto the Uchiha. Shock rippled through the alien's mind.
"You manipulate coordinates," Momoshiki rasped, analyzing the sequence. "And your eyes... they untether formed chakra. You possess miracles stolen from my ancestors."
"I utilize the tools necessary for survival," Itachi replied softly.
Momoshiki bared his teeth. He understood the parameters. Ranged elemental attacks would be unraveled by the Uchiha's eyes, and predictable, heavy strikes would be swapped with environmental debris.
To kill this human, he had to rely on pure, unadulterated physical speed and unrelenting assault. He had to strike faster than the human mind could choose a target to swap.
Momoshiki dropped low. The dark red chakra flared violently around his boots.
He charged again.
This time, the assault was a blinding, continuous storm. Momoshiki moved erratically, bouncing off the jagged obsidian spires, attacking from the flanks, the air, and the ground simultaneously.
Itachi remained entirely focused. He utilized Kagami no Kuni with flawless precision.
Momoshiki threw a devastating right hook. Itachi swapped himself with a falling shard of rock. The punch shattered the stone.
Momoshiki spun, delivering a sweeping low kick. Itachi swapped places with a chunk of debris near the ceiling of the dimension, falling gracefully toward the ground while Momoshiki struck empty air.
But the sheer, terrifying physical capacity of the transformed Otsutsuki began to overwhelm the tactic.
Momoshiki did not stop moving. Every time he missed, his recovery time was virtually zero. He accelerated, pushing his speed past the limits of human perception. The dark dimension became filled with the red and black afterimages of the alien god.
Itachi landed on the solid ground, his Mangekyo spinning rapidly. He prepared to swap positions again as Momoshiki descended from above.
The yellow Rinnegan on Momoshiki's forehead glowed fiercely.
The Otsutsuki did not strike directly. He projected a sudden, massive wave of localized gravity precisely onto the debris Itachi intended to swap with, crushing the rock into fine dust before the Shinjutsu could anchor to it.
With his designated target destroyed, Itachi's spatial swap failed to initiate.
Momoshiki crashed down.
Itachi raised his arms, rapidly manifesting the dense, ethereal red ribcage of the Susanoo to absorb the blow.
Momoshiki drove his knee directly into the center of the Susanoo.
The impact was cataclysmic. The sheer kinetic mass of the strike cracked the absolute defense of the ethereal ribs. The shockwave drove Itachi backward, his boots carving deep trenches into the obsidian floor. The red ribcage shattered completely, unable to withstand the physical density of the transformed alien.
Before Itachi could recover his guard, Momoshiki was there.
The alien bypassed the crumbling chakra defense, striking Itachi heavily in the chest with an open palm.
The force of the blow lifted Itachi off his feet, launching him violently across the dark wasteland. He crashed into a jagged cliff face, the stone fracturing upon impact, and fell to the ground.
Itachi pushed himself up to one knee. He coughed, a thin trail of blood escaping his lips. His dark cloak was torn, and his chest throbbed with the blunt trauma. The Shibai cells rapidly began knitting the bruised tissue together, but the pain was sharp and absolute.
Momoshiki landed a few paces away. He did not rush to finish the kill. He stood tall, looking down at the kneeling Uchiha with a cold, victorious sneer.
"Your tricks are taxing," Momoshiki stated, noting the heavy breathing of the human. "You rely on your eyes to manipulate space, but your physical vessel is too slow to match me. You cannot run forever."
"He doesn't have to run," a calm, firm voice echoed through the dark dimension.
Momoshiki turned his head slightly.
Stepping out from behind a towering spire of black rock to Momoshiki's right was Neji Hyuga.
The traditional robes of his clan fluttered slightly. The geometric lines of the Karma seal covered his pale skin. His eyes burned with the brilliant, shifting blue and white light of the Tenseigan. Six black Truth-Seeking Orbs floated in a perfect, slow orbit behind his back.
From the shadows to Momoshiki's left, a second figure emerged.
Rock Lee walked forward. His green jumpsuit was dusted with black ash. The Karma markings pulsed darkly on the left side of his face.
"The Vanguard does not fight alone," Lee said, his voice steady. He dropped into his disciplined martial stance. The green aura of the open gates was not visible, but the sheer, compressed physical density radiating from his frame was undeniable.
Momoshiki looked at the two new arrivals. He felt the heavy, ancient chakra resting within their seals.
"More thieves," Momoshiki sneered, his yellow eye flashing with irritation. "You gather together, believing numbers will bridge the gap between dirt and the divine. You merely provide me with more corpses for this tomb."
Itachi stood up, wiping the blood from his chin. He moved silently to complete the triangle, boxing Momoshiki in from three sides.
"The gap is already closed," Itachi noted softly.
The three shinobi did not exchange verbal commands. They operated on years of rigorous, shared combat drills under Nanami Kento's absolute standard.
Lee moved first.
He did not use the Inner Gates. He relied entirely on the physical augmentation of the Otsutsuki genetics. He dashed forward, crossing the distance with a speed that rivaled Momoshiki's.
Momoshiki raised his arm, preparing to block the incoming taijutsu strike.
Lee threw a straight punch.
Absolute Impact.
Lee's Shinjutsu activated. The physical force of his punch bypassed the intervening distance entirely, striking Momoshiki point-blank in the chest before Lee had even closed the gap.
The invisible, zero-distance blow caught Momoshiki off guard. The heavy impact rattled his dark red armor, forcing him to take a half-step backward.
It was exactly the opening required.
Neji raised his hands, his Tenseigan locking onto the staggering alien.
"Ame-no-Mihashira," Neji commanded softly.
The thirty-foot domain of absolute spatial stasis deployed. The invisible boundary snapped into place directly over Momoshiki. The kinetic momentum of the alien's movements was instantly severely dampened. The air around him felt like thick, hardened molasses.
Momoshiki gritted his teeth, feeling the spatial lock dragging on his limbs. He channeled a massive surge of his own dark chakra to forcibly break the stasis field, raising his hand to cast a repelling wave of gravity.
He did not get the chance.
Itachi's Mangekyo spun.
Omoikane.
Itachi locked his gaze onto the gathering chakra in Momoshiki's palm. The visual command severed the tethers of the molded energy. The gravitational wave unraveled before it could be released, the chakra scattering harmlessly into the dark air.
Stripped of his jutsu and slowed by the stasis field, Momoshiki was entirely vulnerable to physical assault.
Lee closed the remaining distance, stepping inside the slowed guard of the alien.
The Taijutsu specialist unleashed a devastating, relentless sequence of close-quarters strikes. He struck Momoshiki's joints, his ribs, and his throat. The heavy, Karma-enhanced blows cracked the dark red armor plating. Momoshiki tried to counter, throwing a heavy punch, but the stasis field slowed his arm just enough for Lee to weave underneath it and deliver a brutal, rising knee to the jaw.
Momoshiki was knocked upward.
Neji stepped forward, moving flawlessly through his own stasis domain. He brought his hands up, assuming the classic stance of the Gentle Fist.
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"
Neji struck with blinding speed. He did not aim to cause blunt force trauma; he drove precise, needle-like bursts of pure Tenseigan chakra directly through the cracked armor, striking the tenketsu of the alien god.
The strikes systematically shut down the chakra pathways in Momoshiki's arms and chest.
Momoshiki roared in absolute fury, feeling his internal energy being violently restricted. He realized that fighting the three of them in a coordinated formation was a fatal error.
He focused entirely on the yellow Rinnegan on his forehead.
He did not use ninjutsu. He used pure, unadulterated repulsive force.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The absolute, omnidirectional blast of gravity erupted from his body. The sheer output was terrifying. It shattered Neji's stasis domain instantly. The shockwave hit Neji and Lee, launching both close-quarters fighters violently backward across the obsidian plains.
Momoshiki hung in the air, his armor cracked, his breathing ragged. He glared down at the three humans, his hatred boiling over.
"I will not be humiliated by vermin!" Momoshiki bellowed.
He raised both of his hands above his head. He drew upon the very core of his remaining vitality. The dark red chakra flared, forming a colossal, hyper-dense sphere of destructive energy. It was a massive, apocalyptic orb, glowing with a sickly, unstable light.
"I will erase this entire dimension, and you along with it!"
He prepared to throw the massive sphere down upon them.
Itachi Uchiha looked up at the apocalyptic attack. He did not panic. He did not command a retreat.
He raised his right hand.
"Neji. Lee. The center," Itachi ordered calmly.
Neji and Lee recovered their footing instantly. They sprinted toward the center of the battlefield, standing directly beneath the falling sphere of annihilation.
Momoshiki hurled the massive orb downward.
Itachi activated his Shinjutsu.
Kagami no Kuni.
Itachi did not swap himself. He focused on the massive, falling sphere of destruction, and he focused on a small, jagged rock resting on the ground directly behind Momoshiki's floating form.
The spatial coordinates inverted.
The massive orb of destruction vanished from the sky above Neji and Lee.
In its place, a small, harmless black rock plummeted to the ground.
Directly behind Momoshiki, the colossal sphere of his own apocalyptic chakra materialized.
Momoshiki's eyes widened in sheer horror as he sensed the devastating mass suddenly appearing at his back. He had no time to absorb it. He had no time to deploy a barrier.
The sphere struck him point-blank.
The explosion was contained, but the sheer force of it drove Momoshiki violently downward. He was blasted out of the sky, crashing into the obsidian bedrock with the force of a meteor.
The impact cratered the earth.
Momoshiki lay in the center of the ruin, his dark red armor completely shattered. His body was broken, his limbs mangled by the force of his own ultimate attack. He coughed up thick, dark blood, his yellow Rinnegan flickering weakly.
The three shinobi did not wait for the dust to settle. They advanced immediately, securing the perimeter of the crater.
Neji stepped forward. He raised his hands, manipulating the six Truth-Seeking Orbs floating behind his back. He commanded the black matter to stretch and reform, creating six massive, heavy black stakes.
Neji drove the stakes downward with absolute precision, pinning Momoshiki's arms, legs, and shoulders firmly to the bedrock. The Truth-Seeking matter nullified the alien's remaining chakra, preventing any final attempts at regeneration or jutsu.
Lee stood by, his fists clenched, ready to deliver a fatal strike if the bindings failed.
Itachi walked slowly to the edge of the crater. He looked down at the ruined, dying god.
Momoshiki stared up at the Uchiha, his breath rattling in his chest. Defeat was an alien concept, bitter and incomprehensible.
"You... you are nothing but vessels," Momoshiki choked out, his voice weak. He raised his right hand, straining against the black stake pinning his wrist. His palm faced Itachi.
He gathered the very last spark of his fading life force. He intended to execute the final, desperate protocol of his clan. He intended to plant a Karma seal onto the Uchiha, to overwrite his soul and ensure his eventual resurrection.
The black, diamond-shaped mark began to form on the palm of his hand.
Itachi did not flinch. He did not step away from the grasping hand.
He looked down at Momoshiki, his Mangekyo spinning slowly.
"You seek to plant your anchor," Itachi stated, his voice quiet and completely devoid of sympathy. "You seek to overwrite my existence with your own."
Momoshiki's hand trembled as he pushed the mark forward, the dark script reaching out toward Itachi's flesh.
As the alien chakra brushed against Itachi's skin, it triggered a sudden, violent reaction.
The existing, synthetic Karma seal resting on the left side of Itachi's face flared. It did not accept the new data. The blueprint woven into Itachi's cells by Nanami Kento and Amado was a closed, perfected system. It recognized the incoming Karma as a hostile, inferior operating protocol.
The dark script reaching from Momoshiki's hand sparked, then violently burned away into ash upon touching Itachi's skin. The connection was absolutely rejected.
Momoshiki's yellow eye widened in final, utter despair. The realization that he could not anchor his soul, that his existence was truly, permanently ending, shattered his mind.
"This vessel," Itachi spoke softly, looking down at the dying entity, "is already occupied by a superior architecture. Your history ends here."
Itachi raised his right hand. He channeled a dense, concentrated spear of lightning and fire chakra, forging a blade of absolute, burning light around his forearm.
He drove the blade downward, piercing cleanly through the center of Momoshiki's chest, destroying the heart entirely.
Momoshiki Otsutsuki let out a final, silent gasp. The yellow Rinnegan on his forehead went dark. His body went completely limp, pinned to the obsidian stone.
The battle was over.
Itachi withdrew his hand. The chakra blade dissipated.
He stood up, looking at Neji and Lee. They offered silent, affirming nods. The threat had been flawlessly executed without a single casualty on their side.
"The physical vessel must be preserved," Itachi instructed, his tactical mind immediately shifting to the aftermath. "Amado and Lord Orochimaru will require the biological data to further secure the world's future. Do not let the body degrade."
Neji maintained the Truth-Seeking stakes, keeping the chakra pathways of the corpse completely locked down.
Itachi reached into his pouch and produced a heavy, specialized containment scroll. He unrolled it on the ground near the crater. He quickly painted a complex, high-level stasis seal on the parchment using his own blood.
With a coordinated effort, they lifted the broken corpse of the alien god and placed it firmly onto the center of the array.
Itachi formed the final hand sign.
"Sealing Art: Absolute Stasis Containment."
A cloud of white smoke enveloped the body. When it cleared, the corpse was gone, perfectly preserved and locked within the heavy ink of the scroll. Itachi rolled the parchment closed, tying it securely with a heavy cord.
He placed the scroll into his vest.
The dark dimension remained completely silent. The three members of the Aegis Division stood together in the void, their breathing steadying as the adrenaline faded. They had faced the apocalypse, and they had executed it with the cold, absolute precision demanded by their master.
"The objective is complete," Itachi stated quietly. "We return to the Leaf."