"Ōnoki, the old man just died like that!"
With a sigh, a khaki-colored rubbery sphere was torn open, and the Fourth Raikage, Killer Bee, and Dōtai emerged, all wearing expressions of awe.
Dōtai's Lava Release lacked offensive power, but its defensive strength was unmatched among bloodline techniques; against physical attacks, the rubber-like lava could completely disperse the force, so the three from Kumogakure were unharmed.
Under normal circumstances, Kitsuchi would have been on full guard the moment he saw the Raikage of Kumogakure.
Now the old-generation Tsuchikage Ōnoki was dead, the new-generation star Deidara gravely wounded, and the mid-generation pillar Kitsuchi himself badly injured.
If the Fourth Raikage wished, he could easily finish them both, leaving Iwagakure a lamb to the slaughter.
In fact, under normal conditions the Raikage would absolutely do so—yet right now neither he nor Kitsuchi kicked the other while down or kept their guard up.
Facing two near-apocalyptic fighters, the leaders of the great villages suddenly felt as insignificant as mortals, able only to watch fate decide the world's course. Apart from praying, they could do nothing, let alone settle old grudges.
All eyes turned to the battlefield: it had become a patch of primal chaos as two terrifying Chakra surges flared anew.
"Not good—those monsters are at it again!" Senju Tsunade was first to sense the danger. "Everyone, pull back!"
She hardly needed to speak. The Fourth Raikage silently grabbed Dōtai and became a bolt of lightning; Killer Bee followed his foster brother without a moment's delay.
Kitsuchi cradled Ōnoki's body, tucked Deidara under one arm, and took flight, using the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique to ride the gale away.
The technique was hard to master; originally Kitsuchi hadn't known it, but with technical aid from the Land of Wind he had advanced and now wielded both Ultra-Light-Weight and Weighted Rock well—though he still seldom used them.
The instant Tsunade gave the order she realized she was already the slowest. Rolling her eyes, she summoned the giant slug and, dragging Kakashi Hatake with her, merged into the creature, which sensed the distant Chakra and slithered away from the battlefield.
A dull boom echoed as the two dreadful Chakras collided, wind so fierce it nearly flipped even the enormous slug.
Soon the slug sensed the clashing energies begin to shift—clearly the combatants had entered mobile warfare, widening the zone of devastation.
"They're not going to fight for three months like a thousand years ago, are they? This world might not survive another bout on that scale!"
Watching the heaven-rending scene behind them, the slug muttered in near despair.
"If this keeps up, the planet's Natural Energy will drain away again, and then…"
The animal sages' longevity comes from Natural Energy; once the planet's reserves drop, their lifespans shorten. For toads, the White Snake Sage, or the slug herself—each millennia old—such loss could kill them outright.
Yet none dared intervene against Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and the even more monstrous fighter beside her. Long-lived did not mean powerful; they could not even resist Infinite Tsukuyomi, let alone battle.
Sage techniques can wound a wielder of Kekkei Mōra, but only wound; in rank and authority they are still beneath the Ōtsutsuki. A thousand years ago that was why the planet's natives were nearly wiped out.
The slug was hardly nimble, but her vast frame moved faster than most Ninja—still, she was a snail compared to those two calamities.
Worse, Kaguya and Hancock could teleport; no one knew where their fight would erupt next. Within minutes the slug felt their titanic Chakra already far away.
"This is going to kill us all!"
A hole opened in the slug's body, ejecting Tsunade and Kakashi.
"Little Tsunade, what exactly happened? Can you tell me?"
Tsunade gave a bitter smile. "Honestly… I'm not sure myself…"
She knew it was linked to Vegapunk, yet how events had spiraled this far, or whether his plans had derailed, remained a mystery. Hancock and Kaguya had battled for seven days, and the Ninja World had suffered quakes, storms, tsunamis, eruptions, and meteor falls incessantly.
Fortunately, Vegapunk's arrival had catapulted the world's technology, bolstering disaster resistance—especially for the offshore archipelagos and the Land of Wind, which scarcely felt the calamities.
Most tempests were quelled at birth by Vegapunk's weather towers; the few that proved too fierce were neutralized by his other black-tech devices.
Many minor nations, and even the remaining three great powers, asked him to build weather towers of their own, and Vegapunk agreed to every request.
Yet bad weather was the lesser terror. The true nightmare was the clash between Hancock and Kaguya: they fought from east to west, north to south, shattering mountains, pulverizing plateaus, turning every human, city, or village caught in their path into lifeless ruin.
Hundreds of peaks in the Land of Lightning were leveled; a vast canyon was carved across the Land of Earth; the Land of Fire gained a new great river; two uninhabited islands in the Land of Sea sank, and the coasts endured seven or eight colossal tsunamis…
Faced with a battle like this, even the Ninja were powerless; the unlucky Hidden Grass Village was reduced to rubble simply because the two women passed overhead and got caught in the shock-wave. After that, whenever the Chakra of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya or Hancock appeared anywhere—city or village—immediate evacuation was ordered so no one would be dragged in.
"Haa… haa…" Kaguya breathed raggedly. Her already unnaturally pale face now carried the grey of death, and the crimson Rinnegan on her forehead wept bloody tears.
"You… are you toying with me?!! Treating me like a cat toys with a mouse!"
Kaguya snarled; from the very start of the fight she had known she stood no chance against Hancock.
Leaving aside the gap in fighting will and skill, Hancock possessed not only the chakra system of the Naruto World but also a pirate's body, Haki, and a Devil Fruit. Even in raw Chakra volume she far surpassed Kaguya.
Remember, Hancock had absorbed the Chakra of Parallel World Kaguya and that of the Great Tenseigan, wielding both Rinnegan and Tenseigan. That alone placed her in a league far above Kaguya.
Had Hancock wished it, the fight would not have lasted seven days and nights—Kaguya might not have lasted seven minutes.
"Toy with you? Don't flatter yourself—what makes you think you're worth my time?"
Hancock was spotless from head to toe, not a hair out of place; her breathing was calm and even. She held absolute superiority.
"Were it not for darling wanting the Ninja World to witness true power and despair, I'd have finished you long ago."
"Still, seven days has been enough for them to grasp the difference. Now I'll send you on your way."
"You, a noble Ōtsutsuki—how can you mingle with those native insects?!"
Kaguya spoke in disbelief; what shocked her was not that Hancock meant to kill her, but the way Hancock addressed Vegapunk.
Among the Ōtsutsuki Clan mutual devouring was normal. Though overtly forbidden, in truth higher-ranked members devoured lower ones as a matter of course—sometimes leaving a fragment of soul data, sometimes, in crisis, consuming everything, soul and all.
So any talk of affection was nonsense; only lower Ōtsutsuki lacking strong self-awareness submitted without resistance. Any with a sharp sense of self kept their guard up around kin.
Thus Kaguya felt no surprise at being slain or even devoured. What truly defied her imagination was that so mighty a clanswoman would consort with the "natives" she herself scorned.
Yet after hearing Kaguya's words Hancock's expression chilled and her aura turned razor-sharp.
"Fine!! Calling darling an insect? I'll teach you the price of a careless tongue."
Kaguya's body trembled. Only now did she realize this kinswoman was not merely a step ahead. Certain she could neither win nor flee, she still made one last attempt, casting a Space-Time Ninjutsu.
"Amenominaka!"
From the outset her space-time techniques had been hampered. Techniques like Yomotsu-Hirasaka that moved within the world still worked, though only for a few kilometres at a time. But Amenominaka, which leapt to another dimension, had been completely unusable.
To her shock, the jutsu now formed perfectly—she slipped back into the Genesis Space.
Before she could even exhale, Hancock tore open the void and stepped through to stand before her.
"Idiot! Knowing my spatial power exceeds yours, you still hide in another dimension? Your stupidity nearly moves me to tears!"
Hancock smiled; Kaguya's face paled as she felt all control over Amenominaka vanish—she could no longer wield space, and was trapped inside this narrow realm.
"Still want to run? Dream on. Golden Wheel Reincarnation Blast."
Seeing Kaguya's futile struggle end, Hancock sneered. Nine Truth-Seeking Orbs merged into a single golden sword.
Back in the Naruto World Hancock had never dared form the full Golden Wheel Reincarnation Blast; two or three orbs at most, lest one slash split the continent and trigger planet-wide climatic disaster.
A weather tower could influence weather, not erase it. A dust-storm on the scale of Mars would overtax the tower, so Hancock had never revealed the Tenseigan's full battle prowess.
A streak of gold flashed and the entire Genesis Space shattered.
"darling, mission complete."
In the laboratory of Roran, travel-worn Hancock walked in, a black Truth-Seeking Orb sealing sphere in hand, her clothes lightly torn and skin faintly scraped.
"Kaguya gave you that much trouble? Hancock, you're actually hurt!"
Vegapunk glanced up, surprised, then fetched a box of green salve and gently rubbed it onto her arm.
Hancock's smile froze for an instant, then brightened. "That ugly woman Kaguya fought to the end. She even tried to blow up the space and take me with her, so capturing her alive took a bit of work."
After all, the Genesis Space had been shattered by her own Golden Wheel Reincarnation Blast—but that was only because Kaguya resisted. Had she stayed still, there'd have been no need to cut her down.
Hancock reasoned, perfectly content with herself.
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