It tilted its head slightly, as if examining what kind of "new toy" this was.
Wangcai's hind legs bent ever so slightly.
Then—
Bang!
The sound of its paws striking the ground was not particularly loud, yet it rang out with crisp clarity.
The scorched earth beneath it barely dented.
But its body—
Shot upward like a cannonball fired from a barrel.
Or like a yellow meteor defying gravity.
It became a straight streak of golden light, almost impossible to track with the naked eye, soaring directly toward the world-destroying meteor descending from above.
"What?!"
"What is it doing?!"
Before the cries of shock could fade—
BOOM—!!!
A deafening explosion far surpassing any previous collision erupted high above the crater.
Not the sound of a meteor striking the earth—
But a head-on collision between a celestial body and flesh.
Under the stunned gazes of all who watched, that streak of yellow light slammed squarely into the meteor's most solid, most force-laden frontal core.
The expected scene—blood and shattered bone, the yellow dog crushed into pulp—never came.
Instead—
Crack! Crack-crack-crack—!!!
A dense cascade of splitting fractures rang out from deep within the meteor, sharp enough to make teeth ache.
The massive rock, capable of annihilating everything in its path, erupted with spiderweb-like cracks from the point of impact, the fissures burrowing deep into its core.
The blazing red flames dimmed instantly.
Then—
Boom—!!!
With a heavy, muffled detonation, the meteor exploded.
Not pierced.
Not deflected.
It was structurally destroyed from within by a force so unreasonable, so overwhelmingly brutal, that it shattered the entire mass at its core.
The colossal meteor disintegrated into countless fragments of burning stone and ash, scattering outward in a reversed meteor shower, raining helplessly toward the earth.
And at the center of that falling debris—
Wangcai stood lightly atop a larger fragment of descending rock.
It lowered its head slightly, gazing down at Naruto—frozen in place by sheer disbelief—and at the ashen-faced Sasuke and Neji in the distance.
It even lifted a forepaw and licked it casually, as if it had merely swatted away an annoying fly.
Its black eyes remained calm.
But now there was something else within them—
A faint, unmistakable boredom.
…
Only the crackling sound of falling debris and the ragged breathing of the three shinobi echoed within the crater.
Inside and outside the heavens—
Silence.
The final measure.
A world-ending meteor summoned by the Rinnegan—
Shattered by a dog's head.
How were they supposed to fight this?
Despair swallowed the last remaining glimmer of hope like encroaching night.
"What else… could possibly work?"
Sage Art dissolved like mud into the sea.
Susanoo was slurped away like noodles.
Every power built upon chakra crumbled beneath that yellow dog's indifferent gaze.
"If chakra doesn't work—then let's see if you're really that tough!"
The pride in Naruto's eyes—the obsession of a so-called "world destroyer"—was crushed away, replaced by the blood-red desperation of someone cornered beyond retreat.
He abandoned all chakra flow.
Relying solely on the physique tempered by Divine Techniques, Naruto roared like a wounded beast. Muscles bulged. The ground beneath his feet exploded as he surged forward in a blur of golden afterimages, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek.
Even before his fist arrived, the pressure of the wind compressed forward like something tangible, ruffling the fur along Wangcai's neck.
This strike carried all of Naruto's fury, unwillingness, and final resolve.
And yet—
At the instant the punch was about to connect—
Wangcai merely raised a forepaw.
Thud.
The impact was not loud.
But it was heavy enough to make one's heart clench.
Time seemed to stretch thin.
Naruto's forward momentum halted abruptly, as though he had collided with an invisible wall harder than diamond a billion times over.
The feral snarl on his face froze—
Replaced by stunned disbelief.
Then—
Crack!
The clear, sickening sound of bone fracturing echoed from his arm.
"Ugh—!"
A groan burst from him as an irresistible torrent of force surged through the point of contact and flooded his body like a collapsing mountain.
His body—durable enough to contend with Tailed Beasts—
Was as fragile as paper before that force.
"Pfft—!"
Blood sprayed from Naruto's mouth.
He was hurled backward even faster than he had charged, like a man struck head-on by a speeding train.
His body carved a tragic arc through the air before slamming into a distant rock wall, embedding into it and leaving a deep human-shaped crater. Stones cascaded down, half-burying him within.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Only Naruto's faint, pained gasps echoed from the rock face, along with the steady drip of blood against broken stone.
This was not merely a defeat of strength.
What followed chilled the marrow.
Wangcai lowered its paw.
Before its slightly opened mouth, a pure sphere of chakra rapidly condensed into existence.
It had been forcibly stripped from Naruto's body in that brief, ordinary-looking contact.
Wangcai's throat moved.
The chakra was swallowed.
It smacked its lips contentedly.
Its tail wagged lightly—twice.
"Cough… cough…"
From within the crater, Naruto strained to turn his head. Every movement sent grinding agony through fractured bone.
Through blood-blurred vision, he stared at Wangcai.
His voice was hoarse, trembling with shattered disbelief and soul-deep fear.
"Even… without using chakra…"
"Just… contact…"
"You can… directly devour… chakra…"
The whisper felt like a final verdict.
A sentence passed upon the shinobi world itself.
Taijutsu?
The difference in physical strength was insurmountable. Collapse upon contact.
Energy?
The enemy's favorite meal.
Touch?
A delivery service straight to its mouth.
No solution.
Absolute.
Suffocating.
Sasuke and Neji stood frozen, their blood feeling as though it had turned to ice.
They looked at Naruto.
They looked at Wangcai—who appeared to have merely finished a light appetizer.
A boundless chill climbed from their feet to their scalps.
Wangcai seemed to lose interest in Naruto as the "main course" for the moment.
Its calm, evaluating gaze swept past—
And settled upon Sasuke and Neji.
Especially—
Neji.
After all, it hadn't tasted him yet.
It began to walk toward them.
Not fast.
Not slow.
Each step precise.
Oppressive.
Like the ticking of a countdown to death, pounding against the fragile nerves of the two shinobi on the brink of collapse.
Beyond the heavens—
The entire shinobi world remained utterly silent.
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