"Sasuke-san!" Boruto cried out anxiously.
"…Those eyes of his…" Adult Sasuke struggled to push himself up from the rubble, clutching his aching waist as he stared intently at Ōtsutsuki Urashiki hovering in mid-air. Cold sweat seeped down his forehead. "…Can they see the future?"
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki withdrew his fishing rod, his blue Rinnegan looking down at Sasuke from above. Utter arrogance filled his gaze as the corners of his mouth curled into a sneer.
"In front of me, the tactics you lower lifeforms take such pride in are nothing more than a ridiculous slow-motion performance."
"One troublesome insect dealt with. Next…"
Urashiki's gaze swept across the battlefield before locking onto Naruto, who was hiding behind a large tree.
"Found you, Nine-Tails brat."
With a sneer, Urashiki's figure flickered. In an instant, he appeared in front of the tree.
"Don't even think about running!"
The crimson chakra fishing line shot out like lightning, and in Naruto's terrified gaze, it wrapped around him tightly in an instant.
"Now let's see where you can run. Hand over the Nine-Tails' chakra!"
Urashiki licked his lips greedily, yanking the line taut as he prepared to plunge the hook into Naruto's body.
But the "Naruto" bound by the line didn't struggle at all. Instead, a smug, irritating grin slowly spread across his previously terrified face.
"Heh, you fell for it, horned freak!"
"What?!"
Alarms screamed in Urashiki's mind. Through the vision of his blue Rinnegan, he saw that beneath this bound "Naruto's" clothes were layers upon layers of Explosive Tags burning fiercely.
The fuses had already reached their end.
"Eat this—Naruto Barrage of Explosions, you horned bastard!"
Naruto shouted.
"Another Shadow Clone?!"
Fury flashed across Urashiki's pale face at being toyed with again by an ant.
Rumble—!!
A deafening explosion erupted directly in front of Urashiki.
Violent flames and shockwaves instantly engulfed his pale figure.
"Now!"
With a shout, the real Naruto leapt high above the thick smoke produced by the blast.
In his hand was a Wind Release Rasengan wrapped in razor-sharp wind blades. Carrying a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve, he slammed it straight into the heart of the smoke.
"Hmph!"
Almost simultaneously, Young Sasuke attacked from the side.
Lightning flared in his right hand, the piercing cry of a thousand birds echoing across Training Ground Three as the violent Lightning Release chakra of his Chidori drove straight toward the figure within the smoke.
From above and below—wind and lightning, a perfect pincer attack!
When the dense smoke was torn apart by the violent clash of chakra, Naruto and Young Sasuke both froze in disbelief.
"How… how is that possible…"
At the center of the explosion, Ōtsutsuki Urashiki stood there. His white robe was torn to shreds, his face blackened with soot, yet his blue Rinnegan radiated a chilling, despair-inducing coldness.
He hadn't suffered any real damage at all.
Even more horrifying was the sight of Urashiki's left hand firmly gripping Naruto's Wind Release Rasengan—an attack capable of shredding stone—and his right hand clamping down on Young Sasuke's unstoppable Chidori.
The moment those pale palms made contact with the two violent techniques, Naruto's wind and Sasuke's lightning were swallowed as if by a bottomless abyss, frantically devoured by Urashiki's body at an alarming speed.
"This pitiful amount of chakra isn't even enough to get stuck in my teeth."
A sinister smile slowly spread across Urashiki's soot-covered face.
He casually absorbed both ninjutsu, then backhanded Naruto by the throat, lifting him into the air like a helpless chick.
"Finally caught you, Nine-Tails brat."
"L-let… let me go…"
Naruto struggled painfully, only to feel the chakra within him completely suppressed by an overwhelmingly dominant force, leaving him utterly unable to move.
"No. You haven't caught me."
A voice suddenly rose from the ground beneath Urashiki's feet.
"What?!"
Urashiki's blue Rinnegan snapped downward.
A long, black-gloved hand had burst from the soil at some point, gripping his ankle like an iron vice.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
Boom!
With a dull, heavy impact, Urashiki was dragged violently into the solid ground, leaving only his soot-covered head exposed above the surface.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
Naruto dropped to the ground after regaining his freedom, gasping for air, while Young Sasuke hastily retreated, staring at the ground in shock.
"You think you can trap a god with something like this?!"
Less than a second later—
With a furious roar, the ground exploded apart!
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki erupted upward, launching himself into the sky as terrifying chakra burst from his body.
The arrogance on his face had twisted into something hideous after being played again and again.
Urashiki slammed his hands downward.
"Amenosubaruhoshi-no-Mikoto!"
Countless crimson light bullets rained down like a torrential storm.
Rumble—!!!
Training Ground Three instantly turned into a living minefield.
Deafening explosions tore through the area. Shockwaves uprooted trees, the once-flat terrain riddled with countless charred craters so deep they seemed bottomless. Billowing dust swallowed the sunlight entirely.
When the smoke finally began to clear, the training ground had been reduced to utter ruins.
Naruto and Young Sasuke lay at the edge of the battlefield, bloodied and unmoving.
"Hmph. This is the price for defying a god."
Urashiki snorted coldly from mid-air. His blue Rinnegan swept across the devastation before once again locking onto Naruto lying on the ground.
"This time, let's see who can save you."
Just as Urashiki prepared to dive down and seize Naruto, he suddenly felt the air around him grow unbearably heavy.
The sky—dimmed earlier by dust and smoke—had somehow turned pitch black.
Urashiki looked up sharply.
Above the entire training ground, layers of black storm clouds had gathered, completely blotting out the sky.
Within the thick clouds, faint but terrifying rumbles echoed as blinding lightning writhed and coiled wildly, as if some monstrous force was being nurtured within.
"This is…?"
Urashiki snapped his head toward the other side of the ruins.
There, Adult Sasuke had risen once more.
He lowered his head slightly, letting the fierce wind whip at his tattered cloak. His sole remaining right hand was raised high, pointing straight toward the heavens.
Countless bolts of lightning converged within the storm clouds, compressing and merging until they formed a gigantic blue lightning beast that let out a roar that shook the sky itself.
As Adult Sasuke swung his arm downward with a force that seemed capable of tearing the heavens apart, the lightning Kirin opened its massive jaws and descended upon Ōtsutsuki Urashiki in mid-air.
"Tch. Using natural lightning instead of your own chakra… That is a bit troublesome."
Facing this heaven-shattering strike, Urashiki showed a flicker of surprise at the technique's nature, but he remained calm.
"As long as it doesn't hit, it's meaningless."
The space around Urashiki began to distort once more, rippling like melting black sludge as he prepared to activate Yomotsu Hirasaka again.
At that instant, Urashiki's expression abruptly changed.
"What's going on?!"
His feet wouldn't move.
He looked down sharply.
The ankles that Kakashi had grabbed earlier with Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu had somehow turned grey-white, like stone.
And that eerie petrification was still spreading upward from his feet.