The adamantine chains tangled with the sand once more.
"Naruto, that's enough. Using any more of my Chakra will hurt you."
It wasn't really "hurt," strictly speaking—in fact, the more Naruto drew on Kushina's Chakra, the stronger his body became.
The effects were practically additive.
By now, Naruto's raw physical power had nearly doubled compared to before the Chūnin Exams began.
But in Kushina's eyes, it was still a form of harm.
"At least let me take this guy down!"
All Naruto could see was Gaara.
Kushina quietly withdrew her Chakra.
"Huh?"
Red hair faded back to blond, and his body shrank a size.
He was reverting.
"Looks like you've hit your limit. That power protecting you—it's the same as what I've got on my end, isn't it."
Gaara hadn't reacted to the change in Naruto's appearance with any particular surprise.
If anything, in Gaara's eyes, this was proof that Naruto's mother was protecting him.
"But it's enough!"
There was still a sliver of residual Chakra left.
And on Gaara's side, his sand shield was on the verge of collapse—most of it had gotten entangled with the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
"Hyah!"
No Chakra left? Then it was pure hand-to-hand.
"Ugh—"
Gaara was knocked flying.
His Chakra had hit its limit too. He didn't even have his armor of sand anymore.
"I'm not giving up!"
Gaara started swinging wild haymakers right back.
On one side, Naruto had reverted to his original form. On the other, Gaara's face was battered black and blue.
"You—you eyebrow-less freak, you've never trained in Taijutsu, have you?! Your moves—are way too slow!"
Naruto landed a punch.
"Your punches don't have any power either!" Gaara hit him right back.
"Just go down already!" Naruto stumbled forward and threw another.
"You think I will?! I'm—going to become Kazekage!" Gaara had no intention of ending it here.
"Hah—weren't you going to kill the Kazekage?" Naruto stood in place, gasping.
"If I'm going to kill the Kazekage, then I have to bear the responsibility of killing the Kazekage. This isn't a coup. It's reform. I'll make Sunagakure understand what real love is."
Gaara's fist connected with Naruto's chest, but there was nothing behind it anymore.
Gaara collapsed. Naruto collapsed.
"Do you really have to do something like that?" Naruto asked again.
"The Ninja World… is wrong. So I have to correct it."
Gaara lay on the ground, but the sand was already beginning to gather again.
"But the Kazekage isn't your…"
"That's exactly why. This is my resolve."
[But hasn't the Kazekage already died?]
[So these two fought an entire battle over a dead man?]
[You can't put it like that—this was a battle of real mothers]
[A "battle of real mothers," my ass. This is clearly a clash of ideals]
[But after seeing his real mom, Gaara really did have a huge personality shift, didn't he]
[You sure it wasn't because Shukaku got an extra seal slapped on it and Gaara could finally get a good night's sleep, turning him back into a normal person?]
[I know it's twisted logic, but damn if it doesn't make sense]
[Road to Ninja hinted at it from the very start—this world is fundamentally broken]
[Got it—Road to Ninja is actually set on the eve of the French Revolution]
[??? What kind of galaxy-brain take is that?]
[But it actually kinda makes sense though—Konoha is France, right?]
[I think you're dissing France]
[The Revolution cannot be slandered! La Marseillaise cannot be slandered!]
And there the audience's lively debate came to an end.
Because after this interlude, the screen cut back to the "Summit War" rooftop.
With the Edo Tensei gone, Orochimaru was about to take matters into his own hands.
"The game is over." Orochimaru gripped the Sword of Kusanagi, ready to step in personally.
"Ah, the game is over." But Hanabi sheathed her sword.
"You—"
Before Orochimaru could finish, a hand punched clean through his back from behind.
"Orochimaru-sama, the game really is over."
Kabuto Yakushi had appeared behind Orochimaru.
"Kabuto—Kisama!"
Orochimaru spat a mouthful of blood.
[Grass Grass Grass Grass]
[I knew Kabuto's exit was way too anticlimactic]
[It was suspicious from the start that Kabuto wanted to fight Hanabi, wasn't it?]
[So this guy's been a triple agent all along]
[I'm dying]
[This is it, this is it! This is the backstab content I signed up for!]
[Lmao, the boss got his chest punched through, I can't]
Hanabi felt a twinge of regret.
This scene would've been even better if the people watching had already seen Madara Uchiha getting impaled by Black Zetsu.
Still, Orochimaru's vitality was astonishing. Even with Kabuto's fist through his chest, he hadn't died.
"Orochimaru-sama!"
The Sound Four, upon seeing Orochimaru pierced through, froze in shock.
Then the four exchanged a nod.
In the same instant, they released the Four Violet Flames Formation and rushed to Orochimaru's side.
Kabuto stepped back, allowing the Sound ninja to protect Orochimaru.
The four threw smoke bombs, then retreated at speed.
"That person… could he be… an undercover agent? Friendly?"
Some of the ANBU immediately moved to pursue Orochimaru, but Hikari held them back.
Orochimaru was badly wounded, but he still had cards to play. His Summoning Technique was still functional—chasing him now would be suicide, plain and simple.
"Hanabi, what's going on here?"
Even the Third Hokage couldn't make sense of the situation anymore.
Hanabi walked up to Kabuto.
She put her mask back on and let her hair shift back to black.
"Have you made up your mind?" Hanabi asked.
"Ah, yes." Kabuto glanced at Hikari beside him.
Then he took off his Sound ninja forehead protector and sliced it clean in two.
"There's only one answer—I pledge my loyalty to you!"
"…So that's how it is. Hanabi turned Orochimaru's spy."
The Third had more or less figured out the situation.
Hanabi, however, laughed. "You're still loyal to Orochimaru, you know. That strike just now—you deliberately avoided the vitals, didn't you?"
"Oh my, you saw through that too? But I did sever part of Orochimaru-sama's spinal nerves, just to prevent him from continuing to fight. Even someone like Orochimaru-sama will need some time to recover his mobility."
Kabuto made no attempt to hide it.
The Third was now thoroughly lost.
—What's going on? Am I going senile?
"That's a Sharingan, isn't it? I'm a spy, after all, so when this young lady Hikari used the Sharingan on the ANBU, I noticed every time." Kabuto looked toward Uchiha Hikari again.
At that moment, several ANBU stood there like wooden puppets, frozen in place.
Hikari didn't care. She'd never planned on hiding it.
"You were confident from the very beginning. Not only because you had absolute faith in yourself, but because you were certain that Orochimaru-sama would lose."
"So from the start, this was a battle with no suspense. Let me think—since this young lady possesses the supposedly extinct Sharingan, perhaps she also has that legendary… no—she definitely does."
Kabuto continued: "So at that point, I started thinking about countermeasures. I was certain that to you, my allegiance was worth more than Orochimaru-sama's life."
"Besides, without this young lady's cooperation, I wouldn't have been able to slip behind Orochimaru-sama that easily."
Hikari stuck out her tongue.
Helping a friend out… how could that be called cheating?
Off-stage support was perfectly normal. Even referees could step onto the field—there was documented precedent in Korean competitive Go, after all.
Backstabbing Orochimaru was, in fact, to protect Orochimaru.
Kabuto Yakushi had sold himself to Hanabi.