According to Buddhist scripture, there are three types of hells: the Essential Hells, the Adjacent Hells, and the Solitary Hells.
The Solitary Hell can manifest anywhere—in mountains, wilderness, beneath a tree, or in the air. It strips one of lasting passion, trapping them in a dream-like state of suffering, living a passive life where one forgets the sensation of pain.
Until—
The Gate of Rashomon, which judges all things, swings open. To remove all suffering, to cast aside all luxury, to extinguish all vice. A celestial eye descends upon the world, and a nation is annihilated!
At this moment, the sky went dark.
Clouds as black as spilled ink rushed across millions of miles of sky. The brilliant flash of the lightning-fire beam had only shone for a brief second as it ascended. Then, a long, narrow slit tore through the leaden sky, resembling a celestial eye.
The churning clouds spiraled outward, widening and rotating in a dense vortex. Under the cold moonlight, one could see the distinct layers of the firmament: from the deep, swallowing black to the moon-stained gray, and further out to the milky white clouds of the deep blue high-altitude.
And behind it all—like a divine pupil coldly surveying existence—was the full moon.
Countless people in the burning city looked up. Staring at this miraculous sight, their faces went blank, their expressions lost. Under the scrutiny of this "Moon in the Hole," this "Eye of the Sky," it felt as if no secret could remain hidden.
The next second, a blinding white light swallowed everything. A pillar of lightning descended from the heavens, striking directly at the most opulent location in Unming City!
"—BOOM!!"
Amidst the wreckage of the palace, Ren Uchiha looked up at the descending pillar of light.
As the infinite lightning touched the Futsunomitama raised by the Susanoo's skeletal palm, the artifact absorbed every ounce of it. The eighteen-meter straight blade held by the skeletal hand now pulsated with lightning compressed to its absolute limit.
The color of the blade shifted from azure to a deep, swallowing black. It felt like a return to the day he had suppressed the Nine-Tails—recreating, through a series of coincidences, a divine pressure that no human strength could match or wield.
But unlike that day, Ren's arm didn't explode. He had finally subdued this level of violent power!
By using the Futsunomitama to summon the strike and applying the techniques of Fire Release: Chakra Mode and Lightning Release: Kirin to draw it down, he had recreated a move on par with his battle against the Nine-Tails. And finally, he held it aloft with the strength of a god: the Susanoo!
"What... what is that!?" Pakura stared in shock at the giant sword wreathed in black lightning. The mere stray arcs dancing off its surface shattered the earth. She didn't doubt for a second that if she were hit by that thing, her body would be reduced to ash instantly. It was far more terrifying than her Scorch Release.
"Go!" Chiyo, lying in Pakura's arms, gripped her hand. "This brat... he's no longer someone we can restrain. Pakura, while he's busy with the Four-Tails and Eight-Tails, we're leaving! Now!"
Pakura was stunned. Weren't you just telling me to cut him down because he was weak? How did you change your mind so fast? But Pakura wasn't stupid. She nodded, hoisted Chiyo onto her back, grabbed the unconscious Mifune, and leaped off the city wall.
At that exact moment:
"Sword of the Thunder God: Izumo National Annihilation!"
A roar and a violent gust of wind erupted. Pakura, having just cleared the wall, felt a sudden chill. She ducked instinctively as a blinding white light edged with black tore through the night behind her!
The ten-meter-thick city wall was vaporized as the beam of black-lightning-wreathed light swept through it! Debris and dust exploded everywhere.
BOOM!!
Without slowing down, the beam of light lowered its trajectory and swept in a circle, shaving the high city walls for thousands of meters down by several stories in a single pass.
With the line of sight now cleared, Pakura watched in horror as two massive silhouettes leaped into the air, dodging the sweep and lunging at the tiny boy in the center of the ruins.
One was a terrifying four-tailed ape; the other was a giant ox-octopus with eight swaying tentacles.
Facing the two roaring beasts, Ren didn't move. The skeletal hand behind him swung the lightning sword in a massive one-and-a-half-turn overhead arc. Then, gripping the hilt with both hands, he slammed it down!
The lightning sword flared with a light that nearly blinded everyone. As it fell, it expanded, ballooning to nearly a hundred meters long and ten meters wide! It smashed directly onto the Four-Tails' skull, pinning the giant ape into the dirt, unable to struggle!
The light faded, and the sword returned to its original size. Just as the Eight-Tails reached Ren, the Susanoo twisted the hilt. A beam of light ten meters wide erupted from the blade, slamming into the Eight-Tails' belly and propelling the beast straight into the sky!
After flying two hundred meters up, the beam vanished, and the massive body of the Eight-Tails came crashing down!
BOOM!!
The earth heaved. A circular wall of dust and sand, like a tsunami, radiated outward. Pakura was swallowed by a sandstorm as intense as Rasa's Gold Dust Imperial Funeral.
This is just the shockwave of their fight... Pakura realized then why Chiyo had told her to run. She couldn't even survive the aftermath.
"Puppet Jutsu: Shield Seal!" Chiyo's weak voice called out. She managed a blue chakra shield to protect them from the blast, but her injuries caught up to her. The shield flickered and died as she lost consciousness.
Just as the sandstorm was about to swallow them, it suddenly parted in front of them, flowing to either side as if split by an invisible hand. Pakura didn't stop to wonder why; she hoisted Chiyo and fled the inner city.
Nearby, a red-haired boy in a black cloak watched them leave.
"Hmph." Sasori scoffed. He stopped controlling the Third Kazekage puppet and looked down at Mifune, who lay nearby with a look of relief. Sasori pulled a kunai from his pouch and drove it into the samurai's throat.
"I needed a puppet proficient in taijutsu. This one is a bit battered... but a few modifications will fix that."
Sasori sealed the body away. He didn't flee like the others. Instead, he walked onto a section of the broken wall and looked toward the center of the battlefield.
"So, he really is Ren Uchiha."
Sasori's gaze was vacant. Theoretically, he should be angry that Ren lied to him. He should want to kill him and turn him into a puppet. But as he looked at the sky—at the masterpiece Ren had "painted" with his jutsu—Sasori was entranced.
He had always believed that the human body was a flickering candle, and only through puppetry could beauty be made eternal. But looking at the moon, the clouds, and the stars Ren had called forth, Sasori felt a pang of jealousy.
Is that the eternal beauty I should be seeking? He felt like a failed art student who couldn't even afford a brush.
"What is true art?" Sasori whispered to himself.
"Cough..." Terumi Mei smashed a boulder in her way and pulled Suigetsu (who was half-dead from exhaustion) out of a crevice.
She had been waiting outside the palace for the Daimyo's son when the lightning hit. She had worried for Ren, but before she could enter, the palace collapsed, followed by the entire mountain peak.
Suigetsu had used his "Small Water Gundam" to tank the first impact, and Mei had used her Boil Release: Unrivaled Strength to punch a path through the rubble.
Now, she scanned the battlefield and saw Ren. He was standing in the ruins, the Susanoo bones dissipating as he took the lightning sword into his own hands. His veins were bulging, his arms shaking from the weight as he pointed the Futsunomitama at Bee and Roshi.
The Jinchuriki had retreated from their Full Tailed Beast forms. Against a sword that could change length and fire beams, they were just giant targets. Now, in Version 2 forms, they circled him at high speed, charging a combined Tailed Beast Bomb while trying to avoid the beams.
Ren looked at the darkening blade of the Futsunomitama. He was down to his last drop of energy.
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