Shibi Aburame's gaze shifted, his eyes narrowing with surprise. Seiran's chakra signature had dimmed considerably.
"It seems victory is still mine," Ōnoki chuckled, a dark edge to his voice. How much longer could Seiran push himself in that state? Endurance was all that mattered now. The Four-Tails had weathered the assault well, retaining most of its combat strength. Once Seiran fell, a fresh tailed beast would be more than enough to sweep away the remaining Leaf Village forces.
Seiran gasped for breath, sweat streaking his forehead, but a faint smile played at his lips. "True. My Tyrant Mode: Electromagnetic Sovereign is nearly spent. I can manage one final attack."
Ōnoki's eyes narrowed. So that was the technique's name.
"However," Seiran continued, closing his eyes and drawing a measured breath, "one is all I need."
The obliterated remnants of his metal construct began condensing in the air before him, fragments coalescing with invisible force.
---
"Lord Jiraiya, I'm afraid the situation is deteriorating," the sensor ninja reported nervously. "After that explosion, Seiran's chakra dropped significantly. The Four-Tails barely seems affected."
Jiraiya's expression darkened. He was already moving toward the battlefield, and beside him, Rin Uchiha bit her lip hard, ready to rush forward herself.
"Wait!" the sensor ninja gasped suddenly. "Something's happening!"
Several pairs of eyes snapped toward the sky.
"Is that—"
"What the hell is that?!"
"A metal pillar?!"
Ōnoki's jaw dropped as Seiran ascended into the heavens, carrying an enormous metal cylinder that cut through the clouds like a spear. The ground below shrank into insignificance. The Four-Tails' massive silhouette dwindled to a black speck against the grassland.
Seiran pushed his electromagnetic manipulation to its absolute limits. Energy coursed through his system in a steady, relentless stream. The wind bit at his skin, setting every nerve alight.
By nine thousand meters, Seiran felt the thin air scrape against his limits. He'd entered the stratosphere—the boundary of what his body could withstand. The electromagnetic field screamed around him, straining against the altitude.
Almost there.
He stared down at the world below. The Four-Tails' chakra signature blazed like a distant sun, clearly visible even at this height. He locked in his coordinates. The Rod hummed with potential energy. Magnetic fields arranged themselves with precision. Gravitational acceleration calculated. Trajectory locked.
God's Rod.
"Launch!" Seiran roared, his voice swallowed by the thin air.
---
On the ground, Ōnoki still peered upward in confusion. "Fleeing? Why carry such a massive pillar to escape?" His mind raced. If Seiran had truly retreated, the remaining Leaf Village forces could be mopped up easily. Iwagakure would still claim victory, still—
Then he saw it.
A meteor wrapped in flames, plummeting from the upper atmosphere.
"The target..." Son Goku's voice resonated through their shared mindspace, careful and deliberate. "It's us. This is his final blow."
Ōnoki's single eye widened. "Roshi! Run! I'll defend us with the Four-Tails!"
"No!" The Tails Beast's roar shook the earth itself, leaving Ōnoki momentarily paralyzed. "In all my years, I have never asked this of you. I'm asking now—escape! You are the Tsuchikage. If you fall, Iwagakure falls with you!"
Ōnoki stood frozen, his remaining arm hanging uselessly.
"Han!" he shouted. "You're the fastest—take the Tsuchikage and run!"
"Understood!" Steam erupted from Han's body as he scooped Ōnoki onto his shoulders and bolted.
Roshi took a slow breath, his voice filtering into the mindspace with quiet finality. "I'm sorry, Son. Today, I'm asking you to come out one last time."
Inside that mental space, the Four-Tails let out a sound between a laugh and a roar. "An old rock like you, speaking so gently? This should be interesting. Let's see what his final blow can do!"
The Four-Tails opened its maw. Energy gathered at an impossible speed, forming a Tailed Beast Ball that dwarfed all previous attacks—a sphere of destructive force nearly the size of the beast itself. But space-based kinetic weapons worked best with mass and velocity. Seiran's cylinder wasn't tungsten, but his electromagnetic manipulation had compressed its atomic structure until it rivaled tungsten in density and melting point. With the electromagnetic field accelerating it and Earth's gravity pulling it down, it exceeded the speed of sound by a grotesque margin.
Son Goku's eyes shrunk to pinpoints. There was no time. The Rod was already here.
Impact.
Everything—sound, light, matter—seemed to pause before erupting into chaos.
---
Han was thrown skyward like a ragdoll, the shockwave catching him kilometers away.
Rin Uchiha witnessed the explosion from a distance. It made the previous attacks look like minor scuffles. The blast radius swallowed the horizon. She screamed Seiran's name without thought, instinct driving her forward.
"Rin, don't!" Shibi Aburame grabbed for her. "It's too dangerous!"
She turned on him, her eyes ablaze—three black tomoe spinning within crimson irises, forming the distinctive pattern of an Uchiha's power. "Move," she said, her voice like ice. Shibi froze.
In that instant of hesitation, she was gone.
Rin sprinted across the ruined grassland, now nothing but a crater hundreds of meters deep. Her legs pumped desperately, tears streaming down her face as she searched the devastation.
Seiran...
A figure plummeted from above. Without hesitation, she leaped—and caught him.
"Seiran!"
His body was battered, something dark decomposing from his forehead, black smoke peeling away into nothingness. But his eyes were still conscious.
"Wait... Rin..." His voice was weak, but he smiled. "I'm not dead. Just... exhausted..."
She froze for a heartbeat, relief flooding through her like a physical force. The tears came harder now—tears of fear releasing, of dread transforming into desperate joy. She buried her face in his chest, holding him as if the world might take him away.
"Idiot! You absolute idiot, Seiran!"
"Ow, ow, ow—Rin, you're crushing me..." he wheezed, struggling to free an arm.
Her sobs echoed across the crater like rain into a pit.
---
Konoha Year 48
Ōnoki, alongside two other Kage, had led eight thousand Iwagakure shinobi to war in the northern plains of the Land of Grass. On that day, from the Land of Fire to the south, the Land of Rain to the west, the Land of Taki to the east, and across most of the Land of Earth itself—they all witnessed a meteor falling from the sky.
The jinchuriki of the Four-Tails died that day. Ōnoki survived with a single arm, though he would abdicate shortly after returning to the village. His eldest son, Kitsuchi, was named the Fourth Tsuchikage.
The name "Tyrant" echoed across the shinobi world. Countless warriors whispered it in awe—the man closest to being a Ninja God.
In that battle's aftermath, a crater appeared in the northern plains of the Land of Grass, hundreds of meters deep. Rain filled it over time, and it became known by a name that would endure for generations:
The Place Where Meteors Fell.
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Volume I: End
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