Chapter 584: A Resilient Heart
The rain started falling again.
The cloud layer, which had just been dispersed by the self-destruction, gathered heavily once again, and bean-sized raindrops fell heavily.
The icy rainwater hit Sasuke's face, mixing with blood as it flowed down, rapidly draining his body heat.
He suddenly felt a chill.
Ninja protected by chakra should normally be impervious to heat and cold. Sasuke feeling cold was because he had consumed too much of his chakra.
But colder than his body was Sasuke's heart.
As if plunged into an icehouse.
In the moment he saw Kakuzu appear, he even felt a bit of despair!
Having fought Sasori to the point of near exhaustion, how could they still fight Kakuzu?
His eyes were still throbbing with a dull ache; opening them just filled them with tears. As for the chakra in his body, there was virtually none left!
Naruto's condition was slightly better, but only to a limited extent. He had just used brute force to resist Deidara's self-destruction, even going so far as to activate the eight-tailed mode. The consequence of forcibly breaking his limits was a body covered in wounds.
The opponent, however, was a living history of the ninja world who had lived for over a hundred years and had even fought the First Hokage—a veteran Kage-level powerhouse, Kakuzu!
How to fight?
Sasuke was disheartened, unable to find an answer.
This was a battle with no chance of winning!
"Let me do it!" Naruto suddenly said, stepping in front of Sasuke.
"You?!" Sasuke was startled.
Naruto, however, smiled easily: "When dealing with Sasori just now, I let you steal all the spotlight. Now it should be my turn!"
A clumsy excuse.
Sasuke understood Naruto's true intention very well. Stealing the spotlight... it wasn't about that at all! He simply wanted to stand in front of Sasuke and protect him.
He was about to say something, but Naruto said sternly: "Hey, Sasuke! You always call me a dead-last... it's about time you let me pull ahead of you for once!"
"This time, just hide well behind my back and carefully watch the back of me fighting!"
He turned around and gave Sasuke a thumbs-up.
Chakra condensed into substance wrapped around Naruto once again. Old wounds had yet to heal, and new wounds were torn open by the Nine-Tails' highly corrosive chakra, but the boy remained unmoved, instead revealing a brilliant smile.
"Damn it, I can still fight!" Sasuke forced his incredibly sore eyes open and took a step forward, but his legs were weak, and he almost fell to the ground.
That Super Railgun just now had overdrawn his stamina!
Naruto didn't look back, but a hand extended from the Tailed Beast cloak and supported Sasuke.
"Don't push yourself, Sasuke." He said calmly, "The enemy just finished dealing with the Three-Tails and is similarly not in their best condition... There might still be a chance in this battle!"
A beast-like combat intuition made Naruto keenly perceive that there was still a sliver of a chance for victory!
This was a completely different line of thinking from the rational analysis faction like Sasuke and Sakura. Sometimes it appeared too reckless, but sometimes, it could be sharper than the rational faction!
"Is there still a chance?" Sasuke looked at Naruto, murmuring.
No matter what, at this point, he could only trust Naruto and his intuition!
"I'll accompany you to give it one more try..." Sasuke forced out a smile. "Although I don't have much stamina left to fight, I can still be of some use!"
"Connect to me with chakra, Naruto... I will transmit all the intelligence my Sharingan sees to you!"
He gathered the last bit of chakra in his entire body, slowly formed seals with his hands, and three tomoe abruptly glared out in his eyes—
"Genjutsu: Shared Vision!"
This jutsu was developed by Haruno Sakura and Sakura Uchiha to share the Sharingan's field of vision during battle.
Historically, the definition of genjutsu was to mix one's own chakra into the enemy's body, disrupting their five senses (especially vision), causing the enemy to receive incorrect information, and simultaneously imposing some negative effects. Haruno Sakura, who loved to break conventions, naturally wasn't satisfied with such a narrow application. Doing the opposite—was it feasible to use genjutsu to produce beneficial effects on teammates?
Stimulating a teammate to awaken the Sharingan was merely the most basic method.
If genjutsu could distort an enemy's five senses to create false information, then conversely, feeding correct information to teammates was naturally feasible as well. Similar to "AR" (Augmented Reality) from her previous life, using genjutsu to share the additional intelligence seen by the Sharingan with a teammate was a typical Haruno Sakura-style ninjutsu: full of whimsical ideas, requiring superb chakra manipulation, and extremely practical.
Of course, this also required Naruto's absolute trust in Sasuke.
"Is this the world seen by the Sharingan?"
As if dust had been wiped from his eyelids, the entire world became more vivid in Naruto's eyes. He could even faintly see the flow of chakra. And not far away, a massive chakra source was brazenly releasing thick chakra!
No, looking closely, it wasn't a single source, but several massive, interconnected chakra sources close together, looking as if they were stacked!
"Is that Kakuzu?" Naruto's eyes became unusually resolute, and he shouted in a deep voice, "I'm going in!"
Naruto took a deep breath. Endless Nine-Tails chakra coiled around him. The dense chakra cloak enveloped the boy's body, transforming him into a giant demon fox. The demon fox subconsciously crouched down, seven tails whipping wildly behind it.
The demon fox howled up at the sky, and countless small black spheres instantly condensed above its head into a massive chakra sphere—
Tailed Beast Bomb!
Boom!
An earth-shattering bombardment announced the start of the second battle!
This battle was far less twisting and turning than the one against Sasori.
Both sides of the battle actually knew each other's intelligence. Kakuzu's secrets had long been thoroughly unearthed by Konoha, leaving nothing hidden. And on Naruto's side, there were no more trump cards left to play.
Sasuke even had reason to suspect that Kakuzu had completed the capture of the Three-Tails early on and had been lurking outside the battlefield all along, using Sasori as bait to exhaust Sasuke and Naruto's stamina and trump cards—
After all, Kakuzu also coveted their hearts.
But none of that mattered anymore. Regardless of whether Kakuzu had sat by and watched his teammate die, Sasuke would have fired that Railgun just now anyway. Akatsuki members screwing over their teammates was much easier to deal with than them cooperating as a team.
Since they knew each other's ins and outs, there was no need for probing or laying out schemes.
The moment Naruto entered the field, it was a massive Tailed Beast Bomb bombardment!
Kakuzu was not to be outdone. He directly split into four bodies (one exploded while capturing the Three-Tails), and countered with four high-level ninjutsu: Water Release, Wind Release, Earth Release, and Lightning Release!
Back and forth, the battle quickly devolved into a flashy yet tedious ninjutsu shootout.
Naruto was fighting one against four.
Theoretically, Kakuzu had the advantage.
But Naruto had the Nine-Tails' endless chakra as his source, Sasuke's support, and coupled with a ferocious fighting style and frantically thrown Tailed Beast Bombs, he was able to fight to a draw for the time being.
The battle thus bogged down into a war of attrition.
Kakuzu, however, was not anxious.
He could see clearly from a distance that the injuries on Naruto's body actually mostly came from the erosion of the Nine-Tails' chakra. In other words, as long as he activated the Tailed Beast Mode, especially when opening seven tails like now, the Nine-Tails' powerful chakra would be constantly harming Naruto at every moment.
That was a pain like being burned by fire!
A war of attrition consumes not only the chakra of both sides but also Naruto's life!
Kakuzu was very cunning. He only needed to keep up this attrition; sooner or later, he would wait until Naruto couldn't endure the Nine-Tails' damage and dispersed the Tailed Beast cloak, and then he could secure victory! There was no risk at all.
Yes, sooner or later, Naruto wouldn't be able to bear the pain of his life being eroded!
This battle was a unilateral test of Naruto's willpower!
Like this, the bombardment continued for fifteen minutes. Naruto still incarnated as the demon fox, roaring frantically.
"Hmph, to think he can actually hold on this long! I underestimated his endurance!" Kakuzu started to frown.
Thirty minutes. Naruto began to howl hoarsely, suffering immensely, yet the Nine-Tails chakra remained steadfastly in place.
"Is this guy made of iron? Why hasn't he given up yet?" Kakuzu began to feel shocked and doubtful.
Forty minutes. The Nine-Tails' chakra had already eroded Naruto's skin beyond recognition, his muscles starting to tear. His consciousness had begun to blur, yet he was still holding on!
"Monster! He can actually endure this for so long!" Kakuzu began to break out in a cold sweat!
That Naruto could actually hold on to this degree completely exceeded Kakuzu's expectations.
Boom!
Another evenly matched bombardment.
Kakuzu suddenly stopped his attacks.
Looking at the boy who was still gritting his teeth and holding on, his face was so dark it seemed like water could drip from it: "I'm not even getting paid for this... why haven't you fallen yet?!"
By this time, Naruto's consciousness was already near blurring; he was merely forcefully holding on by a single breath to not fall down. He caught his breath and forced a labored smile at Kakuzu: "What are you joking about... if I fall, won't Sasuke and I lose our lives?"
A very simple reason.
Because Sasuke had already lost the stamina to continue fighting, he had to stand in front of Sasuke!
Because he had to protect all this, he had to persist in fighting!
Because he could not fall, he absolutely would not fall!
No matter what, he had to persist.
It seemed like a very simple persistence, but Kakuzu knew how difficult it was behind the scenes. He finally realized that this tottering figure before him possessed a will tougher than steel!
This was a strength in another sense.
This boy... was so strong it made his heart palpitate!
Kakuzu subconsciously took a step back.
"Damn it, I'm actually competing in chakra volume against the Nine-Tails!" He cursed under his breath, absolutely refusing to admit that he had actually retreated.
However, after fighting a war of attrition for too long, his stamina and chakra had indeed become a problem.
Yes, unlike the bottomless Nine-Tails, after a frantic bombardment of over half an hour, even with four hearts, Kakuzu also started to feel tired.
The momentum of his chakra began to decline, his breathing became rapid, and the situation began to reverse!
His life creed—that the key to a long life is caution, not Earth Grudge Fear—reminded Kakuzu that it was time to retreat.
"If we continue fighting, the risk will be too great..."
Who knew how much longer Naruto could hold on? If he dragged this out any longer, waiting until the chakra of all four hearts was exhausted, by then, let alone harvesting new hearts, he would have to donate his own four lives!
Sasori's cautionary tale was laid out right here!
"But before retreating, just in case..." Kakuzu's eyes rolled rapidly.
He took a deep breath, his remaining chakra churning frantically: "One last strike! Leave them some trouble to prevent them from catching up!"
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
The final gift Kakuzu left for Naruto and Sasuke was an exaggeratedly large Super S-rank Water Release ninjutsu.
Relying on a massive amount of chakra and the advantage of the terrain, Kakuzu finally successfully completed this jutsu, creating a giant snake over a hundred meters long!
"The seven-tailed form cannot block this move!" Kakuzu smiled grimly. "But, do you dare enter the eight-tailed, or even nine-tailed form, Naruto Uzumaki?"
He forcefully waved his left hand—
Boom!!!
...
...
"...I don't remember what happened after that." Naruto recalled, saying, "I only remember my last thought was to stop Kakuzu's jutsu even if it cost my life, and then, I lost consciousness."
"When I woke up again, I was already sleeping in a bed at the Hidden Mist's temporary station."
"As for what happened after that, let Sasuke and Sakura-kun explain." Tsunade took Naruto's mission report and heavily patted his shoulder. "Good job, Naruto! Truly worthy of being Jiraiya's disciple, you have a resilient heart!"
"You've worked hard on this mission. Go back and get some good rest. This is the safe Konoha, you've returned home."
"Yes, Grandma Tsunade!" Naruto smiled faintly.
He looked out the window. The evening sun had already slanted westward, its light shining perfectly through the window onto the boy's face.
Rushing back to Konoha at noon to report the mission status to the Fifth Hokage, he actually ended up talking until evening.
Or perhaps it was because the things that happened over the past few days were just too full of twists and turns!
But all of that had passed.
"Welcome back!" Tsunade smiled with eyes full of approval.
Making a gesture to his teammates, Naruto walked out of the Hokage's office.