"But..."
As the towering pillars of lava, surging with searing heat, threatened to engulf and burn everything within the entire lava world to ash, Kaoru's scarlet eyes and the eerie, blood-red divine Rinne Sharingan on his forehead blazed with a brilliance too powerful to look directly upon.
"I am already half a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki now, wielding the supreme power over reincarnation. And with all the strength of the great heroes at my command..."
"In this world... there is no one left who could ever stand as my equal..."
"Not even Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself..."
Kaoru's arrogant words echoed through the air. The immense Six Paths chakra within him—vast and boundless as the ancient cosmos—erupted with the force of a raging storm, and he thrust both hands forward with overwhelming momentum!
"Since this power belongs to fire, then it must be countered by the force of ice to freeze it completely!!!"
"Absolute Zero, Crystal Arrow, Glacial Prison, Ice Spike, Frost Lance..."
From among all the heroes, the combined abilities of Ashe the Frost Archer, Nunu the Willump, Anivia the Cryophoenix, Sejuani the Winter's Wrath, Lissandra the Ice Witch, Trundle the Troll King, and Braum the Heart of Freljord...
All the ice-based techniques belonging to the land of Freljord were gathered together and unleashed with one single, massive burst of power!
A feeling of profound dread filled Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's heart. Through her wide, pure white eyes, it seemed as though the entire dimension and space around her had been frozen solid. Every substance and form of matter had come to a complete standstill.
As Kaoru swung his hands forward, endless streams of brilliant white aurora light surged forward like ancient, unending tides. Every towering pillar of lava that rose high into the sky was instantly coated in a shimmering white glow.
The entire endless sea of lava, battered by Kaoru's combined ice power, was wrapped in a cold, radiant light that stripped away all heat and destruction. The scorching, deadly temperatures plummeted instantly, dropping all the way to absolute zero.
Every particle of matter within the lava stopped moving entirely, transforming into eternal, unchanging ice sculptures that glistened and sparkled like countless brilliant stars beneath the light shining down from the sky of this lava world.
The Lava World... had become an Ice World!
Kaoru stood alone, floating silently amid the endless expanse of the frozen realm. His silver-white hair drifted freely across his sage robes, and in his hands he held the mysterious, divine staff—the Nunoboko. He looked like a king ruling over this world, sacred and untouchable.
"The whole... the entire world has been frozen solid by him..."
At this moment, within the vast frozen realm of ice sculptures, the only voice capable of expressing such shock and awe belonged to the easily excitable Naruto.
"This ice power that freezes everything..."
Surveying the scene before him—where every corner of the once-scorching lava world had been completely frozen solid by Kaoru's single attack—the purple Rinnegan in Sasuke's left eye showed nothing but utter disbelief.
He recalled having seen Kaoru use ice powers before, when they had gone to meet Obito. But now, it was clear that Kaoru had grown far stronger than he had been back then...
"The ice power generated by combining the abilities of heroes at this level is truly nothing like what it was in the past..."
Floating calmly amid countless towering ice pillars, Kaoru unconsciously tightened his grip on the Nunoboko, sensing the power he now possessed. "I froze an entire dimension completely... and yet I barely used any chakra at all..."
"Sasuke... If what the Sage of Six Paths said is true—that Kaoru has ambitions to rule the entire world... do you really think just the two of us stand any chance of stopping someone like him?!"
Watching as Kaoru had frozen the entire lava world with nothing more than a simple movement, Naruto stared at him wide-eyed, swallowing hard as he turned to look at Sasuke, his voice trembling slightly.
"I don't know..."
Sasuke spoke slowly, but deep within his heart, a growing sense of uncertainty began to take root. For so long, Kaoru had always appeared to him as someone who could do anything—someone who was simply unbeatable. And yet, faced with the words of the Sage of Six Paths, it seemed they had no other choice but to trust in their own strength.
"Are you planning to attack me using space-time ocular techniques...?"
Just as Naruto and Sasuke were lost in their thoughts, Kaoru spoke again, his voice calm and indifferent. His eyes blazed with an intensity that was impossible to bear, and a mocking, disdainful expression crossed his face.
As his words faded, a dark, shadowy rift in space-time suddenly opened silently within the void behind him. Two slender, pale white arms extended outward, their fingers ending in long, sharp, deadly nails.
"Shikotsumyaku!!!"
Two jagged, grey bones—symbols of death and destruction—slowly pushed their way out from the palms of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's hands. They pierced the air behind Kaoru and sped straight toward his back, aiming to strike him directly in the heart.
This was a Kekkei Mōra technique that altered the structure of bone tissue, turning them into sharp, powerful weapons. Anyone struck by these projecting bones would have their body begin to crumble and break down instantly—just like a being revived through Edo Tensei—until they dissolved completely into nothingness.
Without a doubt, it was one of the most dangerous and terrifying abilities that existed anywhere in this world.
"That is the Shikotsumyaku technique..." Kaoru murmured softly. He had actually experienced this attack before, when he fought Kimimaro. But even then, he knew that the power behind it was nowhere near as terrifying as the version wielded by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself.
He could feel the constant aura of death and decay radiating from those grey bones. He knew that even his current body would have no guarantee of surviving a direct hit from such an attack.
But... facing techniques belonging to the great heroes, Kaoru naturally possessed countless ways to counter them. He turned around instantly, and with a single, sharp movement, he swung the dark, mysterious Nunoboko in his hands forward!
They clashed... and not a single sound was produced.
In an instant, the dark, sacred staff collided directly with the deadly bones launched by Kaguya. The space around them twisted and warped violently.
To Kaguya's utter shock, the moment her attack made contact with Kaoru's Nunoboko, the grey bones simply vanished into thin air as if they had never existed at all!
"Not the annihilation power of the Truth-Seeking Orbs... What kind of power is this?!"
Seeing her attack disappear completely upon touching the weapon, Kaguya was stunned. This was nothing like the power of the Truth-Seeking Orbs that she knew so well. "I must never let this weapon touch me... If I do... the outcome would be impossible to predict..."
"Hah..."
Seeing the clear look of surprise in Kaguya's pure white eyes, Kaoru smiled faintly. His handsome, perfect face wore an expression of playful amusement. "I told you before—my Nunoboko is not exactly the same as the one owned by the Sage of Six Paths. It holds power that belongs to me alone. And my power is none other than... Time."
Not the ability of the Truth-Seeking Orbs...
Time?!
Hearing Kaoru's explanation, both Kaguya and the two young men beside him looked completely stunned.
"That is correct. When my Nunoboko strikes its target... it does not annihilate them like the Truth-Seeking Orbs do. Instead... it changes the flow of time itself."
Seeing the look of shock and confusion on everyone's faces, Kaoru's lips curved slightly upward. His scarlet eyes shone with a deep, mysterious light.
"The state of time surrounding whatever is hit will be completely under my control. I can send it back to how it existed hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of millions of years ago. And of course, I can also shift it forward into the far distant future. So tell me... Do you really think your Shikotsumyaku technique would still exist intact after hundreds of millions of years...?"
.....
The ability to completely control the flow of time... This was the true power of the Nunoboko, forged when Kaoru merged the power of the Ten-Tails with the abilities of the great heroes, surpassing even the ultimate limits of Yin-Yang Release. It was an ability that even the Sage of Six Paths himself had never been able to master.
The power to take control of the time of any object it touched...
Upon hearing Kaoru's words, the shock was not only visible on the faces of Naruto and Sasuke. Even the cold, impassive expression on Kaguya's face finally shattered completely.
Though she claimed to be immortal and indestructible, Kaguya knew deep within her heart that no being in existence could ever escape the laws of time. Even she herself would eventually turn to dust, and not even a single bone would remain after hundreds of millions of years had passed...
The laws of time were something no one could ever escape. And now... Kaoru had taken that very law and made it his own.
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