Chapter 230 Fated Showdown (Part 1)
A layer of golden light rose from Naruto's body, and wind-attribute chakra billowed the hem of his coat.
Purple lightning crackled beneath Sasuke's feet .
In the next instant, the two sprang into action almost simultaneously. Naruto sprinted towards the direction from which the sound of water came, while Sasuke gave chase.
The two quickly arrived at the Valley of the End, where two enormous statues stood facing each other at opposite ends of a waterfall. Naruto took the lead, leaping high onto the statue of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
"Stop!" Sasuke caught up, throwing a heavy punch at Naruto in mid-air.
Naruto turned and saw the oncoming Sasuke. He twisted his body in mid-air and kicked Sasuke squarely in the abdomen, sending him flying back.
Sasuke, severely injured in the abdomen, landed on top of the statue of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, clutching his aching stomach and gritting his teeth as he stared at Naruto, who was now atop the statue of Madara Uchiha.
The spray from the waterfall rose, and in the damp, cold wind and mist, Naruto's blond hair clung wetly to his forehead. His blue eyes, once blazing with fire, now held a serene calm. Yet, Sasuke's eyes saw a resolute determination beneath that tranquility.
"Sasuke, don't waste your energy. I have my own path to walk. My ninja way isn't in Konoha," Naruto said calmly. "I don't want to hurt you either."
"Shut up!" Sasuke snapped, his anger surging. "Who do you think you are? A savior? Without Konoha, you are nothing! Wake up!"
Before the words were even finished, he stomped forward. A small patch of rubble shattered on the slippery stone surface, and Sasuke's figure transformed into a pale purple lightning bolt that tore through the air! His speed was so great that he left only a blurry afterimage in Naruto's eyes, almost merging with the cascading waterfall. Sasuke's figure drew a sharp arc in the air, instantly passing in front of Naruto. A cold, sharp blade silently emerged from Naruto's back, aimed at his heart. But when it came time to exert force, Sasuke gritted his teeth and slightly deflected the tip of the Purple Lightning blade to the right.
"Swoosh!"
The blade sliced through the air and water mist, emitting a faint whistling sound, but it only pierced the orange jacket that had been suddenly torn.
Naruto disappeared. Just as the blade touched his body, a violent, visible swirling airflow exploded beneath his feet! The airflow carried a piercing, sharp sound.
"Sasuke, I'm faster than you now." Naruto's voice came from Sasuke's side and above, carrying the whistling sound of rapidly flowing wind.
Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply, the three tomoe of his Sharingan spinning wildly, instantly locking onto his target. Without hesitation, he twisted his waist and spun around, the purple lightning in his hand, propelled by the spin, carrying blinding purple lightning, slashing upwards like a venomous snake's tail! The lightning crackled, tearing through the air, aiming straight for Naruto's waist and abdomen!
Facing Sasuke's counterattack, Naruto's body strangely bent backward in mid-air, almost defying common sense. Wind-style chakra flowed rapidly across his body, forming an invisible airflow that narrowly deflected the deadly lightning. A few strands of his golden hair snapped and scattered under the spinning wind blade. Before his feet had fully touched the ground, his toes touched the slippery stone statue's shoulder below, and his body sprang up again, transforming into a golden hurricane swirling close to the ground, actively engulfing Sasuke!
Highly compressed and condensed wind-style chakra formed a rapidly spinning, razor-sharp cone-shaped storm in front of Naruto's palm, blasting towards Sasuke with a tearing shriek! The speed was astonishing; the wind pressure even instantly pushed aside and cut the water droplets splashing from the surrounding waterfall into finer mist!
Sasuke's Sharingan was operating at its limit, the three tomoe frantically tracking the trajectory of the deadly storm, but Naruto's speed was simply too fast, already exceeding the visual limits of his three-tomoe Sharingan.
Naruto sighed softly, and as his attack reached Sasuke, the rapidly spinning and cutting wind-style chakra was instantly compressed and released in a more peaceful manner.
A sonic boom rang out in front of Sasuke; the force generated by the compressed chakra sent his body flying uncontrollably backward, slamming heavily onto the shoulder of Hashirama Senju's statue. Cracks spread, and the next moment, Sasuke's body was swept into the pool by the rushing waterfall.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke." Naruto, having withdrawn his fist, looked down at Sasuke, who had fallen into the pool below, and whispered. Then, Naruto picked up his jacket, half of which had been torn apart by the purple lightning, and turned to leave.
After understanding his own path and reconciling with the voice in his mind, Naruto's strength had increased to an incredible level overnight. Previously, he had at most been evenly matched with Sasuke, but now he completely suppressed him.
However, just as Naruto turned around, a cacophony of strange noises, like a thousand birds chirping, came from behind him.
Sasuke, his figure crackling with purple lightning, hurtled towards Naruto. Although he didn't know why Naruto's speed had increased so much compared to a few days ago, Sasuke knew that to catch up, he had to use unconventional methods. Chidori, a ninjutsu that sacrificed agility for explosive linear speed, became Sasuke's only option.
"Sasuke..." In Naruto's eyes, Sasuke's figure drew closer and closer. In almost the blink of an eye, the figure crackling with purple lightning was right in front of him. At this distance, Naruto could clearly see the determination in Sasuke's Sharingan eyes.
"Kid, it seems you won't be able to leave until you completely defeat him," Kurama, who had been watching the drama unfold for most of the day, reminded him from inside the sealed space.
"Yeah, I'll have to trouble you, Kurama-nii-san," Naruto replied.
"Beating up a brat from the Uchiha clan? Sounds pretty good." Inside the sealed space, Kurama stood up, its nine tails swaying, golden chakra flowing through the sealed gate into Naruto's body.
"Brother Kurama, hold back a bit, don't really hurt him." At this moment, Naruto's entire body shone with golden light, golden chakra forming a divine cloak on his skin. His azure eyes transformed into eerie vertical pupils, and boundless chakra surged around him like golden flames.
Sasuke's breath caught in his throat. The information from his Sharingan overloaded him instantly! The energy level contained in that pure golden chakra was like facing a volcano about to erupt! The resolute will in those eerie vertical pupils was colder than a waterfall! An unprecedented sense of crisis gripped his heart like an icy iron clamp!
Retreat? No! The pride of the Uchiha clan, the fury at the "betrayal" of the person before him, and the tearing feeling deep within his heart—a feeling he himself refused to acknowledge—instantly overwhelmed his fear!
"Don't joke around!!!" Sasuke roared like a beast, pouring all his fear, anger, and confusion into the lightning in his right hand!
"Chidori—!!!"
A piercing explosion, like the simultaneous screams of a thousand birds, tore through the roar of the Valley of the End! More violent and dazzling than ever before! An unprecedented amount of lightning-attribute chakra was frantically compressed and condensed in his right palm! It was no longer a sharp, thrusting lightning spear, but an extremely unstable ball of lightning, constantly emitting thick arcs of electricity, a purplish-black color! The destructive energy caused the surrounding air to distort violently, the crackling arcs of electricity leaping and turning half of his face deathly pale, his Sharingan glowing crimson in the lightning!
He had placed all his bets, all his resentment, all the pain of being abandoned, on this one strike!
Naruto's expression also turned solemn, the golden chakra cloak on his body gleaming brightly! He slowly raised his right hand. No longer a sharp, wind-attribute chirping, but a deep, heavy hum, as if from the depths of the earth, pale blue chakra frantically gathering and compressing into his palm like a storm! The speed was even faster than Sasuke's Chidori! The chakra density was astonishingly high, forming a rapidly spinning sphere with an incredibly precise internal structure in the palm of his hand! The powerful wind generated by the high-speed rotation tore through the surrounding water mist, emitting a low and terrifying howl!
"Rasengan!"
In Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, the speed at which this A-rank ninjutsu condensed and the energy it contained reached an unbelievable level!
The two, one shrouded in darkness by the raging Chidori lightning, the other enveloped in burning golden flames, like two fated poles, moved simultaneously!
There was no detour, no probing! It was a direct, primal, and brutal head-on collision! For completely different paths, for the uncompromising beliefs in their hearts!
"Naruto—!!!" Sasuke's roar was drowned out by the shrill cry of Chidori.
"Sasuke—!!!" Naruto's scream was accompanied by the roar of Nine-Tails Chakra!
Gold and purple, light and electricity, like two meteors flying in opposite directions, collided violently between the palms of the giant stone statues of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, above the roaring waterfall abyss!
"Buzz—!!!!!!!!!!"
Time seemed to stretch infinitely for that instant, then compress to its extreme!
The moment the Rasengan and Chidori made contact, there was no earth-shattering explosion.
First, a silent annihilation field formed by the clash of extreme energies erupted! A terrifying sphere, distorting light and swallowing sound, instantly expanded! Inside the sphere, golden chakra and blue-white lightning tore and annihilated each other wildly! Destructive energy turbulence, like billions of invisible blades, shattered the surrounding space! The giant stone statue's palm beneath their feet, the hard rock, silently turned into the finest dust, collapsing and dissipating like a sandcastle!
Then, the destructive energy, compressed to its limit, finally broke through the critical point!
...
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(End of this chapter)