Feeling the real warmth in his hand, Sai didn't even look back.
Carrying Ino on his back, he fled desperately toward the rear.
Seeing this, Shikamaru Nara was horrified.
It failed?
That's impossible!
Does that mean… Uchiha Akira's mental strength is even stronger than Madara's?
"Whoosh!"
Akira's Preta Path finished absorbing the shadow beneath his feet.
Watching the ink bird retreat in the distance, he murmured,
"Mr. Inoichi… for your sake, I'll spare Ino."
"But Mr. Shikaku…"
"your son, I can no longer ignore."
He bit his finger and formed a seal with blood.
— Summoning Technique: Ubume!
"Poof!"
A white puff of smoke appeared.
From it emerged a bird about three feet long, its body covered with pale feathers.
It dived straight toward the Nara formation.
"A summoned beast?!"
"Shoot it down!"
Members of the Nara clan rose to their feet, launching kunai and shuriken in a dense barrage.
"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"
But every projectile was blocked by the bird's incredibly hard feathers.
Those feathers had been forged from the scales that fell off when Obito first became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
Not just kunai—
even something like Raikiri could be endured head-on.
The Ubume broke through the barrage and reached directly above Shikamaru.
"Buzz!"
The four-point Mangekyō pattern of Shisui's eye appeared in Akira's left eye—
locking onto Shikamaru's stunned gaze.
— Kotoamatsukami!
"…?!"
Akira suddenly felt shock ripple through him.
What's going on…?
Kotoamatsukami didn't work?!
Is it because I cast it instantly without enhancing it through Mitsuha-no?
No.
That wasn't the problem.
Shikamaru…
"BOOM!"
A violent gust suddenly interrupted Akira's thoughts.
Tenten, cloaked in Kurama's chakra, charged onto the battlefield holding the Six Paths Ninja Tool — the Bashōsen.
"Hah!"
Her twin-bun earrings jingled as she swung the fan.
First came a violent wind—
then a massive blaze that swallowed Akira's position.
"How about that?!"
Tenten stood proudly with the fan raised.
But the next second—
Akira walked straight out of the storm of wind and flames without a scratch.
"No way…?!"
"I definitely hit him!"
"How is he not hurt?!"
Panicking, Tenten swung the Bashōsen again, preparing to unleash lightning.
"CRACK!"
Akira grabbed her wrist holding the fan with his left hand.
With a twist, he seized the Bashōsen.
His right hand grabbed Tenten's throat and lifted her into the air.
"So…"
"Do you want to scatter too?"
"CRACK!"
Akira cast Shinshō, shattering the scroll Tenten had tried to pull from her waist.
Then he slung the Bashōsen over his back.
Tenten struggled desperately.
But it was useless.
Akira looked at her thoughtfully.
"Let me think…"
"What use are you?"
Tenten was wealthy.
But Akira didn't need money.
The other Six Paths ninja tools she possessed could be taken anytime he wanted.
She had no value in terms of resources or favors.
Akira was about to snap her neck—
when something crossed his mind.
Right.
Tenten supposedly has a kind of "lucky charm physique."
Rare treasures just fall into her hands.
Akira sometimes believed in strange luck like that.
In that case…
she'd make a decent minor Twin Flower copy.
Akira raised two fingers.
The Ubume was resummoned onto his shoulder.
"In this situation…"
"being captured by me means you can only count as half a person, Tenten."
— Mitsuha-no: Kotoamatsukami!
Tenten immediately stopped struggling.
Her body relaxed obediently.
"Master."
"Snap!"
Akira used Twin Flower to instantly copy her body and store it inside Toyoke Mikoto, then reverted to his own form.
Still holding her by the throat, he activated Utsuro Tadoru, freezing time around her.
"AAAAH!"
"Let go of Tenten!"
Rock Lee, cloaked in Kurama's chakra and burning with the green aura of the Gate of Life, charged forward.
Akira didn't even look.
A skeletal Susanoo ribcage appeared instantly.
Lee's Dynamic Entry slammed into it.
"BOOM!"
"Susanoo?!"
— Sixth Gate: Gate of View — OPEN!
Lee's aura exploded.
Compressed tightly beneath the fox cloak, his power surged upward.
"HA!"
He leapt above the Susanoo skeleton.
His fists blurred into afterimages.
— Fox Cloak: Morning Peacock!
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
His punches ignited the air into blazing explosions.
Red chakra streams from the fox cloak mixed into the flames, hammering the Susanoo ribs.
"CRACK! CRACK!"
The skeleton began to crack under the relentless barrage.
Ten seconds passed.
When Tenten's body finally vanished within the frozen time mist—
the Susanoo skeleton was reduced to little more than a thin shell.
Lee's Morning Peacock ended.
He landed on the ground and roared angrily.
"Where's Tenten?!"
"What did you do to her?!"
Akira lowered his hand calmly and dismissed the broken Susanoo shell.
Instead of answering, he asked,
"Rock Lee."
"Tell me."
"How many gates of the Eight Gates can you open now?"
Lee snapped back angrily.
"I'm the one asking you!"
Akira repeated firmly,
"Answer me."
"It's important."
Under Akira's overwhelming pressure, Lee clenched his fists but answered honestly.
"The Seventh Gate — Gate of Wonder."
Akira frowned.
"The Seventh Gate?"
"It's been nearly sixteen years since the Fourth Great Ninja War."
"And you still can't open the Eighth Gate of Death?"
Lee shook his head.
"No."
"Not even close."
Akira's face showed disappointment.
"What a pity…"
"If you could open the Gate of Death…"
"I might have spared you."
"You're a late bloomer."
"But you're too late."
Akira's right eye focused.
— Toyoke Mikoto!
"CRACK!"
A Susanoo blade appeared and pierced straight through Lee's body.
"…Huh?"
The surrounding Konoha shinobi—who had just formed a new encirclement—froze in horror.
— Shinshō!
"CRACK!"
Akira shattered the blade impaling Lee with a glance.
Through the gaping hole in Lee's chest—
he locked eyes with Naruto.
"Ah…"
Lee's eyes widened.
He struggled desperately against death.
But the color of life drained from his eyes rapidly.
Blood poured onto the ground like water from a burst balloon, forming a crimson carpet beneath him.
"My… my youth…"
"Is it ending like this…?"
"Guy… sensei…"
Lee collapsed onto the red carpet.
Akira glanced at the time.
July 16th, Year 80 of Konoha.
1:14 PM.
The hardworking genius—
Rock Lee—
had fallen in the Nine-Tails Defense Battle initiated by Naruto.
"Lee… is dead?"
A suffocating grief swept through Konoha's forces.
It was the same despair they had felt when Neji died during the war.
"LEE!!!"
The one who would have screamed his name—Tenten—was frozen within Akira's time domain.
Silence spread across the battlefield.
A deathly silence.
Akira had no intention of giving them time to mourn.
The mithril-colored Susanoo rose again.
Two heads.
Four arms.
Akira formed three hand seals simultaneously.
From the shattered face of Hashirama's monument on the Hokage Rock, Madara watched quietly.
"Oh?"
"That technique…"
On the monument four faces away, Obito gazed upward.
"So he mastered that too after absorbing the 'tar'…"
"BOOM!"
Something massive tore through the clouds and descended.
Its overwhelming presence crushed the grief over Lee's death—
and turned it into pure despair.
"…A meteor?"
"Isn't that Madara's technique?!"
"What's going on?!"
"Is Uchiha Akira Madara's reincarnation?!"
Shikamaru shouted hoarsely:
"Don't panic!"
"A meteor isn't something to be shocked about anymore!"
"The Hokage himself can stop that!"
Naruto was already moving.
Kurama's massive golden avatar rose.
A Tailed Beast Bomb formed at maximum power.
Obito murmured quietly.
"If it's Akira…"
"He definitely won't do this the normal way."
Madara nodded.
"Agreed."
Akira's black divine robe crackled with energy.
— Twin Flower.
"CRACKLE!"
His body shifted—
transforming into the pale form of Kurotsuchi.
— Ultra-Weighted Rock Technique: Heavenly Obstacle Shaking Star!
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