Chapter 259: Sage Technique — Yang Release — Mountain Splitter
Those black markings from the Strength of a Hundred Technique, still active from before, now blazed with radiant light under the added power of Yang Release.
Against a sky choked with ink-black clouds, painting the world into something resembling night itself, the effect was almost blinding.
Golden eyes, pure and gently luminous as polished gold itself, watched the enemy standing before her.
Sakura had to admit it — this Mōryō was, without question, the strongest opponent she'd ever faced.
But—
Feeling the seemingly boundless power surging through her, power she could unleash without restraint—
This Mōryō...
In the blink of an eye, the earth split open, a visible, violent shockwave tearing across dozens of meters in every direction!
Hikaru's black hair whipped wildly in that gust, her robes snapping violently around her.
She stared at the scene before her, unable to fully believe it.
This speed — my current three-tomoe Sharingan can't even track it!
Only a higher-tier Mangekyō Sharingan could possibly keep pace with Sakura's current speed.
"Come, then!"
Mōryō laughed at the sight, planting one foot forward, the purple-black armor across her body ringing with a sharp, metallic clash.
One second. A single blink. An instant.
Two fists, each carrying strength beyond comprehension, collided head-on!
As though two colossal prehistoric beasts had been forcibly compressed into these two small human bodies, the clash between Sakura Haruno and Mōryō erupted into white-hot intensity the moment they met.
The most primal, most savage, most straightforward kind of combat imaginable.
Endless chakra seemed to rage inside her body like a raging flood!
Sakura's eyes stayed sharp, taking stock of her own current state.
Even for her, this was the first time using this particular mode.
Before now, she'd barely used Sage Mode itself more than a handful of times.
Right now — this is the perfect opportunity.
She seized Shion — Mōryō — by the wrist, twisted her body, gathered force through her legs, shattering her opponent's balance instantly, and while Mōryō was off-balance, threw her in a devastating over-the-shoulder slam straight into the earth!
Under that overwhelming, savage force, dozens — then hundreds — of meters of ground shattered instantly into dust!
"Good!"
Mōryō's fine features twisted into a wild, gleeful laugh, the cool detachment from before gone entirely. She felt it now!
Felt the purest, most unyielding, steel-hard will radiating off her opponent!
Very well then — I'll cut you down with my own two hands!
Personally end everything you are!
With a graceful twist of her body, she broke free of Sakura's grip in an instant, purplish-black mist billowing outward from her — and under that mist's corrosive touch, the ground itself began dissolving, countless tentacles as massive as sea monsters bursting up from the earth!
Mōryō stood atop those tentacles, launching herself straight into the sky, her voice ringing out across the heavens as she rose.
"Sakura Haruno! Among all the humans I have ever encountered, none has been stronger than you!"
"Among your kind, I name you the strongest of all!"
Mōryō made no mention of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.
As far as she was concerned, that damned creature was nothing more than a half-breed mongrel — part alien, part human.
"Small sample size, then."
Sakura's expression stayed calm, planting a foot and launching herself upward like a cannon shell, straight at the airborne Mōryō, biting her thumb and forming hand seals with lightning speed as she flew.
"Summoning Technique — Demon-Gate Barrier!"
A towering steel gate, dozens of meters tall, materialized out of thin air.
Without a moment's hesitation, she kicked it, hard.
Under that single kick, the steel gate let out a mournful, screeching groan, shattering instantly into countless fragments — hurtling straight toward Mōryō high above.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"How delightful!"
"Bring it!"
Mōryō dove down to meet the assault, savage demonic energy sweeping across her entire body, black hair whipping wildly, and with a single clench of her fist, a massive purple-black greatsword materialized in her hand.
With a few flashing sword strokes, the incoming gate fragments were annihilated instantly.
But even as she cut them apart, a flash of gold had already appeared right in front of her, unnoticed.
Golden chakra blazed in her hand like the most savage of infernos!
A roar. A howl. Pure fury!
Faintly, from within that golden blaze, came a sound like a great beast's cry.
That was—
A tiger!
"YOU!"
Mōryō's pupils contracted sharply at the sight.
Sage Technique — Yang Release — Mountain Lord!
Amid that world of tangled purple-black tentacles, resembling some monstrous sacred tree, a single golden flame bloomed like a beacon of hope.
That golden fire blazed brighter and brighter, as if it burned with the hope of the entire world, before finally letting out a deafening, earth-shaking roar!
A golden divine tiger, ready to set the entire purple-black world ablaze!
"HAHAHAHA!"
"Sakura Haruno!"
"Good! GOOD! GOOD!"
Facing a strike like this, Mōryō laughed instead of raged, her laughter wild with pride, crying out "good" three times in succession, raising her sword to meet the attack head-on.
Behind her, countless surges of purple-black demonic energy churned violently, coalescing into the silhouette of some unknown monstrous beast.
Five heads, four wings, three legs, twin claws!
Its entire body gleaming with scales!
This was Mōryō's true form.
That silhouette rose to meet the golden divine tiger head-on!
Time itself seemed to freeze in that instant!
—
"Whoa, hey, that looks pretty scary over there."
Deidara, carrying Sasuke, flew deep into the terracotta army's ranks, having already spotted that purple-black "sacred tree" of tentacles that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
"Less talk. Faster."
Sasuke's expression stayed grim, watching the scene ahead, an ominous feeling stirring inside him.
Just as Deidara prepared to accelerate toward it, a roaring golden tiger materialized within that purple-black world.
"What in the world is that?"
Even hundreds of meters away, Deidara could feel it — take a single hit from that tiger, and you'd be lucky to walk away merely maimed.
"That's one of Sakura's techniques. She once used it to punch straight through the Three-Tails' shell."
Sasuke explained, calm — even as the ominous feeling in his chest kept growing.
"Sheesh. That's genuinely terrifying."
Deidara waved a hand, privately relieved that Konoha had captured him away from Akatsuki when they had.
If he ever crossed paths with Sasori again, he'd tell the old man to run for it too.
Fighting that pink-haired menace directly — you'd end up without a single hair left standing.
Just as Deidara prepared to speed up and try to catch a piece of the fight, the next sight left him staring, dumbstruck.
"...The tiger's gone."
—
"How is that even possible?!"
Hikaru stared upward, watching the scene unfold, genuinely shocked.
It wasn't that she didn't want to help Sakura — but both Sakura and Mōryō were fighting as individual close-combat units. If she barreled in with a massive Susano'o, she'd be more of a hindrance than a help.
Better to hang back and support from the sidelines, ready to act if things went south.
Watching the golden divine tiger get torn apart by that monstrous silhouette, Hikaru abandoned that plan instantly, crimson chakra billowing around her, skeletal wings unfolding from Susano'o's back, launching herself skyward at full speed.
At the same time, her eyes — three-tomoe Sharingan — twisted violently.
Mangekyō Sharingan!
A colossal, hundred-meter crimson giant tore itself out of the earth in that instant!
Watching Mōryō close in, Sakura showed no trace of alarm at all, despite the Mountain Lord technique having just been shredded.
Mid-fall, just as she prepared to reactivate Light and Heavy Rock to keep fighting, Sakura found herself suddenly scooped up by a massive palm.
This is—
Hikaru's Susano'o.
Even knowing Hikaru's Susano'o was red, Sakura still found herself blinking in mild surprise, seeing its complete, fully-manifested form for the first time.
"You all right?!"
Hikaru, embedded at the center of Susano'o's forehead, shouted down at her.
"Fine!"
Sakura called back.
"Watch me finish this thing off!"
Watching Mōryō diving down toward them, Hikaru clenched her teeth hard.
Susano'o's hand closed loosely around empty air, and a massive blade, forty meters long, materialized within its grip.
"Hmph."
"Indra's power."
Mōryō's eyes turned cold at the sight, and with a light tap of her toe against a tentacle, she launched herself downward directly toward the approaching, wing-beating Susano'o instead of retreating.
The massive sword materialized in her own hand once more.
Except her own blade, next to the hundred-meter-plus complete Susano'o, looked like nothing more than an elephant standing beside an ant.
Just as Hikaru and Mōryō were about to collide—
Both of them moved, at the exact same instant!
The enormous crimson blade swung down, seemingly enough to split heaven and earth apart, cutting straight at Mōryō!
Feeling that overwhelming force bearing down on her, Mōryō gave a cold smile, twisting her body — not only dodging the incoming strike entirely, but closing the distance directly to the crystal embedded in Susano'o's forehead, where Hikaru sat hidden.
"Ōtsutsuki scum."
She raised her blade high, and brought it down with brutal force!
The crystal on Susano'o's forehead cracked instantly under that single strike!
But — it didn't shatter!
"Amaterasu!"
Hikaru immediately unleashed the flame capable of burning everything to ash.
Black flame instantly consumed Mōryō's entire body.
Mōryō gave a cold laugh at that, and without a moment's hesitation, ripped off her own upper-body armor and flung it away entirely.
The Amaterasu clinging to the armor went with it.
"Heh. Parlor tricks."
"To think you'd actually put your faith in such a trifling ability."
Mōryō watched Hikaru's stunned expression with a cold sneer, raising her blade once more, preparing to strike the crystal again to finish it off entirely.
At that moment, a flash of gold surged in front of her once more!
A single punch landed, and violent chakra erupted around her body like raging, roaring flame!
"You've already lost. If you don't want to die right here, get out of my way — now."
Mōryō spoke coldly, glaring at Sakura, closing in on her once again.
"Heh. Who said I lost?"
Sakura gave a cold laugh.
This was her first time in this state — that Mountain Lord strike had just given her a rough sense of exactly how much power she now had access to.
Now — it's time to go all out.
She drove Mōryō back with a single punch, forming a single-handed seal in front of her chest, and called out in a low voice:
"Yang Release — Yang Clone!"
Golden fire swept outward, forming an exact double of Sakura herself.
This feeling...
It's her!
Hikaru's chest tightened at the sight.
"Yo-ho, this old man's back!"
Inner Sakura raised both arms, stretching her body, as wild and unhinged as ever.
"Less talk, let's get him."
Sakura shot Inner Sakura a flat, unimpressed glare, then charged straight at Mōryō.
"Hey hey hey, got it, got it!"
With a reckless grin, Inner Sakura surged forward alongside her.
"That's impossible!"
Mōryō stared at the newly-manifested Inner Sakura, genuine shock crossing her face for the first time.
"How could someone your age possibly possess spiritual power on this scale?!"
What is the soul?
The soul is spiritual power.
And what is spiritual power?
Spiritual power is Yin Release.
"Your consciousness is so vast that it's crystallized into a full second personality, purely to protect itself?!"
"By all rights, you should have gone mad long before this point!"
Mōryō felt something close to her entire worldview cracking apart.
She'd already learned Sakura was only sixteen, the moment she'd absorbed a taste of her chakra earlier.
But—
Barely sixteen years old.
Barely sixteen!
Why would anyone that age possess spiritual power of this magnitude?
The body could be shaped, forged, tempered endlessly through cultivation and Yang-Release technique.
But consciousness itself — there was no possible way to force that kind of growth!
Genius, in her experience, always came at a price: either madness, or an early grave.
That was the law governing all things in existence.
To gain something, something else had to be lost.
And for someone like Sakura Haruno in front of her — to develop a fully conscious, sane second personality by the age of sixteen — she should, by every law Mōryō understood, be some fragile, dying invalid teetering on death's door.
But looking at the pink-haired girl charging at her, clearly intending to beat her senseless with her own two hands — there was nothing remotely dying or fragile about her.
"An anomaly!"
"You're an anomaly!"
Mōryō forced herself back to calm, raising her sword to meet the charge.
Facing the incoming greatsword, Sakura sidestepped it with ease, and Inner Sakura, right behind her, flipped without hesitation, planting a hand on Sakura's shoulder, twisting her own body, and driving a kick straight into Mōryō's shoulder!
Mōryō took the hit head-on, her balance faltering slightly.
And in that same instant, Sakura had already closed the remaining distance!
"You said I'd lost, just now?"
"I've never known how to spell the word."
Sakura gave a cold laugh and drove a fist straight into Mōryō's stomach without hesitation!
The punch landed, and a shockwave rolled outward violently!
Mōryō was sent flying backward instantly!
"Damned anomaly!"
Feeling her insides churn, Mōryō spat the words out with venom.
At that moment, Inner Sakura followed close behind, driving a fist straight at Mōryō's head — which Mōryō barely managed to block.
And in that same beat, Sakura seamlessly picked up the rhythm right where Inner Sakura's attack left off, driving another fist straight into Mōryō's face!
"Enough of this!"
"You're nothing but humans!"
Mōryō roared, and was met immediately by Inner Sakura's crushing follow-up strike.
Sakura and Inner Sakura moved together like the most perfectly synchronized partners imaginable — despite never having actually fought side by side before, Sakura simply was Inner Sakura, and Inner Sakura simply was Sakura.
Both of them were, at their core, the same being: Sakura Haruno.
"DIE!"
Mōryō's roar transformed into something closer to a monstrous bellow.
Endless purple-black demonic energy billowed outward from her body, and that earlier monstrous silhouette manifested once more.
Except this time, that silhouette had become fully material, given form by the same endless purple-black energy.
A hundred-meter-tall demonic beast now stood in the world, given full, physical existence.
This, unmistakably, was Mōryō's true form.
And Shion — was gone. Vanished, without a trace.
"Humans!"
"You have angered me!"
All five heads roared open at once, the sound deafening.
"Pretty big, huh."
Inner Sakura hovered midair, arms crossed.
"Kill him."
Sakura's eyes stayed calm, as though stating a simple fact.
At that, Inner Sakura burst into blazing flame all over her body, and that gold-and-pink chakra gathered back into Sakura's body once more.
Boundless chakra condensed at her palm, blazing, being forged, tempered.
Gold, pink, and blue chakra swirled and fused together within her grasp.
The three-colored flame seemed to radiate power enough to shatter the very soul.
She pressed both hands together, and that flame condensed fully into her palms.
By now, Mōryō had already sensed something was deeply wrong.
Dread. Dread. DREAD!
No. No. NO!
Under no circumstances could she be allowed to complete this technique!
Purplish-black demonic energy gathered within all five gaping maws, exactly like a Tailed Beast Ball — the most primal, purest expression of raw power.
But Mōryō's own gathering speed far exceeded even a Tailed Beast Ball's.
"DIE, ALREADY!"
Five beams of purple light, capable of annihilating everything in existence, surged toward Sakura, converging.
At that moment, in Sakura's golden eyes, something like flame flickered, burning, proclaiming its own existence.
The pink-haired girl spread both hands apart, lips parting slightly...
A small, exquisitely crafted hand-axe materialized in her grip.
Mōryō's ten enormous eyes widened all at once, as if witnessing something utterly incomprehensible.
Because—
Behind the girl, a soul-shaking axe had manifested.
Though calling it merely a "hand-axe" felt like an insult to what it truly was.
Perhaps it deserved a different name entirely.
A divine axe.
In that moment, those golden eyes carried not a shred of emotion, watching everything below like a god gazing down on mortal creation.
She raised the axe, forged purely from chakra, high above her head with one hand.
And brought it down.
The world, in that instant, seemed to have its sound switched off entirely by some unseen god.
Silence. Absolute silence.
A brilliant, gentle wash of white light swept across everything.
The purple-black demonic energy, the tentacles, the raw power, the monstrous form — all of it, piece by piece, dissolved into dust before that single blow.
Mōryō stared, unable to believe what she was seeing, wanting to struggle, wanting to flee — only to find there was no escape, no matter what she tried.
All she could do was watch, helpless, as her own body was erased, piece by piece, into nothing.
Not even her screams, her agony, could reach beyond that silence.
Human...
Human.
HUMAN!
The fury, the hatred burning in her heart — no one would ever know it. But it no longer mattered now.
Because—
Dawn had broken.
The ink-black clouds overhead seemed to scatter apart under that single axe stroke, a long, narrow gap tearing open across the sky.
Beams of light poured through, spilling down over the girl hovering silently in the air, axe still in hand.
"Sage Technique — Yang Release — Mountain Splitter..."
Hikaru, Susano'o already dissolved, stood on the shattered, ruined earth below, watching the pink-haired girl high above, murmuring the words to herself.
Deidara and Sasuke, having finally arrived, watched the whole scene unfold in silence.
"Now, THAT..."
"...is genuinely art."
(End of chapter)
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