Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

The Shinden Saga – Arc 2: Pain Divine

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Chapter 130 – Challenging Destruction II

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In the void of Makura's nightmare illusion, Hyakki Otsutsuki finds himself face to face with the one man who personifies the reason he fears, hates and lives. His father, Isshiki Otsutsuki. In the darkness of this empty space, he sees the glowing red Sharingan of this man and its black sun cross symbol.

Next to this right eye, a second eye opens. A simple Byakugan, in details identical to that of Kaguya. A bit startled by this imaginary meeting that caught him off guard, Hyakki takes a step back, but quickly gets a hold of himself.

"Tsk! This is just a mere illusion. It can't hurt me. You won't frighten me with this!" Hyakki yells, hoping that the master of this Genjutsu hears him.

Yet, this trick quickly proves him wrong. With all of his senses trapped, including his touch and pain, he feels his limbs, chest and guts be wrecked and stabbed through by thick weapons. It is one of the many Dojutsu abilities of Isshiki's right eye. Hyakki doesn't only recognize this jutsu. He also recognizes this feeling, this pain, this surprise. It is exactly what happened to him in the past.

This sensation comes from countless thick black chakra absorbing needles that were promptly summoned into his body. With his knees obliterated, Hyakki falls down sitting, and vomits out from his mouth the blood coming from the smashed guts and organs inside of him. This sensation, this reaction, the taste of his own blood… It is exactly how he remembers it. Paralyzed by pain and fear, he tiredly looks up and sees the divine pair of eyes come closer.

Out from the darkness, he sees the silhouette of his father take shape. He gazes at it, hidden by a large gown, and at the long and curvy horn wrapping around the back of this figure's skull and pointing toward the heavens. In the shadows, Hyakki manages to discern the contrast between this figure's skin and the black curse mark covering his face and body.

Isshiki Otsutsuki comes closer to his son and bends over to whisper a heavy message into his ear.

"Dare one more time to visit Kaguya's world, and I'll turn it to ashes." he menaces, as he did in the past, with the same bland yet evil tone. "I will destroy the entirety of this cradle of mediocrity along with whatever attracts your attention on its surface."

After these words that he still didn't forget from the first time he heard them, Hyakki slowly looks down to see his white hair bracelet again. In the darkness of this place, the only light that illuminates this token of love is the red shine of his father's eye, making the white hair appear blood red.

This sight, coincidentally, also brings back dark memories for the weakened god of destruction. After this merciless lecture, Hyakki remembers very well what happened. This is the part of his past that he wants to forget. Not the grief and loss. But the defeat and submission. And just as the memories of this fatality reemerge, the voice of his father brings them as clear as new.

The evil silhouette rises and looks down at him with disgust.

"You will not live for what you think has importance." Isshiki declares. "I forbid you to reject your purpose. I forbid you to leave this universe. You will live, grow and rule for what I want you to. After all, it is my right to command you, as a Tenshin, and as your father."

By this statement, Hyakki is reminded exactly of what makes him hate himself and his devilish father more than he could ever fear. Therefore, this illusion of despair, rather than drowning the target in boundless fear, fuels an intense hatred and rage. More than dread of the past, it resurfaces silenced endless regrets.

Seeking a violent retribution, Hyakki howls in anger and lets his chakra leak through with his emotions. Out of raw power, he repels all the rods stabbing and paralyzing his body out of his wounds and punches the image of his father with all his strength and might. This dismantling fist dispels the demonic Genjutsu of Fear itself and breaks through its void.

Takeshi, freed from the hold he was in, hoped to get more of an advantage from this illusion. He expected to ruin and weaken the mind of his opponent. But instead, he seems to have triggered an untold desire. He's aware of all that this illusion showed to his enemy, and is only confused by what he learned. What exactly does this white bracelet on Hyakki's wrist represent about his past?

Mijinton – Hakuri Ken

With his fist, the god of destruction lets his emotions and power out and dismantles absolutely everything that stands in front of him. In a hurry, and pressured by the intensity he feels, Takeshi throws himself into his teammates on the side to leap out of range. In front of Hyakki, the air, the water, the whole boat, everything vanished and was dismantled to particle level.

Up in the sky, Sakitsuki gasps out of shock. Next to her, Naobi squints, noticing the careless offensive of her colleague break through the ocean all the way to the shore of the land of fire, out of the range she chose for her veil illusion.

Down on the water surface, Yukiko looks up, lying under Takeshi. She sees and feels an intense heat in the surrounding, caused by the amount of orphan particles around them, resulting from the mass of dismantled matter. These particles are shaking with such intensity that a warmth far higher than anything that should be possible in the Earth's atmosphere spreads through the surrounding and boils the water.

Thankfully, the vacuum of the empty space, carved as a hallway before Hyakki, swallows the high concentration of particles and cools the atmosphere. Seeing this aspiration of matter, Yukiko warns Takeshi to attack quickly. In his mind, Tentoki understands the signal and the effect, and insists as well.

Koton – Kosen

Takeshi quickly shoots a series of photon beams toward the void corridor and is quite surprised to sense his attack be redirected to follow the aspiration toward the source of the emptiness. The lasers are sucked and accelerated toward Hyakki who's hit and brought back to reality by the sensation of this attack touching his naked chest and leaving slight burns.

This draws his attention back to Takeshi, who he knows is responsible for the terrible experience he had to relive. Redirecting his hatred toward him, Hyakki clenches his teeth and waves his hand to throw a wind repulsion at the ninja who crosses his arms to withstand it, still sitting on the ground.

"STOP PLAYING!" the god of youth yells at the ninja who's hitting his nerves. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!"

When Takeshi lowers his arms, the first thing he sees is the hand of the Otsutsuki firmly catching him by the forehead and covering his sight with his palm. With this grasp, Hyakki angrily smashes the ninja's head into his knee, and completely ruins his face with only this one hit, shaking his brain and making him pass out for a split instant.

Sakitsuki, seeing such violence be forced onto her forbidden lover, shakes in fear and gasps, unable to contain her voice. Naobi stares at her pupil, surprised by how genuine this reaction seems to be. She looks back down to see that, despite this violent strike, the ninja seems to grasp onto consciousness. The blood vessels in his eyes popped and filled his sclera in red, probably making him nearly blind, but he's still awake. So Hyakki doesn't stop there.

Yukiko, as horrified as Kokoro and the others when she sees how violent the god now behaves, immediately wants to rescue her friend. She doesn't think much of what she can get done and raises a chakra coated kunai that she uses in an attempt to stab the enemy. Hyakki effortlessly catches her by the bicep before she reaches him and mercilessly tears her arm off.

He then throws the stolen limb into her stomach with all his strength, sending her fly away, pushed by her own arm. Hearing Takeshi cough to avoid suffocating in his own blood, Hyakki brings his attention back to him. He pulls his hair and makes him stand straight just to properly punch him in the guts. Once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time to push his fist all the way through the ninja's hip.

Naobi makes a disgusted face, disappointed by the savage behavior of her fellow Shinden, but also deranged by the trembling lips and humid eyes of Sakitsuki, who's struggling to hold herself back.

Behind Takeshi, Kokoro screams as she stands up to save her student. But just like Yukiko, she's repelled before doing anything. Hyakki catches her by the back of her head and smashes her face into Takeshi's, knocking them both out before tossing them away like vulgar pieces of expired meat.

Seeing her beloved fluttering through the air, injured more heavily than a human should be able to handle, Sakitsuki leans forward and prepares to fly to his rescue. However she is held back by Naobi, who sees Tsubai Minamoto finally emerge from the water and catch both Kokoro and his son.

The goddess of purity looks at Hyakki's bloody hands worriedly. What she just saw is nothing but pure mindless rage. If he wanted to kill these humans, he'd have simply dismantled their bodies in a simple move, but here, he just let his emotions out through violence.

Hyakki, empty handed and out of range of enemies, takes a moment to breathe and snap out of his madness. Takeshi, hearing the cries of panic of his tengu in his mind, wakes up and looks forward with his blood tainted eyes. He sees the god of destruction catching a break.

"Takeshi, for God's sake! Molt your body!" Tentoki exclaims. "We'll die if you don't!"

"Molt his body?!" Amabie yells, with the same panicked voice with which she cried her host's name a second ago. "How!?" she adds, having never seen Takeshi use this Daitengu skill.

The yamabushi ignores their calls. He prefers to keep this power for the right moment. Instead, he recalls the illusion that Makura showed to Hyakki and focuses on him. Fear itself has the same thoughts crossing his mind.

"What memory got him in such a fearless rage?" the wooden tengu thinks aloud.

Takeshi looks at the bracelet around Hyakki's arm again, finally realizing what kind of object it is. These are hair. The hair of someone who gifted this as a token to him. Seeing Kokoro catch her breath next to him, Takeshi looks at her and quietly says something.

"Kokoro-sen-sei…" he hardly speaks, before giving his instructions in her mind instead. "I need you to try something."

Hyakki, standing still, looks down at the burn marks left by Takeshi's light beams healing away due to his Shinsen Kata's regeneration. Thinking just of how much he hates this ability, he's woken up by a supersonic projectile hitting his chest. Looking down he sees a sharp kunai tip landed there, having done no damage at all. He looks at where it came from.

It is Kaori who shot this high caliber bullet, aiming for one of his hearts. Even though a smaller bullet could pierce through the shoulder of Hideo Kotobuki, this one couldn't even bruise Hyakki's divine skin. Seeing that she got the god's attention, she clenches her fist and continues to fight while she can. But missing a leg, she can't even stand up before the enemy.

"Damn it!" she yells before propelling herself with Suiton toward Hyakki who just looks at her coming. With her hands open wide, she gathers all her strength into one ultimate offensive that she unleashes all at once to his face.

Bakuton – Cho O Jiraisoho (Super Big Explosive Twin Palms)

She releases her chakra as a massive explosion that shakes the sea, projects all the surrounding ninjas away and incinerates the atmosphere around her, all this in a hundred meters large range and all thrown first into Hyakki's face.

Out from this ultimate blast's heart, the god of destruction raises his hands and catches the wrists of Kaori before twisting them to break her bones and make her stop this effort. When the dust, fog and fire vanishes, Kaori sees Hyakki completely unharmed. What she'll never know is if he actually didn't take any damage, or if he simply healed too fast for it to be noticed.

"This is the best you can do?" Hyakki mocks her. "I'll show you what a real explosion is."

He tosses her away toward Kokoro and Takeshi where she's caught by Tsubai before landing. Then, he sucks the water from below his feet in a white cube in his left hand and extracts only a certain type of isotope from the liquid: deuterium. In his right hand, he creates a highly condensed orb of Shinsen chakra, similar to the Tengudama. He then pushes the orb into the cube with deuterium that turns black in contact and glows up.

Takeshi, recognizing a similar process to what he's seen him do last time, screams out of panic, which alerts his father, who reacts just an instant too late.

Mijinton – Kaku Yugo Bunretsu (Nuclear Fusion Fission)

With a collective fission of the matter in his chakra orb, Hyakki triggers the fusion, and fission of the mass of deuterium he isolated, and therefore detonates a hydrogen nuclear blast. Tsubai, synchronized with the detonation, freezes time.

Jikanteido

As soon as time freezes, Takeshi stands up and rushes to get next to Hyakki, thinking of a way to stop the initiated blast. With the best his father can do, the world is completely frozen and the speed of light is reduced to that of sound. Takeshi is able to move tens of thousand times faster than that. So his first thought is to stop the spread of the radiation wave that will vaporize everything in range.

With still a third of his tenketsu destroyed, he can't expel chakra from his hands, arms or chest. The only remaining parts are the back of his feet and his back, which makes Koton – Shunshin one of the only jutsu he can still use efficiently. Thanks to Tentoki's teaching, he also figures out a life saving strategy. By solidifying the light he emits from his back to accelerate himself, just like he hardens his white lightning, he can create a wall of light.

Koton – Hikari Kekkai

He runs in a circle around Hyakki and materializes this barrier to intercept and contain the radiation wave as it starts and progresses. With this strategy, he can't cancel it, and neither can he avoid its effect on his own body. Running at top speed to save everyone from this nuclear threat, he screams out in agony as his skin, flesh and bones are being melted by the energy he aims to stop.

Tsubai and Daikoku, the only beings able to move in this time pause, look horrified at the suicidal effort of Takeshi. Suddenly, shaking in panic, Tsubai is overtaken by the urge to do something to save his son. With the same method he used last time, he stops the heat wave.

Meiton - Kurayami Ryoiki

He expands a dome of darkness into the frozen space and absorbs the electromagnetic overflow in it. This includes Takeshi's Koton and barrier, but also the thermal radiation. With such an amount of energy contained, Tsubai is unable to handle its power and faints, abruptly ending the time pause.

Once the pause stops, Takeshi immediately activates his Koton – Shunshin and Hikari Kekkai again and resumes his strategy to contain the blast wave of the explosion that is going to provoke an inevitable tsunami in all directions.

While he contains it, Kokoro shelters Kaori and Tsubai as she can, and all the surrounding ninjas run away. One of them, Jinbei, who replaced Takeshi during the international chunin exam and teamed up with his squad mates 4 years ago, catches Yukiko and her severed arm and carries her away with him.

Naobi, up in the sky, looks shamefully at Hyakki in the center of the explosion, and at Takeshi who's wasting his body to stop it. In the Minamoto's mind, his tengu yell and complain, horrified by what he is inflicting on himself. Tentoki urges to make him stop.

"Takeshi! You're going to die!" he yells. "Half of your body is off, your face is carved in, you're drowning in your own blood, you have a fist sized hole in your stomach and you're rotting in nuclear radiation! Stop already!"

Takeshi doesn't listen and keeps going. As long as he's conscious, he can weaken the blast and save the others. Next to Naobi who squints and shivers, deranged by the sight of Takeshi's irradiated skin, Sakitsuki hardly breathes, but concentrates to inhale and scream out.

"STOP IT!" she implores her lover to end this suicidal massacre. Awakened but appeased by her voice, Takeshi lets go of his jutsu and lets the remains of the blast wave push him away to slide on the water surface.

He successfully restricted the explosion that, as a result, appeared as just a massive column of dust, vapor and fog enclosed in the limit of the barrier he was tracing. The blast wave breaks free, but only repels everyone lightly to not much harm. Everyone is knocked down on the water and quickly comes back to their senses.

From the middle of this infernal column, the god of destruction steps out and stares at Takeshi with respect. He then looks up to see Sakitsuki who catches her breath after her cry out. He gazes at her with somewhat compassion that Tsubai and Kokoro don't fail to notice. Kokoro analyzes him and remembers what Takeshi asked her to do.

Tsubai sees the Otsutsuki step forward to get closer to his defeated son and get a better look before finishing him. Determined to keep fighting, he struggles to stand up, still tired from the radiation he had to contain. Kokoro interrupts him, asking him to take some rest.

"I have to try something." she says. "You stay here."

Hyakki stands just 3 meters away from Takeshi and looks at what remains of him. The ninja in black is crippled, dehumanized, barely alive. His melted clothes have started to merge within his rotten flesh and bones and to cool down. This sight would be enough to make an innocent soul vomit their guts and pass out.

Before saying anything, he raises his hand and makes a black translucent cube in his palm, facing the defeated enemy.

"Not at one single point did you stand the slightest chance in this fight." he says, which sounds disregarding at first. "But you did not stop fighting nonetheless. You've been brilliant, and remarkable, Takeshi Minamoto. I almost feel sorry for having to end it now."

The ninja doesn't want to attempt an answer. He still isn't resolved to lose. He only waits patiently for the best moment to go on, hoping that an occasion will come. Up in the sky, Naobi sighs and looks away. Next to her, Saki does the same. She doesn't want to see this ending, but wherever she moves her head to, she can't escape her own golden gaze. She is forced to witness this scene and, for the first time ever, can't bring herself to accept this sadness.

Hyakki, as his jutsu lights up, says his farewell to his opponent.

"In all honesty, I would have liked you to be the one who frees me from this prison." he says. "After all, being killed by the power that he will come to crave on this soil anyway wouldn't have birthed any new conflict."

Takeshi is obviously confused and intrigued by this final message, but doesn't let it bother him. It seems like nothing will save him. So he just lets his head fall and farewells the tengu in his mind… Yet, suddenly, the ray of light in the darkness of his path shines upon him again.

Kugutsu Shibari

Hyakki Otsutsuki's arms are suddenly caught in chakra strings and strapped to his body. His hands are stuck against his own chest, with his translucent Mijinton container phasing through his own heart. Naobi is the first to react to this step in.

"Sakitsuki!" she yells at her student, while still refusing to get involved herself.

Behind Hyakki, it is Saki who binds his body to prevent his final strike. Tsubai, Yukiko, Kaori and Takeshi are all flabbergasted by this definitive and rebellious involvement. The god of destruction tilts his head, looks back and waits a while.

"Well… Goldie… Are you not gonna let go?" he asks.

"I… I said I'd let go, if you spare his life." she answers. "I'm sorry… I can't… And I won't accept letting him die."

She looks up to her mistress in the sky, then back at Hyakki and goes on, addressing them both.

"I could just disappear from this world's memories and leave it be." she argues again. "Naobi-sama, you can do it as easily as breathing if you consume my chakra for it."

"It's pointless, goldie." Hyakki answers. "Yamitsuki-sama already stated that no memories will be taken. I've told you that before."

"Then please, Naobi-sama, do it just for me." Saki begs again. "Just stop this now, let Hyakki return with me, and leave Takeshi and his world alone!"

"Your complaints are pointless." Naobi sadly answers. "I will not break the rules of Yamitsuki. If even I can't follow his law, then they would be nothing else than arguments for punishment."

"This is unfair!" Saki keeps crying out. "We're following rules that don't please anyone. We're just hurting our own selves. Why would the Ryu Shinsen get to choose what happens here? He has no awareness of what is going on!"

Naobi widely opens her eyes in surprise, seeing her student in such a state of mind. What they all ignore is that in reality, these current events along with what happened before and what will be next, are all part of the Dragon sage's interest. This is the way he wants things to go for his destiny to be fulfilled, and the universe to prevail.

Sick of this stubbornness, Naobi lectures her pupil.

"Enough!" she says. "You're acting unworthy!"

"Ha!" Tsubai exclaims to get a word in this conversation, addressing the goddess of creation. "No! It's you who's too stubborn to see below your floating feet. But I guess that's why we call showing emotions and compassion being human, and not being celestial. You people aren't supposed to be capable of that in any terms."

Naobi quietly stares at him and doesn't react. She heard him right, and knows how wrong he is, but won't bother arguing with a human right now. It is now up to Saki and Hyakki to decide what will happen next, and the golden-eyed one seems already decided.

"I refuse your request, Sakitsuki." Hyakki declares. "And Naobi-sama is not gonna do what you want either. So it's all up to you. This will decide what relation our society will have with the human kind. If you refuse to let go, then I'll treat you as one of them, and will remove you myself."

"Hyakki Otsutsuki!" Naobi shouts to answer this honest provocation. "I may go by the rules, but if you dare touch her, no matter what happens, I will punish you in consequence."

The young god looks up to his elder, and then down at Saki again.

"This menace will not stop me. You know it." he says. "I dread no punishment or death. In fact, I'd even gladly take it as a reward."

After these few words, knowing full well that Sakitsuki can't be reasoned, he engages exactly as he intends.

Mijinton – Genkai Hakuri

He detonates the cube phasing through his chest and dismantles his own left heart in the process. The jutsu bursts through the chakra strings, snapping them, and dismantles everything in its way including the left heart and half chest of Sakitsuki.

Tsubai, staring at the scene, has a flash from the past. 20 years ago. When he was at Katashiki Otsutsuki's mercy, his best friend, Himari Sakawaza, came to his rescue and contained the enemy in his back, losing her life in the process. Before his eyes at the moment, he relives the same scene, identifying himself as his own son. The difference is that, this time, the one in Himari's place isn't unarmed.

Feeling the effect of Mijinton crawling up her chest and proceeding toward disintegrating her entire body as retribution from the god of destruction, Sakitsuki stops it with the first and most efficient way that crosses her mind.

Sanmeigan – Uro Haki

Using the second of the 3 wisdoms of her Dojutsu, Uro Haki, the complete extinction of afflictions, she totally extinguishes the chakra spreading through her body. The effect of this jutsu spreads and reaches Hyakki through the chakra strings before they totally collapse. As a result, the god of destruction's chakra is totally shut down and momentarily sealed. As a consequence, he forcibly leaves his Shinsen Kata.

Takeshi Minamoto, seeing this as the one thing he was waiting for, gets full of resolve again. He remembers the reason his father and him wanted to fight this battle in the first place and takes action.

Daitengu Dappi

He uses the molting ability of the Daitengu to fully restore his body except for those he molted by the past, which are only one leg and arm. He recovers all his tenketsu and jutsu in the process and puts it to use as soon as free. Rushing forward with the speed of Koton, he gathers his white lightning in his hand as a blade.

Hyakki, alerted by this sudden move, faces him and raises his hands, ready to intercept his enemy even without any chakra, with only his bodily superiority. But before the collision comes, the god of youth's attention is caught by something else that he sees in the corner of his Byakugan's sight. On the side, he perceives a familiar face that paralyzes him and strikes him in the feels.

A very young human woman with long white hair and light brown eyes, dressed in an ancient kimono outfit from 8 centuries ago. Hyakki lets this sight distract him, and looks with melancholy in his eyes. He realizes that it is just a trick. Another illusion. But he falls for it long enough to let the ninja in black land his strike.

Shiroden

With this ultimate light blade, Takeshi stabs and destroys the second heart of Hyakki, leaving him chakraless and heartless, falling on his back, condemned. Takeshi looks aside to see what caught his target's attention and sees Sakitsuki standing where he was looking. When he looks forward again and sees the real Saki there, he understands what happened.

It is Kokoro, using Kawahime's Genjutsu, Yureidanuki, to appear as the most loved one of anyone seeing her. Takeshi sees her as Saki, but Hyakki must have seen someone else. Someone whose sight left him troubled enough from Takeshi to land this fatal blow.

Up in the sky, Naobi flies down and hurries to catch Saki who falls to her knees. The goddess of creation immediately starts healing her student's destroyed heart and chest. While doing so, she stares into her eyes that now only appear as Byakugan. Since she used her 2nd wisdom, her eyes have lost their golden shine and sight, and could take years to regain it.

Tsubai, who sits behind, sees a familiar silhouette between Takeshi and him, also witnessing Kokoro's Yureidanuki.

"Tokiwa…" he whispers to himself, mesmerized by this sight, but quickly snaps out of it, knowing that it is just an illusion.

Takeshi looks down at Hyakki, who can't regenerate but doesn't seem about to die either. It is true that his kind is immortal as long as they have their hearts, but that it isn't the only thing that keeps them alive. Naobi, looking at Hyakki, sees the hole through his right heart and shockingly realizes what it means.

"You removed the Kinshiju (Forbidden Death Curse)…" she remarks.

"The Kinshiju?" Takeshi repeats confusingly, not knowing what she means.

"At last I am free…" Hyakki says before looking at Takeshi. "Did I kill someone you deeply cared about? Did your mother die when we last met?"

Takeshi doesn't answer, and just wonders why he asks this now.

"I recognized this look in your eyes just now." Hyakki explains. "This non existent hesitation in the eyes of one about to satisfy vengeance. I once had the same intensity in my gaze."

Takeshi still doesn't talk, confused about everything. The fact that Kokoro's illusion worked, the fact he really managed to land his strike, the curse that Naobi mentioned, and the sudden friendliness of his enemy. This is overwhelming. Hyakki adds a few words to make it worse.

"I have waited centuries long for this." he says. "Since that day I had to let her go, and avenged her only to find no relief or fulfillment in this massacre… Since this day, I only was alive because of his control. Now, my bond to mortality has been cut by the hand of someone else. I am finally free from this life."

After these words, before Naobi comes over to him to retrieve his injured body and heal him, he converts his remaining life force into expendable chakra and uses it to perform one single jutsu.

Mijinton – Hokai

Takeshi leaps back, confused, to avoid any possible harm from this jutsu. However, all that Hyakki aimed for is himself. With his unique power, he dismantles his own body and finally cuts his bond to the living world.

Behind, Naobi stands still, startled, astonished by the suicide she just witnessed. She trembles, afraid of what it means for the future of this world and her kind. One of the Shinden just lost his life. Unlike Momoshiki, Kaguya, her brother Kinshiki or Katashiki, Hyakki was faithful to their order and even was one of its representatives.

Takeshi keeps looking down at where Hyakki was and can't clean the thoughts storming his mind. He finally avenged his mother and saved his light, but doesn't feel any fulfillment, just as Hyakki said about his past. Looking around in confusion, he sees his father who may be experiencing the same feeling.

"This monster had a heart after all…" he says aloud, and to the tengu inside his mind, before passing out, still suffering from his irradiated arm and leg.

All the others, still awake and conscious, but obviously tired and defeated, stand still in fear. They are still in the presence of Naobi Otsutsuki. She is the only one in power to decide what's next. Of course, she had this might since the beginning, but now there is no rule or person to hold her back.

Before she does anything, she looks aside when she feels a certain chakra come closer. Just a second later, up in the sky, everyone sees the 7th Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, arrive by flight. He stands still and looks around confusingly. Still subject to Naobi's illusion, he can't see anything that she's hiding.

The reason he was lured here was the 2 attacks of Hyakki that broke through the range of the illusion, but he still has no way to break through such a perfect Genjutsu. Seeing the one she wanted to keep away, and realizing that her fellow ultimately failed his mission, Naobi decides to do nothing.

She sadly stares at Sakitsuki, salutes her with a gentle gesture, and vanishes using Izunome, the same jutsu she used to teleport here. By going away, she dispels her illusion, leaving the Hokage to find the scene and finally let all the present ninjas have peace, freed from the pressure and threat of the Shinden for now.

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End of Chapter 130 – Next Chapter: Grief never ending