Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Prologue – Arc 1: The Soul Robber

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Chapter 7: Confrontation

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A few hundred meters away from Konoha, Naruto who activated his Kurama Chakra Mode along with his Sage Mode is standing by Tsubai Minamoto's side, face to face with Katashiki Otsutsuki. At the village's gate, The 6th Hokage is spectating the stand-off from a distance, with other shinobi and villagers.

"Should we send them support?" asks Yamato standing next to the Hokage.

Kakashi turns to see Rock Lee who's being transported to the hospital and thinks about the fight he just witnessed. Rock Lee was really impressive. His speed, strength, skill all greatly improved since the war. He seemed clearly stronger than Might Guy's 7th Gate. However, it was no use at all against this adversary.

"No, we'll only disturb Naruto." answers Kakashi. "Believe it or not, this mysterious intruder shares a lot of similarities with Otsutsuki Kaguya and is easily a Madara level threat. Naruto is the only one here that can deal with him."

"Really?" asks Yamato with a surprised face. "Which Madara are you referring to?"

"The real Madara."

"How is this guy real? Where did he come from?" interrogates Yamato.

Looking to the 2 young men in front of him, Katashiki stands up and slowly walks toward them.

"Naruto Uzumaki, this world's savior, the Jinchuriki of the most powerful fragments of the former princess's beast. I finally meet you in person." he says calmly. "And you Tsubai Minamoto, last Yamabushi of the Minamoto clan, your sudden win in confidence means you finally got along with the Tengu inside you. I guess I don't have to introduce myself as you already know…"

"Why you talking so damn much?" interrupts Tsubai. "I didn't understand a single thing you just said. Do people usually talk this much before dying?" he asks to Naruto who doesn't say anything.

"Dying?" questions Katashiki. "You think you have the slightest chance to achieve this? I'm not here to fight you but if I was, you wouldn't last long."

"You're quite confident for someone who kept hiding until now." replies Naruto. "And you only show up now that Sasuke's not around. What's up? Are you afraid of us?"

"Don't imagine things." answers Katashiki with an annoyed look on his face. "Sasuke's absence really troubles me. I expected to find him here too, and am in no way dreading a confrontation with all of you at once. Also don't think you're the center of the universe. The people I'm hiding from aren't you."

"What now?" says Tsubai. "There are people you're hiding from?"

"And that's why I need you guys. Together, we'll free myself from this situation. Once I release your souls from this body cells, you'll be able to see your true potential. This isn't a matter of village or life, but of the universe. This is all about who gets to rule it."

"Becoming a mindless puppet for your personal use in exchange of absolutely nothing doesn't sound like a damn great deal to me."

"You won't be mindless. You'll remain conscious for as long as I live, able to spectate my glorious rise, but I'll have plenty of time to tell you about it once we're done. Now comehere."

Katashiki raises his hands toward the two of them and uses Bansho Ten'in to bring them to him. As they are forced off the ground and closer to him, Naruto pulls out 4 Biju Chakra arms of his back. One of them catches Tsubai, two others cling to Katashiki's arms to keep the distance between them, and the last one prepares a Rasengan and tries to hit him right in the face. Naruto remembered Nagato's problem that was he couldn't use more than one of Tendo's jutsu every 5 seconds. But unuckily, this same limit doesn't seem to apply to Katashiki's version of the Rinnegan.

Shinra Tensei

The gravitational force-field of this jutsu stops the chakra arm and pushes everythin surrounding Katashiki back. Naruto hold himself and Tsubai away from the push with chakra arms and safely gets on the ground with Tsubai.

"So you wish for a fight." says the self-proclaimed god.

Unwilling to listen to another tirade, Naruto runs to his target and prepares to engage him in Taijutsu. Katashiki rapidly pulls a dozen of black receivers from his sleeves and sends them flying toward Naruto.

Jikanteido (Time Pause)

Everything stops moving except Tsubai who runs between Katashiki and Naruto.

Meiton – Ankyu (Darkness style – Dark Absorption)

He exhales a dark chakra cloud that merges with the ground, turning it black, at propagates to reach the chakra rods' shadows. As soon as the shadows are hidden in the dark soil, the receivers are sucked into the ground and completely absorbed. Tsubai falls on his knees and time resumes. Katashiki, who saw it happen under his eyes but couldn't do anything against it, turns to Tsubai with an interested face.

"That's the right way to use it!" he says.

"Huh! Did he see us? How?" asks Tsubai to Daikoku in his head.

"I have no damn idea" answers the tengu, just as confused as his host.

With nothing in the way, Naruto gets to Katashiki and starts with a punch in the face that he easily dodges by moving to the left. Naruto immediately goes on by turning his body 270° on his right and surprises Katashiki with a fast heel kick to the stomach. The horned invader takes the kick and is pushed a few meters backward. Naruto doesn't stop and rushes to him, bounces up and puts his foot forward to kick him in the chest.

Katashiki, who switched back to Sharingan, bends to escape this attack and grabs Naruto's leg. Unable to rip his soul out now that he deactivated his Rinnegan, he simply spins and throws Naruto in the air. To get back at him, Naruto crosses his fingers to make two clones, one behind him and another above. He catches the legs of the one above him and throws him to Katashiki, then proceeds to lean against the other clone to jump forward and follow the first one.

Katashiki crosses his arms in front of his face to stop the first clone's headbutt. The clone disappears and is directly followed by the real Naruto hitting him by surprise with a rasengan again. The blow of the attack pierces through Katashiki's body and breaks the ground under him, causing him to fall in the resulting hole. He looks up to see outside the crater and sees Naruto falling on him, already willing to keep going. The hokage and the villagers, who were joined by many other people from the village, are trying to see the fight from where they are.

"Incredible!" says Hanabi Hyuga, standing behind Kakashi and looking at the action with the Byakugan.

"What's happening?" asks Kiba Inuzuka, standing next to her.

"Big Bro Naruto is so incredibly fast. He's on par with the enemy and even overwhelms him."

"Good." says the Hokage quietly. "Keep going, Naruto!"

Katashiki and Naruto are exchanging blows in the crater and both mainly miss. Katashiki, who's just dodging and countering Naruto's attack to analyze his Taijutsu skills, thinks and tries to compare his current adversary with Rock Lee. To him, Naruto is definitely faster than Lee using the 7th door, but he's also stronger, smarter, and tougher. That the fox's power is better than the Inner Gates is not unexpected, but this much? He was greatly pleased by his current feeling. On the edge of the hole, Tsubai looks down on them fighting and joins his hands to perform the same hand seals as for the Katon – Kaen Senpu, but concentrates the Tengu's chakra instead.

Meiton – Yami Senpu (Darkness Whirlwind)

A black whirlwind runs down the crater to Katashiki and Naruto. Katashiki feels trouble ahead and looks up to see the jutsu fall on Naruto and him. "Tsubai won't do that, he'll hit the fox along with me.". At his surprise, The jutsu becomes larger and fills the hole in the ground. Katashiki, feeling like he was tricked, looks to Naruto who smiles and disappears. The Naruto that Katashiki was examining was actually the shadow clone that the original used as a support, and who followed Katashiki in the crater caused by the Rasengan while the real one was planning the next move with Tsubai.

"Damn You!" says Katashiki hurrying to switch back to the Rinnegan.

Not able to do it in time, he's lifted off the crater's bottom by the black whirlwind that disturbs and absorbs his chakra. Brought to the middle of the hurricane that crashes to the ground, he tries to fly up to escape it but feels like the whirlwind's head is an infinity away. As Naruto and Tsubai are looking at the jutsu in action from besides, Naruto prepares a final attack to end their opponent right now.

Senpo – Cho Goen Rasenshuriken (Sage Art – Super Great Flame Rasenshuriken)

He throws this jutsu to let it go in the whirlwind, and slice and incinerate everything inside of it. As they were seeing the result of their effort, they looked at each other with confident looks. Naruto just smiled and thumbed up to Tsubai, who just looked at him weird.

"This guy's funny, I like him." says Daikoku in Tsubai's head.

But their celebration is very soon interrupted by the earth quaking and falling apart under their feet. They both put on their serious faces again and try to dodge the flying ground pieces that suddenly are lifted up in the air and fly up to the sky. Naruto looks up to understand what was happening and sees something that had pissed him off many times before: a black orb in the sky generating a strong attraction force. It's Chibaku Tensei. Knowing what to do against it, Naruto raises his hand and makes a new Rasenshuriken.

"We must destroy that thing in the sky!" he shouts to Tsubai as he gets ready to throw the Shuriken.

However, his arm is grabbed by Katashiki's hand coming out of a circular portal next to him and causes the Rasenshuriken to be thrown in the opposite direction, keeping it from being helped by the target's attraction force.

Jikanteido

Tsubai uses this ability to freeze time again and immediately asks help to his new partner, who appears in his mind as right next to him.

"What we doin'? Think fast I won't hold this jutsu for long!'

"The noodle-guy said it, we have to destroy that gravity orb." answers the hooded-skull.

"Ok but do we have any damn thing that can?"

"Yes. That damn thing right here." he says while pointing at Naruto's Rasengan standing still like the rest of the world.

Tsubai goes for another Darkness Whirlwind and forms it going from the ground to the sky near the Rasenshuriken. Not wanting to waste anymore chakra, he undoes the time freeze. Katashiki immediately gets out of the portal and throws himself on Naruto while holding him. The Rasenshuriken is forced into Tsubai's jutsu's rotation, forcing its trajectory to change. It is now heading to the Chibaku Tensei.

Back on the right way, it's attracted by the black orb in the center of the birthing meteor, crashes into it and breaks Katashiki's jutsu. As the lifted ground pieces start falling back down, Naruto pushes Katashiki off him with a Kurama chakra arm and sends him up to make him collide with the falling rocks and trees. Katashiki stays floating in the sky and uses the Tendo's gravity manipulating ability to lead the wreckage to Naruto and Tsubai as projectiles.

Naruto activates his Biju Mode and forms the Kurama avatar to shield him from the raining debris and hides Tsubai under one of Kurama's tails. Naruto looks to the crater in which he was going hand-to-hand with the enemy sooner, where the burning dark whirlwind was, and the turns back to Katashiki, who lost his brown mantle, switched back to the rinnegan and is partially burnt. He assumes that he escaped their attempt to take him down by using Time-Space Ninjutsu, but is still surprised by his durability. Katashiki managed to get out of this fatal combo with only a few burns and had enough resources to escape while his chakra was being absorbed.

"Let's get serious, shall we?" says Katashiki as a creature comes out of behind him to float by his sides.

It's a big humanoid dinosaur with three tails falling down in his back, that's about 3 to 4 meters tall. This monster widely opens his mouth and expires a white chakra breath that covers Katashiki and heals his burns.

"Huh! This damn asshole is healing." says Tsubai, still under Kurama's tail, joining his hands to make hand seals and stop the reptile monster.

But on the ground, he notices the Biju Mode's shadow strangely getting darker, so he lowers his hands and steps away from under the tail as fast as he can. The shadow, that now looks like a big black stain on the floor, emerges from the ground and turns into giant tentacle claws that surround Kurama and bind him, crushing him to the bottom. Naruto in his immobilized Biju Mode feels his chakra being absorbed by the shadows. Thinking quick to escape this, he turns off the Biju Mode and rushes to get through the claws before they close on him.

Now up in the air, he looks down on the two-tailed beast that materializes from the shadow in what seems to be her base form, so only around 1.80 meters tall with her hair in the shape of two tails. As soon as it appears, the shadow woman turns her hands to Naruto and use Bansho Ten'in again to get him closer. Naruto reacts fast to turn her own attack against her. He makes two mini Biju orbs that he changes into shuriken.

Senpo – Bijudama Rasenshuriken

The two Shuriken orbs are pulled by the beast's attraction force and, therefore, both crash and blow up at the exact source of the pull, right in front of the shadow woman's eyes. The blast that ensues annihilates everything in an 80 meters radius and creates a big shock wave that spreads and is felt in Konoha.

When the dust raised by the blast settles, Naruto sees the consequences of this jutsu on the rest of the present fighters. Tsubai managed to evade the blow by using his Time Pause jutsu to get enough time to run away, Katashiki flew higher in the sky with his reptil companion before Naruto's jutsu landed, but the two-tailed beast couldn't escape it and was struck to the earth. Seeing her damaged, lying on her back and unable to move, Naruto lets gravity do its work and falls on her. Landing right on her stomach, he hinders her limbs and tails firmly with Biju chakra arms.

"Oh, She must have felt that!" says Katashiki with a mocking voice, looking down on Naruto and his own creature.

"What?" asks Naruto, confused by this comment. "What do you mean, she felt that? You're the one controlling this body!"

"Oh, didn't I tell you already? By turning you into my servant and a Tsukumogami, I won't kill you. You'll stay conscious and able to think. Everything your eyes see, your ears hear and your body feels, you fell it too. The only downside is that you don't have any control over your body. I'm totally in charge of it."

"Does it mean…" nervously says Naruto looking at the woman he's holding on the floor.

"Exactly." answers Katashiki with a fascinated voice. "The woman she once was still lives inside of this shadow and has been witnessing everything that I inflict to her body for the last 700 years. And she and I will have to keep it this way for as long as I'll live. The exact same goes for him and all the others" he says turning to the dinosaur next to him.

Naruto, shaken by what he just heard, stays gloomily watching at the woman that is now struggling to get him off her. He was now all disturbed in his mind and couldn't see her as the mindless beast she looks like anymore.

"I know what you're thinking and I'll answer right away", says the monster's master. "No, there's no way to free her from me… And it's not actually a bad situation. You get to live for as long as I live, get the same powers as my Rinnegan, and have the chance to witness my rise to freedom."

"YOUR RISE?" yells Naruto at Katashiki, being angered by the nonsense he just heard.

Katashiki takes advantage of Naruto's reaction and controls the two-tailed woman to rapidly fire a powerful chakra beam from her mouth right in Naruto at close range. Distracted, he can't react and is struck by the beam, sent fluttering away and severely hurt. Katashiki, now fully healed from his wounds, commands the lizard monster to stop his breath. The three-tailed dinosaur, who was once a free being too, grows to more than 30 meters tall and goes to take care of the Kyubi's Jinchuriki with the other Tsukumogami.

Katashiki, who was still shirtless until now, then summons new clothes around him, that appear as if they emerged from his skin and shadows. He now wears a long white mantle with a large collar, grey on the inside, with a thick black band and a thinner red line on the end of each sleeve, along with a black belt around the hips, over the mantle. Correctly dressed again, he turns to Tsubai with intention to finally get what he came for.

Chimatakami

A black circular space gate encompasses him and brings him right in front of Tsubai who was standing still, waiting for an opportunity to help Naruto. Seeing his enemy appear right in front of him, Tsubai joins his hands to make hand seals, which Katashiki easily stops by holding them tightly.

At the entrance of Konoha, Himari arrives running next to the shinobi group and the Hokage stopping the villagers from going any further from the village and closer to the battle's location. They all see a giant lizard-like creature walking upon the forest at the same place where they saw an explosion earlier. Himari goes to Kiba Inuzuka, the nearest shinobi among those blocking the villagers, to ask him about the situation.

"They're losing. Big Bro is being overwhelmed by this thing and a strange shadow thing."Hanabi says, still reporting the events to the Hokage thanks to her Byakugan. "Oh, Naruto's getting up!" she says as everyone can see Kurama's avatar appear.

Naruto, in Biju Mode, goes face-to-face with the giant dinosaur and tries to hold it back rather than beating it, still unsettled by the Tsukumogami's real nature. Trying to contain the monster's movements, Kurama is pushed back by the dinosaur's superior strength, so he holds on to the ground with his nine tails.

As he is slowly imposing himself over the beast, the avatar is abruptly stabbed through by ten long and enormous shadow claws that bend their shape to hold and bind it. The bending claws also strap around Kurama's arms, weakening them and forcing them down. Back to advantage, the lizard widely opens his mouth and expires a powerful breath over the Biju Mode, that melt and shatter it.

Spectating the battle between the two titans, Kakashi is worried about the outcome. Konohamaru Sarutobi, standing next to Hanabi, gets that Naruto isn't gonna win this easily when he sees the concerned look she has on her face while she uses the Byakugan. Willing to help the one he sees as an older brother in any way possible, Konohamaru runs past the door and tries to go to the battle place. The Hokage, seeing the young chunin get past him, reacts fast and holds Konohamaru's arms to keep him in place.

"Let me go! Naruto needs help! Why aren't we doing anything?" screams Konohamaru.

"Oh!" says Hanabi. "I found them. The intruder is face to face alone with the Minamoto."

Himari, standing behind Kiba, hears these words and thinks of Tsubai. She has to get past these guys. Looking at the shinobi in front of her, she notices that he is being distracted by the Hokage's attempt to stop the young ninja. Himari takes advantage of this and grabs a gas bomb in Kiba's pocket before running past him, in his back, in direction to the Hokage.

"Uh? Hey get back here!" yells Kiba who notices her a bit too late, but still alerts the Hokage with his saying.

Kakashi, Konohamaru, Yamato and every surrounding shinobi turns to Himari running toward them. Seeing them all focused on her, she chooses the right moment to throw the gas bomb, Not at her feet to hide her movements, but at their feet, obstructing their visions and allowing her to safely pass through them and run outside the village. Hanabi, hearing the fuss taking place right next to her, deactivates her Byakugan a few moment to see what causes trouble, and immediately finds herself lost in the gas cloud with every other shinobi.

Hakkesho Kaiten (Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation)

She spreads the smoke away and clears everyone's vision with this jutsu. Kakashi looks around him, still holding on Konohamaru, and sees Himari already far enough running to the battle's place.

"Damn! This girl is getting away! What should we do, Hokage?" asks Yamato. "Shall we follow her and send help to Naruto?"

Kakashi just looks at the girl running and tries to think of a reasonable reaction.

"Ok. Yamato, Shino, and…" says Kakashi.

"Konohamaru!" shouts Konohamaru to interrupt and follow the Hokage's words.

"… And Konohamaru…Come with me!" orders the Hokage. "Everyone else, close the gate! Get the civilians back to their homes and head back here!"

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In the forest, Katashiki has no problem with stopping every single attempt of Tsubai to harm him. He absorbs a cloud of black chakra Tsubai just threw at him and comes in front of the Minamoto. Before Tsubai has time to do anything, the Otsutsuki kicks him violently in the knee, breaking his leg in two and forcing him to kneel. Sitting on the floor, Tsubai holds his broken leg and lets out a loud cry of pain.

Katashiki just gives him a look of superiority, and slowly turns his head to the village's gate where he feels the ninjas coming to the battleground. Willing to not be interrupted by anyone, he just touches the ground and a giant stone wall emerges from the ground just in front of the Hokage and his shinobi. The wall grows 50 meters high, almost 2 kilometers long and 10 meters thick. Leading his troups, Kakashi reacts quickly to pierce through this barrier.

Shiden (Purple Lightning)

Purple lightning appears around the Hokage and gathers on his hand. He bounces to the wall and hits it with the lightning, the same way he would have done with his old Raikiri. As expected from the Hokage, this jutsu manages to pierce even through through such a thick wall and digs a many meters large hole in it. All the following shinobi, who were amazed and terrified by the enemy's barrier creation, all are reassured and now amazed by their Hokage's Lightning release.

Kakashi gets ready to head to the other side of the wall, but as he expected, is stopped by another of Katashiki's rampart. Once on the other side, he directly steps back inside to avoid being struck from above. At the exact place where he just stood, now stands a red chakra shape resembling a human being with red eyes but no rinnegans.

Behind this monster, a lot more like it start to emerge from the wall and block the path to the Konoha-nins. Among them, monsters of various animal shapes, and a few have the same pair of red Rinnegan as the summoner. As he witnesses this spectacle, Kakashi thinks about the intruder's ability as Naruto reported it. These monsters must be others of his soul servants. However these ones aren't what he calls Tsukumogami, since they weren't given a body. The absence of Rinnegan in most of this army of minions probably has a logic explanation, like for example Katashiki can't use his dojutsu's powers through a soul that hasn't enough chakra.

Realizing that the enemy is controlling all of these creatures, along with the two that Naruto is fighting and his own body, at once with his only mind, Kakashi understands the power of the person they were facing. He thinks about how he could have killed them with ease just now, instead of trying to stop them with a wall.

Behind him, Yamato reacts to the army of servants standing behind the wall.

Mokuton – Jukai Heki (Wood Style – Tree Wall Barrier)

Wood branches emerge from the ground at high-speed and completely cover and seal the hole in the wall that was dug earlier by the Hokage. "Well done", thinks Kakashi. The minions will probably not get past it. They are only here to keep them away from the battle. With this, Katashiki only sends a warning to the village. This battle is between him and his preys. Nobody else shall get involved.

The Hokage's thoughts now go to the girl who went first and is now alone on the other side. The giant wall appeared between the ninjas and her, and the soul servants mustn't have noticed her presence since they only came to stand before them and none went after her. She's the only one who managed to go through Katashiki's warning. And so what? She won't be of any help in such a battle. Why did she even bother to go? All that could result is her certain death. "She better act smart" thinks Kakashi again.

In the forest, Katashiki, now sure not to be disturbed, turns back to Tsubai. The young tall man is on the ground holding his broken leg, still in extreme pain from the Otsutsuki's sudden and violent hit to his knee. Katashiki turns to Naruto standing his ground against the two creatures at once, but unable to leave this fight. He looks at Tsubai again and smiles as he sees the visible pain and despair on his face.

"It hurts does it?" he asks. "Now listen and remember this: All the pain I could make you feel is just a consequence of you having this body holding you. This weak physical form only exists to remind you of its fragility, the mortality its curses on you. Pain and Death are just illusions cast by the flesh that makes you. Once I free you from this cell, only will remain the feelings your soul forces onto you. And to be freed from emotions too will just be a matter of choice, by you. With just a little push on your soul, I can make you free and eternal. Resisting is only refusing your deliverance. So, don't think of it, and join me."

He raises his hand to grab his victim's shoulder, ready to rip him out of his body in an instant. Tsubai stopped screaming but is still feeling intense pain from his distorted knee. Seeing Katashiki about to kill him, he tries to think of any solution but quickly gives up. Experiencing no resistance from his target, Katashiki smiles but his joy is immediately stopped by what he just sees appear next to him: A portal, like those of Chimatakami, on his left.

"Impossible!" he thinks. Paralyzed by fear, Katashiki just rests his hand on Tsubai's shoulder and looks attentively to the opening portal, frightened by what could step out of it. What first comes out is a kick right to his nose, pushing him away from Tsubai. The portal's summoner gets his whole body out of the portal and stands before Tsubai to shield him. It is Sasuke Uchiha, pointing his sword to the enemy.

After leaving Katashiki's hideout, he used the notes about this jutsu to learn how to stabilize these portals and locate their outcome. Standing in front of Katashiki now, Sasuke feels way less intimidated or threatened, as he now has far fewer secrets to him.

"Ah, it's only the Uchiha…" says Katashiki, reassured by what came out of the portal, but ashamed of feeling this much fear for nothing.

Sasuke turns to Tsubai and drops his sword's scabbard next to him, so he can use it to stabilize his broken leg.

"This time, it's the end for you!" says Sasuke who looks strangely confident.

"I know enough about you. I'll just hurry to free you." answers Katashiki, annoyed.

Sasuke rushes to him and goes to strike with his sword. The red-eyed man pulls a chakra rod out of his sleeve and counters the blade. The two men go on with an intense sword fight that lasts almost a minute before Sasuke disarms Katashiki by surprising him with his teleportation again. As his enemy is briefly at his mercy, Sasuke leans forward and tries to slice through his abdomen to bisect him.

Unfortunately, the sword barely goes through his skin and stops, just like Kakashi's kunai earlier. Sasuke, stupefied by his opponent's durability, stays still for a moment that Katashiki notices and uses advantageously. He hits him with his knee with incredible strength in the stomach and touches his back and pulls his soul strongly out of his body in an instant.

"NOOOOO!" screams Tsubai who was wrapping bandage around his leg, witnessing the so sudden death of the one who saved his life and guided him these last days.

"Your turn!" calmly says Katashiki who now has Sasuke's soul by his sides and Sasuke's dead body lying on the ground behind him.

But oddly, the soul servant doesn't have Katashiki's red rinnegan in both eyes but only in the right eye. Its left eye is still Sasuke's own purple 6-tomoe Rinnegan. This is a detail neither Katashiki or Tsubai saw. As his pursuer is coming toward him, Tsubai hardly stands up and straight and defies him with a cold look.

"Oh? Still willing to resist uh?" says Katashiki. "Not a problem."

He keeps walking to Tsubai full of confidence but unexpectedly feels something going through his abdomen very fast and electrocuting him. It was Sasuke's soul who seemed to have turned against its master and sliced him in half completely with a Chidori sword. Tsubai and Katashiki look at each other both with a confused face, not understanding what happened at all. Sasuke's soul returned to his lifeless body while Katashiki fell in two pieces to the ground. Now standing up as if his soul was never separated from his body, Sasuke looks at the bisected man on the ground.

"Looks like This sword can go through you" he says with a smile on his face.

"Damn I thought you fucking died, was about to cry like a dumbass" yells Tsubai, who's now glad and reassured.

"Sasuke Uchiha…" quietly says Katashiki. "How…"

"Seems like your Umashia shit doesn't work on another Rinnegan wielder." he answers. "Maybe you shouldn't have been greedy and should just have killed me instead of trying to possess me."

"I see… We learn a new thing everyday, I guess…" says the upper-body before fainting to the ground.

As Katashiki seems to be dead on the floor, Sasuke and Tsubai don't have any time to celebrate their victory as they are interrupted by an earthquake, caused by Kurama slamming the dinosaur on the ground. Sasuke turns to see the titan battle he didn't even notice until now. Kurama's avatar is all beaten up but is still standing and holding the two beasts.

To give him a hand, Sasuke summons the complete body of his base Susanoo and his bow to shoot black flame arrows at the shadow woman tearing Kurama's back apart. The Susanoo goes to stand next to Naruto's Biju Mode while the dinosaur gets up and the shadow jumps to its shoulder, after having absorbed the eternal flames.

Behind the giant wall covering Konoha's entrance, all the villagers and shinobi are sitting in a round around Hanabi narrating what she sees.

"Big Bro got help. Reinforcements is here!" she exclaims, causing everyone to cheer.

"Is that? It's Uchiha Sasuke!" she adds, now causing everyone to shut and look at each other awkwardly.

Naruto and Sasuke teaming up against the remaining enemies rapidly take the upper hand and contain the beasts with ease. Naruto looks at Sasuke, dismembering the lizardous colossus with no hesitation, and thinks again of what he knows about his adversaries that his friend doesn't.

"I just killed Katashiki, how are these bastards still here?" asks Sasuke with a frustrated voice to bring Naruto's attention back to the fight. "Of what I know, He was controlling them like pawns. Shouldn't they have died with him?"

"I still feel this moron's chakra. He doesn't feel dead to me." answers Naruto.

"What?"says Sasuke feeling his chakra too now. "How can this be? I sliced him in half!"

Suddenly, the two chakra titans are immobilized by the two-tailed beast's Shadow Paralysis. Sasuke tries to absorb the jutsu by channeling the Gakido's power through the Susanoo, but a huge black hand comes out of his shadow and holds his Susanoo's. The hand resembles a Susanoo a lot.

While they're both paralyzed, the dinosaur still standing in front of them opens his mouth and breathes out a tremendous chakra beam that it uses as a laser to annihilate the forest far away behind them and break in half their two giant bodies. As the Susanoo and the Biju Mode fall to the ground and fade away, the shadows of the to ninjas emerge from the earth, looking exactly like them but shadowy, and head to attack them. Naruto and Sasuke look at their doppelganger who suddenly rised from the ground, confused, and try to avoid and counter the shadows' hits.

They understand that the shadow woman is the one who summoned these shadows and is using them as equals to fight. Now in addition to the dinosaur and the woman, Naruto and Sasuke have to fight their own selves and are kept too busy to escape or take advantage.

Tsubai, who was watching the two heroes battling, turns to Katashiki's corpse… only to see his abdomen and legs lying there and his upper body missing. Searching around him, panicking, he tries to find where he went. In time, he sees a black receiver come to him. In reaction, he quickly performs a unique hand sign.

Jikanteido

Space and time freeze, and Tsubai takes the opportunity to find Katashiki, whom he sees not far away behind the flying rod. Wanting to send it back to the sender, Tsubai runs forward and catches the still black rod.

"DON'T DO THAT, DUMBASS!" yells Daikoku inside of Tsubai.

Too late, Tsubai holds the rod that immediately absorbs his chakra and causes the time to resume. Tsubai, caught off guard, suffers the consequences of his mistake. Katashiki, already in front of him, holds his neck and slams him into the floor before taking the chakra rod from his hand to stab him on the side of the stomach with it.

"AAH! How are you not dead?" expires Tsubai to the floating chest, head and arms.

"You humans really dare to compare a god's physical form to your weak bodies?" he answers. "You three, underestimating me was your worst mistake… Now finally, the time has come for you to…"

Before Katashiki could finish his sentence, his arms are suddenly being hold back. He feels someone on his back. Himari who sneaked out of the village earlier, finally reached the battlefield and is trying her best to save her friend.

"What about that?" she says with a breathless voice. "You're out there with two super ninjas to help you, and yet, you still need my help!" she adds mockingly.

"Himari…" says Tsubai confused and worried.

"Uhm? What's she doing here?" asks Katashiki, quite intrigued by this young girl's determination.

"Come on…" Himari says to Tsubai, ignoring Katashiki's comment and trying to hold on to him the best she can. "Don't think of giving up now! If you die here, Who's gonna take care of Miss Yokawa and Saori?"

"Get off my back" calmly says Katashiki throwing his head back to stab her under the neck with his unbroken left horn.

Himari, giving all she has to hold his arms, is muddled by the pain and accidentally lets his left arm go. As soon as free, Katashiki drops his hand, turns it backwards to Himari and grows a deadly black rod right through her chest behind him, piercing her heart. Himari in her last breath looks to Tsubai in the eyes and slightly smiles, before her head drops down.

Katashiki violently turns to the right to throw her lifeless body off his back. Tsubai's eyes follow Himari falling down. He feels like he stopped thinking, and is now struggling to breath, not wanting to believe what happened right in front of his eyes. Looking in horror at Himari, lying motionless on his side, Tsubai feels a sudden wish to die, unable to think of any reason to keep living for.

"You feel it now?" Katashiki says. "The emotions that your soul forces onto you. The weakness of consciousness."

"Boy, Come back to your mind!" Daikoku says in Tsubai's mind, who doesn't say anything. "We're about to die just like her. She didn't give her life away for us to join her a second later."

"I don't… want… W-Why… can't I just let go?" says Tsubai with a hopeless voice.

"Why? Look at me!" says the Tengu flying to stand before Tsubai. "Himari told you, just now: Natsuri and your little sister, and the village of Ryuka. She did this because you can't afford to die, WE can't afford to die."

"…" Tsubai doesn't say anything.

"Okay Right! You want a reason to live?" Daikoku says at his wit's end. "Get revenge. Katashiki right here just murdered Himari, and is willing to take our life now. Afterwards he'll use our souls to kill Naruto and Sasuke, and everyone in Konoha, then everyone in Ryuka, and who knows what next. You can let yourself die at anytime later, but not now… Not after her sacrifice…"

Katashiki standing above Tsubai lowers his hand to the ground and reaches for Tsubai's face, finally ready to grab his soul and force him to spectate as he will use him as a weapon for eternity. Finally letting Daikoku's words reach his mind, Tsubai stops Katashiki's hand by holding it firmly away from his face.

"I have no time for futile resistance anymore" says Katashiki making his hand slip through Tsubai's to reach for his face.

Tsubai and Daikoku, nearing death, quickly think of a way to safety.

Kioku Kyuin (Memory Absorption)

Tsubai extirpates Katashiki's memories of his own jutsu, Umashi Ashikabi Hikoji, with his right hold through which Katashiki is slipping just like he's absorbing his chakra. Having suddenly lost this memory, Katashiki involuntarily and uncontrollably unsummons his two remaining soul slaves, causing the Naruto and Sasuke doppelgangers to disappear too. Unaware of what happened, Katashiki still grabs Tsubai face.

"I'll take your soul now, Minamoto!" he yells before realizing he has no idea how he's supposed to do this.

He's trying hard to think of how he thought he could take Tsubai's soul and use his powers. He suddenly remembers his target's ability that also made him forget his own name once.

"WHAT DID YOU DO? WHERE ARE MY MEMORIES!" Katashiki screams at Tsubai's face, who stays resolved and quiet.

Feeling something above, the Otsutsuki looks up to see a range of black flames coming toward him. Not having to fight the shadows anymore, Naruto and Sasuke are free to go against him. Katashiki instantly flies up to dodge the arrows.

Ameno Tejikara

Sasuke uses his ability to switch the enemy with the first fire projectile, stopping his attempt at escaping and forcing the black flames of him. Confused by what happened, Katashiki doesn't have time to react and is pierced and incinerated by the flames. As the flames cover his vision and quickly melt his skin, he absorbs them and discovers Sasuke right in front of him.

Chidori

The Uchiha rips Katashiki's chest open with the thunder blade and immediately steps back as Naruto comes from above the enemy. With his Kurama cloak concentrated into his fist, The Kyubi's Jinchuriki delivers an incredibly strong punch right on the Otsutsuki's head, beating him to the ground and almost causing him to faint. The collision between his remaining upper body and the ground breaks it and propagates a new shock wave through the whole forest, collapsing the surrounding trees. Naruto lands back on his feet on Sasuke's side and falls on his knees, exhausted by the fight. Sasuke just stands still and looks at Tsubai going down the resulting hole. Katashiki is lying in the center, still alive and conscious but unable to move, seeing the Minamoto coming to face him.

"Still alive? Can you even die?" Tsubai asks with a tired and pissed off voice.

"You, You won't kill me." says Katashiki quietly.

"Killing you? We don't need that. You lost, They beat you." answers Tsubai.

Katashiki looks behind Tsubai to see outside the hole and is blinded by the sunlight, only able to see Naruto and Sasuke's silhouettes looking down on him.

"No need to kill you. I'll just finish you off." says Tsubai unleashing a black chakra aura.

The black chakra shapes into a black misty hood on him and a long scythe in his hand.

Daikoku

Tsubai slices through Katashiki and the ground with the weapon, covering his target with a darkness cloud. As he is being engulfed, Katashiki looks at those who've beaten him and thinks of all he had planned after this. How capturing these guys was only supposed to be the first step of a long quest for freedom and a fight against something far more powerful than him or anything that ever touched this planet. The darkness swallows him and vanishes. Katashiki had completely faded away with the black cloud. Not even Tsubai knows where he sent him. He just knows that he sealed him in a place he won't ever be able to escape.

"Himari… We won…" Tsubai says with his eyes up to the sky, and tears flowing down his face.

.

End of Chapter 7 – Next Chapter: Reality