NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: 31. Purge The Akatsuki
The chamber erupted into chaos as the battles between the Akatsuki members and Team Ryusei began. Each fighter had their own unique power and style, but in this timeline, the Akatsuki members had been resurrected with even greater abilities, and the stakes were higher than ever.
Sakura vs. Kazuko, the Earth Manipulator
Sakura charged through the cracked terrain she had created, her fists glowing with chakra as she closed in on one of the Akatsuki members, Kazuko. He was a towering figure, his skin covered in jagged, stone-like armor, and the ground around him rippled with raw earth chakra as he manipulated the terrain.
"Let's see if you can break through this, little kunoichi!" Kazuko taunted, raising his hands. Massive walls of rock erupted from the ground, forming barriers around Sakura and closing in on her from all sides.
But Sakura wasn't fazed. With a roar, she slammed her fists into the ground, shattering the walls of rock with her raw strength. The earth around them trembled as she broke through Kazuko's defenses with ease.
"Too slow!" she yelled, leaping forward. Her fist, now infused with Void energy, connected with Kazuko's stone-armored chest. The force of the impact was devastating, sending shockwaves through his body. The Void chakra destabilized his earth chakra, causing his armor to crack and fall away.
Kazuko stumbled back, his eyes wide with shock. "What—?"
Before he could react, Sakura delivered another crushing blow, this time to his face. The Void energy tore through his defenses, and with a final scream, Kazuko's body crumbled into dust, the Edo Tensei jutsu unable to hold his form together.
Sakura stood over the remains, breathing heavily but victorious. "You underestimated me."
Sasuke vs. Natsuki, the Lightning Phantom
Across the battlefield, Sasuke faced off against Natsuki, an Akatsuki member known for her mastery of lightning chakra. She moved with incredible speed, her body flickering like a phantom as she darted between the shadows, hurling lightning-infused kunai at Sasuke with deadly precision.
"You can't hit what you can't see, Uchiha!" Natsuki taunted, her voice echoing from all directions as she vanished and reappeared in bursts of lightning.
Sasuke remained calm, his Sharingan tracking her every move. "I don't need to see you to hit you."
He formed a hand seal, and in an instant, his body crackled with Void energy. The air around him distorted as he channeled Void chakra into his lightning-style techniques. With a flick of his wrist, Sasuke launched several Void-infused lightning shuriken into the air. The shuriken split into multiple smaller shuriken, each one infused with a combination of lightning and Void chakra.
Natsuki reappeared just in time to see the glowing shuriken homing in on her. She tried to dodge, but the Void energy distorted the space around her, making her movements slower and more predictable. The shuriken hit their mark, and Natsuki let out a scream as the Void energy disrupted her chakra network.
Her body convulsed as the Void lightning coursed through her, destabilizing her form. She collapsed to the ground, her lightning chakra flickering and fading as the Edo Tensei jutsu unraveled, leaving her broken and defeated.
Sasuke stood over her, his Sharingan glowing in the dim light. "You relied too much on speed. That was your mistake."
Naruto vs. Hiruko, the Puppet Master
Naruto found himself facing Hiruko, a twisted and grotesque puppet master whose body was a patchwork of stolen jutsu and body parts. His arms were elongated, and chakra threads stretched from his fingers, controlling a swarm of deadly, weaponized puppets that surrounded Naruto on all sides.
Hiruko grinned wickedly, his voice a harsh rasp. "You're surrounded, boy. Let's see how well you handle this many opponents at once!"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, his hands glowing as he formed multiple Rasengans in quick succession. "You think you're the only one with numbers?"
In a flash, Naruto summoned dozens of shadow clones, each one forming their own Rasengan. The battlefield erupted into chaos as the clones charged at the puppets, destroying them with rapid bursts of Rasengan-infused Void energy. The puppets exploded into splinters, but more kept coming.
"Is that all you've got?" Hiruko sneered, controlling the puppets with expert precision. But his confidence faltered when Naruto's clones began to infuse their Rasengans with more Void chakra, creating miniature implosions with each attack.
The Void Rasengans tore through the puppets, destabilizing the chakra threads that controlled them. Hiruko's eyes widened in horror as his army of puppets began to collapse, the Void energy disrupting his control over them.
Naruto grinned, his voice confident. "You're not the only one with tricks up his sleeve!"
With a final burst of energy, Naruto hurled a massive Void-infused Rasengan directly at Hiruko. The ball of energy collided with the puppet master, creating an implosion that sucked in everything around it. Hiruko let out a scream as his body was torn apart by the force of the attack, the Void energy ripping through his stolen jutsu and unraveling the Edo Tensei jutsu that held him together.
Naruto stood tall as the dust settled, his fists still glowing with chakra. "Guess you weren't ready for that one, huh?"
Anon and Ryusei vs. Orochimaru and the Akatsuki Elite
While their teammates battled the Akatsuki members, Anon and Ryusei faced the most dangerous opponents—the leader himself, Orochimaru, and two of the Akatsuki's elite members, Shikyo and Meido, who had mastered the arts of death and necromancy.
Orochimaru's serpentine eyes gleamed with excitement as he watched Anon approach. "Finally… we can begin."
Shikyo, a tall, skeletal figure with dark, sunken eyes, stood at Orochimaru's side, his body surrounded by a dark aura of death energy. Meido, a pale woman with black, flowing robes, stood opposite him, her hands glowing with necrotic chakra.
Anon and Ryusei exchanged a glance, their bodies rippling with Void and Time energy, respectively. They didn't need words to communicate—they both knew what needed to be done.
"You take Shikyo. I'll handle Meido," Ryusei said, his voice calm but focused.
Anon nodded, his eyes narrowing as he focused on Orochimaru. "Leave Orochimaru to me."
Without another word, the two of them charged forward.
Ryusei moved with lightning speed, teleporting through time as he weaved between Shikyo's death energy attacks. Each time Shikyo raised his hand, sending waves of black chakra to rot the very life from Ryusei's body, Ryusei would disappear, reappearing behind him to strike with bursts of Time-infused energy. Shikyo's attacks were powerful, but Ryusei's mastery of time allowed him to outmaneuver the deadly necromancer, his attacks landing faster than Shikyo could react.
Meanwhile, Anon faced off against Orochimaru, the two of them circling each other like predators. Orochimaru's tongue flicked out as he smiled, his voice dripping with malice. "You can't run from your destiny, Anon. The Void belongs to me."
Anon's eyes darkened, Void energy swirling around him. "I've already told you—this power is mine."
With a burst of Void energy, Anon attacked, his hand crackling with dark, destabilizing energy. Orochimaru dodged, his body twisting and contorting in unnatural ways, but Anon's strikes were relentless. Each time he missed, the Void energy distorted the air around Orochimaru, making it harder for him to escape.
Orochimaru grinned as he summoned a massive snake from the ground, the serpent lunging at Anon with fangs bared. But Anon didn't flinch. With a flick of his wrist, he tore a hole in the fabric of reality, and the snake was swallowed by the Void, disappearing into nothingness.
"You've gotten stronger," Orochimaru admitted, his grin never fading. "But you still don't understand the true nature of the Void."
Anon's eyes flashed with determination. "Then I'll show you."
With a roar, Anon unleashed the full power of the Void, his body glowing with an intense, otherworldly light. The air around him distorted, and the ground beneath his feet began to crack and crumble as the Void consumed everything in its path. Orochimaru's smile faltered for the first time as the overwhelming force of Anon's attack surged toward him.
The final battle had begun, and the fate of the Void—and the world—hung in the balance.
Anon vs. Orochimaru: The Battle for the Void
As the ground beneath their feet crumbled under the sheer weight of Void energy, Orochimaru's serpentine grin faltered. His pale, sunken eyes gleamed with a mixture of excitement and unease. He had expected Anon to be powerful, but the intensity of the Void now swirling around the young shinobi was beyond anything he had anticipated.
Anon's body pulsed with Void energy, the space around him distorting and warping as if reality itself struggled to contain the force he wielded. His movements were slow and deliberate as he circled Orochimaru, his dark eyes glowing with lethal intent.
Orochimaru's grin returned, but there was a wariness behind it now. "Impressive, Anon. The Void reacts to you in ways even I did not expect. But the question is—how long can you control it?"
With a flick of his wrist, Orochimaru summoned a mass of writhing snakes from the ground. The serpents lunged toward Anon, their fangs dripping with venom, but Anon remained calm, his gaze fixed on the monstrous creatures. He raised his hand, and the Void responded.
A tear in the fabric of reality opened in front of him, a swirling vortex of darkness that consumed the snakes before they could reach him. The serpents were pulled into the Void, their bodies disintegrating into nothingness as they vanished from existence.
"I control it well enough to destroy you," Anon said, his voice cold and emotionless.
Orochimaru's smile widened into a twisted, unnatural grin. "Is that so? Then let's see how far you're willing to go!"
Orochimaru's body contorted and shifted, his form stretching unnaturally as he summoned a massive serpent from the depths of the earth. The giant snake, its scales gleaming with dark chakra, lunged at Anon with terrifying speed, its fangs aimed directly at his heart.
But Anon was ready.
He flicked his wrist again, and another Void rift opened, this time behind the serpent. The space around the creature distorted, and it was pulled backward into the tear, its massive form disintegrating into the Void before it could reach its target.
As Orochimaru attempted to summon more serpents, Anon moved forward, his body flickering in and out of reality as he closed the distance between them. The Void rippled around him, the energy distorting space and time with every step. With a flash of his hand, Anon unleashed a concentrated blast of Void energy toward Orochimaru.
The blast hit Orochimaru with the force of a collapsing star, the Void energy wrapping around him like chains, pulling at the very fabric of his being. Orochimaru let out a guttural snarl as the Void tried to tear him apart, but with a wicked grin, he unleashed a burst of dark chakra, momentarily pushing the Void energy back.
"Do you really think it will be that easy, Anon?" Orochimaru hissed. His voice was filled with malevolent glee as he reached into his cloak, pulling out a scroll marked with ancient symbols. "I've been preparing for this moment for a long time."
The scroll unfurled in Orochimaru's hands, and with a wave of his arm, he summoned a massive, otherworldly beast—a monstrous, writhing abomination composed of multiple serpents, their eyes glowing with deathly energy. The beast reared up, its heads striking out in unison, each one aiming for a different part of Anon's body.
Anon didn't flinch. He raised both hands, his fingers crackling with Void energy as he formed a complex series of seals. The air around him shimmered as a massive sphere of Void chakra formed in front of him, dark tendrils of energy lashing out like whips.
The Void sphere grew, its size dwarfing the serpentine beast as it surged forward. The moment the sphere made contact with the creature, it imploded with a deafening roar. The force of the implosion collapsed the space around it, creating a black hole-like effect that tore the beast apart piece by piece, each serpent head disintegrating into nothingness.
Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock as his creation was erased from existence. Anon moved forward again, his body flickering as he teleported short distances, closing the gap between them.
"Enough games," Anon growled. "This ends now."
Ryusei vs. Meido, the Necromancer
On the opposite side of the chamber, Ryusei found himself locked in combat with Meido, the necromancer whose mastery of death energy was unlike anything Ryusei had ever encountered. Her body seemed to float just above the ground, her robes billowing around her like a dark storm. Her pale, ghostly face remained expressionless as she raised her hand, summoning waves of dark, necrotic chakra that lashed out toward Ryusei like black tendrils.
"You cannot stop death, child," Meido intoned, her voice echoing unnaturally in the chamber. "Death is inevitable. It will consume you, just as it has consumed all others."
Ryusei's eyes narrowed as he dodged the first wave of necrotic energy, his body flickering in and out of time as he shifted through space, avoiding the deadly tendrils. He moved with precision, his hands crackling with pink and blue energy as he summoned his own attacks.
"You talk too much," Ryusei muttered.
With a flick of his wrist, Ryusei released a pulse of Time chakra, the air around him distorting as the energy expanded outward. The tendrils of necrotic energy slowed, moving in slow motion as Ryusei manipulated the flow of time around him. In the same breath, he summoned his Dragon Sage Mode, his aura flaring with a vibrant pink and blue light, the energy forming the outline of a massive dragon around him.
Meido's eyes narrowed as she watched Ryusei's transformation, her hands still weaving intricate seals. "Interesting. You manipulate time itself. But it won't be enough to save you from what I've summoned."
With a flick of her fingers, Meido summoned a wave of reanimated corpses—shinobi long dead, their bodies twisted by necromantic energy. They moved toward Ryusei with eerie precision, their eyes glowing with dark chakra.
Ryusei took a deep breath, his aura pulsing with power. The reanimated corpses charged at him, but Ryusei's body flickered in and out of time, moving too quickly for them to react. He appeared behind the first corpse, his hand glowing with Time energy as he struck it in the back. The corpse disintegrated into dust, its chakra network completely severed.
As the remaining corpses swarmed him, Ryusei moved like a blur, his body a flicker of pink and blue light as he tore through the enemy ranks. Each strike was precise, each movement calculated. The corpses fell one by one, their necromantic chakra unable to withstand the force of Ryusei's Time-infused attacks.
Meido watched with cold, detached interest as her minions were destroyed. "You are persistent. But I wonder how well you will fare against this."
With a wave of her hand, Meido summoned a massive wave of death energy, the dark chakra surging toward Ryusei like a tidal wave. The air around him grew heavy, the oppressive weight of the necrotic energy threatening to crush him.
But Ryusei remained calm. He raised his hand, his aura flaring brighter as he summoned a massive sphere of Time chakra. The sphere pulsed with energy, and as the wave of death chakra collided with it, the Time energy expanded outward, freezing the wave in midair.
The necrotic chakra hung suspended in time, unable to move as Ryusei manipulated the flow of energy around it. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the frozen wave hurtling back toward Meido.
The necromancer's eyes widened in surprise as her own attack was turned against her. She raised her hands to block the attack, but the force of the Time chakra was too much. The wave of necrotic energy collided with her, and for the first time, Meido let out a pained scream as the Time energy tore through her body.
Her form began to flicker, her body destabilizing as the Edo Tensei jutsu struggled to hold her together. Ryusei didn't give her time to recover. He teleported behind her, his hand glowing with concentrated Time energy.
"This is the end," he said, his voice cold.
With a final strike, Ryusei severed the chakra threads holding Meido's form together. Her body collapsed into dust, her necromantic energy dissipating into the air.
Ryusei stood over the remains, his breathing steady but his eyes fierce. "Death can't claim what time refuses to yield."
Sasuke and Sakura vs. Shikyo, the Master of Death
While Ryusei was locked in combat with Meido, Sasuke and Sakura found themselves facing Shikyo, a skeletal figure draped in black robes, his eyes glowing with dark energy. Shikyo was a master of death chakra, and his mere presence seemed to drain the life from the air around them.
Sasuke's Sharingan flared to life as he sized up the enemy, his gaze locked on Shikyo's movements. "Stay sharp, Sakura. This one's dangerous."
Sakura nodded, her fists glowing with chakra. "I can handle him. Let's take him down."
Shikyo's voice was a low, rasping whisper as he raised his hands, summoning a wave of dark energy that surged toward them like a flood of death. "Your lives are forfeit. Death comes for all."
Sasuke moved first, his body a blur of motion as he dodged the wave of death energy, his Sharingan predicting Shikyo's movements with perfect clarity. He formed a series of hand seals, summoning lightning chakra infused with Void energy. With a shout, he hurled a bolt of Void-infused lightning toward Shikyo, the energy crackling through the air.
Shikyo raised a hand, deflecting the lightning with a wall of dark energy, but Sasuke was already moving. He appeared behind Shikyo in a flash, his katana drawn as he aimed for a lethal strike.
But Shikyo was fast. He turned just in time, his skeletal hand grabbing Sasuke's wrist and stopping the blade inches from his face. "Foolish child."
Before Shikyo could counterattack, Sakura charged forward, her fist glowing with chakra as she slammed it into Shikyo's chest with all her strength. The force of the punch sent a shockwave through the chamber, the ground cracking beneath them as Shikyo was sent flying backward.
Sasuke landed beside Sakura, his eyes narrowing. "Nice timing."
Sakura grinned. "I've got your back."
Shikyo rose slowly from the rubble, his skeletal form crackling with dark energy. "You… dare…"
Sasuke formed another series of hand seals, his Sharingan spinning as he summoned a massive bolt of Void-infused lightning. The energy crackled around him, distorting the air as it surged toward Shikyo.
At the same time, Sakura charged forward again, her fists glowing with Void energy as she prepared to deliver the final blow.
Together, they attacked in perfect unison, their combined strength overwhelming Shikyo. The lightning bolt hit him first, destabilizing his chakra, and in the same moment, Sakura's Void-infused punch shattered his skeletal form, reducing him to dust.
As the battle ended, Sasuke and Sakura stood victorious, their breathing steady as they surveyed the battlefield. The final members of the Akatsuki had been defeated, but the true battle—against Orochimaru and Anon's Void—was still far from over.
Back at the center of the chamber, Anon and Orochimaru continued their clash, their powers colliding in a cataclysmic storm of Void and dark chakra. The outcome of the battle for the Void was still uncertain, and with every passing moment, the stakes grew higher.