Smoke and dust filled Konoha Gate. The thunder of ninjutsu mingled with the roars of summoning beasts.
Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi stood at the center of the battlefield, both hands gripping an enormous weapon: the Adamantine Staff.
The staff was no ordinary metal. It was his old comrade, Monkey King Enma, transformed. Hard as diamond, it could extend and contract at will, even changing into chains, a long staff, or a massive pillar as the battle demanded.
"Roar!"
Azure Dragon's massive tail swept toward him. The Third Hokage's eyes narrowed, and the staff in his hands shot outward, slamming down like a pillar holding up the heavens!
Bang!
The air exploded. Sparks flew as Azure Dragon's scales struck the staff. The impact cracked the ground beneath the Third Hokage's feet, but he did not budge. Instead, he swung with the force of the blow and drove Azure Dragon back several meters.
Before he could catch his breath, White Tiger's claws came at him from the side!
"Lightning Release: Lightning Bullet!"
Shii's timely attack forced White Tiger back in a flash of blinding lightning. Darui seized the opening and swung his Ninja Blade, Lightning Release Chakra wrapped around its edge, at another approaching Nine-Headed Beast.
The Third Hokage's gaze remained calm, but unease weighed on him. These summoning beasts were too troublesome.
He had fought all his life and seen countless powerful summoning beasts. But nine gathered together, each at least as strong as an elite Jonin? The last time summoning beasts had troubled him this much was when he faced Hanzo of the Salamander.
Azure Dragon and Black Tortoise excelled in close combat, their scales hard as iron. White Tiger was blindingly fast, her claws able to tear through chakra-reinforced ninja tools. The two staff-bearing humanoid summoning beasts could use Sealing Jutsu to restrict their movements, leaving Grim Reaper to drain their chakra. Meanwhile, the giant bird circling overhead kept diving at them, disrupting the Konoha Anbu's formation.
They were no ordinary beasts. They were rigorously trained weapons of war, each with a distinct fighting style, working together without a seam.
"Lord Hokage!" a Hyuga Anbu shouted through gritted teeth. "Their chakra signatures... they're still growing stronger!"
The Third Hokage tightened his grip on the staff. Resolve settled over his aged face. It seemed he could no longer hold back.
He drew a deep breath, and the chakra within him began to boil. As the Professor of Ninjutsu, master of all five nature transformations, he was rarely forced to fight with everything he had.
But today, against these monstrous Nine-Headed Beasts...
"Everyone, fall back!"
The Third Hokage gave the order and rapidly formed Hand Seals. Chakra surged through him. Now he would show these summoning beasts what Kage Level power truly meant.
The Third Hokage's Shadow Clones completed their Hand Seals in an instant. Four figures took positions around the battlefield as wind, fire, lightning, earth, and water chakra gathered in their throats.
Five Release: Great Combined Bullet Technique. It was a devastating jutsu capable of tearing the Nine-Headed Beasts' formation apart.
But just as the chakra was about to erupt—
Whoosh!
The Nine-Headed Beasts vanished without warning.
It was neither a Body Flicker Technique nor a Body Replacement Technique. They disappeared like illusions wiped away, leaving not even a trace of chakra.
The Third Hokage's aged fingers clenched. He forced himself to halt the jutsu an instant before releasing it.
Something was wrong.
His battlefield instincts hammered at him. The summoning beasts had vanished too strangely, as though some higher power had forcibly called them back.
He snapped his head up, his sharp eyes piercing the sky.
A hundred meters above, a blurred figure hovered motionless. His black robe billowed like ink spreading through clear water. An indescribable mass of black energy gathered in his hand, swallowing even the light around it.
"Sakufuu! Use your Byakugan to check that direction!"
"Yes!"
Hyuga Sakufuu, an elite Anbu of the Hyuga Branch Family, formed Hand Seals without hesitation. Veins bulged beside his eyes beneath his mask, and his Byakugan locked onto the dark figure in the sky.
Then—"...!"
His breath stopped.
Through the Byakugan, what he saw "inside" that human-shaped outline was nothing like the chakra flow of a human being.
It was an abyss.
Black, viscous, violent chakra writhed like a living thing. A crimson vortex churned at its core, and every pulse made the surrounding Nature Energy groan under the strain. Merely looking at it felt as if cold tendrils were crawling along his gaze into his brain, tearing at his reason.
What... what is that...?
Sakufuu's fingertips began to tremble. On the night the Fourth Hokage died, he had observed a Tailed Beast with his Byakugan. He had even looked directly at Kurama's chakra during his rampage. But the being in the sky was far more... profane.
No... impossible... How could a human's chakra network contain that much...?
The density of its chakra had gone beyond any question of quantity. It seemed to deny existence itself. Like someone watching a tsunami approach, Sakufuu found even fear too feeble a response.
Cold sweat ran down Sakufuu's jaw and soaked the lining of his Anbu uniform. His throat seized. He tried to report to the Third Hokage, but no sound came out—
"Sakufuu!"
The Third Hokage's bark struck like thunder, cutting through Sakufuu's fear-frozen thoughts. He jolted awake from the nightmare, and blood seemed to flow through his body again. His throat ached with dryness, but he finally forced out the words—
"Lord Hokage! We have to stop that jutsu! If it hits Konoha... the entire village will be leveled!"
The threat of death had never felt so clear.
The Third Hokage's pupils contracted. His instincts had already sensed the danger, but when Sakufuu confirmed it aloud, his worst fear became real.
"Sealing Squad! Raise a barrier, now!"
He gave the order sharply and prepared to form Hand Seals, hoping to disrupt Menma in the sky with a jutsu as quickly as possible.
The figure overhead moved.
Menma slowly raised his hand. The black sphere—the Great Spiraling Ring—began to descend in silence.
It was not fast. It even seemed slow, as though mocking the struggles of those below. That unhurried descent made it all the more hopeless.
Where the black sphere passed, the air twisted and fractured. Even space itself seemed unable to bear its weight.
Destruction was about to fall.
Uzumaki Menma hovered above the clouds, his black robe snapping in the turbulent wind. Above his palm, the black sphere—the Great Spiraling Ring—continued to collapse inward and condense at a terrifying rate.
Its chakra core, already deep as an abyss, grew denser still. Even light could not escape its pull. Black energy compressed to its limit, and ominous patterns rippled across its surface, twisting and writhing like veins.
Around the Spiraling Ring, space began to fracture.
Pale rings of energy appeared from nowhere, slowly circling the black sphere like planetary rings. They were not solid. They were rifts in space, formed as chakra compressed to its limit scraped violently against Nature Energy. Suspended high in the sky, it looked like a Saturn shrunk countless times over.
Hummm!
A low hum rose from within the sphere. Konoha's shinobi looked up, the slowly descending black star reflected in their eyes.
Each inch the Spiraling Ring fell made the surrounding air groan under the strain. Clouds tore apart, light warped, and even sound was swallowed whole.
A primal fear spread through every heart.
Beyond the fear of death lay an instinctive shudder before something beyond comprehension—the terror of ants watching a meteor fall.
"This is my parting gift."
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