Sasuke glanced at Naruto out of the corner of his eye and gave a soft snort.
"Shut up, dead last."
The instant he finished speaking, Konan poured the last of her Chakra into the blue crystal. The array of light beneath their feet blazed to life. Brilliant bands of light swept them up, and space tore open amid a violent distortion. Every sound and sight from the outside world—including the worried gazes of the Raikage and Ōnoki—was swallowed in an instant.
The weightlessness lasted only a moment.
Then came a ferocious jolt, as if it would crush their very souls.
This was no "passage." It was a slender thread forced open amid a storm of space and time, one that could snap at any moment. Beyond its walls lay bizarre, shifting colors and spatial currents powerful enough to tear anything apart.
"Hold on tight!" Nagato barked, his Rinnegan fixed on the only point of light ahead—the exit.
Before the words had left his mouth, a patch of "light membrane" on the passage wall ahead suddenly caved inward, then tore apart under an invisible force. A chunk of space, carrying chaotic energy and as massive as a boulder, hurtled toward them with a destructive force.
"Susanoo!"
Sasuke didn't even have time to form hand seals. At the thought, purple Chakra erupted from his body and instantly coalesced into a massive skeletal arm in front of him. Its fingers spread like a shield, precisely intercepting the fragment.
BOOM!
The muffled impact exploded on a spiritual level. Susanoo's arm jolted violently, spiderweb cracks spreading across its surface, but it managed to deflect the fragment. The chunk ricocheted into the opposite wall of the passage and vanished into nothing.
But that was only the beginning.
The farther they went, the more unstable the passage