After forcing Rasa and the other two back, Akaseki immediately headed deeper into the fortress.
Just then—
Crash! A deafening noise rang out.
The three of them immediately followed the sound down the passage, racing toward its source!
Sky Ninja tried to stop them along the way, but the moment one showed his face, Akaseki subdued him with Genjutsu. With his current Dojutsu Power, he could afford to use as much as he liked.
Any opponent he could handle with Genjutsu barely counted as an expenditure!
Boom! Another crash sounded ahead.
When Akaseki and the others arrived, they saw that the ceiling of the enormous chamber at the end of the passage had been smashed open. There was a huge hole in the floor as well, and the noise continued overhead.
Though the chamber stood several stories tall, the three of them leaped up through the ceiling.
Above the hole lay the top of the fortress.
Dusk had fallen. The setting sun and a young moon shared the sky, while the evening glow cast a red tint over the upper half of the fortress and the stone statues in the forest.
And among those statues—
Boom! Another tremendous crash.
They looked toward the sound and saw a gigantic puppet thrusting the massive spear in its hand at a stone carving of a human head. Half man and half horse, with a single horn, the puppet was smaller than a Tailed Beast, but roughly as large as Gamabunta, whom Jiraiya could summon—just much slimmer.
The giant centaur puppet was not attacking the statue for no reason. Someone atop it was dodging the blows!
A closer look revealed Uchiha Gongzhi Jiu.
When the giant puppet's strike missed, Gongzhi Jiu launched a huge fireball straight into its face while still airborne. But—
It