The Pure Land, on the battlefield between Kaguya Otsutsuki and Asura.
Just as Asura integrated the complete chakra and consciousness the Sage of Six Paths had "returned" to him, his aura surged. He was preparing to challenge his grandmother, Kaguya Otsutsuki, once more in this more complete state and unleash his full might when something suddenly changed.
"Switch!"
A low, calm voice, carrying the tone of an unquestionable command, cut through the space roiling with energy like a cold blade.
Before the voice had faded, a black figure moving so fast he almost blended into the shadows of space charged in from the side at near-teleportation speed.
He neither attacked Kaguya nor paid any attention to the attack Asura was poised to unleash. Instead, he deftly grabbed the back of Asura's clothes.
Then came a skillfully applied twisting force!
Asura's vision blurred, and his body spun an involuntary hundred and eighty degrees under that force.
One moment he had been facing Kaguya; the next, his back was to her, and he was facing the opposite direction.
The sudden change startled Asura, but his extensive combat experience allowed him to steady himself immediately, his chakra instinctively gathering.
Yet when he focused his gaze ahead, he saw two figures pursuing them.
Asura recognized one of them: that formidable Uchiha girl-Uchiha Hikari.
She held the Uchiha Gunbai, her gaze sharp. Clearly, the black figure's sudden intrusion had alerted her, and she had given chase.
The other figure, however, made Asura's pupils contract slightly, an inexplicable sense of familiarity and confusion rising within him.
He was a fairly young-looking man, tall and slender, dressed in a simple, dark combat outfit. His short, brilliant blond hair bore some resemblance to Naruto Uzumaki's hairstyle, though it was neater.
Most striking of all were his eyes: a