While Naruto considered how to defeat Sasuke without hurting him, Sasuke was thinking about how to overwhelm Naruto completely!
Naruto has regeneration beyond all reason. Even a severed arm can recover in an instant. He has Flying Thunder God, superb sensory abilities, and the Rinnegan's perception. Touching him directly will be too difficult. Better to create terrain that works in my favor. I'll use that technique!
Sizzle!
Dark purple eyeshadow appeared around Sasuke's eyelids, a characteristic of Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode. This time, however, his Sage Transformation did not produce the horns he once had.
Sasuke reveled in the surging sage power within him. "After gaining Six Paths Power, using senjutsu no longer changes my appearance as dramatically as before. But the strength of my sage power has made a qualitative leap. Good. That means this technique should be more effective than I can imagine!"
He formed hand seals.
Six Paths: Inorganic Reincarnation!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Countless terrifying barbs protruded from the cliffs, extending and retracting repeatedly as they stabbed toward Naruto!
Naruto dodged rapidly, trying to rise into the sky and get away from the barbs.
But the barbs extended to an outrageous length. In the blink of an eye, they reached higher than Naruto, then bent sharply downward, blotting out the sky!
With no other choice, Naruto dropped quickly toward the water, but countless barbs thrust upward even from the riverbed beneath it!
He was hemmed in from every direction, as though the entire Valley of the End were out to get him!
"No other choice..."
Naruto leaped from the water and stopped abruptly in midair. The Truth-Seeking Orbs transformed directly into a spherical shield, enclosing him within it!
Shhk, shhk, shhk... the stabbing barbs of Inorganic Reincarnation attacked the Truth-Seeking Orb shield from every direction at an