Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
The Shinden Saga – Arc 4: The Otsutsuki War
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Chapter 162 – Unexpected Reinforcement
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In the land of Earth, in front of Iwagakure, only very few ninjas are still standing in their battle against Yasona Otsutsuki. Since he appeared to take part in the fight, Hachibi is what monopolized the goddess' attention, so much that she even forgot about Takeshi slipping into Iwa.
While the efforts of most ninjas are now focused on busying Yasona to create an opening for the stronger ones, Bee and Hachibi foolishly think of their size as enough of an advantage for a sudden strike. While she playfully dodges countless jutsu aimed at her by gently flying around over the army, she catches sight of the giant ushioni leaping over the mountains and reaching above her.
With precision, she strikes the tentacles back with gentle fists as they fall to push them away and, once done with the 8 limbs, floats right in front of the Biju's abdomen.
Hakke Kusho
With a swift hit through the air, she repulses Hachibi back behind the mountains where he came from. While he flutters across the field, Bee lets his impatience win. So after he crashes and gets back on his tentacles, everyone notices a chakra bomb charging up in front of the bull's muzzle. Knowing that his previous Bijudama barely left a bruise on her, they try to make this one as big as they can, and therefore need more time to prepare it.
Understanding this, the remaining troops of Suna send all the puppets they can still use to block Yasona right as she prepares to interrupt the Biju's effort.
"Pff. You still have those wooden figures flying around?" the goddess mocks while avoiding them all before swiftly swinging her hand to catch every single chakra string connected to these weapons at once.
Ohoma Gatsuhi
By spreading her chakra rapidly through these links, she gets rid of the puppets and their masters at once, including Shakiro, the teammate of Shinki. Then, before she can focus on Hachibi again, Yasona is suddenly caught and bound by elongated blonde hair that grip on and spread her limbs.
With the Byakugan, she sees Mira Fuhatsu on the ground, whose hair it is. Recognizing the woman with super hearing, she quietly whispers "you got pretty hair, girl. I'd hate to damage it.", making sure that only she hears her. After this quiet provocation she effortlessly moves through the binding, rolls Mira's hair around her arm and pulls on it, forcing the kunoichi to be brought to her. Yasona catches her by the cheeks mid air and charmingly smiles at her before gently kissing her forehead.
Ohoma Gatsuhi
Spreading her chakra through her lips, she uses her Hijutsu again and neutralizes Mira as well before dropping her. Shinki and Gaara try to save Mira with sand projectiles too late. While Shinki shoots his iron sand as bullets to the goddess, the Kazekage makes sure to catch the unconscious kunoichi.
Once his teammate is safe, Shinki brings all his iron sand, gathered as a black cloud trying to engulf Yasona, to the ground in 4 different spots. 4 corners of a figure drawn by Gaara's sand, with Yasona in the middle above. She obviously notices this and knows what it will be, but is distracted again by rock pebbles heating and blowing up all around her.
It is Kaori using her Bakuton. She is standing behind Chojuro, Jinbei and others of Kiri who combine their Suiton into a massive water shape.
Suiton – Dai Hakugei (Moby Dick)
The mass of water becomes a giant whale that flies toward Yasona and tries to swallow her. But like Suigetsu's wave earlier, it has no effect. Yasona simply blows up the whale with a palm hit and lets the raining droplets clean the dust off her clothes. Watching the scene from the ground, Kaori looks for Takeshi as he probably could have an impact on the opponent. Remembering that he left earlier, she tries to think of anyone else from Kiri who's strong enough, but doesn't find.
"This wouldn't have been as pointless if Teru didn't desert Kiri." she says.
"I don't think he'd have made a difference." Kokoro, her sensei, answers, wondering if Kaori's goal is to blame Takeshi again for Teru Uchiha and Mariko Uchida's desertion.
"Aren't reports saying that he awakened a Mangekyo Sharingan in Hikari?" Kaori asks, actually not thinking of blaming anyone. "That kind of power is what works against these aliens."
"Not every Mangekyo Sharingan user is like Sasuke." Kokoro corrects her. "This Dojutsu probably made Teru at best just as strong as Lord Mizukage and Raikage."
Chojuro raises an eyebrow but contains his reaction when he hears this statement. It's harmless but sounds like it implies that he is too weak for this. Yasona, who let this conversation distract her, raises her eyes again to see Hachibi's bomb ready to be fired.
Bijudama
The monster throws an energy ball twice as large as himself to Yasona who stands still and analyzes the projectile as it comes. All the ninjas on the ground wait to see if this is gonna cause serious harm or not. When it reaches her, the goddess of mischief skillfully curves her body and flies down, embracing the curvature of the orb while watching at the moon she sees in the distance.
Then, with a strong kick in the bomb, she manages to deflect it far in the sky, toward Yamitsuki's battleground. Bee and Hachibi stare agape at their Bijudama flying away, giving them flashbacks to the time the Juubi similarly deflected a smaller bomb with a flicker.
On the ground, the ninjas of Kiri, Kumo and the few left of Suna look up in silence, wondering what could come to their rescue if even this didn't work. However, Shinki and Gaara don't let the emotion take them down and hurry to take advantage of Yasona's new position in the air close enough to the ground, and unleash their sealing attempt.
Messabaku So
In the square shape drawn on the ground, the soil turns into sand that erupts into a massive monster mouth and closes around Yasona to swallow her before enclosing itself in a dense mass that reshapes into a pyramid.
Sabaku Sotaiso Fuin
The pyramid is sealed by Shinki's iron sand and multiple sealing notes spread around the walls to contain all chakra inside. To strengthen the containment, Darui and other ninjas of Kumo leap forward to add their Raiton and solidify the sand, but stone columns suddenly emerge from the pyramid and shatter it before they can contribute. The exploding pyramid is carried in a strong wind stream that creates a sandstorm.
Through the sand, Yome, kunoichi of Suna, tries to localize the enemy with her Dojutsu, the Tomegan. She finds her standing on top of one of the rising pillars, staring back at her.
"There she…" Yome starts to say, before suddenly being stabbed by red chakra needles, like all the other ninjas of Suna around her, falling into Yasona's Ohoma Gatsuhi.
But her signal still reaches Darui and Chojuro, who jump into action together. Standing on her elevating stage, Yasona notices the two Kage climbing up by foot and one of them sending a first jutsu forward.
Raiton – Black Panther
She leans back just in time to dodge the running thunder feline that misses her as it leaps higher above the pillar. There she simply manipulates the wind streams to dissolve it with Futon. Then Chojuro emerges on one side of the pillar, holding Hiramekarei all loaded up in chakra, shaped as a huge hammer that he throws down on her.
Yasona promptly stops the hammer's fall by simply holding it back with one hand and raises her leg, ready to intercept the Raikage who now emerges with his sword in hand. Before he can do anything, she swings her leg up to kick his arms apart and pushes with the tip of her shoe against his torso to throw him away.
Then, she lifts and tosses up Chojuro's hammer, keeping him distracted while he has to hold its massive weight straight. Now falling down, he notices that she disappeared from the pillar, only to see her suddenly appear upside down, centimeters away from him. Before he can react, she presses on his forehead with one nail.
"Go to sleep, small man." she says, leaving him frustrated but powerless as he falls asleep.
Seeing that nobody keeps the offensive going, she waves and spreads her arms to fully dissipate the sand storm and have a clear view of Hachibi, still standing on the mountains. Facing the demon, she flies toward him at ground-level. Seeing no one in the way to protect them, Bee and Gyuki blindly crawl over the mountains to reach her as well.
Fortunately, two ninjas come to help Killer Bee. Yasona sees a puddle of Ranton lightning getting in her way. She prepares to easily dodge it but is struck by a pure flash of light emerging from it suddenly.
It is Aoki and Yukai, standing on her right, who step in to save Bee. Blinded by the light, she stops mid-air and creates a short lived stone wall in front of her to stop the Ranton, before waiting to open her eyes again. Yukai, seeing that she stands still, immediately leaps into action hand-to-hand. Aoki next to him is startled by his initiative and doesn't follow.
Jealously, she stares as he gives his all in Taijutsu alone against the goddess, with speed far greater than hers. But she doesn't want to stay behind. Not in such a context, and especially not in presence of her father. So she gathers her courage to dare using a jutsu that she still hasn't perfected but that could get her to surpass Yukai in all aspects.
Yasona, intrigued by the presence of another Koton user among humans, lays feet on the ground and gently dodges or blocks Yukai's attacks, testing him in comparison to Takeshi. Soon enough, she realizes that he isn't comparable to the Koton users she's familiar with, and decides to just mock him.
After dodging a punch in her belly by stepping aside and letting him wander to her left, she lightly swings her hip to push him away with her butt. Yukai actually falls over from that and quickly stands up. Feeling frustrated by this humbling move, he jumps back to her and tries a series of kicks and grabs that don't land at all.
"Tsk! Gah!" he exclaims, angered by his lack of efficiency and noticing her obvious mischievous reaction on her undoubtedly beautiful face. "Damn it! People with great looks but bad hearts are the worst!"
Bothered by this insult that she takes more personally than she should, Yasona stops messing around and suddenly catches Yukai by the neck to lift him up with her stretched arm. He tries to reach her with his legs and hands before realizing that her arm is too long and she's out of his reach. While he instead pointlessly tries to beat her arm to break free, she looks at his face with spite.
"Sorry to break it to you, but long hair isn't for you." she comments on his neglected haircut, which affects him much more than it should as he stops hitting her and curiously stares at his own hair.
Then suddenly, they see a mass of electricity appear on their right. There are lightning bolts flying around and smashing down the surrounding stones. In the center, a person emitting this energy kneels down and gets in position to leap into action.
Lighting Straight
Yasona looks at the full speed lighting fist arriving at her face and lets it come, mesmerized by the resemblance this has with Torushiki's Raijin Kata. So without a reaction, she receives a lightning fast punch in her face. It doesn't make her move or let go of Yukai, but still twists her face as the attacker blitzes past her.
Yasona straightens her neck again, senses a bruise and smells a stream of blood running from her nose as a result of that punch. Yukai notices it too in amazement, so they both look aside to get a better look at Aoki, using the Raiton Chakra Mode for the first time. As it's still in progress, some unique traits tell it apart from the 4th Raikage's version.
Similarly to how the 8 gates of wonder affect the user, her veins are inflated and her pupils faded away. The lightning armor around her is extremely dense and violent, and seems very wasting, but her raw strength and speed are already multiplied far beyond what should be humanely possible.
Yukai, impressed by his friend's power up, sees that Yasona is much more distracted by it than him, so he uses this to smash her arm down and leap away, free from her hold. This obviously wakes Yasona up, now standing between the two ninjas of Kumo who gather lightning in their arms. Yukai lets Black Lightning emerge from his shoulder and cover his right arm, and Aoki gathers her armor's chakra in her right arm as well, before they both jump forth together.
Double Lariat
They prepare to behead her with their arm but, much to their contempt, are stopped by the goddess who just catches both their arms with her hands. As the black and blue electricity runs through her body, she closes her eyes and raises her chin and lets out an odd moan of pain before breathing out, able to tough out the impact. The energy of Aoki's armor is still stunning her body, but she adapts to it and uncontrollably grins.
"Not really what I'd call beautiful, but still impressive." she comments on Aoki's form as she rises up to make them lose hold on the ground.
She tightens her hold on their arms and breaks their forearms with her grip, making them lose their strength. Before she can make another comment, she abruptly turns around as she hears a loud rumbling sound and throws Yukai and Aoki away, to crash violently in the ground. Hachibi arrives and lands a huge punch on the goddess, sending her flying into a mountain.
Seeing her quickly come back, the ushioni raises its 8 tentacles and spins around like a tornado, hoping to bash away Yasona again when she collides with him. But she manages to force her way through the tentacles and deliver a strong heel kick in the monster's jaw. This blow lifts him up and throws him to the sky.
Before he goes too high, she sticks her hand to one of his tails and spreads her chakra to put the Biju to sleep like she did to all the ninjas before. Unconscious, the beast falls on the ground. Yukai, coming back to his senses, notices Aoki turning off her armor already and is startled by a shadow covering him. Above him, he sees Hachibi about to fall on them, as they're unable to move away.
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While this battle is taking place, in Iwa, the Tsuchikage is still prisoner of her thoughts, in her cursed body buried in unreachable undergrounds. Since Fuyuko was caught by Yasona, she received no other signal from the world. So she has to support the silence again. Yet after long hours of silence, she suddenly hears a voice within herself. A sweet feminine voice uttering 2 simple words.
"Wake up."
Kurotsuchi's body abruptly obeys this order. To her surprise, she opens her eyes and sits up in a hurry on a dirty humid ground, surrounded by ninjas of her village, all passed out. Sitting in front of her is a man in a prison uniform. From his haircut and clothes, she quickly recognizes Fuyuko with whom she's been speaking for the last few days.
She opens her mouth to ask how he managed to get there, but finds her throat oddly dry and voice faded. Indeed, Yasona made sure that the people trapped here wouldn't die of thirst or hunger, but didn't go as far as keeping them well energized and in good shape. After weeks spent inert, Kurotsuchi's body is not immediately ready to move again.
"I met Takeshi up there." Fuyuko explains to her. "T'was awkward but he lent me a hand, so now I have a funny mermaid swimming around in my mind. The armies of the Shinobi Union are outside fighting that hot tall queen, but they'll probably need backup."
Quite confused, Kurotsuchi looks around and notices her husband Daisuke also laying there in the same state as her. After exclaiming his name, she crawls the best she can to get by his side. Fuyuko calmly follows her and kneels next to the blue samurai.
"Do that thing again, mermaid." he says to the tengu in his mind.
"Come on, you can call me Amabie. Damn it feels so good to be with a yamabushi that doesn't ignore me!" she says before using her Genjutsu again.
Ningyo no Uta
She lets her chant be heard in Daisuke's mind and enchants him to wake up. The samurai abruptly gets out of his coma and immediately notices his wife next to him. While they hug each other and enjoy their reunion, Amabie smiles and tells a bit about her past to her host.
"Just noticed I know that guy. He was part of Sasuke Uchiha and Tsubai's squad to fight against Lord Sojobo."
"Word?" Fuyuko asks her, to which she answers with a simple nod. "Damn, that's crazy. Don't care though."
Despite Fuyuko's pointless offense, Amabie keeps smiling, just happy to interact with a human again. The Tsuchikage takes a deep breath in and asks her most important question to her husband.
"Where's Hakutsuchi?"
"He's safe. I brought him to a friend in the land of Iron." he answers, much to her relief.
Daisuke curiously stares at Fuyuko, unable to figure out who he is, and the Yamanaka likes to keep it that way. He's more bothered by all the other ninjas he has to wake up, but also by how weak and useless the Tsuchikage seems right now. Thinking of how he could help her, he holds his left shoulder, where his mitsudomoe tattoo is.
"Oshio." he quietly says like he's calling him, which gets the couple's attention.
Fuyuko slips his hand under his clothes and reaches for his shoulder under his uniform. From there he pulls out the white rod fragment that was sealed in his tattoo, like every member of Kakumei had. With it, he gently pierces the Tsuchikage's naked right arm and lets her be healed by it. Kurotsuchi abruptly stands up as she feels her strength returning thanks to this fragment.
"It's one of Oshio Uchiha's abilities. It still works." she notices aloud. "What does that mean?"
Fuyuko doesn't answer. Instead, he smiles, glad to see that it actually healed her. He stands up and gets ready to wake up all the others as well.
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Outside of the village, where Yasona threw an unconscious Hachibi on Yukai and Aoki after injuring them, the two Kumo-nin have closed their eyes, already considering the worst. But after an instant that feels longer than needed for the Biju to crash, Yukai opens his eyes and sees limbs of sand supporting the beast.
Suna no Kaiwan (Monstrous Sand Arm)
Shinki and his father both hurried to manipulate the spread sand from Yasona's storm to stop Aoki from being crushed. Yet, exhausted by their previous efforts and having had only little time to build this support, they can hardly hold it, and it could collapse at any moment.
Fortunately, the Raikage makes his move and rushes under the Biju by himself to catch his daughter and disciple. He carries them out of range just in time for Gaara and Shinki to let the sleeping beast fall.
"Sorry, I almost didn't make it. That was really admirable, Aoki." he apologizes and compliments his daughter. "Get some rest, you two." he adds as he sees Yasona fly toward him calmly.
She slowly sets foot on the soil before him while the ninjas of Kumo and Kiri join as well, by the side of Shinki and Gaara being the only two remaining of Suna. From her gaze, it is quite obvious that she is here for Hachibi, so Darui firmly holds his cleaver sword and stands in her way with the Kazekage. W, from Kumo's troops, moves first to restrain the goddess.
Katon – Hibashiri
By swinging his red blade, which was finally restored after being broken by Oshio 4 years ago, W projects red flames that come in a circle around Yasona. Carelessly, she walks through the fire that only burns her black and red kimono, which she immediately replaces with her white strapless qipao appearing on her body. Once she passed the flames, Ru is next to attack.
Raiton – Denki Shuriken
He throws a bunch of lightning projectiles that she all dodges by swiftly leaning her upper body and legs around. Since Ninjutsu didn't seem to work, Ru pulls out his sword and jumps in with W and Atsui for a short range fight. Knowing that they stand no chance being just two, Narui makes a series of hand seals to create a dozen of her advanced clones and joins to help.
Yasona calmly counters the blades with a chakra scalpel and eliminates Narui's clones one by one with a simple touch. W gets frustrated, as he's clearly the most efficient of them but still can't land a hit.
"Tsk! This would've been better if Yurui was there." he complains.
Ru and W are used to fighting as a trio side by side with Yurui. But the 3rd swordsman isn't here. Like the rest of his team, he couldn't take part in this operation as he is currently still recovering from an earlier mission that left him, Tarui and Toroi all severely wounded. Minaa, their sensei, wasn't asked to join Kumo's army either as her squad wasn't operational.
Darui, seeing Narui's clones disappearing and Yasona still focusing on the Biju behind him, decides to get into action as well, risking to be put down as simply as the Mizukage. He turns around and looks at Yukai and Aoki who try to get up, but still have their arms broken.
"C, take care of them." Darui orders his right-hand man, sitting by his side, before stepping forward.
Noticing the Raikage getting ready to step in again, Gaara alerts Shinki, and the ninjas of Kiri get ready as well to follow his lead. Yasona, suddenly interested in Darui, effortlessly stops her current fight by spreading a short red chakra wave around her and effectively neutralizing all the ninjas of Kumo. The Raikage makes a few hand signs and dashes forward as he releases a stream of black lightning.
Doton – Doryu Joheki
Yasona creates a large stone rampart in the way to stop the black lightning. But the Raikage's jutsu manages to fully pierce it before vanishing. Digging a path for a huge black panther to run through. Focused on Darui, the goddess makes sure that nobody else interrupts this short clash.
Doton – Daichidokaku
She elevates the ground on which she and Darui are while rapidly lowering it under the feet of all the other ninjas, preventing them from helping him. Then, she stands ready for the panther who leaps to her. She swiftly slaps it away with the back of her hand, but gets bitten by a second panther, who was hidden behind the first and catches her arm between its teeth.
Stunned by it as it slowly digs through her arm with its fangs, she waves her arm away and raises her other hand to firmly hold back Darui's sword as he dashes it to bisect her. She catches the blade between her thumb and other fingers, but is pushed, sliding back on her feet, by the strength of the sword's swing. With a breath of wind out of her other palm, she dissipates the black panther and focuses on Darui.
"That's quite a strong blade you have here." she says before he streams black lightning through it to stun her again.
With this, he weakens her hold and slips through, making his sword hit and slightly begin to cut through her palm. But since she's freed her other arm, she quickly moves through the shock. With her free hand, she grabs Darui's wrists and holds them together. Then, she pulls on the sword to disarm and tosses it away. Finally, she lifts him up and holds him by the neck to paralyze him, while still restraining his hands.
While he's shaking to get out of the grip of her giant hands, she gently rubs her long nails against his cheeks and mustache while analyzing him.
"There's something kinda sexy about these tattoos, hihi!" she says with a soft voice as she takes his senses away one by one with Ohoma Gatsuhi.
Darui expected this outcome, but still finds this situation extremely frustrating. While he swings his legs in a desperate attempt to reach her, he feels his bodily strength leaving him and loses control over his limbs.
"Gaahh! Damn it! Minamoto Takeshi!" he yells the name of the ninja who was sent ahead earlier, supposed to find reinforcement troops. Their whole suicidal strategy only relies on his success, yet there is barely anyone left standing and still no help brought by the ninja in black.
However, just as he screams these words, Yasona is distracted by a tremendous chakra manifesting itself further away yet so close. She frantically looks up and aside and catches sight of a gigantic mass of ethereal black energy falling on her.
She throws the almost disabled Raikage away and leaps back in an attempt to escape, but she reacted too late. The colossal blade crushes the elevated ground and everything on it. The ninjas of Kiri look up to see the unexpected back-up brought by Takeshi in action. A black Kanzentai Susanoo roaming over the volcano prison and mountains in the way.
"It's Oshio Uchiha?" Shinki shouts in surprise.
"Way to go, Takeshi!" Kaori exclaims excitingly, before looking at Kokoro and asking a silly question. "What about him, sensei? Is he more like Sasuke Uchiha?"
Kokoro doesn't answer and just stares in wonder at the flying armor holding its blade, Futsu no Mitama, up in the air. It looks significantly bigger than 4 years ago. The unleashed chakra of Kakumei's leader, unused for 4 years, seems to have grown remarkably.
Gaara makes sure to catch the Raikage who was unfortunately also in reach of the Susanoo's blade. After getting him to land on a floating sand bed, he takes a look at his injury. He isn't totally disabled by Ohoma Gatsuhi, but he still lost consciousness. One of his legs was apparently smashed down, barely holding on. He should receive immediate care to avoid the risk of amputation.
After bringing him to C, the only medic still available, Gaara looks up at Oshio's Susanoo. He was more expecting Takeshi to bring Iwa's ninjas as reinforcement. This sure is more likely to be helpful, but is it really right to request the help of the former number one enemy of the Shinobi Union?
Out from the debris, Yasona emerges, covered in dust and rips on her dress. On her forehead and along her leg, blood spills from under her hair and dress, showing significant harm. She looks up in anger at the unexpected new player and doesn't see Shinki and Kaori hurrying to take advantage of her weakened state.
Satetsu Kobushi (Iron Sand Fist)
Bakuton – Iwabaku
A huge iron sand gauntlet emerges to crush her down before the surrounding debris explode, filled with Bakuton chakra. Taken by surprise, and angered even more by this, Yasona brings out a large scale jutsu to go against the strongest opponent present.
Doton – Gaia
Out from the explosion emerges a colossal stone figure that assembles from the chakra of the goddess. It shapes into a feminine figure, vaguely resembling Yasona herself, with identical horns on top of its head. As it lays its feet on the ground, it shakes the land and repulses all the remaining ninjas.
In the distance, Oshio Uchiha, standing in his Susanoo's forehead, sees the stone avatar come to shape and look in his direction. Freed from the seals binding his body and the eye in his left palm, he raises his hand to look around and stares at Takeshi, the one who freed him, standing on his Susanoo's shoulder.
"It seems that I have turned this into my battle." he comments.
"Sorry, I don't know if you can beat her, but we definitely couldn't have made it on our own." Takeshi answers.
"No need to apologize. Not like I had anything better to do anyway." Oshio answers. "Besides, I'll consider this a friendly help to Fuyuko… Here, catch."
After these words, he creates a white rod in the palm of his hand and lets it fly out of his armor into Takeshi's hand.
"My first strike must have caused quite some damage among the ninjas of the Union. Use this to heal them. I doubt it can still do much, but it should at least fix a few broken bones."
Takeshi looks at the white rod in his hand, then at Izuna's brother. He lightly nods and coats his body in light.
Koton Shunshin
He disappears in a flash and hurries to join the ninjas who may require assistance, including the Raikage, Aoki and Yukai, who all broke a limb. Now alone, flying over the land, Oshio slowly elevates himself and looks at the Gaia statue walking over the mountains to reach him.
"A cast away. A mere loser left to die by his kind. How dare you force yourself in this conflict?" the voice of Yasona can be heard emitting from the golem. "Unlike the others, I have no need to keep you alive. I'll make you regret the comfort of your dirty cell, red eyed demon."
Oshio calmly breathes before taking on this opponent. The last time he fought an Otsutsuki, he lost. Yet if he had to fight Urashiki today, he'd undoubtedly win. Yasona appears to be significantly more powerful than that, so he has no idea how this could end, and can't use Futsunushi to get an answer either. So all he can do is fight, ironically, to save the Shinobi Union.
In his hand, he is holding the black cape of his father that he was given as a blanket. He puts it over his shoulders to wear it and gets ready to begin this battle for a new cause.
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End of Chapter 162 – Next Chapter: Killing each other