While the shinobi of varying strength fought for inches of dirt, Jasper finally found Arthur's location.
He landed just atop a hill and saw Arthur standing in a crater with his arms loose by his side. Next to him was Hidan, encased in an icicle prison. Of course Arthur saw Jasper's figure. Yet he just continued watching the war with the casual interest of a spectator.
That only made Jasper snicker in contempt. Since all of his injuries and chakra were restored from his fight with Kaito, he was more than willing to fight Arthur right here, right now.
"You're next," Jasper threatened, looking down on his enemy.
Arthur tilted his head and looked at him with an unreadable face. Jasper didn't wait for a retort. He flared his chakra, causing the green aura of the Fourth Gate to erupt around him. Then he launched himself as the hill exploded from the force of his takeoff.
Arthur quickly raised his right forearm, and crack!
The impact sent a shockwave rippling out, flattening the ground for fifty yards. Jasper's fist was stopped cold against Arthur's arm.
"Hmph," Arthur scoffed.
The lower half of his body then quickly dissolved into thick, white smoke as he propelled himself upward. Jasper didn't lose sight of him; he kicked off the crater and rocketed after his target.
The wind whipped around them at this altitude.
When Jasper finally caught up, he threw a punch. Arthur stepped inside the guard and countered with an uppercut that connected with Jasper's chin. It made Jasper's head snap back.
Before he could regain his visual horizon, Arthur reappeared behind him, solidified his leg, and then drove a knee into the base of his skull that made him stumble.
Instinct took over as Jasper dropped his weight to sweep Arthur's leg back. Yet Arthur's legs dissolved into smoke again, and the sweep passed through.
The smoke solidified instantly as Arthur's heel came down, striking Jasper between the shoulder blades. He floated there for a split second, horizontal to the earth. So Arthur grabbed him and drove a knee into his spine. Then another.
Jasper gasped as the air left his lungs. He winced but forced his body to rotate. Then he lashed out with a spin kick. Yet Arthur raised his forearms and stopped the kick dead. So Jasper pivoted, launching a roundhouse kick.
This time, Arthur didn't block. His body became a cloud, letting the leg pass through his midsection. The smoke swirled, reforming behind Jasper's exposed back.
Jasper sensed the displacement, so he spun, throwing a backhand laced with chakra. Arthur matched the motion by throwing his own backhand. The two strikes met. Bone collided with bone.
Jasper thought he saw an opening, so he drew his arm back. Yet there was no opening, allowing Arthur to close in, grab him by the back of his neck, and appear above him. Then Arthur drove both knees to Jasper's shoulders.
When Jasper recovered, Arthur had already prepared a technique.
'Smoke style: smoke fist…'
The air in front of Arthur turned into a fist the size of a boulder. Jasper crossed his arms as it slammed into him, shooting him downward. As if Arthur was even remotely done.
"Have another," he said.
A second fist formed from the exhaust and struck Jasper again from above. Then a third fist formed from the side and hit him again. It was a bombardment, one that continued until he finally crashed into the earth.
Not just anywhere either, but right near Itachi and Kimimaro. The two froze for a second, and when they looked, they saw him lying in the center of a crater, groaning.
Arthur descended slowly until his feet touched the edge of the pit. Kimimaro quickly fell back to greet him.
"My lord," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Allow me to defeat this threat once and for all."
Arthur didn't even look at him. There was a shift in chakra signatures miles away.
"No…" he commanded. "Keep Itachi at bay until Fugaku arrives. When he does, go south. Find Ryugetsu and secure that area."
Even now, as Arthur was fighting Jasper, he knew what he was doing. That's why he punched Jasper down toward Kimimaro to relay this order.
Currently, Konan was holding the line against the Uzumaki clan. She was originally by the Animal Path to keep Ryugetsu in place, but after Arthur's last attack that transformed the whole battlefield, she abandoned her post, allowing a White Zetsu clone to take her position.
The problem with this was that the Naraka Path was moving. If that Path reached the incapacitated Animal Path and Ryugetsu, it would seal them in the king of hell like it tried with John. Ryugetsu wouldn't be able to detonate himself in that position.
Arthur was already down three clones permanently in this war. He couldn't risk Ryugetsu, a carrier of the Treasured Tools, being captured.
The order was absolute, so Kimimaro accepted without question.
Itachi narrowed his eyes upon seeing their backs were turned. So he raised a hand as chakra gathered in his throat. Kimimaro moved quicker by slamming his palm onto the mud.
"Bracken dance!
The ground rumbled. Then, it burst open as thousands of sharp, white bones shot up from the earth. They quickly grew into a twisted forest, rising dozens of feet into the air, forming a jagged wall that separated the two from Arthur and Jasper.
"So long as I am here," Kimimaro said, "you will never reach lord Arthur."
On the other side of the wall, silence returned.
Arthur watched as Jasper climbed out of the hole. Dirt clung to his face. He looked at Arthur, and the rage in his gut burned hotter than the energy expelling from his transformed state.
"You won't get away with that!" he cried, lunging forward.
Arthur tilted his torso to the left as Jasper's fist grazed his coat. Then he tilted again, dodging another attack.
"Must be nice to have been born like that," Arthur said in a conversational tone.
Jasper swung again. Arthur ducked.
"Jealous?" Jasper spat.
He feinted right, then struck left. Arthur caught the wrist and shoved him away. Jasper skidded back and began panting.
He was in the Fourth Gate. His muscles were flooded with power. His speed should have been overwhelming. Yet, Arthur was reacting before Jasper even moved.
Just what sort of training did he go through to be at this level?!
Arthur quickly stepped in and kicked Jasper in the chest. It was a simple front kick, but the force was so tremendous that Jasper flew backward.
He tumbled through the dirt, coming to a stop yards away. Then he clutched his sternum. The taste of copper was in his mouth, and the impact kept his ribs rattling.
Arthur scoffed at that earlier comeback. How could he ever be jealous? While there were those in this world born with power, he had optimized his build from the ground up, faithfully working to acquire only the best of the best.
Jasper himself refused to believe this gap in their strength. He was about to say something until he saw Arthur reach into his garments and pull out a book.
The binding was old. It looked like something pulled from a tomb.
"Would you like to know the title of it?" Arthur asked.
Curiosity warred with adrenaline, so Jasper straightened up and spat out the blood in his mouth.
"It's called the 'Legacy of Kaguya,'" Arthur revealed. He ran a thumb over the cover. "Written by Kaguya herself…"
"What?!" Jasper yelled, stiffening at the name.
"You think you could hide yourself forever?" Arthur asked.
Arthur had long since finished the book before returning to this timeline. As such, he opened the book to a certain page and began reading.
'I have been watching over this earth for a time now. My name is etched into every corner of it. Yet, unruly whispers have begun to reach my ears. Rumours of my two and only sons say that they are conspiring to overthrow me and bring about my downfall.
I do not believe these tales. Still, a sovereign must prepare for all eventualities, especially when it concerns her lineage.
I refuse to sit idly by and wait for treachery to unfold. In my intellect, I have devised a plan—one that transcends conventional defenses. I have taken a part of myself, a fragment imbued with my chakra, and embedded my essence within it. It is a seed of my eternal presence, one that will last for centuries if I should ever be forgotten.
This essence will hover in the heavens, cast into the vast expanse of earth's atmosphere. Should anyone dare to destroy me—be it through deception, betrayal, or force—this vessel will find a suitable host; a being chosen by my will, who will inherit my very life force. With this, they will continue my reign if all else fails.
I shall crown this vessel with the power of the Ōtsutsuki. They will be my safeguard, my final act of sovereignty. Even if I am defeated, I shall not be truly gone. My essence will endure in the heavens, waiting for the moment when I am needed once more. My world, my dreams depend on it.
Let them try. I am Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and this is my legacy.'
Arthur then closed the book.
"Jasper Reza," he began. "You are Kaguya's legacy. You are her reincarnation."
Jasper stared at him. His heart hammered. That secret—that secret was his to keep. No one should have known about it.
"From the look on your face," Arthur added, "you don't seem to know your inevitable end."
What did that mean? It didn't matter now. Jasper knew the story of Naruto just as well as anyone else. Just because he was Kaguya's reincarnation didn't mean that he would lose himself if she were to be revived through him.
No. Arthur was hiding something that was in the book, something that Jasper didn't know.
That made blood rush to Jasper's face. Livid didn't cover it. This was a violation. Arthur had peeled back the layers of his identity and mocked what he found.
So he crossed his arms. The green aura deepened, turning into a darker, violent shade of azure. His sweat hissed as it evaporated off his skin.
"The Seventh Gate: gate of shock, open!"
The ground beneath him pulverized as he seemingly vanished, becoming a missile that aimed a cocked-back fist at Arthur's chest. Arthur himself didn't flinch; he took a single, deep breath.
'Seven heavenly breaths: fourth activation…"
Ka-boom.
The collision tore the ground apart. A shockwave expanded outward, shattering the nearby rocks and flattening the earth for a hundred yards. Even the bone forest close by threatened to crack.
They moved from the initial impact, like blurs of motion.
Jasper struck a hundred times per second. So Arthur parried a hundred times per second. They danced across the battlefield, kicking up plumes of dust that looked like explosions.
Jasper screamed in frustration. He was in the Seventh Gate. This was close to the pinnacle of taijutsu. Space was bending around him. Arthur should be paste. But Arthur was there, matching him, blocking him, and even striking back.
How much did this man have? How deep was the well?
Jasper gritted his teeth. He needed an edge. A Truthseeker Orb manifested behind his back as he continued attacking. Arthur narrowed his eyes, seeing the orb reshape into a spike. Then it shot toward his heart.
Yet to Jasper's utter surprise, Arthur stopped, and his fingers closed around it. With one squeeze, cracks appeared on the surface until it completely shattered like cheap glass.
Fragments of null-chakra then dissolved into the air, causing Jasper to stop moving. He stared at him. That was impossible.
"Why so shocked?" Arthur asked. Then he blurred forward, grabbed Jasper by the face, and slammed him into the ground. The earth cratered as Arthur kept him pinned. "Did you forget what happened last time you tried that?"
Jasper lay there for a second, dazed. Then, rage surged.
Purple lightning crackled around his body. It arced from his skin, scorching the earth. He then exploded upward, throwing Arthur off him.
"Shut your filthy mouth!"
Jasper then burst out right after him. No technique. No strategy. Just raw, electrified hate. Even then, Arthur met him with no emotion.
The two traded blows. It was a brawl now. Fists met ribs. Knees met stomachs. The sound was a drumbeat of flesh hitting flesh.
But the rhythm was changing. Jasper was slowing down.
He felt it in his limbs. The fatigue of the Seventh Gate was setting in. His fibers were tearing. More than that, he was being outfought.
Just how? He was a deity; he was designed to win; he was the apex of all shinobi.
Arthur ducked a wild haymaker. Then he quickly stepped into the pocket and drove his fist forward, straight into Jasper's belly.
The impact was hideous as the force traveled through Jasper's body, causing the very fabric on the back of his shirt to rip open, blowing outward from the pressure.
Jasper's eyes bulged. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. Then a spray of blood erupted from his throat. The blue aura flickered. And just like that, his transformation died.
He fell to his knees first, clutching his stomach. He tried to inhale, but his diaphragm was paralyzed. All he could do was look up at Arthur, the same man that kept standing over him.
"You were careless, Jasper… Whether it's Gele energy, purple lightning, or even all of Kaguya's techniques…" Arthur looked down at the broken form of the heir to their earth's most powerful conglomerate. "…you could never beat me."