Click! Click! Click!
Toneri paced into the formation hall, his gaze condescending, looking at people through his nostrils, not putting the five in front of him in his eyes at all.
It wasn't that he was targeting anyone in particular.
In Toneri's view, there were only two people in the entire world who could be considered strong, himself and Ryosuke.
Everyone else was nothing more than chickens and dogs with empty reputations.
Toneri glanced at Kakashi, who was still trying to activate the teleportation array, sneered, and said, "Stop struggling. This teleportation array can only be activated by my chakra."
He swept his gaze around once more.
"Where's Ryosuke?"
"He didn't come himself and just sent you few trash fish over to die?"
Thinking of the brightly lit ninja world, Toneri pondered for half a second, then reacted. "Heh, so that's how it is. Ryosuke can't leave the ninja world."
"Idiot! Truly an idiot!"
"Burning his own life for a bunch of lowly peasants, he can only send you out, sneaking in like a pack of rats, trying to turn around a hopeless situation."
"What a pity…"
Toneri raised his hand, and two spinning chakra orbs appeared in his palm.
"You will die."
"Ryosuke will die."
"All humans in the ninja world will die."
Toneri laughed wildly.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him, pat, pat, pat. He turned around and saw Hinata running up to Naruto, helping him up.
"Naruto-kun, are you okay?"
Then she saw the bloodstains on Naruto's body, Hidan's blood, and Hinata's eyes instantly turned red. Tears flowed uncontrollably.
She stood up, took a Gentle Fist stance, gathered her courage, and shouted at Toneri, "You're not allowed to hurt Naruto-kun! If there's anything, come at me!"
Toneri let out a light laugh.
"Good!"
"Very good!"
His eyes instantly turned crimson.
The anger he had always harbored toward Naruto completely erupted. From the top of his head downward, green light flared brilliantly as he entered Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
Toneri stared dead at Naruto, who was being protected behind Hinata.
"I'll start by killing you!"
Toneri charged at Naruto.
Kakashi lifted his forehead protector. His Sharingan spun rapidly as he entered Mangekyo mode. "Activate Plan Z!"
Hidan, who had just recovered, asked, "What's Plan Z?"
Kakashi glanced back at him, resolve in his eyes. "It's…"
For this operation, Kakashi had listed many different tactical plans to deal with various unexpected situations.
But ninjas who often carried out missions all knew that once on site, the thing most likely to change was the plan.
So beyond all plans, Kakashi had set up Plan Z.
That was...
"An all-out forced kill, no matter the cost!"
Sasuke took out the detonator and slammed it down hard.
From afar came a tremendous explosion.
The giant Tenseigan was blown apart by force.
Toneri's face twisted in fury as killing intent surged.
Kakashi stared at Toneri.
"Kamui!"
Distorted space enveloped Toneri.
The emerald chakra cloak protecting him began to warp. He glanced at Kakashi, and the spinning chakra orbs in his hands shot toward Kakashi like two missiles.
Kakashi shifted his gaze, trying to absorb the chakra orbs into Kamui, but found their speed far too fast. He couldn't pull them in before being pierced.
With no choice, he abandoned the attempt, canceled Kamui, and hastily dodged.
On the other side, just as Toneri forced Kakashi back, a long blade silently stabbed toward his heart. By the time Toneri reacted, the blade was already right in front of him.
Toneri locked eyes with Sasuke, who had killed his way in.
One had the Tenseigan.
The other had the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
A clash between two top-tier dojutsu...
"Get lost!"
Toneri spun around and kicked Sasuke away.
As he was about to pursue, the Nine-Tails appeared and roared at Toneri, "Hah!"
One man and one tailed beast became entangled in battle.
The Sasuke who had been sent flying was caught by Kakashi, who spat out a large mouthful of blood.
Kakashi asked, "Even your ninjutsu nullification couldn't tear open his barrier?"
If they couldn't tear through that outer layer of emerald chakra, they couldn't hurt Toneri at all, let alone kill him.
Sasuke wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said, "Using the sword is too slow. Maybe only Wide-Area Nullification will work."
So-called "Wide-Area Nullification" was the ultra-large-scale ninjutsu nullification Sasuke used frequently before unlocking the Mangekyo.
The price was that once it was used, it couldn't be used again for a short time.
Sasuke and Kakashi exchanged a glance and nodded. A tactic formed in their minds.
At this moment, Toneri dodged the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb, grabbed its tail, and slammed it hard into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
The Nine-Tails cursed as it struggled to get up and counterattack.
Toneri raised his hand, and the chakra orbs behind him rained down like a storm, smashing into the Nine-Tails. The pain made it howl miserably, as if its brains were about to be beaten out.
Whoosh!
Toneri heard wind behind him and saw Sasuke charging again.
"Persistent little pest."
Five chakra orbs split off and flew toward Sasuke, who knocked them away one by one with his long blade as the distance between them kept closing.
Toneri suppressed the Nine-Tails with one hand, turned around, and waited for Sasuke to approach, preparing to kill this annoying brat in a single move.
Fifty meters… twenty meters… ten meters.
'Now!'
"Wide-Area Ninjutsu Nullification!"
Toneri's vision blurred. Behind Sasuke, it seemed as if there stood a thin, emaciated, bare-chested man.
A gaze fell from that shadowed face, and in the next instant...
Bang!
Under Toneri's horrified expression, Tenseigan Chakra Mode was forcibly dispelled.
At the same time, Kakashi's Mangekyo completed its lock once more.
"Kamui!"
Space twisted. Toneri could only twist his body as much as possible, using his left arm to block Kakashi's gaze.
Crack! Crack!
Toneri's left arm twisted and shattered, forcibly swallowed by space.
The distorted space continued to spread upward.
And faster than Kamui... was Sasuke's blade.
He had followed Ryosuke all the way.
Watching the world, watching himself.
Watching right and wrong.
Watching Iwamine become a city hero, watching Takeshi face Yugito alone and die rather than kneel, watching the brilliant radiance of so many people…
Sasuke didn't care about fame or profit.
He just wanted, like everyone else, to do something, so that those who deserved happiness could obtain happiness.
Sasuke swung his blade with both hands, conviction surging into the edge.
Click!
Toneri grabbed the long blade with his remaining right hand.
Blood flowed from his palm. The blade was less than three centimeters from his neck. A passing wisp of wind cut a shallow gash, drawing blood.
The next second, emerald Tenseigan chakra appeared again.
Too fast. From nullification to recovery, the entire process took less than half a second.
This was the Otsutsuki.
This was the Tenseigan.
Toneri yanked hard, pulling Sasuke closer. His right hand's four fingers came together like a spear, thrusting toward Sasuke's heart.
This kid's abilities were far too dangerous.
Toneri had to kill him first before dealing with the others.
At that moment, a whip-blade pierced in along a golden rotation trajectory, forcibly breaking through Toneri's chakra barrier and piercing his palm, stopping the killing blow.
The whip-blade then twisted, yanking Sasuke backward.
Rei wrapped one arm around Sasuke. The whip-blade reverted into a long sword. The face that smiled at everyone was now cold as frost, the sword tip pointing straight at Toneri.
"Before I die, don't even think about hurting him."
Sasuke stared with his mouth half open, recalling the trajectory of the whip-blade's rotation earlier.
Purely in terms of technique, this was a more exquisite golden rotation than his, or even Ryosuke's,
Lesson 4.
Without a Mangekyo, without a substitute, focusing solely on ripples and golden rotation, Rei had actually become the first to cultivate Lesson 4, Golden Rotation.
Toneri looked at Sasuke held in Rei's arms, then at Hinata standing beside the Nine-Tails. For a moment, grief and fury surged together.
"You all deserve to die!"
Sasuke, Kakashi, and Rei engaged Toneri in fierce battle.
As for Naruto… because the Nine-Tails was heavily injured, he could only exit Tailed Beast Mode and revert to an ordinary genin who could only form Rasengan.
The three of them were very strong.
Ninjutsu nullification, Kamui, Lesson 4, Golden Rotation, any one of these was an extremely powerful ability.
The problem was that their margin for error was too low.
With Toneri's attacks, even a graze meant serious injury, a direct hit meant near death. Relying on the healing medicines they carried, they held on for a while.
But… they had reached their limit.
Naruto watched anxiously.
"Hey, Nine-Tails kid! Over here!"
Hidan was sneakily waving him over.
Naruto ran over. The two whispered to each other for a bit, their eyes lighting up as they nodded hard in unison.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash, Kakashi slammed into the ground, dozens of wounds bursting open across his body, blood spraying everywhere.
Sasuke and Rei were also sent flying, each smashing heavily into the wall.
In an instant, all three lost their ability to fight.
Too strong.
This was simply not an existence the three of them could forcibly kill.
Toneri locked his gaze onto Sasuke, slowly floated down, walked over, and was about to kill him first.
"Toneri-kun~"
A familiar, teasing call came from behind.
Toneri turned around.
He saw mist swirling.
An adult version of Hinata, completely naked, swayed her hips as she ran toward Toneri, arms open, about to throw herself into his embrace.
"S*xy Jutsu!"
Yes, Naruto remembered.
He wasn't just a genin who could make Rasengan and summon the Nine-Tails.
He was also a genin who could turn into a big-breasted beauty.
Having lived on the moon all his life, Toneri had never seen such a scene. His mind crashed instantly, freezing in place. It wasn't until "Big Hinata" pounced into his arms that he snapped back, realizing this was very likely an enemy's trick.
Instinctively, he tried to push her away.
As soon as he did, he felt something was wrong. He looked down.
And made eye contact with Hidan.
At the chest area of Big Hinata, hidden by smoke, there was none of the softness Toneri imagined, it was Hidan's head.
Toneri's hands were touching Hidan's face.
Hidan said in surprise, "You kid, just to make sure the touch felt real, you even deliberately removed your chakra barrier?!"
'Head?' Toneri was stunned.
He couldn't understand what was happening.
Suddenly, the hair on his back stood on end. He whipped around and saw Hidan's headless body lying on top of the teleportation array.
The teleportation array could only be activated by Toneri's chakra, so Hidan used Toneri's chakra to activate it.
'White Zetsu cell: Spore Technique activated…'
'Toneri's chakra simulation complete…'
'Array… activated!'
"No! No! Shut it down, quickly!"
Toneri didn't bother smashing Hidan's head. He turned and rushed toward the array.
Humm!
A spatial rift forcibly appeared in the center of the array. Beyond the rift was pitch-black darkness, like a path leading to abyssal hell.
Toneri rushed to the rift and shut down the array again. The rift gradually shrank. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief...
Smack!
A hand burning with golden flames reached out from the rift and, with irresistible force, tore the spatial rift open once more.
Ryosuke stepped out. His icy gaze fell on Toneri as he spoke softly, "As agreed..."
"I've come to find you."