With a single kick, Tenya shattered the front wall of the Six Paths Susanoo's forehead chamber.
Her snow-white foot was met by a black shield hastily assembled by Naruto's Soulbound Truth-Seeking Orb.
"Pretty sturdy."
Tenya pressed harder.
Crack!
The first shield shattered, revealing a second layer beneath it.
Tenya drew back her leg and kicked again.
Crack! Crack!
The second and third layers broke in succession.
The shields were nested one inside another.
Ten layers in total.
"Let me see how many you've got."
Her kicks came in a rapid barrage.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
The sound of one shell after another breaking made even Hagoromo's scalp go numb.
Seeing Naruto still standing there stubbornly with his hands clasped, Hagoromo roared:
"Naruto! Get away from her now!"
"These Truth-Seeking Orbs won't hold her for long!"
"The moment your defenses break, one All-Killing Ash Bone will finish you instantly!"
Naruto growled back:
"I know! I know!"
"But I have to save them!"
"I brought them here!"
"I have to bring them home!"
Whoooosh!
The surviving eighteen thousand shinobi were drawn into the sky by gravitational force and carried toward the fully spread wings of the Six Paths Susanoo.
The absorption succeeded.
Naruto's eyes lit up.
"I did it!!"
Crack!
The final Truth-Seeking Orb shield shattered.
Hagoromo shouted:
"Quick! Fly as far away as possible!"
The Six Paths Susanoo turned and plunged toward the ground.
"Where are you going!?" Hagoromo demanded.
"I'm leaving Peach Paradise!"
"I said to gain distance, not run away!"
"Our mission is to seal Kaguya here!"
Naruto's voice rang with righteous conviction.
"Right now, every mission comes second!"
"They answered my call and came to this place!"
"The dead… I can't do anything for them."
"But the living…"
"I will bring them back!"
Tenya frowned as she watched the gigantic figure flee.
Her power exceeded post-childbirth Kaguya, though it remained weaker than Kaguya at full strength.
Mechanically, aside from Amenominaka, her abilities were not fully interchangeable with Kaguya's.
She possessed the power of the Rinne Sharingan, but her ocular ability was not Amenominaka.
When it came to forcibly trapping opponents, she truly was inferior to Kaguya.
If Naruto was determined to escape Peach Paradise with everyone, she had no reliable means to stop him.
But every specialty had its master.
High above the western mountain stood a young girl.
Shizuka.
She had activated Six Paths: Twin Flower Reverse Flow, cloaking herself in a black Six Paths robe.
Behind her floated a sphere of black flames encircled by a sacred golden halo, like a miniature sun.
Shikigami: Amaterasu Ōmikami.
A masterpiece completed only at dawn that very morning.
Although Shizuka was its creator, unlike the five standard elemental shikigami of water, earth, wind, fire, and lightning—
simply synchronizing with Amaterasu Ōmikami required Six Paths-level chakra.
In other words, she could only use it while empowered by Twin Flower Reverse Flow.
And now, it was time for its debut.
"This Hidden Shadow Village—"
"The home Brother Akira built for me and everyone else—"
"is not a place you can enter and leave whenever you please!"
— Shikigami: Amaterasu Ōmikami!
Flash!
As Shizuka raised her hand, black flames ignited across the wings of the Six Paths Susanoo, ignoring all distance.
Naruto stared in shock.
"Amaterasu!? Where did it come from!?"
Hagoromo barked:
"Naruto! Use the chakra coating around the shinobi to peel the flames away!"
Naruto had once countered Sasuke's Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi using a similar method.
The golden chakra cloaks surrounding the surviving shinobi split apart.
A thin layer remained to protect them, while the rest detached carrying the black flames and fell toward the earth.
Then the impossible happened.
The flames rose back into the sky and reattached themselves to the wings.
Naruto's voice trembled.
"How is that possible!?"
Shizuka replied calmly:
"It's useless."
"The flames of Amaterasu Ōmikami can identify living targets and pursue them like maggots clinging to bone."
"They ignore all forms of absorption and cannot be sealed."
"As far as I know, there are only three ways to truly evade this technique."
"Brother Akira's Danmetsu Sentai or Yomotsu Hirasaka."
"Obito's Kamui intangibility."
"Or mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"Otherwise, you die."
"And its temperature far exceeds ordinary Amaterasu."
In an instant, the remaining chakra protection surrounding the shinobi burned away.
The divine black flames engulfed their unprotected bodies.
They were reduced to ash almost immediately.
There were no screams.
No struggle.
The final eighteen thousand shinobi of the Cloud and Sand alliance became nothing more than ashes scattered across the sky.
And yet—
their resentment did not disappear.
Their dying hatred crystallized into vicious curses that echoed through Naruto's mind.
"It hurts!!!"
"I hate you!!!"
"Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Your stupidity and arrogance killed us!"
"Murderer!!!"
"You murderer!!!"
"For the sake of your self-satisfying Ninja Alliance Technique!"
"You made us suffer unimaginable pain!!!"
"Our entire families are dead! Do you understand!?"
"Why didn't you die with Konoha at the hands of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki!?"
"We will never forgive you!!!"
"Even as ghosts, we will never forgive you!!!"
Naruto's pupils dilated to their limit.
"How… how did this happen?"
"Why is this different from what I imagined!?"
"The Great Toad Sage's prophecy said I would lead everyone into the demon's lair!"
"There were supposed to be sacrifices… but not this!"
"NOT THIS!!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The black flames spread from the wings and rapidly engulfed the entire Six Paths Susanoo.
Crack… crack…
Under the infernal heat, the wings and armor began to melt.
Obito stared upward.
"So that is the power of the Amaterasu Shikigami."
Madara narrowed his eyes.
"This is the first time I've seen Amaterasu like this."
"It can burn even a Six Paths Susanoo so thoroughly that it cannot maintain its form."
Boom!
The giant Susanoo collapsed to the earth as molten chakra slurry.
Madara focused.
"No… it's not merely losing form."
Shizuka raised her hand.
"Burn to nothing."
The liquefied mass of the Six Paths Susanoo shrank visibly under the black flames until it was completely incinerated.
Obito remarked:
"If even the Ten-Tails were caught by those flames, it would likely be burned alive."
Whoosh!
To prevent the fire from spreading across the ground, Shizuka used the Kagutsuchi control effect inherent to the shikigami to forcibly extinguish it.
Twin Flower Reverse Flow was released.
Not by choice, but because her chakra was exhausted.
The projection of Amaterasu Ōmikami vanished from behind her.
As she began falling from the sky, a white crane swooped down from the clouds and caught her.
"Whew…"
"It's unbelievably powerful."
"Just not very energy efficient."
"Doesn't matter."
"After all, I designed this shikigami specifically for Brother Akira after he became the Super Ten-Tails Jinchūriki."
At that moment, a White Zetsu emerged behind Konan and whispered something into her ear.
"That's what he told my outer body."
"Whether to open the gate or not is up to you."
Konan's brows knitted tightly.
Naruto knelt amidst the scorched wasteland.
The light had completely vanished from his eyes.
He looked like a lifeless statue.
"Om…"
The sacred chant echoing in his soul failed to restore the clarity in his gaze.
Hagoromo's expression darkened.
"The destruction of all fifty thousand men…"
"Has it completely shattered Naruto's will?"
"I truly didn't want it to come to this."
"But someone has to do what must be done."
Within Naruto's inner world, Hagoromo brought his palms together.
"There's no other choice."
"We're switching."
— Six Paths: Futsunomitama Coffin.
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