Chapter 329: Sealed Away
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, lightning churning and rolling through the storm above, and the small island out on the open sea had been all but shattered.
Four massive black portals sealed off the surrounding airspace, caging the entire area within a square prison of pure void.
The pink-haired figure hovered in the sky, gazing down at the scene below with cool detachment.
Kaguya, Sasuke, Naruto, and Hashirama — four of them, closing in together on Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
However formidable Isshiki was, there was no realistic way he could survive against four top-tier opponents at once.
It didn't take long before the man who'd hidden on this world for a thousand years was already covered head to toe in wounds.
Isshiki knelt half-collapsed on the ground now, his cross-hatched, kanji-patterned pupils tracking the four figures surrounding him with grim wariness.
The space around him had been sealed off by some manner of spatial technique — there was no chance of teleporting away.
And with Kaguya present, virtually all of his secrets were laid bare to them already.
His eyes flicked between Naruto and Sasuke — their Yang and Yin power, respectively, was more than enough to make even him wary, and the two of them moved together with flawless coordination.
Hashirama, of the four, was clearly the weakest link.
But even the weakest of the four wasn't a shinobi he could dispatch quickly.
And beyond that...
Isshiki's gaze flicked warily up toward the sky.
There was one more, up there.
And he couldn't sense a single trace of her presence at all.
What did that mean?
It meant her strength had already surpassed his so completely that he couldn't even register her existence directly.
But right now, Isshiki's focus locked onto Hashirama.
The man carried a Rinnegan, and his life force ran deep and abundant.
If he made this body a vessel for his Covenant Mark instead, there might still be a way to turn this around...
Isshiki had briefly considered targeting Sasuke, whose eye also carried a Rinnegan — but some instinct warned him that Sasuke's particular eye was different, somehow, in a way that felt genuinely dangerous. If he chose Sasuke, he sensed he would die.
But right now, Isshiki had no time left to spare.
He shot one final, bitter glare at Kaguya, then charged straight for Hashirama.
If this body died at Hashirama's hands, he could plant his Covenant Mark on him in the process.
"He's trying to place his Mark on Hashirama."
"We need to stop him."
Kaguya spoke, calm, and moved the instant the words left her.
Naruto and Sasuke lunged forward without hesitation too, streaking toward Isshiki in twin blurs of gold and blue.
"Got him!"
A smile crossed Isshiki's face on reflex as his hand closed the distance toward the black-haired man.
But—
In the space of a single blink, the air right in front of Hashirama tore apart, and a bare hand reached through from within it.
Isshiki's expression shifted at once. His body shrank instantly, small, desperate to slip free of that grasping palm.
But no matter which way he dodged, that hand seemed to follow him effortlessly, unshakeable.
"Heh. Got you."
A figure stepped out from the torn space — Sakura, watching over the whole battle from a distance.
The moment the words left her, her hand closed around the now-shrunken Isshiki.
"WHAT?!"
The miniaturized Isshiki stared, horrified, at the hand that seemed to blot out the entire sky, desperate to flee — but no matter which direction he tried, there was nowhere outside that hand's reach.
"Shrinking, huh."
"That's a pretty underwhelming ability."
Her pale, unmarked hand held Isshiki fast, and Sakura regarded the tiny figure trapped in her palm, perfectly calm.
"You—!"
Isshiki tried to say something more, but the crushing force enveloping his entire body cut him off — the instant he opened his mouth, a mouthful of blood came out instead.
"He's carrying a miniature Ten-Tails."
"If you seal it inside yourself, it should be enough to reach Six Paths."
Sakura looked over at Hashirama.
"Understood."
Hashirama watched the scene unfold and gave a nod.
He didn't refuse.
"Sakura Haruno!"
"You'll regret this choice!"
"My kind won't let this go unanswered!"
In his final moments, Isshiki let out a furious, defiant roar.
How could a being like this exist? Even within the Ōtsutsuki clan itself, power on this level was vanishingly rare — the kind of strength that usually took thousands, tens of thousands of years to reach.
And this human standing before him hadn't even lived twenty years.
"Is that right."
"You say that like the rest of the Ōtsutsuki wouldn't come regardless of whether I killed you or not."
Sakura regarded Isshiki calmly, and with the barest additional pressure of her hand, every bone in his body shattered at once, his organs rupturing in the same instant.
In the span of a single breath, he was dead — thoroughly, irrevocably dead.
Sakura tossed the corpse of the man who'd hidden on this world for a thousand years aside like an empty sack, then studied her own palm.
A thread of chakra was trying to worm its way, quietly, into her own body through her skin.
Isshiki, it seemed, had been trying to make Sakura herself the host for his Covenant Mark.
Pink chakra kindled to life in her palm, and somewhere beyond ordinary perception, a furious, wordless howl rang out.
Only then was Ōtsutsuki Isshiki truly, completely dead.
"I'll leave the rest to you all."
"I'm heading out."
Sakura glanced back once at Hashirama, then vanished, her pink form disappearing from the scene.
As she left, the black portals sealing off the surrounding space slowly began to dissolve as well.
"Huh, Sakura's already taking off."
Naruto scratched the back of his head.
"Let's go. Time to find that Ten-Tails."
Sasuke ignored Naruto entirely, turning instead to Hashirama. Sakura had chosen, before leaving, to have the Ten-Tails sealed within Hashirama's own body — which meant Sasuke would naturally lend a hand in seeing it through.
"Let's go..."
Hashirama looked down at Isshiki's body, already crumbling back to its original size and dissolving into ash on the ground, and let out a long breath.
Something complicated stirred behind his eyes.
Three years, now.
He'd watched this nation flourish, watched everyone, step by step, grow better off.
The people had food to eat, clothes on their backs. No war. No death. No oppression.
There were still shortcomings here and there, sure — but weighed against the whole, they barely registered as problems at all.
Had he...
Had he truly been wrong, all along?
With Isshiki's death, the four of them went on to locate the miniature Ten-Tails and successfully sealed it inside Hashirama's body.
Through that, Hashirama finally, fully ascended to Six Paths level.
With the Rinnegan already his, controlling the Ten-Tails came almost effortlessly to him — hardly any struggle at all.
Isshiki's death caused not the faintest ripple in the wider world. The only trace of it was a segment on that evening's weather broadcast, reporting an unexplained sudden typhoon over Whirlpool Island — with meteorologists assuring viewers it was nothing more than an ordinary natural phenomenon, and advising everyone to keep their windows shut and stay indoors where possible.
...
Time slipped by like flowing water.
Twelve years had passed since Hashirama reached Six Paths level.
Naruto had grown, too — from the reckless kid he'd once been into a dependable, grounded man.
Worth noting: after Kakashi's wedding, Sasuke had eventually settled down with Hikaru Uchiha as well, and the two had a daughter together.
"Hiu!"
"How's your prep going for the last round of the Chūnin Exams?"
A blond-haired young man, faint stubble already shadowing his jaw, glanced over at the black-haired girl beside him, curious.
"I've got it handled. Just make sure you don't embarrass Uncle Naruto out there, Boruto."
The black-haired girl — Hiu — answered evenly, addressing her teammate.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
"You're seriously underestimating me here."
Boruto crossed his arms, indignant.
"I wonder if Her Majesty will show up for this round of the exams."
Hiu ignored the boy beside her entirely, gazing off toward the distant Hokage Building with unmistakable reverence in her eyes.
"Her Majesty, huh? No idea."
Boruto scratched his head, a similar look of reverence flickering across his own face.
"Probably not much of a chance, though."
"Everything's been handled by Uncle Kakashi and Lord Tobirama lately. And Her Majesty hasn't shown up in public in years now."
At Boruto's words, a flicker of disappointment crossed Hiu's face as well.
"What are you two chattering about?"
A voice cut in suddenly.
"Mom!"
Hiu spun around, delighted.
A striking woman in a dark navy Uchiha-clan robe had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Auntie Hikaru."
"We were just wondering if Her Majesty might show up."
At Boruto's words, Hikaru — well into her thirties by now — ruffled his hair affectionately, gazing thoughtfully toward the cliff face behind the Hokage Building.
"Maybe..."
...
In a mining cave streaked with countless colors, deep underground, a pink-haired woman stood in perfect stillness, one hand resting lightly on an iron coffin etched with mysterious, arcane markings.
Twelve years had passed, and not a single trace of time had left its mark on Sakura.
Only her calm eyes carried some faint hint of the maturity that came with the passage of years.
"You're truly certain about this?"
Sakura wasn't alone in this place. Three other presences stood with her.
Kaguya. Katsuyu. And Hashirama.
Hashirama looked at the still-youthful pink-haired woman before him, something complicated in his eyes.
"After this, I'm entrusting everything to you, Lady Katsuyu."
Sakura paid no mind to the complexity in Hashirama's gaze, instead turning calmly toward the small slug form of Katsuyu, waiting off to one side.
"You need not worry, Sakura. I have this well in hand."
Katsuyu spoke, as gentle and warm as she'd always been.
Sakura gave a small nod at that, then turned toward Hashirama, her thin lips parting.
"Fifteen years."
"Do you still think I was wrong?"
Hashirama looked at the pink-haired woman before him in silence, saying nothing. The space around them fell into a long, heavy quiet.
At last, the man spoke, slow and deliberate:
"You were... right."
"After you're gone, I'll protect this nation."
"No one — unless it's over my own dead body —"
"will ever be allowed to do this nation the slightest harm."
Looking at Hashirama, Sakura's lips curved into a small smile.
Fifteen years, and this stubborn man had finally, at long last, come around to her philosophy.
"In that case — this nation's yours to carry forward from here."
"If handling the affairs of state ever gets to be too much, you can always ask Kakashi."
"Kakashi's more than capable."
At that, Hashirama asked: "And if Kakashi passes away?"
Six Paths–level beings lived roughly three times as long as ordinary people, but Kakashi's own lifespan would never come close to matching that of a Six Paths Hashirama.
"After Kakashi, there's Shikamaru Nara."
Hashirama pressed further: "And after Shikamaru Nara?"
Sakura answered: "After Shikamaru, you can turn to Konohamaru Sarutobi."
"And after Konohamaru?"
"Hiu Uchiha is sharp, capable — she could apprentice under Tobirama. After Konohamaru, Hiu Uchiha would be more than able to carry the weight."
"And after Hiu Uchiha?"
Hashirama pressed on — and this time met Sakura's calm, steady gaze.
"After Hiu, hm..."
"By then, the empire will have stood for a hundred years or so..."
Hashirama fell silent.
By then, the entire first and second generation of the empire's people would be long since gone.
Even Tobirama, come to think of it, had suffered through a serious illness not long ago.
"That's enough, then."
"Let's go."
Sakura waved a hand, indicating that Kaguya and Hashirama could step outside now.
Neither of them said anything more, simply withdrawing in silence.
"Sakura. Why are you doing this?"
Katsuyu asked, puzzled, watching the young woman before her.
Sealing herself away in this iron coffin, waiting for some future turning point to reemerge.
"Hmm. Who knows?"
Sakura smiled faintly, her hand tracing the mysterious markings etched across the coffin's surface.
This was the same coffin that had once held Hikaru Uchiha — the vessel that had let her survive from the Warring States era all the way to the present day.
Now, Sakura had carefully redesigned it herself, refining it so that whoever rested within could go on living far longer, drawing chakra continuously from the outside world to sustain and extend the life inside.
Her original Yang Release Body Technique had, by now, been refined by her own hand into the Yin-Yang Release Body Technique.
Even in a dreamless sleep, that body would keep strengthening itself, its soul continuing to grow without pause.
By now, Sakura had already surpassed the Sage of the Six Paths himself — but she still hadn't broken through the natural ceiling on lifespan.
Why go to such lengths?
Because there was still one more Ōtsutsuki out there that left Sakura no other choice.
Ōtsutsuki Shibai. The one they called the God of the Ōtsutsuki.
The original story claimed he was dead — but a being who could transcend dimensions the way he was said to, dying, struck Sakura as something she simply couldn't take at face value.
Only someone who'd reached the level Sakura now stood at could truly understand how hard it would be to actually kill a being like that.
Which meant that, to make sure someone would be ready to face Shibai whenever he finally did resurface, Sakura had chosen to seal herself away, continuing to grow stronger the whole time through the Yin-Yang Release Body Technique.
By the time she woke again, there was no telling how much time would have passed in the shinobi world.
Maybe a few decades. Maybe a few centuries.
Maybe... a few thousand years. Or even... ten thousand.
Why go this far?
Sakura didn't have a clean answer for that. But having lived more than thirty years in this world, she found she didn't resent the idea, either.
This power, after all, had been given to her by this world.
This world had raised Hiruzen Sarutobi. Tobirama Senju. Naruto. Sasuke. Her father. Her mother. Mirai. So many people Sakura had come to know and love.
So — using every last drop of that power to protect this world from harm, for as long as she possibly could? What was so wrong with that?
Even if, in the end, she failed — she would at least have given everything she had.
Sakura's conscience was clear.
Only, this parting — for most of the people she was leaving behind — would very likely mean forever.
Thinking of that, Sakura let out a quiet sigh.
"Lady Katsuyu. I'm leaving everything in your hands, after this."
"If Kaguya ever shows signs of stirring up trouble, you can wake me."
Sakura looked over at Katsuyu.
"Of course. Leave it all to me."
Katsuyu looked at the young woman before her, and for the first time, something like real sorrow flickered behind her eyes.
Under Katsuyu's watchful gaze, Sakura climbed into the iron coffin. As its lid sealed shut, the coffin dissolved into a wisp of white smoke and vanished from where it stood — reappearing, at last, deep within Shikkotsu Forest.
...
(End of Chapter)