Naruto: The Last Harbinger of Storm
NTLHOS BOOK 2: Chapter 16: The Night of Falling Crows
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Author's Note:
I'm back! 🎉 Sorry for the delay, but I had the time of my life over the past seven days. Unfortunately, I was completely cut off from civilization no internet, nothing. I know my absence led to some uncouth author's notes and comment replies by my friend (blame him, not me 😂), but I'll be editing those soon.
I'll also be catching up on all your comments, so sorry for the delay. As for the most popular question, Did Itachi really kill all the Uchiha? 🤔 That answer is coming in the next chapter. Just bear with me for three more days. I promise the wait will be worth it!
🔥 Like, comment, and let me know your thoughts! 🔥
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"Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true." — Honoré de Balzac
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Last Time On NTLHOS:
"Why?"
Itachi met his gaze, something flickering in the depths of his blood-red eyes.
"You wouldn't understand."
Naruto's expression hardened.
"Then I'll have to make you."
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Now:
A flicker of disbelief crossed Itachi's face, just for a fraction of a second.
"How?" he asked, voice steady, but his mind racing. No one should have been able to sense me, let alone killing.
"The old Uchiha war wards are up. No one should be able to sense through it."
Naruto's lips curled into a sharp, knowing smirk.
"I am curious as to how you activated those wards without Lady Mikoto's permission." His voice was mocking, cutting straight through the feigned stoicism on Itachi's face. "I know for a fact that not even the heir can activate them while the Clan Head is within the compound. And I know, as surely as the sun rises, that Lady Mikoto would never consent to this madness. That leaves only one explanation that masked pretender."
A muscle twitched in Itachi's jaw. He was too well-trained to react outright, but Naruto saw it. He always saw it.
"You know him?" Itachi finally asked, his voice betraying his disbelief. "If you truly understand who he is, then you must also know you cannot stand against him."
Naruto tilted his head, almost pitying. "Oh, I've had my run-ins with him. A couple of years ago, to my embarrassment, I lost. But now?" His voice lowered, his words heavier, darker. "Now, I don't think the outcome would be the same."
Itachi's breath hitched as he processed that.
"Yes," Naruto mused, almost lazily, "if he is who he claims to be, then I stand no chance. After all, Madara Uchiha is someone even I, at my present level, would not dare challenge."
He let the words settle, then continued.
"I fought him before, and I can tell you, Madara Uchiha was a warrior through and through. He was not a coward who relied on evasion. He would not hide behind intangibility like a rat. That… is fundamentally different from the man in the mask's fighting style. Oh, I won't discount the possibility that the real Madara might have had access to space-time ninjutsu, but he would never use it as his main fighting style not to inferior opponent."
Naruto's voice sharpened like the edge of a blade.
" But I can believe that this man, at some point in time, had contact with the real Madara, since he wielded many things only Madara Uchiha possessed. He would also need Madara's blood access to use them, such as the Uchiha clan's infamous Gunbai.
Itachi's Sharingan spun wildly as he tried to process this information, his mind racing. The thought had lingered at the edge of his mind before the inconsistencies, the strangeness of the masked man's techniques, his reluctance to engage directly. But to hear Naruto lay it out so plainly, so certainly—
He's right, Itachi realized. Madara Uchiha would never fight like that.
Naruto's eyes narrowed, and his voice turned into a whisper, one that somehow still echoed through the room.
"My theory? He had access to Madara Uchiha's blood and knowledge. And if that is the case…" His gaze darkened. "That means he was once granted entry into the Uchiha war wards. After all, Madara Uchiha was the rightful Lord of your clan, unlike your father. That is why he could manipulate seals."
Itachi's heart pounded. This is bad.
But he had no time to reflect further.
Itachi broke the stillness first. His eyes narrowed, the tomoe in each pupil spinning hungrily. He breathed in and formed a swift seal, voice low:
"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku!"
A blazing wave of fire burst from his lips. It roared across the courtyard, devouring the darkness as it expanded. The very air rippled from the heat, warping the timbers of nearby walls. Fire Release one of the Uchiha's proudest arts had found a master in Itachi. His inferno was colossal, thick tongues of flame whipping outward to incinerate anything in its path.
Yet Naruto did not waver. Instead, his hand rose, a faint swirl of turquoise and silver chakra surging to his fingertips.
"Suiton…" he whispered, and the courtyard trembled. "Daibakufu no Jutsu!"
"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu" (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique).
Water coalesced from the ambient moisture, swirling in sinuous arcs around Naruto's outstretched palm until a roaring torrent formed. It stood to meet Itachi's inferno head-on. The collision was colossal flames hissed and howled as they bit into the onrushing flood, steam exploding in sheets of white-hot mist that blanketed the courtyard.
For an instant, the entire battlefield vanished behind that suffocating steam. Then a gust of wind ripped it apart, revealing the two shinobi still standing. Naruto's swirling aura of red flickered wildly, and droplets of condensation sizzled where they met his storm cloak. Itachi's eyes flitted between calm and desperation; the flames had been neutralized in moments, a testament to the monstrous skill Naruto possessed.
But the Uchiha prodigy did not waver. His hands flew through another series of seals even as he pivoted backward, using the thinning steam as cover.
Due to Naruto's fame as the Harbinger of Storm, many had forgotten that before he mastered Storm Release keikei Tota, he had been one of the foremost users of Water Release in the elemental nations, even as a mere child of ten.
And now, as a torrential wave surged toward him with impossible force, Itachi regretted overlooking that fact.
"Katon: Haisekishō!"
Ash and soot poured from Itachi's mouth, dense clouds settling over every surface in the battered compound. Spreading across the courtyard like a living, creeping shadow, the ash clung to walls and wood, blanketing them in a ghostly pall.
"Itachi…!" Naruto muttered. He recognized the technique, ash-based Fire Release that could ignite at any moment. His aura crackled, reacting to the threat as red arcs of energy curled around his form in reflex.
With a spark from Itachi's fingertip, the ashen landscape erupted. A chain of thunderous explosions raced across the yard, columns of flame shooting skyward in rapid bursts. Shattered planks and debris rained down on the courtyard. Sparks lit the night like errant stars.
Amid the chaos, Itachi blurred into motion. His Sharingan pinned Naruto in place metaphorically, if not literally. A gust of wind parted the rising smoke, revealing Naruto weaving through the flames with uncanny speed.
He was not untouched, though. A stray spark found its mark, grazing him along the bicep. Flesh singed and parted.
Itachi narrowed his eyes, capitalizing on this opening with lethal efficiency. "Shinkūken! (Vacuum Blade)!".
A crackling blade of wind materialized in his right hand. He lunged, the sharpened arc slicing the air. For a fleeting heartbeat, Naruto was still in the same spot. Itachi poured all of his momentum into that single thrust.
Steel met flesh except Naruto twisted with an agility that defied nature, turning a mortal blow into a mere graze across his shoulder. Blood trickling briefly, but the wound knitted shut almost as soon as it opened.
Regeneration.
Itachi's stomach sank. No normal shinobi could regenerate that quickly without advanced medical ninjutsu or a tailed beast's chakra, it's more like Orochimaru of the Sannin. But Naruto's red shroud his so-called Storm Cloak crawled across his skin .
"Not bad," Naruto said, his tone edged with the lethal calm of someone who had long since transcended fear. "You nearly caught me."
Itachi answered by lashing out again, his wind blade tracing a razor arc that forced Naruto to backpedal. In that split second, Itachi's vision sharpened, and he saw an opening. He thrust forward, driving the Shinkūken at Naruto's abdomen.
Naruto lunged sideways, but not quickly enough to avoid a fresh cut. Even so, the slash only sliced a shallow line across his ribs, and once again, the flesh mended near-instantly.
"You forget," Naruto said with a tight grin, "I learned more than just Suiton in my time away."
His hands formed a short sequence of seals. There was a spark of unrefined heat at his lips.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!
A sphere of flame, large and furious, erupted toward Itachi. It was a comparatively rudimentary Fire Release technique by Uchiha standards, but the sheer chakra infused into it made up for the lack of furnace. Itachi vanished in a flock of crows, reappearing behind a half-broken pillar of the courtyard. The Gōkakyū smashed into the ground, setting the wooden beams alight.
Naruto rolled his shoulder, flexing his newly healed flesh. "I still remember Lord Mahiro's lessons. I'm no Uchiha, but I'd like to think I pass muster."
Itachi's eyes flickered with complicated emotion. Mahiro had apparently nurtured Naruto in the basics of Fire Release and Naruto had not forgotten a single lesson.
But Itachi refused to be outdone. He darted from his cover, weaving signs at dizzying speed. The incomplete skeleton of a Susanoo shimmered around him, an ethereal ribcage. Then he exhaled sharply, unleashing Fire.
"Katon: Karyū Endan!" (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet).
A dragon-shaped torrent of flame burst from his mouth, spiraling forward in a serpentine barrage. It crashed into the center of the courtyard. Naruto's storm cloak crackled and expanded, the red energies twisting as he launched a swirling column of water to counter. Steam erupted once more, shrieking into the night.
In the roiling cloud, Itachi's Sharingan detected a flicker Naruto's presence zigzagging through the debris. With keen insight, Itachi exhaled a ghost of a breath and whispered:
"Now."
The ground shifted beneath Naruto's feet. Shadows lengthened around him, swirling up into a vortex. The entire courtyard turned bleak and colorless, shapes warping in on themselves.
Genjutsu.
Naruto caught his reflection in the broken glass of a nearby window. One heartbeat, he saw only his reflection. The next, that reflection warped eyes hollow, hair streaked with blood. A clawed hand reached out from behind the glass, as if to pull him in.
He felt the weight of sorrow press down on his consciousness.
"It's okay," one of the apparitions whispered. "You've done enough."
Naruto's breath hitched. His world flickered between illusions—his dead mother, the lifeless matron of the orphanage, and the accusing silhouettes of his fallen people, their vacant eyes burning into him, blaming him for not being there when Nobinaga attacked during his exile.
He braced himself, letting a spike of pain guide him back. With a fierce snarl, he dug his fingers into his own arm, drawing blood. His red storm cloak reacted instantly, the minor wound sewing itself together with an electric crackle—but the shock of pain anchored him.
"Kai!"
The illusion shattered like broken glass, the courtyard reasserting itself in a swirl of half-burnt wood and scorched tiles. Itachi's form reappeared thirty meters away, eyes narrowed.
"You saw through it quickly," he murmured.
Naruto wiped the sweat from his brow. "Not quickly enough. Your eyes are good, too good, but not good enough to bypass my seals that prevent genjutsu for long."
For the first time, a bruise marked Naruto's temple. The illusions had momentarily disoriented him, and he'd taken a glancing blow from the collapsing beam overhead. But the mark was already fading, as if time itself bent to Naruto's will.
"Let's finish this," Naruto declared, his cloak pulsing outward.
Itachi raised a hand, and the half-formed Susanoo blossomed further, a ghostly ribcage expanding into a torso, arms sheathed in translucent crimson. He was breathing.
The Susanoo's arms flexed; a giant spectral blade shimmered into existence. The hush that followed was deafening.
Naruto tensed. He sprinted forward, each footstep cracking stone. The Susanoo swiped down with its sword, carving an arc that sundered the ground. Naruto leapt, wind howling around him as the blade missed his ankles by inches.
Itachi took advantage of his vantage point within the Susanoo. Gathering what remained of his strength, he formed one last technique. The Susanoo's chest glowed with an eerie, swirling light.
"Yasaka Magatama!"
Three spinning discs of chakra, linked in a chain, hurtled toward Naruto. Each one sang through the air like a demonic shuriken. They were impossibly fast and unbelievably destructive Itachi's Susanoo's ranged arsenal.
Naruto did not veer aside.
He did something the world had never seen.
Lightning danced along his arms, flecks of wind chakra twisting into it. Then that energy blazed a furious crimson, merging into a swirl that crackled with thunder.
"Ranton: Kanzen Shoumetsu- (Storm Release: Complete Annihilation)."
The compound's wards flickered madly. A plasmic aura erupted from Naruto's outstretched palms, arcs of electricity and swirling wind forging an incandescent wave of red-white destruction. It shot forward, a living tempest.
The Yasaka Magatama met that living storm in a cataclysmic collision.
A thunderous detonation rocked the Uchiha district. The seals on the walls glowed in protest, some splintering under the strain, letting the shockwave spill outward in a howling gale. Dust and fire belched skyward, and the ground rumbled as if the entire village were about to be swallowed.
When the dust cleared, Naruto still stood. Steam rose off his cloak in thick tendrils, the aura pulsing around his form, red and alive, like a second skin.
Across from him, Itachi's Susanoo was shattered. Its torso had collapsed under the onslaught, fragments of chakra dissolving into the night air. No longer sustained, the massive blade vanished. Itachi stumbled, arms shaking, and crumpled to his knees. Blood dripped from a cut across his cheek a sign that the backlash had found flesh.
Yet, even then, Itachi Uchiha refused to surrender. He attempted to rise once more, forcing his battered limbs to cooperate.
Naruto vanished in a blur, reappearing behind Itachi in a rush of displaced air. He struck once, a brutal open-handed blow to Itachi's ribs. The Uchiha prodigy lurched, coughing as sparks of red energy traced their way across his chest.
Naruto exhaled, scanning Itachi's prone form. Beneath his cold fury, a flicker of regret stirred. Through the swirling remnants of the battle, he stepped forward, dropping to a knee beside the broken Uchiha.
"You are strong," he said quietly, voice resonating with an undercurrent of sadness. "Stronger than I think even you realized."
Itachi coughed, struggling to speak. Blood touched his lips. For a fleeting instant, his eyes returned to their normal state, black pupils gazing upward at the moonlit sky.
"Tsukuyami," he managed, forcing the words out. "I did…what I had to…"
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The first thing Naruto registered was the silence.
No howling winds, no crackling energy of his storm cloak just an eerie, suffocating quiet. Then came the darkness. A sky devoid of stars stretched infinitely above him.
He exhaled sharply, trying to move.
He couldn't.
His wrists were bound, stretched wide on a blood-red cross, glowing chains of pure chakra anchoring him in place. He pulled, tested the restraints, but they held firm, he could even access his chakra. Naruto's lips curled slightly, so this was the infamous Tsukuyomi.
Footsteps echoed in the void.
Itachi emerged from the shadows, his crimson eyes aglow. Here, he was omnipotent. His voice, calm and absolute, broke the stillness.
"Welcome to my world, Naruto."
Naruto's fingers flexed slightly. "I have to admit," he muttered, "I expected you to use this from the beginning if you had this ability. I was prepared to dodge it before it could ensnare me."
Itachi tilted his head. "I needed to be sure. You are the fastest man alive, the greatest sensor in the Elemental Nations. If I had used this without precision, I would have failed."
He took another step forward, arms loosely folded behind his back. "But here, time moves as I wish it. Three days of torment will pass in mere seconds outside."
Naruto didn't flinch. "So, what now? You going to torture me?"
Itachi's fingers twitched. And then, the first nightmare began.
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A woman stepped forward from the shadows, draped in sorrow.
Kushina Uzumaki.
Her form was pale, spectral, and yet, Naruto could see every detail the strands of red hair that framed her face, the sharpness of her violet eyes. But there was no warmth in them. No love.
Her lips parted. "You are a blight on the Uzumaki name."
Naruto was unfaced initially.
"You had one duty," Kushina's voice cut like steel. "To uphold our clan. And what did you do? You let Uzushio fall again. You get yourself banished, and now, once again, the Uzumaki will be destroyed."
Naruto clenched his teeth, his storm cloak flickering faintly against the chains. This wasn't real. He knew that. He knew.
And yet, the words stung.
Another figure stepped forward, draped in rags, her hands calloused, her face familiar.
The old matron from the orphanage.
"Little Naruto," she whispered, voice hoarse with grief. "Why didn't you avenge me?"
Naruto's breath came sharp and uneven.
"I understand why you couldn't back then. You were a child. You were weak. But now?" Her voice turned razor-sharp. "Why is Danzo still breathing?"
The words settled in his chest like a curse. Itachi, watching, saw something flicker in Naruto's eyes. The storm that had been controlled, leashed within him for years it shifted. It churned.
And then, Naruto looked up.
For the first time since he had become Emperor of Uzushio, Itachi saw an expression he hadn't seen since before the Daimyo Summit.
Rage.
Not righteous fury.
Not the cold, measured wrath Naruto had wielded when dealing with his enemies.
This was something raw. Something unfiltered. Something monstrous.
The Tsukuyomi world trembled.
Itachi's instincts screamed danger.
He stepped back, fingers twitching to reinforce the illusion, but it was too late.
Naruto's entire body glowed with chakra, seals igniting across his skin like molten brands. The air hummed with power.
Then, everything shattered.
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Itachi stumbled back, his Sharingan spinning wildly and was bealding as he struggled to process what had just happened.
That was impossible.
Naruto stood before him, his entire body radiating power. His eyes weren't just glowing blue they were churning, spiraling, violent like a storm given form. His storm cloak, once a controlled force of destruction, had exploded outward in every direction, causing devastation in its wake.
Itachi barely had time to cross his arms before Naruto moved.
A split second later, Itachi was airborne.
He barely registered the punch that had sent him flying across. His Susanoo flickered instinctively, forming its armored chestplate just as Naruto materialized above him.
Itachi was exaggerating his wounds to lure Naruto in close, leaving his back open. As Naruto approached, Itachi formed his Susanoo, now fully armored with a helm bearing the face of a Medusa-like entity. Yet despite this, he remained wary. He always knew Naruto would survive Tsukuyomi. Even with the relentless torture of Tsukuyomi, he hadn't expected to kill or break him, only to buy enough time to escape.
But now, this was whole new story.
Itachi slashed with a full-forged Susanoo sword, its ethereal energy screaming through the air.
Naruto caught the blade.
Not dodged. Not blocked.
He caught it.
Itachi barely had time to process how. Naruto's right hand, now encased in a storm-infused plasma shell, wrenched the sword from his grasp and flung it away like a toy discarded from a child.
Itachi's mind reeled.
This isn't possible.
Before he could react, Naruto was already in front of him again. A single punch shattered his Susanoo's chestplate.
The legendary defense crumbled like a brittle wall.
Naruto's fingers locked around Itachi's throat, gripping him through the Susanoo.
"I didn't want to kill you," Naruto murmured, voice devoid of mercy. "I took it easy on you."
The grip tightened.
"And yet, you dragged out the one thing I buried long ago."
The air cracked with power.
"I thought I'd moved past revenge. I thought I'd grown beyond it." Naruto exhaled, and for a brief moment, something almost like gratitude crossed his face. "But no. I was only lying to myself."
His grip tightened. Itachi could feel his vision blurring at the edges.
"And for that, I am thankful." Naruto's voice was cold now. "But you will pay."
Itachi struggled. Is this what it feels like to fight someone completely out of your league. This is what his enemies must have felt when facing Minato Namikaze.
A sense of absolute, unshakable despair.
His fingers twitched, trying to form a seal, but he knew it wouldn't be enough.
He closed his eyes.
This was it.
Except… it never came.
One moment, Naruto's grip was around his throat.
The next, he was gone.
Itachi opened his eyes.
And saw him.
A swirling vortex of darkness. A ghostly mask of orange. A voice as cold as the void.
The Masked Man.
His intangible form had phased through the battlefield, appearing just in time to snatch Itachi away from the jaws of death.
The air crackled with residual energy, Naruto's storm cloak still flaring wildly in the wake of his battle with Itachi. The Uchiha prodigy had been snatched away in the last moment, vanishing into thin air, but Naruto already knew who had taken him.
And just as he expected, a lone figure materialized in the empty courtyard, standing amidst the wreckage of their battle.
The masked man.
He stood tall, composed, the single Sharingan in his mask gazing at Naruto with an unreadable look.
"We meet again, Uzumaki Naruto," the masked man greeted, his voice smooth, composed, but with amusement. "Or should I call you Emperor?"
Naruto exhaled, his storm cloak flickering before receding into its standard form. His expression betrayed nothing but casual disinterest as he regarded the figure before him. "Oh, the wana-be Madara pretender. What do I owe the pleasure?" he mused, his tone laced with mockery. "I knew Itachi couldn't come up with something like this. His little plan had your cowardly hands all over it."
The masked man chuckled, tilting his head ever so slightly. "You escaped me the last time we met, only because certain forces that were not meant to intervene in our matters stepped in. But now," he gestured vaguely at their surroundings, "what will you do this time?"
Naruto smirked. "You're thinking too highly of yourself, pretender. You may have caught me off guard once with your little space-time trick, but did you really think that we the masters of seals wouldn't have a counter for your tricks?" His cerulean eyes gleamed. "I only needed to see it once."
The masked man hummed, neither confirming nor denying Naruto's words. Instead, he raised a gloved hand. "We don't need to fight, Uzumaki," he said smoothly. "Join me. What is this world, if not one filled with sadness and suffering? I want to bring a new order. A world where there will be no more orphans like you. Where people like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura will never have the power to exploit the innocent."
Naruto's smirk deepened. "Ah, manipulating the manipulator. Nice attempt." His stance relaxed slightly, but his aura remained sharp. "I won't follow a man who doesn't even have the guts to show his face. A few cheap tricks don't make you powerful."
Naruto added. "What do I call me you, then?"
Naruto tilted his head mockingly. "I don't know what to call you. How about 'Liar'? 'Coward'? 'Pretender'?"
The masked man chuckled again. "I already told you once… I am Madara Uchiha."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "And I am Hashirama Senju, all the way from the grave," he shot back, voice thick with derision. "Try harder."
The masked man's fist clenched slightly. "Believe what you will, but I will change this world one way or another."
Naruto grinned, but there was something sharp, something dangerous in his gaze now. "Oh great Madara, did the Great Senju maim you so badly in your last battle that you're too shy to show your face?"
That, finally, got a reaction. The masked man's single eye narrowed, a subtle but unmistakable flash of irritation passing through it.
"I'll admit," the masked man said after a moment, regaining his composure. "I may be a shadow of my former self… but I am still more than enough for you."
Before he could finish, Naruto vanished in a red flash.
A boom echoed through the courtyard as Naruto's fist tore through the masked man's form only to phase right through him. The masked man turned intangible at the perfect moment, avoiding the attack effortlessly.
Naruto skidded to a stop, his eyes narrowing slightly. "How?" he muttered. "I had already set an anti-space-time field around us, tailor made for you…"
The masked man's eye gleamed. "See? I told you… your feeble seals are no match for my might. You underestimated how much chakra I can push to overwhelm your traps."
Naruto, instead of reacting with frustration, simply closed his eyes and sensed.
At first glance, the masked man was right the field had been overpowered by a sheer influx of raw chakra, something that was almost impossible to achieve alone unless he really was Madara Uchiha. But then Naruto looked deeper, breaking down the disruption into its smallest components.
And he saw them.
Faint traces of Uzumaki seals.
Naruto's expression darkened slightly. Someone made a seal that punch a hole through his anti-space-time seal. Someone who knew Uzumaki sealing arts to a grandmaster level. Maybe Nobinaga, as skilled as he was, would have done this, it wasn't his method.
Then… who?
Which Uzumaki would betray him?
The number of people with the knowledge and skill to do something like this was very, very small.
Naruto exhaled, masking his thoughts. He turned back to the masked man with a smirk. "First, you steal Madara's name and hide your face. And now, you steal credit for Uzumaki seals just to make yourself look powerful?" His voice was sharp, taunting. "How desperate are you, really?"
The masked man's lone eye darkened.
The old woman assured him even the likes of Lord Suifu or Lady Mithrusha wouldn't be able to detect the seals, he thought grimly. But Naruto had.
He's surpassing even one of the greatest grandmasters of sealing.
That is… concerning.
The masked man shook off his thoughts. With a flick of his wrist, he breathed in and exhaled "Katon: Gōka Messhitsu!" unleashing a roaring tide of fire toward Naruto.
Naruto reacted instantly, summoning a whirlpool of water from the moisture in the air, crashing it against the fire in a spectacular clash of elements.
The masked man phased through the aftermath, seamlessly avoiding all damage, and materialized above Naruto, forming another set of seals.
But Naruto was already ahead of him.
He vanished, appearing right in front of the masked man mid-air. His hand glowed, spiraling with contained energy.
The masked man's Sharingan widened. That technique…!
A spinning sphere of raw chakra Rasengan.
And then, everything shifted.
One second, the masked man was in the real world. The next, he was in his own personal dimension the Kamui realm. Phasing through the Rasengan.
He landed on solid ground, exhaling in relief. Safe.
But then something happened.
The masked man barely had time to react before Naruto was there, standing right in front of him and he was in material realm once again, against his wish.
Before he could phase out again, Naruto's Rasengan could be slammed into his abdomen.
Zetsu, acting in a flash, emerged from the shadows, intercepting the blow just in time. The masked man grabbed the opportunity, vanishing once again.
Back in the real world, the masked man materialized maintain good distance, his breath slightly uneven. He stared at Naruto, who remained standing there, watching him with an amused smirk.
"How…?" the masked man asked, his voice carefully controlled.
"Oh, the Rasengan?" Naruto mused, stretching his fingers. "I saw Konohamaru use it. Didn't take much to reverse-engineer the technique. My Tenrin was already close in concept, I just had to adjust a few things."
"No. Not that," the masked man said, his eye narrowing. "How did you disrupt my space-time jutsu?"
"Oh, that? Now, that would be telling. You used a seal to punch a hole in my containment seal, and I hijacked that seal the one you had tied to your realm to bring you back. Alas, I wasn't lucky enough." What he didn't tell was this was one time shot, since the seal was deactivated by the masked man.
The masked man clenched his fists. "We will meet again… Uzumaki Naruto."
And then he was gone.
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To be continued. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts! Like and comment! 🙏🔥
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