Chapter 228: Fated Duel
A layer of golden light appeared on the surface of Naruto's body, and the wind-natured chakra blew up the hem of his jacket.
Purple lightning also bloomed under Sasuke's feet.
In the next instant, the two of them erupted almost simultaneously. Naruto sprinted wildly in the direction of the sound of water, while Sasuke pursued him relentlessly.
The two soon arrived at the Valley of the End. Two giant statues stood opposite each other on either side of the waterfall. Naruto took the lead, leaping high off the statue of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
"Stop for me!" Sasuke caught up and threw a heavy punch at Naruto in mid-air.
Naruto looked back at the menacingly approaching Sasuke, twisted his body in the air, and kicked Sasuke squarely in the abdomen, sending him flying back.
Sasuke, having suffered a heavy blow to his abdomen, landed on the head of the Senju Hashirama statue. He clutched his stomach, enduring the nauseating feeling, and gritted his teeth as he looked at Naruto, who had landed on the head of the Uchiha Madara statue.
The mist from the splashing waterfall rose up. In the damp, cold wind and water vapor, Naruto's golden hair was wet and stuck to his forehead. Deep within his blue eyes was no longer a dancing flame, but a kind of serene calm. However, in Sasuke's eyes, he saw a rock-solid determination beneath this calm.
"Sasuke, stop wasting your effort. I have my own path to walk. My ninja way is not in Konoha," Naruto said calmly. "I don't want to hurt you either."
"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted sternly, the anger in his chest soaring. "Who do you think you are? A savior? Without Konoha, you are nothing! Wake up!"
Before his words had even finished, he pushed off forcefully from his feet. A small patch of stone chips exploded from the slippery rock surface, and Sasuke's figure transformed into a pale purple lightning bolt that tore through the air! His speed was so fast that it only left a blurry afterimage in Naruto's eyes. Almost merging with the cascading water of the waterfall, Sasuke's figure drew a sharp, angular line in the air, instantly flashing past Naruto's front. A cold edge was silently delivered from behind Naruto, aiming for the back of his heart, but when it came time to exert force, Sasuke still gritted his teeth and deflected the tip of his Shiden slightly to the right.
"Tch!"
The blade's edge broke through the air and water vapor, letting out a faint shriek, but it only pierced through the orange jacket, which was suddenly torn apart.
Naruto had disappeared. Just as the tip of the sword was about to touch his body, a violent, visible, rotating airflow had exploded from under his feet! The airflow carried a piercing, sharp sound.
"Sasuke, right now, I'm faster than you," Naruto's voice came from above and to Sasuke's side, carrying the whistling sound of rapidly flowing wind.
Sasuke's pupils shrank abruptly. The three tomoe of his Sharingan spun wildly, instantly locking onto the target. Without any hesitation, he twisted his waist and spun his body. The Shiden in his hand, borrowing the force of the spin and wrapped in dazzling purple lightning, slashed upwards diagonally like a viper striking with its tail! The lightning crackled, tearing the air, aiming straight for Naruto's waist!
Facing Sasuke's counter-attack, Naruto's body bent backwards in the air in a strange, almost logic-defying way. The wind-natured chakra flowed rapidly over the surface of his body, forming an invisible layer of airflow that narrowly pushed away the fatal lightning. A few strands of flying golden hair were broken and scattered by this rotating wind blade. Before his feet had even fully landed, the tips of his toes tapped on the slippery shoulder of the statue below, and his body once again bounced up, as if transforming into a golden hurricane spinning close to the ground, actively sweeping towards Sasuke!
Highly compressed and condensed wind-natured chakra formed a rapidly rotating, cone-shaped storm in front of Naruto's palm, its edges as sharp as knives. With a shriek that could tear through anything, it brazenly blasted towards Sasuke! The speed was astonishingly fast. The wind pressure even instantly pushed away the surrounding waterfall droplets, cutting them into even finer mist!
Sasuke's Sharingan operated at its limit, the three tomoe frantically capturing the trajectory of that fatal storm. But at this moment, Naruto's speed was simply too fast, having already surpassed the visual limit of his three-tomoe Sharingan.
Naruto sighed softly. As the attack reached Sasuke, the rapidly rotating and cutting wind-natured chakra from the previous second was instantly compressed, then replaced with a more peaceful release method.
In front of Sasuke, a sonic boom rang out. The thrust converted from the compressed chakra sent his body flying backwards uncontrollably. He slammed heavily into the shoulder of the Senju Hashirama statue, and cracks spread out. In the next moment, Sasuke's body was washed into the pool below by the rushing waterfall.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke," Naruto said in a low voice, retracting his fist and looking at Sasuke who had fallen into the pool below. Then, Naruto picked up the jacket whose hem had been half-shredded by Shiden and turned to leave.
After understanding his own path and reaching a reconciliation with the voice in his mind, Naruto's strength had risen to an incredible level overnight. He, who was at best on par with Sasuke before, had now achieved complete dominance over him in all aspects.
However, just as Naruto turned around, a chaotic and noisy sound, as if a thousand birds were chirping at once, came from behind him.
Sasuke's figure, wreathed in purple lightning, rushed towards Naruto at high speed. Although he didn't know why Naruto's speed had increased so much compared to a few days ago, Sasuke knew that to catch up to the current Naruto, he could only use unconventional means. A jutsu like Chidori, which sacrificed flexibility for explosive linear speed, had now become Sasuke's only choice.
"Sasuke..." In Naruto's eyes, Sasuke's figure grew closer and closer. In almost the time it took to breathe, that figure wreathed in purple lightning had already arrived in front of him. At this distance, Naruto could clearly see the determination in those three-tomoe Sharingan eyes.
"Brat, it seems you won't be able to leave unless you completely beat him down," inside the seal space, the Nine-Tails, who had been watching the show for a good while, reminded him.
"Yeah, I'll have to trouble you, Big Brother Kurama," Naruto said.
"I get to beat up an Uchiha brat? Sounds pretty good," inside the seal space, the Nine-Tails stood up, its nine tails swaying. Golden chakra poured through the seal gate into Naruto's body.
"Big Brother Kurama, hold back a little. Don't really hurt him," at this moment, Naruto's entire body burst with golden light. The golden chakra formed a flowing, divine cloak on the surface of his body. His azure-blue eyes also turned into eerie, slit pupils at this moment. Boundless chakra leaped around his body like a golden flame.
Sasuke's breath caught sharply. The information from his Sharingan was instantly overloaded! The energy level contained in that pure golden chakra was like facing a volcano about to erupt! The resolute will in those eerie slit pupils was colder than the water of the waterfall! An unprecedented sense of crisis, like a cold iron band, tightly gripped his heart!
Retreat? No! The pride of the Uchiha clan, the fury at the "betrayal" of the person before him, and that tearing feeling deep inside him of being completely abandoned, which even he himself was unwilling to admit, instantly overwhelmed his fear!
"Don't screw with me!!!" Sasuke let out a beast-like roar, pouring all his fear, anger, and confusion into the lightning in his right hand!
"Chidori—!!!"
The piercing sound, as if a thousand birds were shrieking at once, tore through the roar of the Valley of the End! It was more violent, more dazzling than any time before! An unprecedentedly huge amount of Lightning Release chakra was madly compressed and condensed in his right palm! It was no longer a sharp, piercing lightning spear, but an extremely unstable, purplish-black ball of lightning that constantly shot out thick arcs of electricity! The destructive energy caused the surrounding air to distort violently. The sizzling arcs of electricity jumped around, making half of his face look deathly pale, his Sharingan in the lightning's glow was so red it seemed about to drip blood!
He wagered everything, all his unwillingness, all the pain of being abandoned, on this single blow!
Naruto's expression also became grave. The light of the golden chakra cloak on his body flared up! He slowly raised his right hand. It was no longer the sharp cry of wind, but a low, heavy hum, as if from the depths of the earth. Pale blue chakra, like a storm, madly converged and compressed towards his palm! The speed was even faster than Sasuke's Chidori! The density of the chakra was astonishingly high, forming a rapidly rotating sphere in his palm with an internal structure of extreme precision! The strong wind stirred up by the high-speed rotation tore at the surrounding water vapor, letting out a low and terrifying howl!
"Rasengan!"
In Kurama Chakra Mode, the condensation speed and contained energy of this A-rank ninjutsu reached an unbelievable level!
The two, one silhouetted in black by the violent Chidori's light, the other wrapped in burning golden flames, like two poles of destiny, moved at the same time!
No detours, no probing! Just the most direct, most primitive, most tragic frontal collision! For completely different paths, for the non-negotiable beliefs in each other's hearts!
"Naruto—!!!" Sasuke's roar was drowned out by the shriek of the Chidori.
"Sasuke—!!!" Naruto's roar carried the thunder of the Nine-Tails' chakra!
Gold and purple, light and electricity, like two meteorites flying in opposite directions, collided with a deafening boom between the palms of the giant stone statues of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, above the roaring abyss of the waterfall!!!
"WENG—!!!!!!!!"
Time seemed to be infinitely stretched in that instant, and then extremely compressed!
The moment the Rasengan and Chidori made contact, there was no earth-shattering explosion.
What erupted first was a silent annihilation field formed by the clash of extreme energies! A terrifying sphere that distorted light and devoured sound instantly expanded! Inside the sphere were golden chakra and blue-white lightning, frantically tearing at and grinding each other down! The destructive energy turbulence was like billions of invisible sharp blades, cutting the surrounding space to pieces! The giant stone statue hands beneath their feet, that hard rock, silently turned into the finest dust, soundlessly collapsing and dissipating like a sandcastle!
Immediately after, the destructive energy, compressed to its limit, finally broke through its critical point!
...
(End of chapter)
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