Chapter 365: Naruto & Sasuke vs. Sage of Six Paths Obito

"We still failed to stop him from becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki…" Naruto clenched his teeth, staring up at the Sage of Six Paths Obito, who now floated in the sky. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

After becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, the sensation Obito gave off through Naruto's Sage Mode was completely different, it was an utterly overwhelming.

This was the first time someone had ever made Naruto feel such a powerful sense of danger.

Even though Naruto didn't freeze in fear or give up, he couldn't deny that the pressure radiating from Obito was immense.

And now, Naruto had no idea how to fight him. He had already struggled against the Ten-Tails on its own, he had no good strategy. Now that Obito had merged with it, the threat was even greater.

"Kurama… is this the Ten-Tails' final form?" Naruto asked.

"No. Not yet. But it's close," the Nine-Tails replied grimly. There was no time to care about Naruto's usual nickname for him.

"So… he can still get stronger?" Naruto swallowed hard.

At that moment, Sasuke was also staring at the newly emerged Sage Obito. Blood began to trickle from his eyes.

"Amaterasu!" Sasuke decided to try again, without the shell from before, maybe the target could now be burned.

But Obito's eyes were filled with nothing but confusion and emptiness. Still, when faced with Sasuke's Amaterasu flames, he simply reached out his hand.

The pitch-black flames of Amaterasu burned on his palm, and Obito gently clenched his fist.

In the next instant, the supposedly inextinguishable Amaterasu flames… vanished again, without leaving a trace.

At the same time, the five tail-like appendages behind Obito's neck lit up with red flames.

Sasuke didn't even have time to be shocked by Amaterasu's failure. His pupils shrank suddenly as he shouted, "Look out!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Susanoo's skeletal form had already formed around Sasuke—But it shattered instantly.

In the blink of an eye, both Naruto and Sasuke were blasted away like cannonballs.

Obito now stood in the spot where they had been, eyes lifeless. A black orb formed in his hand.

"Guh!"

Even with the protection of Nine-Tails' chakra and Susanoo's armor, both Naruto and Sasuke vomited blood. They skidded across the ground, only stopping after carving out deep craters.

"That speed..." Sasuke wiped the blood from his lips, his eyes filled with shock.If Obito maintained this level of speed, Sasuke's Amenotejikara might not even be fast enough to lock onto him.

Just then, the black orb in Obito's hand shot toward Naruto and Sasuke through the dust and debris.

At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary black ball. But Sasuke's Rinnegan widened suddenly...

He could feel it. A terrifying, destructive power, there was no way they could take that head-on!

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, reaching out his left hand toward Naruto.

But the distance between them was too far, he couldn't reach him.

Naruto realized what was happening as well. Seeing Sasuke reaching for him, he wiped the blood from his mouth and extended a golden chakra arm from the Nine-Tails to grab Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke gripped the chakra hand, and his eyes flashed.

"Amenotejikara!"

In the next instant, the two of them vanished, replaced by a large boulder.

The black orb struck the boulder, triggering a deafening explosion.

But the explosion zone… was silent. No smoke, no debris. Everything had been erased.

Had Natsuro been here, he would have noticed that the explosion of this Truth-Seeking Ball was fundamentally different from his own.

This one focused on maximizing destructive power in a small area...

Whereas Natsuro's variant aimed to widen the blast radius. In terms of pure focused damage, this Truth-Seeking Ball was vastly superior.

Obito, now Sage of Six Paths Obito, saw that Naruto and Sasuke had escaped. His gaze fell back onto them... Then his body moved.

Naruto and Sasuke immediately braced themselves... But to their surprise, Obito didn't attack.

Instead, his body suddenly convulsed, bulging with grotesque tumors, as though monstrous growths were swelling out of him uncontrollably. He collapsed to the ground.

"What… is that?" Naruto asked, confused.

"He still hasn't fully mastered the Ten-Tails' power," Sasuke responded, instantly realizing the opportunity. "We have to finish this, now!"

"Right!" Naruto replied.

Together, they charged at Obito.

At this moment, Obito lay face-down. His stomach was now a massive, deformed tumor, barely resembling anything human. Only his limbs and upper body retained their original form.

Yet even in this state, Obito stared them down.

Then, like a serpent, his body suddenly stretched toward them.

"What is this monster?" Naruto muttered, swallowing hard.

"Naruto," Sasuke said calmly, unaffected by the grotesque sight.

"I got it."

Naruto nodded and formed a glowing, white-blue spinning shuriken in one hand,

"Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"

At the same time, Sasuke's eyes flashed, and a black flame appeared in his hand.

"Blaze Release: Kagutsuchi!"

Sasuke controlled the black flames of Amaterasu and infused them into Naruto's Rasenshuriken.

The result... a Rasenshuriken wreathed in black flames.

Obito, stretching his body toward them, reached out both hands to grab them.

But neither Naruto nor Sasuke flinched.

In the next moment, they vanished, replaced again by a rock.

Obito, shocked, slammed headfirst into the stone, shattering it completely.

Naruto and Sasuke reappeared beside Obito's torso.

Together, they reached out, and slammed the flaming Rasenshuriken into Obito's body.

Obito let out a piercing scream.

His serpentine body recoiled and returned to its original form, but then, his legs stretched out instead, sweeping toward Naruto and Sasuke.

With a massive spin, he kicked them both away.

Naruto and Sasuke hit the ground hard but quickly got back up.

They stared at the raging explosion and black flames still engulfing Obito's location.

Was it enough?

In the center of the explosion, Obito made no sound. The Rasenshuriken's cutting force and Amaterasu's searing black fire were both at work.

But the real pain he felt came not from that—but from the chaotic, rebellious Ten-Tails raging within him.

Obito's body was now covered in tumors, not just on his torso. The growth had nearly swallowed his entire head...

Only a single Rinnegan eye remained visible.

And from that Rinnegan… a tear streamed down.

No one knew what Obito was truly experiencing.

What pain was he enduring?

Naruto and Sasuke stood, hearts pounding, waiting for the outcome.

Finally, the explosion began to fade. The battlefield emerged from the smoke.

But then...

Their eyes widened in shock.

There, standing amidst the black flames, was a figure, unaffected by the fire. Unharmed.

He had changed again.

His previously bare upper body now wore a white divine robe, seemingly made of tail beast chakra.In his hand was a black Six Paths Shakujo staff.

Behind him floated nine black Truth-Seeking Orbs.

Sage of Six Paths Obito, was reborn.

At this moment, Sage Obito twisted his neck, as if getting used to his new body.

"Finally... it's done. Now then, it's time to take care of the two of you first." Obito looked at Naruto and Sasuke, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

That last attack had actually posed a serious threat to him. If he hadn't completely mastered the power of the Ten-Tails in the final moments and protected himself with a Truth-Seeking Orb, he might have actually been killed.

Seriously… even after becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, he still couldn't afford to underestimate those two.

Sasuke was panting heavily, staring at Obito. He had just pushed his Rinnegan to the limit, using Amenotejikara twice in a row with Naruto. Now, he felt exhausted, and his vision was starting to blur.

"This is bad," Naruto noted, aware of Sasuke's condition. Gritting his teeth, he channeled more Nine-Tails chakra, its golden aura bursting around him. The chakra quickly took the form of Kurama and enveloped Sasuke as well.

"How long do you need to recover?" Naruto asked directly.

Sasuke didn't reply immediately. Restoring ocular power wasn't easy. Recovering in such a short time was practically a pipe dream. So, for now, Amenotejikara was off the table. After a moment's thought, as he looked at the surrounding Nine-Tails chakra, Sasuke said, "Naruto, use that."

"Huh? Are you sure you can handle it?" Naruto looked at Sasuke in surprise. Sasuke looked completely worn out after those two teleportations.

"If it's just Susanoo, I'll be fine," Sasuke replied. Susanoo didn't consume nearly as much energy as Amenotejikara for him.

"Alright then!" Naruto didn't hesitate. Now was not the time for courtesy.

Around the golden Nine-Tails form, a new layer of purple-black chakra flared into view, Sasuke's Susanoo, in its Sage-enhanced form.

In an instant, Kurama-armored Susanoo, once again appeared before the world.

"…That is…" From afar, Madara watched with wide eyes, stunned. The sight stirred his memories.

In his final battle, he too had captured the Nine-Tails and challenged Hashirama. He had fused his own Susanoo with the beast, creating this very form. And now, he was seeing it again, in someone else's hands.

"…Truly nostalgic," Madara murmured.

Then he suddenly asked, "You're not going to help them?"

"They need this battle," replied Natsuro, who had finally arrived on the battlefield. Stretching lazily, he sat beside Madara and watched the fight between Sage Obito and Naruto and Sasuke.

"Do they? They don't look like they're doing so well," Madara said, observing the Kurama-Susanoo construct as it was repeatedly knocked back.

"They won't give up. And if they still can't win, well, they've got me, haven't they?" Natsuro watched the scene, slightly surprised. He had anticipated that Naruto and Sasuke might not be able to match Obito, but the sheer gap in power caught him off guard. In the original story, he didn't remember it being this wide…

But soon, Natsuro realized, it was probably his fault. In the original canon, Obito became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki without the full Eight-Tails or Nine-Tails chakra.

All he had was a fragment of the Eight-Tails and the partial Nine-Tails chakra from Kinkaku and Ginkaku.

Now, however, this Obito had almost all of the Eight-Tails' chakra, maybe missing one tentacle's worth, but that wasn't a major loss.

More critically, the amount of Nine-Tails chakra within him wasn't small. Although it wasn't even half of Kurama's chakra, it was around 20%, far more than what Kinkaku and Ginkaku had.

As a result, this version of Sage Obito was much stronger than the one from the original timeline.

Which explained why even with the Majestic Attire: Kurama, Naruto and Sasuke were still getting overwhelmed.

"You don't seem all that surprised by Six Paths-level power?" Madara asked, sensing Natsuro's composure and confidence.

"Hm. I guess I'd already expected it," Natsuro replied. "And anyway, even the Six Paths isn't a god. His power doesn't mean invincibility. If that were true, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the origin of chakra, wouldn't have been defeated and the Sage of Six Paths wouldn't have died either, right?"

Natsuro smiled as he posed the rhetorical question.

"Hmph. That just means you don't understand the true strength of the Six Paths," Madara snorted.

"Maybe. But, Madara, why are you so sure that you'll succeed in doing something that not even the Sage himself could achieve? What makes you think the tablet he left behind will help you realize that goal?"

"Hmph. That's because the Sage, like Hashirama, was too rigid. If he had just used absolute power to subjugate everything, the ideal world he envisioned would have already been achieved!"

Madara's tone brimmed with dissatisfaction toward the Sage of Six Paths. Then he added,"That's exactly why the Sage's path was wrong. And that's why the Eye of the Moon Plan is correct. It's the only method that can achieve our ideal world, it's the path the Sage never walked!"

Natsuro glanced at Madara. He understood that changing Madara's mind wouldn't happen with just a few words. Shaking his head, he turned his gaze back to the now-collapsing Susanno armored Kurama.

It looked like he'd indeed screwed over Naruto and Sasuke with this butterfly effect.

In the next instant, Natsuro's figure vanished from beside Madara.

Madara, watching him go, smiled faintly.

Everyone who's supposed to show up has finally arrived…

Which meant, for now, no one would have time to monitor him.

It was finally time for him to act.

At that moment, from the dirt beneath Madara's feet, a figure emerged..

Half-black, half-white, with a single Rinnegan in its eye.

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Currently on Chapter 419 - The Hollow Incident