Sarada opened her eyes slowly. The faint glow of her Sharingan sharpened the blurred world around her, imprinting every detail into her mind. Memories of her fall crashed over her like a broken dam.
"Ow…!" she gasped.
No one was around. Her voice echoed softly into the empty, ethereal landscape—a world as hollow as the sinking weight in her chest.
She tried to rise. The moment the thought formed, sensations flooded back into her body—
—and agony hit her like a tidal wave.
Pain so sharp, so overwhelming, that a normal person would have screamed until their voice tore. Sarada couldn't make a sound. Rust filled her mouth—her own blood—pooling in her throat and chest.
"Oh… right. I fell from the sky. That masked bastard… he really dumped me like trash."
The pain kept crashing over her. It was proof she was still alive—barely. If she felt nothing at all, that would've been worse than this torment.
Time crawled by, each second dragging her across razor edges. Every time she tried to faint, the pain dragged her awake again.
In her fading consciousness, she sensed Naruto—far away—fighting like a madman. In her memory, Naruto had always been warm, bright, and kind. She had never imagined he could look like this—feral, unrestrained, desperate.
He wasn't fighting like a human anymore.
He was like a starving beast that had finally caught the scent of prey—hurling himself forward without fear, tearing, clawing, devouring, refusing to stop.
"The Seventh… Hokage…?"
What was he holding on to? His body was cracking, his chakra nearly gone, his mind stretched thin.
Yet he continued. Again and again, launching the same suicidal attacks.
On the ground below, his remaining shadow clones gathered Sage chakra, barely sustaining the onslaught.
Kurama's voice rumbled from within him. "Enough. You're wasting chakra. If Sarada really died, throwing yourself at him won't change anything. Try something else."
Despite his exhaustion, Naruto stubbornly repeated the same pattern—condensing a Tailed Beast Ball, firing it, then crushing it mid-release.
"Sealing techniques," Kurama sighed, "are crude—but effective. Crude enough to lock me away for centuries."
Naruto halted. His breath trembled. Gritting his teeth, he began forming the hand seals for a sealing technique.
"I thought you'd finally taken a break," the white-robed man drawled. "Turns out you're just switching strategies."
"If you were truly invincible," Naruto rasped, "you wouldn't have stood there letting me hit you. Even if every hit passed through."
But the moment Naruto released the sealing jutsu, its chakra simply dissipated—like sand vanishing into the ocean. The masked man's aura stripped it away effortlessly.
"Even sealing… doesn't work?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed in despair. He was running out of options.
Only Sasuke's Rinnegan-level ocular power might work against a Mangekyō this dangerous…
The masked man chuckled as if reading his thoughts. "Why do you think I separated you two? Divide and conquer. With your stamina this low, I doubt you can even manage a Rasengan."
The insult stung—but it wasn't wrong. Naruto's body was failing. Kurama was the only thing keeping him aloft. If Kurama let go, he'd drop like a stone.
Naruto clenched his fists. He regretted rushing in alone. Now he could only hope Sasuke reached him before it was too late.
The final shadow clones dispersed. Their remaining chakra flowed back into Naruto like faint nourishment to a dying tree. He straightened a little, his chakra barely flickering back to life.
The man's Mangekyō gleamed. Naruto instinctively leapt back.
"Don't bother struggling," the man said. "You can't escape this technique."
Naruto braced—but then everything went silent.
His chakra vanished.
Kurama vanished.
His connection to everything vanished.
Without support, Naruto's body instantly gave in to gravity.
He plummeted.
"Haha! The Hokage dies by falling out of the sky! What a joke!" the man cackled.
Just then, Sasuke arrived.
He didn't even know how he'd been pulled to that location, but the moment he saw Naruto falling, he didn't hesitate. His Rinnegan flashed—
Amenotejikara.
He switched places with Naruto in an instant.
Boruto, who was beside him, immediately grabbed Naruto's limp hand. But neither of them could fly—not without Susanoo.
They continued to fall.
Sasuke activated Susanoo instantly, ready to catch them—
But the masked man finally moved.
His Mangekyō spun, and he launched a jutsu with frightening speed.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation Arrow!"
A piercing flame shot through the sky like a blazing spear.
Sasuke wasn't concerned—until it hit Susanoo.
And shattered it.
"What?!"
Sasuke's eyes widened. He had no choice—he summoned Garuda. The massive falcon swept beneath them, catching him before impact. He dove downward, grabbing Boruto and Naruto, pulling them onto the falcon's back as they soared away.
Naruto was limp, hollow, barely conscious. His usual warmth was gone—snuffed out.
"Thank you… for your hard work, Sarada…" he whispered weakly.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke… I failed…"
"I can tell this enemy is strong," Sasuke said quietly. "He shattered my Susanoo like nothing."
"The ability is like Kamui," Naruto forced out. "He can phase through attacks… and he kept it up for the entire afternoon."
"And sealing doesn't work," Naruto added.
Sasuke grimaced. A technique that could bypass attacks indefinitely… even against Naruto?
Troublesome was an understatement.
No wonder Naruto had been overwhelmed.
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