In the forest, a sea of fire laced with frost suddenly appeared, blooming in the battlefield like fireworks.
It was the most primitive collision of energy, one white, one red, like assaulting tornadoes, madly grinding against each other.
Contending.
Crushing.
Neither giving way.
Suddenly, because of the terrifying energy turbulence running rampant, the ground for several thousand meters around began to collapse, cracking into spider-web-like fissures.
In the field, Sora stood calmly.
In front of him, several sturdy Vacuum Ice Walls were also defending, standing in the void, forcibly splitting the chaotic energy flow into two segments.
The roaring, swirling shockwaves could not break through the ice wall's defense, only howling futilely between heaven and earth.
'Rinnegan Sasuke is truly extraordinary!'
Sora sighed softly.
'Truly worthy of a protagonist's destiny. A mere Great Fireball Technique could erupt with power on the level of a Tailed Beast Bomb. This one-armed Sasuke was probably even stronger than I had anticipated.'
And at this time, before the dust from the explosion had even settled, the second wave of attacks from Sasuke on the other side had already begun.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Amidst the piercing sonic booms, three Chakra Arrows gleaming with purple light shot over, instantly shredding the defense of the first Vacuum Ice Wall.
Sora looked up.
He discovered that, at some point, a giant purple armored giant had enveloped Sasuke, like a legendary god, holding a burning longbow, sending one terrifying light arrow after another shooting through the air.
With the roar of the purple light arrows, the air was torn into a vacuum channel. That channel pointed directly at the center of Sora's brow, like a death path leading to hell.
"Heavenly child, an iron fortress…"
"A steel castle, a dragon's fang, a fierce tiger's roar, a giant horn, a hard line, and a long spear, stand tall before me and sever all bonds."
Facing the purple arrow light, Sora stood firm in place, his voice emotionless as he chanted lowly: "Bakudo #81, Danku."
The next moment, those three purple light arrows seemed to crash against an invisible wall, exploding like scattered flowers.
Purple energy light rain burst apart in mid-air, yet failed to leave the slightest trace on that invisible wall.
'It seems...'
'I over-defended a bit.'
A slightly awkward smile rarely appeared on Sora's face.
The Sasuke on the other side clearly had little killing intent. Now it seemed that releasing this purple Susanoo was probably more to protect Itachi and Fugaku.
After all, this Rinnegan Sasuke was, by all accounts, a Six Paths-level figure. The quality of his Chakra was certainly not inferior to Sora's Reiatsu.
If his Susanoo couldn't even leave a mark on the Danku, then this Six Paths-level would be far too weak.
'This guy...'
'Who in the world is he!??'
Sasuke looked at Sora with immense astonishment. Even his crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan had, at some point, transformed into the hexagram-patterned Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
One-Tomoe, Two-Tomoe, Three-Tomoe, Mangekyo, Eternal Mangekyo...
This was undoubtedly the Uchiha Clan's most ultimate power. Even looking across the entire history of Ninja, only Sasuke and Madara had possessed this power named [Eternal].
Now, in the vision of the Eternal Mangekyo, Sasuke could clearly see that an invisible light screen had appeared in front of the mysterious Kirigakure's Ninja, like a barrier, easily receiving the attacks from his Susanoo.
He hadn't intended to kill with those three arrows, but even so, his attacks shouldn't have been defended against so easily by the opponent.
'The speed of the arrows just now... even a Kage-level Ninja shouldn't have been able to react so easily. So...'
'Who exactly is this Kirigakure's Ninja!?'
Sasuke, usually calm and composed, unruffled in the face of change, suddenly felt inexplicably irritated.
Too strong!
The opponent's strength was unbelievably powerful!
Chakra surpassing a Tailed Beast, an endless stream of mysterious forbidden techniques, plus those never-before-seen ice wings...
'Ice wings...'
'Ice Release?'
Sasuke suddenly remembered many years ago, during his first mission outside the village with Naruto, the Ninja who used Ice Release that they encountered.
'Yuki Haku…'
'Is he a ninja from Kirigakure's Yuki Clan?'
Sasuke's gaze grew more and more complex.
But that made it even more absurd!
'The Yuki Clan's Kekkei Genkai was the Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, wasn't it?'
'Then what were these ice wings, this invisible barrier? What created them!???'
He was dumbfounded.
Sasuke was truly feeling a bit dumbfounded.
He simply couldn't understand how such an excessively powerful Kirigakure's Ninja could have left no trace in the history of the Third Great Ninja War.
'Could it be...'
'That in the original timeline, another version of me appeared and killed him?'
Sasuke maintained his Susanoo, his gaze extremely complex as he looked at Sora, but one twisted time paradox after another rose in his heart.
'Kill?'
'Should I kill?'
'But that shouldn't be!'
'Even if this mysterious Kirigakure's Ninja died by his hand now, given his strength, he absolutely couldn't have been a nobody before. How could he have left no trace in history at all!??'
At this moment, that twisted sense of disorder made Sasuke feel sick to the point of wanting to vomit blood.
It was no exaggeration to say that, from his perspective, this mysterious Kirigakure's Ninja opposite him was excessively strong. Forget about Mizukage or Hokage, probably even his former self, who had just awakened the Eternal Mangekyo, might not be a match for this person.
'Among Konoha's successive Hokage, perhaps only the First Hokage and Naruto possessed strength above this person.'
'So...'
'Where did this bizarre and powerful Kirigakure's Ninja come from!??'
"My apologies."
After hesitating for a moment, Sasuke finally made a decision. He said solemnly, "My next moves might be a bit heavy-handed. If you can't hold on, surrender as soon as possible!"
"Otherwise..."
"You really will die."
Now, Sasuke had decided to first figure out the details of this mysterious Kirigakure's Ninja, then consider how to handle the current chaotic situation.
"Die?"
Sora, however, chuckled lightly. He gently beckoned to Sasuke not far away: "Come, let's fight!"
Before the words faded, the figures of both men vanished.
In an instant, a white and a black stream of light violently collided.
The air roared, and the charred ground again showed large-scale collapse.
Thump thump thump!
Tremendous force erupted.
Over a hundred extremely intense collision sounds exploded consecutively within one second.
The sonic booms produced by the collisions poured down like rain, pounding against Itachi's eardrums.
Tearing.
Vibrating.
Roaring.
His eardrums were nearly torn apart.
At this moment, Itachi's Three-Tomoe Sharingan had reached its limit in perception, yet it still couldn't capture any of the figures in the field.
Body Flicker.
Slashing.
Collision.
In less than a second,
Sora and Sasuke, who had abandoned his Susanoo, exchanged over a hundred blows mid-air.
Not just the long swords in their hands, every joint, muscle, and bone in their bodies had also become terrifying killing weapons.
Swordplay.
Fist techniques.
Leg techniques.
Body movement.
Power and speed, attack and defense, reaction and energy… the two were competing in all aspects. Whoever had any weakness would be instantly crushed by the other.
Hyorinmaru and the Kusanagi Sword also bloomed with infinite light in their hands.
Streaks of snow-white sword light traced perfect trajectories, crashing against equally perfect sword lights from the opposite side.
The abruptly halted sword momentum reflected the most outstanding sword paths from two different worlds.
Finally, after who knows how many hundred collisions, the Kusanagi Sword in Sasuke's hand ultimately couldn't withstand this high-intensity bombardment and snapped directly, turning into a shower of fragments scattering on the ground.
And at that moment, the Hyorinmaru in Sora's hand also drew a crescent-moon-like arc, slashing towards Sasuke's throat.