Naruto did not respond to Sasuke. He simply slammed the Six Paths staff in his hand heavily into the ground.
Golden energy surged outward from him like a tidal wave.
This was not chakra.
It was a more fundamental life force.
On the dead remnants of desert poplars, tender green shoots actually began to sprout. The scorpions and sand snakes killed by the aftermath of the battle trembled slightly before dissolving into pure natural energy and scattering into the wind.
Even the bodies of the shinobi who had died in the earlier fighting transformed into faint motes of light, carrying a peaceful sense of release as they returned to the earth.
This was not resurrection.
This was the cycle.
Life returning to its origin, merging its imprint back into the world.
"What are you doing?"
Sasuke's Rinnegan captured the changes occurring on the level of laws.
Naruto was using his power to accelerate the "metabolism" of this battlefield, redefining the concept of "death" as part of "rebirth."
"The old man said we have to give it a new definition."
Naruto's voice was calm, yet it contained a strength unlike anything before.
"That guy's Zero is an end. Nothingness."
"But our world, no matter how much pain and how many bastards it has, has never been zero."
He raised his head and looked at the black sun slowly falling from the sky.
"From the moment I was born, I was nothing."
"No parents. No friends. Everyone treated me like a monster."
"My starting point might have been even worse than zero."
"But then I met Iruka-sensei. I met Kakashi-sensei. I met Pervy Sage. I met all of you annoying bastards."
"It was those connections, those bonds, that turned my world from nothing into one, and then from one into countless colors."
Naruto smiled.
His smile was so bright it seemed capable of driving away the darkness in the sky.
"So I'll do this the way I'm best at."
The nine Truth-Seeking Balls behind him began spinning at high speed.
They were no longer defensive orbs.
Instead, they transformed into nine golden energy spirals.
"Sasuke!"
"Understood."
Sasuke raised his left hand.
The silver crescent mark radiated a cold glow.
His Susanoo rose from the ground, but it was no longer that fierce purple war god.
This Susanoo was translucent silver, as though forged from starlight.
And in its hand was not a bow or blade, but a massive carving knife also formed from starlight.
"He wants to use Yang Release to inject the concept of life into Zero."
Kakashi watched from the side, shaken to the core.
"But pure life energy would only make the vessel called Zero explode and cause even greater destruction."
"So Sasuke is using his Yin Release to carve form and rules for that life!"
This was the reappearance of the Sage of Six Paths' power of creation.
"Sage Art: Genesis Rasengan!"
Naruto did not create some massive sphere.
He poured all of his will, all his understanding of life and bonds, into the staff in his hand.
At the tip of the staff, a golden Rasengan slowly formed.
It was not large.
Yet it seemed to contain the stars of an entire universe.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Sasuke's silver Susanoo did not attack.
Instead, using the power of his Rinnegan, it created a repulsive field directly beneath Zero.
This field was not meant to push Zero away.
It existed to temporarily cancel out its downward momentum, creating one moment of absolute stillness for Naruto's strike.
"Naive."
Kai stood in the distance, observing their cooperation with the same calm expression.
"You are using the rules I created to resist me?"
"No matter how much 'one' you inject, it will ultimately be swallowed by 'zero.'"
He did not seem to have any intention of stopping them.
He merely watched with interest.
The golden Rasengan flew from Naruto's hand, transforming into a streak of light that shot toward the black sphere in the sky.
There was no earth-shaking explosion.
The golden light entered the darkness silently, like a drop of ink falling into clear water.
One second.
Two seconds.
Nothing happened.
"Did it fail?"
Sakura's heart rose into her throat.
"No... look!"
Ōnoki pointed at the sky, his voice trembling.
The surface of the pitch-black Zero had developed its first crack.
But what seeped from the crack was not light.
It was an even deeper darkness.
It was absorbing Naruto's power.
"As expected."
Kai commented calmly.
But at that moment, Sasuke moved.
The silver Susanoo swung the starlight carving knife in its hand.
This strike did not slash at Zero.
Instead, it cut into the empty void.
To everyone else, the slash seemed meaningless.
But in Sasuke's Rinnegan, he had severed the law-thread Kai had imposed upon Zero—the thread representing "devour everything."
"Hm?"
For the first time, Kai's eyebrow moved.
Once it lost the absolute definition of "devouring," the seed of life Naruto had injected into Zero finally broke free from its restraints.
Boom!
The black sphere erupted from within, releasing billions of rays of light.
It was no longer pure gold.
Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet...
The most fundamental chakra colors of the nine Tailed Beasts had been reawakened by Naruto's Yang Release and granted the attribute of creation.
On the surface of the black sphere, patterns of mountains, rivers, forests, and oceans began to emerge.
It was no longer a weapon of destruction.
Under Naruto and Sasuke's power, it had been forcibly given a new definition—
A World Egg.
"What... what kind of art is this...?"
Deidara stared blankly, muttering to himself.
"To turn ultimate destruction into a miracle of creation in an instant... this alternation of decay and rebirth... this is... this is true art, hm!"
Sasori's core remained silent.
For the first time, he felt that the eternity he pursued was so insignificant before this cycle of creation and destruction.
The black sphere in the sky was changing rapidly.
It no longer descended.
It floated in the air, like a heart nurturing a new world, beating slowly.
With every pulse, life energy spread outward, reviving all things.
"Interesting."
For the first time, something other than a smile appeared on Kai's face.
A strange expression mixed with surprise and appreciation.
"You are not opposing my rules."
"You are writing a new program on top of them."
"Using the power I granted you, you have created a surprise for me in return."
His gaze moved between Naruto and Sasuke.
"Yang Release's connection and creation."
"Yin Release's shaping and definition."
"I see. That old man Hagoromo entrusted the authority of creation to you."
"However..."
Kai raised a finger.
"You seem to have forgotten one thing."
"No matter how well a program is written, it still requires sufficient authority to run."
"And the highest authority of this world..."
"Is in my hands."
He lightly tapped the evolving World Egg.
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