_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Danzo dissolved into a puff of smoke.
Another Shadow Clone.
"ROAR!!"
The Nue that Akira had just blasted away finally regained its senses. Its crimson eyes flared, fury pouring out of it in waves.
That purple giant had swatted it aside.
And it was furious.
Even if it wasn't as large as that towering Susanoo, rage erased any trace of caution. With a deafening howl, it dug its claws into the ground and charged at Akira like a rabid beast.
The violet Susanoo formed a massive chakra blade and swung in a clean horizontal arc, aiming to take the monster's head clean off.
Despite its fury, instinct saved it. Nue ducked at the last possible instant. The blade whistled over its skull, shaving off only a few tufts of fur.
Akira clicked his tongue. "Hm? That reaction speed… not bad."
He wasn't satisfied.
Pulling the sword back, he prepared a vertical strike to split Nue straight down the middle—
—but a massive white tail suddenly lashed out and coiled around Susanoo's sword arm.
The tip of that tail opened like a mouth and bit down.
In an instant, Akira felt the chakra draining from his body.
"What?! It's absorbing my chakra?"
His expression hardened. He commanded Susanoo's other arm to hammer a punch into Nue's head.
"ROAR!!"
Nue didn't dodge. It opened its massive, fang-filled jaws and clamped down on the incoming fist.
Now both its mouth and tail were devouring chakra at once. The drain intensified.
"That thing absorbs chakra. It's a nightmare to deal with!" Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted. "Using Susanoo against it just makes you a walking target!"
He wanted Akira dead, sure. But if Akira fell and his chakra fed that monster, Konoha would be finished.
The warning made Akira look closer at the creature's traits. Something clicked in his mind.
Nue.
The same Nue that appeared in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
In the original timeline, that thing had been an absolute menace. Even the Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, the Sixth Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, and a squad of elite ANBU working together couldn't easily subdue it.
And that was Naruto as a perfect Jinchūriki, fully in sync with the Nine-Tails.
That alone said enough about how absurd this creature was.
No wonder Fugaku and the Third hadn't been able to handle it.
Fortunately, this wasn't its complete form.
A fully developed Nue possessed space-time abilities and could teleport at will. This one didn't seem to have that power yet. That made it troublesome—but not unbeatable.
Still… where was Itachi? Akira hadn't seen him once since arriving. Not exactly the type to slack off. Something felt off.
No time to dwell on that.
First, suppress the monster.
With a thought, Akira dispelled Susanoo.
The avatar was massive and made entirely of chakra. To Nue, it was basically a walking buffet. Fighting it that way was just asking to get drained dry.
But dropping Susanoo had its downside.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens—no, hundreds—of tail tendrils shot through the air toward him.
Nue's eyes gleamed. After that brief taste, it knew exactly how much chakra this "ant" contained. Far more than its previous meals.
There was no way it was letting that feast escape.
The rope-thick tails lashed toward him from every direction.
Akira's gaze turned icy.
"Looking down on me, huh? I'm not some coward who only knows how to dodge."
He grabbed the first two tails that reached him and yanked hard.
Using the recoil, he shot forward like a cannonball straight at Nue.
Fist clenched. Power coiling.
As the distance closed—
He punched.
BOOM!!!
"AAOOOHH!!"
The impact landed square on Nue's forehead. The colossal beast was sent skidding back hundreds of meters.
It blinked in confusion.
It had thought this tiny human was flying in to die. It had even opened its mouth to swallow him whole.
Instead, it got launched.
From a single punch.
"ROAR!!!"
The soundwave shook the battlefield. Nearby shinobi clutched their ears in pain.
Enraged, Nue charged again at the freshly landed Akira.
That last blow had hurt—but its enormous size and thick hide made the damage negligible.
When Nue lunged and snapped its jaws at him, Akira had already leapt into the air again.
Another punch.
This one hit even harder.
The beast was blasted a full kilometer away.
Gulp.
Everyone watching swallowed in unison.
Was he even human?
He had just sent a hundred-meter monster flying with nothing but raw physical strength.
They already knew Akira's body was monstrous. But this was beyond ridiculous.
Then, a mocking laugh cut through the stunned silence.
"HAHAHA! Useless! Without Susanoo, the damage you deal only looks impressive. In reality, you're just scratching an itch!"
Danzo stood atop a giant tree, sneering.
"See? Nue is invincible. Keep dragging this out and your defeat is inevitable, Uchiha Akira!"
Akira flicked an air bullet, popping the clone in a burst of smoke, then turned and punched Nue away again.
Another laugh echoed from a different direction.
"Out of options already? Don't worry. I won't let you die. When you're exhausted, I'll personally step in and save you!"
"If you'd rather not experience having your tendons pulled and skin flayed, ending yourself now might be the wiser choice! Hahaha!"
Akira ignored him. Just another clone. No point.
When he caught the real body, Danzo would regret ever opening his mouth.
"Uchiha Akira!" Hiruzen Sarutobi called out again. "We already tried brute force. That monster regenerates at an absurd rate. You can't beat it with strength alone!"
"A cockroach that won't die, huh?" Akira exhaled. "Fine. Then I'll just seal it."
"That was my thought too," Hiruzen snapped. "But Danzo killed every member of the sealing squad!"
"You misunderstand." Akira glanced at him calmly. "I never said I needed a sealing team."
"I'll seal it myself."
He looked back toward the distant Nue.
"But the sealing technique I'm about to use has… a wide radius. Push that thing far away. Make sure no one gets close."
Hiruzen stared at him in disbelief.
"You… know sealing jutsu?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi froze in shock.
He had never heard of an Uchiha who specialized in sealing techniques.
Sealing arts were notoriously difficult to master, and talent mattered just as much as effort. The Uchiha clan? They were known for their combat prowess, a bunch of battle-crazed hotheads. Since when did any of them have the patience for something as intricate as sealing?
"Less talk. Just do what I said."
Akira shot the Third Hokage an irritated look. The old man sure liked to yap.
Hiruzen's mouth twitched. What was with that commanding tone? He was the Hokage, for heaven's sake!
Then again… this was Akira. The guy who had already slapped him around more than once. Fine. He'd let it slide.
"Tch. Did I hear that right? An Uchiha brute using sealing jutsu? That's hilarious."
Danzo sneered openly.
"Hiruzen, you're not actually going to believe him, are you?"
Ignoring Danzo's nagging, Hiruzen leveled the staff in his hands at the charging Nue and barked, "Enma! Extend! Stretch to the limit!"
Boom!
The Adamantine Staff elongated violently, ramming into Nue's head and driving the massive creature backward. Trees shattered into splinters in its wake, the earth gouged open into a deep trench as it was forced across the forest.
Akira flickered out of sight, reappearing thousands of meters closer to the beast. Hiruzen and the other shinobi remained where they were, watching intently.
Akira raised a hand toward the empty sky and clenched his fist.
His left eye snapped open, the Rinnegan spinning into view.
"Planetary Devastation!"
The ground split apart.
Rocks, trees, water, chunks of earth—everything tore free from gravity and surged upward toward a single point in the sky.
Even the enormous Nue lost its footing, dragged helplessly into the air. It roared furiously at Akira, thrashing midair, but there was nothing to push off. Slowly, inevitably, it rose.
"That's… Planetary Devastation. And that eye—just like the Nine-Tails said. It really is the Rinnegan."
Hidden in the shadows, Obito's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Damn it. Where did that freak come from? How does he have the Rinnegan?"
…
Soon, a small sphere of compressed stone floated silently in midair. Nue was sealed inside it.
Danzo stood there dumbfounded.
This… this Uchiha brute could actually use sealing techniques?
The ultimate weapon he had painstakingly created had been neutralized just like that?
His expression twisted. For a moment, his composure cracked. Then his gaze sharpened as he looked at the floating sphere.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. I still have allies. This fight isn't over, Uchiha Akira."
As his voice fell—
A pitch-black sphere of chakra shot through the air.
A Tailed Beast Ball.
Boom!
It slammed into the floating rock sphere. With a deafening explosion, the stone prison shattered. Nue broke free less than a minute after being sealed.
Roar!
Two earth-shaking roars rang out at the same time.
One came from Nue.
The other—from the Nine-Tails inside Konoha.
"N–Nine-Tails! It's the Nine-Tails! Run!"
"How is this possible? Didn't the Fourth Hokage seal it?! Why is it out again?!"
"Help! Someone help!"
"Damn it, don't grab me! I'm getting out of here!"
Panic erupted across the village.
The memory of that night—the night they were ruled by the Nine-Tails—came flooding back. Fear long buried clawed its way to the surface.
The massive crimson fox rampaging through the streets was enough to send people scrambling blindly for safety. Screams, sobs, and desperate cries blended into chaos.
Two colossal monsters stood on the battlefield at once.
One was hard enough to handle. Now there were two.
"That's… the Nine-Tails!"
Seeing the crimson figure wreaking havoc, Hiruzen clenched his teeth and turned angrily to Akira.
"Wasn't the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki with you?! Why is this happening?
I trusted you with him! And you were careless!
Clearly, the jinchūriki would've been safer under my supervision!"
Akira punched Nue away with a single blow and shot Hiruzen a cold glance, saying nothing.
This was, admittedly, his oversight. He hadn't expected that in just a brief lapse, Danzo would have people abduct Naruto.
Of course, he didn't rule out the possibility that the Third and Danzo were acting in concert.
"You hold that thing off," Akira said flatly. "I'll deal with the Nine-Tails."
With that, he headed straight for the fox.
Both monsters were still tearing through their surroundings.
Akira decided to leave Nue to Hiruzen. The Nine-Tails needed to be handled first.
After all, he had already beaten the fox senseless inside the sealing space earlier. And now it dared come out again? Guess its backside had forgotten the pain.
As he approached, something felt off.
"That's… a Mangekyō Sharingan."
His eyes narrowed as he saw the pattern spinning in the Nine-Tails' pupils.
So it was being controlled.
"There's another enemy in the shadows."
It wasn't hard to guess who.
Uchiha Obito.
In the entire shinobi world, the only other person with an awakened Mangekyō was that guy.
"Nine-Tails! Kill him!"
Hidden in the dark, Obito pushed his Mangekyō to the limit, focusing all his will on the fox.
Roar!
The Nine-Tails howled and raised a massive crimson claw, slashing down at Akira.
Akira didn't dodge.
His Rinnegan and Eternal Mangekyō locked onto the fox's eyes at the same time. A torrent of overwhelming ocular power surged into its mind.
"Wake up, Nine-Tails!"
He felt it immediately—another force of eye power resisting him inside the fox's consciousness.
"Hah. With that level of strength, you think you can compete with me for control of the Nine-Tails? Don't make me laugh."
With a cold snort, Akira's power crushed through the resistance in an instant.
"Puh—!"
In the shadows, Obito spat out a mouthful of blood. His face turned deathly pale, shock flooding his eyes.
How?
He had a Mangekyō too. How was it crushed in a single exchange?
The Nine-Tails shook its head and snapped back to its senses.
When it realized what it had just been doing, its heart skipped a beat. Its entire body shuddered.
What the hell was it thinking? It had actually tried to hit that monster.
The fox hastily withdrew its claw and blurted out, "Boss! Boss! This wasn't me! Some guy wearing a poop-yellow mask was controlling me! I'd never break the seal and cause trouble on my own!"
A fawning grin spread across its vulpine face.
"Boss, if you want someone to blame, go after that mask-wearing bastard. Please don't take it out on me."
Everyone present stared, dumbstruck.
Was this really the savage, terrifying Nine-Tails?
Where was its dominance? Its ferocity?
The shift was so drastic it shattered their worldview.
The Nine-Tails would later argue: if you'd had your backside blasted hundreds of times, you'd learn some manners too.
"Boss, if there's nothing else, I'll just head back and take a nap."
The fox scratched its head sheepishly, clearly preparing to slip away.
"Since you're already out," Akira finally spoke, "don't rush off."
He stopped the fox mid-retreat.
"Hey, Boss, this really isn't my fault!" the Nine-Tails protested, backing away in alarm. It had a bad feeling Akira was about to use that humiliating move on it again. In front of everyone? It had some pride, okay?
Akira rolled his eyes. He could guess exactly what was going through the fox's head.
"Go help me stall that thing."
He pointed toward Nue outside the village.
The Nine-Tails turned its head, glanced at the massive beast, then puffed out its chest.
"Got it! No problem!"
"..."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________