The world tilted violently as Urashiki reeled him in. Rain lashed Naruto's face, mingling with the blood streaming from his nose and the searing cold agony radiating from the red energy hook buried deep in the bone of his left forearm. The sensation was beyond pain; it was violation. He felt his chakra – raw, vital, the fuel of his existence and his curse – being siphoned through the hook like blood through a leech's bite. The drain was catastrophic, accelerating the Rinnegan's hunger and the Kaguya-cells' frantic attempts to compensate by consuming his own tissue faster. Below, the shattered Konoha plaza shrank, Hinata's horrified face and Sasuke's prone form blurring into insignificance.
Urashiki's golden eyes, filled with detached amusement and predatory curiosity, filled his vision. The ornate rod in the Otsutsuki's other hand hummed with concentrated annihilation energy, its multi-hooked blade descending with terrifying leisure towards Naruto's chest. It wasn't a killing blow; it was dissection.
*Yield… Become…* The Kaguya-cells screamed within him, resonating with the overwhelming, alien power before them, urging submission to the superior predator.
**NO!**
The denial wasn't a thought; it was a detonation from the cold core. Vengeance. Survival. The faces of the dead – Hinata broken, Sasuke headless, Konoha burning – flashed through his fractured consciousness. He wouldn't die like a specimen pinned to a board. Not yet. Not before the true harvesters paid.
Every shred of unraveling will, every drop of life force not yet stolen, every ounce of furious defiance, he channeled *outward*. Not into defense. Into a single, desperate strike. He focused the searing agony of the hook, the gnawing void of the drain, the Kaguya-cells' furious resonance, and the Rinnegan's cold authority into his right arm.
**Intrinsic Armament: Bone Lance – Soul Piercer!**
His right fist clenched. Not a spear erupting *from* it. His entire forearm *transformed*. Skin, muscle, bone – all flowed and reconfigured in an instant of agonizing biological alchemy. A single, thick shaft of condensed, seamless white bone, longer than his body, erupted from his elbow. It wasn't crude; its surface was etched with intricate, glowing purple patterns – the Rinnegan's power forcibly channeled and etched onto the Kaguya-material by his will. It hummed with dissonant energy, a fusion of damnation and defiance, aimed not at the descending blade, but straight at Urashiki's smirking face.
Urashiki's golden eyes widened a fraction – genuine surprise flickering through the amusement. He shifted the trajectory of his rod instinctively, the annihilation blade meeting the bone lance mid-thrust.
***KRA-SHOOOOOM!***
The collision wasn't metal on bone. It was reality tearing. Light – blinding white from the bone lance, consuming violet from the Otsutsuki blade – exploded in a sphere of annihilating force. The shockwave ripped outwards, visible even from the ground, shredding the rain-laden clouds above Konoha. Naruto felt the impact reverberate through his transformed arm, shattering bone and tearing ligaments in a wave of agony that threatened to obliterate his consciousness. The red energy hook in his other arm flared, violently sucking chakra to counter the disruption.
Urashiki grunted, a sound of annoyance rather than pain. His rod held firm, but the bone lance, though cracked and splintering at the tip, had *held*. It hadn't pierced him, but it had halted the dissection. More importantly, the violent release of energy disrupted his effortless float. He was shoved backwards several meters through the air, the fishing line momentarily slackening.
Naruto seized the micro-second of slack. With a guttural roar ripped from a throat raw with pain and rage, he *wrenched* his left arm sideways. The bone lance retracted instantly, his arm snapping back to its normal shape, mangled and bleeding. The violent motion tore the red energy hook partially free from his forearm bone with a sickening *crack* and a fresh geyser of agony. He wasn't free, but the hold was weakened.
He plummeted.
Not towards the plaza. Towards the dense canopy of trees bordering the training grounds. He twisted in mid-air, the Rinnegan locking onto a specific cluster of ancient oaks. He hit the branches hard, bone snapping (his own ribs this time), leaves and splintered wood exploding around him. He crashed through layers of foliage, finally slamming onto the muddy forest floor, gasping, broken, the red energy line still tethering him to the sky like a grotesque puppet string.
Above, Urashiki hissed, regaining his composure. The amusement was gone, replaced by cold irritation. "Persistent little grub," his melodic voice carried down, laced with venom. "Tearing your own flesh to escape the hook? How… *messy*." He began reeling in the line again, slower now, savoring the struggle. "Let's see how much more you can bleed before you break."
Naruto pushed himself up on trembling arms, spitting blood and mud. The Rinnegan scanned frantically. He needed cover. He needed to sever the line. He felt the Kaguya-cells, momentarily stunned by the massive energy release and the physical trauma, beginning to stir again, their whispers shifting from panic to a cold, calculating assessment of the new environment. He saw Hinata and Sasuke, far across the plaza, tiny figures – Hinata starting to run towards the forest edge, Sasuke struggling to rise, his hand clamped over the white-spreading puncture on his shoulder, his Mangekyō fixed skyward with dawning, horrified comprehension of what floated there.
Suddenly, a new pressure slammed into the world. Heavier. Colder. Utterly devoid of Urashiki's playful malice. It felt like the sky itself was pressing down.
A second ripple tore through space nearby. Not a tear, but a *sundering*. A massive figure materialized beside Urashiki, landing on a thick lower branch of a giant oak with a force that shook the entire tree. Taller, broader, immensely powerful. Grey skin like weathered stone. Short, pale horns sweeping back from a stern, impassive face. Piercing red eyes that scanned the scene below with dispassionate efficiency. He held a massive, double-bladed axe made of shimmering red chakra that hummed with destructive potential.
**Ōtsutsuki Kinshiki.**
"Urashiki," Kinshiki's voice was a deep rumble, like distant thunder. "You were instructed to locate the vessel of the Nine-Tails. Not… play with broken tools." His red eyes flickered dismissively to Naruto, tethered and bleeding below. "This one leaks power. It is damaged. Barely a vessel at all." His gaze shifted to the distant, struggling Sasuke. "The Uchiha sparrow bears *her* mark. It is unstable." Finally, his eyes lifted, scanning the horizon towards the distant sea. "The Three-Tails' vessel is secured. The extraction proceeds."
Urashiki pouted theatrically, though his eyes held a flicker of wariness. "Kinshiki! So grim! This one has *spirit*! And such fascinating bone! It resisted the hook! Briefly." He gestured with his fishing rod, making Naruto jerk on the line. "And the Uchiha… marked by Kaguya's power? That could be… *problematic*. Should we not… tidy up?"
Kinshiki's expression didn't change. "Our mandate is the Tailed Beasts. This vessel," he nodded at Naruto, "is spent. The marked Uchiha is insignificant. Leave them. The Three-Tails awaits." He raised his massive axe. "The chakra fruit will not harvest itself."
He brought the axe down in a simple, devastating chop. Not aimed at Naruto or Konoha. Aimed at the *air* beside him.
***SHLIIICK!***
Space tore. Not a ripple, but a jagged, vertical *wound* in reality, edges crackling with unstable red energy. Through the tear, Naruto's Rinnegan glimpsed a nightmarish landscape – a barren, rocky plain under a bruised purple sky, dominated by the colossal, skeletal form of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, its mouth gaping wide. Chained before it, thrashing violently against spectral bonds that pulsed with Otsutsuki energy, was the massive, turtle-like form of Isobu, the Three-Tails. Its roars of pain and fury were silent through the rift, but Naruto *felt* them – a soul-rending wave of despair and primal terror. He saw Yagura, the Mizukage, slumped unconscious nearby, small and broken.
Kinshiki stepped through the rift without a backward glance. Urashiki sighed dramatically, giving the fishing line one last, sharp tug that sent fresh agony through Naruto's arm. "Pity. We could have had such *fun*." He released the rod. The red energy hook dissolved, the line retracting. Naruto collapsed fully onto the forest floor, free but broken, the hook wound in his arm bleeding freely, his chakra dangerously depleted.
Urashiki floated towards the rift. "Next time, little minnow," he called back, his voice dripping with false sweetness, "try not to be so… *damaged* when the real fishermen come." He vanished through the tear after Kinshiki.
The rift snapped shut with a sound like a giant's maw closing. The oppressive pressure vanished. The unnatural hum faded. Only the drumming rain and Naruto's ragged gasps remained in the sudden silence.
He lay in the mud, broken ribs grinding, arm screaming, chakra bleeding out through multiple wounds, the Kaguya-cells whispering of weakness and opportunity. The Rinnegan's vision flickered, but he forced it to focus upwards, through the shattered canopy, towards the spot where the rift had been.
*Secured. Extraction proceeds.* Kinshiki's words echoed. They hadn't come for him. He was *insignificant*. A leaking vessel. A distraction. The true prey was the Tailed Beasts. Isobu was already being fed to the Gedo Statue. The harvest had begun. The Otsutsuki were here, and they moved with terrifying efficiency, treating Bijuu and nations alike as mere resources.
A wave of profound despair, colder than the rain, threatened to drown him. He had fought so hard, damned himself so completely… and to them, he was barely worth noting. Just another broken thing on the path to their harvest.
Footsteps pounded through the undergrowth. Hinata burst into the small clearing, skidding to a halt, her Byakugan wide, taking in his broken form, the mangled arm, the deep hook wound still weeping chakra-infused blood, the bone-white flecks glowing angrily beneath his skin. Her face was pale, etched with terror and a desperate, aching compassion.
"Naruto-kun!" She rushed towards him, dropping to her knees in the mud beside him, her hands glowing faintly with pale green medical chakra, instinctively reaching for the worst wounds. "Hold on! Please!"
He flinched back, a ragged growl escaping him. "Don't… touch me." The words were thick with pain and the Kaguya-cells' reactive hostility to her warm, vital energy. He saw the hurt flash in her eyes, but also the unwavering determination.
Behind her, Sasuke stumbled into the clearing. He leaned heavily against a tree, breathing raggedly, his face pale and slick with sweat. The white discoloration around his shoulder puncture was spreading, visible even through his clothes. His Mangekyō Sharingan was active, but flickering erratically, the patterns unstable. He stared at Naruto, then up at the sky where the rift had vanished, his expression a maelstrom of pain, residual fury, and dawning, horrified understanding. He had seen the Otsutsuki. He had seen the Three-Tails chained. He had heard Kinshiki's words.
"The Tailed Beasts…" Sasuke rasped, his voice raw. "They… they were telling the truth." He looked at Naruto, not with disgust now, but with a chilling realization of the scale of the threat. "Those… *things*…"
Naruto met Sasuke's gaze through the haze of pain. He saw the ghost of the future, finally glimpsing the true abyss. He saw Hinata, her hands trembling but resolute, refusing to abandon him despite the monster he was becoming. The cold core within him, fueled by the despair of insignificance and the sight of Isobu's torment, flared one last time. It wasn't enough. He was broken, leaking, damned. But the harvest had begun. The war wasn't over. It had just entered its most desperate phase.
He pushed himself up onto his elbows, ignoring Hinata's gasp and Sasuke's sharp intake of breath. Pain screamed through every fiber. The Kaguya-cells whispered of surrender. The Rinnegan's drain was a sucking void.
He looked at Hinata, then at Sasuke, his voice a broken rasp, yet carrying the chilling weight of absolute conviction forged in the crucible of his own annihilation. "Told you…" he choked out, blood bubbling on his lips. "They're… coming." His gaze locked onto the empty sky where the rift had been, where the Three-Tails' silent scream still echoed in his soul. "For *all* of us." The fractured vessel, broken and bleeding, clung to the only thing left: the fire of warning, and the desperate, damned will to make the blind see the true face of the harvest moon before it was too late.