Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
With a series of crisp clashes, three kunai hammered against Sarada's defenses. The three enemies formed a loose triangle, attacking from three directions at once, their movements clean and ruthless.
Even wrapped in a Tailed Beast Cloak, Sarada's guard was breached again and again. Shallow cuts opened along her arms and shoulders; dark stains quickly spread along the kunai she gripped.
Three-on-one.
In pure taijutsu, she was already at a disadvantage.
On top of that, all three were elite battle-hardened shinobi. In experience, timing, and coordination, they outclassed her completely.
She couldn't use ninjutsu freely here.
They were stronger. Faster. More seasoned.
But she would not lose.
It wasn't the first time they'd left her covered in wounds. But every time their blades carved across her body, every time a new injury blossomed—
—the flesh knit back together at a speed that made even veterans feel afraid.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
"Damn it—what is she? Infinite regeneration?" Renga spat, chest heaving.
They were panting, running low on chakra, while Sarada stood there as if nothing had happened, only the tatters in her clothes and the drying blood hinting at the punishment she'd taken.
"Maybe that's her Mangekyō ability," Gozu muttered. "Some kind of regeneration, almost immortal."
In their previous encounter, they'd literally tortured her to death—bleeding her out, burning her, perforating her with Wind Release.
Yet after waiting for what felt like forever…
The girl had still been lying there, breathing, and her wounds had nearly vanished.
"Looks like only sealing jutsu will put her down for good," Gozu said.
The three exchanged weary nods and shifted positions, each stepping to a different side of Sarada, reforming the three-point formation.
This time, they weren't aiming to cut her down.
This time, they were aiming to cage her.
Sarada raised a hand and curled her finger in a taunting "come on" gesture, her crimson gaze sweeping lazily over each of their faces. Her expression and body language were practically shouting:
Come on. Hit me.
All three began forming hand seals in unison.
To Sarada's confusion, they didn't unleash another storm of attacks. Instead, a translucent, three-sided barrier sprang up around them with a dull shoom, a triangular prism that sealed all four of them inside.
Sarada's brows knit. She instinctively lifted the green crystal and pressed it against the barrier, trying to absorb it.
Can this thing take in barrier chakra?
Theoretically, a barrier was still a branch of ninjutsu—chakra woven into form. But unlike a straightforward elemental attack, it was a structure, a framework.
If she could think of this, of course, the three wouldn't overlook it.
That was why they had stepped inside the barrier with her.
Their goal was simple: overload the crystal from close range, crush its limits in a confined space. With her movement restricted, she'd have no real room to evade.
All they had to do now was keep up the pressure until the tool shattered.
Sarada realized their plan instantly. Her expression hardened.
If the crystal broke…
She'd lose the Sharingan she had just risked everything to reclaim.
A wave of killing intent surged in her chest.
"Nanao," she whispered inwardly, calling to the beast in her.
The next instant, ninjutsu crashed against her from every angle.
The barrier wasn't that large. Inside the cramped space, water roared like a tidal wave, lightning crawled through the saturated air, and fire and wind spiraled into scorching vortexes.
With nowhere to run, Sarada had no choice.
Even if her eye technique granted "immortality," this body was still just a shadow clone. If the damage exceeded its limit, it would vanish instantly—and so would the eye she carried.
Grinding her teeth, she thrust the crystal up and let it drink in the raging chakra.
"At the same time… I have to fight back," she muttered, eyes narrowing.
If they succeed, my Sharingan is gone again.
Inside, the Seven-Tails' voice rumbled.
"I've already reached out to your real body," Chongming said. "I've reported what's happening here. Strangely, there's still no response."
Sarada's frown deepened.
"Could it be that my main body ran into trouble…?"
If things continued like this, the clone would be destroyed sooner or later.
"Whatever the case," Chongming said, "we must secure your survival first. I'm about to push more chakra into you. This clone may burst. Keep 'Other Shore' active at all times."
Then the onslaught intensified. Waves and lightning, flames and slicing gusts took turns crashing over her—everything designed to corner her into using the crystal, again and again.
Sarada abruptly stopped resisting.
A darker, almost blackish crimson chakra erupted from her skin, the cloak thickening in an instant.
—Tailed Beast Cloak: Two-Tails Form.
Her silhouette shifted, chakra fangs and tails taking shape. The corrosive force of the tailed beast chakra ate into her skin like venom, ripping cells apart at the microscopic level.
The light of Other Shore flared within her left eye.
Destruction and regeneration clashed inside her body—
and reached a razor-thin equilibrium.
The cloak shredded her and healed her in the same breath.
In this state, Sarada moved like a demon.
She stepped into a pool of water crackling with lightning and didn't even flinch. The Tailed Beast Cloak devoured the damage while wrapping her in monstrous defense.
Her speed skyrocketed—at least four times faster than before.
And on top of that, she had wings.
Chakra wings flared from her back, beating once, twice. Her figure blurred, and suddenly she was right in front of the barrier's inner wall, claws scraping against it.
The three men cursed under their breath.
Without a powerful method of suppression or control, they could barely keep up with her movements.
But relatively speaking, it didn't matter.
Tailed Beast Cloaks always came with a weakness:
The more power you drew out, the more your consciousness dissolved into rage. In the end, all that remained was a mindless monster.
They didn't need to risk their lives any longer.
Quietly, all three of them eased backward, each moving to a corner of the triangle. At the same moment, they opened gaps and stepped out of the barrier, leaving Sarada alone inside.
The crystal glowed dangerously in her hand. With the sudden surge of chakra output, it was nearing its limit.
They no longer needed it.
They no longer needed to absorb ninjutsu at all.
All they had to do was maintain the barrier and let Sarada burn herself out and die inside.
While they were busy admiring their own plan, Sarada dropped to all fours.
Her tailed beast cloak rippled, her front limbs bracing against the ground like a hunting predator. She lowered her head slightly and locked onto a single section of the barrier.
Renga felt his throat go dry.
"Th-that stance… she's not really going to—"
"Everyone, full power on the barrier!" Gozu barked. "Reinforce that wall!"
They channeled chakra into the three-sided construct. Two-thirds of their combined reserves focused on the barrier wall directly in front of Sarada.
—Tailed Beast Ball.
A dark violet sphere of chakra formed in front of her jaws, swirling with compressed power. Tailed energy and malice fused into a single dense point.
Her fanged maw opened, monstrous and cruel.
The Tailed Beast Ball drew in the dense chakra filling the barrier, growing steadily until it was about the size of a basketball. The pressure it emitted distorted the air, scraping at the barrier's structure.
Tiny cracks shivered through the construct even before she fired.
"Can we even hold off a full Tailed Beast Ball…?" Jirō whispered, voice unsteady.
"We hold no matter what," Gozu snapped. "I've already relayed our coordinates to the closest team. They'll be here soon."
Renga laughed softly, almost wistfully.
"So that's it, huh? Guess this is the end. Sharing life and death with you bastards… isn't such a bad way to go."
"It's not like we didn't know this day would come," Jirō sighed. "I just didn't expect it to be today."
"We were already dead once," Gozu said quietly. "If it weren't for Victor-sama, we'd have died in the Fourth Great War. This time, if we drag down a Uchiha prodigy with Mangekyō and a tailed beast—"
He smiled grimly.
"—then I'd say that's more than enough payback for our hatred."
Their eyes hardened with resolve.
Each of them pulled a small, camouflage-patterned injector from a pouch on their flak jackets. The liquid inside shimmered with mottled, galaxy-like colors.
No hesitation.
They pressed the mechanisms, drove the needles into their own arms, and pushed the plunger.
A twisted gift from Amado—
a crude, low-grade imitation of the Kāma's power,
containing only a sliver of Ōtsutsuki life-force.
In an instant, their chakra exploded.
What had been Kage-level reserves swelled to something far beyond, like a dam bursting. The density of their chakra surged into a violent torrent.
The triangular barrier thickened immediately, its walls layering over themselves dozens of times.
Sarada fired.
The Tailed Beast Ball slammed into the same spot she'd been focusing on—
—and the barrier didn't even tremble.
Instead, under the immense pressure, it shrank.
They were compacting the prison while maintaining output, crushing the space tighter and tighter around her.
Sarada gritted her teeth and began forming a second beast bomb. It was her first time firing one—she was clumsy at it, but this time the condensation was faster.
Boom!!
The second Tailed Beast Ball detonated against the same point. Chakra howled, forming a raging vortex, a storm that should've torn everything apart.
But the barrier trapped all of it inside.
The roaring chakra battered Sarada instead.
"What the hell…? Why did they suddenly get that strong?" Sarada hissed.
For a second, she even wondered if all three of them were Jinchūriki, too.
Chongming felt it as well.
In its perception, a familiar, disgusting echo stirred in the air—a frequency it could never forget.
Ōtsutsuki.
"I was afraid of this," the Seven-Tails said quietly. "That's Ōtsutsuki power."
"Ōtsutsuki…?" Sarada gasped. "What is that supposed to be?"
"You're nowhere near the level to face it," Chongming answered. "In short— even I couldn't win against an Ōtsutsuki 'god.'"
Sarada's breath caught in her throat.
The barrier had shrunk drastically already, forcing her to crouch in a cramped posture. She jammed a chakra arm against the inside wall, trying to physically resist its compression.
"Hold on, Sarada!" Chongming shouted in her mind. "I'm calling the main body, and even… Naruto!!"
"!!"
Sarada's eyes flew wide. She blinked furiously, as if she wanted to shout Don't, but no sound left her lips. Only silent resentment trembled in her gaze.
"I know," Chongming said. "But anything involving Six Paths-level entities isn't a normal war. It's a disaster that can wipe out the entire shinobi world!"
"If we have to… We'll abandon this shadow clone."
"And that single-tomoe Sharingan."
The words hit like a hammer.
Sarada's spirit faltered. Her chakra arm slackened.
The barrier continued to shrink, slowly, inexorably.
In just a few more breaths, it would crush her into nothing.
---
A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
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