Chapter 298: Battle on the Moon
Seeing Madara and Naruto about to fight to the death, Dan intervened, positioning himself between them as a mediator.
He looked at Naruto and spoke meaningfully:
"You must have heard by now, Madara and I have a wager. Haven't you always wanted to defeat me? This is a good opportunity, team up with Madara."
Naruto shook his head slowly.
The reason he targeted Dan was at Konan-sensei's request, to avenge Nagato's death.
But now Naruto knew that Madara was the true mastermind, the one who manipulated and ultimately caused Nagato's death.
So, how could he possibly help Madara defeat Dan and let Madara win the wager, achieving a perfect resurrection?
Absolutely not.
Naruto and Madara disagreed with Dan's suggestion, as his pride wouldn't allow him to team up with anyone.
"Uchiha Dan, just you and me, a one-on-one duel. But before that, let me take care of this brat and reclaim my Rinnegan," Madara said coldly, crossing his arms and looking at Naruto while speaking to Dan.
Tsk, tsk, none of you listen to reason.
You all need a lesson.
"Sigh."
Dan sighed helplessly, shaking his head, "In that case, there's no choice but to beat you both."
As soon as he finished speaking, his gaze focused one meter behind Naruto.
Swoosh.
Dan disappeared from his spot and reappeared behind Naruto in an instant. Before Naruto could react, Dan kicked him hard.
Bang!
Caught off guard, Naruto was sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing through a row of towering ancient trees and raising a huge cloud of dust in the forest.
If it weren't for the protection of the Tailed Beast Cloak, that kick alone could have killed Naruto.
After dealing with Naruto, Dan turned his gaze to Madara.
"Hmm?"
Madara was shocked and was about to react when his vision blurred, and Dan appeared in front of him.
A punch was thrown.
Bang!
Madara and his Susanoo were sent flying over a hundred meters.
In the process, with a "crack" sound, Madara was horrified to see his Susanoo shattering, covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
Boom.
Madara crashed to the ground, his Susanoo broken, rolling on the ground in a humiliating manner.
Damn it.
When had he ever been humiliated like this, treated as a punching bag?
"Ha!"
Enraged, Madara formed a single-hand seal, his long hair dancing wildly as immense chakra surged from his body, and his Susanoo in its fourth form, clad in tengu armour, appeared.
Yasaka Magatama.
Susanoo swung its arm, launching a string of blue magatama, each over ten meters in diameter, towards Dan.
On the other side.
Naruto, also enraged, crouched on all fours, his mouth forming a black Tailed Beast Bomb, which he aimed and fired at Dan.
The two attacks quickly engulfed Dan.
Buzz.
Blinding white light swallowed everything, the ground, trees, boulders, and the animals and birds in the forest were all obliterated to dust by the expanding light.
The blinding light, deafening noise, and earth-shaking tremors reached Konoha Village, further traumatising the villagers who had just survived the meteor shower.
Even the aftermath killed over a thousand people.
"It's the Sixth Hokage, he's fighting the enemy!"
"The Sixth Hokage seems to be in danger. ANBU, follow me to assist immediately!"
The village fell into chaos.
After a long while.
The light dissipated, revealing a shocking scene.
The mountain outside Konoha where the three had fought was completely gone, as if it had been moved by a divine being.
All that was left was a stretch of charred black earth.
Madara and Naruto's combined attack had evaporated an entire mountain. The village would have been annihilated if such an attack had hit Konoha.
"This won't do."
High in the sky, Dan muttered to himself. It seemed he had used Kamui to teleport and avoid the explosion, remaining unharmed, not even a hair out of place.
However, if this fight continued, Konoha would be destroyed sooner or later.
Whether the village is destroyed or not doesn't matter to Dan; he just needs to protect those he cares about, like his sister Mikoto, his wife Samui, and his son and daughter.
Oh, and Tsunade counts as half a person, too, since she's Samui and Hagoromo's stepmother.
It seems that to have a good fight, he needs to change the battlefield.
Where would be suitable?
Dan looked around and then up at the sky.
White clouds covered the endless sky, but Dan's Rinnegan could see through the thick clouds straight out into space.
On the ground:
"That guy really is fine."
Madara looked up at Dan in the sky, his brow furrowing tighter.
After fighting Dan, he realised that the other had mastered a kind of instant movement ability, likely a Rinnegan dojutsu. A real headache.
Naruto, without saying a word, began forming another Tailed Beast Ball.
With Kurama's support, his chakra was nearly infinite, allowing him to attack wildly.
Whoosh!
A few seconds later, a bigger Tailed Beast Ball shot up towards Dan in the sky.
Naruto also knew about Dan's ability.
Dan's dojutsu allowed him to teleport instantly, giving him an edge in both offence and escape, seemingly unbeatable. But every ninjutsu has its weaknesses.
The distance Dan's Heaven's Mandate could teleport had a limit.
And Naruto's Tailed Beast Ball had a blast radius of several kilometres. Even Uchiha Dan might not be able to teleport that far instantly.
Naruto guessed right.
Dan's Heaven's Mandate allowed him to teleport at high speed to any place within his line of sight, but if the distance was too great, even his strong body couldn't withstand the intense friction with the air during the process.
If he forced long-distance teleportation, he might be torn apart by the friction before the enemy's attack hit him.
But don't forget, Heaven's Mandate was Dan's Mangekyou Sharingan ability.
With the awakening of his Rinnegan, Heaven's Mandate evolved into an even more powerful dojutsu: true teleportation.
Using Rinnegan's power, he could traverse space at will, teleporting to any place in the Shinobi World.
And at this moment:
Dan's eyes gleamed, and his excitement rose as he decided to attempt the longest-distance teleportation he had ever done.
The upcoming distance was...
Four hundred thousand kilometres.
Facing the approaching Tailed Beast Ball:
Dan suddenly spread his arms wide, his broad chest seemingly embracing the entire world, and silently recited:
Za Warudo!
Buzz.
Time stopped flowing again, and everything seemed to be encased in a huge eternal amber.
Swoosh.
Dan's figure flashed, appearing beside Madara, placing a hand on his shoulder.
In the next second, he brought Madara to Naruto, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
In the third second, the three of them disappeared simultaneously.
Time resumed flowing.
Huh?
Madara felt his vision blur and seemed to experience a spinning sensation. When he regained his senses, the scene had changed.
A second ago, he was in Konoha, surrounded by lush forests.
Now, looking around, I saw that it was desolate. The ground was dotted with large oval craters, filled with sand and dust, and nothing else was in sight.
Moreover:
"My body feels lighter."
Madara murmured, leaping gently into the air, floating seven or eight meters high. He quickly realised it wasn't his body becoming lighter, but the gravity weakening.
Not far away, Naruto, also unaccustomed to the sudden change in gravity, leapt tens of meters high, flailing in the air.
When he finally regained his balance, he instinctively looked far away and froze.
On the horizon, Naruto saw a planet.
A blue planet, mostly covered by oceans, with a central irregular continent, vaguely familiar.
He remembered it was... the Shinobi World's map!
Could it be...
A thought surged in Naruto's mind, making his eyes widen.
No, how is that possible?!
But Madara's next words confirmed Naruto's guess.
"This is the moon."
Madara said expressionlessly.
As he scanned around for Uchiha Dan's figure, he used Earth Release to increase his weight, allowing himself to stand steadily on the moon's surface.
However, his inner turmoil was far from his calm exterior.
The distance between the moon and the Shinobi World is several hundred thousand kilometers, yet in just one second, Dan transported Madara and Naruto from Konoha to the moon.
Is this some kind of reverse summoning jutsu?
"That's right."
Just as Madara and Naruto were filled with suspicion, Dan appeared with a smile, "This place is perfect for our battlefield. No matter how big the commotion, there won't be any problems."
Naruto finally came to his senses. At this moment, he had no intention of attacking Dan or Madara, but couldn't help asking:
"Is this really where the Sage of Six Paths sealed his mother?"
Not long ago, from the Uchiha clan's stone tablet, Naruto learned that the Sage of Six Paths used Chibaku Tensei to seal the Ten Tails' husk, the Gedo Statue. He also learned that the moon in the night sky was created by the Sage of Six Paths.
But now, standing on the moon and feeling its vastness, he was deeply shocked.
Whether it was Nagato or Naruto, their Rinnegan could create Chibaku Tensei with a diameter of just a few hundred meters, enough to seal any tailed beast.
The Tengai Shinsei that Madara summoned from outer space to destroy Konoha was only a kilometer or two in diameter.
But the moon beneath their feet had a diameter of… a hundred kilometers? A thousand kilometers?
Naruto didn't dare to think further.
The Sage of Six Paths, what a truly great existence.
"Yes."
Facing Naruto's question, Dan nodded and added, "After the Sage of Six Paths sealed his mother on the moon, his brother Hamura stayed here to guard the Gedo Statue. To this day, Hamura's descendants still live on the moon. However…"
At this, Dan paused, looking at Naruto with a smirk:
"Naruto, you used a summoning jutsu to steal the Gedo Statue and hid it away without returning it for so long.
I guess Hamura's descendants must have noticed and are probably planning to destroy the Shinobi World to reclaim the statue."
Naruto's face changed upon hearing this.
He had hidden the Gedo Statue to prevent Dan from stealing it.
If what Dan said was true, and Hamura's descendants were indeed guarding the Gedo Statue and decided to destroy the Shinobi World in anger, Naruto would undoubtedly be the greatest sinner.
Akatsuki's dream was to bring peace to the Shinobi World, not to see it disappear entirely.
"This is the power of the Six Paths…"
Not far away, Madara wasn't listening to Dan but was staring at the moon, muttering to himself.
So, after becoming the Ten Tails' Jinchuriki, one could gain such immense power.
With this power, anything could be done at will, with no one able to stop it.
No.
This power must not fall into Uchiha Dan's hands.
Thinking this:
"Nine-Tails brat!"
Madara shouted at Naruto, "Join forces with me to defeat Uchiha Dan! Otherwise, we'll all die on the moon and never return to the Shinobi World."
Dan nodded in agreement, adding:
"He's right. Look at these craters on the moon's surface. They look like a natural graveyard, don't they?"
He hoped Madara and Naruto would join forces to entertain him, allowing him to enjoy the thrill of battle again.
He also decided to end it here, removing the last obstacles in the Shinobi World.
"It seems we have no choice."
A look of realization appeared on Naruto's face. He finally stopped being stubborn, his gaze turning cold as he said, "Let's do it!"
As soon as he finished speaking:
"Roar!"
With a loud roar, cosmic dust on the moon's surface scattered, and a giant orange fox with nine tails, over a hundred meters tall, appeared on the moon.
Complete Tailed Beast Transformation.
Moreover, the Nine-Tails' eyes were no longer vertical pupils but a pair of Rinnegan.
With the power of these eyes, Naruto became the most powerful Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in history. At full strength, he would unleash unparalleled, terrifying power.
"Now this is interesting."
Madara, not to be outdone, was enveloped in a dazzling blue light as his complete Susanoo descended on the moon.
It was a war god over a hundred meters tall, clad in magnificent armor, with wings over two hundred meters wide. It had four arms, wielding two giant swords, standing majestically between heaven and earth.
"Bringing out the big guns, are we? I'll join in the fun too."
Dan smiled, and a black light burst from his body, piercing the night sky, summoning his own complete Susanoo.
It was not only taller than the Nine-Tails and Madara's Susanoo but also more robust, almost twice as wide as Madara's Susanoo.
Under the ornate Tengu armor were muscles as strong and full as Dan's own, and fists as large as Chibaku Tensei.
Complete Muscle Susanoo.
The three giants appeared on the moon, forming a triad, ready to engage in an apocalyptic battle.
Though the people of Konoha were spared, the descendants of Hamura on the moon were likely in for a tough time.
(End of chapter)