Rage broke Izumi. She hurled her body toward Jada without thinking. Jada raised her weapon, but the impact shook her bones. They stood locked, steel against steel, eyes against eyes. The crimson patterns of their Sharingans mirrored one another.
"You lie!" Izumi screamed.
Force followed the words as she swept her arm out, throwing Jada back. Dust rose where Jada's feet dragged against the earth. Izumi did not pursue immediately. She stood her ground as her chest heaved.
"I saw your Susanoo," she admitted. "We all did, but none of us believed it."
Jada straightened. Confusion clouded her mind because Izumi should not have known about the Susanoo or its origins. Then Jada understood: Arthur spread the secrets to the revived clan; he had armed them with knowledge.
"Izumi, listen," Jada said, lowering her guard slightly. "I'm not here to fight you. As an Uchiha, you have to understand I'm here to help."
"No!" Izumi's denial was immediate. "You can't be an Uchiha. It is impossible."
"Then explain my Sharingan!"
Izumi hesitated. Her gaze searched Jada's face, looking for cracks. Logic warred with emotion. But then the conclusion formed: "You stole them from our clan! Every Uchiha except Itachi's brother died that night. And last I checked, you weren't revived like us!"
Jada kept her voice level. "I can explain. I survived because I wasn't in the village when the massacre happened."
Izumi gritted her teeth as she lunged. Then the two clashed again.
On the other side of their skirmish, Arthur turned his head from them to see Pain retreating—likely to regroup. In front of Arthur, Jasper was still limping toward the edge of the crater.
Arthur weighed the options. Pain was a threat, but a predictable one at best; he would turtle. Jasper, however, was a variable. If that variable escaped, if he recovered, he would be a problem.
The choice was simple.
'Flying raijin…'
Arthur vanished.
Jasper finally reached the edge of the crater. He clawed his way up the embankment. His legs burned. If he could just get some time to heal, he'd be safe.
When he reached the top, someone's feet landed in front of his face. Jasper froze. He looked up, only to see Arthur's looming form blocking out the sun.
"Now where were we?" Arthur asked.
He reached down and grabbed Jasper by the back of the neck. Then he slammed him into the dirt.
"Gah!" Jasper choked.
Arthur placed a foot on Jasper's back, pinning him. The weight was immovable.
When Jada saw it, she screamed for Arthur to stop. Izumi went for a swipe, but Jada shoved her aside and began sprinting toward the two.
Arthur ignored her. He raised his right hand, causing the Blade of Chaos to materialize in his grip. Jasper tried to struggle away by thrashing his legs, but he was trapped. Arthur was serious when he said he was going to amputate Jasper's limbs.
Jada wouldn't make it in time.
When he, Arthur, swung the blade down, a brilliant, white light erupted from Jasper's body.
Flash!
Arthur instinctively squeezed his eyes shut as the blade hit the dirt. Both Jada and Izumi were just as shocked, stopping to see what had happened.
The light faded as quickly as it had appeared. Arthur opened his eyes. Beneath his feet was no one. Jasper was gone.
Arthur wasted no time using his Tamashii. He searched for Jasper's chakra signature, and he searched for the mark. Yet he couldn't sense a single thing.
"Where..." Jada stammered. "Where did he go?"
Arthur pulled his sword from the dirt. There were no footprints leading away, and there was no sign of a teleportation technique he recognized.
'Impossible…'
"What did you do?!" screamed Jada.
Arthur looked at her. Clearly she wasn't responsible for what had happened. And Pain was long gone.
Then, Arthur felt a disturbance above them. The air pressure changed as a heavy, static charge filled the atmosphere. He looked up, causing Jada and Izumi to follow his gaze.
A figure floated high above the battlefield. They were silhouetted against the sun, making it hard to see details, but the silhouette was unmistakable. The chakra was strong, very strong, and it wasn't a signature any of them recognized.
"Who is that?" Izumi whispered.
As the figure slowly descended, defying gravity with a casual grace, Arthur narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his weapon. Out of everything and everyone he's faced thus far, he hadn't accounted for this person's presence.
✟
Elsewhere.
Jasper opened his eyes. The ceiling was stone, smooth and pale.
When he sat up, the movement sent a spike of pain down his spine. He grabbed his side, wincing. The last thing he remembered was Arthur about to cut off his arms and legs. Then there was a flash of white light.
The memory quickly prompted Jasper to tear off the piece of cloth Arthur had marked. Thankfully, it wasn't on his skin; otherwise, he'd be in major trouble. Now he was scared—scared Arthur would teleport here and finish the job.
But after a minute, nothing happened.
So Jasper relaxed for a second to check his reserves. His chakra felt distant, like water at the bottom of a deep well. Daring to summon any right now was not the best idea.
"I see you're doing well," came a sudden voice.
Jasper swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood on shaky legs. When he looked, he saw Toneri standing in the doorway. Toneri himself looked clean, composed, and irritatingly calm. Now Jasper understood Toneri had teleported him back to the moon.
As such, Jasper kept his stance wide. He didn't trust Toneri. They had history, and none of it was good.
Toneri held up a hand. "Calm down." He then walked into the room, ignoring Jasper's defensive posture. "Aren't you a little happy I saved you?"
"But why would you—"
"I intentionally let you leave the moon just to watch what you would do." Jasper frowned; he thought he had escaped by chance. "From here, I saw all your fights." Then Toneri stopped a few feet away. "Especially the last one where you were going to die."
Jasper looked away. A bitter taste filled his mouth. The heat of Arthur's attacks and his overwhelming pressure were not something anyone could just forget.
"I didn't lose," Jasper snickered. It sounded pathetic even to his own ears. "I was just..."
"You lost…" There was no malice in Toneri's tone, yet Jasper still didn't want to be reminded. "No point in hiding from the truth: Arthur broke you until I stepped in. And no need to worry. He can't use the Flying raijin here since I sealed the moon off."
Toneri was prepared. After Arthur had already been stated to have come to the moon, the only resident here employed safety measures.
"What happens now then?" Jasper asked.
The moment he looked back, Toneri blurred in front of him. Jasper tried to raise his arms, but his body was too slow as Toneri's hand clamped around his throat. Momentum carried them backward.
Bang.
Jasper's back hit the stone wall, and the air left his lungs.
"I was hoping," Toneri said, his face inches from Jasper's, "that you would take care of Arthur for me." Jasper clawed at Toneri's iron grip. "But I was wrong to have risked my means of acquiring the Tenseigan and killing Arthur at the same time." The pressure increased. "So I'll just have to do it myself."
Black spots flickered in Jasper's vision. He kicked out, but Toneri didn't budge.
'Think, Jas, think!'
Just then, he grabbed Toneri by the face and channeled the bottom of his reserves. Electricity then crackled around his fingers.
Zap!
The shock forced Toneri's muscles to spasm as he flinched back. Jasper dropped to the floor, gasping. He then coughed, rubbing his bruised neck.
"You still resist," Toneri said, covering his face. He sounded disappointed. "I don't understand why." When he finally was able to look, he was shocked to see Jasper pop a chakra pill in his mouth, unaware the latter had taken it from Jada before being teleported here. "No!"
Toneri lunged. But the pill dissolved instantly as purple lightning erupted from Jasper's body, sending a shockwave outward. It hit Toneri in the chest, throwing him backward.
Jasper finally stood up, no longer feeling the pain in his spine anymore. "Try taking my eyes now, you creep." Then he slammed his palm onto the stone floor. "Summoning jutsu!" Smoke exploded, filling the room while causing the ceiling to crack. Debris rained down as a massive shape formed in the haze. "Meet my friend, Isobi!"
The beast roared, causing the walls to buckle further.
Toneri turned and ran. He needed his puppets, so he bolted down the corridor. The Three-Tails surged forward, crashing through the palace walls like a battering ram. Dust and stone flew everywhere as they gave chase.
Crash!
Toneri wove through the halls like a pale streak against the ruin. Jasper steered Isobu through pillars and archways, destroying everything in their wake to cut Toneri off. The floor shook with every step. Toneri tried to turn a corner, but Jasper forced the beast to slide, smashing through a partition to cut the distance.
Crash-crash!
When they burst into a large, circular chamber, Jasper recognized it instantly.
'The portal!' he thought. He didn't wait, launching himself off the beast's back. When he hit the ground rolling, he sprang toward the console. 'I'm out this crap!'
Toneri appeared in the breach they had made. He looked disheveled. Dust coated his white robes. And when he saw what Jasper was doing, his face was twisted in anger.
"I won't let you!" Toneri screamed.
In his hand was the device he was looking for. One push caused a massive number of puppets to swarm the room. The Three-Tails opened its mouth as water gathered and compressed into a high-pressure sphere.
"Water style: great water mass!"
Its attack collided right with the puppets, creating a large-enough explosion to cloud the area.
Jasper managed to reach the console. He didn't know the specific codes, but he knew the layout. So he jammed a lever down and punched a random like before. A vortex of light swirled in the center.
"You will not leave!" Toneri yelled, appearing from the dust cloud. The Three-Tails swung its tail, crashing straight into him. "Argh!"
Jasper wasted no more time stepping toward the light. "See ya, chump!"
When Toneri finally managed to scramble over the rubble, it was too late. His attention turned to the massive beast still running amok in his palace. Then poof, the Three-Tails was gone too.
Dust settled on his shoulders. His palace was a ruin. The Three-Tails had thrashed the structural supports. The Tenseigan was now out of reach.
Toneri clenched his fists. His knuckles turned white as he let out a scream of pure frustration that echoed through the empty, broken halls.
✟
The sensation of teleportation was instant. One moment, Jasper was in a crumbling palace on the moon; the next, he was falling.
Plop!
He hit the grass hard, but he managed to at least land on two feet.
The smell of pine caused him to roll on his back. He thought he'd never see anything green again.
The sky was dark; it was nighttime here. Wherever here was.
As he lay there in silence, he knew that Toneri wouldn't follow him here. That was because the latter only teleported him on two occasions: the first was when Jasper exhausted his chakra after defeating Orochimaru. And the second was only after he was going to die while having his chakra near zero.
Now that his chakra was higher, he knew that Toneri wouldn't risk a fight.
Had Toneri at least seen or known that Jasper had taken that chakra pill, he might have just killed Jasper himself. Jasper was quite fortunate. But he didn't count this as fortune just yet. Not until he knew where he was.
So he took a breather before flipping on his feet. Then he activated his sensing technique.
The area told him that he was in a dense forest. Considering the humidity here, he had to be somewhere near the northwest. Jasper soon climbed to the sky to get a better look. And to his surprise, just a few miles out, he saw the walls of the Leaf Village!
Straightaway, he flew toward that direction.