Almost the instant Sawara Kiri and the other person disappeared from their original spot.
Orochimaru had already swiftly picked up a sealing barrel, tall enough to reach a person's height, from beside his feet, and turned to Namikaze Minato, saying, "Minato, Kiri should still have your marked location on him. Take me there."
"Lord Orochimaru?"
Minato was startled by the words, but the meaning conveyed by his astonished gaze was clearly self-evident.
With Kiri and that boy's strength, if people of our level go there, won't we just cause trouble for him?
"No time to explain."
Orochimaru calmly shook his head, his golden snake-like eyes revealing a profound gaze.
Although Tsunade and Uchiha Megumi were the ones who had the deepest contact with Sawara Kiri on a daily basis, in terms of strength, Orochimaru, who had tirelessly performed various examinations on him over the years, was the one who knew him best.
But now, even Kiri had decided to 'change locations,' which naturally made his intention clear enough.
He wasn't confident enough to defeat the monster from before.
Naturally, it was time for him to reveal his trump card.
"Yes!"
Hearing Orochimaru's resolute tone, Namikaze Minato's expression changed, but he ultimately nodded deeply.
It wasn't just Orochimaru alone.
Uchiha Megumi and Kushina also simultaneously placed their hands on his shoulders.
Namikaze Minato didn't say much. Since Orochimaru had made up his mind, it naturally meant he had a certain degree of confidence.
The next moment, the figures of the four also simultaneously vanished from the top of the Hokage Building's rooftop.
"You guys... sigh."
Sakumo scanned the surroundings, seeing only himself and the injured Jiraiya, looking at each other in astonishment, and finally letting out a helpless sigh.
Times had indeed changed.
However, just as the few of them traversed space and arrived at the locked spatial node.
"Buzz—!"
A sharp, ear-piercing roar like thunder, a strong tremor that felt as if it could transmit from their feet directly to their brains, an extreme cold that seemed to freeze even their cells, followed by a tidal wave of ice, wind, and snow that completely covered their entire vision.
"Susanoo!"
The moment she appeared, Uchiha Megumi decisively unleashed the dark and profound giant divine body from within her, using the Chakra-formed armor to completely block the white mist that spread out before them.
However, it was only when the white waves crashed against the Susanoo, and even those enveloped within it clearly felt the strong impact from beneath their feet and in front of them, that everyone realized the white ice waterfall, which had spread out from the aftershock, was not the snow mist they had initially imagined, but countless particles of earth that had been completely pulverized, torn apart by the impact, and finally formed under the dense, shaking impact.
Left with no choice, Uchiha Megumi even had to drive the Susanoo's armor to strike forward, cleaving a path for them to the scene before their eyes.
However, the moment their vision cleared, everyone couldn't help but be shocked by the scene before them.
In the sky, only two figures, one white and one blue, intertwined, like two birds circling at the extreme distance in the sky, constantly shooting and colliding.
Just the impact's aftershocks from their battle would tear open giant ravines hundreds or even thousands of meters long on the ground, and the extremely high-density impacts even made the ground beneath their feet become pitted and uneven in a short amount of time.
If one were to look down from the sky, one would see crisscrossing scars, like knife marks, tragically arrayed on the ground, carving dark blue depressions into the snowy white earth, as if shattered by a dense meteor shower.
As for the direct offensive between the two, that was simply unimaginable.
Every collision between the blade and the axe would shatter a circle of vibrating mist waves under the muffled atmosphere, continuously blooming in rings.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."
Kushina looked up at the tragic battle in the sky, unconsciously letting out her habitual verbal tic:
"That level just now wasn't even their full power?"
"My big fox doesn't seem that strong either..."
"Nonsense!"
"That's clearly because you didn't unleash my full power!"
Kurama vehemently retorted in Kushina's sealing space.
However, its voice clearly carried a hint of guilt.
'Why are all the monsters of this era appearing in groups?'
'The fight between that old man Six Paths and Kaguya back then was probably only this level, right?'
Kurama thought to himself, unconsciously wrapping its soft big tail around its paws, and through Kushina's eyes and senses, it focused intently on the scene in the sky.
Clearly, only its mouth was tough.
Uchiha Megumi, on the other hand, didn't have the luxury of listening to Kushina's rambling. While frowning deeply at Kiri, who was fiercely battling in the sky, she struggled to maintain the Susanoo's form, resisting the impacts reverberating from the surroundings.
She could clearly sense that although the Susanoo's armor was sturdy, a casual blow from the two in the sky landing on it would likely shatter the giant armor instantly.
Just keeping everyone at such a close distance to observe the battle was already quite difficult.
Orochimaru, after being surrounded by the Susanoo, said nothing more. He immediately put down the sealing barrel, slammed it onto the ground, cut his finger, and began drawing and writing on the barrel's surface.
Although this giant barrel didn't look particularly eye-catching, it was his greatest research achievement of these past years, perhaps even his single greatest.
Its function was also quite simple.
This was a miniaturized, ultra-S-rank difficulty Space-Time Ninjutsu Seal.
It could make a designated object relatively still for 0.1 seconds at a specific time node.
However, it first required completing the preliminary sealing program commands based on the corresponding time and environment.
He had to be fast.
Sawara Kiri had already sensed their presence the moment the others appeared.
However, just like Yamishibai, who was fully focused on clashing with him, he too couldn't spare any attention for those behind him.
"Clang—!"
The giant axe, leaping with a sharp edge, drew an arc more than ten meters long in mid-air. The conical air current, wrapped by supersonic speed, even stirred up streaks of lead-colored mist under the low-pressure atmosphere. The long axe in his hand was effortlessly stretched into a long strip in an instant, even the handle trailing in a curved shape as if unable to bear the weight.
Sawara Kiri, already in a state of ultra-high-speed charge, swung his long blade horizontally. The moment it collided with the heavy long axe, a violent explosion erupted, yet under Sawara Kiri's exquisite control of force, it bypassed the axe blade, tearing open a long howl with his extreme speed and the stretched axe handle, the blade edge heading straight forward.
Yamishibai's face revealed a subtle hint of excitement. He horizontally shifted the axe handle to block in front of him. The weapon, entirely composed of Chakra, flexibly extended a shield-like surface from the end of the axe handle, colliding fiercely with Sawara Kiri's long blade, emitting a dull thud.
The forward force he leaned into lasted only an instant, then his hands gripping the weapon abruptly pushed, his body flipping upwards, avoiding the blade wind that swept forward like a wave-breaker. His long leg, leveraging his torso, spun like a spring, chopping downwards towards Sawara Kiri's back.
But this kick ultimately failed to land, instead being caught by Sawara Kiri's raised arm, the impact permeating the earth forming a columnar, visibly compressed vortex of air, crashing down onto the ground.
Sawara Kiri, however, used this immense force to spin his body horizontally, dragging Yamishibai's lower leg and suddenly swinging it like a windmill.
At the same time, using the Moonwalk technique, he stepped into a sunken circle in the void, catching up to Yamishibai's falling body at a speed faster than his own. His black blade chopped down, colliding perfectly with the short blade Yamishibai drew from behind his head, from the Wave God.
Seeing his hands constrained by weapons, Yamishibai's face twisted into a grin. The massive amount of Chakra surfacing on his body surged, transforming into winding arms, like tentacles, continuously shooting towards Sawara Kiri. Each arm bloomed with a void unique to Yomotsu Hirasaka, and the speed of his punches tore through the gale.
But the Limitless, which originally presented a regular three-inch radius protective circle, rapidly tightened and expanded the moment his punches shot out. Every second, countless minute manipulations were performed at the Chakra level, forcibly intercepting all these hammer blows beyond the concept of 'distance,' only emitting dull thuds in the air.
From a distance, the two appeared to be locked in a struggle, smashing downwards, neither giving an inch.
"Thud—"
The sturdy ice and snow-covered ground instantly sank dozens of meters under their collision, and the surging waves, like true water, pushed outwards as if overturning the heavens and earth, causing the nearby Susanoo to be covered in a layer of frost.
As for the sound, it was simply inaudible.
"Clang!"
The short blade and black blade interlocked, then suddenly shot upwards.
Seizing this instant, Sawara Kiri immediately stepped forward, sweeping a leg horizontally across Yamishibai's slender body, forcefully caving in the flesh and bone at his waist.
Under this immense power, Yamishibai flew like a skipping stone across the water, shattering patches of flying snow on the icy ground.
At their level, various forms of Taijutsu techniques were already useless. The only things they compared were absolute reaction, speed, and strength.
However, even if he was slightly inferior in close-quarters combat, Yamishibai's recovery ability was by no means comparable to Sawara Kiri's human body.
Almost the instant his kick landed on Yamishibai, his azure eyes had already captured the ultra-high-speed recovery traces within his body.
Before the opponent could get up, Sawara Kiri, stepping on the cracked ice, shot out from his original spot once again, as if disappearing.
His palm almost touched Yamishibai's still-flying body.
In his palm, a profound spatial distortion pattern was forming at the fastest possible speed.
Absolute repulsion and attraction, at the dimension level of space, converged into a void mass that transcended the very essence of this world.
Sawara Kiri and Yamishibai, at such close quarters, met each other's gaze.
On his face, a wild smile appeared.
Hollow Technique: Purple
"Boom—!"
Profound, ethereal light shot out.
However, if this technique had any drawback, it was its firing speed.
In a battle of their caliber, let alone every second, even every millisecond could play a huge role.
Even at such close range, Yamishibai was still able to resist, his hands almost pressed against his body, blocking the ethereal light.
The next moment, two eyeballs tore open in the center of the palms of those hands.
Sawara Kiri's gaze sharpened.
This technique, which had previously only weakened 'Red' by several layers of power, now, in his current state, possessed an extremely terrifying attraction.
The 'Purple' that was almost twisting into his palm, under the power of those two eyes' ocular jutsu, was forcibly dissipated along with the surrounding shattered space, completely absorbed into those two hands.
Yamishibai gritted his teeth and looked up, his eyes wide.
'Taste your own technique!'
He abruptly pushed his palms forward.
The 'Purple' that had just been shooting forward was now fired back by him exactly as it was, accompanied by an extremely violent vibrating sound.
Sawara Kiri's gaze sharpened, and as the Limitless compressed space, he immediately took a step to the side, barely managing to evade the range of this technique.
Following a rumbling sound from behind him.
This 'Purple,' launched from its original position, with overwhelming force, plowed a massive trail more than twenty meters wide behind him, finally engulfing an ice mountain and carving out a huge gap.
In that brief moment of pause, Yamishibai had already closed in on him, his short blade extending into a staff, swinging down horizontally with a howl.
In that instant of physical stasis, Sawara Kiri only had time to block the blade in his hand to his side.
"Boom!"
Snow flew up.
Yamishibai stood his ground, watching Sawara Kiri's figure, which he had sent flying. Even though his entire body was covered in fine cracks like ice fissures, he couldn't stop himself from laughing loudly:
"Indeed!"
"Sawara Kiri!"
"In my life, only you! Only you can make me feel this supreme joy of battle!"
"Whew..."
Sawara Kiri slowly stood up from the snow mist. The ring of patterns blasted open on his arm rapidly healed in Tiamat's Chakra Mode, leaving only a slight dull ache.
However, compared to the injuries on the surface of his body, the heavy sensation from within him was more severe.
Although his body was already considered among the top tier of Ninja, even so, bearing Tiamat's power was still extremely difficult.
At this moment, after forcefully entering Tiamat's Jinchuriki Mode, every meridian, every muscle, and even every drop of blood within him felt as if it were burning.
The extreme abundance of energy was even constrained by his old body, unable to be consumed at all.
What arose from this, naturally, was an extremely intense fighting spirit.
"I also didn't expect that you could reach this level by merely using a puppet's body."
Sawara Kiri looked at him and said in a low voice, "It seems I must have put in quite a bit of effort to defeat you in the future, right?"
As their gazes met, both their voices fell silent.
In the small space where their eyes intersected, there was only the resolute determination to cut the other down here.
They looked at each other, yet inexplicably, both broke into smiles simultaneously.
The next moment, the two of them almost synchronously raised their hands, joining them into sword fingers.
Amenominaka
Unlimited Void
At that instant, the world seemed to fall silent for the two of them.
Formless and insubstantial power erupted from this ultimate technique, transforming into a torrent that seemed capable of overturning the world. Centered on their tiny bodies, it continuously spread outwards in a spherical shape, constantly engulfing and expanding.
Until the very end.
Collision.