Chapter 421: The Only Chance
"This guy... why isn't he running anymore?"
"He's completely immersed in the battle."
"Is something happening that we don't know about?"
Naruto was puzzled.
Half an hour ago, Li Yao, who had been running away, suddenly turned around and re-engaged in battle, facing off with Naruto and Sasuke, showing no intention of fleeing.
Although they didn't understand why Li Yao had decided to fight instead of escape, this worked to Naruto's advantage. Only in battle could they find a chance to either kill or seal Li Yao.
Sasuke thought the same way. He feared that Li Yao would avoid the fight, but not that he would fight to the death.
However, after engaging, the situation was a bit different from what Naruto and Sasuke had expected.
With the Six Paths chakra enhancements, Naruto and Sasuke were slightly faster than Li Yao and their reaction times were also superior.
But after the battle began, Li Yao's performance made them feel powerless.
This was because Li Yao's black hole space ninjutsu was insurmountable.
Naruto's Truth-Seeking Balls couldn't stop it. As soon as they made contact, they were consumed. His other attacks, like Rasengan or shuriken, were even more useless; they couldn't break through Li Yao's defenses.
It was the same for Sasuke's attacks.
The key issue was that while Li Yao could block their attacks, they couldn't block his spatial ninjutsu attacks. It was like an ordinary person fighting two others with large swords—the one with the advantage was obvious.
As a result, Sasuke and Naruto could only passively endure the attacks, using Sasuke's Ten-Tails ability to move Li Yao and catch him off guard to find a chance to kill him.
But Li Yao was completely focused, and with his space-time teleportation abilities, he never gave them a chance to land a hit.
They couldn't land a blow on him.
Faced with Li Yao, who could teleport and had mastered perfect coordination with space-time ninjutsu, Naruto and Sasuke had no way to attack him.
So, the battle became a prolonged entanglement.
At this point, Naruto couldn't casually use his Truth-Seeking Balls or Rasengan anymore. Besides Li Yao's space ninjutsu, his chakra reserves were frighteningly vast, and there were no signs of them weakening.
"This guy... Is the white-purple lightning flickering on him the Dragon Vein Chakra?"
Naruto was contemplating.
"Could it be that the Dragon Vein Chakra has always been with him... Is that the reason he was able to cross into this world?"
"Could it be that if we deplete the Dragon Vein Chakra, he'll return to his original world?"
Naruto kept thinking. Since they couldn't kill or seal Li Yao, expelling him was also an option.
Whoosh!
Li Yao rushed towards Naruto again, swinging the black stick made of black hole space chakra. Naruto was fast, faster than Li Yao, dodging just in time, and used the Truth-Seeking Balls to strike at Li Yao's head.
Li Yao, fully focused, immediately teleported behind Naruto and swung his staff at him. Naruto, reacting swiftly, seemed to anticipate Li Yao's move and dodged by a hair's breadth, quickly creating distance.
Whoosh!
Sasuke fired his Amaterasu black flame arrows, but Li Yao teleported again, dodging them and continuing his assault on Naruto, showing no interest in Sasuke.
"This guy... Why is he so obsessed with Naruto?"
Sasuke's expression was confused, but it wasn't the time to ponder that.
Facing Li Yao, who was wearing the black hole space cloak and could teleport, Naruto didn't dare clash directly. He could only keep dodging Li Yao's attacks.
At this point, even though Naruto was faster and more responsive than Li Yao, he still wasn't a match for him.
One side was free to attack without restraint, while the other could only avoid, falling into a passive position.
Sasuke understood the principle that prolonged defense leads to defeat, so he didn't dare to let his guard down.
Whoosh!
Li Yao swung his stick again, and suddenly Naruto disappeared from his view, reappearing behind him. Sasuke had used his Ten-Tails ability to switch Naruto's position.
Whoosh!
Li Yao reacted quickly, using space-time teleportation to arrive at Naruto's side and continue his assault.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh...
In mid-air, the silhouettes of Li Yao and Naruto flashed continuously, neither being able to land a blow on the other.
"This isn't going well. If this continues, Naruto and I won't be able to hold out much longer."
Sasuke, sensing the chakra in himself and Naruto, had a gloomy expression.
Naruto was holding up better. He naturally had more chakra, and for now, he was okay.
But Sasuke, whose chakra reserves were already lower than Naruto's, had been overusing his Ten-Tails ability, which consumed a lot of chakra. He was beginning to feel the strain.
If this kept up, he would be the first to collapse.
"Naruto!"
Sasuke made a mental command, using Ten-Tails to bring Naruto next to him, saying, "Let's go, we need to find the Tailed Beasts."
Earlier, when the Nine-Tails had broken free from Li Yao's clone's space, they had felt the disturbance caused by Hashirama's True Thousand Hands jutsu.
Especially the chakra of the Tailed Beasts—Sasuke, with his Mangekyo Sharingan, could sense their location.
Whoosh!
Li Yao's clone instantly appeared, closing in on Naruto.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Naruto and Sasuke stopped engaging with Li Yao, focusing on using their Ten-Tails abilities to teleport toward the location of the Tailed Beasts.
Against Naruto and Sasuke, who now sought to escape, Li Yao had no way of stopping them.
This was the dominance of space-time abilities.
Unless Li Yao could prevent Sasuke from using Ten-Tails, he could not stop their departure.
But... not stopping them was not necessary!
"Let them go and find the Tailed Beasts... just as well!"
"Hehe!"
Li Yao smiled inwardly. He had already figured out Naruto and Sasuke's plan.
Whether it was Naruto or Sasuke, with the help of the Six Paths Sage, they could directly absorb the chakra of the Tailed Beasts.
From their recent battle, both had realized they couldn't outlast him with just their chakra; they would need the Tailed Beasts' chakra to continue fighting.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Knowing Naruto and Sasuke's goal, Li Yao continued to chase after Naruto, not sending out any shadow clones to force the Tailed Beasts toward Minato but allowing Naruto and Sasuke to get closer to them.
Because... he also needed Naruto to last a bit longer.
The moment Minato summoned the Nine-Tails from Li Yao's clone's space, Li Yao realized that his clone would have little chance of becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and controlling the Truth-Seeking Balls.
To copy the Truth-Seeking Balls chakra, the only route left was to obtain it from Naruto.
With his current sensory abilities, Li Yao could copy regular chakra from any jutsu user within a kilometer.
To copy Truth-Seeking Balls chakra, however, he would need to be within a 100-meter range, which would take a week. But if he stayed within ten meters of Naruto, he could copy the chakra in just two days.
Not only the Truth-Seeking Balls, but he could also copy Naruto's Six Paths Yang Release chakra, Sasuke's Six Paths Yin Release chakra, and the chakra from his Mangekyo Sharingan. If he fought close to them for two days, he could copy everything.
So, Li Yao needed both of them to last.
Especially Naruto. Once his chakra was depleted, he would no longer be able to maintain the Truth-Seeking Balls chakra.
With the Nine-Tails chakra, Li Yao believed Naruto could last for two days without any problems.
After all, Naruto and Sasuke had already experienced the power of Li Yao's black hole space. Large-scale Tailed Beast Ball attacks wouldn't work on him. Only close combat, within the blink of an eye, could give them a chance to land a fatal blow.
Large-scale energy attacks, whether it was the Tailed Beast Balls or Amaterasu flames, only consumed chakra.
(END CHAPTER)
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