SANS AUS VS ANIME
CHAPTER 4 — KARMA
Light filled the skull's mouth.
Sasuke saw it.
Sharingan spinning.
One instant.
The beam fired.
BOOOOOOM!
White light swallowed the street.
"SASUKE!"
Naruto shot forward.
The blast tore through the intersection.
Cars vanished inside it.
Windows burst three buildings deep.
Asphalt ripped upward.
The beam continued—
straight through the building behind Sasuke.
Concrete exploded from the opposite side.
Smoke rolled upward.
Sakura couldn't breathe.
"No…"
Then something purple formed inside the smoke.
A rib cage.
Massive.
Translucent.
Sasuke stood inside it.
Susanoo.
The front ribs were scorched.
One section had cracked.
But Sasuke remained standing.
Naruto's knees nearly gave.
"He blocked it."
Kakashi didn't answer.
Sasuke's sleeve had burned away near his left shoulder.
A red line crossed his skin.
Small.
Barely a wound.
Sasuke looked at it once.
Then at the floating skull.
It vanished.
No fragments.
No falling body.
Simply gone.
His eyes moved toward the rooftop.
The skeleton was already gone too.
Sasuke turned.
Blue light.
His body became heavy.
Not tired.
Heavy.
His feet slammed through cracked asphalt.
CRACK!
Sasuke's eyes widened.
The force increased.
His knees bent.
The Susanoo ribs groaned around him.
"Something's pushing him!" Sakura shouted.
"No."
Kakashi leaned forward.
"Down."
The skeleton stood on a streetlight.
Its left eye burned blue.
Sasuke saw it.
The eye.
Then the force.
Another fact.
He raised his head.
The skeleton flicked one hand.
Gravity changed direction.
Sasuke launched sideways.
His Susanoo smashed through a storefront.
BOOM!
Glass and concrete exploded.
Naruto's fist tightened.
"That eye."
Kakashi nodded.
"Likely connected."
"Likely?"
Naruto snapped toward him.
"We just saw it!"
"We saw the eye activate before the effect."
Kakashi didn't look away.
"That doesn't mean we understand how it works."
Naruto bit back his anger.
Watched.
Inside the ruined building—
Sasuke's hand struck the floor.
He stopped himself.
Blue light again.
He moved before the force came.
Up.
Sasuke jumped.
The invisible pull slammed downward where he'd been.
The floor cratered.
Sasuke landed against a wall.
His eyes narrowed.
There.
A trigger.
Not necessarily the source.
Enough.
The skeleton's eyelids lowered.
"quick learner."
Sasuke threw a kunai.
The skeleton disappeared.
Sasuke did not follow.
Black flames ignited on the rooftop where it had been.
AMATERASU.
Several people in the theater recoiled.
Tanjiro stared.
Those flames felt wrong even through sight alone.
They didn't move like ordinary fire.
The skeleton reappeared on a traffic light.
Sasuke's eye found him instantly.
Black fire appeared there too.
The skeleton vanished.
Another rooftop.
Black flame.
Gone.
A car roof.
Black flame.
Gone.
"Wait."
Midoriya leaned forward.
"He's not trying to hit him anymore."
Bakugo stared.
"He's burning the places he keeps using."
Midoriya nodded.
"Reducing safe positions."
Zoro's mouth tightened.
"Making the battlefield smaller."
The abandoned city changed.
Black flames burned across rooftops.
Streetlights.
Cars.
Building ledges.
Not everywhere.
Specific places.
Locations the skeleton had already used.
The skeleton appeared in the road.
Thirty meters.
Then twenty-five.
Then—
bones erupted.
Sasuke moved.
White.
Blue.
White.
Blue.
He had the pattern now.
Move.
Stop.
Move.
Freeze.
His Sharingan separated color before his body committed.
A white bone cut toward his thigh.
Sasuke twisted.
A blue one crossed his chest.
He froze.
It passed harmlessly.
Another white bone came from behind.
His sword split it.
Then three white bones erupted beneath him.
Sasuke jumped.
A Gaster Blaster appeared above.
Its jaws opened.
Sasuke's eyes widened.
BOOM!
The beam struck his Susanoo.
The construct shuddered.
Another skull appeared to his right.
Then another.
Goku rose.
"Three."
Their mouths opened.
Sasuke moved.
BOOM!
BOOM!
One beam missed.
The second tore through a building.
The third clipped the edge of Susanoo.
A crack raced across the purple armor.
Sasuke landed.
A bone grazed his leg.
Tiny.
Another scratched his arm.
Another touched his ribs before he twisted away.
Nothing serious.
Naruto exhaled.
"He's okay."
Sakura didn't answer.
She was staring at Sasuke's arm.
The wound was small.
But the skin around it had begun to discolor.
Not bruising.
Something faintly violet.
"Sasuke…"
The next barrage came.
White.
Blue.
Blaster.
Gravity.
Sasuke's Sharingan moved constantly.
The blue eye flashed.
Sasuke jumped before the force slammed down.
The skeleton changed direction.
Sideways.
Sasuke's Susanoo hand caught a building.
Concrete tore apart beneath its fingers.
He anchored himself.
Bones erupted around the wall.
Sasuke released the building and dropped.
A beam passed overhead.
His sword flashed.
Two bones shattered.
One scratched his cheek.
Another grazed his ankle.
Small.
Small.
Small.
Nothing remotely close to the blast that had struck his Susanoo.
Yet Sasuke's breathing changed.
Sakura noticed first.
"Why is he breathing like that?"
Naruto looked.
Sasuke landed.
His chest rose harder than it should have.
The fight had been intense.
But—
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Those wounds."
A thin violet-pink haze seemed to cling around the smallest cuts.
Barely visible.
Midoriya stood.
"They're getting darker."
Aizawa's expression changed.
"Delayed effect?"
Nobody knew.
On the battlefield, Sasuke did.
Not what it was.
Only that something was wrong.
His shoulder burned.
His leg burned.
His cheek burned.
Not like fire.
Not like poison he'd encountered before.
Every shallow wound hurt more now than when it happened.
Sasuke glanced at his arm.
The skeleton attacked immediately.
Bones burst from the road.
Sasuke jumped.
Too slow.
One scraped his calf.
Pain exploded.
Not from the cut.
From everything.
His eyes widened.
The older wounds flared with it.
Stacking.
Sasuke understood.
Every hit mattered.
Even the weak ones.
Especially the weak ones.
The skeleton stood across the ruined intersection.
For the first time, Sasuke looked at the little creature differently.
Not because of the giant beams.
Not because of the bones.
Because it had never needed a large hit.
Sasuke's expression hardened.
"Those scratches…"
The skeleton's grin remained.
"yeah."
One word.
Nothing else.
Sasuke's eyes sharpened.
The theater heard it.
Sakura's face drained.
"What did it do to him?"
Nobody answered.
Gojo stood completely still.
Nanami's gaze remained on the wounds.
"He allowed himself to be touched several times."
Yuji looked at him.
"They barely hit him!"
Nanami's expression didn't change.
"That may have been the mistake."
The skeleton attacked again.
This time Sasuke did not conserve anything.
Purple chakra exploded.
Susanoo expanded.
Ribs became armor.
An arm.
A weapon.
The street disappeared beneath its shadow.
Several anime fighters stiffened.
The skeleton looked up.
"…oh."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"Now."
Sasuke raised the Susanoo's bow.
An arrow formed.
The skeleton vanished.
Sasuke fired.
BOOM!
The arrow ripped through three buildings.
Miss.
Sans appeared on a rooftop.
Black flame already waited there.
His eyes widened slightly.
He vanished again.
Sasuke fired a second arrow.
Not at Sans.
At the next open rooftop.
CRASH!
Gone.
Third.
Street.
Fourth.
Alley.
Buildings collapsed.
Black flames blocked familiar positions.
Susanoo arrows destroyed others.
Wire still crossed portions of the street from Sasuke's earlier setup.
The skeleton appeared—
hesitated.
Half a second.
Sasuke saw it.
So did Kakashi.
"He's slowing."
Naruto stared.
The skeleton disappeared again.
Reappeared on a broken traffic pole.
Its shoulders moved.
Breathing.
Tiny.
But there.
Sasuke's Sharingan locked onto it.
The skeleton fired bones.
Sasuke ignored them.
Susanoo took the white attacks.
Blue passed through while Sasuke remained still inside.
A blaster appeared.
Sasuke's bow turned.
The beam fired.
Sasuke fired too.
Purple arrow and white beam collided.
BOOOOOOM!
The intersection vanished beneath light.
Buildings buckled.
The shockwave rolled outward.
When the smoke cleared—
half of Susanoo's upper armor was gone.
Sasuke coughed.
Blood struck the pavement.
Naruto's face changed.
Not from the explosion.
The blood was too dark.
Sasuke wiped his mouth.
His hand shook.
The violet discoloration had spread farther along his arm.
The skeleton was breathing harder now.
One hand rested against his knee.
Sasuke saw it.
Both were running out.
For completely different reasons.
The skeleton straightened.
"still going?"
Sasuke raised his sword.
"Yes."
The skeleton's grin remained.
"figured."
Bones filled the street.
Hundreds.
White and blue.
Gaster Blasters appeared between buildings.
One.
Three.
Six.
Ten.
Naruto stopped breathing.
Sakura whispered,
"No…"
The skeleton's eye ignited blue.
Sasuke moved first.
Chidori!
Lightning screamed around his hand.
Gravity seized him.
Sasuke allowed it.
Kakashi's eye widened.
"He wanted that!"
The force launched Sasuke sideways.
Exactly as before.
But this time Sasuke did not resist.
He rode it.
His feet touched the side of a building.
He pushed.
Gravity changed again.
Down.
Sasuke twisted.
A Susanoo arm slammed into the street before him.
The invisible force dragged him—
and the giant arm acted like an anchor.
Bones struck Susanoo.
Cracks spread.
Blasters fired.
White light crossed the city.
Sasuke released the anchor.
Gravity hurled him.
Forward.
Straight toward the skeleton.
Its grin changed.
Barely.
Sasuke's Chidori screamed.
The skeleton vanished.
Sasuke expected it.
His Sharingan snapped left.
Nothing.
Right.
Nothing.
Roof—
There.
The skeleton reappeared.
And stumbled.
Just one step.
Enough.
Sasuke's free hand pulled.
Wire.
The old web he'd built at the beginning of the fight snapped tight.
A shuriken ripped from beneath a destroyed car.
It wasn't aimed at the skeleton.
It cut the support beneath his foot.
The broken rooftop collapsed.
The skeleton dropped.
Not far.
One meter.
But his teleportation had already been used.
His balance was gone.
Sasuke's Susanoo bow appeared behind him.
The skeleton looked up.
Arrow.
Too large.
Too fast.
He vanished again.
Sasuke smiled.
Not victory.
Confirmation.
That was the destination he wanted.
Street.
Open.
Black flames on one side.
Collapsed buildings on another.
Wire behind.
Sasuke in front.
The skeleton appeared.
Sasuke was already moving.
The skeleton's left eye flashed.
Blue.
Sasuke's body jerked.
His Chidori arm moved off-line.
But Sasuke didn't need the Chidori anymore.
His other hand opened.
A sword of black flame extended.
Kagutsuchi.
The skeleton's eyes widened.
Sasuke swung.
The skeleton leaned back.
Too late.
Black flame cut through the blue hoodie.
Through ribs.
Through the center of his body.
Silence.
The skeleton stood still.
Sasuke landed behind him.
Black fire burned along the wound.
Naruto didn't move.
Nobody did.
The skeleton looked down.
At himself.
Then toward Sasuke.
His grin remained.
But weaker.
"heh."
His knees bent.
Sasuke turned.
The skeleton staggered.
Once.
"guess…"
His voice became quieter.
"…you got me."
Sakura's hands flew to her mouth.
Not relief.
Not yet.
The skeleton took one more step.
His body began breaking apart.
White dust drifted from one sleeve.
Then his hand.
Then his ribs.
Yuji stared.
"He's…"
Megumi didn't answer.
The skeleton looked back once.
Not toward the theater.
He couldn't see them.
At Sasuke.
"good fight."
Then his body collapsed into dust.
The blue hoodie fell empty.
For a moment—
nothing happened.
No bones.
No blasters.
No gravity.
No attack.
The battle was over.
Naruto's eyes widened.
"Sasuke…"
Sakura laughed once.
It came out broken.
"He did it."
Naruto slammed both hands against the screen.
"SASUKE!"
This time there was relief in it.
Raw.
Almost disbelieving.
"He WON!"
Bakugo exhaled.
Zoro's shoulders lowered.
Goku smiled.
Even Vegeta's arms loosened.
Sasuke stood alone in the ruined intersection.
Breathing hard.
His Susanoo vanished.
The black flames around his hand disappeared.
He looked at the dust.
Then—
his knee hit the ground.
THUD.
Naruto stopped.
"Sasuke?"
Sakura's smile vanished.
Sasuke's hand caught the pavement.
His fingers shook.
Purple spread beneath his skin.
Across his arm.
Up his neck.
The cut on his cheek burned violet.
The scratches on his leg.
His ribs.
Every place the bones had touched.
All of them.
At once.
Sasuke coughed.
Blood splattered the street.
"No."
Sakura hit the screen.
"No, no, no—Sasuke!"
Naruto stared.
"The skeleton's dead."
Kakashi was already moving closer.
As though distance inside the theater mattered.
"It didn't stop."
"What?"
"The effect."
Sasuke tried to stand.
His leg failed.
He dropped again.
The screen flickered.
For the first time since the battle began—
new text appeared.
Small.
Purple.
KARMA — ACTIVE
Nobody spoke.
Sakura stared at the word.
"What does that mean?"
No answer.
Then another line appeared.
SOURCE: DECEASEDEFFECT: PERSISTING
Naruto's face emptied.
"No."
Sakura struck the screen.
"STOP IT!"
Nothing.
"THE FIGHT IS OVER!"
Nothing.
"SASUKE WON!"
Nothing.
Sasuke's breathing became ragged.
The Sharingan flickered.
On.
Off.
On.
He looked at his hand.
The purple effect continued.
He understood enough.
"So…"
His voice was barely audible.
Those scratches.
Every one.
He had treated them like acceptable damage.
Trades.
Small prices for information.
There had never been small prices.
Sasuke pushed himself upright.
One foot.
Then the other.
His body shook.
Naruto pressed both palms against the screen.
"Stay up."
Sasuke took one step.
"Stay up."
Another.
Sakura was crying openly now.
"Sasuke…"
He couldn't hear either of them.
His Sharingan disappeared.
Black eyes returned.
One more step.
His knee buckled.
He caught himself against the destroyed car.
The same car near where the skeleton had first sat.
Sasuke looked at it.
Almost laughed.
Didn't have the strength.
The violet spread farther.
His heartbeat slowed.
Sakura's medical training understood what her eyes didn't.
Progressive collapse.
No visible new injury.
No source left to attack.
Nothing she could reach.
She slammed chakra into her palm and pressed it against the screen.
Green light covered her hand.
Nothing crossed.
"LET ME THROUGH!"
The screen remained cold.
"PLEASE!"
Naruto turned.
Sakura almost never said that word like that.
He punched the screen.
Once.
BOOM!
Again.
BOOM!
Again.
"NARUTO!"
Kakashi caught his arm.
"LET ME GO!"
"You'll break your hand!"
"I DON'T CARE!"
Another punch.
Blood appeared across Naruto's knuckles.
"HE'S RIGHT THERE!"
Kakashi's own voice broke.
"I KNOW!"
Naruto froze.
Kakashi had shouted.
Actually shouted.
His visible eye was wet.
Sasuke collapsed.
This time he didn't catch himself.
His shoulder struck the pavement.
Sakura screamed.
"SASUKE!"
Sasuke's fingers moved.
Barely.
His eyes opened once more.
Sky.
Orange dusk.
Smoke.
No Team 7.
No Naruto.
No Sakura.
No Kakashi.
Just an empty city.
His mouth moved.
One word.
Almost nothing.
"…Naruto."
Naruto heard it.
His entire body stopped.
Sasuke exhaled.
Did not inhale again.
The violet light beneath his skin faded.
The screen remained fixed on him.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Then text appeared.
COMBATANT 01 — DECEASED
Naruto shook his head.
"No."
Another line.
OPPOSING COMBATANT — DECEASED
Sakura sank to her knees.
"No…"
Then—
the result.
Not green.
Not red.
Not violet.
Plain white.
BATTLE 01
RESULT: DRAW
BOTH COMBATANTS DECEASED
Naruto screamed.
Not a word.
Just sound.
He struck the screen again.
Kakashi grabbed him.
Naruto fought him.
Sakura didn't.
She remained on her knees.
Staring at Sasuke's body.
Luffy stood completely still.
His fists were clenched.
Nami had covered her mouth.
Zoro looked down.
Sanji's cigarette fell from his fingers.
Yuji's face had gone white.
"The skeleton was already dead…"
Nanami answered quietly.
"Yes."
"And Sasuke still…"
"Yes."
Yuji looked sick.
Megumi stared at the purple word that had disappeared.
KARMA.
One of the smallest attacks in the fight had mattered after the person who caused it no longer existed.
Gojo's face had lost every trace of humor.
"So killing them isn't necessarily enough."
Nobody around him liked that sentence.
Midoriya stared at his hands.
"He won the exchange."
Aizawa looked toward him.
Midoriya swallowed.
"He figured the opponent out. He cornered him. He landed the fatal attack."
His voice shook.
"And it still wasn't enough."
All Might closed his eyes.
Bakugo said nothing.
For once—
nothing.
Tanjiro's tears had already started.
He hadn't known Sasuke.
That didn't matter.
He could smell Naruto and Sakura's grief.
Or thought he could.
It was overwhelming.
Zenitsu wasn't screaming.
Inosuke wasn't boasting.
Ichigo's grip on Zangetsu shook.
Rukia touched his arm.
He didn't look at her.
Gohan stared at Sasuke's body.
Goku had sat down.
Vegeta remained standing.
His earlier confidence was gone.
No comments about speed.
No dismissive judgment.
Just silence.
Frieza's smile had vanished completely.
Beerus looked at Whis.
Whis did not smile.
The abandoned city faded.
Sasuke disappeared with it.
Naruto lunged again.
"No!"
Black screen.
Nothing remained.
Not Sasuke.
Not the skeleton.
Not the dust.
Not even the battlefield.
Only the theater.
And hundreds of people who had just learned what the screen meant when it said:
DEATH.
One battle finished.
Twenty-nine remained.
END OF CHAPTER 4