A streak of lightning flashed through the underground hall.
BOOM!
Kakashi's Chidori drilled straight into the core of the colossal puppet like a high-powered auger. The violent lightning chakra tore through its internal structure in an instant.
Right behind it came Naruto's massive, world-shaking Big Ball Rasengan. It smashed into the puppet's head with devastating force, nearly obliterating the entire upper half of the machine.
Metal fragments and shattered pipes exploded outward like a violent storm.
Mukade let out one final, unwilling, agonized scream. As the giant puppet collapsed, he was swallowed by the raging flames and lightning.
Even the strongest regeneration had its limits. Under an attack that exceeded those limits, the puppet could only fall.
"We did it—!" Naruto dropped onto his butt, breathing hard, his face a mix of triumph and exhaustion.
Kakashi dropped to one knee, sweat soaking through his mask, but his visible eye remained sharp as he scanned the wreckage.
Yamato released his Wood Release and leaned tiredly against a rock.
Rin let out a long breath and gave the anxious queen a reassuring smile. "Lady Sara is only unconscious. She's not in any danger. She should wake up soon."
Queen Seramu clutched her daughter tightly, tears sliding down her face—this time, they were tears of joy.
She looked at Taiichi and the others, her eyes filled with endless gratitude. "Thank you… thank you all!"
Taiichi walked up to the queen, his expression still grave.
"Your Majesty, it's not over yet. We've destroyed An Lushan, but the Dragon Veins were overstimulated during the fight. The energy is extremely unstable. We need to re-seal it immediately, or the consequences will be catastrophic if it goes out of control."
Queen Seramu nodded firmly. "I understand. Let's begin the sealing right away. What do you need me to do?"
"You just need to guide the Dragon Veins' power to work with my sealing technique."
Taiichi walked to the edge of the glowing pillar and began forming hand seals at high speed.
Queen Seramu placed her hands on the Dragon Veins and closed her eyes, chanting an ancient Roran incantation.
As she chanted, the once-raging energy seemed to calm slightly. The light softened, and the turbulent flow began to stabilize.
The sealing was nearly complete. The Dragon Veins' power was being guided back into the natural pulse of the land—
Vmmmm!
A violent tremor, far stronger than anything before, suddenly erupted from deep within the Dragon Veins. It felt like something had detonated at the very core.
A massive shockwave of energy slammed into everyone like a physical tsunami, hurling them backward.
"Guh—!"
Taiichi, who had been leading the seal, took the worst of the backlash. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and was thrown like a broken kite, crashing hard into the stone wall.
"Taiichi!"
"Captain!"
Kakashi, Naruto, Yamato, and Rin's shouts were drowned out by the deafening roar of energy.
Queen Seramu was also caught in the blast. She let out a pained grunt and collapsed, unmoving.
At the center of the energy storm, a human figure was violently "spat out" by the raging Dragon Veins.
The figure tumbled through the air like a broken sack and crashed onto the hard stone floor some distance away. His clothes were ragged and stained with dust and dried blood, as if he had just escaped from the jaws of death.
He lay there coughing violently, each cough sending fresh waves of pain through his body.
The sudden change and the appearance of this mysterious man left everyone who had just finished a brutal fight completely stunned.
Only Taiichi forced himself upright, wiping the blood from his mouth as he stared in shock at the stranger who had been ejected from the Dragon Veins.
This guy… is that Ōtsutsuki Urashiki? How the hell is he here?
Urashiki himself was just as confused.
Wasn't he supposed to be traveling back in time to find the young Naruto Uzumaki and take his Nine-Tails chakra?
How did he end up here?
The moment he tried to move, intense pain shot through his entire body. He quickly realized his condition was far worse than it should have been.
He clearly remembered that before crossing time, he had only suffered minor injuries. Nothing like this.
More memories surfaced, and the situation became clearer.
When he had used the Ōtsutsuki clan's sacred tool "Yata" to travel through time, he had been struck by Uchiha Sasuke's power and hurled into a space-time rift. That alone wouldn't have been too bad.
But during the journey, the time-space bubble he was in had been violently yanked by an external force—the backlash from the Dragon Veins in this timeline—into an entirely different space-time.
That had nearly killed him. Time travel was already extremely dangerous. Being slammed around repeatedly like a rag in a washing machine, every energy fluctuation in the passage could have ended him.
The fact that he had emerged without losing any limbs was nothing short of a miracle.
Thinking about it, Urashiki's face twisted before he burst into wild, unhinged laughter.
"Haha~ Hahaha~ Ha—!"
Naruto stared, completely lost. The weird guy who had just crawled out of the Dragon Veins was laughing like a lunatic. Had the Dragon Veins scrambled his brain?
"Hey, you okay over there?"
Only Naruto would walk forward and ask something like that with zero self-preservation.
Taiichi was genuinely startled. He flickered in front of Naruto in an instant and yanked him back.
"Idiot. That guy is dangerous."
Yamato also reacted quickly. He grabbed Naruto, who looked ready to argue, and stared hard at the strange man.
Ōtsutsuki Urashiki finally stopped laughing and began sizing up the group.
When his gaze landed on Naruto standing behind Taiichi, his lips stretched into an exaggerated grin.
"Ahaha~ Naruto Uzumaki. I didn't expect to run into you so directly like this."
But then his eyes narrowed as he studied Naruto more carefully.
"No… why are you this age? Damn it. I came to the wrong time again."
Everyone understood immediately. After what had happened with Naruto and Yamato earlier, it was obvious—this was another person who had traveled through time.
And judging by his words, he was clearly an enemy of Naruto's.
Kakashi and Yamato's minds were already racing. This man had probably come here specifically to target Naruto.
Taiichi had reached the same conclusion. He just didn't recognize who this person actually was.
His knowledge of the original story only went up to the Fourth Great Ninja War and Kaguya. He hadn't had time to look into what came after.
But the man's appearance and clothing made it obvious—he was an Ōtsutsuki, the same clan as Kaguya.
Taiichi didn't even want to imagine how strong he might be. The only saving grace was that the man looked heavily injured. If it came to a fight, they might still have a chance.
"Who are you?" Taiichi asked, stepping forward and taking full responsibility as the strongest here. "And how did you come out of the Dragon Veins?"
"Haha. You lower lifeforms want to know my name?"
Urashiki laughed arrogantly, but when he caught Naruto's disgusted expression and remembered how he had been beaten before, he changed his tone.
"Well, fine. Since you asked so sincerely, I'll generously tell you.
Listen carefully, trash. I am Ōtsutsuki Urashiki!"
So he really is an Ōtsutsuki.
Taiichi kept one hand behind his back and quickly signed to the others: Take the queen and Sara and get out of here now.
Rin noticed the signal immediately. Her expression turned serious.
During the entire intense fight against An Lushan, Taiichi had never told the queen to retreat. But now, before they had even started fighting this new enemy, he was already giving this order.
Rin understood how dangerous the situation was. Without a word, she picked up Sara and helped the queen toward the exit.
"Hey, did I say you could leave?"
Urashiki was clearly provoked. He grabbed his red glowing fishing rod and swung it hard toward Rin.
The red hook trailed a long line as it flew in a strange arc straight at her chest.
Just as the hook was about to hit, Taiichi appeared out of nowhere and knocked it aside with his short blade.
"Oh? Another shadow clone? And that technique just now… space-time ninjutsu?"
Urashiki retracted the hook with a flick of his wrist and finally gave Taiichi a proper look.
"Ōtsutsuki Urashiki. You don't seem very friendly. You attacked my teammate the moment you arrived?"
Taiichi ignored Urashiki's confusion and went straight on the offensive.
"Haha. Attacking? Isn't that only natural?"
Urashiki's eyes bulged with bulging veins as he activated his Byakugan.
"Oh? You have quite a lot of chakra. Perfect. I can use it to recover from my injuries."
His gaze then shifted to Naruto. The Nine-Tails' chakra inside him was clearly visible.
"It really is you, Naruto Uzumaki. Hand over the Nine-Tails."
Without another word, he charged straight at them.
His speed was terrifying. Only Taiichi reacted in time.
Taiichi swung his short blade to block Urashiki's advance while dozens of bright white fireballs formed around him and rained down on the approaching Ōtsutsuki.
In that split second, Urashiki could only swing his fishing rod to smash the fireballs apart.
That brief delay gave Kakashi, Naruto, and Yamato time to react. Without hesitation, they joined the fight, surrounding Urashiki in a coordinated assault.
Taiichi was the fastest. His figure vanished like a ghost and reappeared at Urashiki's flank, throwing a monstrously powerful punch at his ribs.
"Hmph!"
Urashiki snorted coldly. Despite his battered appearance, his body moved with incredible flexibility and speed. The red fishing rod twisted at a tricky angle to block.
CLANG!
The sound of metal clashing was deafening. The shockwave rippled outward.
At the same time, Kakashi's Chidori screamed as he became a streak of white lightning, aiming straight for Urashiki's back.
Yamato slammed his hands on the ground. Thick wooden vines erupted like giant serpents and wrapped around Urashiki's legs.
Naruto roared and created over a dozen shadow clones, many of them already holding Rasengan as they charged from every direction.
"Annoying insects!"
A flash of irritation crossed Urashiki's eyes. With his Byakugan active, he could clearly see the trajectories of every attack.
His red fishing rod danced like the wind, precisely deflecting or shattering most of the attacks and incoming vines.
When Kakashi's lethal Chidori came in, Urashiki twisted his body at an impossible angle, narrowly dodging the strike. At the same time, he swung the rod backhand, sending the hook straight at Kakashi's face.
Kakashi's pupils shrank. At the last possible moment, he used Body Flicker to retreat. The hook grazed his forehead protector, leaving a deep scratch.
Naruto's shadow clones were already right in front of him. Rasengan howled down toward Urashiki.
"Naive!"
Urashiki's lips curled into a cruel smile. The red fishing rod moved like a striking viper, piercing straight through the chests of several shadow clones like they were on a skewer.
A strange scene unfolded.
The clones that were hit didn't pop into smoke like normal. Instead, they froze in place as if under a paralysis jutsu. The Rasengan in their palms flickered and died. Then the hook retracted, and glowing orbs of chakra were pulled out of their bodies.
"Urgh—!"
The frozen clones finally let out pained groans before disappearing with a poof.
The stolen chakra was absorbed by Urashiki. A sickly red flush appeared on his pale, twisted face, and his previously weakened aura grew slightly stronger.
"What—?!" Naruto and his remaining clones were horrified. Their momentum faltered.
"Don't let that hook touch you!" Taiichi shouted urgently. "It can paralyze and extract chakra!"
Urashiki laughed wildly after absorbing the chakra. "Hahahaha! Do you see now? This is my power! Your chakra as lower lifeforms is nothing but food for me!"
He moved even faster. The fishing rod flashed red as he pushed Kakashi back, shattered Yamato's Wood Release bindings, and tried to catch Naruto or one of the others again.
Now that they understood the danger, Kakashi, Naruto, and Yamato immediately changed tactics.
Kakashi stopped trying to attack head-on and switched to high-speed Body Flicker and long-range harassment, looking for openings.
Naruto became much more cautious—his clones would rather disperse themselves than risk getting caught by the hook.
Yamato went all-in on controlling the battlefield with Wood Release, using Wood Locking Wall and Tree Bind Eternal Burial in rotation to restrict Urashiki's movement and create safe windows for his teammates.
Taiichi remained the main damage dealer. His short blade danced as he constantly launched clusters of bright white fire at Urashiki.
Urashiki didn't dare take those strange fireballs lightly. He knew it was Fire Release, but he had never seen anyone use it like this. Getting hit by one would probably turn even him into charcoal.
"Damn it… How is this human so troublesome?"
The more Urashiki fought, the more shocked he became.
Taiichi's raw power and speed were inferior to his own, but that bizarre fire technique and his ghost-like space-time ninjutsu kept him constantly on the defensive.
His injuries throbbed painfully with every movement, and the chakra he had absorbed wasn't enough to keep up with the drain.
"This isn't working…"