Beside Madara, Kanon finally spoke up.
"I have a plan," Kanon said.
"What sort of plan?"
"We simply attack both of them at the exact same time."
"Very well!" Hearing this, Madara struck instantly!
Two Truth-Seeking Balls shot straight toward their targets.
"Hey! Old man Madara, why didn't you wait for my attack?!"
"You haven't awakened the Rinnegan yet, so you have not crossed the threshold into the Six Paths realm. Our attacks might not synchronize perfectly!" Madara explained to her.
Watching the two Truth-Seeking Balls streak forward, Minato desperately kicked his Kusanagi Sword away, but having lost both of his arms, he was completely immobilized.
"Kakashi... Obito..."
Minato's heart swelled with endless guilt. In this moment of life and death, he was utterly useless.
"Kamui!" Obito and Kakashi activated Kamui simultaneously. Exactly as Kanon had anticipated, the dual Kamui was vastly faster this time!
Obito vanished in an instant. Originally, Kakashi was supposed to phase into the dimension alongside him, but Kanon could only lock onto a single target; consequently, the other Truth-Seeking Ball was absorbed by the combined distortion of Kamui and the Flower Realm.
Yet, Kakashi did not enter the space-time dimension as planned.
"Using Kamui together doubles the caster's execution speed?!"
"In that case! I'll just take your eye directly!" Kanon shouted. Taking a sharp step forward, her silhouette blurred like a fading illusion, vanishing from her spot.
Before Madara could even anticipate her move, Kanon had already closed the distance, thrusting her hand directly toward Kakashi's face.
"Oh no!" Kakashi realized instantly that Kanon was leaving him absolutely no quarter. If this Sharingan were snatched away by Kanon, Madara might gain access to the Kamui dimension.
Just as Kanon's hand lunged forward, a golden flash cut across Kakashi's vision, and Minato's figure finally materialized right before his eyes.
The sheer speed of the Flying Raijin Technique caught even Kanon off guard. It had to be said that Minato truly earned his moniker as the Yellow Flash; at this critical juncture, he had thrown himself right in front of Kanon.
Since you're blocking me, I'll just pass right through you! Kanon's battle instincts were so lethal they left Minato in awe. Her delicate hand phased clean through his skull, her intangible form surging toward Kakashi right behind him.
"No choice then..." Kakashi instantly detonated the Chidori in his own hand.
Using this nearly self-destructive method, the resulting shockwave propelled him backward, widening the gap between them.
"What?!" Kanon was startled. He used that kind of method to escape?
But Kanon was far from out of options. Her entire body phased completely through Minato, utilizing his solid torso as a literal springboard. Channeling chakra into the soles of her feet, she delivered a fierce kick off his back!
"Aaaagh!" Minato let out a sharp cry as he was launched straight toward Madara.
Madara simply sidestepped. Minato crashed violently onto the ground, sliding face-first and carving a deep trench into the dirt.
"Honestly... every last one of you is like this," Madara muttered, somewhat exasperated.
However, Kanon's calculated kick allowed her to close the distance to Kakashi once more. What followed was a blinding exchange of close-quarters taijutsu.
Their hand-to-hand proficiency was exceptional. Kanon executed a sweeping kick, which Kakashi deflected upward, but she immediately planted a single hand on the ground, spun her body with fluid grace, and swept Kakashi hard onto the dirt.
Just as Kanon was about to deliver the finishing blow, Gaara exerted every ounce of his remaining strength, using his sand to pull Kakashi out of harm's way.
Yet, Kanon easily neutralized the rescue using her Sage Art: Inorganic Reanimation. In that split second, Might Guy arrived with the Sixth Gate open, snatching Kakashi away in a blur.
The sheer velocity of the rescue caused even Kanon to furrow her brows. Stopping in her tracks, an irritated expression crossed her face. "Tch, your luck just won't run out, will it..."
Meanwhile, within the Kamui dimension, Obito materialized.
"Obito..." Sakura said, wide-eyed with surprise.
"Don't worry... I'm here to save Naruto," Obito stated.
"Can I actually trust you?" Sakura asked, her tone cold and guarded.
"I used to take nothing but detours. It took all of this just for me to finally reach my destination."
Obito placed his hand squarely over Naruto's abdomen. The crimson Nine-Tails chakra, alongside fractions of the One-Tail and Eight-Tails' chakra, began to flow steadily into Naruto's body.
Back on the outside battlefield, Kakashi was panting heavily, leaning on Might Guy for support.
"For once, Guy... your timing was absolutely perfect."
Minato, who had just managed to stand back up from the dirt, offered a relieved look. "Thank you for saving Kakashi... Guy."
"Are you alright, Kakashi?" Might Guy asked with a grin.
"I feel like I've seen that somewhere before," Madara observed, watching the green vapor radiating from Might Guy's body with mild intrigue.
Guy looked toward Kanon and Madara, his expression growing deeply solemn. "Kanon is here... but who is that standing right next to her?"
A short distance away, Jūgo and Orochimaru had already begun administering emergency aid to Sasuke. Jūgo was utilizing his abilities to reconstruct Sasuke's ruptured internal organs, while the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, stood beside them offering tactical guidance.
"Well, well. If it isn't the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju-sama, the man I respect most!" Orochimaru remarked, his tone dripping with his trademark sarcasm.
"Cut the chatter and start saving him," Tobirama snapped, thoroughly annoyed. Now that Orochimaru had recovered his arms and had Suigetsu assisting him, executing a procedure of this nature was well within his capabilities.
Back on the frontline, Kanon flickered over to her Kusanagi Sword, smoothly sliding it back into its scabbard.
Madara looked upon the gathered shinobi and let out a cold scoff:
"Even if reinforcements arrive, you are nothing more than insignificant specks of dust."
"You don't amount to a fraction of my power. Everything you do is already too late."
"That's Madara?!" Guy asked, visibly shaken.
At that moment, Minato and Gaara joined Kakashi's side.
"Kakashi, are you alright?" Minato inquired.
"Yes, thanks to Guy," Kakashi nodded.
"No, that's not what I meant..." Minato clarified. "I was worried about whether my Sage Art Rasengan injured you."
"That's fine too... At the exact moment it was about to hit me, I used Kamui to warp it away," Kakashi explained softly to Minato.
"Thank goodness..." Minato nodded, still holding a Flying Raijin kunai between his teeth.
"Sage Art? Senjutsu?" Guy turned to Minato, slightly surprised.
"Yes. The only things capable of harming him are senjutsu and physical damage dealt through taijutsu," Minato stated, his eyes locked grimly onto Madara.
"Which means outside of the Fourth Hokage's senjutsu and your taijutsu, Guy, we have no other options," Gaara analyzed.
Minato kept his heavy gaze on Kanon and Madara in the distance.
"If it were just Madara alone, we might have an opening, but..."
Sure enough, Kanon slowly walked up to stand beside Madara. Her icy stare swept across everyone present, and a faint pink pigment began to manifest around the contours of her eyes.
"Kanon can use senjutsu as well..."
Hearing Minato's words, cold sweat broke out across Kakashi's forehead. "Sensei, I recall that... your senjutsu..."
"Yes. To be perfectly honest, I'm not skilled with senjutsu... If only Kanon were still on our side..." Minato muttered around his kunai, a look of helplessness on his face.
"It takes me far too long to knead the chakra, and I can't maintain the state for extended periods. Unlike Kanon, my senjutsu originates from Mount Myōboku, much like Jiraiya-sensei's... I've rarely deployed it in actual combat."
"Furthermore, with my current inability to form hand signs, it will be incredibly difficult to mount another offensive or pull off a surprise attack like before."
Listening to Minato, Guy's expression gradually hardened into one of absolute resolve. The only person left who could step up to the plate was him!
With a swift leap, he took the vanguard position, facing Kanon and Madara with a defiant grin. "In that case, it's finally time for Konoha's Sublime Green Beast to take the stage!"
Kanon frowned as she looked at Guy, while Madara burst into laughter beside her. "You wish to dance as well? Then come. I suppose I can play around with you for a bit."
Guy didn't offer Madara a verbal reply. Instead, he crossed his hands and positioned them directly in front of his forehead.
"Eight Gates Release: Seventh Gate of Wonder... Open!"
Boom!
An explosion of white vapor erupted across the entire battlefield, causing countless shards of shattered rock to burst outward from around Guy's body.
"Blue steam? The gate right before the Gate of Death?" Madara shielded his eyes from the oncoming flying debris. Kanon, meanwhile, shifted into her intangible state, watching Guy with a chilling gaze.
"To think it's not the red steam... I'm really being underestimated here!" Madara remarked.
But in the very next instant, Guy had already closed the distance to Madara. He unleashed a devastating punch, which Madara narrowly evaded, before immediately transitioning his assault toward Kanon. However, Guy's strike phased completely through Kanon's intangible form.
"Don't touch those black spheres or the staff!" Minato bellowed.
Guy's reflexes were instantaneous. His velocity was so extreme that even Kanon found it exceptionally difficult to track his movements, leaving her with no choice but to passively rely on her intangibility to weather the assault.
However, this was merely Kanon operating under her standard Sage Mode.
Watching Guy relentlessly press the offensive against the two of them, the blinding cadence of his strikes forced Minato to continuously gauge the pressure. "Guy is actually utilizing the Eight Gates to this extent!"
"Those movements... they're completely superhuman," Gaara marveled.
In the center of the battlefield, Guy crossed his fingers, the unmistakable prelude to the Daytime Tiger.
"Not good, it's the Daytime Tiger!" Kanon warned, immediately placing her hand onto Madara's shoulder.
Sure enough, in the next heartbeat, Guy let out a roaring battle cry:
"Take this!"
"Daytime Tiger!"
A blinding shockwave of white vapor completely engulfed the entire battlefield. The searing white light swallowed the three figures instantly, and a terrifying mushroom cloud erupted violently from the epicenter.
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NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]