High above the battlefield, Tōma stood suspended in the air.
Blood-red chakra roared around him like living flas as he looked down at the origin space below. The land had been crushed lower and lower by the five consecutive Evening Elephant strikes. What remained was no longer soil in any normal sense, but a compacted, hardened mass, pressed flat by overwhelming air pressure.
At its center lay a humanoid crater.
That was where Kaguya had fallen.
"Hah..."
Tōma exhaled heavily. Even for him, the Gate of Death was brutal. The Eight Gates Formation burned life itself as fuel, and the strain gnawed at his body relentlessly.
Still, the result spoke for itself.
For a brief window, he had completely overwheld Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Tōma knew this power wasn’t universal. The Eight Gates scaled with the user’s physique. Might Duy had barely reached the fourth phase of Evening Elephant. Might Guy could push to the fifth and even create Night Guy, a level Duy could never reach.
And Tōma?
His body had undergone multiple transformations through chakra fusion and Sage evolution. In terms of durability and recovery, short of a Ten-Tails jinchūriki, his physique was absurd. The problem was that every opponent he faced was effectively one.
Even so, sustaining the Eight Gates Formation was never easy. The stronger the body, the more violently the technique demanded paynt in return.
"No one gets to use this comfortably," Tōma muttered.
A stray thought crossed his mind.
When this is over, maybe I’ll throw Guy and Lee into the ultra-gravity space for training.
At their level, ordinary training barely moved the needle anymore. Extre environnts were the only way forward.
But that was for later.
The crimson aura around Tōma intensified. Ti was running out.
In the Eight Gates state, his perception of space sharpened to a frightening degree. He could feel distortions, fractures, even the faint outline of spatial seams.
At full output... I really could punch space apart.
As if to prove the thought, Tōma threw a casual punch downward.
The shockwave tore through the air and smashed into the crater.
Below, Kaguya staggered.
Her robe was torn, her once-immaculate presence shattered. The invincible goddess who had descended upon the world now looked battered and cornered.
She had no intention of continuing a direct fight.
A black spatial rift opened above her as she tried to retreat through Yomotsu Hirasaka.
Then—
The rift collapsed.
It shattered like glass, torn apart by the pressure of Tōma’s punch alone.
Kaguya froze.
She looked up.
Their eyes t.
She understood instantly.
She was locked.
Any attempt to escape through space-ti would be destroyed before it completed.
"And you’re still charging sothing?" Kaguya murmured bitterly.
Even Black Zetsu fell silent. For the first ti, there was no plan left to suggest.
"Why," Kaguya asked quietly, rising from the crater, "can humans create techniques like this?"
Tōma smiled faintly.
"Because we’re worse than you in almost every way," he said calmly.
"Weaker bodies. Shorter lives. Less innate power."
He raised his gaze.
"But creativity?"
"That’s where we win."
Humanity had built ninjutsu from limitations. Shadow Clones. Flying Thunder God. The Eight Gates. None of them were elegant. All of them were effective.
Kaguya whispered the word as if tasting it for the first ti.
"...Creativity."
Tōma didn’t reply.
The crimson aura spread until it seed to flood the entire space. His preparations were complete.
He could recreate Night Guy if he wanted to.
But—
"A space-ti shinobi should finish this properly."
He snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The space around them twisted violently. Distortions layered over one another, folding and grinding until the battlefield itself warped.
Kaguya tried to open another rift.
It was swallowed instantly.
"This space is locked," Tōma said evenly. "Face it head-on."
With no other choice, Kaguya clenched her teeth. Her body began to swell.
Black Zetsu reacted instantly.
"She’s using that form!"
Kaguya reverted to her primordial state. A massive white sphere ford, nine tailed silhouettes struggling across its surface, crowned by a monstrous rabbit-like head with a crimson Rinne-Sharingan.
Then the outer shell peeled away.
A colossal black sphere erged within it, expanding rapidly.
"Mother’s Truth-Seeking Orb!" Black Zetsu shouted triumphantly.
"An expanding orb ford from all natures of chakra! A new world will be born!"
Tōma stared at the expanding Truth-Seeking Orb.
He couldn’t stop it.
Not yet.
His final technique wasn’t finished.
And even if it were, clashing Truth-Seeking Orbs head-on would be pointless. Kaguya’s was fueled by an entire world’s chakra. His wasn’t.
That was never his plan.
Tōma shifted all remaining power into his legs. His bones scread under the pressure, protesting violently.
He ignored it.
Space around him collapsed inward, spiraling like a storm. White spatial energy wrapped around crimson Eight Gates chakra, condensing into sothing vast.
Sothing alive.
The battlefield seed to empty out, drained of space itself.
Then—
A colossal dragon took shape.
Its body was forged from blood-red Eight Gates energy and pure white spatial force. It roared silently, rivaling the expanding Truth-Seeking Orb in size.
Kaguya’s eyes widened. She imdiately rged herself into the orb, retreating to its far side, preparing to let it take the impact.
Tōma didn’t stop.
Blood stread from his body, vaporizing as it fed the dragon’s form. He stepped forward.
The space beneath his foot shattered.
He launched himself downward.
Behind him, the space-ti dragon surged forward, devouring shattered spatial fragnts and growing more ferocious with every ter.
Reality tore itself apart in his wake.
At the final mont, Tōma descended in a crushing, knight-like kick, driving everything forward.
The dragon opened its jaws and roared.
"Space-Ti Final Art — Eternal Silence."
In a space drained of all escape...
Only annihilation awaited.
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