"You cannot defeat me as I am now, Lord Supreme Kai of Time. My battle power is far, far beyond yours." Fu erupted in a blaze of crimson-red energy. His control had clearly slipped, but the enormous power surging inside him was undeniably real.
Ino gave him a strange look, then let out a dismissive snort. "I take back what I said. You're nothing like your mother — you just look clever. In practice, you're miles below that scheming trollop who raised you."
Her words turned Fu's eyes red with rage. Anger was part of it, but the real problem was the sheer volume of foreign energy flooding his mind and eroding his judgment.
"I'll finish you in one move!" In an instant, Ino scanned more than three thousand timelines and extracted the optimal solution.
With her dominion over time, dealing with enemies was essentially a one-move affair. If one move didn't work, a hundred moves or a full day of fighting wouldn't change a thing.
"Divine Art: Nativity of a World of Trees!" In a remarkably rare display, Ino began forming hand seals. After the fifteenth seal, she let out a soft, amused laugh. If the enemy could exploit the Universe Tree, so could she. Using Wood Release as her foundation and divine power as her compass, she reached out and drew the will of the Universe Tree itself toward her.
Fu spun around sharply. Outside the World of Void, in the void beyond, countless roots and vines had suddenly erupted into existence.
This development was completely outside anything he had anticipated.
He swung his sword in frantic, continuous cuts. Ino maintained her "seduction" of the Universe Tree without pause. The harder Fu hacked, the more roots sprouted.
"What are you doing?! How are you controlling the Universe Tree?!" The composure had drained entirely from his face. Just as Ino opened her mouth to answer, he hurled his long sword at her — it had been charging with power all this time.
Ino's body was pierced straight through. The energy packed into that blade was immense; in an instant it tore her apart.
Fu snapped his gaze left and right. The smile had barely begun to form at the corner of his mouth when Ino stepped out from the opposite direction. "It seems you never actually absorbed Kabuto-senpai's memories. You didn't even know about Konoha's most famous technique — the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
Countless roots and vines coiled around Fu's hands and feet. The Universe Tree was a conscious being, but like Grand Zeno, this colossal tree carried a certain impartial, "heavenly" indifference. It was grateful to Fu for giving it new life — but it would absolutely never permit its energy to be stolen. Now, it swarmed this thief from every direction, and the roots pierced into his body. With a steady, wet gurgling sound, the stolen energy was forcibly extracted, using his blood and life force as the medium.
"Poor wretch. Rest in peace." Ino released the jutsu and let the roots drag the desiccated, mummy-like Fu away from the World of Void.
Fu had not been weak — he had simply been too greedy, reaching for power that was never his to take. That was why Ino had toyed him to death with such ease.
On the other side, Tonton had used her body weight to sit Tokitoki to death — she'd even sat the bird droppings out of it. Exhausted and gasping for breath, she raised her head and fixed Ino with a deeply aggrieved stare.
"When you get back, I'll get you red bean soup. A whole big bowl!"
Tonton was extremely serious. She pressed her lips together and said nothing.
"Two big bowls!"
The pet pig shook her head.
"Three big bowls — that's my final offer! ... Deal! I'll write you a note — but no pulling cute faces to squeeze out extras, understand? The village finances are in a rough patch right now..."
Invoking her authority as the Seventh Hokage, Ino scrawled a quick note and gestured for Tonton to head back to the village and collect her red bean soup from Old Lady Koharu Utatane.
She dismissed the Summoning Jutsu and returned to the World of Void.
"The mastermind behind the attack has been dealt with. However, this one has an immortal body — Your Majesty Grand Zeno, if you would?" She plucked Fusion Zamasu out of the time trap and tossed him forward.
Grand Zeno was still weak, but at the sight of Fusion Zamasu, he paused for two blank seconds before grasping Ino's meaning.
The administrator of the multiverses gave a small wave of his tiny hand. Not even the immortality granted by Super Shenron could stop the erasure — Fusion Zamasu was wiped away at the root, utterly and completely gone.
Ino closed her five fingers into a fist. Broly shattered along with the spatial labyrinth that held him.
Once Grand Zeno was safe, the Grand Minister moved personally. Ino couldn't even tell how he did it — in the blink of an eye, he had severed the Universe Tree. The great tree raged against its end, letting out a roar in its final moments that shook the entire multiverse, but beneath the Grand Minister's single, unhurried stroke, it too crumbled into countless fragments of scattered energy.
——
The Tournament of Power ended without a final victor.
The Grand Minister made a wish to Super Shenron and restored the six erased universes to their original state.
Destroyers and Supreme Kais gathered together, waiting for their ultimate fate to be declared.
The Grand Minister nodded to Grand Zeno, then glanced once at Ino. Ino raised a hand. After you.
The Grand Minister floated in the air, surveying the assembled deities and the warriors who had come to compete in the Tournament of Power.
He spoke calmly. "We are a single whole. The multiverse can accommodate different voices and carry development in different directions. The purpose of the Tournament of Power has always been to showcase the strength of intelligent life — yet in truth, the strength of intelligent life draws from every conceivable source and cannot be reduced to a single dimension..."
Grand Zeno gave a gentle nod. "The Grand Minister is absolutely right."
Ino noticed every deity's gaze turning toward her, and nodded along as well. "...Me too — I mean, yes. Mm. The Grand Minister is absolutely right."
The Grand Minister continued. "The Universe Tree incident has revealed a truth: civilization must become more multifaceted. We need not only the wisdom to build a civilized universe, but also the strength to protect it..."
Grand Zeno was delighted and couldn't help but clap his hands. "That was perfectly said, Grand Minister."
Watching all the gods fall into pointed silence, Ino had no choice but to clap along twice herself. "...Mm-hm. Very well said."
The Grand Minister's lengthy address amounted, essentially, to a formal acknowledgment of Grand Zeno's past failures.
The First, Twelfth, Fifth, and Eighth Universes that Grand Zeno had previously favored were indeed highly civilized — but when Fu, Zamasu, and Broly came crashing in, they had put up almost no resistance whatsoever. The Supreme Kais and Destroyers had spent their days absorbed in "cultivation" and the project of building a "civilized universe," and had completely forgotten how to fight. Faced with powerful enemies, their battle power was shockingly, unbelievably low.
If Ino had not stepped in alone to hold back Fu and the others, those gods would have died in a most undignified fashion.
Civilization across the multiverse was necessary — but extremes had to be avoided. If everyone became a perfectly refined intellectual, who would do the fighting? Cultivation and combat, two legs walking together — that was the only path to lasting peace.
Grand Zeno lowered his previous standard of a Level 7 Civilization Index, and issued a formal new decree to all the deities: in ten thousand years, the Tournament of Power would be held again, and any universe that failed to reach a Civilization Index of Level 4 would be required to participate.
During those ten thousand years, the warriors who had been entered into the Divine Registry could make their own choice: when their lifespans came to an end, they could choose to go to the underworld and rest, or choose to take on the mantle of a new deity.
Son Goku was not entered into the Divine Registry. Instead, he had caught the Grand Minister's eye — there were signs the Grand Minister intended to take him on as a son.
Jiren and Frieza were both posthumously bestowed the title of Destroyer.
——
Back at the Time Nest, Ino purged the influence the Universe Tree had exerted across the many timelines.
Hinata carried over a cup of tea and asked, "So... the Tournament of Power just ended like that?"
Ino took her wife's hand and nodded. "It did. The ending was a little unexpected, but the Tournament of Power really is over. From here on, the multiverse is definitely entering a whole new era."
Hinata sat down beside her. "Then... will the future be better?"
Ino smiled. "The future isn't my department. All we have to do is enjoy the present!"
(End of Series)
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