The Otsutsukis' eyes flashed with ruthlessness, having long been prepared to die.
Then, the five of them, along with the twenty-four clan members behind them, moved simultaneously, rushing towards Naruto and Sasuke. They ignored the containment of others around them, their goal clear: to kill Naruto and Sasuke first.
But as soon as they moved, they were intercepted head-on by the attacks of Madara, Hashirama, and others who had already anticipated their intentions.
Hashirama shouted in a deep voice, "Want to besiege Naruto and the others? You'll have to get past me first!"
Bang!
The expressions of Seirin and the others changed drastically, a strong sense of unease rising in their hearts. They had planned to concentrate their forces to kill Naruto and Sasuke first, but they hadn't expected the enemy's reinforcements to react so quickly, blocking their target.
They had originally thought that with the power of the five high council members plus twenty-four clan members, even if the opponent had reinforcements, they could still eliminate the core combat power first. But once they actually engaged, they realized they were completely wrong.
The strength of the twenty-four queens and Shun's children was actually not at all weaker than Naruto and Sasuke.
One queen condensed a golden Chakra whip in her hand, fine lightning coiled around the whip. As she swung it, it was like a golden dragon wagging its tail, whipping towards an Otsutsuki with the sound of breaking air.
Crack!
The Chakra whip shattered the opponent's Chakra shield, leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound on their body, from which black blood gushed out.
Shun's son, Seishin, skillfully activated his Rinnegan, and a "Shinra Tensei" was suddenly launched, blasting several Otsutsuki several meters away.
Then he used Bansho Ten'in, forcibly dragging one of them to his front. A black Chakra blade condensed in his hand, instantly piercing the opponent's heart. He held several Otsutsuki in a deadlock, making it impossible for them to support the high council.
Even though Seirin and the others, with the determination to die, exerted all their strength to stimulate their Chakra to break through the defense line, they were still firmly suppressed and fell into an absolute disadvantage.
"Impossible! How can these people be so strong!" Seirin hysterically roared while struggling to resist Hashirama's attack, his eyes full of unbelievable despair.
The surrounding Otsutsuki suffered even heavier casualties, with screams rising one after another.
Some were entangled by Hashirama's vines, which continued to tighten, crushing their bones.
Some were hit in vital points by Minato's Kunai, yellow lightning instantly piercing their bodies and leaving charred wounds.
Others were hit by the queens' combined techniques, their bodies blown to pieces, black blood staining a large area of the space.
The once-arrogant Otsutsuki camp, in the face of the reinforcements brought by Shun, had fallen to the brink of collapse.
Naruto deactivated his Six Paths Sage Mode, and Chakra surged around him again, golden Chakra enveloping his entire body. He stood side by side with Sasuke, suspended in the space. He moved his wrists, feeling the abundant energy in his body.
He looked at Sasuke beside him, grinned, and showed his signature confident smile. "It seems the real tough battle has just begun."
His smile was full of fearless passion and determination, a blazing fighting spirit ignited in his eyes. There was no fear in his heart, only the determination to protect.
"No matter how strong you are, I won't let you hurt my companions or this world! If you want to step past here, you'll have to step over my corpse first!"
Sasuke nodded slightly, his Six Tomoe Rinne Sharingan once again locking onto the enemies ahead. He gazed forward with a cold face, carrying an air of arrogance that looked down on everything.
"Then let them see clearly the price of attempting to invade our world. Let them know that the power of ninjas is enough to crush any arrogance."
He gripped the long sword in his hand, and the Lightning God Susanoo around him expanded again, the white lightning becoming increasingly violent.
Once, he fought only to prove himself. Now, he will stand side by side with Naruto, using the sword in his hand to protect this hard-won peace and slay all invading enemies.
Naruto and Sasuke moved simultaneously, rushing towards the Otsutsuki camp.
Golden Chakra and white lightning intertwined, forming a dazzling light shield that blocked the first wave of attacks from the enemy.
The battlefield thundered as both sides clashed again and again in the cosmic emptiness. Wherever the bursts of energy swept past, they tore twisted rifts straight through the void.
Hovering at a stable void node, Shun looked down at the stalemate with indifferent eyes, as if he had nothing to do with it.
Naruto activated Six Paths Chakra Mode, golden Chakra blazing like fire. In his hand, a Rasenshuriken howled as it hammered the Ōtsutsuki.
Beside him, Sasuke's Susanoo took a lightning god form, white lightning dancing wildly across its surface.
Not far away, Madara's Perfect Susanoo slashed like a rabid hound at the Ōtsutsuki.
Hashirama guided True Several Thousand Hands, mountainous wooden fists crashing down.
Minato turned into a yellow bolt of lightning, shuttling back and forth across the battlefield.
Twenty-four princesses and their children formed tight offensive-defensive formations, outnumbering and furiously hunting the Ōtsutsuki.
Even so, the Ōtsutsuki side held out with grim tenacity. Relying on bizarre space techniques and formidable bodies, they locked the fight in stalemate.
Shun had long since watched countless versions of this fight through Ten Directions.
He sighed softly, "What a tiresome brawl."
Clapping his hands, he blazed with a pale-gold halo, his Chakra skyrocketing. The once-quiet energy turned savage yet remained perfectly ordered under his control.
Golden power spread outward from him. Wherever it passed, the void calmed, even the ugly spatial tears ceasing to writhe as their violent edges faded.
In the next instant, cold light flashed in his eyes.
"Amenominaka… transfer… Arena of the Gods."
At his words, tens of thousands of kilometres of void shimmered with pale-gold light.
A translucent, invisible barrier formed right after, sealing the entire zone. Its surface flowed with fine golden runes. As the symbols flickered, mighty spatial force surged through like a tide.
Whether Ōtsutsuki or Naruto, Sasuke, Madara, Hashirama—everyone was wrapped by an irresistible power.
The world blurred and the roar in their ears vanished, replaced by the orderly hum of energy inside the barrier.
The surroundings had completely changed: the chaotic void was replaced by a majestic arena.
It was an arena so vast it defied imagination. The ground was a single slab of dark metal that glowed faintly, its surface etched with dense grooves carrying pale-gold energy.
Around the arena's edge layered golden barrier runes in three tiers.
The outer tier streamed spatial energy, the middle flashed sealing light, the inner shimmered with temporal ripples. Together, they exuded a heart-shaking sealing aura.
High above, only flowing seven-coloured light dotted with stars, moon and sun.
Silver chains shuttled through the energy, clinking with every collision and making the arena's power tremble, as though warning intruders.
A voice reached everyone's ears.
"This is the Arena of the Gods. Welcome."
Hashirama frowned, feeling the thick sealing power in the air.
"This force targets energy and space abilities."
Shun's voice echoed through the arena. "This space is filled with barriers and top-level sealing arts. Within it, your power is suppressed by ninety percent, and you dance to my tune."
The Ōtsutsuki's faces changed drastically, shock in their eyes.
Seirin, Migaki, Murata, Kugen and Yojin had just tried to mobilize their Chakra when their bodies were lifted off the ground.
Seized by an invisible hand, they were flung toward spectator seats around the arena.
Thud! Thud...
They crashed onto the metal chairs, the impact ringing out. The chairs blazed with golden light and runes poured out like living serpents, coiling around limbs and torsos, even piercing skin to burrow inside.
Where the runes entered, searing pain made the five leaders grunt.
The twenty-four Ōtsutsuki warriors who followed met the same fate, each pinned to a chair by runes, unable to move.
"Damn it! What sealing art is this!"
Seirin's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging as he frantically tried to force the seal with Chakra. But the moment he exerted himself, his Chakra drained away like water into sand, following the runes' paths. Not only did the seal stay intact, it absorbed his power at speed.
Adept at sealing, he could clearly sense this was no single-layer technique. The outer energy seal acted like a dam, severing the flow of Chakra so completely that he couldn't even activate the most basic Shinjutsu. The middle spatial seal locked away his space techniques, turning the once-freely roaming spatial force into lifeless, stagnant water. The inner physical seal struck directly at his cells, leaving even his fingers immobile while cramps and stiffness throbbed through every muscle.
Even more terrifying was the stabbing pain deep within his soul. It came from the soul seal hidden at the core of the seal array, trying to seize full control of his consciousness.
What crushed him most was when he risked everything, burning his vitality to shake the energy seal, only for a silver rune to surge from the seal's core.
Like a tide, it poured over the weakened spot, instantly restoring the energy seal to perfect condition—stronger than before.
"It's a time seal!"
Migaki exclaimed, voice shaking with unmistakable dread.
"This seal feeds on our energy to regenerate endlessly! The more we fight back, the more power we burn, the tighter it becomes! We're trapped in a death cycle!"
His body trembled and his already pale face turned bloodless, the light in his eyes dimming rapidly.
The hearts of the five Otsutsuki sank as though plunged into an ice pit.
One after another, they tried every secret art they knew to break the seal—whether the absorption techniques the Ōtsutsuki prided themselves on or forbidden Shinjutsu passed down for millennia. But nothing worked against the layered seal.
Their Chakra kept draining, their stamina vanishing with their spent vitality, yet the seal only tightened.
Golden runes had begun seeping through their skin, leaving hideous golden brands across their bodies.
Pinned motionless to the stone chairs, they could only stare down at the arena below, feeling their strength ebb away.
Boundless despair swallowed them like a dark, bottomless sea, sending a chill to their very bones.