Chapter 475: The Curtain Falls
Boom!
Pushing open the heavy castle doors—which had been sliced by Kakashi's blade techniques until only a thin sheet of metal plating remained—Ryo walked into the fortress, bringing the director and cameraperson along with him.
"Huh? Great Ancestor, why do I feel a bit uncomfortable..." Tsukika murmured softly. Dense, intricate purple patterns suddenly crawled across her wrists and face out of thin air.
Ryo knit his brows slightly. His right hand emitted a soft, soothing white light as he gripped Tsukika's calf: "There is poison gas filling the castle. Do you feel a bit better now?"
"Mmm, Great Ancestor..."
"Poison gas?! Cool... Great Ancestor, add a special effect for us as well!"
Ryo shot a sidelong glance at the men behind him: "It's a poison gas designed specifically to seal chakra. It has absolutely zero relevance to you guys!"
They traversed the long corridor and stepped directly into the grand hall of the castle.
The originally thoroughly battered Doto Kazahana was sitting grandly and aggressively atop a stone chair on the high platform, wearing a heavy helmet on his head. In front of him, Kakashi was concentrating his focus to forcefully suppress the purple patterns spreading across his body, while Koyuki Kazahana looked at him with a face full of deep anxiety.
"Niece Koyuki, it looks like your uncle wins after all! This castle is completely saturated with a poison gas that seals chakra; it only works on individuals who actually possess chakra. Over the next five days, you all will be reduced to absolute commoners. What do you have left to fight me with?! Hahaha... Eh? To think there are actually people who willingly walk inside to court death!"
Ryo chuckled. Does this guy not know that villains always die from talking too much...? His voice rippled right beside Koyuki Kazahana's ear via telepathy: "Deliver your script lines, the Great Ancestor is about to add your special effect. Ready, set, go!"
Koyuki Kazahana paused for a second, and her longsword immediately aimed straight at Doto Kazahana: "Even if our power is sealed, as long as we possess a heart that never gives up, justice will ultimately triumph over evil!"
Doto Kazahana: ???
Right at that exact fraction of a second, a silver light suddenly flashed. Kakashi—who had just been designated as 'clinging to his last breath'—actually unleashed a rapid flash of Body Flicker to drive a ferocious blade strike!
Completely caught off guard, Doto Kazahana's dual eyes went wide as his armor shattered tier by tier... Only after a long while, upon realizing that there wasn't a single physical wound on his body, did he let out a massive sigh of relief.
Glancing over at Kakashi, who had already retreated back to his original position and was panting violently, he stood up and erupted into a rampant, arrogant laugh: "Kakashi Hatake of Konoha Village truly lives up to his reputation! One honestly cannot let their guard down for a single moment!"
"Ice Style: Black Dragon... What?!"
An exceptionally blinding, pure white radiance suddenly erupted from the longsword Koyuki Kazahana held in her grip. Koyuki swung her blade with all her might, expelling a pure white beam of blade energy whose raw power completely eclipsed anything seen before!
"Ice Style: Twin Dragon Blizzard!"
Two black dragons identical to the previous one flew out simultaneously from Doto Kazahana's dual fists, only to be cleaved into absolute scatter by the pure white blade radiance in a single fraction of a second!
Boom!
Carried by the explosive kinetic momentum of the blade beam, Doto Kazahana slammed heavily against the castle wall, smashing out a human-shaped crater as he rolled and flew straight out of the fortress.
"Hit him with one more!"
Koyuki Kazahana given a subtle pause. As all sorts of childhood memories flashed rapidly through her mind, she drove another heavy slash forward with a complex expression, expelling a second pure white beam of blade energy.
Ryo let out a soft breath. With just those two strikes, another entire Nine-Tails worth of chakra was completely gone...
*Witnessed and significantly altered the Naruto world movie plot: The Great Production: Princess Gale's Great Adventure, obtained 30 (8) = 240 Witness Points.
The successful harvest of Witness Points officially confirmed that Doto Kazahana—who had been blasted straight into the deep snow below by the blade beam—was dead!
Leaning against her longsword, Koyuki Kazahana stood in absolute silence, bathed in the sunlight filtering through the human-shaped crater. As a gentle breeze rustled past, her long hair fluttered in the wind—a scene of matchless beauty...
"Cool~! This movie will definitely become wildly famous across the entire shinobi world!" The eccentric director was so incredibly thrilled he was on the verge of crying out loud. "Cut!"
The absolute moment she heard the director holler 'Cut', Koyuki immediately discarded the longsword from her grip, running frantically over to stand in front of Kakashi: "Brother Kakashi, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kakashi responded. "Senior, mind lending me a special effect?"
Ryo burst into laughter, stepping forward to administer medical ninjutsu: "Your raw poison resistance is still a fraction lacking."
"Naturally, it cannot compare to yours."
Boom! Right at that moment, another colossal, thundering explosion rippled through the air from the outside, causing the entire castle to vibrate.
Ryo given a subtle pause, a smile playing across his face: "It seems they've truly started playing with real fire out there."
Outside the castle.
Facing Sasuke's Susanoo, Deidara had steadily begun deploying his full strength, rotating through all sorts of different clay bombs. He had actually managed to blast Sasuke's unrefined, immature Susanoo until it was thoroughly battered and tattered.
But Sasuke wasn't fighting alone.
While Sakura had pulled back from the immediate combat zone, Naruto was entirely unwilling to show any weakness. Actively utilizing the Nine-Tails' chakra shroud, he consistently managed to buy enough buffer time for Sasuke to repair his Susanoo structure every single time, locking the battle into a perpetual, dead loop...
Once the colossal commotion from the castle's direction rippled over to this side, Deidara's face steadily washed over with intense urgency: "These two infuriating brats... I can't afford to waste any more time!"
The massive clay bird was deployed by him once again. Mounting the aerial beast, Deidara rapidly ascended into the sky.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look: "Did he flee?"
Deidara wasn't fleeing; he was actively prepping a highly specialized C3 bomb up in the sky.
By mixing in his highest tier of chakra and molding the explosive clay into a human doll shape before dropping it down, the clay doll would rapidly expand and accelerate mid-fall, generating a cataclysmic explosion. In the original story timeline, it was this exact technique that forced Gaara to exhaust his entire chakra pool to shield the Hidden Sand Village, leading to his capture.
With that sturdy skeleton structure, a C3 Number 18 shouldn't be enough to outright kill them... un! Deidara still maintained a baseline sense of boundary.
Just as he was preparing to expel the clay doll from his mouth, Deidara suddenly shuddered violently as a deeply familiar sensation washed over him. The giant bird beneath his feet was struck yet again by a bolt of lightning that materialized out of absolutely nowhere...
"Which absolute bastard is shooting at my bird again?! Un!"
Deidara spiraled downward out of control alongside his giant bird.
To smoothly deploy the C3 bomb, Deidara had ascended significantly higher into the atmosphere this time around. Consequentially, he couldn't afford to waste energy tracking down the 'culprit', frantically working his hands to manipulate the leaking, deflating clay bird.
However, in the very next fraction of a second, his entire body went perfectly rigid.
A human-shaped entity had seamlessly pressed right up against his back, spine to spine... and they were currently deep up in the high sky...
"Riding your bird actually feels quite decent, kid Deidara."
Deidara's body grew even stiffer as he slowly turned his head. That deeply familiar, casual cadence—yes, red hair, yes... but the height... was completely incorrect!
"Elder Uzumaki... un! Have you also steadily grown shorter just like Old Man Ohnoki?! Un!"
Ryo turned his head with a beaming smile, his youthful, tender face causing Deidara to freeze for a second: "Regrettably, I must disappoint you, kid Deidara!"
With those words delivered, Ryo executed a clean leap, separating himself from the giant bird while simultaneously granting it a heavy downward burst of kinetic acceleration...
BOOM!
The giant bird crashed heavily to the earth. Deidara felt as if every single bone in his entire body had been violently shattered into pieces. Just as he was preparing to open his mouth to unleash a wave of curses, his vision plunged into complete darkness, and he came incredibly close to passing out entirely.
"Dammit..."
Ryo executed a perfectly stable landing, waiting on the spot for a good while, but he failed to receive any active system notification...
This clash doesn't register as a definitive battle between Sasuke and Deidara? Ah, whatever, if it doesn't count, so be it. I couldn't exactly let Deidara genuinely fall to his death anyway... Ryo let out a long sigh, waving his hand to address the three students who were rapidly closing the distance: "Head inside the castle to find Kakashi, the battle has officially concluded!"
"Great Ancestor, what do we do with this guy?" Naruto asked in his typical boisterous manner, pointing his finger toward Deidara, who was currently slumped helplessly on the dirt.
Ryo pondered for a brief moment. Swapping his expression for a brilliant, radiant smile, he paced briskly over to Deidara's side: "Oh my, kid Deidara, how could you possibly be this careless? Quick, let the Great Ancestor take a meticulous look, exactly where did you hurt your fall?"
Deidara: "..."
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