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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!
After the terrifying vapor exploded, hail fell from the sky. The temperature plummeted. The enlarged explosive clone of the Boil Release: Hiding in the Steam Jutsu shriveled back into its child-like form, readying itself for the next detonation.
This was the 64th cycle since the fight began.
The sky-blotting barrage of explosive water orbs behind Sasuke had been almost entirely depleted in their mutual bombardment.
This duel of infinite watery explosions… the advantage seemed to have tilted toward Gengetsu.
From his hiding spot, Gengetsu's true body watched with a pleased smile.
One more blast. Just one more, and his water orbs will be gone. Sure, my real body got caught and blown up seven times in the middle of all this. Hardly a glorious victory. But don't blame me. Blame that damn Second Hokage for inventing a jutsu as twisted as the Impure World Reincarnation…
Whoosh!
The explosive clone shot forward, the oil on its surface heating rapidly, bringing the water sealed inside to a furious boil.
Bubble… bubble… bubble…!
The clone swelled. It became a giant once more.
The situation on my main body's front is getting tricky. Time to put this 'little rascal' away and return my chakra.
Sasuke lifted a hand, forming a seal.
"Your explosive clone… I've seen through its greatest weakness."
Crackle… crackle-crackle-crackle!!
The clone, on the verge of detonation… suddenly and violently shrank!
Gengetsu stared, stunned. "What? Why… why didn't it explode?!"
To find the answer, he abandoned his hiding place. His true body stepped out into the open.
Sasuke spoke. "My water orbs are indeed almost gone. But you never stopped to wonder… where did all that water go?"
Gengetsu looked at the vapor still hanging thick in the air. "Don't tell me…"
"Your clone and my orbs," Sasuke said, his voice steady. "Both rely on steam explosions. The difference is, your clone can recycle external steam after each blast. But can it tell if the steam it absorbs came from its own explosion… or from mine? It cannot. So inevitably… with each cycle, your clone has been absorbing my water."
Gengetsu pressed, "But the clone's exterior is tightly sealed with oil infused with my chakra! However you twist it, you can't bypass that oil to control my clone!"
"I don't need to control it," Sasuke countered. "I only need to use my 'Ice Release' to lower the temperature of the water inside. To stop you from triggering the explosion."
"Ice Release…?!"
Gengetsu stared at the clone, now fully shrunk to child size, hardened and fallen stiffly to the ground. He finally understood completely. But one point of curiosity remained.
"This Ice Release… was it part of your plan from the start? Or just a lucky break?"
"It was the plan." Sasuke's answer left no room for doubt. "From the beginning, I intended to end this large-scale water explosion battle with Ice Release. Because… all 'infinite' things are relative."
A cold sweat broke out on Gengetsu's brow. "From that giant water whale at the start… you were already planning countermeasures against my ability?"
Sasuke's silence was confirmation enough.
"I have seven water orbs left. Enough to destroy your true body again. And your Boil Release clone… can no longer explode."
Gengetsu looked at the lingering steam. "Even if I made a new one… in the ensuing explosion, it would inevitably inhale the steam in the air. You'd just turn it into a dud again."
"That's about right," Sasuke acknowledged. "Your ability is troublesome. Even for me, subduing it with Water Release alone would have been impossible."
"Ice Release is fundamentally based on Water Release. It's not cheating…" Gengetsu chuckled, then broke into a full laugh. "Hahaha! If someone had studied me this thoroughly while I was alive, I'd have lost sleep over it! But after you die once, your perspective really changes!"
Sasuke gave a slight nod. "I suppose it does."
"Enough…" Gengetsu said, his laughter softening. "This old man has had his fun. I didn't die for nothing!"
He smiled. Cracks began to spread across his reanimated body.
Sasuke watched. "You're leaving?"
"If I stay any longer, I'll just be a nuisance," Gengetsu replied. "So, youngster… was this trial to your satisfaction?"
"You knew it was a trial?"
"You think I'm stupid?" Gengetsu grinned. "If it weren't a trial, who would bother fighting us dead men so seriously? With your chakra reserves, you could have just mindlessly spammed Wood Release, tied us all up, and sealed us away… Oh, right! You'd have to deal with Mū first. If he spams Particle Style without a care, your Wood Release wouldn't get off the ground either! Hahaha! Though, if us old folks teamed up to cover for Mū, you wouldn't have such an easy time! But knowing me, I'd probably slack off just to see that smug bastard Mū get his comeuppance! Ahahahahahahaha!!!"
Listening to this hypothetical battle scenario, Sasuke couldn't help but smile.
"It was a… pleasant trial. You are an interesting person."
"Glad to hear it. People often say that."
Gengetsu's eyes crinkled into happy slits as he sighed. "Ah… If only you were an eyebrowless guy, how perfect that would be…"
Whoosh.
Watching the light ascend into the sky, Sasuke's shadow clone bowed slightly.
On the other two clone battlefields… the fights were also reaching their conclusions.
Mū's body had been annihilated a thousand times by the Earth-Style: Earth Rumbling Wave. He reconstituted from swirling dust and saw the light of Gengetsu's ascension.
"That chatterbox… didn't even say goodbye."
Sasuke's clone, the one manipulating the earth, lowered its hands from its seal.
The lotus sank into the mire. The mire hardened into parched, cracked earth.
Mū observed, "You've expended all the earth energy of this island."
"Energy never disappears," Sasuke's clone stated. "It only transforms, continuing its cycle within nature. I have ways to utilize it further… but that would no longer be Earth Release."
These words, revealing a fundamental truth, gave Mū pause for thought.
"Then… does a ninja's will also never disappear? Does it merely transform into another form of existence?"
His mind drifted back to the moment of his death.
To pass the mantle of Tsuchikage to Ōnoki, he had taught the boy all his techniques.
But when it came to the Will of Stone, passed down through generations of Iwa…
The young Ōnoki had said this: "Lord Mū, the Will of Stone passed down by the First Tsuchikage… was already trampled mercilessly before that stone house, by that man! And you… weren't you the same? Rest now. I will make Iwagakure stand firm in this shinobi world… my way!!"
Mū shook his head, forcefully bringing his thoughts back to the present.
"This is no longer something a dead man like me should concern himself with."
"…And yet, you made me recall such naive memories."
His eyes, hidden beneath bandages, fixed on the young man waiting before him.
"Another Uchiha. Another with overwhelming power. Yet from you… I sense a different depth. Sasuke, was it?"
Crack… crack-crack.
Fissures spread across his bandage-wrapped form.
But before his imminent departure, he took out a scroll and placed it on the ground.
"Consider this… a parting gift. A hope… that you might remember Iwagakure favorably."
…
On the final clone's battlefield, Rasa's body was a broken, battered mess. He watched Sasuke walk calmly through the fading magnetic storm.
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!" Rasa's voice was a raw, choked roar. "Someone as powerful as you… why would you befriend Gaara?! What does he possibly have… that could ever be worthy in your eyes!!!"
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