Chapter 96: Battle of Rivals
Sasuke hovered in the air, his ugly, webbed wings spread wide.
In his left hand, the black, distorted chakra continued to hum—the "Flapping Chidori" he had prepared a moment ago. The sound of the technique resembled the moan of dying birds.
The Uchiha forcibly pushed away thoughts of encroaching fear. Right now, he felt omnipotent. The wind obeyed him, the destructive power in his hand demanded release, and the world below seemed small and insignificant. Especially that red clot on the water.
"Look at me!" he roared, his voice distorting more and more, becoming like grinding metal. "I am above you! I am above Konoha! I am above everyone!"
He folded his wings and plummeted like a stone, extending his arm with the black lightning forward.
Diving attack.
He intended to pierce Naruto through along with his defense, pin him to the lake bottom, and tear him to pieces.
The Jinchūriki stood on the surface. The water beneath his feet boiled and evaporated from the heat of the Cloak, forming a vortex.
He saw the approaching gray comet with the black tip of lightning.
His eyes—scarlet, with a vertical pupil, but completely rational—narrowed.
You're not above, Sasuke. You just got off the ground.
The mutant was already ten meters away. The lightning in his hand roared, anticipating flesh.
Naruto didn't dodge, block with his arms, or jump away.
He simply concentrated.
From behind his back, like living whips, two tails of red chakra shot out.
They moved faster than the eye could follow, and faster than the Uchiha flew.
GRAB.
One tail wrapped around Sasuke's left ankle. The second intercepted the wrist with the Chidori, rigidly fixing the hand away from Naruto's body.
The jerk in the air was so sharp that Sasuke's inertia was killed instantly, and bones crunched.
The technique still hummed in his hand, but he hung a meter from Naruto's face, caught like a fly in a web. Helpless, despite his "omnipotence."
He met the Uzumaki's gaze.
In the Jinchūriki's eyes, there was no fear of the black lightning. There was cold, adult rage.
"Wings won't help you," Naruto growled in a dual voice, looking at the uselessly sparking technique in the enemy's hand, "if you don't know how to fly."
Naruto abruptly lowered his hands. The tails mimicked the movement.
They slammed Sasuke into the cliff at the foot of the waterfall with a swing.
KA-BOOM!
The stone exploded. The Uchiha punched through the rock, going meters deep.
Concentration was broken, and the Chidori dissipated with a pathetic hiss. A wing snapped with a dry crack.
Naruto released him. The tails retracted back into the aura.
Sasuke crawled out of the crater. Regeneration, boosted by the Seal, was already knitting bones, but his pride was wounded more than his body. His strongest attack was stopped like a child's toy.
He was breathing heavily, spitting gray saliva.
"Why?.." he hissed, looking up at Naruto. "I gave everything! Accepted the curse! I attacked with full force! Why do you still look down on me?!"
The Uzumaki stood in place, surrounded by red haze.
"Sasuke," his voice was quiet but carried over the roar of the waterfall. "You didn't become stronger. You just became uglier. Think this power belongs to you? No. As long as you rely on it, you will always be under Orochimaru's control."
"SHUT UP!"
The Uchiha soared into the air, ignoring the discomfort in his broken wing.
His mind finally went dark. The strongest hit didn't work. So, more power is needed. Enough chakra to vaporize everything around.
He raised his left hand.
Dark chakra began to concentrate in his palm anew. Even thicker, even blacker.
"Flapping Chidori..." Sasuke exhaled, putting the last reserves of life and seal power into the technique. "I WILL DESTROY YOU! AND ALL YOUR PAST!"
Naruto realized: just throwing him against rocks was useless. His regeneration and madness would force him to get up again and again. Normal attacks wouldn't get through to him now.
A technique was needed that would surpass his peak.
He formed a cross seal and extended his right hand forward.
A Hybrid Clone formed next to him. It was dense, reinforced from the inside by a Qi structure.
The Clone placed his hands on the original's palm.
Rotation. Power. Density.
Blue chakra mixed with the Fox's red chakra and the white Qi structure.
A purple star lit up in Naruto's hand. It hummed like a turbine.
Hybrid Rasengan.
The Clone vanished.
The Jinchūriki crouched, tensing his legs to the max.
Sasuke dived down, using his wings and Cursed Seal Chakra for acceleration.
Naruto pushed off the water, using an explosion of Chakra and Qi mixture.
They rushed toward each other.
Two comets—black and purple.
Against the backdrop of the giant statues of the Founders, frozen in eternal confrontation.
"DIEEEEE!!!" Sasuke screamed. In this scream were pain, hatred, and an unspoken plea to stop him. "NARUTOOOO!!!"
The blonde saw his distorted face.
His own face twisted from tension and the restrained rage of an older brother watching the younger reach for the socket again and again.
"WAKE UP ALREADY, IDIOT!!!"
Impact.
Chidori met Rasengan.
Black lightning tried to pierce the sphere.
But Naruto's Rasengan wasn't just rotation. It was a structure. Dense, heavy Qi holding the form acted like a millstone.
The sphere didn't detonate. It began to grind the lightning.
The technique's rotation killed Sasuke's inertia. The mixture of energies burned away the darkness of the Seal.
"Argh!.." Sasuke's eyes widened.
He felt his strongest technique crumbling. His arm began to bend backward.
Naruto didn't stop.
He leaned forward, pushing the attack.
He extinguished the Chidori and struck Sasuke straight in the chest.
At the last moment, a fraction of a second before contact, he dispelled the technique, allowing the residual unstable energy of the dissipating Rasengan to throw the Uchiha back.
Shockwave.
FLASH.
The Valley of the End drowned in white light. The water in the lake evaporated instantly, exposing the bottom. The cliffs trembled.
***
When the light faded and the steam began to dissipate, silence fell.
Only the sound of the river returning to its bed disturbed the peace.
On the shore, at the foot of Madara's statue, lay Sasuke.
He was human.
The gray skin was gone. The wings crumbled to ash. The ugly growths retracted back into the mark on his neck.
He lay on his back, arms spread wide. His skin was covered in burns from the impact, but his heart continued to beat.
He looked at the sky with an empty, glazed stare. The Sharingan had gone out.
He couldn't move. His chakra was completely drained.
Nearby stood Naruto.
The Kyūbi cloak had retracted.
He was breathing heavily, hands on his knees. His black jacket was torn in places; the Chunin vest was scorched. Blood dripped from the fingers of his right hand.
But he stood.
Naruto straightened up and looked at his defeated friend.
There was no victor's triumph in his gaze. No joy. Only the heavy fatigue of a man who had just performed the hardest job of his life.
He took a step toward Sasuke. Sasuke twitched, trying to crawl away, but his body didn't obey.
Naruto stopped over him.
"Hope you'll listen now," he said quietly.
Sasuke closed his eyes.
He lost. Again.
And this time, there were no excuses left. Even with cursed power, he turned out to be weaker.
***
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