NOVEL NEXT Chapter 121: 120. Between Worlds
A deafening crack of thunder tore across the night sky as the five shinobi—Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ryusei, and Minato—hurtled upward through a chaotic swirl of crimson clouds. A tempest of dark lightning raged, flickering in and out of swirling vortexes that seemed to connect countless dimensions. The roar of wind stung their faces, but they pressed on, propelled by Space Squad's short-lived dimensional steps, a precious technique that allowed them to leap from one foothold of twisted reality to another. Every breath felt heavier the higher they climbed; the convergence weighed on them, as if the air itself had become a tangible presence resisting their advance.
Below, the battle for the Leaf Village raged on, a symphony of jutsu-laced roars and defiant shouts. Wraithlike monsters clashed with squads that had refined their new powers to an incredible degree. Even from this altitude, glimpses of flickering illusions, gravitational implosions, and time-warped explosions lit the battered streets, as ANBU and specialized squads fought for every inch of ground. Yet the herald's focal point—the swirling rift at the apex of the storm—beckoned overhead. If they could sever the herald's direct link to the monstrous legions, perhaps the unstoppable waves below would falter long enough for the village to find a true advantage.
Naruto's breath came in ragged bursts, but no trace of doubt showed on his whiskered face. Gritting his teeth, he forced Kurama's chakra to mingle with the faint ribbons of time manipulation he'd mastered, creating a stutter in the air around him that let him blink forward in sudden jolts of motion. His eyes locked on the ominous silhouette in the tempest: the herald, drifting effortlessly among arcs of black lightning. In its hands coiled a staff of swirling energies, each pulse reflecting the power it drew from countless dimensions. Naruto remembered how it had conjured armies and hurled catastrophic spells as if testing the Leaf's limit. Now it was time for the Leaf's best to test the herald's.
Sasuke soared at Naruto's side, gravity warping behind each leap thanks to his command of Void. The swirling pattern in his Rinnegan spun, letting him pinpoint fluctuations in the atmosphere where space was weakest. Brief dimensional distortions gave them footholds in midair. Every so often, Sasuke raised his blade, coated in crackling black lightning that carried the weight of gravitational wells. He kept a sharp eye on the herald; in this domain, illusions and time-distortions were as common as shuriken. One slip could send them tumbling into a sub-reality from which they might never return. They had to stay alert.
Sakura followed close, utilizing ephemeral bursts of Light to push off invisible platforms, her fists still humming with residual Chrono Essence. This synergy let her dash skyward in short arcs, bursts of brilliance acting almost like reverse gravity. Her eyes constantly scanned for hidden shapes or illusions that might strike them from above. Though her chest burned and her chakra reserves dipped dangerously, she clung to the fierce determination she had found in the Eternal Battlefield. If they dismantled the herald's power source, the devastation below might finally relent.
Minato navigated with calm precision, flickering in and out of short-range teleports marked by luminous seals. Though he radiated the quiet authority of a Hokage, the lines of fatigue creased his face. Spatial folds twisted around his feet at each leap, ensuring he kept pace with the younger shinobi. His mind churned with a plan to seal the herald's dimensional link if they could force it into a stable confrontation. He muttered instructions under his breath, forming advanced seals that glowed faintly in the wild storm.
Ryusei, Master of Time and Void, orchestrated the microseconds of their progress. Whenever a swirling vortex threatened to devour them, he froze its motion, letting them slip past. If any illusions wove themselves out of the storm, he unspooled them with deft folds of space-time. The toll on him was evident in the strain around his eyes and the shake in his limbs, yet his aura never faltered. He soared near Minato, exchanging silent glances of strategy. At last, they neared the swirling epicenter where the herald hovered in regal menace, black thunder crackling around it like a living crown.
The herald's laughter reverberated across the howling wind, cutting to the bone. "So you climb higher, Leaf warriors, determined to challenge a power that spans worlds. How quaint. You've managed to hold off my minions, but you've seen only a fraction of the convergence's infinite reach. This domain is mine—I need only will it, and the storm itself shall crush you."
Naruto formed a giant Rasengan, layering it with a pale shimmer of reversed time. "Big talk for a creep who keeps failing to overrun our village," he fired back. His grin was forced but unwavering. "Let's see how tough you are without your legion of monsters to hide behind."
The herald's staff glowed with a malevolent radiance, arcs of chaos flickering around its tip. "I hide from no one. The legions served only to test your strengths. You've proven entertaining, but your defiance ends now."
Minato teleported between the herald and Naruto, sealing patterns swirling around his palms. He hurled a volley of specialized kunai that formed an intricate star of dimensional anchors in midair. The herald sneered, swatting them aside with a wave of crackling black lightning, but Minato's gaze shifted to Ryusei, who nodded in silent acknowledgement. The purpose was never to damage, but to gather data on the herald's dimensional presence.
Sasuke lunged from the side, harnessing Void folds to bridge the gap in a single blink. His Chidori flared with gravitational force, slicing across the herald's flank in a silent blur. The herald jerked its staff downward, conjuring a barrier of twisted shadows that deflected the blow, black sparks erupting at contact. A wave of negative energy lashed out from the staff, buffeting Sasuke backward. He twisted midair, flipping onto a swirling platform of compressed space, eyes blazing with defiance.
Sakura launched herself next, fists blazing with Light illusions. She feinted high, only to vanish in a corona of brilliance that disguised her true trajectory. In the blink of an eye, she reappeared behind the herald, driving a radiant punch at its spine. The herald roared, dispersing into living shadow for an instant, letting the blow carve through empty space. Then it re-formed a few feet away, staff raised to strike. Before it could unleash a bolt of lethal black lightning, an unexpected swirl of illusions coiled around it—Anon's hidden artistry. Tendrils of shadow illusions webbed across the herald's sightline, creating duplicate forms of Sakura to confuse its retaliation.
Ryusei seized that moment, summoning an orb of intense time-warp energy in his hand. He propelled it straight at the herald, each ripple warping the air as it flew. The herald hissed, staff spinning to deflect the orb, but time twisted unpredictably at the last second, letting the orb phase partly through its defenses. A burst of local time distortion hammered the herald's chest, forcing a strangled cry from its lips as partial stasis took hold.
The five shinobi pressed the advantage. Naruto soared overhead, forging an immense Rasenshuriken that crackled with Time folds. Sasuke zeroed in from the flank, Chidori swirling with cosmic arcs of lightning. Sakura readied a punishing blow infused with illusions of blazing starlight, while Minato angled to lock the herald in a dimensional seal. Anon's illusions layered thickly, binding the herald's staff in ephemeral shadow tendrils. For a breathless instant, it seemed they had pinned their foe.
But the herald's eyes flared crimson, a shockwave of black thunder exploding from its core. The binds of illusion and time shattered, forcing the shinobi to break formation or risk annihilation. Naruto's Rasenshuriken fizzled prematurely as he swerved aside, clutching his chest at the sudden jolt of backlash. Sasuke nearly lost his footing on the ephemeral platform, gravitational fields wavering. Sakura's illusions dispersed in a cascade of sparks. Minato's half-cast seal flickered out, undone by the violent surge. Anon skidded back through the sky, illusions fracturing around him like shards of glass.
The herald burst free, staff radiating lethal arcs that danced across the swirling red sky. "Impertinent gnats," it snarled. "You truly think yourselves capable of destroying the will of the convergence? You amuse me. Now perish!"
Raising its staff high, the herald channeled a confluence of every malevolent force swirling in the thunderheads. The storm flared brighter, lightning coalescing into a sphere of seething darkness overhead. The raw cosmic power threatened to smother every sense—like a star of annihilation forming right in front of them. Minato blinked sweat from his eyes; it took all his will not to recoil at the wave of pure dread exuding from that sphere.
Naruto forced a grin through clenched teeth, forging an even bigger Rasengan that quivered with reversed time around its edges. "We're not done yet," he growled. "Sasuke, Sakura—let's tear this thing apart."
Sasuke steadied himself, eyes fierce. "Right."
Sakura inhaled a trembling breath, fists glowing with illusions of radiant force. "We only need one window…"
Anon re-formed illusions across the herald's vantage, while Ryusei prepared to fold time at the crucial second. They locked eyes, a silent vow passing between them. If this was the apex of the herald's power, they would meet it with the synergy they had forged, no matter the risk.
With a roar that shook the air, the herald hurled its apocalyptic orb downward. The five defenders launched themselves forward, each unleashing the pinnacle of their skills in a single, orchestrated strike. Their energies converged midair, a brilliant swirl of Rasengan, Chidori, illusions, time folds, and gravitational force fused into a singular unstoppable blow. Darkness and brilliance clashed in that battered sky, the shockwave luminous enough to light the entire village for an instant as it tore through illusions and space alike.
The night roared with cataclysmic fury. For a moment, all was chaos—blinding light, deafening thunder, the taste of ozone mixed with the stale tang of dread. The silhouette of the herald twisted and convulsed, staff raised to shield itself. As the light faded, the five hovered, panting, battered, and uncertain if their best had been enough to shatter the herald's stranglehold on the storm. Far below, the battle raged on, but countless shinobi glanced upward in wonder and hope, glimpsing the final blow.
When the glare receded, the herald still loomed, sporting cracks across its shadowy form where the combined strike landed. It gasped in a snarling fury, hatred blazing from those red eyes. But it had not fallen. Where those cracks formed, black fire seeped out, new storms swirling around it. The herald hissed words that resonated through every dimension. "You… dare wound me? Then face the convergence's wrath beyond mortal comprehension."
Naruto cursed under his breath, veins of exhaustion throbbing in his arms, yet no flicker of submission marred his gaze. He could still fight, they all could. This was not over. They would stand for as long as it took—even if the night refused to end.