Chapter 193: Sage Fox Mode, Night Guy (Patreon)

Ayato Manor.

The custom double-layered soundproof floor-to-ceiling windows shut out every bit of the noisy sirens and the rumbling pressure of the air outside. Inside, the climate control sent out gentle, warm air.

Uchiha Ayato, fully dressed, stood before the window with a flawless crystal goblet in his hand. The glass held freshly opened, ice-cold Sprite, and carbonated bubbles raced merrily up the wall of the glass, scattering fine glints of light in the slanting afternoon sun.

Pinching the stem, the boy gave the soda a gentle swirl with the air of a connoisseur sampling a famous estate's vintage, his gaze drifting toward Zojo-ji Temple in the distance.

In the living room behind him, there wasn't a trace of tension over the coming battle. Nearly everyone was busy with whatever was in front of them, and no one treated the oppressive, storm-is-coming feeling outside the window as a big deal. In this house, even if the sky fell, the lady of the house wouldn't need to worry about it.

Togawa Sakiko, Uika Misumi and Wakaba Mutsumi sat around the coffee table, several annotated proposals and sheets of music spread out before them. Sumita Mana sat cross-legged on a cushion on the other side, guarding a freshly opened box of donuts and picking out her afternoon tea with total concentration.

Only Anon Chihaya still seemed not quite used to all this. She walked to the window and peered down along the glass for a while.

The traffic lights at several intersections had gone dead, and screeching brakes and panicked pedestrians had tied the whole main road into a tangled mess. Watching the ordinary citizens scrambling to flee below, Anon Chihaya couldn't bring herself to just stand by. She turned to the boy beside her, who was still unhurriedly swirling his Sprite, and said:

"Ayarin, the streets are already a mess. Aren't you going to make a move yet?"

Uchiha Ayato took a sip from the goblet and let the fine bubbles pop on his tongue. Then, meeting Anon Chihaya's urging gaze, he shook his head.

"No rush. We're nowhere near that point yet."

"A bunch of old friends reunited after a long separation are catching up on the rooftop right now. Barging in and interrupting their chat would be seriously tacky."

He jerked a finger toward Zojo-ji, a leisurely smile on his face as if he were watching a play.

"I have to give Kakashi and Itachi plenty of time to explain my intel to them in full. Once they've finished trading information and prepared to fight me, it won't be too late for me to go over and make my grand entrance."

Anon Chihaya pouted helplessly.

Just then, Sumita Mana, who had been sitting on her cushion, trotted over. Holding half a donut covered in strawberry icing and colorful sprinkles, she lifted it naturally to Uchiha Ayato's mouth and fed him the treat with a beaming smile.

While feeding him, Mana followed his gaze to the gloomy patch of sky in the distance and felt that presence pressing down until the whole city could barely breathe. The incoming enemy was extremely heavy-weight. Never mind anything else, the sheer, almost endless amount of Chakra alone was enough to make one's heart pound.

Mana tilted her face up and asked softly, curious:

"The aura coming from over there is really terrifying. It's the strongest I've ever felt in my life."

"Does Ayato feel nervous about fighting an enemy like that?"

The soft dough mixed with the rich strawberry icing melted between his lips and teeth, so sweet it was almost cloying. Chewing the pastry, Uchiha Ayato slung an arm around Sumita Mana's shoulders and answered indistinctly:

"Nervous?"

"Only people afraid of losing get nervous. People who want to win just get excited."

After swallowing the sweet in his mouth, Uchiha Ayato raised the goblet and took another sip of Sprite to smooth his throat.

At the same time, Togawa Sakiko at the coffee table put down the marker she'd been using to mark up the schedule. She, Uika and Mutsumi had been discussing Ave Mujica's next steps after the debut show, but having noticed the conversation by the window, the three of them stopped at the same moment and looked over together.

Uika Misumi, new lyrics in hand, flashed the boy at the window a bright smile. Wakaba Mutsumi tilted her head at Uchiha Ayato, then raised a little fist and gave him a "go for it" gesture.

Togawa Sakiko straightened her back and said:

"A word like 'nervous' has nothing to do with you, Ayato, of course."

"Uika, Mutsumi and I, all of us firmly believe you'll win."

"It's just…"

Her tone shifted, and a bit of real exasperation and concern showed between her brows:

"Since victory is practically in your hands, could you pull the battlefield a little farther away this time?"

"The last two times you fought near Tokyo Tower, every time we watched the commotion erupt outside the window from home, everyone was on edge."

"We worried something might happen to you, and we were afraid the aftershocks would spiral out of control and hit the house."

The moment Togawa Sakiko finished, Uika Misumi and Wakaba Mutsumi beside her nodded in deep agreement. Seeing this, Uchiha Ayato laughed in spite of himself.

"All right, all right, I get it."

He shook his head and went on:

"Actually, I didn't need a reminder this time. I was already planning to move the battlefield farther away."

"After all, today's guest is far more destructive than the previous two. If I really cut loose in the middle of the city, I'd have some guilt about it."

Then Uchiha Ayato split off a thread of consciousness and sank it into the sealed space within his body.

Inside the sealed space, a petite, fox-eared girl sat cross-legged in midair, her nine fluffy fox tails spread and swaying like the petals of a blooming lotus. A vast amount of natural energy was pouring steadily through the barrier between inside and outside into her small body, plating her all over with a dazzling golden glow.

Uchiha Ayato strolled up in front of her and asked with a grin:

"How's it going, Kurama?"

"You must have sensed that guy outside too. Are you ready to take on the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki head-on?"

Hearing that, Nine-Tails opened her eyes at once. Excitement was plain on her delicate, childish face, and even her fox ears twitched with enthusiasm. She hopped lightly down from midair, her tails whipping through the air behind her, planted her hands on her hips and huffed at Uchiha Ayato:

"Dumb question!"

"I've been ready for ages. You're the one who's been dawdling out there like an old woman!"

From the moment she sensed the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki arriving, Nine-Tails had been drawing the natural energy out of the surrounding environment for Uchiha Ayato, never stopping for an instant. By now, every scrap of natural energy within a hundred miles had been absorbed and refined by Nine-Tails.

She thrust her right fist toward Uchiha Ayato, showing her sharp little fangs, brimming with eagerness:

"There's plenty of natural energy. Go all out, Ayato."

"Go beat that pretentious Ten-Tails' jinchuriki black and blue, and make him serve as honest fertilizer for that tree in the sea!"

The Ten-Tails' jinchuriki getting spun around like a top by the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. Just picturing the scene made Nine-Tails's heart race. It was something she could brag about for the rest of her life.

Kurama: "Ten-Tails, you really are strong, but I have to tell you… Sometimes, choice truly does matter more than effort."

Meanwhile, feeling the vast Senjutsu Chakra inside him, Uchiha Ayato's blood boiled right along with it. He bumped his fist hard against Nine-Tails's tiny one and laughed out loud:

"Of course."

"Let's show those guys our blood-boiling combo!"

Elsewhere, Uchiha Ayato also noticed that the conversation among his fellow natives of the shinobi world had stopped, and the deep, abyssal Chakra within Uchiha Obito had suddenly gathered and locked onto the direction where he stood. Clearly, the pre-battle intel Exchange Event over there had more or less come to an end, and that former hidden mastermind of the shinobi world had steeled himself for a fight to the death.

Uchiha Ayato gazed at the distant horizon. His lazy air quietly drew in, and a biting fighting spirit rose through his limbs and bones. Looking down at the last bit of soda at the bottom of his glass, he murmured softly to himself:

"I handed you all that intel for nothing. If you can't satisfy me when you dance in a moment, I'm going to be very disappointed."

Uchiha Ayato tilted his head back and drained the rest of the Sprite in one gulp. Then, quite casually, he passed the empty glass to Anon Chihaya beside him.

Under the girls' gaze, Uchiha Ayato brushed aside the hair hanging over his forehead and said with dashing nonchalance:

"The time has come."

"From here on, I'll be the biting autumn wind that sweeps away every withered branch and dead leaf that was meant to wither anyway."

Hearing this declaration of departure, Anon Chihaya puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and shot back:

"Honestly, all you know how to do is show off."

"Fine, fine, we know you're amazing, but don't get carried away when you go out to fight, okay?"

"Go and come back quickly. Everyone's waiting for you to get home so we can have dinner together."

Uchiha Ayato smiled at Anon Chihaya and the others and replied offhandedly:

"Don't worry. It's just a few fallen leaves to clean up. It won't take that long."

The moment he finished speaking, a ring of swirling distortion appeared around him. The vortex swallowed him in an instant, and the boy's figure vanished from the living room.

…………

"Whether it was the Nine-Tails Attack or the night the clan was wiped out, I never intended to dodge accountability for the wrongs I committed myself…"

"I'll be the one to stop Uchiha Ayato!"

Uchiha Obito's resounding words rolled along the ridge of the roof and were soon scattered by the autumn wind.

Hearing them, the tight line of Uchiha Itachi's jaw eased a little. During the years of scheming and deceit with this masked man who called himself "Madara," he had grown used to the other's cold way of toying with others' fates from the shadows. He had never imagined that one day he would hear such words, willingly taking sin upon himself, from that man's mouth. For a moment, a faint look of relief even flickered in Uchiha Itachi's eyes.

Compared to Uchiha Itachi's restraint, Hatake Kakashi's reaction was far more direct. He stared fixedly at Uchiha Obito, lost in a daze.

Obito, you idiot…

That passionate boy who had once entrusted his Sharingan and goggles to him had, in the end, come back through the long darkness. Kakashi let out a soft breath and walked over to stand beside Uchiha Obito. He sized up the Truth-Seeking Balls orbiting Obito and said abruptly:

"Obito, your Truth-Seeking Balls are in the way."

Hearing that, Uchiha Obito froze for a moment, then turned to look at his old best friend standing right beside him. The next second he understood what Kakashi meant, and he gave his old friend a wide smile.

With a flicker of thought from Uchiha Obito, the Truth-Seeking Balls, which had been arranged in a formation to meet the enemy, immediately spread apart to either side, leaving his back and shoulders exposed, completely open.

Seeing this, Hatake Kakashi raised a hand and clapped it solidly on Obito's shoulder:

"I'm counting on you, Obito. Don't die on me."

Uchiha Itachi, standing a little farther off, looked at Obito as well and nodded:

"Good luck."

Uchiha Obito threw his head back and laughed, gripped the black staff in his hand and called out:

"Bring it on!"

The next instant, all three whipped their heads in the same direction.

Several kilometers away, a dazzling mass of deep crimson light suddenly blazed up from the top of a skyscraper. A colossal amount of Chakra boiled upward, and the seething blood-red steam shot straight into the clouds, dyeing more than half the sky a shocking red in the blink of an eye. The clouds churned violently under the Chakra's crushing weight and hung heavy over the city's towers.

Even across several kilometers, the scorching, savage wave of air had already hit them head-on, burning their cheeks painfully. The smile vanished from Uchiha Obito's face at once, and he took up a guarded stance as if facing a mortal foe:

"Looks like Uchiha Ayato has prepared quite a stunning greeting gift for me."

Eyes fixed on the red light that kept swelling, he barked at the two beside him:

"Kakashi, Itachi, get away from here right now! If you stay close you'll be caught in the coming attack!"

Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi both knew very well the state their bodies were in, and staying at the center of the clash would only distract Obito. Without a word, they simultaneously gathered the little Chakra they had just recovered, leapt off the eaves and sped toward the flank districts, away from the battle's axis.

Once their presences had faded into the distance, Uchiha Obito stood alone on the roof ridge in the howling wind and thrust his left hand forward. The nine Truth-Seeking Balls around him instantly gathered and stretched, fusing into one enormous, pitch-black shield before him.

Uchiha Obito lowered his center of gravity, his gaze piercing the roiling, distorted air toward the source of that crimson light. On the edge of that skyscraper's roof, a tall figure stood at the very heart of the energy storm.

From every pore the figure spewed blood-red steam and brilliant golden Nine-Tails Chakra. The two energies fused violently on his body, rising into a blazing flame of red and orange. The boy's black hair thrashed wildly in the sky-high gale, deep black Tomoe patterns floated across his radiant golden cloak, and the reinforced-concrete rooftop beneath his feet had long since crumbled bit by bit under the pressure of his presence alone.

Through the scorching, dazzling red steam and the golden Tailed Beast cloak, Uchiha Obito's gaze met, across the distance, the intricately patterned Mangekyou Sharingan at the heart of the storm. On top of that, a ring of eye shadow marking Sage Mode tinted the boy's eyelids, a divine, vertical-pupil-like mark sat between his brows, and two small horns grew at his hairline…

With just that one look across the distance, Uchiha Obito's heart sank sharply. That was Senjutsu Chakra. The worst-case scenario Kakashi had mentioned had, in the end, become reality.

But what actually struck Uchiha Obito as most absurd and horrifying was the red steam. The instant he saw the blood-red steam, he realized what it meant.

That was the ultimate secret of the taijutsu Eight Gates Released Formation: the Eighth Gate, the Gate of Death. The Gate of Death was a brief blaze of brilliance bought by fully lifting the limits on one's Chakra and forcibly burning all of one's life force. The moment the steam burst out, the user's vitality began to dry up rapidly, marching toward irreversible death. During the Great Ninja War, Might Guy had used this very technique to gravely wound Madara, who had likewise become a Ten-Tails' jinchuriki. If Naruto hadn't arrived in time afterward, Guy would have been a dead man.

Precisely because he knew all this, Uchiha Obito found Uchiha Ayato all the more unreasonable. By Obito's senses, Uchiha Ayato was clearly in the extreme state of the Gate of Death fully open, yet the life force within him, which should have been burning away fast, hadn't decreased in the slightest. Some strange Chakra was ceaselessly flushing and remaking every meridian in his body, keeping that flame of life blazing like the sun.

Uchiha Obito snuffed out any hope of getting lucky. Crouching behind the Truth-Seeking Balls shield, he drew a deep breath and sent his voice rolling far and wide through his Chakra:

"Come on!"

"If you want to take my life, let me see whether you have the caliber to match!"

The instant the signal for battle was received, the skyscraper several kilometers away collapsed with a roar. Uchiha Ayato had moved.

He stamped his right foot on the edge of the roof, and the steel frame of the entire building let out a twisted wail. The boy's figure leapt up from the cracking rooftop, his feet treading on the air one step after another, and he turned into a red-gold streak of light tearing across the sky, closing in on Uchiha Obito at blistering speed.

Uchiha Obito heard no sonic boom, because Uchiha Ayato's speed had already far surpassed the speed of sound. At that moment, all that remained in Uchiha Obito's vision was a rapidly enlarging smear of red-orange aurora.

Under that limit-shattering, ultra-high-speed charge, the blood-red vapor and Nine-Tails golden glow steaming off Uchiha Ayato's body were violently compressed, condensing into a roaring, furious dragon that blotted out the sky.

"Night Guy!"

The dragon raised its head and opened its maw, the space along its path warping beneath that power and speed, and a thunderous silence drowned out every sound in the world. Uchiha Obito had only enough time to pour Chakra into both arms before the furious dragon, along with Uchiha Ayato's right leg wrapped in Senjutsu, slammed head-on into the center of the Truth-Seeking Balls shield.

Against a flying kick that fused the ultimate power of Senjutsu and the Gate of Death, the Truth-Seeking Balls, said to be able to annihilate every ninjutsu, were as fragile as paper. With a crisp crack, the great shield formed by the fused orbs was instantly covered in fissures, and in the next moment it exploded to pieces in a sky full of blazing light.

The right foot that had shattered the Truth-Seeking Balls lost none of its momentum and pressed heavily into Uchiha Obito's left chest. The destructive kinetic force detonated. Obito's left chest and half his torso collapsed and pulverized on the spot, and he became a cannonball, driven by the furious dragon toward Tokyo Bay.

Everywhere the red dragon passed was leveled flat, and a straight trench was plowed through the earth all the way to the bay. With a sound that shook sea and sky, that one kick sent Uchiha Obito from Minato Ward straight into the waters near the roots of the Divine Tree, and he sank to the seabed, his fate unknown.

The seawater split by that colossal force had not yet closed when Uchiha Ayato's figure passed through the sky of spray and landed lightly on the churning surface. With a slight shift of thought, the boiling red Gate of Death steam around him quickly withdrew into his body, leaving only the Nine-Tails Chakra cloak flowing with golden light.

Standing on the water, he turned his wrists and loosened up a body that was only slightly sore. Then Uchiha Ayato looked down at the spot where Uchiha Obito had sunk and said, uninterested:

"So the so-called Ten-Tails' jinchuriki is only this much power?"

"Looks like once the Divine Tree bears fruit, I'll be able to handle it easily too."

The words had barely left his mouth when the sea beneath his feet burst into a column of water. A pitch-black divine blade, twisted in a double helix, broke the surface and thrust at Uchiha Ayato's heart. Uchiha Ayato didn't step back. With just a slight turn of his body, he nimbly slipped past the edge.

As the water churned, Uchiha Obito reappeared on the surface. He gripped the Ame no Nuboko in one hand, and the left half of his pale body, the half that had been kicked to ruin, was still giving off white smoke, not yet repaired. Gasping for breath, he said:

"I almost got kicked to death, you bastard!"

At the sight, a bit of interest lit up in Uchiha Ayato's eyes again. With a low hum, an eight-pointed divine wheel slowly took shape above his head. Looking at his battered opponent, Uchiha Ayato said happily:

"Not bad. Looks like you're a sandbag that can take a beating."

"Dance hard and keep trying to amuse me, Uchiha Obito."

Uchiha Obito: "?"

————

[Author's Note: PS: Ah, it's the start of the month, so you know what I mean, kids. Now I'm off to watch Miss Bin and Broom. With those two, the winner gets to enjoy it, and the loser has it good too.]

[Author's Note: A quick plug for another book. Synopsis: An accident brings Angel to Night City in 2077, the worst region in all of America. Plenty of shoes, a terrifyingly high crime rate, and a population below the poverty line that ranks first in the country…]

[Author's Note: The city is shockingly rotten, and ordinary people simply can't survive here. Angel is even the cream of the crop among the unlucky: his parents dropped dead, and the moment he landed he was grabbed by kidney harvesters.]

[Author's Note: Fortunately, heaven never seals off every path. He brought along the game system from his previous life, and it's even an enhanced version loaded with all sorts of 'justice' mods. Detachable cyberware, nearly unlimited cyberware capacity and slots, an inventory with no weight limit, cyberware that can be recovered from corpses, and even a death-and-respawn function. Angel could only reluctantly refrain from eating beef.]

[Author's Note: He will kill off all the scum in this city and let the invisible hand of capital feel what a very visible military boot is. Biotechnica, you're the challenger. Militech, you're holding your head too high. Arasaka, I probably won't forget you for the rest of my life.]

[Author's Note: Standing atop a mountain of piled-up corpses, Angel looks down on all living things.]

"Above the heavens and below them, I alone am the honored one."