The Story of Shinobi: War of Heavenly Beings

A scarred valley stretched out before the aging member of the Uchiha Clan. Ryun Uchiha had laid eyes on this valley many times since his youth, it being the site of his first battle with his eternal rival decades prior. This location had been used by by the two warring men many times as a site for their earth-splitting feuds, and the results reflected on the land. The Land of Mountains is wrought with ravines and mountainous river chasms, but the scars present in the valley before Ryun Uchiha now told a much different story. A story of a rivalry well beyond the realms of the average shinobi. Leaping down from the overlooking cliff, the senior Uchiha landed gracefully just outside the tree line, the wind casually gusting over his exposed skin.

There was a nip in the wind.

And it wasn't winter that caused it.

Sharingan eyes flicked to the left, alerted to a sudden flare of chakra somewhere in the distance. He was here. After seeing his old friend's clone during the previous battle with that fool Sigma, Ryun had finally decided to do what he had long desired. To invite his old rival to one final dance. One final battle to tear asunder this valley and decide which of them was truly the strongest shinobi alive. The Uchiha's blood stirred at the prospect, calling out to him for battle and bloodshed. This day he would have both.

"Come now, Hyūga..."

Seireitou Hyūga had often made rather ostentatious entrances onto the battlefield, but instead, this time he was opting for a more quiet route. He slowly took his steps across the treacherous ravines of this scarred valley, as he was making his way to confront his lifelong rival: Ryun Uchiha. During his walk, his thoughts drifted to the various times he had encountered Ryun in combat. They were as good friends as they were fierce rivals, and this is a story spanning over decades.

---

The first of many...

''Seireitou drew forth the katana he wore at his hip. "It'll be an honor to fight you, Ryun." Seireitou said''

''"And you..." Ryun said activating his Sharingan and shooting a large fireball at Seireitou.''

There was one time in particular as well...

''Seireitou stood his ground, and stared back at Ryun, "I thought it was painfully obvious. The time for talk... is over." he declared, as he stabbed the ground as his dōjutsu came into sight. The blade became overcome with white flames, as they spread through the ground at Ryun.''

''Ryun skidded back and then surprisingly, allowed the flames to overcome him, allowing only his eyes to show, "If that is how you feel... if this battle is nothing but a game to you, then perhaps it's time for the Nine-Tails to used for a better cause. You're so arrogant!" he shouted as the flames then finished consuming Ryun.''

Then that time...

''The wind soon picked up, blowing Seireitou's long silver hair in the moonlight air. He turned to meet Ryun's eyes, "Ryun." he meerly stated''

''Ryun returned his stare pondering many things, "Hmmm... so this is the one that'll finally end it all huh?" Ryun said to himself. He broke Sei's gaze to look up at the full moon and the clouds gathering in the sky. Thunder could be heard in the distance. Ryun folded his arms and leaned against a tree, closing his eyes, "Seireitou."''

That time too...

''"Hey Ryun." came the voice of Seireitou, "It's been awhile. I hope you've trained, as my abilities have gone through the roof. You might die if you're not careful, my friend."''

Ryun made a gesture with his hand, signaling the use of a technique, as he then he gestured at Seireitou, "Lets begin."

And of course, that time as well...

''"That Byakugan... how much can you actually see, Seireitou?" came the voice of the Uchiha, Ryun.''

''The silver-haired man looked on with a small smile at his old friend. Despite this friendly facial expression, the air was tense with both of their chakra. After Ryun's question, a small silence existed between the two chums, as one's Byakugan and the other's Sharingan were staring at one another. No, not at one another. Rather, they were staring into the souls of eachother; reading their thoughts, reading their pasts, reading their hearts... all from a single gaze. That was the bond these two had developed, after all. Seireitou then narrowed his eyes comically, and answered.''

"Not a damn thing."

Everything up until this point had prepared them for what was to come. They had both reached the precipice of power and stood taller than any shinobi that had come before or after them. They were in a league all their own; true gods in their own right. The time had finally arrived once more... for these two behemoths of the war arts to finally compete once again.

Seireitou finally arrived to the cliff where he spotted Ryun, his Sharingan eyes intense as ever before, which prompted the silver-haired Hokage to respond with a smile. "So here we are... once again, my old friend."

---

"So it would seem." the senior Uchiha replied casually.

The sudden arrival of the silver-haired man caused Ryun's chakra to go absolutely ballistic. The chakra of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki clinging to him reacts almost violently to the chakra of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki within Seireitou. For decades, the man had wondered why his chakra always excited itself in the presence of his rival's. Now he had wisdom. He had clarity. As if in response to this natural animosity between chakras, Ryun's Sharingan swiveled into his crimson Rinnegan, training itself on the man above him. With the dōjutsu active, he could now see the source of his excitement. A powerful violet aura flares around Seireitou, no doubt the very chakra of Kaguya herself. The challenge this chakra presented him excited the experienced Uchiha.

"Our battle has finally come full circle." Ryun declared. "Now I'll ask you again, for old time's sake... That Byakugan... how much can you actually see, Seireitou?"

It Begins, Again
Once the Uchiha's eyes lit up to the Rinnegan, almost as if in natural response to the action, Seireitou's own Byakugan presented itself with a thunderous roar of chakra. A powerful aura of intense energy surrounded the silver-haired man and took the form of a rabbit's head; albeit transparent enough that his physical features were not lost to sight. And just as suddenly as it flickered forth, the aura disappeared; retreating back within its master so as to prepare for the fight ahead.

"I suppose... you'll have to beat the answer out of me. If you can, my dear friend." the silver-haired man mused in response, raising a single arm up as he formed the seal of confrontation. "Just like the very first time we fought one another at the academy. Let us begin this fight, Uchiha Ryun!" he bellowed.

The mention of the academy once tended by Ryun and Seireitou's former teacher, Shōyō, invoked a powerful sense of mourning in Ryun. The Uchiha, despite decades having passed since his master's demise, still mourned the loss of his teacher. The response was not one of words, or futile threats, but an aura of his own; this one crimson. The aura soon produced a ribcage around the Uchiha man's body and, as he leaped into the air, the construct suddenly and violently expanded into its final, perfect stage, complete with a massive set of wings:. In direct response to this sudden activation, Ryun's also enlarged to proportional sizes.

Just the mere flap of Susanoo's wings, as it took flight, demolished the ground beneath it, but Ryun had no fear. He knew it would take more than shock waves to deal with Seireitou. Ryun wasted no time in launching his attack. Extending Susanoo's arms, the massive construct shaped its Truth-Seeking Balls into a multitude of magatama. He then launched the powerful long-range attack towards the glowing chakra of Seireitou, which his Rinnegan could pick out throughout the debris below. Being made of his Truth-Seeking Balls, the magatama would be fatal to any and all ninjutsu and taijutsu, but Ryun knew Seireitou had senjutsu at his disposal.

Never one to waste a moment, from within the protective coating of Susanoo, Ryun formed a single hand seal as he awaited to see the results of his attack.

Almost immediately, once Ryun had taken flight with Susanoo's wings, Seireitou rose his other arm and formed a hand sign together with the already-formed seal of confrontation. He quickly summoned nine clones of himself, and once he did, eight of these clones moved at incredible speeds, disappearing from sight as Seireitou and the remaining clone of himself stood their ground as Ryun unleashed the flurry of Truth-Seeking Balls in the shape of magatama. Seireitou grabbed the clone's shoulder and with a grand display of physical strength, he literally threw the doppelganger head-first at the incoming attack.

---

Following this action, the clone held his arms out toward the magatama attack, a black aura formed around his fingertips and quickly solidified as it surrounded the clone entirely. In the process of this action, the clone fired a massive black rod from its hands, causing it to stab the center of the magatama attack. The clone immediately spread its arms out and called out, "Rabbit Goddess: Nativity of a World of Trees!" as the black rod changed forms into a multi-branch structure, stabbing through each of the tomoe on the magatama attack. The dual action would be to halt the progress of Ryun's attack while also infusing Seireitou's will into the attack, turning Ryun's technique into Seireitou's technique.

Below at the ground, Seireitou formed the hand seal of confrontation once again as the clone had completed its job and quickly dashed out of his way. But as he did this, he descended into a stance and then thrust his open hand out, delivering a massive burst of pressure that collided with the new construct he crafted out of Ryun's attack and his own, causing it to be launched instantaneously toward where Ryun was floating mid-air. Whether Ryun dodged it or not would not matter, as Seireitou took advantage of the Truth-Seeking Ball's nature to explode on a whim, meaning the range of such an explosion would be more than large enough that it could not be dodged without some recoil.

Ryun was not surprised by the magnitude of the counter attack unloaded upon him, nor the power it had within it. Instead, the Uchiha could not contain the sudden grin that curled across his face, excitement rushing through his veins. This excitement no opponent but Seireitou could instill in him. Ryun had faced many powerful foes in his life span — Myoken, Hikaru Kurosaki, Echo Uchiha, Kurisu Taizen, Yoshitsune Ōtsutsuki, and Sigma Uchiha to name a few. None of them were capable of holding his interest like Seireitou was able. Not even when the eight, so-called, most powerful shinobi in the current state of the worlds came together to fight him all at once, could they possibly hope to capture the power that Seireitou Hyūga represented. The challenge.

As the blast engulfed the valley with all of its destructive grandeur, Ryun moved to defend himself. Susanoo — a manifestation of Ryun's chakra — was powerfully infused with the Uchiha's unique senjutsu chakra, allowing it to resist the canceling effects that came along with it. Wrapping its enormous body in its own tremendous wings, Ryun had his Susanoo take the blast head on, holding off the shockwave that followed with incredible endurance. Ryun wasn't foolish, however. He had seen Seireitou infuse his own Truth-Seeking Balls with his will. As a counter for any such maneuver on his Susanoo, Ryun quickly injected his own will into the construct, ensuring its safety. When the blast finally ended, Susanoo thrust open its wings once again, blowing the large cloud of dust away with tremendous force.

"I need to further assess his power and strategy..." Ryun thought, eyes narrowing. "I shouldn't waste more Gudōdama yet. Then I'll use another method..."

Ryun commanded his Susanoo to ball its fists, which then began to radiate super-heated steam. Using the power he had made his own by incarnating into his Shinseijū, Ryun molded the chakra of earth and fire together effortlessly within him. The result was Susanoo's fists beginning to glow with volcanic light. Rearing back, the massive chakra construct unleashed a volley of fist-shaped lava constructs at such high velocity and numbers that contact with the valley floor caused a truly awe-inspiring explosion. Ryun's attack was continuous and relentless, completely reshaping the valley beneath him into a volcanic wasteland even as he aimed to strike at Seireitou.

"Sage Art: Lava Release Monkey Fist!" he called out within his mind.

Truly a magnificent technique to behold, such destruction and mayhem as the result of something as simple as molding together fire and earth. The Byakugan could see every single behavior of Ryun's chakra, as it molded and flooded outwards into the outward expression known as Susanoo, and in the midst of such a sight, Seireitou already was preparing his next move. However, it was the clone that first began forming hand seals.

The real Seireitou, still standing tall at the cliffs of the valley, watched as lava soon overtook the ground and caused such a transformation of the landscape that it was reminiscent to the innards of a volcano. His Byakugan emitted a powerful glow of intensity and excitement, as huge fist-shaped constructs began forming around his body and began pummeling at the ground where the lava flow was spreading. However, there was something special about these chakra fists. They were imbued with a special elemental nature — which drastically reduced the temperature and froze anything they came into contact with them. A perfect counter to heat indeed. Once he knew he would no longer have to worry about the lava on the ground, his chakra fists imbued with this frozen elemental nature were thrusting outwards in a flurry, matching each and every one of Ryun's own lava fists, as the result of supercooling lava was the creation of volcanic glass; several enormous structures composed of this glass now stood suspended in midair due to the momentum of their attacks clashing earlier. And this was to set the stage for what the clone was preparing.

Suddenly, the clone lowered its arms, completing its hand seals as a crackling sound in the skies above was slowly starting up. Thunderstorms were quickly forming in the skies above where Ryun was flying within Susanoo, and also due in part to the heat generated by Ryun's previous attack, the chakra cost of creating and calling forth these thunderstorms was drastically reduced due to the environmental conditions already put in action. Furthermore, this was no chakra nature, but real lightning created by the heavens themselves.

"Now! Take this, Ryun!" roared Seireitou from where he stood, as several dense bolts of electricity crashed downwards, most of them centered toward striking down Ryun where he was, descending straight down from the dark clouds, but the others were striking at the volcanic glass Seireitou created, causing the lightning to literally bounce off the glass and dance around in several directions, surrounding Ryun's Susanoo from all conceivable angles with natural bolts of lightning — with the intent of making escape impossible and thereby destroy the Susanoo construct in order to level the playing field.

Ryun watched in utter awe as his friend ignited a truly magnificent display. Truly, if it hit home, such an attack would render useless the Susanoo armor enshrouding the legendary Uchiha and turn his body into nothing but ash. But Ryun Uchiha, like Seireitou, had come into his transmigrant powers and was about to display the sheer magnitude at which he could preform them. Lightning struck fast, but even as they began to ricochet off of Seireitou's numerous constructs of volcanic glass, Ryun was acting. The Uchiha's Rinnegan almost seemed to glow as it activated, channeling its tremendous powers through the massive construct of Susanoo.

In an almost theatrical display, Susanoo threw open its wings, flinging its palms out in separate directions — releasing from its form the a truly enormous shockwave generated by the Deva Path. As if colliding with some invisible brick wall, the bolts of lighting halted in their path, then were thrown violently backwards as the gravitational well spread outward, colliding with and demolishing the constructs of volcanic glass in the process. Ryun's defense didn't stop there either, smashing into the volcanic ground beneath him, which, in turn, tossed up a tremendous cloud of earth and ash — creating a crater in its wake.

The resulting cloud of debris would hinder even the Byakugan's perception: exactly Ryun's intentions. Bursting from the cloud was a single clone of Ryun's, holding it its hand a black, rotating substance. The shuriken in its palm released a loud whine as the clone through it in Seireitou's direction. But the point of the attack wasn't to strike Seireitou.

"Sage Art: Wind Release Glittering Truth-Seeking Ball!" the clone roared.

The shuriken screamed forward, however, upon reaching the distance pre-determined by Ryun, the orb-turned-shuriken released a bright dazzling light, illuminating the entire valley to further impair the Byakugan's might as the "all seeing eye". As this all unfolded before him, Ryun powerfully flashed back to a previous encounter with Seireitou.

---

''Seireitou unleashed the might of his Byakugan, the air immediately heavy of his chakra. He pulled his right arm back, his left palm lining up with the fire jutsu approaching him. He then thrust his right palm outwards, releasing a small burst of chakra, crashing into the heart of the fire jutsu, cancelling it out; the flames exploding outwards and disisipating. "Now then... Gentle Fist Style: 3K Empty Palm Barrage!" he called out, his arms moving at incredible speeds, pulling back and thrusting outwards, releasing a concentrated amount of chakra at Ryun, three-thousand times, one after another. If Ryun dodged them, Seireitou would merely turn his body to follow with Ryun's movements.''

''Dodge...as if that was even possible. Ryun saw with his Mangekyō Sharingan the chakra building in Seireitou before he released it in the form of this new move. His eyes widened as the barrage of three thousand attacks seemingly collided with him, causing an explosion that ripped through the very foundations of the temple, blowing a wide hole in its roof and exposing the two ninja to the outside world. It took several moments for the smoke from the attack to clear enough to see what had happened. In the rubble, Ryun sat, crouching between a spectral apparition. A ribcage with glowing reddish-pink chakra surrounded his body. "The power only those with the Mangekyō in both eyes can awaken. The 'Third Great Power'....Susanoo. You, Seireitou, know more than anyone else my particular ability with this jutsu." he declared. ''

''Still wrapped in Susanoo's ribs, Ryun summoned several kunai and shuriken and began to barrage Seireitou with them at maximum speed. ''

''"Susano'o..." he muttered, using his martial art-honed reflexes to dodge and escape from the paths of each and every one of those shuriken, save for one that struck his arm. "Tch..." he finally came to a halt, pulling the shuriken off as barely any blood trickled out. "That three-thousand barrage technique makes my arms tired for a bit... I must be getting old, eh Ryun?"''

Returning to the present, Ryun was already in the midst of making his move. Ryun had learned his lesson back then. Seireitou's Byakugan was to be blinded if he ever wanted even the slightest modicum of a chance at hitting the silver-haired monstrosity. With that in mind, his plan finally came to fruition.

---

The cloud of debris, which had been combined with the earlier flash of blinding light, was peeled back in an instant from behind where the original Seireitou stood on the hill. Ryun had deduced that it was the real one by observing it hang back from direct combat during the earlier exchange. Bursting from out of the covering, Ryun's Susanoo had already changed two Truth-Seeking Balls into two identical spears in each of its massive hands: the Tonbogiri, Ryun's signature ethereal weapon. Despite the construct's size, Susanoo moved with blinding speed, swinging down towards the diminutive form of the silver-haired man.

"Yes..." Ryun thought as his sword closed the distance. "You and I are really at the precipice now... Aren't we?"

SMASH!

An explosion of dust and debris swarmed the air again as the massive spears connected with the earth. Whether or not Seireitou received the damage from the attack, however, was yet to be seen. As the smoke cleared, however, Ryun knew he'd soon have his answer.

It was true. The combination of this dust and smoke, together with such piercing bright light, would impede and outright eliminate the Byakugan's power to perceive the world around it; albeit temporarily. Seireitou's calm composure turned into a glare of terror, one that would frighten even the deities, as he was well aware of the situation. But he was not afraid. Even without visual perception, he was still a master of sensing chakra and was still able to recognize the forward charge of Ryun's Susanoo with the intent of crushing him with force.

But first things first. Seireitou mentally ordered the clone that served as his partner in the previous assaults to move toward the source of the blinding light. Before allowing its effects to persist and the core Gudōdama used to create the technique to return to Ryun's side, the clone rushed for the light and went as close as he could to the center. While he could not physically reach deep down enough to physically touch the center, it was still in close proximity enough to absorb both the chakra and natural energy comprising the technique; stripping it down to the bare Truth-Seeking Ball at its center.

As Ryun's Susanoo dual attack came closer, Seireitou channeled chakra through his legs, causing the ground to crack by the pressure and shatter into chunks of debris as Seireitou launched himself in the direction of the clone that Ryun created earlier. But not without a parting gift. Infusing a special property into the smoke caused by Ryun's assault earlier, that would carry the same effects as another technique of similar origin, disintegration anything and everything that were to come into contact with it, including constructs forged from chakra and natural energy. And Ryun's Susanoo was charging right into it. "Thought I forgot about you?!" he answered as he left the cloud of ashes, sending a barrage of black rods from his finger tips at the clone as he came closer and closer to it. But even if the clone were to dodge the attack, he set them up with a precaution to ensure that they strike the mark.

Meanwhile, Seireitou's own clone quickly proceeded to kick the ball that he siphoned the chakra from, causing it to move at blinding speeds straight down to where Ryun's Susanoo had went — with the hopes of smashing a hole straight through the Susanoo's guard with the Uchiha's own Truth-Seeking Ball. "It's only been three seconds since he used Shinra Tensei... Take him out!"

Shift
Truly Seireitou was a master, able to avoid even Ryun's attempt to get around his Byakugan's sight.

Ryun was immediately alerted to the danger, as he could see Seireitou's chakra spreading like a sickness throughout the debris kicked up by the Uchiha's earlier attack. Fortunately for Ryun, however, Seireitou wasn't the only one who could absorb techniques. His Rinnegan alight again, Ryun drew in the chakra-laced smoke with the Preta Path, causing the deadly caustic gas to vanish completely from the area around him. The Uchiha had no time for a victory celebration, however, as his rival wasted no time in launching a formidable counterattack. Black rods were rushing straight for him, in addition to his own Gudōdama, which Seireitou's clone had kicked back in the Uchiha's direction.

Ryun thought quick on his feet.

The Uchiha's forehead eye snapped open, causing a powerful distortion to appear in front of him, which took in the rods and the sphere, before closing behind it — leaving Seireitou's attacks in the bowels of one of Ryun's dimensions. Once safe, Ryun promptly rerouted his Susanoo, causing it to leap nimbly back into the skies where it took flight over the valley once again, allowing Ryun a bird's eye view of the battlefield.

"I'm starting to figure him out..." Ryun thought to himself. "That technique he uses... his clone used it during the battle against Sigma. The Rabbit Goddess Technique. It's much like my own Six Paths Technique. Absorbing ninjutsu and senjutsu, controlling weather conditions, Gudōdama... those were all abilities stemming from it, but I'm sure that's not all it can do. Furthermore," Ryun's Rinnegan glance to the right, observing the clone Seireitou was using for a partner. "He's using my Six Paths Clone Technique. I have to assume that isn't the only one he's created. Long-range Gudōdama are ineffective as he'll simply absorb them or turn them into his own weapon. I have to keep them close. If that's the case..." Ryun's Susanoo raised its enormous hands, clapping them together in a giant hand seal. "...I'll go with this! God: Multiple Heavenly Body Devastation!"

Pulling its hands apart, Susanoo generated a tremendous black sphere, holding it above its head to release smaller spheres, like bullets, into the surrounding atmosphere. From within Susanoo, Ryun made the final hand seal — also hands clapped together. With that, the valley below him began to tremble violently, even as earth, lava, and mountains alike were torn from the very planet and drawn to the dozens of spheres floating in the sky. The attack would surely force out any of Seireitou's remaining clones — assuming he had made more — and would also serve to separate him from his clone. Ryun then focused the third Rinnegan on his head once more. Preparing himself for whatever counterattack Seireitou would concoct this time.

Seireitou did not waste time admiring Ryun's maneuvers, expecting nothing less from his eternal rival, as he quickly garnered some distance in order to get a clear view of the battlefield and Ryun's next move. Upon spotting the creation of the multitude of massive boulders, a small grin etched onto the Hyūga's face.

The destruction revealed the secret Seireitou was hiding — the eight clones he created at the beginning of the fight were in a special formation, as five were holding hands, their backs turned outwards, surrounding two clones that were sitting in a meditative state and standing behind the meditating clone respectively. The formation was designed to protect the center clones from Ryun's attacks, taking advantage of the barrier transcription seal put onto the neck of Seireitou and his clones to protect the Byakugan's blind spot, long enough for Seireitou or the other clone to parry him, but in case of dimension shifting and gravitational pull, the eighth and final clone stood on the outside of the formation, using special constructs of energy to keep them from being influenced. This was a flawless formation designed to protect the center two clones. The meditative clone would be gathering natural energy consistently as the clone standing behind him would be converting it to Rabbit Goddess Chakra and then transmitting it to the real Seireitou — granting the Hyūga a limitless supply of chakra laced with natural energy.

But Ryun would not be given a chance to analyze the purpose of this formation of clones in detail, because the ninth clone that was working in tandem with the real Seireitou had began to prepare its next move as the real Seireitou became consumed by an intense aura. Two massive open-palm chakra hands were formed on each of Seireitou's sides, large enough to be compared to even the final Susanoo's hands, and for a specific purpose. The palms coupled next to one another and pointed straight out toward the descending boulders. A white orb covered in a transparent white prism began to form at the palms of these chakra hands. "Dust Release: August Star of Heaven Technique!" he mentally resounded, as a powerful beam erupted from the hands' center, crashing into the first of the massive boulders, dealing an explosion of incredible proportions; enough to deter the course of the other boulders and even send them flying off in directions in which they would be rendered harmless to Seireitou and his clones.

Now the clone made its move. With the threat of the boulders diminished, the clone's arms were surrounded once more with a black aura that immediately formed countless black rods that were shot out toward where Ryun was floating inside his Susanoo. But their purpose wasn't to make contact. Using the chakra the clone absorbed earlier from that technique, he could now utilize a special property of that chakra — the creation of scale powder. And in doing so, a bright light erupted from each of the black rods, with the intent of blinding even the powerful Rinnegan wielded by Ryun. With this opening now made, the real Seireitou moved quick after destroying that boulder, flying high into the sky with his palms facing Ryun. "All-Killing Ash Bones!" Two femurs were launched at great speeds from an opening inside the palm's skin, imbued with the disintegration property, with the hopes of finally destroying Ryun's Susanoo. They moved with lightning speed and utter silence, hidden also from sight due to the blinding light; not to mention, with so many of these black rods suspended in the air, even the Uchiha's senses would be thrown off and unable to distinguish the two femurs.

Seireitou watched silently, despite the fact that the blinding light also had the same effect on his dōjutsu as well as Ryun's own.

Ryun's face remained stoic, like finely carved stone, as Seireitou unleashed yet another brilliant display. Reacting calmly, Ryun has Susanoo wrap its wings around its large body once again, even as the tremendously bright light — aiming to blind him to the oncoming ambush. The result caused Ryun to grin devilishly. Susanoo truly is the ultimate defensive technique. Offensive attacks are virtually useless before it, but its defense even extends to external sources of light, which are unable to penetrate its chakra. Due to this, Ryun is able to see quite clearly, though the light does obscure anything hidden too close to its source. Ryun did not wait to see what would come out of the large explosion of light. He knew that by releasing such a thing, Seireitou's Byakugan would once again be blinded, and even though he knew Seireitou could sense chakra, he'd move fast enough to blind sight him this time.

His third eye had already previously locked on.

Activating his chakra, Ryun instantly transported himself and Susanoo to the ground, behind the spot Seireitou was now standing. The move was so instantaneous that, to Seireitou's senses, it would appears as though Ryun's chakra was above him in one instant and behind him the next — leaving few precious moments to react to what came next. Ryun once again invoked his Truth-Seeking Balls, instantaneously molding two into his Tonbogiri for the second time. Fueling his swing with senjutsu chakra — which would produce a damaging shockwave even if he missed — Susanoo lashed out with the spear capable of cutting anything, tearing through earth and debris as it attempted to rend Seireitou in two, relying on the blinded Byakugan and the sword's ninjutsu-canceling effect to deal with the pesky seal guarding the silver-haired man's blind spot.

It was normally impossible to ever surprise the Hyūga, but this was a maneuver that caused even the great Shiroyasha to jump a tad as he felt the instantaneous shift of Ryun's chakra from one place to another. But he was a warrior conditioned through years of conflict, and even surprise was to be expected in the midst of battle. Even in this predicament... he still was prepared to respond. Such was the genius and combat instinct of the Leaf Village's Sixth Hokage; it knew no bounds.

As if on impulse, an aura overtook Seireitou, a dense fist of chakra quickly and subsequently erupted from his backside; strong enough to parry even the invincible blade of the Susanoo, just as the former wielder of this power had done to her enemy, but not enough to actually cause any damage to the blade itself. However, it was enough to unstable the Susanoo's footing for a brief moment. And that was all he needed.

"Did you consider why... I chose to remain on the ground for a good portion of this fight? Because I was waiting... for this opportunity!" he announced while huffing, struggling to deal with the effects of the shockwave after the aforementioned clash and parry. Suddenly, he crouched down, his only available move until he could regain his focus, and slammed his palms into the ground, a white aura surrounding his arms. Large chunks of earth immediately erupted forth and aimed to smash themselves right into the Susanoo's body. Due to their close proximity, and the Susanoo's footing made unstable briefly, it was almost a guarantee. But these ground chunks were not meant solely to hit Susanoo with concussive force. Earlier, Ryun opted to absorb the smoke that was laced with a particular pathogen, but for all he absorbed, there was some of that dust that had already saturated the ground. And it would finally serve a purpose. The disintegration properties would be intertwined with the ground that Seireitou had unearthed, and due to this, at the moment of making contact, even the mighty Susanoo would begin tearing down.

Having long since undone the blinding effects of the scale powder-covered black rods, the clone had used that chance to dash in and grabbed the real Seireitou by the arm, carrying him to the skies above in order to watch Ryun's response to this maneuver. But even in the middle of this, Seireitou was still preparing his next move, having slowly regained his composure after recovering from that shockwave.

Seireitou's capture of a single Tonbogiri was quite impressive.

However, the silver-haired man had seemingly forgotten the second, clutched tightly in Susanoo's free arm. Ryun had the construct react almost immediately to the threat of the Ninshū-laced technique. With senjutsu empowerment, the spear of Susanoo lashed out, demolishing the oncoming uprooted earth with a combination of sheer power and the concussive blast produced by senjutsu physical attacks. Because Ryun's Tonbogiri was made from the Truth-Seeking Balls, it immediately canceled out the diseased effects of the chakra inhabiting the earth that threatened to disintegrate all that came into contact with it. Ryun then turned his sight to the skies, where Seireitou and his clone had escaped. It was clear that both men were at an impasse, but he refused to give up. There would be a shift... soon.

"This Susanoo is a death god — a Shinigami made manifest." Ryun declared aloud. "Even one of its spears can bring an entire nation to its knees. I could even fight tailed beasts while armored within it. You who has faced its power before should know better than to underestimate it, Seireitou."

The massive chakra construct proceeded to form a singular hand seal even as Ryun molded his chakra deep within his chest. Ryun didn't bother announcing this one. Using Susanoo as a conduit, Ryun expelled a tremendous volume of boiling mist which quickly concealed Susanoo and slowly began to overtake the battleground below. The chakra laced within the mist would make it nigh impossible for Seireitou's Byakugan to distinguish Ryun's location and hide him from any sort of chakra sensing technique. Furthermore, the caustic nature of the mist would prevent Seireitou from flying down and entering it, or risk permanently injuring his coveted eyes. However, under the protection of Susanoo, Ryun was safe from these boiling effects.

Once safely concealed by the corrosive gasses, Ryun closed his left eye and began molding chakra. He'd observe here for a moment, allowing Seireitou to set up his own techniques before Ryun himself unleashed the true powers of his Rinnegan.

Seireitou was no fool, and he knew Ryun was no such person either. A ploy of masking his presence with such a roundabout method only meant that a nasty surprise was waiting behind that cloud of steam. But he would not give his rival the chance. Once he acknowledged the formation of the corrosive gas, he held his hands together as a black orb was created from a whirling aura of chakra. "I won't give you time to even breathe, much less prepare a new trick!" he bellowed, launching the black orb straight for the center of the corrosive steam. Due to the cancelling effects of the ball's properties, even this steam would not hinder its progression, as it entered the smoke cloud. But its purpose was not to strike Ryun's Susanoo. Seireitou immediately clapped his hands together, causing a massive crunching sound to occur within the smoke, as a massive eight-limb figure began to form from the black orb, causing some of the smoke to slowly drift away.

These limbs quickly became heads, dragon heads, with red light glowing from within their mouths, as they all sought to strike at the Susanoo within the smoke. No matter where in the smoke Ryun was hiding, the size of this eight-headed dragon made such a thing irrelevant. Once the dragon went for its strike, Seireitou's clone dashed forward toward the smoke cloud and extended his hands outward, pulling in much of the corrosive steam into its hands as the chakra was absorbed and the mist was disappearing. In response, the real Seireitou formed a hand seal and generated two additional clones, that appeared on either side of him. He would not allow Ryun even a moment to prepare anything. If he was to land a fatal blow, it would only be possible by forcing Ryun to stay on his toes and force him to divulge an opening.

Ryun emerged startled from the cloud of thick and heavy steam, his Susanoo taking flight once again to avoid the dragon-thing, even as he watched his corrosive steam get sucked away by Seireitou's clones. All the while, the Uchiha man kept his left eye closed. The distraction had been momentary, but it had served its purposes. Seireitou's clones were a pesky problem, but a manageable one. Rinnegan snapping open, Ryun cast an invisible force from his dōjutsu, surrounding the unknowing dragon Seireitou had created not even seconds prior. Seireitou would only be able to watch in horror as the chakra that gave the being its form ceased to exist, causing the eight-headed dragon to simply vanish — erased, as though it was never there to begin with. The Uchiha had been saving this technique for such an occasion, as he would have a recharge period now, with which it was unusable to him. No matter. This would be Seireitou's first time seeing the Middle Path, so he would not be able to deduce its weakness just yet.

"He's trying to push me into a corner." Ryun observed, even as chakra gathered in his third eye. "In that case..."

The switch was instantaneous. In one instant, the eternal rivals were fighting within a valley in the Land of Mountains. With the next, they instantaneously appeared above a sea of poisonous liquids and fumes. Wrapped in Susanoo, Ryun was safe from his own dimension. That was the least of Seireitou's troubles, however. Opening portals next to Seireitou's numerous clones, he pulled each of them into a separate dimension — leaving only his central world clone-free — preventing them from coordinating attacks. He, of course, knew that Seireitou could use the same technique, but he also knew the consequences of using such a dimensional move in a dimension not his own, would drain even the immense chakra reserves of Seireitou far too quickly for it to be considered a worthwhile move. He also knew Seireitou could simply make more clones, but, at least here, he could manage them better.

The massive form of Susanoo moved to form a single hand seal: the seal of confrontation. The result was the entire dimension coming alive. Infused with new life, poisonous seas rose up around Seireitou as though to close in on him like some sea monster devouring its prey. The poisonous water would impair his ability to mold chakra, should it make contact, not to mention dull his senses. Of course, the water not being made of chakra, Seireitou could not simply absorb it either. Ryun was simply left to watch, ever vigilant, in case his foe acted, as the entire dimension attacked Seireitou Hyūga and readied him to drown.

Return of the Dark One
Seireitou bore an annoyed glare as his dragon construct was so effortlessly dispatched, but it bore no ill will on his mind, as it had served its purpose. He needed to distract the Uchiha so as to gain the special ninjutsu of Kokuō, but its use would serve a later need, as the Hyūga was immediately surprised by a shift in dimensions. The change was quick, enough to warrant the widening of the silver-haired man's eyes, but not unexpected — he knew Ryun would eventually have resorted to this technique.

While he had not noticed the Uchiha's actions of dragging his active clones into other dimensions, an act that most definitely cost Ryun a sufficient degree of chakra and henceforth left him unable to immediately utilize anything on a large scale, Seireitou had mastered an art that Ryun had not; the ancient Ninshū. Even as he wielded the power of Hagoromo's chakra and techniques, the Ninshū was an art that Seireitou himself took from Hagoromo's peace-loving ways and perfected it into a battle art. He was still connected to each and every one of the clones he had summoned forth, and through this, he was effortlessly able to determine that Ryun had pulled them into different dimensions. It was a risky move on Ryun's part, but the Uchiha obviously had a plan, and so, Seireitou chose not to second-guess this move. However, he knew the eight clones he left behind in the real world were safe from Ryun's trick — after all, he left the eighth clone there specifically with the purpose of preventing a dimensional shift. The source of his limitless chakra supply would remain safe, as he set his sights on his rival in front of him.

"That technique he used to dispel my dragon was an unusual one... It was definitely Rinnegan in origin, but it didn't involve the Limbo realm... Whatever the case, it had the power to even render a Truth-Seeking Ball useless. But judging by the flow of his chakra, it took a lot out of him... A recharge time must be a part of that technique's drawbacks, and so..." but his thoughts were interrupted as he quickly noticed a quake in the dimensional space they were in. Instantly, massive torrents of the acid seas below where he was floating began rushing their way up to attack the silver-haired man. "Shit...! I can't absorb this... and simply punching them away won't work. Therefore... I suppose it's time to bring out my trump card..." he finished as an intense black aura began to form around his body. Strange purple imprints began to glow from within Seireitou's body, their features blurred due to the fact that he was clothed. But he remained stationary as the acid seas began towering over the man and then crashed at him with a thunderous roar.

"Sage Art: Yang Release Wind Dispatch!" came a voice from within the waves of the acid. The voice, however, wasn't Seireitou's own; it was far darker and malicious, if such a thing was possible. A massive vortex of wind flicked forth and dispelled the mighty poison waves, causing them to crash back down, as an enormous sphere of wind surrounded an unharmed Seireitou and another individual. One that was recognizable to both Seireitou, his summoner, and Ryun as well. Seireitou's lips curled into a wicked smile, as his Byakugan eyes illuminated with ferocity. "Welcome back to the world... Myoken." he uttered softly, but the scarlet-haired man bore no facial expression. "But I suppose... after all of my practice with this maneuver, you really aren't the same Myoken as before, now are you? You have been deprived of your soul... and in its place, you remain tethered to the mark that imprisoned you... making you and I one and the same..." he had muttered, but since this was but an empty shell, he was more or less talking to himself. The mere thought prompted a cruel laugh as he regained composure. With this understanding, the connection between these two beings ensured that even dimension shifting would not be able to separate them. His cold Byakugan eyes turned over to look at Ryun.

But he spoke no words. Suddenly, the scarlet-haired man held his hands out as his eyes flashed a bright yellow, forming a black sphere with red discharge circling it; slowly growing in size as it eventually became dense with pure power. The mere presence of this sphere was enough to cause small distortions around the scarlet-haired man's body due to the intensity of this technique. "You remember this... don't you, Ryun? Its fearsome power was directed toward me the last time, but now... It's your turn!" he roared, as the massive black sphere erupted from his hands and flew with great speed straight for Ryun.

"This power is..." Ryun's mind suddenly turned to pure horror as the chakra of the dark one reached his mind. "...Myoken!"

It had been decades since Ryun last felt this power. A power so terrifying that it rivaled even Kaguya's in sheer magnitude. But this time was different. Something was off. Back when Ryun had last faced Myoken, alongside Seireitou, the senior Uchiha had still been a young man. A pup compared to the ravenous wolf he had become and presently was. That was the difference... Back then, he and Seireitou had sealed Myoken within Seireitou himself. That would explain the evil being's mysterious appearance on the battlefield now. But times had changed. Ryun had changed. His fear melted, initially transforming into confusion as he wondered why Myoken's chakra felt differently now. But as confusion so often does, it became revelation when the Uchiha realized that the gulf in power between the two had severely closed in the decades since Myoken's resurfacing. Ryun defiantly crossed his fingers, within the armored mount of Susanoo, as Myoken's death orb approached.

"That is the secret to Seireitou's demise." Ryun thought as the orb approached, Susanoo outstretching its hands towards the death sphere, in anticipation for the activation of some technique. "I saw it on his face just before I switched realms. Like Kaguya, he is possessive of chakra. Seeing it so easily denied must have unnerved him, even if he doesn't realize it. His power of Ninshū... its weakness is the Middle Path itself. I must conserve that ability for the proper moment. As to Myoken... I am already stretching my personal chakra to its limits. Time to use the power of the Ten-Tails!"

---

To Seireitou's Byakugan eyes, the sudden rush of chakra, born of Ryun's own creation would be like a deep oceanic vault coming unhinged, spewing chakra into his his chakra circulatory system as such a tremendous rate and force that it would cause a concussive blast — a shockwave — which would rock and shake the very dimension the two used for a battleground, causing even the poisonous seas below to quake with apparent fear. With this new, almost godly chakra, at his fingertips, Ryun cast the Preta Path without even a flinch, using Susanoo as the conduit to absorb the tremendous blast fired by Myoken; but that was only the beginning. Previously crossed fingers expunged chakra as well, producing nine powerful clones, each of which immediately radiated with Susanoo's aura in the transformation into the final, stabilized state Ryun himself had been clad in for the entire conflict.

They moved instantaneously. Without gaudy words or heroic battle cries.

Two of nine Susanoo-clad clones flew to either side of Seireitou and Myoken, enacting the Deva Path's attractive powers to forcibly compelled the two away from one another, and towards their respective source clone. Myoken lacked the ability to absorb chakra. Ryun knew this from numerous conflicts with him. That meant dealing with him would be fairly simple. A third clone flew overhead the ancient monster, charging a destructive sphere with more than enough power to obliterate even Myoken's powerful form. Entrapped by the Deva Path, even as he flew towards the source clone, Myoken would be nearly incapable of dodging — trapped by three clones, each with their own source of chakra, even if he managed to somehow escape.

Simultaneously, Ryun had the other seven clones focusing on Seireitou. Like Myoken, the silver-haired man was still in forcible transit to the source of his gravitational pull, but that was the least of his worries. A second clone appeared, generating the sealing technique of the Preta Path around Seireitou's form. Ryun did this not to absorb the man's chakra, rather, to utilize a lesson he had observed from Hashirama Senju during the previous world war. Under the influence of chakra absorption, other chakra absorption techniques, like Seireitou's, could not be used. This allowed Ryun to preform his final gambit with the remaining five clones, each which generated their own shuriken-like Gudōdama — a single one in their dominant hand — with the powers of acid, boil, scorch, magnet, and scale powder infused within them. Thanks to being generated in the hands of the clones' Susanoo, each of these shuriken had the benefit of being gigantisized, increasing their blast range exponentially.

As a final gambit to secure his maneuver, the original Ryun, who had only had to use his beast chakra for the formation of the clones themselves, enacted a final ploy to see to it that his plan was brought to fruition. Commanding Susanoo to make its hand seal once again, Ryun used the natural senjutsu chakra of his incarnation — still buried within him — to again bring to life the entire dimension, causing a tremendous oceanic wave of caustic poison to rise up over the combatants, aiming to swallow them up. The Susanoo-clad clones would be safe from its effects, but he shuttered to think what fate awaited Myoken and Seireitou, assuming they could even survive the initial assault.

"If you intend to gauge me by the limits of my chakra." Ryun thought as he watched this all unfold. "You will soon come upon the daunting truth that my well is as bottomless as your own, silver-hairs..."

Once he made out the vast uproar of chakra flooding into Ryun's internal network, through his all-seeing white dōjutsu, it was clear that he was now prepared to fight seriously; straight to the death. And the feeling of such intensity had its influence on Seireitou himself, a sense of euphoria greater than even the most powerful of sakes could ever grant him. This was what he lived for — the conflict. And there was no greater an opponent.

Soon afterwards, Seireitou took notice of the clones Ryun then created, each of them fully adorned with the mighty Susanoo; a feat only a true master of the Uchiha dōjutsu could successfully accomplish. But he took no time to admire the skill, as he immediately understood what clones meant in response to his prior move of summoning forth Myoken. His intention was to split them up. But the Uchiha underestimated the silver-haired man if he believed that Myoken's purpose was to serve as a second opponent.

Seireitou grinned as the two clones cornered both himself and Myoken, knowing that this was the start of Ryun's maneuver. "I did not wish to do this so soon, but you've left me no choice, Ryun..." Suddenly, a black aura surrounded Seireitou's being, though more specifically around his hands, as just before the two clones could begin their pulling-force technique, the silver-haired man's hand thrust straight through Myoken's chest. An explosion of a strange black mass flooded the wound hole and began to ensnare Myoken's entire body in several tendrils. A scream, the only sound to leave the scarlet-haired man's mouth ever since his return to this world, penetrated the air as the black mass soon swallowed him whole. On one front of Ryun's assault, his efforts were negated. And as Seireitou was pulled toward Ryun's other clone, the same black mass that swallowed Myoken's body then turned its sights on Seireitou himself; immediately grabbing hold of the silver-haired man and surrounded him in its darkness.

However, what this event meant would not be known right away, as the strangest of things happened next. Presumably before Seireitou's ploy and the subsequently swallowing of the black mass, three distinct portals opened in three separate locations of the dimension. It was the three of Seireitou's clones, that Ryun had seemingly done away with during the initial shift in dimensions and the separation of the clones. But how could they have found this dimension? It was simple. The Ninshū that kept Seireitou tied to the real world and his source of limitless Rabbit Goddess chakra, also connected him to every clone he had summoned since the beginning of this fight, and therefore, it was minimal effort to locate and teleport to even Ryun's own private dimensional space.

The first appeared behind the clone that sought to disable Seireitou's absorption techniques. With such speed and silence that even the veteran Rinnegan master would not be quick enough to parry, the clone's arms released a familiar black aura that surrounded even a structure as massive as Susanoo and latched itself onto it, drawing in the clone's own power before it could even catch wind of the plot. And in doing so, its attempts of disabling the real Seireitou, still surrounded in the black mass, would be rendered moot. With any luck, the succession of this trick would mean acquiring whatever amount of chakra Ryun had placed inside the clone, and through Ninshū, it would be automatically transmitted to the real body.

The second appeared in front of the five clones that sought to destroy the silver-haired man with the concentrated force of powerful sage techniques. However, unlike the first one, this one bore strange horns atop its head, signifying that he had entered Sage Mode. With a quick formation of a hand seal, he called out, "Water Release: Water Mirror Technique." A simple ninjutsu, one that wouldn't be capable of normally affecting techniques of Ryun's caliber, but considering that its castor himself was in Sage Mode, all of his techniques were empowered by natural energy; thus making them effective even against the Uchiha. A large mirror of liquid, great enough to even match the height of the Susanoo themselves, created replicas of the five clones and their Susanoo. Simultaneously, the five of their attacks were also replicated, and as the attacks rushed in, they collided with their counterparts, causing a massive explosion that shook the land more so than ever before. In doing so, the explosion was great enough to instantly displace much of the acid that the real Ryun had attempted to manipulate, causing his final gambit to be negated just like all the others.

Danger was now averted as Seireitou's actions managed to stave off each and every one of Ryun's attempts thus far... but if that were the case, where did the third clone go? Immediately as the explosion rocked the land, the third of the clones appeared behind the real Ryun, who was more than likely watching the fight with such focus that even his senses were tied into watching the events unfold, meaning it'd be possible with the speed of this space-time portal maneuver to even surprise him. The clone thrust its hands out and quickly forged a large golden barrier that surrounded Ryun's entire Susanoo, but this was no ordinary barrier. Its purpose was not to shield him or imprison him with force, but rather, through a secret technique of Seireitou's own design, a deadly secret was hidden within it, as the barrier's innards were instantaneously flooded with a transparent gas. A paralyzing agent meant to impede the physical energy present within Ryun's body, preventing him from moving, but more importantly, temporarily allowed the clone to stop any attempts at utilizing any form of technique; be it jutsu or martial arts. His Susanoo was supreme in all aspects but one of its greatest weaknesses is that it must be able to allow gas to move through its transparency. After all, if it was unable to, Ryun would have more than likely depleted his oxygen supply and have been easily short of breath. In the past, attempts had been made by several shinobi to melt the bones of Susanoo; successful attempts they were. If there was a vacuum within the Susanoo that disallowed gas to freely flow, then attempting to melt the structure would not be scientifically possible. Therefore, Seireitou deduced one crucial thing: Susanoo's weakness is its inability to defend against techniques in the gas stage of matter. All it took from that point was to make sure the agent had the same density as oxygen itself, allowing it to pass through Susanoo without issue and therefore influence Ryun directly.

With Ryun more than likely paralyzed, due to the effects of the barrier, the black mass surrounding the real Seireitou finally died down. And as it tore down, a fiendish golden chakra erupted from his body, rivaling the output Ryun displayed earlier and even surpassing it. Seireitou's Byakugan eyes had now revealed a dramatic change; they were now bright yellow, staring straight at the impeded Ryun as chakra danced around his body. He had succeeded in his master plan: to absorb Myoken's power and turn it into his own, thus growing stronger than ever thought possible. Such was the strength of his newfound power that the chakra surrounding his person appeared almost solid, causing large-scale ripples in the calm acid seas below with every pulse of the mighty aura.

"You seem to favor large-scale assaults... Let me show you one of my own." he muttered as his own third eye burst forth atop his forehead. The intensity of his chakra grew even greater, if such a thing were possible, as a bright white light escaped from his Myōgan-empowered Byakugan. Suddenly, a change began to occur within Ryun's dimension of acids, but not one of the shifting variety. Once he began this action, the two clones he had called to arrive here would dispel themselves, transferring their might back to their creator, as the third clone impeding Ryun remained stationary in order to keep the Uchiha right where he was. But even if he could escape the clone's technique, it was too late for him to do anything to stop what was to come.

Flames began to appear from nowhere, latching onto the acid seas below; ones that Ryun, even in his position, could recognize to be the same flames that composed one of Seireitou's own dimensions. Somehow, the Hyūga managed to merge properties of his own dimension with that of Ryun's own dimension. The dimensions would start to overlap as the flames from Seireitou's dimension would flood Ryun's dimension of acids. But the danger of this action is that... this acid was extremely volatile. And it completely filled the entirety of this dimension. Igniting the entire dimension on fire would result to only one frightening conclusion: a gargantuan explosion powerful enough to completely cripple the entire world itself, and with it, Ryun himself would be caught in the utter devastation. Summoning forth a portal behind his being, the third clone itself following suit, the two silver-haired men departed from this dimension as the flames ensnared the dimension of acids... and an explosion capable of felling even the deities themselves quickly bloomed.

Through his connection with the clones still stationed in the original world of shinobi, Seireitou and his clone managed to return, landing to the ground as they left Ryun to his fate. But Seireitou knew that no matter how effective this plan of his was, Ryun was no ordinary man. He would find a way to return to this world alive. And Seireitou, with his new powers, began preparations in anticipation of the Uchiha.

Battle of Monsters
Seireitou's plan was flawless.

Against any other opponent, the display just now would've been overkill, and would've left nothing of the body after it was all said and done. Ryun Uchiha, however, was a shrewd man and one not particularly fond of taking chances. He knew the dangers of Seireitou and how many of the man's techniques relied on disabling that of his opponent's ability to cast them in response. This situation was just a glorified example of that. Ryun had been prepared for such an eventuality. Like all Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, Ryun possessed the ability to techniques for certain eventualities. The moment Ryun felt the effects of his chakra system being impaired, supposedly preventing him from preforming any techniques, the seal within his Rinnegan activated.

Absent of his will, the senior Uchiha was promptly drawn into a portal and away from the deadly display that was to follow. Ryun was deposited in his central world, untouched by Seireitou's clones or the silver-haired man himself. Silence reigned here. The Uchiha man was frustrated. He would have to do something more if he wanted to pull the wool over the silver-haired man's eyes. Soon, the warmth of chakra once again filled Ryun's chest cavity as the diseased attack Seireitou preformed was flushed from his system.

"I need to draw him into a trap." Ryun thought to himself. "Direct attacks are useless. His abilities allow him to absorb all ninjutsu and those clones of his are deadly as a team, but... There is still one method left to me. One that will target both his original body and his Ninshū connections. And I think I have the perfect bait."

Quickly crossing his fingers, Ryun again brought out nine of his special clones. Ryun had noticed a trait of Seireitou's earlier in their fight. Twice he had absorbed the chakra of the tailed beasts from Ryun's techniques which were infused with them. That meant he had a vested interest in each of the tailed beasts' chakra. But for what? Forming another seal, Ryun twice tapped the forehead of each of his nine clones. A simple, hidden, precaution against Seireitou's known antics. With his plan mentally sound, Ryun transported his original body back to the real world, where Seireitou was no doubt waiting.

The senior Uchiha arrived back in the valley within the Land of Mountains, standing atop an overhang which looked down on Seireitou. No doubt the Hyūga would sense his chakra but Ryun paid him no heed. Forming the necessary hand seals, Ryun invoked the Animal Path, bringing his nine clones forth from his central dimension to join him there on the cliff. Wordlessly, Ryun formed one final hand seal, triggering a response in each of the clones next to him. Secretly embedded into each was a rod which would allow Ryun to negate any will-infusing techniques Seireitou tried to preform on the clones. Their linked Rinnegan visions allowed the clones and Ryun to see what the others were seeing. Finally, it was time. Chakra boiling in each of the nine clones, all nine erupted with power, their human form completely replaced by monsters: the nine tailed beasts.

Each one, from Shukaku to Kurama were present, their chakra within Ryun's clones allowing them to transform.

"Improvision is key to fighting, wouldn't you say, Seireitou?" the real Ryun, still in his human form, questioned from his perch among his nine beasts. "The final Path. In attendance are the Nine Paths of Enlightenment. You were foolish to underestimate the visual prowess of the Uchiha. Now, set before you is the power of the Sage of the Six Paths. Let us begin our ancient battle once again, spawn of Kaguya!"

As if enthralled by their master's speech, the nine tailed beast clones leaped forward to crush the man and his clones below, unknowingly setting Ryun's grand plan of deceit into motion.

Seireitou's eyes immediately took notice of Ryun's return, a small twinge of annoyance ran rampant across his icy glare. However, he gained valuable information the moment Ryun's portal opened, which complimented the information his clones had acquired when Ryun sent them off to his other dimensions earlier in the fight. It was easy to determine that the dimension Ryun had just returned from would therefore, by process of elimination, have to be his central dimension. "I should have known... Without a doubt, he managed to escape the destruction through his Rinnegan... That dōjutsu is far too pesky to be allowed to continue aiding him." came to mind, as he then noticed Ryun's next action. Nine of his clones were summoned to the forefront of the battlefield. The mere act of this did not register any importance, until the next frightening thing occurred. Each of these nine transformed and took on the shape of the nine beasts that composed Ryun's Ten-Tails. And upon the announcement Ryun made, the nine beasts charged in for battle.

"What's this...? A direct assault with overwhelming force? Did he not learn his lesson from last time? No... No, that's not it. Ryun is intelligent, he'd never make the same mistake twice." Seireitou's Byakugan was powerful; stronger than any Hyūga that came before or after him. And this was due in part to his transmigrant status, but more so to the extensive training he had underwent in order to master its powers. He could read the flow of energy of all things and it was through this ability that he noticed an unusual aspect about these beasts. "Something has been put into them... These clones were unusual from the get-go. He inserted his own will into them, but why? Clones are always under the command of their user, and these beasts wouldn't betray Ryun, so then... it must serve another purpose. It must be a part of some trap." It was then that Seireitou pieced together a rough theory as to what Ryun's plan had entailed. This frontal assault was nothing more than smoke and mirrors to conceal the true motive.

The silver-haired man formed a hand seal and summoned nine clones of his own, rivaling the number Ryun had summoned earlier, but their purpose was distinct from the Uchiha's own clones. Furthermore, he had to ensure that whatever reason Ryun's will was inserted into the beasts would not try to take advantage of the Ninshū link between him and his clones. Perhaps a pointless precaution, but it had to be done, meaning that these nine clones were created without the default Ninshū link Seireitou normally utilized. All nine of the clones opened a portal of their own and entered them, while Seireitou's Byakugan eyes glowed with fierce intensity. His gaze was strangely focused upon the incoming charge of the nine beasts, but for what reason, it was not yet time to reveal.

"It's about time that I... hung down these filthy beasts." the Hyūga spoke sternly. Ryun perhaps might have forgotten, but before the silver-haired man had caused the acid-flame devastation within the Uchiha's realm, he had managed to absorb one of Ryun's clones; the result of this was that he now had temporary access to the Uchiha's own energy. He knew that Ryun would attempt a maneuver like this at some point, and in preparation for this, he wanted to keep the stolen chakra ready. He dispersed it among the clones he summoned, but the part of which he kept, he then formed another hand seal. The chakra would react to the black rods as Seireitou released it through his hand seal — the manifestation of Ryun's will — and once this happened, chains burst out from the point in which they were inserted; manifestations of his form of control over them thanks to Ryun's safeguard.

Isobu and Saiken were the first targets. The first clone appeared out of the portal and grabbed both of the respective chains that erupted from both beasts. At the instance the clone grabbed the chains, he utilized these chains as a medium for special properties — which were all separated from the chakra supply. But why would this technique be needed? It was basic really. By using only the effects, utilizing the chains as a medium, and therefore taking Seireitou's actual chakra out of the equation, these clones of Ryun would be unable to absorb any of these techniques. Inserted into the chains that would flood the two beasts with a ravenous disease that would first paralyze the body's nerves and ability to allow them to send messages to the brain, thus preventing and subduing motor skills, followed by crippling their bone structure which would weaken the anatomy until they became so brittle that they would literally shatter like glass, causing them to lose balance and footing, but would then slowly cause both the beast and the clone host tremendous amounts of pain before finally destroying their internal organs and sending them off to their horrible deaths; together with the part of Ryun's will infused into them.

However, it would not be this simple. Both beasts possessed unique chakra qualities that had to be negated before the diseases from Seireitou's technique would take effect. Isobu is a water-type beast, with chakra capable of manifesting powerful water-based techniques, while Saiken utilized a special brand of ninjutsu that formed bubbles. However, when you go right down to it, both beasts utilize a form of water. Therefore, using the same technique as before, the clone also infused a special quality that would serve as a method to neutralize both beasts' unique chakras; by adding a supercooling trait, both beasts would suffer their chakras being supercooled to the point where even their special techniques would not be able to stop their fates. And together with this, the ravenous effects of the original technique would take hold of them and put them down like rabid dogs.

The next two targets were Son Gokū and Chōmei. And just like before, another clone appeared out of a portal and grabbed hold of both respective chains. Within the very instant, he spread the diseases aimed at destroying them down the chains in order to flood their bodies instantaneously. Similarly to the aforementioned two beasts, this clone also added the same supercooling feature to the trick. Why? Son Gokū's chakra is centered toward incredible heat and lava manifestation. The weakness to that would be to supercool the lava so that it becomes useless. Additionally, Chōmei is a plant-like insect beast, and like all insects, intense degrees of cold causes their ability to fly to be negated and their deaths are guaranteed, for they can't survive cold temperatures. Therefore, both of these beasts would also fall just like the other two.

The third of Seireitou's clone moved at the same time as the other two clones made their move, appearing from the portal, and grabbed hold of the chains connected to Matatabi and Kokuō. And just like the other two pairs of beasts, the same series of properties were sent flooding into the two beasts via the chains connected to their bodies via Ryun's black rods. The supercooling effect would be administered once again. Matatabi is a beast whose body is composed of powerful blue flames, and therefore, low temperature would be able to put out those flames and their strength. Kokuō's strength lies in his steam ninjutsu, and with low temperatures forced into his body, it would be impossible for Kokuō to generate the heat necessary to utilize its specialty.

However, the remaining three beasts would require an individual clone to handle them. The fourth, fifth, and sixth clones of Seireitou took hold of the chains connected to Shukaku, Gyūki, and Kurama respectively. Gyūki and Kurama were simple enough. The two clones that dealt with them would focus their attentions on the beasts and made sure to make the strain of disease being pumped into their bodies extra potent, due to them being arguably the strongest among the nine beasts. However, Shukaku was another story altogether. His Magnet Release would be troublesome if allowed to be utilized. Therefore, by following the laws of electromagnetism, as Seireitou was indeed well-versed in the physical sciences, it was possible for him to apply his own version of Magnet Release so as to completely render Shukaku's own version of the ability unusable.

In a single move, all nine of the beasts would be subdued and tamed by Seireitou's six clones, only to fall to their deaths tragically. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. The silver-haired man's real target was Ryun himself, whom was proudly standing away from where the clones made their move against the nine beasts. But first... one last precaution would have to be made to ensure his victory. After finishing his analysis from before via his Byakugan, the real Seireitou slammed his hands onto the ground in front of him, as a black aura flooded the land and began encircling the entire massive space where the nine beasts were being taken down. The black mass surrounded them and formed a solid circle formation, as hundreds of black whip-like structures began to appear from this black circle. This would ensure their capture once they succumbed to their death, but the black whips remained stationary, as Seireitou knew better than to rush his plans.

Within the same instant that six clones went forward to silence the nine beasts in one fell swoop, the remaining three clones appeared instantaneously in front of where Ryun was hiding away inside his Susanoo. All three of them managed to get within range of the structure, as two of them slammed their open hands against the Susanoo's body, but the third faced outwards from the Susanoo. The third clone's job was simple: to protect the other two clones from Ryun's Truth-Seeking Balls, as the former two carried out their own plans. Susanoo was a powerful technique that creates a boundary between its castor and the outside world. It is also why it can shield Ryun from bright expenditures of light. Boundary... That is its greatest strength... but also its greatest weakness. For Seireitou possessed a special technique designed solely for manipulating boundaries.

And so it was used. Both of the clones in contact with Susanoo's body stared at the structure as their Byakugan eyes emitted a fierce light, signifying the use of the aforementioned special technique. By doing so, they could manipulate the Susanoo's boundaries just enough to allow an opening to appear where the clones' hands were touching the construct. Suddenly, intense levels of hot steam poured out of their palms and entered the innards of the Susanoo where Ryun himself was. Once the steam entered, it began to glow brightly, for the steam was also imbued with special properties that would cause such degrees of illumination that it would effortlessly blind even Ryun's powerful dōjutsu. In doing so, he could disable the Rinnegan's abilities, including its Six Paths Technique which would allow absorption and a variety of other methods of negating this technique, as well as the special Limbo techniques Seireitou was aware of that existed within Ryun's arsenal.

The clones on the outside would be safe from the blinding effects of the powder, courtesy of Susanoo's protection properties, but the same could not be said for Ryun himself who was within the same space as the steam and smoke. But the steam was but a medium and the bright light merely a means of disabling Ryun's dōjutsu — the real threat was that, just like in the case of the beasts, this smoke was laced with properties geared at disrupting Ryun's balance of yin and yang, subsequently causing disease-like effects. But these were different from that used on the beasts. While, yes, the paralysis and bone-weakening effects were present, the main pathogen applied was a special one designed to directly attack the optic nerves. And in doing so, Seireitou could finally disable Ryun's dōjutsu for, at best, a couple hours; more than enough time needed to finally defeat his rival once and for all.

Once Ryun either breathed in the smoke or his skin became saturated with it, the properties would immediately take effect. And thanks to Susanoo, Ryun was a caged bird — doomed to be taken down while within his own favored technique. The real Seireitou, from a far distance away, after watching the clones deal with the nine beasts, he observed his three clones' assault on Ryun himself; patiently waiting for results as he continued making preparations for his next move, should it be needed.

As the pathogen supposedly took Ryun, a sinister smirk curled across his face.

"Hook line and sinker..." the senior Uchiha thought, amused, to himself.

It had been a plan that truly required a tactical genius to pull off, but also one that knew how Seireitou's mind worked. It had taken Ryun mere moments to think up, but this was not just due to incredible wit, but because the Uchiha had done battle with Seireitou for decades. That is why he formulated the plan of attack that he did. The chakra rods. The clones of each of the tailed beasts. They all served a singular purpose. Bait. Like deer feed left in an obvious clearing to draw the elusive creature right into the hunter's sights, the tailed beasts and their unusual circumstances had drawn Seireitou into the proverbial clearing and now it was time to act. Of course, Ryun had not neglected preparations for his own safety. In fact, his master plan hinged on Seireitou's poor memory and the fact that he hadn't seen the that had allowed him to escape in the other dimension. After all, if Seireitou had seen that he had sealed the Desire Path in one eye, then he would have immediately assumed that the other two eyes were rigged with techniques of their own.

As Ryun's fail safe began to take place, the elder Uchiha flashed back to the moment his plan had first emerged:

''In an almost theatrical display, Susanoo threw open its wings, flinging its palms out in separate directions — releasing from its form the a truly enormous shockwave generated by the Deva Path. As if colliding with some invisible brick wall, the bolts of lighting halted in their path, then were thrown violently backwards as the gravitational well spread outward, colliding with and demolishing the constructs of volcanic glass in the process. Ryun's defense didn't stop there either, smashing into the volcanic ground beneath him, which, in turn, tossed up a tremendous cloud of earth and ash — creating a crater in its wake.''

''The resulting cloud of debris would hinder even the Byakugan's perception: exactly Ryun's intentions. Bursting from the cloud was a single clone of Ryun's, holding it its hand a black, rotating substance. The shuriken in its palm released a loud whine as the clone through it in Seireitou's direction. But the point of the attack wasn't to strike Seireitou.''

''"Sage Art: Wind Release Glittering Truth-Seeking Ball!" the clone roared.''

The shuriken screamed forward, however, upon reaching the distance pre-determined by Ryun, the orb-turned-shuriken released a bright dazzling light, illuminating the entire valley to further impair the Byakugan's might as the "all seeing eye".

Of course, with the blinding properties of the light at that time, Seireitou had failed to notice the clone escape and had even failed to search for it after absorbing the shuriken that had emitted the initial blinding. Of course, Ryun had not missed such a crucial detail and had planted the clone among the rubble of the battlefield for such a time just as this. The moment Seireitou's clones began to affect the boundary of his Susanoo, Ryun acted. Using the power of his eye, Ryun switched his real body with the clone's body concealed within the surroundings, saving him from the predictable assault of Seireitou's disease technique as the clone and Susanoo died.

At the exact same time as these events, however, Ryun's trap has been sprung and Ryun watches it all unfold thanks to his and his clones' linked vision. The spring he had tapped into each of them in his central dimension was already taking affect. Shukaku's clone was most fatal mistake for Seireitou and easily Ryun's greatest asset in the trap he had sprung. As predicted, Ryun had used enough of the creature's Magnet Release, causing Seireitou to aim to disable that rather than the real threat. The seal within the tailed beasts' clone's eye engaged, focusing the Middle Path on the chains connecting Seireitou's clone to the beasts. Ryun had counted on Seireitou to once again use his chakra disease technique and knew that, like all diseases — Ryun himself being scientifically inclined — it required a vector: the chains, in this case. Therefore, Ryun had specifically programmed the eyes of his clones to deal with the vector, and therefore the disease. As this was happening, Ryun increased his own chakra output to the rods embedded in each clone, quickly overpowering the small amount of his chakra Seireitou had used to overcome the beasts.

With that done, the trap mechanism set in Shukaku's clone activated, the beast exploding into a tidal wave of senjutsu-enhanced (via the chakra being transmitted into its rod) sand. Of course, the aim of this sand wasn't just Seireitou himself, but also the numerous clones being used to bind the other nine tailed beast clones. The sand acted quickly, ensnaring each clone in its sandy grasp, negating any black mass they might use to negate it. Of course, within this sand, was a trap within a trap: Shukaku's own. The binding within the seal quickly restricted their movement and chakra, preventing them from engaging their chains and disease technique a second time. With the last amount of chakra within the clone, Shukaku exerted its crushing power to kill each of Seireitou's clones in an eruption of blood and gore while the remaining sand, marked with the beast's restricting curse seal, surrounded Seireitou in a sphere. With that, Shukaku's clone died and vanished from the battlefield.

Next to act was the clone of Matatabi, whom, like Shukaku, exploded into a mass of senjutsu-enhanced scorching flames which impacted the encircling wall of tentacled black mass, completely evaporating it from existence before the clone, like Shukaku's, died off and vanished. The clone of Gyūki was the third to activate its trap mechanism. Enhancing its technique, like the previous, with the senjutsu chakra Ryun was pumping into its rod, the octopus beast expelled a tremendous volume of ink from its mouth, quickly encircling the sand sphere trapping the real Seireitou in sealing ink. Saiken was fourth to act, expelling a massive explosive bubble which further enshrouded the orb of sealing ink, ensuring that Seireitou would be caught in a tremendous explosion should he manage to break free of the existing seal. With that, the six tails clone vanished.

From there, the other beasts followed suit with senjutsu-enhanced attacks: Kokuō surrounded the layered-sealing orb with boiling mist, ensuring the Seireitou would be egregiously burned if he managed to escape the previous three layers; the fifth layer was produced by Chōmei — a layer of brightly shining scales which would blind Seireitou's Byakugan should he continue further into the outer layer; Isobu contributed the sixth layer, creating a super-dense layer of water around the existing seal, which would force Seireitou to fight against the pressure and his own breathing to make it through the layer. Lastly, Sun Wukong contributed the seventh layer, that of lava itself which quickly hardened into a super-heated earthen shell around the outside of the seal. With that, the tailed beast clones that enacted their techniques vanished. Even with all of that, Ryun's trap sealing wasn't complete.

The clone of Myōbu transformed back into a clone of Ryun himself, which immediately used its Rinnegan to project the Spacial Suspension technique on the tremendous seal to prevent Seireitou from escaping with space-time ninjutsu. With the seal finally complete, the real Ryun stepped forward to observe his handiwork.

"Shukaku's seal was imperative." Ryun thought. "With that in place, even chakra absorption techniques become impossible. Gyūki's sealing ink further restricts movement. The rest ensure that you stay sealed. This is the full power of the nine tailed beasts: the Seven-Layer Tailed Beast Sealing Technique. Amazing what a little improvising can do for a battle, eh, Seireitou?"

Clapping his hands together, Ryun began to prepare his last maneuver in the eventuality that Seireitou managed to escape the extremely durable sealing technique. Otherwise, the sealing complete, Seireitou would be neutralized.

Observing the several layers of various elemental powers attempting to seal the powerful silver-haired man, piece by piece, his facial expression remained uncharged. As the visible sight of his very being quickly became enshrouded by the first layer, that being the empowered sand of the One-Tailed Beast, but still his composure remained strong. '"I can always rely on you, Ryun, to rely upon those accursed eyes. I've told you so many times... that a tiger must always be wary of how a dragon dances. Now it's time for you... to be reminded of that lesson."'' he thought to himself deep within the sealing sand as the layers continued piling on.

Ryun had, either mistakenly or by design, ignored the three clones that had assaulted his real body; only to fall prey to his clone switch trick. However, unbeknownst to the Uchiha, the clones were sent on a mission containing three very distinct goals. The first was to pressure Ryun. A simple maneuver. Furthermore, the second aspect of the mission was to ensure that in the event his attack on the nine clones had failed, he needed to have backup available. And both had succeeded with excellence. But the tertiary part of the mission that Seireitou wanted the clones to carry out was to observe the actions of their six other clone brethren. More specifically, they were to see exactly how the attack would unfold. And also... how the flow of chakra within the nine beasts and the core of their structure, Ryun's nine clones, would respond. As expected, the use of the Middle Path would be employed in some manner of being. It would be the only way to disable them entirely. In fact, the Hyūga had predicted it with absolute certainty. Expected it. Desired its use. After all, the very use of that technique was to be the key to the Uchiha's downfall in this fight.

Each of the three clones, after gaining the knowledge their master required of them and watching the six clones that were disabled and promptly destroyed, entered spacetime portals in order to escape any possible damage after Ryun's gambit. They made sure to be aware of the real Ryun's presence as well, courtesy of their Byakugan. Once the seven-layered seal had been put into effect, one of these clones was the first to act. It quickly appeared at the outsides of the massive construct and formed a hand seal. Immediately, three circular structures composed of water surrounded the large seal. This was a special technique from the water school of ninjutsu. In its normal use, it would work like a mirror; reflecting the surface of whatever was in front of it and then allowed a recreation of whatever reflection appeared upon it to manifest forth. The ninjutsu works in those step steps. It behaves by reflecting the flow of chakra that it is presented with, allowing its manifestation, but then... what if the initial step in the technique was replaced? Instead of the water mirror reflecting the flow of chakra and then recreating it, the user could instead grant his ninjutsu that information, by simply infusing that knowledge of chakra flow and then allowing it to be recreated. Information gathered by a mastered Byakugan is so accurate that it can be akin to literally... a reflection. Therefore, it was only somebody of Seireitou's skill that could pull off a strategy like this.

In each of the three water mirrors, a visage of Ryun himself appeared in them. In the right eye, which was clearly in the form of a Rinnegan, a bright red light began to glow. The mirrors were reflecting a technique that the clones observed carefully: Ryun's favored Middle Path. And now it had become a tool that would give Seireitou the advantage. Suddenly, a massive pulse filled the air as the most shocking of things began to happen. The first to be affected was the clone utilizing the spacetime negation technique. Its chakra would immediately find itself unable to form, its technique immediately disabled, thus freeing the real Seireitou from its influence. It was then that the second clone appeared behind that very clone of Ryun, grabbing hold of its shoulders with a firm grip. Multiple black tendrils began ensnaring the clone's body as it was swallowing him up; along with its remaining chakra. This was to ensure no more tricks on the part of Ryun's hidden clones.

The seal began to tear apart as its chakra was completely voided. The outer layer of superheated rock slowly crumbled away, reduced to the form of harmless rocks falling to the ground that soon shattered into mere dust and powder debris, as the next layer of dense water also lost its consistency and fell to the ground with a loud splash until it disappeared. The layer of bright light due to the scale powder also suffered the same fate as it disintegrated into harmless ashes until disappearing entirely. It was the steam to follow suit, then the layer of bubbles, then the ink, and so on, until finally coming upon the final layer of sand and Shukaku's curse seal; both of which were negated thanks to the reflected use of the Uchiha's dōjutsu. Seireitou was free once again, his stare focused on the only remaining Ryun; the real one, making sure of this fact by authenticating it with his own Byakugan eyes.

Falling to the ground, Seireitou clapped his hands together, drawing out his great power as an aura overtook his being. The third and final clone then made its own move. Due to being a unique clone, with its own living body and chakra network, it too could create the same sort of clones as the real Seireitou himself. It was then that the three of them, the original clone and the two additional clones it had created, appearing on both sides of Ryun and behind him, via spacetime portals. The one on Ryun's left side formed a hand seal, causing an updraft of air to quickly ensnare the Uchiha. Manipulating the air in such a way allowed the clone to alter the pressure surrounding Ryun's body in such a way that the pressure was heavily compressed onto his center. The purpose of this was to immobile his physical movements, thus rendering him paralyzed. But it was at the same time as this that the clone on Ryun's right side formed a black aura around its arms. However, this aura was infused with a special material that created a bright light. The purpose of this was to blind Ryun's three eyes. This would ensure that none of the man's dōjutsu, including the Six Paths and Limbo Techniques, could be utilized as long as the light was in effect. Furthermore, with these eyes of his blinded, not even his teleportation technique could be used, assuring Seireitou of the Uchiha's inability to escape. And due to the distance that the clone kept from Ryun when manifesting the light-infused aura, the scale powder could not be absorbed. Both of these clones managed to remain at least fifteen feet away from the third clone behind Ryun, and the former clone's technique manipulated pre-existing air in the atmosphere; thus it did not make use of manipulated chakra. Therefore, it meant that neither of the two clones' effects would be negated by the third clone's simultaneous technique. In front of the third clone, a familiar circular mirror of water had then appeared. And just like before, within the mirror was an image of Ryun and his glowing right Rinnegan eye. It enacted a barrier around the real Ryun's body, a void of chakra, which served the purpose of disabling the Uchiha's ability to utilize anything involving the use of chakra. The additional advantage of this was that no matter what precautions Ryun had taken with transcription seals, a voided effect of chakra would make sure that the seal's effects, whatever they might be, could not manipulate the chakra necessary to be created. With his physical movements restrained, his sight and dōjutsu disabled, and all manner of chakra inaccessible to him, the stage was set for Seireitou's move.

Within the very same instant as three clones had acted to disable the Uchiha, Seireitou's ninjutsu which was empowered by his own sage power took shape. A massive wall of water began to form, reaching high into the skies and stretching out along the horizon, covering a wide range of space; a large scale version of the technique his clone had used to destroy Ryun's seven-layered seal. Within the mirror stood the images of the nine tailed beasts Ryun himself had created. A short glimpse into the past would show that Seireitou's Byakugan was carefully focused on the nine beasts when they first made their appearance and subsequent charge forward; all to prepare this strategy. The nine beasts within the image then stepped outwards, taking true shape as Seireitou also added an additional component. He infused the life-giving powers of Yang within the nine beasts, allowing them to no longer be temporary copies forged from the water ninjutsu but actual living beasts. The black rod within them that was reflected from Ryun's own beasts was now Seireitou's will, the chakra of the beasts no longer originated from Ryun's Ten-Tails, but the monster sleeping within Seireitou's own soul; the Kamiusagi. These reflected living beasts belonged to the silver-haired man entirely. All nine opened their mouths and began exerting a tremendous volume of chakra, forging a massive black orb from their collective energies that floated directly in front of them.

"I believe... that this is where I say... Checkmate." Seireitou uttered, a malicious grin etched clear across his face, as he then waved his hand; giving the order to attack.

The nine beasts shot the ball with a fierce roar, as the massive orb flew toward Ryun's chakra-disabled and physically-paralyzed body with great haste. Even in the unlikely chance that Ryun somehow regained the ability to move or to use chakra before the ball struck him, the massive size of the attack and the explosion of which it would generate would be far too massive to dodge nor to block without receiving a high degree of damage. But still, Seireitou remained ever alert... even as the blast neared Ryun and a massive explosion would then follow.

The Full Power of Ryun Uchiha
"You've always underestimated me..." Ryun thought as his rival's attack commenced. "Ever since the day I first met you. Perhaps it is the nature of your chakra that compels you to see me in such a light. In a way, I'm thankful. Without your harsh gaze, my power would've never reached this point. I would still be the weak little brat who cried for his lost siblings on the banks of that godforsaken river in the Land of Water. After all these years, I suppose its finally time that I show you..."

---

In a blinding light, Seireitou Hyūga appeared in front of Ryun, "Hello, Ryun, is it?"

'"Yes.. that's my name. Let's see what you've got!" Ryun said drawing his katana.'

"...that I am no longer the Ryun you met then..."

'Ryun grinned, "I expected such an answer from you." he replied, "You were always a hard one to read."'

'Ryun unclipped his robe and tossed it to the floor, along with his headband, revealing a sword in its sheathe on his waist and a gunbai fan attached to his back. Without a sound he closed the distance between the two, until they were mere inches away from one another.'

"That is, you were hard to read outside of battle. Whenever we crossed blades I always felt as if I could see into the very pits of your heart. Today will be no different."

'Seireitou made no sudden movements, and smiled. "You'll see through my heart, eh? Make it happen." he stated, holding his arm up in the gentle fist pose, while his other remained at his side. His eyes were drawn over to Ryun's next action.'

"...or even then. Nevertheless... In the end, I am now and forevermore..."

Opening his eyes wide, Ryun was overcome by the bright light of the scales.... but it would not have the result Seireitou had intended.

"...Uchiha Ryun!"

---

A tremendous swirl appeared with Ryun as its epicenter, immediately sucking in the clones surrounding Ryun into a different dimension — even Seireitou's scale powder light was unable to escape its grasp. Were that the end of Ryun's defensive maneuver, it would not have been anything special. Ryun, however, was pulling out all the stops. Unbounded and unhindered, Ryun's Rinnegan allowed him to see the chakra of the third mirror forming. This imitation of Ryun was focusing chakra to its own Rinnegan. Ryun knew what was coming. Only one Rinnegan technique was worth casting against him and so the experienced Uchiha focused chakra into his own eye, generating the Middle Path as the watery imitation did, canceling the other out.

"Koshintō..." Ryun thought as he watched the watery clone of himself vanish into a puddle, its move expired. "The power of my Mangekyō Sharingan is still a mystery to even you, Seireitou. You know its nature, but you incorrectly assessed it, and now that I can combine it with my Rinnegan, you'll pay for that lack of vision. Even light cannot escape its grasp. Furthermore..." Ryun grinned widely. "You can't beat me with such foolish imitations, Seireitou!" the elder Uchiha roared.

Ryun watched with glee as Seireitou's water mirrors then formed into the nine tailed beasts, each beginning to pool its power into a Collaborated Tailed Beast Ball whose goal was to erase Ryun from existence. Regaining his serious composure, a flickered around Ryun and wasted no time in expanding into Ryun's stabilized perfect Susanoo. Raising its ethereal arm to the sky, Susanoo flew like a trapped canary before Seireitou's watery tailed beast imitations. Tapping on the Ten-Tails' still-massive reserves within him, Ryun felt a familiar touch on his mind.

"Checkmate, you say?!" Ryun bellowed triumphantly, feeling a burst of new confidence at the warming presence within him. "We won't fall to fakes! Isn't that right?!"

The answer, Seireitou could not hear, but to Ryun it thundered in a booming chorus within his mind.

From One: "Hmph!"

Two: "Yes!"

Three: "Indeed!"

Four: "Alright!"

Five: "Correct!"

Six: "Uh-huh!"

Seven: "Obviously!"

Eight: "Yeah!"

and Nine: "Let's do this!"

Above Susanoo's raised hand, nine tremendous Truth-Seeking Balls generated in shuriken shape, each bearing a trait from the Ten-Tails' chakra: sand, scorch, water, lava, boil, acid, scale powder, ink, and wind.

"Sage Art" Ryun though, again improvising a technique from his prior arsenal. "Tailed Beast Susanoo Shuriken!"

Using Susanoo, Ryun threw the tremendous attack — this one even more immense than his earlier display, slamming into Seireitou's imitation Tailed Beast Ball. The resulting explosion changed the face of the very valley itself as all below was rendered into a crater. The blast was so destructive, it even managed to reach the nearby shoreline, whereby sea water began to pour into the newly formed crater: the beginning of a new cove. The shockwave was so large, in fact, that a mushroom cloud was formed out of the debris as they rocketed into the atmosphere above. The now-breathing clones of the tailed beasts Seireitou had created were venerable after being struck by such a tremendous shockwave. Invoking his Rinnegan yet again, the Uchiha thrust out his palm, causing ethereal energy to form around his outstretched hand, quickly becoming shackles which immediately leashed all nine of Seireitou's beasts.

"The Outer Path... have you ever wondered why the tailed beasts can be so easily enslaved by it?" Ryun barked out as the dust settled below him. "The Sage of the Six Paths invented it as a leash for their power, but there was a much deeper reason. As the nine portions of the Ten-Tails' chakra, they are also the nine portions of Kaguya's chakra. Yes... now you see. The seventh technique among the Six Paths Technique was born to shackle Kaguya's power. Even her will cannot penetrate these chains: it subjugates it."

Constricting the chains, Ryun used the connection to the Outer Path to disengage the bonds of yang chakra that gave life to the tailed beast imitations, reverting them back into an inanimate technique, which then melted back into water, fading away harmlessly as the chains disappeared.

"So," he continued. "That is the source of your Gudōdama... I felt it just now. A mass of chakra within you rivaling the Ten-Tails. Being Kaguya's successor, this doesn't shock me. The tailed beasts that make up my own jinchūriki powers are not portions of Kaguya's chakra and the Ten-Tails chakra you feel within me is as much myself as it is the tailed beasts in unity. The Six Paths geezer once predicted that the tailed beasts would again be united, but not as they once were. I am the fulfillment of that. Through me, the Ten-Tails is reborn, the portions of its chakra free from Kaguya and one with myself. The monstrosity that resides in you, however... I sense that it is the exact opposite. Even like this, we are Yin and Yang."

Susanoo lifted its tremendous hands again, this time generating a pair of Susanoo Shuriken in the shape of Ryun's Mangekyō Sharingan. Infusing each with the power of his Rinnegan, Ryun then tossed the shuriken towards Seireitou. Though Seireitou did not know it yet, there would be consequences for countering the shuriken as each was rigged with a unique trap meant to goad Seireitou into preforming a certain tactic. Only time would tell if Ryun's plan would succeed.

The release of black shuriken was a matter that had a basic response. This entire fight, Seireitou utilized complex means of countering Ryun's mighty attacks, whether to absorb their power to add to his own or to utilize them to crush the Uchiha. But this wasn't possible anymore, the Hyūga knew that much ever since he triggered Ryun's first trap earlier in the fight. His third eye burst open suddenly, forming a massive black portal in the path of the shuriken, causing them to enter the fiery grasps of Seireitou's dimension of flames. And just as they entered, the portal closed to prevent any tampering on Ryun's part. Within that world, the heat from those flames would undoubtedly cause both shuriken to explode violently, rendering them useless to whatever maneuvers the Uchiha had in mind.

But this bore no actual thought in Seireitou's mind. His thoughts were preoccupied by the mistake Ryun had made in utilizing his Outer Path to tame the imitation beasts. And a smile soon etched onto his face, as something quite mysterious occurred. The massive spectral construct that appears when the Outer Path has been activated began to scream loudly in pain, as though it were a living being being subjected to a horrendous degree of torture. Its eyes that previously wielded brilliant Rinnegan now melted into a frightening cold and icy Byakugan. How was this happening? When Ryun chose to strike the beasts with those chains and utilize the Outer Path to tame them, he had forgotten a very key trait about them. Not only was Seireitou's will imbued into them, in order to replace the mirror image of Ryun's will, but in order to also replace the mirror image of the traps that Ryun himself implanted into the original beasts, Seireitou reciprocated with traps of his very own. And his plan came to fruition the moment those chains subdued the beasts.

Just as the chains began to shatter themselves along with the water and yang-forged beasts, Ryun would not have noticed the spreading of a black substance on those chains, quickly flooding the body of the Outer Path specter. And as the eyes of the specter turned into cold Byakugan eyes, signifying a dominance of will, ten chains burst from its mouth, each striking Ryun's open back. Of course, no actual physical marks appeared on his body nor was there any actual damage; after all, these chains were not meant for battle. Furthermore, even Susanoo could not impede their advance, given that both the Outer Path and the Susanoo arose from the same eyes; how could the same eyes view themselves as enemies, after all? This was a seal. Within Ryun, the nine beasts would be subdued by the very chains used to subdue Seireitou's imitation beasts, concurrently subduing the Ten-Tails as a whole, but the tenth chain served a different purpose altogether. It spread a discord of yin and yang throughout the Uchiha's body, aimed at neutralizing his ability to manipulate chakra but also to once again paralyze his body. But this was merely the initial effect. Just as the Outer Path's specter's eyes turned into Byakugan eyes, symbolizing the influence drawn over him, Ryun's proud Rinnegan eyes also changed in color, becoming a malicious white. In doing so, he wasn't trying to take over Ryun, but subdue and neutralize his dōjutsu; not merely the two of his eyes but the third eye itself as well. With the eyes neutralized, even the powerful Susanoo construct, forged by those eyes, would fade away harmlessly and leave his physical body exposed.

However, Seireitou was no fool. No matter how effective his trap was, Ryun was a being of great willpower; these effects would be temporary at best and the Uchiha would wrangle free from his opponent's will soon enough. And once he did, that pesky Susanoo would be the first to be activated again. But he would not give him a chance to do so, not before striking him down. "I'll have to change tactics." came to mind as Seireitou crossed his arms over one another and fired several black rods in all manner of direction, surrounding where Ryun's body stood. Just as another individual had done once before, these rods would serve as a medium for Seireitou's own techniques, as each of them began to flicker with electricity violently.

At the same time this occurred, six portals opened up around Ryun's body; two appeared on his left side, lined up vertically, while another two in the same formation appeared on his other side, and a similar series of portals appeared behind his body, totaling six portals. And each of the portals revealed six distinct worlds; one of sand, one of grand mountains, one of a dark sea, one of ice and snow, one of rocky terrain, and a world that floats high in the skies. On the left side, from the uppermost portal, jutted out half of the torso of what appeared to be Seireitou himself, grabbing onto Ryun's shoulder, as another arm of similar origin came out from the lowermost portal underneath it, grabbing onto Ryun's ankle. On the right side, the same event occurred, as his right shoulder and ankle were also grabbed onto, and behind him, the entire torso of Seireitou appeared and held onto Ryun's upper back from behind and his lower body appeared in the lowermost portal, his legs locking themselves around Ryun's waist tightly. It was the three clones Ryun had sent away earlier, all of whom revealed black markings etched onto their bodies upon grasping Ryun, aiming to further impede him. A smirk appeared on the face of the real Seireitou at that moment. "Did you forget...? You sent my clones to your other dimensions earlier in the fight... and I observed you returning from what appeared to be your central dimension... You were too risky in allowing me to garner that information. Now I was able to figure out... where all six of your dimensions were and how to reach them." These three clones were sent away in distinct dimensions, but Seireitou had banked upon Ryun making such a move; after all, he had been making the same predictable gambits the entire fight. Seireitou knew he would send away his clones again and instructed the clones to use that opportunity to access Ryun's other remaining dimensions. And in doing so, the plan was clear. With the three clones each utilizing two portals, thereby tying together each of Ryun's dimensions to the real world, each of the three then cast the power of Uchū; their eyes glowing bright as an aura crept out from the portals and latched themselves onto Ryun's body. They had fixated the six dimensions onto individual parts of Ryun's body, trapping each of them in six separate dimensional spaces that would make it impossible to actually move even if he broke free of the seal and the clones' technique, with the main torso of Ryun's body still existing within the real world. With Ryun's dōjutsu temporarily disabled, even his Mangekyō technique would not be accessible to him in this scenario, and his ability to mold and manipulate chakra was neutralized, not to mention the beasts within his body were also chained up; all of which resulted in one thing, and that is... the Uchiha being vulnerable to assault.

From the black rods Seireitou fired earlier, beams of lightning empowered by natural energy shot out from them and pierced the skies as they bent and curved inwards in order to amalgamate onto a single region; the space right above Ryun himself, locking the Uchiha in a cage of electricity that would be geared toward wiping him out in a horrific explosion. But before Seireitou carried out his assault, he'd close his eyes and stood still briefly, his mind briefly wandering to what Ryun said earlier.

"Like Kaguya, he is possessive of chakra. Seeing it so easily denied must have unnerved him, even if he doesn't realize it."

"Now, set before you is the power of the Sage of the Six Paths. Let us begin our ancient battle once again, spawn of Kaguya!"

"Yes... now you see. The seventh technique among the Six Paths Technique was born to shackle Kaguya's power. Even her will cannot penetrate these chains: it subjugates it."

Ryun's words and thoughts throughout this fight resounded in Seireitou's mind as his eyes opened, the same powerful Byakugan as ever before appeared in the Hyūga's sockets. "Yes, I do consider some part of you to still be a mere brat... Still relying too heavily on prophecy and the strength of the Sage, instead of your own... But that is not me. Let me make one thing clear to you, Ryun... I am not..." he had began as his thoughts returned to Ryun's prior words.

"That is the source of your Gudōdama... I felt it just now. A mass of chakra within you rivaling the Ten-Tails. Being Kaguya's successor, this doesn't shock me."

"...not a mere successor to Kaguya... nor a mere spawn of her persistent existence..." he continued, the intensity in his eyes building up fiercely.

Seireitou rose his arm as his hand was gestured toward Ryun, as he his eyes immediately widened with pure rage. "I am... Hyūga Seireitou! A power meant to shackle Kaguya has no effect on me!!" he roared, as the lightning arcs closed in, the cage collapsing onto the Uchiha as a massive explosion quickly bloomed forth... and shook the land violently.

"...Relying too heavily on the Sage, you say?" Ryun's voice from behind Seireitou would no doubt startle even the great Hyūga. "Then allow me to fight you as Uchiha Ryun."

When Seireitou would look back upon his masterful trap, he would notice the Ryun he had tried to seal floating in the air, even as Seireitou's black rods and lightning faded from sight, as if they had never been there to begin with. For a moment, only the whipping of the wind and the tremendous crater filling with water bridged the gap of silence. The Ryun standing directly behind Seireitou chuckled sadistically at what would no doubt be the silver-haired man's utter shock and confusion. With the Rinnegan on his forehead and Byakugan in either eye socket, Seireitou wasn't a man to be fooled by genjutsu so easily. If that was the case, then what was going on around him this very moment?

"Shall I enlighten you?" the Ryun behind Seireitou continued. "It was earlier, during the explosion. There is a reason I used such a flashy attack. That explosion was laced with bijū chakra. Not even your Byakugan could see clearly in debris afterwards. In the smoke, I created a clone and had it create Susanoo while I transformed into its shuriken. Indeed, your use of the Rinnegan's space-time technique absorbed me into your fiery realm, but my Susanoo is more durable than any flames you can generate. Now... look closely."

In front of Seireitou, at some distance, Ryun's clone gradually lost sight in one of its eyes until that eye snapped shut. Spent of its chakra, the clone then exploded in a cloud of white smoke and vanished from this realm. At that precise moment, the clouds above opened up and heaven unleashed a torrent of lighting as a sweeping thunderstorm poured over the Land of Mountains, setting the stage for yet another interesting development between the two legendary shinobi.

---

"Izanagi..." a triumphant Ryun continued. "In exchange for losing sight in one of its eyes, my clone tied illusion and reality together. You know it of course? Its a forbidden technique of the Uchiha Clan. Only those who possess the Six Paths Power of Uchiha and Senju can properly use this forbidden dōjutsu." Ryun allowed himself to chuckle more maliciously between explanations. "Of course, to reach the real me in your dimension, I had to use my Koshintō dōjutsu to connect the realms. Simply shutting the gateway on me will not prevent my interference. And now another treat..."

Biting his thumb, Ryun drew blood which he then spread across his adjacent palm and promptly began weaving signs: Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey. A tremendous burst of smoke erupted from Ryun's location and, out of the debris emerged Ryun atop of tremendous snake. Seireitou had seen this summon dozens of times over the decades, since shortly after Ryun first became a sage. Nag, the great serpent, had appeared.

"To the world, I am Ryun Uchiha who stands in the shadows of Seireitou Hyūga, but what is the real truth? The victor is the one who gazes into the future. The real challenge for you begins now. The battle up until now was merely to scope out your abilities and gauge your powers. I am Ryun Uchiha who is the successor to Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki and the second Sage of the Six Paths. In their attempt to acquire Hagoromo's power, some have obtained an imperfect Rinnegan and failed. Even your Rinnegan pales. The true power of this dōjutsu awakens when in its original pair. Your single eye cannot compare. In the end, lament on how you grievously underestimated my power."

From atop the great serpent, the chakra of Susanoo again began to form, returning to its perfect stabilized state — only this time, Ryun manipulated its shape to armor Nag completely. The large snake flickered its tongue quickly, tasting the air. Then another shocking change occurred as the gargantuan serpent's predatory eyes took on the form of the Rinnegan — its own Rinnegan. This was a new development and one Seireitou had never seen before in all of his battles with the massive creature.

"Go, Nag!" Ryun commanded.

The tremendous serpent wasted no time coiling and striking. Its speed was blinding, faster than even Ryun himself. Even if Seireitou reacted, he would not be privy to the knowledge of the snake's most lethal attack. Focusing its Rinnegan in combination with its natural serpentine binocular vision, Nag gazed upon Seireitou and wordlessly activated Tsuchinoko. A Rinnegan toxin, even Seireitou's various applications of Yin-Yang Release would be unable to free him of the deadly poison which would soon be rapidly spreading through his chakra circulatory system. With that done, the serpent dove underground, tunneling deep below the earth, still armored by Susanoo. It would prey on Seireitou, with Ryun safely concealed with it, from out of sight.

Now Seireitou was the prey.

It was sudden. And potent as it was fast-acting. Seireitou could feel the chill up his entire chakra pathway as his physical muscles and nerves reacted to the venom. But it was then that the silver-haired man's eyes narrowed with a tint of annoyance. "Do you believe this... to be enough to even hinder me? Ryun?!" he thought to himself as an aura quickly overtook his being. Truly this technique would be unable to be dispelled by even the most powerful Medical Ninjutsu or Yang Release techniques. However, the mechanics of this effective technique would also serve to be its downfall. It was a technique that targeted the chakra pathway system directly. Therefore, it was simple enough to diagnose the underlying nature of this venom's characteristics. All chakra-based diseases and pathogens are based upon imposing a severe imbalance between the victim's yin and yang energies. The imbalance then leads to the symptoms that go with that particular illness. Therefore, the solution was obvious. The aura surrounding Seireitou's body was the result of his own method of yin-yang imbalance. The best way to restore balance is for opposing forces to be forced onto each other in order to reconcile. Two imbalanced and imperfect forces would need to act upon one another to restore order. And that was what Seireitou did. He responded to Nag's forced imbalance with his own imbalance, thus neutralizing one another and restoring balance, as Seireitou regained mobility and emerged from the venom's effects unharmed as it was now rendered weak enough to be eradicated from his body.

Once he registered that Nag and Ryun went underground, he immediately responded with a hand seal, forming two clones on each side of his being. His plan at this point was a basic maneuver; to flush out Ryun and his overgrown snake. No, not that kind of snake. Get your mind out of the gutters. The clone on Seireitou's left clapped his hands together, unleashing a coil of flames that danced along the surface of the ground, expanding to a massive radius covering the battlefield. The clone on the right then did the same, clapping his hands together, but he then spewed a large pink gas that danced alongside the flames. Normally, once these two substances were to come into contact, they would result in an explosion. Such a thing would be counterproductive. But this was not to happen. At the moment the clones cast their jutsu, Seireitou struck the ground with his open palms, as he shut his left eye and his right eye emitted a bright blue light. This was his Byakugan's most unique and arguably greatest power; the manipulation of boundaries. Within the right eye was the ability to eliminate boundaries. And so he did, his three targets being the ground itself, his clone's flame technique, and his other clone's acid gas. By eliminating the boundaries of physical laws that made it impossible for these three substances to intermingle, a new creation would then arise: acid-imbued magma. The entire ground below Seireitou, spanning for distances as large as kilometers, and depths in terms of miles, would now become pure intense magma with acidic properties; strong enough that the heat would be enough alone to disorient Ryun and definitely hinder a cold-blooded reptile like Nag, but the real danger was its acid properties, which had been proven countless times in the past to be corrosive enough to easily melt through even a fully-powered Susanoo. Furthermore, given that this magma was a result of using the actual ground as a medium for the properties of the flames and the acid, neither of the two would be able to absorb it whatsoever. If Ryun and his partner didn't want to die a miserable death down there, they would undoubtedly be forced to return to the surface, as space-time portals could not be opened underground, where there would be no actual space to create a portal.

And Seireitou would be prepared for this conclusion. Both his clones and he himself quickly ascended to the skies. Utilizing the black rods that Seireitou cleverly stationed earlier all over the ground, and due to their nature were ultimately unaffected by the magma, as he once again channeled a technique through them. Black tendrils escaped the tips of the rods and began to latch onto other rods, forming a net that would essentially capture and eradicate anything caught. And with Seireitou's previous maneuver, the heat of which would make it impossible for Nag to properly foresee the net nor Ryun himself, the Uchiha would most assuredly be unable to know what trap he'd be running into and therefore... capture was eminent. Seireitou and his two clones remained high in the skies, awaiting for Ryun's eventually resurfacing and also prepared for whatever might happen if the plan had failed.

He Must Be Killed
"It isn't enough to simply fight him, Ryun-sama..." the thundering voice of Nag rang out in the Uchiha's head as Seireitou's attack commenced. "What is your objective?"

Ryun was silent as the earth around he and his serpent began to transform into acidic magma. Were Seireitou to peer beneath the ground with his Byakugan, he might have been perplexed to see Ryun unconcerned with the seemingly hopeless situation unfolding around him. Instead, the Uchiha man's eyes were closed in deep thought, allowing Susanoo to absorb the initial heat of the outside rock. With a flick of his index finger, Ryun expanded his Gudōdama into a perfect sphere around them both, allowing for all of Seireitou's machinations with the ground to be negated within the sphere of influence, and also allowing him time to think over his answer. Wordlessly, he opened his eyes and palms and gazed down on the twin seals on them for a moment. Clenching his fists, the memories of his previous meeting with his predecessor came rushing back.

''"Seireitou is my rival." Ryun had told Hagoromo's lingering chakra. "And yet... Seireitou's power seems limitless. I'll never be strong enough to overcome him."''

''The elderly Sage had managed a smile at the time. Ryun wondered if the elderly Sage of the Six Paths had thought him pitiful. Unfit to be his successor. But it was never that simple. Instead, the Sage had taken his shakujō — born from the same Gudōdama now enshrouding Ryun in the present — and tapped on the watery surroundings of the mental plane. A shimmering image of a woman with long snow-colored hair and two rabbit ear-like horns protruding from her skull appeared before the men.''

''"This is the source of his power." Hagoromo had said. "Seireitou is the descendant and, indeed, the successor of my mother, Kaguya. My mother was a being of terrible power. She possessed both the power of the Sharingan and the Byakugan and was the origin of all chakra. Her initial revival failed, so she chose to appear in this world in another way. Seireitou is not her though. He has her potent powers and her ambitiousness but even her spirit could not dominate his. Never underestimate him."''

''Ryun's eyes had narrowed, conflicted horribly inside. Seireitou was his eternal rival. The obstacle he had to overcome. And yet, he was an immovable mountain. Unable to be defeated. Ryun had always felt a strange sense of destiny when he fought Seireitou and now he knew why. The chakra that clung tightly to him, was the son of the chakra clinging to Seireitou. An ancient blood feud that continued until this very day.''

''"One day, you will have to make a choice." Hagoromo continued. "If left unchecked, you can be certain, the man you call your best friend will destroy this world and make it again in his image. If that time ever comes, only you wield the power to stop him."''

Ryun looked up shocked.

''"He's my friend!" Ryun had shouted. "Seireitou is a bit ambitious, but there's no way he could do such a terrible thing!''"

Hagoromo's smile had widened.

''"You truly inherited the love of your clan." the Sage noted. "Your heart reminds me of my son, Asura. Your power, my son Indra. Together they will serve you well. Come to me now. I will allow you to use my powers freely from now on. I will also hand over a portion of the tailed beast chakra left within me. If you are to fulfill your destiny, you will need them."''

In the present, Ryun's eyes snapped open. Using his Rinnegan, the Uchiha peered out beyond the boundaries that separated he and Seireitou, clearly seeing the chakra of the trap net the senior Hyūga was preparing as a trap for him. As he considered the powers his friend had displayed thus far and pondered the words of his ancestor, a terrible feeling began to swell within the Uchiha immortal's stomach. Nag waited patiently; massive eyes trained upwards on his master.

"Ryun-sama?" the snake queried.

"Yeah," Ryun eventually said, sighing loudly. "Its unavoidable."

Clapping his hands together, Ryun summoned his chakra and strength for the impending attack. As he did so, the parting words of his predecessor reverberated within him powerfully.

"Remember, Ryun, Kaguya's influence on this world must be stopped at all costs. When that day comes..."

"Nag, take a break. I'll summon you back later. I know what I must do now." Ryun continued as the words poured into his head. Then, as the last of Hagoromo's words came to him, he spoke in unison with them. "He must be killed...!"

In the outside world, the now lava covered valley of the Land of Mountains erupted, completely blown away with awe inspiring overwhelming power. Ten hand-like tails burst from under the ground, completely unfazed by the acidic molten rock around them. When they reached their targets — Seireitou's black rod and conjoining net — the trap didn't stand a chance. Even if Seireitou had implanted a chakra disease or his powerful will into the rods, they were rent out of existence by the Ten-Tails' emerging tails. At the same time, a massive rabbit-like creature rose out from the crater formed by the disturbance. Having combined his powers with the tailed beasts, Ryun had joined himself with them, creating a new Tailed Beast Mode which then floated high above the molten terrain.

Yet, as quickly as it appeared, the form receded back into Ryun's original body, floating at the same level as Seireitou, completely unfazed by the Hyūga's attack. Forming a hand seal, Ryun quickly divided himself into nine clones which seemed to leap at Seireitou. Though it seemed like a kamikaze attack, each had a specific, if not hidden agenda. Ryun was pretty sure he knew how Seireitou would counter them and then go for his real body, but it wouldn't be that easy this time. This time, Seireitou would be fighting for his life.

He just didn't know it yet.

Seireitou gazed at his rival as he had formulated the hand seals typical of those preparing to unleash a clone technique. And as he observed the Uchiha, he could notice a tinge... A slight difference in the pressure between these two individuals. Something had changed. The Uchiha's entire persona this entire fight was one of sportsmanship. Many of their fights were like this. No matter how fierce the two had fought, they had always been driven by the mere desire of proving which one of the two were the strongest among them. And in realizing which one of them were, the two that stood at the top of the world, they finally could establish who would be the one to succeed Hashirama Senju as the "God of Shinobi".

But this time... Things were different.

Ryun's eyes were not those wielded by a man wishing to prove his strength. No... These eyes were colder. Devoid of sympathy but with a twinge of remorse. The Hyūga had seen these eyes all of his life, and had only seen these eyes in the Uchiha one other time; these were eyes of a killer.

Of a man with the intent to kill.

The Hyūga's eyes narrowed as he witnessed the nine clones charging in to attack. With a quick weaving of hand seals, the clone on Seireitou's left side immediately released a wave of powder that subsequently illuminated brightly. The light would be strong enough to deter the eyesight of the nine clones and even Ryun himself, albeit for a brief time, but that's all the silver-haired man required. Even with such light blinding Ryun's trio of Rinnegan eyes, the Myōgan that Seireitou acquired from the assimilation of Myoken merged together with his Byakugan eyes would not be obstructed by the bright light. After all, those yellow eyes were akin to a snake's eyes, in some ways, and different in other ways.

Once this action had been taken, the clone on Seireitou's right side shattered with a burst of glitter, hiding his movements with the bright light, as it appeared behind the real Ryun. He gripped hard onto the Uchiha's shoulders, grabbing onto him, as a black portal opened up behind him. The clone pulled the real Ryun into the portal, just as Ryun's clones had done to Seireitou's own clones earlier in the fight, and once they were inside, the portal shut closed. Thanks to that bright light, he made sure none of the clones nor Ryun himself could have observed the opening of this portal, and therefore, the clones would not be able to call back their creator nor go to where he had been pulled.

But this was hardly an important matter, as the nine clones were to have their own fate dealt to them soon enough. Using the advantage of the bright light blinding the clones during their attempted rampage, as soon as the clone pulled Ryun into the portal and the portal shut closed, the remaining clone on Seireitou's side jumped into action. His third eye burst wide open, and with it, a pulse of force quickly overtook the nine individual clones and the castor himself, dragging them all into another dimension. As the shift occurred, the nine Uchiha clones and the Hyūga clone discovered themselves submerged underwater. This was the world of water, one of Seireitou's own six dimensions, and by dragging them all into it, they would find it quite impossible to breathe; leading to the strong possibility of drowning. But even this clone of Seireitou was not to allow the possibility of them finding their way out of the water. Spreading his arms out, a vicious purple liquid flew out from his fingers. This was acid, poisonous and corrosive acid, strong enough to melt bones as quickly as cubes of ice on a hot summer sidewalk. His Byakugan eyes shined with blue, signifying the use of Uchū — the unique power of his eyes — which intertwined this acid with the very water of this world, turning the water into a powerful acid that spread throughout the entire dimension. This would ensure that this new sea of acid would instantly kill not only the castor of the jutsu but the nine clones themselves, as soon as they were to even touch it slightly. And given their situation, it would be quite impossible to avoid this fate.

In the earthen world among the six dimensions, the clone that grabbed onto the real Ryun had dragged him inside and left him in the air just as he was floating in the real world, quickly dashing several meters away from the Uchiha and landing upon a nearby cliff before weaving a hand seal. The clone used a clone technique of its very own, summoning another clone of the silver-haired man, who had quickly weaved his own hand seal, slapping his palm onto the cliff below him. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A puff of smoke, typical of the summoning jutsu, appeared before the two clones. Another Seireitou now stood among them, but this... was the real Seireitou; reverse summoned from the real world and pulled into his own dimension by the summoning technique.

As he then appeared, he gestured to the clone on his left. "Do it. Now." he calmly spoke, as the clone formed a hand seal and its eyes emitted a bright blue light from its Byakugan eyes just as before. An intense shock wave quickly overtook the earthen land, akin to an earthquake, but settled down shortly afterwards. The clone stood still there, nodding to his true self at the completion of the technique, as the real silver-haired man took some steps forward, tilting his head toward the skies where his opponent had been most likely pondering what his rival's plans were in this dimension.

"I hadn't realized it in the beginning, but after fighting you, I've finally learned about those eyes of yours." he began to state. "The Deva Path converts your chakra into gravitational forces, just as the Magnet Release does with magnetic forces. More than likely, the Sage developed this technique himself... after witnessing Shukaku's abilities. The Preta Path was based upon the Sage's Ninshū, and manipulates the user's chakra wavelengths to compliment an opposing source of chakra, allowing one to connect with it... and ultimately absorb it. Many absorption techniques are derived from this principle. The other paths have similar core workings..." he explained, crossing his arms. Rather typical of an elder man like the Hyūga, he liked to get comfortable while speaking. "Even your Middle Path. I must admit, that one had me stumped for a little while. I even had to mimic the technique through my water ninjutsu in order to fully learn about it. It's quite sneaky... It converts your chakra into a sort of... anti-chakra. Instead of altering your chakra wavelengths to compliment another source of chakra when they collide, as the laws of wave physics demands, it instead serves to... destroy the opposing wavelength with a differing wavelength. In turn, it causes the two to cancel each other out, which yields a void space where chakra can not be molded." concluding his thoughts, as he allowed his arms to fall to his sides.

The silver-haired man's mouth quickly curled into a subtle smile. "But now... those eyes are useless against me. I know all their secrets." he declared. "The clone that had just used Uchū... cast it upon my own dimension. He manipulated the boundaries and transformed this world into a dimensional mobius strip. You will not be able to leave this dimension, even with your own Desire Path or even through the same summoning technique trick as I just did, because this dimension only connects to itself through the altered boundaries. You'll have to kill the clone that is casting the jutsu... before being allowed to leave this world of mine." he added, lowering his head briefly.

"You and I, Ryun..." he spoke, the silver-haired man's tone changed from a lecturing opponent to an almost... vulnerable and understanding friend. "We had the same teacher. We shared the same beginnings. We had walked the same path, and at one time... We bore the same ideals. That would make us brothers." he continued, his voice slowly returning to its stoic demeanor. "You have eyes that would normally be shown to a man you were trying to kill. Is that it? Do you intend to kill your brother? Are you that misled by the soft words of that weak and humbling Sage...?" he had finished, his head slowly rising to stare fiercely at his rival, his stance lowering as he prepared for battle. Despite the questions, it was clear that he had no intention of hearing any answers to them.

"From the start of this fight, I have seen you as one rival sees another. But no more. If you choose to be the "savior", then I will become the "darkness"." the silver-haired man spoke once more, his fierce white Byakugan eyes focused on Ryun. "The Rinnegan, the Tailed Beasts, and the Six Paths Sage Arts... Each of these abilities display your power and experience, but they also represent the hopes of humanity... as they are the only tools you possess to vanquish this evil standing before you. If that is the case, then as "darkness", I will personally see to the destruction of each and every one... of those hopes." he declared.

Come at me with your next move. I dare you to use your dōjutsu. After all, you are stuck here until you kill either my clone or me. I will show you the futility of it all." the Hyūga challenged.

Seireitou's attack was again masterful, but Ryun had known he would attack so grandiosely and had prepared a strategy to counter it. He found it odd that Seireitou hadn't noticed that he had created an odd number of clones — the ninth wasn't meant to attack. The dimension trembled as the nine clones Seireitou had earlier destroyed returned completely unharmed. Izanagi. The nine clones were in their previous stance, poised mere centimeters away from Seireitou, arms outstretched to do the deed for which they were created.

"Do not underestimate the visual prowess of the Uchiha." Ryun said aloud, his voice heavy with remorse and conflict. "You were right with what you said earlier. Though we often went about it differently, we share each other's nindō: 'To break the cycle of this world'. Your contempt for the Sage... it is the same words you spoke to me when I first awakened these Rinnegan eyes of mine." Ryun's voice paused. He could see that Seireitou would no longer hear his answers, but he would answer him nevertheless. "We are brothers, Sei-san. Make no mistake of that, however..."

It was inevitable.

All nine clones seized a part of Seireitou's robes, their senjutsu negating the Truth-Seeking Ball-like effect that encompassed Seireitou's body. In the same instant, the nine clones pulled away from Seireitou, tugging with them long bands of chakra still attached to the silver-haired man: Release: Demonic Sealing Formula. Seireitou would recognize it as Hikaru Kurosaki's sealing technique. The nine chakras each clone had latched onto were the powers of the tailed beasts stored within Seireitou. With each of the beasts charkas out in the open, Seireitou wouldn't be able to use their powers to help him. As Ryun watched the seal unfold, his mind again went back to his meeting with Hagoromo. Specifically the moments just after the Sage's meant-to-be parting words:

''"I can't kill him." Ryun had replied at the time. "There must be another way."''

''"Kaguya's presence must disappear forever." Hagoromo had answered. "That is inevitable. However... there may be a way. When the time comes, you will know."''

---

"Let's go, everyone!" Ryun declared mentally. "Pull your chakras out of him. I'll keep his dōjutsu busy!"

One by one, the portions of Ryun's chakra replied:

"We're on it!" Shukaku replied.

"You can count on us!" was the reply of Matatabi.

"Yup!" Isobu's voice rang out.

"Right on!" was Son Wukong's.

"Of course!" Kokuō declared.

"Y-yeah!" Saiken cried out.

"If you insist." said Chōmei.

"Strike!" barked Gyūki.

"Everyone at once!" Myōbu ordered.

One by one, the clones began to display new activity. Two arms emerged from each clone — one shaped from a Gudōdama to prevent Seireitou from both injecting his will and spreading a disease through his own bijū chakra to kill the clones off, as well as to negate any technique he might send through them, and another created from each tailed beast's unique abilities. From the first clone, an arm of sand appeared which traveled up Seireitou's exposed chakra until it bound his entire body, spreading the curse marks of Shukaku across it in the process. The result was that Seireitou's movements would be entirely restricted: preventing even the weaving of additional hand seals.

The second clone produced a secondary arm composed of scorch chakra, which would evaporate immediately any technique that would attempt to cut it loose. The third produced a fluid arm of water to assist with pulling its own chakra strand and the fourth produced a similar arm of molten rock. The fifth clone's arm was made of boiling mist which, in addition to helping pull its chakra, also spread out and enveloped Seireitou's immediately vicinity in boiling mist, limiting the range of the Byakugan. The sixth clone produced an acidic arm to help pull its chakra. The seventh produced an arm of bright scales, serving to blind Seireitou even further and more fully, even as it worked to pull its chakra towards it. The eighth clone produced an ink arm, which, in addition to pulling its chakra, spread much like Shukaku's, sealing Seireitou's body in sealing ink, preventing his Byakugan from perceiving the outside world, while further restricting his movements. Myōbu produced a more unique arm, which simply held fast to its chakra as it pulled it towards it.

As a final precaution, Ryun had each clone coat their twin chakra arms in Susanoo, ensuring that Seireitou would have to win this at tug-of-war, rather than crafting some technique to save himself.

"Right back at you!" Ryun continued his earlier speech at last. "The brother I knew wouldn't allow some old rabbit hag to dictate his future. So I'll do you the honor of removing her from your destiny once and for all! That's what a brother would do!"

"I'm not done yet!"

A blast of smoke from beneath Seireitou's nearly sealed form was torn asunder as Nag returned to the battlefield. Activating its Rinnegan, the immense serpent flooded Seireitou's chakra system with its Rinnegan poison. Even if Seireitou could counter the poison in his bound state, it would take his chakra and focus away from retaining the chakra of his tailed beasts.

"Now to deal with his clones...!"

Using the power of his eye, the real Ryun and another of his clones instantaneously appeared in front of both of Seireitou's clones. With the first clone much too focused on keeping the dimensions stable, it would be unable to react in time to Ryun's instantaneous movements. Slamming his palms into the clone's body, it was much too late for the clone to react. The clone would notice its Rinnegan unable to function and its Byakugan sealed beyond repair. Its chakra disabled, the boundaries that prevented Ryun from preforming his own space-time techniques were broken, and he immediately seized the advantage. The clone Ryun had sent to Seireitou's other clone was merely a distraction. It would suddenly find itself seized and torn through a portal where it collided with its brethren at the real Ryun's location.

By then, it was too late for both of them.

The palms were closed.

"Six Paths Chibaku Tensei!!!!!!"

The ground of Seireitou's own dimension was torn asunder as his two clones became the core of a massive Chibaku Tensei. The real Ryun jumped away from the newly forming satellite. With the clones dealt with, Ryun turned his focus below where his clones were tugging away the tailed beast's chakras. It was only a matter of time now. Seireitou wouldn't be able to use his dōjutsu or fancy techniques to free himself. He would have to tug his way out, to which Ryun would only tug back.

"Once the bijū are out of him and inside my clones, he will be immobilized." Ryun thought. "From there, I can finally pull out Kaguya's chakra and seal her finally and forever with another giant Chibaku Tensei. Sei will likely die from losing her chakra, but... then I can have a clone use the Gedo Rinne Tensei to bring him back, free of Kaguya's shackles. The old man was right... this is my answer!"

Overwhelmed by the nine clones tugging away at the chakra within him, Seireitou's muscles could only tense up in response, but strangely enough... He was oddly calm. No, that isn't what it was. His attention wasn't focused on the clones slowly ripping the life out of him. It was elsewhere. His eyes flicked slowly as his body trembled where he stood. Was this fear? No... Not fear. It wasn't concern either. Nor worry. It was...

Anger.

"Those eyes..." repeatedly crossed the silver-haired man's thoughts.

---

''"This boy..." spoke one of three elder individuals, the Hyūga emblem brazened on their backs, as they surrounded a small crying child.''

''"That hair is abnormal... It's the same as that demon...!" voiced another of the elders.''

The years would follow...

"Keep away... That demon... The demon from the legend...!"

"Don't look at him! He'll devour your soul!"

A young silver-haired boy stood there, with a solemn expression etched across his face, in the open road of Konohagakure, and watched as the people observed him and turned their backs on him, whispering all sorts of things.

"He's evil! He's the spawn of the devil herself! And he will lead this world to ruin!"

"That boy is nothing but a monster! Avert your eyes!"

---

"That look... I know where I've seen it before..." Seireitou thought to himself, his mind drifting to the look Ryun had been giving him throughout this fight.

And it was at that moment... that the silver-haired man grit his teeth and revealed... for the first time in this entire fight...

"It's the same look as back then!!" his mind roared.

A look of pure rage.

He forced open his eyes, revealing the awakened Byakugan, as blood slowly trickled down his eye sockets. Even with the hindrances preventing his eyes from perceiving the space around him, by forcing his eyes to their limits... Even these obstacles could be overcome. He could finally see beyond the effects of Ryun's techniques, allowing him to gaze high into the sky and beyond... Beyond... To the furthest the eyes could perceive... The source of all life.

The silver-haired man's eyes would reflect a sphere of blazing flames dancing along the surface. Ryun's clones made sure to prevent him from using his old tricks that were used earlier in this fight, but the only thing he could not prevent was the use of the sage arts. And to the silver-haired man, there was a style of sage arts that only he was privy to... One of unbelievable power. The Great Yang Method, the pinnacle of Seireitou's mastery of the sage arts. But first, he had to deal with the matter of being physically restricted by the Shukaku's curse seal, though this wasn't too difficult of a matter. The curse seal was a product of the beast's Magnet Release, and therefore, to oppose it would require an opposing magnetic wave to disrupt its sequence. And even in this difficult situation, to knead such a simple wavelength of chakra wouldn't require too much effort. Upon doing so, the curse seal would lose its black coloration and fade to grey, signifying its lost potency. Seireitou was now capable of movement. Of course, he couldn't do much, given that his body was being ransacked by the poison technique of Nah, but he still retained enough to move his hands to form a single hand seal. And that was all he needed.

It was at that moment that he tapped into his unique sage technique, drawing upon the solar flares released by the Sun and from the skies descended nine columns of light that immediately surrounded each of the clones pulling on Seireitou's chakra. The intensity of the flare barrier separating the bodies of the Susanoo-clad clones from the arms trying to pull on Seireitou's chakra would cause them to weaken severely, but it wouldn't be enough to cut them off completely. No, it would take additional measures. Taking advantage of his Byakugan's greatest strength, he quickly scanned the anatomy of these chakra arms to discover what the weakest parts of the energy flow would now be due to his earlier action. And once he managed to locate them, using the same energy used to compose those barriers of light, he created golden fist-shaped projectiles that wildly struck at the weak spots of each of the arms. Though it would take a little effort, he finally managed to snap off the arms from the clones and effectively trapped them within the light barriers entirely. At the very instant he cut off the connection, he spread his sage chakra into the exposed chakra which quickly flooded the torn limbs, in order to neutralize the effects of the Truth-Seeking Ball that composed its nucleus. The rest would be simple. Without the effects of that aforementioned technique, everything else composing those arms was nothing more than a source of chakra to the silver-haired man. A massive black aura emerged from his body and ensnared not only the exposed chakra but the chakra of the limbs he ripped off from the clones, swallowing all of it until it returned to his body. Not only did he regain his chakra but now also gained additional chakra from the amount of energy pumped into those arms.

But there was no time to rejoice. He had that overgrown reptile to worry about, stationed right below his body, not to mention the poison ravaging his body. The latter was easy enough. Being free from the arms, and the effects that came with them, he could neutralize the technique just as he did the last time, but with the additional use of restoring the damage done to his body due to the exposure. He wouldn't have been able to heal himself so quickly, but thanks to assimilating Myoken earlier in this fight, he could make use of the man's instantaneous healing technique. He quickly dashed out of range of the snake and formed another hand seal, the same one as before, sending down another barrier of light that ensnared the snake as well. Now he had trapped all of his attackers, but he wasn't close to finished... He lifted his arm up and balled up his hand into a fist, commanding the barriers composed of this intense natural energy to collapse onto themselves and crush whatever lay within them. The clones had Susanoo defending them, but their mistake was to not use the final completed form, which would have defended them from the light's intensity long enough to escape the damage. But not this time. And given the brightness of the light, even their dōjutsu could not save them from this fate as the barriers caved in and aimed to crush them as well as burn them up into naught but ashes. Nag, on the other hand, had the misfortune of being an animal weak to flame but also lacked any foremost protection, meaning that he would more than likely be instantly incinerated.

It was at the same time Seireitou made his escape and counterattack that an elaborate secret finally revealed itself on Ryun. It happened at the moment the Uchiha attempted to use his dōjutsu. Once he tried to use a technique, he would undoubtedly experience a sharp pain in both his eyes and head as the technique would fail to formulate, and a flicker of chakra quickly escaped from his shoulder, forming a large shield that stood above the Uchiha's body before fading away. Seireitou, who could spot this happening with his Byakugan, merely formed a smile at the initiation of his maneuver. Why did this happen? How? Ryun probably hadn't noticed it back then but when the clone attempted to drag him into the portal, he grasped both of the Uchiha's shoulders. The act of doing this was clearly to pull him into the other dimension, but was it really? Ryun was so preoccupied reversing the act of dragging him and the clones into another dimension with Izanagi that he should have instead undid the very action of Seireitou's clones making their move in the first place. Such a mistake cost him dearly, as the clone managed to implant a transcription seal onto each of the Uchiha's shoulders; one put there not only by Ninshū but also through Uchū, making these seals so intertwined into Ryun's reality that even his Izanagi would be unable to reverse the effects now, ensuring that the only way to remove them would be to kill or seal away Seireitou himself. These were special seals designed to absorb an incoming assault of chakra and to reverberate it back onto its castor. This was normally utilized for defensive purposes. But this was reversed when implanted onto Ryun. At the moment the seals picked up on a specific expenditure of chakra, they would react and repel the chakra used, not only dispelling the jutsu and preventing its use, but also sending the effects back onto Ryun violently, causing some degree of pain. And the beauty of these seals were that they had no limit to their usages, they could repeatedly activate whenever the conditions have been met. One transcription seal had already activated, which would react to the use of Ryun's three dōjutsu. This ensured that he could no longer use his dōjutsu. And the second seal was set up to react to the use of clones. At the instant the seal picked up on an expenditure of chakra that would create clones, it would dispel the clones immediately and the split-up chakra would bounce back onto Ryun, causing him the same degree of pain proportional to the clones he attempted to create.

The distraction of the pain caused by Ryun's dōjutsu failing to activate would allow the second of Seireitou's secrets to reveal themselves. At the beginning of the fight, the silver-haired man formed eight clones that had served the purpose of collecting a supply of chakra for Seireitou to use throughout the fight. They were set up in such a way that they would be safe from any potential attacks or maneuvers, but now the time for them to act had finally arrived. Within the same instant that Ryun's dōjutsu had failed, after he had used the seal in conjunction with his clone to seal away two of Seireitou's own clones, four of the eight clones made their move. One clone appeared before the clone of Ryun that had been remaining, grabbing onto his arms tightly to restrict his movements. But there was a nasty secret to the clone's arms. Running up and down its arms was black markings, consistent with the Truth-Seeking Ball, that neutralized the clone's ninjutsu and even its dōjutsu as well. This would be enough to prevent any attempt to stop the clone's next move, which opened up a black portal behind them to which the clone dragged in the Uchiha clone into the realm of fire, sending them both to the incendiary as the portal closed up, most likely killing them both.

The second clone launched several black rods in the direction of the massive Chibaku Tensei, which would undoubtedly be pulled into the core due to the gravitational pull, the rods stabbed into the two clones that were the center of the prison. The clone then formed a one-handed hand seal, which caused the black rods to spread across the two clones and began to swallow them up as the clones screamed with undeniable pain. In doing so, the clone then sucked in the chakra of the two clones and effectively canceled out the sealing jutsu, causing the large moon-shaped rock that was originally held together by the core to slowly crumble apart and it began falling to the ground — broken pieces of debris — harmlessly crashing into the ground and sweeping the air with a massive dust cloud that would most likely blind the dōjutsu of Ryun's clones, assuming they had still survived their predicament.

With all of Ryun's clones handled and the elimination of his sealing jutsu, it was time to pull off a new trick; one he developed after watching Ryun use that very seal. Using the chance of Ryun distracted by the offset of his dōjutsu via the transcription seals, the remaining two of Seireitou's clones used the opportunity to close the distance. It would be far too late, even if Ryun regained composure, to act faster than the God of Taijutsu himself when it came to hand-to-hand movement. Both clones appeared before him, both of them placing their hands firmly against the Uchiha's body; with one clone behind him, gripping his back, and the other in front of him, holding onto the Uchiha's waist. The clone that stood behind Ryun had the the seal of the sun on his right hand and it was to serve a specific purpose.

You see, Seireitou was a master of deciphering the behavior and composition of a jutsu; no matter how complex. And he understood that the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei seal that had sealed away Princess Kaguya so long ago operated through the use of both the moon seal and the sun seal; both which represented Yin and Yang respectively. When the palms close, the users are capable of enacting their will over the opponent. And in doing so, they can forcefully manipulate their chakra, allowing them to convert their chakra into gravitational waves that turns them into the core of the original Chibaku Tensei technique, which leads to their sealing. It truly is, without a doubt, the ultimate seal. Now, how was this possible? Both seals were designed to target specific energies within the target's body upon coming into physical contact with them. The Yin Seal targets the opponent's spiritual energy, the origin of all dōjutsu, while the Yang Seal targets the opponent's physical energy, that which is present in the cells of all living beings and allows for the use of one's muscles. However, it also ties into the body's organs and bodily functions, but also their central nervous system. It is also the aspect of one's body that regulates the gathering of natural energy and allows it to transition the body into the Sage Mode transformation. When both energies are overtaken by the seal, the victim's chakra itself can be manipulated and the users' wills can be imprinted onto their bodies for the sealing jutsu.

But this clone only had the Yang Seal. However, all it required for this maneuver was the Yang Seal; merely one-half of the original seal. By targeting Ryun's physical energy, he could not only restrict the Uchiha's movements and disable the use of his muscles, but also cause the shutdown of the man's organs and central nervous system, slowing causing his body to die. This was merely the start. The clone's other hand was imprinted with the same black markings as the clone that attacked Ryun's other clone earlier, the markings signifying the use of the Truth-Seeking Ball, which further made it impossible now for Ryun to use ninjutsu to counter the clone's advance. However, it also bore the additional advantage of blocking any attempt of Ryun's will to overcome the clone's technique. Not to mention, with the transcription seals in place, both his dōjutsu and clone creation was now disabled, meaning the effects of the Truth-Seeking Gentle Fist would prevent his other techniques from being accessible. Furthermore, with the Yang Seal influencing the physical energy, even sage chakra was not within the realm of possibility. Now then, the clone in front of Ryun had his own purpose. Its own right hand was geared to flood Ryun's body with the diseases of yin and yang imbalance, which would seek to decay Ryun's body slowly and cause it to die, just as the Yang Seal that was causing his organs to shut down slowly and his central nervous system to shut down would make it easier for the clone's diseases to invade the body and cause severe damage. But the clone's other hand also had a distinct purpose. This arm was utilized an absorption technique, siphoning off the chakra of the nine beasts and the Ten-Tails within Ryun while the Uchiha had to deal with the disastrous effects of the other techniques targeting his life. It was being orchestrated with such intensity that it was literally pulling on the chakra of the beasts in the same manner as Ryun's nine clones had tried to do earlier. Ryun would be forced to choose now between trying to save himself from the effects of the other three techniques, which were slowly killing him, in exchange for losing his tailed beasts and the power that came with them, or to save the beasts themselves, if it meant his death. But this was the beginning.

The stage was now set.

With Ryun in this predicament, Seireitou engaged the second part of his master plan. He made a hand seal which summoned forth two clones that each appeared on either side of his body. The Hyūga's eyes were cold. He wasn't happy at all. He was angry. Outraged. He couldn't stand Ryun's eyes, he couldn't stand that look... The same look that the people used to give him when they deemed him an evil spawn of the devil. And cast him to the wayside. Seireitou's two clones immediately aimed their hands around where Ryun and his two other clones were standing. Several black rods flew from their hands and stabbed the ground all around the three of them. Seireitou clapped his hands together as his third eye burst open.

"This time... Let's see how you get out of this...!"

Several rays of light erupted from the rods and began to surround the Uchiha and the two Hyūga clones. All of them were aligned in such a way that through the Shintaikōtan — a Kekkei Genkai that allowed for the creation of energy-based constructs — several rectangular prisms began to surround the three targets. Layer upon layer of different shaped constructs began to surround them, projected by these rods that remained on the outside, but this was merely the framework, as Seireitou channeled the power of his third eye through these constructs and the black rods comprised of his will. Each of these barrier layers would channel a dimension of Seireitou's own, closing off Ryun and the two clones in a dimension sealed within a dimension sealed with a dimension — layer upon layer that closed off one another in a multidimensional sealing construct. But this wasn't even close to finished. The clone that stood on Seireitou's left clapped its own hands together and its eyes shined a bright blue light which was also channeled through the black rods. Just as before, each dimension that sealed away the enclosed Ryun and the two clones would be now influenced by a mobius strip loop as before. With this strategy, he made it so Ryun would be unable to escape into his own dimensions and return to the outside; he'd have to go through each and every one of the dimensions before being able to return. Even on the off chance that Ryun somehow survived the encounter on the inside, it would take an innumerable amount of spacetime ninjutsu in order to navigate his way through the multidimensional labyrinth that Seireitou had set up, which would undoubtedly force him to use up whatever chakra he would have left.

The clone on Seireitou's right then used the same Kekkei Genkai, in conjunction with four more black rods that were launched from its hands, to form a massive prism barrier around not only the huge multidimensional sealing constructs Seireitou had created but also encompassed both clones and the real silver-haired man as well. Though the prism, he channeled a specific wavelength of chakra that was designed to counter the use of Izanagi and other associated dōjutsu that would seek to prevent the completion of Seireitou's master plan. This was a fail safe designed on the chance that the clones that Seireitou collapsed his light barriers onto would somehow survive the situation, preventing any of them from getting involved and saving their creator from his eventual fate.

And yet, even after all this, the last part of Seireitou's master plan was yet to happen.

Relying upon the connection he had with his clones and the contact they had made with the Uchiha within the multidimensional sealing construct, he invaded the mind of the hindered and slowly-decaying Ryun. Suddenly, he managed to project a mental form of his own being into the mindscape of the Uchiha. He landed there within the Uchiha's mind, where the nine beasts had been there; speaking to their master throughout this entire fight. Without a doubt, they would be riddled with shock and surprise at the appearance of Seireitou himself within the mind of Ryun, where he could see all nine of the beasts personally. But they wouldn't be given the chance to act nor to process what this meant.

"Let's try this again, once more... It's about time I hung down you filthy monsters." the Hyūga declared, clapping his hands together as a spectral chakra began to surround his body and floated in the space above him. It would slowly begin to craft into a humanoid form. However, this form of chakra didn't take on the form of Seireitou — no, rather, it took on the form of the Rabbit Goddess herself. Her spectral hands pointed toward the nine beasts as several chains erupted from her fingertips and wrapped themselves around the necks of the nine beasts; an act which would undoubtedly cause them tremendous pain as Seireitou focused his will to pull out the nine of them from Ryun — seeking to draw them into Seireitou's own chakra and to assimilate them into his own strength. Not only was he attempting to pull out the nine beasts from within Ryun, but on the outside, one of the two clones trapped together with Ryun had been doing the same thing while the clone's other hand and the clone behind Ryun's body was focused on killing Ryun's body through different means.

"No more games, no more competition... You wish to be the savior? Then accept the fate of a foolish savior. I will kill you, Uchiha Ryun... and all those you hold dear." spoke the cold and chilling voice of the angered Hyūga. In the middle of this situation, Seireitou also began to project the image of a scenario into the mind of the Uchiha. He would show Ryun where the remaining four clones of Seireitou's eight-clone formation were now, through the shared sight they possessed: they had stood on the outskirts of Yamagakure. They had left the battlefield some time ago and had made their way to the Uchiha's village. And within this moment, the four clones all aimed their hands at the village from the large cliffs surrounding it. Large spheres of yin and yang were launched from their hands and struck the village in random locales, causing enormous explosions as the screams of innocent civilians could then be heard. After this scene, the images then concluded, leaving Ryun to deal with the emotional conflict this would undoubtedly cause him. Seireitou had a strategy to this. He was one of the few in this entire world that knew the Uchiha well. He was a man that cared more for his loved ones than any other, and this, for all of his immense strength, was also his greatest weakness; one that the silver-haired man knew how to exploit for his own reasons. Even if it meant the sacrifice of a village and its people, he would use this to unnerve and unsettle Ryun, forcing the Uchiha to make a rash decision without giving him enough time to come up with a plausible way to escape this situation; assuming there even existed one.

Ryun was trapped in a classic queen sacrifice position, as some Chess players would call it. He was the King, the life of his side in the game, while his tailed beasts were the Queen, his most powerful piece in the game. He would have to choose between saving himself, though it would mean the loss of his tailed beasts and his chakra — which would also lead to a near-death state, or he would allow himself to perish, which would prevent Seireitou from gaining the chakra of the tailed beasts but would obviously lead to his death. Stuck in this position, with death rearing its ugly head, both his dōjutsu and clone ninjutsu were disabled, doing him no good and preventing him from using them to escape this problem, in addition to the fact that Seireitou was now holding his entire village hostage, leading to a flood of emotional instability that would only make it harder for Ryun to logically analyze the situation.

"You are finished, Ryun... This day belongs to me." the dark chilling words of the Hyūga mentally spoke.

...The Savior!!!
Inside Ryun's mental realm, Seireitou would immediately meet resistance. A mental specter of Ryun swiftly and decisively cut each of the tailed beasts free with a jet black sword which quickly reformed back into a peaceful shakujō — donning both a sun and moon symbol. As he did so, he underwent a sudden transformation, his chakra changing slightly as his long hair receded into spiky tuffs atop his head, the horns from his previous jinchūriki transformation receding entirely, and a long goatee developed on his chin. Upon completion of this transformation, the mental Ryun clapped both of his palms together, using his strong chakra to hold Seireitou's mind there for just a while longer.

"Tch... You could never understand... Where I come from... to tell me I fight for impure reasons... Just who the hell do you think you are, Hikaru?!" Ryun recalled Seireitou as having once said. "The only thing I ever wanted from you was respect and the only true way I can obtain that is from defeating you head on! You could never understand my childhood, how I never had friends, nor family... I was all alone... and then... you and Ryun, and Shōyō-sensei... and even that boisterous brat Echo... you became my family...! And how did I repay sensei, huh?! I stood there and allowed him to die! From then on... I knew my goal in life: to protect those close to me. That's why I rely on power! To save my friends at all cost! That's why I need to prove myself against someone as strong as you!"

"Ninshū... the art of understanding one another." Ryun spoke out across the mental plane. "You've used a perverted form of it in this battle, but without its basic tenets, Ninshū is a bladeless weapon. A predator without teeth. Central among these is... 'That it mustn't be used to increase the power of a single individual. If a single person has too much power, they will become enamored by it and lose control'." Ryun opened his rippled eyes and gazed upon the form of his friend. "You once told Hikaru that you clung to power to protect your friends. And you told me here today that you do not follow the path of Kaguya and yet, what is happening to you is exactly what happened to her and my grandfather, Madara Uchiha. You're accumulating power for your own nefarious purposes." Ryun paused briefly, allowing his words to sink in. "You also told me that you and I once shared the same path... That is true. I took the path you once walked."

Using his midnight-black shakujō, Ryun dipped the weapon into the water-like liquid pooling at their feet in the mental plane. Immediately a shimmering image of Yamagakure appeared as it would in real time in the material world: with Seireitou's clone's Tailed Beast Balls bearing down upon the seemingly defenseless village.

"Ninshū teaches that chakra is not just a weapon." Ryun went on, seemingly unconcerned with the fate of his village. "It connects people to each other on an emotional level. Shōyō-sensei shared that belief and taught us orphans ninjutsu as a means to exfoliate on this. Now, you will finally see the result of his teachings. While you've been off amassing power, I created a village and taught them ninjutsu as well. I united the formerly warring Land of Mountains into a single, powerful, shinobi nation. To one such as yourself, they are nothing. Ants to be crushed, but..."

The enormous black spheres got closer, now within the immediate vicinity of the walls.

"My village is strong!" Ryun declared as the balls collided hopeless against the invisible barrier surrounding the village. "Did it surprise you that I saved the tailed beasts and not my village? That's because... I trust my comrades!"

The Tailed Beast Balls reflected off the invisible barrier, crashing into mountains miles away and exploding with tremendous power. With that, Ryun released his hold on Seireitou's mind, allowing the mental world to fade and his eyes to open in the real world. There, two of Seireitou's clones were present in the core of the dimensional sealing technique, one flowing a Gudōdama-like effect to prevent his use of ninjutsu, while the other tried in vain to kill him with Yin-Yang diseases. It was futile. Ryun's regeneration powers were much to potent, far beyond even Seireitou's own. Furthermore, Ryun's natural senjutsu chakra completely negated Yin-Yang effects on his body, rendering the both clones useless. To complete the Hyūga's failure, Ryun possessed the twin power to Seireitou's Yang seal, easily stopping the muscular binding he had imposed upon the Uchiha.

"Ryun!" came Shukaku's voice within his mind. "A powerful transcription seal has been placed on your eyes! He knows the Rinnegan has the power to break the seal!"

"Indeed," Ryun replied mentally, feigning weakness against Seireitou's clones. "A transcription seal works by setting delayed parameters and activating once those parameters are met. However, sealing techniques can override others of the same type. Furthermore, Sharingan and Rinnegan work by flowing special chakra along the optic nerve. That's likely what he's targeting. That special chakra. In that case... I'll seal a powerful technique-negation chakra within my eye. The parameters will activate my seal when his activates, negating the technique contained within, thus breaking the seal."

In the split instant afterwards, Ryun through off his disguise of weakness, snatching both enemy clones by their foreheads, causing both to immediately go limp: the Human Path. The seal-negation method had worked like a charm.

"I see." Ryun said aloud to himself. "This is Seireitou's fūinjutsu cast using the Yang Power of the Six Paths. Furthermore, the seal is held in place by the black rods of the Six Paths and uses Seireitou's eye powers and a construct-based kekkei genkai to weave the dimensions together into an unbreakable seal. Formidable indeed."

"Ryun!" Myōbu's voice boomed in his head. "I've prepared chakra for you. Let's burst out of here!"

Clapping his hands together once more, Ryun focused his legendary Rinnegan into the power of the Outer Path — killing Seireitou's clones in the process, as was the fate of anything or anyone touched by the Human Path. Seireitou's dimensional seal was indeed powerful, but it could not stave off a connection to the. After all, chakra connected the two worlds, and as long as Ryun could manipulate life and death with the Outer Path, he could reach that world. A burst of light occurred among the darkness as souls of Hikaru Kurosaki, Echo Uchiha, and Shōyō Kawahiru materialized within the seal, having been called back by Ryun's chakra to preform a task.

"Welcome back, you three." Ryun said with a genuine smile. "Lend me your aid this last time."

Outside the mighty seal, a tremendous sealing formula spread over the ground and in a blast of debris and dust, four figures suddenly appeared below where Seireitou was manipulating the seal. Before the dust had even settled, the Sword of Nunoboko, resistant to the power of Seireitou's rods, cut each of the black staves — disintegrating them in the process — causing the tremendous seal above to collapse on itself in a massive explosion. As wind swept the debris away, Seireitou would be able to see the glimmering souls of his former teacher and comrades faded away, returned to the afterlife.

"Perhaps you're wondering how I returned here with such a simple Gyaku Kuchiyose?" Ryun spoke as more debris cleared away, revealing his transformation was as much physical as it was mental. When it had cleared enough, Seireitou would see Ryun's left hand extended, possessing a black moon-like marking. "Those with the Yin and Yang Powers of the Six Paths are connected — even closed off dimensions cannot stave off that bond. You used the Yang marking to seal me, so I simply used the Yin marking, bolstered by my tailed beast yin chakra, to latch on to that feeling and reverse summoned myself out. Of course I had some help but... Only when used together can one with our powers be sealed."

With that, Ryun rose high into the air, until he was at an even level with his rival, Gudōdama floating behind him and a black shakujō in his dominant hand.

"The final clash begins after this." Ryun declared once level. "I hand the floor to you. My next attack will not miss."

That Which Binds Us
Throughout the entire ordeal, observing Ryun thwart his clever maneuvers, nothing unnerved Seireitou more than when he noticed the appearance of four spectral figures that destroyed the black rods maintaining his multidimensional seal. A mixture of confusion and anger flooded his expression, but one emotion stood out over them all — longing. His face cringed at the brief sight of his beloved mentor, overcome with pure sadness as his Byakugan eyes focused onto him, as his arm slowly began to extend and his hand was reaching out for him. And with his disappearance, the very same despair that composed him traded hands over to anger.

"Yes... That's right. I clung to power, just as Kaguya did... Because I needed purpose. Those villagers, the elders of the Hyūga, and so on... looked to me as a monster. A demon without nothing to offer them but destruction and mayhem to their way of life. But this was because it was a time of peace. Those with power are not needed in a time of peace, but in an era of conflict... Even if they despise him, they will flock to the one with power. They will depend upon him... even if they hate him... because he is the strongest. And their only hopes of surviving. That is... how a monster like me... can create bonds with others." resounded the thoughts of the Hyūga.

"But... Could it be that I... am wrong...?"

Tears were forcing themselves to trickle downwards, the very same that fell when Princess Kaguya saw her own sons in the transmigrants of Indra and Asura, even though he himself did not give way to such things. He developed a shortness of breath, momentarily unable to fully calculate the massive flow of emotions within him. But then... The tears quickly subsided.

"No... I'm not. The ones who are wrong... are you lot."

A strange sense of calm overtook the Hyūga's facial expression, as he bore witness to the return of his Uchiha rival.

Upon the conclusion of Ryun's words, Seireitou's eyes fixated upon the former with far too many conflicting thoughts and emotions to even attempt expressing... But in this storm, almost suddenly... Composure returned. He could breathe softly and his mind was finally free from that interpersonal turmoil. And finally, he had begun to speak.

"Yes... You are right. Chakra is what connects us all... And it was a villain in the form of a princess that sought to destroy the bonds that tied us together." The Hyūga's voice demonstrated a tone that had been originally unheard during the entirety of their confrontation; a tone of acceptance. "But you and the Sage... are self-righteous fools." he continued, his entire tone finally returning to what it once was; one that reflected the truth of his views.

"How arrogant you both are. You believe that power is something you can give or take away on a whim, depending upon your preferences... You designate friends and grant them power through the pure Ninshū, while ripping away strength and life from those you deem evil. You lack the elegance required to achieve understanding. The only difference between you and Kaguya is that she would steal away chakra indiscriminately, but you... and Hagoromo... did something much worse. You created the notion of peace and tempted those of a war torn world with such a concept, drawing a fine line between good and evil. And you deliberately believed yourselves the ones who could distinguish which individuals fit where. But that rigid thinking..." Seireitou went on.

But his words following would no longer be heard by the Uchiha. A cloud of smoke quickly surrounded him as he disappeared from the skies where Seireitou had been floating. But even with his disappearance, he continued his tirade without fail.

"...In the end, that connection that chakra boasts... and the clinging to power that you accuse we evil beings of..."

"It is one and the same. Rigid people like you..."

Ryun had gravely underestimated the purpose of many methods that Seireitou had used in his last maneuver. Sending those four clones to his village wasn't to attack his village, to cause warfare, nor to simply rouse his anger... but to be as far away from his perception as possible and to force him to believe there was a different purpose to their creation. At the instant their attack had failed on the village, something that they had expected entirely, all four of them had fled to the ocean dimension, to prepare for the true plan. Furthermore, the act of sending two clones to latch onto Ryun and to slowly drive out his chakra while trying to kill his body was all a guise for an incredibly simple reason: to create a personal connection between the Uchiha and the Hyūga, that only the latter could utilize. It was akin to the act of forcefully creating a summoning contract, and in doing so, allowed Seireitou to perform the Summoning Technique to drag the Uchiha wherever he pleased.

The Uchiha would immediately find himself pulled into the very same dimension Seireitou's clones had entered, floating in the air right above the surface of the massive seas below him, and in that instant, he would find himself cornered on all ends by the four clones of the Hyūga. However, in the confusion of what had just transpired, the Uchiha would not be able to react what was to come next. However, precautions were still taken. All four clones had their third eyes opened and their Byakugan active, focused onto Ryun to undo whatever dōjutsu he might attempt to escape his impending fate.

The clones that floated behind him and to his left had hand seals already prepared, forming two water mirrors that each reflected the appearance of Ryun himself, reaching out with the moon seal distinctly visible on his palm. Given life, both images of the Uchiha would jump from the mirrors, now flesh and blood creations of Seireitou's own that had reflected what his clones that sacrificed their lives to observe earlier in the fight; when Ryun had sealed away two of his clones, he had used his own Yin Seal to compliment his own Yang Seal. Given that Seireitou already was in possession of the latter seal, all he needed to preform this new technique was Ryun's Yin Seal. And now he managed to acquire it, if only for this instant.

Instantaneously, the palms of the Ryun clones and the palms of the remaining two Seireitou clones all smashed into the body of the real Ryun that was pulled into the dimension. He would not be able to react as a pair of hands closed together, completing the Six Paths Cross Seal. The concept was simple enough. The first pair of seals were meant to neutralize the seals that Ryun himself carried. This was possible given what Seireitou knew of the sun and moon seals. They could impose the sealer's will onto the victim and forcefully convert their life energies to whatever the sealer desired. In the original seal, the castors chose to convert the chakra to gravitational forces.

After all, the Uchiha was right. Only when both seals come together can somebody of a power like the Uchiha's own be defeated. But it went further than this. Taking upon what Seireitou studied of this seal's mechanics, the first pair of seals sought to neutralize Ryun's seals and convert them into an anti-wavelength that would project a similar effect throughout his body as the unique dōjutsu the Hyūga analyzed earlier in this fight. However, instead of voiding Ryun's chakra, what this seal accomplished was to counteract the Uchiha's sage chakra; his Senjutsu. In doing so, the Hyūga ensured that his sage chakra along with his pair of sun and moon seals would now be inert and would lose whatever potency they had. The seal took advantage of the fact that Ryun's sage chakra was tied to his Tailed Beasts. It was his greatest attribute in battle, to have such a powerful source of sage chakra, but it would only serve as a massive disadvantage due to the nature of this seal.

"...are far too dependent upon chakra. But in the end, chakra is essential to you and Hagoromo as it is to me and Kaguya. And without it, there can be no bonds..."

The Uchiha's chakra, in its entirety, was rendered impotent. It was his words, after all. Chakra is what connects people. And without that chakra's potency, the connection Ryun had was also rendered moot and... ineffective. He would find it impossible to perceive the connections he could tap into earlier. With the first pair of seals in place, the second pair of seals had taken effect within the same instant. This would be the same seal that Ryun enacted onto Seireitou's clones earlier, the Chibaku Tensei empowered by the Yin and Yang seals. With his own seals, his sage chakra and life energies, and even the power of his Tailed Beasts, all rendered inert, there was absolutely no defense to the second seal's effects. The ocean began to form ripples as it slowly ascended high into the skies, forming massive tital waves that surrounded Ryun on all sides, pulled toward him who had been converted into the core of the Chibaku Tensei.

"...And without bonds, there is only loneliness."

But it would not be water that composed these oceans. This entire dimension was subject to Seireitou's will, and as such, it would also serve as a mere extension of his very being. Black coloration began to quickly spread across the surface of the waters as the entire ocean itself had transformed into naught but darkness, as Seireitou, the one who was capable of viewing everything from the real world through his Byakugan's power, transmuted that very water into the Truth-Seeking Ball. Without the potency of sage chakra and the lack of his twin seals, Ryun's body would not be able to survive being totally ensnared and sealed away by this substance. The black waves latched themselves onto the Uchiha and with a thunderous roar, he would be covered entirely and eventually destroyed.

"There is only... darkness."

"I wonder about that."

---

Seireitou's only warning of Ryun's appearing at his back would be the forceful slam of the Uchiha's palms into his back. Thanks to the senjutsu chakra flowing through Ryun, any Gudōdama effects that were currently coursing through Seireitou's body would be rendered completely useless and null. Even as he did so, a sweeping seal spread across his back, freeing Ryun forever from the Summoning Technique Seireitou sought to impose on him. Surprisingly, however, Ryun didn't initiate a seal of his own, leaping back and flying a safe distance away.

"Your anger is blinding you, Seireitou." Ryun goaded. "You know such a move cannot reach me. Shall I give you the play-by-play? Your dimensional technique... I was able to offset it enough to delay my arrival in your intended dimension. From there it was easy. Your water mirrors have become terribly predictable, but no matter what technique you have them replicate, my Gudōdama dealt with them without even having to consciously manipulate them — before they could complete their conversion into flesh-and blood beings." Ryun's expression became more stern. "You've done battle with me for decades. Have you really become so arrogant in your new found powers that you thought I wouldn't notice a trend and prepare for it? Furthermore, your use of a fūinjutsu was... predictable. After all, I'd only just explained its mechanics to you. I suspected you might try to replicate it. But... your seal failed to come to fruition."

As Ryun spoke, the shakujō in his hand reverted into its standard sphere form.

"Sealing techniques are a must." Ryun thought to himself. "I have to remove the mass of bijū chakra he keeps within himself. Then Myoken and Kaguya's chakra must be split from him. Attacking him flat out isn't a viable strategy. That means I'll have to get the jump on him. No easy task, but, I still have some mementos to assist me and, furthermore, there is that strategy..."

---

Resolved of his duties and plans, Ryun lifted his dominant hand, forming the standard. It was a practice Shōyō had once taught his students while training under him that comrades should use this seal when preparing to address each other in combat. For Ryun, it not only symbolized that distant memory of when he and Seireitou were children, training as rivals under the same mentor; it also symbolized his solid resolve to see his destiny carried out. The sadness that once muddled his heart faded. Seeing the souls of Echo, Hikaru, and Shōyō once again had reignited the spark within him and affirmed his nindō and now he would put it to practice.

"Seireitou, your past self... is still my best friend." Ryun thought, keeping Seireitou firmly within his gaze. "In order to honor him, and his will, the only thing I can do now is... entrust the future to my successors. The old you would be so proud of how far Shōyō-sensei's legacy has carried on. It really is something. In this battle, you've impressed me, and been rather unique. So now, in the end, I will do what I can... to protect the old Seireitou and... kill the current Seireitou!"

"Come." Ryun declared, holding his seal firm. "This will be our final shinobi kumite."