Gacha System in Naruto
113 – Eyes That Tear Through Space

---Ryouma's POV---

I looked around. At least within my visible range, everything was a sea of black.

I pulled out a handful of wooden slats from the ninja tool pouch tied to my waist and scattered them with a special technique.

These wooden slats were specially prepared for situations like this, where throwing Flying Thunder God kunai was inconvenient on the water. Each carried a Flying Thunder God mark.

I planned to wait for the wooden slats to drift farther with the ocean currents, then teleport away to a quiet place where I could carefully sense the coordinates of the shinobi world.

After all, I wasn't here to fight Ghatanothoa head-on.

"Wuuu~ Wuuu~"

Another massive tentacle tore through the air and shot out from beneath the sea surface, this one ending in a grasping claw lined with smaller mouths. The thing was easily as thick as a car and moved with terrifying speed.

I had no choice but to swing out another arc-shaped blaze to drive it back. The blade cut deep into the writhing flesh, sending black ichor spraying across the dark waters.

Apparently, Ghatanothoa had decided there was no need to probe anymore. Dozens of tentacles surged out from the black sea and completely surrounded me! Some ended in claws, others in mouths filled with needle-sharp teeth, all glowing with that sickly yellow light from the creature's countless eyes. The water around me boiled and churned as more appendages broke the surface.

I leaped from tentacle to tentacle, using them as stepping stones while dodging the snapping jaws and grasping claws. One was about to caught my leg, but I twisted away at the last second.

Buzz buzz buzz~

I compressed violent wind chakra rapidly, forming an enormous Rasenshuriken about 30 meters in diameter in my hand.

I twisted slightly, building power. The dazzling blue Rasenshuriken launched from my grip, slicing through a tentacle and continuing in an arc, cutting down all the surrounding tentacles as it went. Severed appendages splashed into the water around me, some still twitching.

I didn't detonate it as usual, instead guiding it back to myself with careful chakra control.

Without Shukaku around to give me chakra continuously, I had to conserve what was sealed inside as much as possible, because I didn't know how much chakra returning to the shinobi world might cost.

The severed tentacles began regenerating almost immediately, new flesh bubbling up from the stumps.

Great.

Not far away, Ghatanothoa, perched atop the ruins of the sunken city, seemed to feel pain. It roared with its pulsating dome of a head, and released a massive cloud of mist from its writhing flesh, surging toward me.

My Rikugan immediately picked up the abnormal energy signature within the mist. Whatever this stuff was, it was strange. I could see small debris in the water turning gray and cracking as the mist passed over them. It was likely some kind of transmutation effect.

I quickly formed a water clone and sent it toward the edge of the approaching cloud. The moment the clone made contact, I watched as its body began to harden and turn to stone before dispelling.

Petrification.

Nasty, but not impossible to deal with. The mist carried a distinct chakra pattern that my Rikugan could track.

Using Lostvayne, I unleashed a horizontal slash, activating the Full Counter domain, reflecting all the petrifying mist back at Ghatanothoa. The mist swirled around its leathery flesh, but its hide proved immune to its own petrification.

It tilted its grotesque head, letting out a deep cry, it clearly didn't understand why its own mist was rebounding.

Unconvinced, it tried again, launching another wave of petrifying mist at me. This time the cloud was thicker.

Unable to do much against this monster, I had no choice but to keep swinging Lostvayne, using Full Counter to reflect the mist back again.

Although Full Counter didn't consume much chakra, this couldn't go on forever. I couldn't rely on counterattacks alone to wear down Ghatanothoa. Worse yet, I realized the ocean currents on the surface were swirling continuously around the ruins of the sunken city... my wooden slats weren't drifting away at all. They just kept circling in the whirlpool.

"Seriously?" I grumbled inwardly.

The creature seemed to grow more aggressive, as if my successful defenses were irritating it. Through my Rikugan, I could see massive chakra signatures building beneath the water's surface, more tentacles preparing to emerge. I counted at least fifty now.

Some moved to block my escape routes while others prepared coordinated strikes, but my Rikugan gave me the advantage of seeing their movements before they fully committed to attacks.

I formed another Rasenshuriken, this one smaller but more concentrated. Using my precognitive abilities, I targeted the three tentacles that would be in position to box me in from the left in exactly two seconds. I severed them just as they moved into their planned positions.

But for every one I cut, two more seemed to take its place. The creature was adapting, using feints and misdirection.

One massive appendage, easily twice as thick as the others, suddenly shot up from beneath me. I had seen it coming from the moment it started moving, so I calmly teleported to one of my floating wooden slats using Flying Thunder God well before it reached my position.

I landed on another tentacle, using it as a platform to get a better view of my situation. I could see the full scope of Ghatanothoa's chakra network, it was even more massive than I'd realized, easily the size of a small mountain, with energy pathways running through every tentacle.

---Third POV---

While Ryouma was having this delightful dance with death, back in the shinobi world, Shukaku was on the verge of a meltdown. If it were by his side now, it would've started with a Rasengan and simulated nine super-massive Rasenshuriken to bombard the enemy from above, unlike this miserly style, where even one Rasenshuriken had to be recycled.

Meanwhile, Obito and Kakashi watched the gate in the sky with anxious eyes. Seeing that Ryouma wasn't in immediate danger, they breathed a small sigh of relief, but the slowly closing gate still filled their hearts with dread.

The gate had shrunk to maybe a third of its original size, and through it they could see the increasingly desperate battle unfolding.

Forcing himself to calm down, Kakashi turned to the cowering Bishop sitting with his knees hugged to his chest and asked,

"Do you know what it means if that gate fully closes?"

The Bishop stayed silent, showing no intention of responding. His eyes were vacant, as if he'd given up on everything.

Obito rolled up his sleeves and charged forward, ready to punch him, but Kakashi quickly pulled him back and continued, "Didn't you say the dark chakra left here was completely used up? If Ryouma manages to return safely, there's a good chance he'll be carrying some of that chakra with him."

A faint gleam returned to the Bishop's eyes, but it quickly faded again. He wasn't a fool. When it came to spinning tales, as a high priest, he was at least several levels above Kakashi.

Hadn't nearly half the ninjas from Yu been fooled into following him?

Seeing that the Bishop wasn't cooperating, Obito suddenly remembered the scene where Shiori used the Sharingan to control the Yu ninjas. Now that he had also activated the Sharingan, he figured he should be able to do the same. Grabbing him by the hair, Obito forced him to make eye contact. The two tomoe in his Sharingan spun rapidly.

The Bishop didn't resist in the slightest. To him, nothing really mattered anymore. Seeing the light fade from the Bishop's eyes, Kakashi asked, "What does it mean if that great door closes?"

"It means… the world where the dark gods reside and the shinobi world will begin to drift apart."

"What do you mean?"

"That world… was drawn into synchronization with the shinobi world by the ritual. Their spatial coordinates had temporarily overlapped… but now that the door is closing and the ritual is ending, it will return to its original distance from our world."

"There's really no way for Ryouma to come back?"

"None." The Bishop's voice hit Obito's mind like a sledgehammer, so much so that even the genjutsu couldn't be maintained.

He and Kakashi both remembered what Shukaku had said earlier, if the distance between both worlds reverted, would Ryouma's chakra really be enough to make it back?

Within the sliver of the gate still in the sky, the battle between Ryouma and Ghatanothoa raged on, growing ever more intense.

He darted and leapt nimbly across the tentacles, his Rikugan allowing him to see the creature's attack patterns several moves ahead. But something was wrong, the beast was learning faster than it should have been able to. 

Several times he found himself nearly trapped by tentacles that had positioned themselves not where he was, but where his Rikugan showed he would dodge to. This thing was analyzing his movement patterns in real time.

He spotted what looked like a stable piece of debris floating nearby. But his Rikugan immediately revealed the faint chakra signature running through it, another tentacle, perfectly mimicking wreckage.

He decided to use this to his advantage. He landed on the fake debris, and the moment it began to coil around his feet, he teleported directly to the creature's main body using Flying Thunder God, he'd marked it with a kunai during one of his earlier Rasenshuriken attacks.

He appeared right next to Ghatanothoa's pulsating head, Lostvayne already in motion. But as he prepared to launch the attack, massive energy was building up in the creature's head region. Those countless eyes were focusing their energy into a single point, and the targeting was aimed directly at him.

He had maybe two seconds before whatever it was planning would fire.

A beam of purple piercing light shot from Ghatanothoa, cutting through the black sea and heading straight him in mid-air!

BOOM!

As if a climactic scene had been cut off mid-episode, the gate completely shut, and the ceremonial patterns in the sky vanished as well.

Obito collapsed to a squat on the ground, staring blankly upward. There was no longer any sign of his dear friend in the sky, only a bare stone wall. A heavy sorrow spread through the underground chamber, making even the air feel thick and still.

For some reason, Shukaku thought back to the first time Ryouma had taken it to Konoha, when they stood before the grave of his comrade's father, and it first learned the meaning of family.

"So precious… yet bound to be lost in the end. First it was the Sage, now it's you. Are tailed beasts really destined to only bring misfortune?"

The silence stretched on. Even the sound of dripping water from somewhere in the chamber seemed too loud.

Kakashi forced down the unease in his heart, walked over to Obito, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He tried to speak in a steady voice, though it cracked slightly. "Pull yourself together, Obito, Shukaku. Let's head back to Konoha immediately and find Minato-sensei. Maybe he can—"

Smack.

Obito slapped Kakashi's hand away and broke down, shouting, "Why are you so calm?! That's Ryouma!"

Hearing those words, Kakashi couldn't hold back any longer. Tears streamed down his face as he shouted back, "Then what do you want me to do? What can you do? You think I'm not scared? You think I don't care?"

Obito's body trembled as he stood up, locking eyes with Kakashi. In his blood-red eyes, the two tomoe spun faster and faster, almost merging into one.

The air around them seemed to vibrate with chakra as his emotions reached a breaking point.

"I'll create… a world where Ryouma still exists!"

At last, the Mangekyō Sharingan, capable of tearing through all space, awakened.

30 advance chapters!

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