Naruto: I'm in Konoha, my name is Uzumaki Menma

Chapter 275 You really are Kaguya's backup plan

The rain had not yet stopped when the murderous intent rose again.

Holding a black chakra rod, Jigen transformed into a black lightning bolt and charged fiercely at Menma, who was standing on the tower wall.

The two clashed again, their fierce clashes amidst the towering towers and ruins of Amegakure, the pure physical combat erupting with a heart-pounding roar.

clang! clang! clang! clang!
The sound of black sticks clashing was like the rhythm of death, and sparks flew in the rain.

Cixian's offensive was like a storm, each strike containing the power to tear steel, attempting to suppress Menma with absolute force.

Mianma, on the other hand, was like a reef in a stormy sea. He wielded his black stick so tightly that it was impenetrable, deflecting Cixian's fierce attacks one by one. His movements were precise and efficient, as if he had already calculated every move his opponent would make.

In the fierce close combat, Cixian's eyes flashed with a cold light as he once again used his strange ability.

Daikokuten and Shona Bikanna!
Countless chakra rods, shrunk to an extreme size, were silently scattered by him into the airspace around Menma, like invisible dust. They then instantly enlarged and pierced Menma from all directions and various tricky angles!

These black rods appeared without warning, enough to turn any ninja into a hedgehog.

However, the invisible barrier force field surrounding Menma once again came into play.

All the black rods that suddenly grew larger experienced an extremely brief delay upon contact with the barrier force field!

Although it may only be a fraction of a second, it is more than enough for a ninja of Menma's caliber!
His body made all sorts of incredible dodges through the dense gaps between the black rods, or used the black rods to deflect attacks that could not be completely avoided.

The black chakra rods that Jigen shot out grazed his clothes and hair, embedding themselves in the wall and ground behind him with muffled "thud thud thud," but they could never actually touch his body.

'Damn it! It's that barrier again!' Cixian frowned, secretly resentful. The opponent was far more troublesome than he had anticipated.

He sensed that this barrier was similar to the ninjutsu that he had just been unable to absorb through his Karma seal.

Meanwhile, Menma is also looking for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

He knew that conventional ninjutsu would be absorbed by Jigen's "Karma," and only the "Spiral Wheel" from another world could cause him effective damage.

While fending off Jigen's fierce attacks, Menma kept taking out specially made kunai from his ninja tool bag and casually throwing them at Jigen. After Jigen dodged them, these kunai were scattered in various corners of the battlefield.

The handles of these kunai were all engraved with the Flying Thunder God Technique formula, and they spread silently across the ruins like seeds.

After several rounds of fierce fighting, Menma seized the moment when Cixian's old power had just dissipated and his new power had not yet been generated, and his figure suddenly blurred!
The art of flying thunder god!
In the next instant, he appeared behind Cixian like a ghost.

It was exactly where the kunai had landed!

A fist covered in powerful chakra slammed into Jigen's temple without any fancy moves!

"What?!" Alarm bells rang in Cixian's mind. In his haste, he only had time to turn his head and take the punch with his shoulder!
boom!
With a heavy thud, Cixian was sent flying by the force, tumbling several times in the air before barely managing to regain his balance.

He felt numbness on half of his body, and a sharp pain came from his shoulder blade.

However, just as Jigen was still in mid-air and Menma was preparing to press his advantage, another unexpected event occurred!

Cixian's figure vanished without warning, right before everyone's eyes!
There was no smoke, no afterimage, not even a trace of chakra fluctuation, as if he had never existed!
Everyone on the ground, whether it was Jiraiya, who had just barely stood up with the help of the two sages Fukasaku and Shima and was exhausted, or Pain, who had broken free from the black rods and had a gloomy face, or Obito, Konan and Zetsu, were all deeply shocked by this bizarre scene!

"Gone...gone?!" Xiao Nan frowned, her senses had completely lost their target.

"What's going on?! There's absolutely no spatial fluctuation... It doesn't seem like a space-time ninjutsu..." Obito's single eye under his mask was filled with astonishment and uncertainty. He possessed the Kamui Sharingan, which made him extremely sensitive to spatial anomalies, but the way Jigen disappeared just now was completely beyond his comprehension.

He glanced subconsciously at the kunai scattered all over the ground, each engraved with the Flying Thunder God technique symbol, and said in a low voice, "That black-haired kid's Body Flicker Technique... no, not Body Flicker Technique... it's... the Flying Thunder God Technique?"

Obito was somewhat uncertain. His Mangekyou Sharingan could sense spatial fluctuations, and the opponent's move did indeed have spatial ninjutsu fluctuations, but... the Flying Thunder God Technique had been lost with the death of the Fourth Hokage!
Pain remained silent, his Rinnegan eyes fixed on the airspace where Jigen had disappeared. The ripples in his pupils slowly shifted, as if he had caught some extremely subtle trace, but his expression became even more solemn.

He had just broken free from the black rods that sealed his chakra, and was quite exhausted. Now, seeing such a strange ability, his fear deepened.

"Cough cough..." Jiraiya clutched his still throbbing chest, struggling to breathe with the help of the two toad sages. Looking at the situation before him, which was completely beyond his expectations, his mind was in turmoil.

"The Sage of Six Paths' Rinnegan was terrifying enough, and now two mysterious powerhouses have appeared who could easily kill Pain..." He was basically certain that the black-haired boy was the "Shura" who had attacked Konoha multiple times.

So, who is this other guy who can fight "Shura" to a standstill and even possesses more bizarre abilities?
The Great Toad Sage's prophecy didn't mention it...

The waters of the ninja world are far deeper than he imagined!

Meanwhile, Menma cautiously gripped the black chakra rods in front of him with both hands, his left Mangekyou Sharingan spinning wildly, and his right Byakugan, pure white, scrutinizing every detail, trying to find Jigen's whereabouts.

However, Jigen himself possessed the chakra shielding ability unique to the Otsutsuki clan, and with the extreme shrinking of "Sukuna Hikona," the two combined made him seem to be completely integrated into the microscopic world, making it difficult for even Menma's eye technique to pinpoint his location for a while.

'This is troublesome...' Mianma frowned, thinking to himself.

'Should we activate the Flying Thunder God mark on him now and force our way to him? But that's a backup plan to locate his alternate dimension lair...'

Just as he hesitated, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Pain out of the corner of his eye. Pain seemed to have discovered something, and his Rinnegan was locked on a certain direction!

'That's it!' A sudden thought flashed through Mianma's mind as he remembered some information.

In Boruto, Sasuke seems to have used his Rinnegan to detect Jigen's shrunk form! It seems that at least Rinnegan-level perception is required!

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a confident smile curved at the corners of Mianma's lips.

He doesn't have the Rinnegan, but he has other trump cards!

He suddenly activated the white of his right eye with all his might!

The invisible power of the eye pierced through the barrier of space and instantly established a link with the giant Tenseigan, which was formed by the fusion of countless Byakugan, located far inside the moon!
Om-!
A vast, pure power of vision surged into his white eye through the link!

With the help of the giant Tenseigan's powerful ability to see the essence of all things and even interfere with space, the originally blurry microscopic world instantly became clear in his eyes!
He "saw" it!
In that seemingly empty rain curtain, a "point" that has been shrunk to an extreme size, like a speck of dust, yet radiates a unique energy fluctuation, is moving silently!
"Found you!" Menma's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and his right hand instantly condensed a "small spiral wheel" containing ominous dark chakra. Without hesitation, he rushed towards the location of that "point"!
"That is...?!" Jiraiya stared in disbelief at the energy ball that looked extremely similar to the Rasengan but emitted a completely different chakra attribute.

"It looks so much like the Rasengan, but it feels... completely different!"

Cixian, who was trying to find an opportunity to counterattack in a weakened state, suddenly felt a deadly sense of crisis locking onto him!
He was horrified. How could the other party see through his "Shona Bikuna" state?!
He immediately tried to dodge.
However, at this moment, Menma's figure disappeared into thin air again!
The art of flying thunder god!
The next moment, Menma appeared directly in front of the shrunken Jigen, and the small spiral wheel also teleported at the same time, hitting the shrunken Jigen the instant he appeared!

Boom——! ! !
Dark purple chakra exploded, and a violent explosion swept across the battlefield once again!

Annihilate everything in that area into the most basic particles!
A disheveled figure was forced out from the edge of the explosion; it was none other than Cixian, who was forced to release his shrunken state!

His feathered robes were even more tattered, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth again, and his eyes were filled with a mixture of shock and anger.

Just as he regained his footing, a circular spatial portal with black and red edges, resembling a vortex, opened behind him instantly!

"Trying to leave?!" Menma's eyes lit up when he saw the alternate dimension appear, and his figure flickered again as he tried to intercept him.

Startled, Cixian moved even faster, leaping backward into the portal. The portal then quickly closed and disappeared, leaving only a faint ripple of spatial energy in the air.

"It disappeared again... What kind of magic was that?" Xiao Nan stared as the strange spatial portal vanished, her hands clenched tightly, scraps of paper fluttering uneasily around her.

Pain's Rinnegan and Menma's Byakugan, which was linked to the giant Tenseigan, scanned the entire battlefield, but they could no longer find any trace of Jigen.

This time, he truly left this space completely.

The Akatsuki members' gazes involuntarily returned to Menma, the only one remaining in the room.

Meanwhile, Menma was sensing the Flying Thunder God mark on Jigen's body.

The atmosphere instantly became subtle and tense.

Obito narrowed his one eye, the more he looked at the black-haired boy, the more inexplicably familiar he felt, especially the combination of his eyes and his composed demeanor...

Konan and Pain were on high alert. Having witnessed Pain's Asura Path being instantly killed, they dared not be careless in the slightest.

Nagato, who was hiding behind the scenes, was suffering from extreme depletion of chakra and mental energy due to the successive loss of two Pain bodies, and was even panting heavily.

A sense of powerlessness and anger welled up inside him.

'Could it be... that I really have to summon the Gedo Mazo here?' The thought had barely crossed his mind when he remembered the crushing defeat he suffered in the Star Country.

Before they even saw the true form of "Shura," they were utterly overwhelmed by a terrifying beam of chakra descending from the sky, not to mention the powerful Uchiha Hikaru...

If he hadn't acted quickly, he probably wouldn't have made it back. And this young man before him seemed even more unfathomable than that Uchiha Hikaru.

………………

Just as the battlefield of Amegakure fell into a brief silence due to Jigen's disappearance.

In the depths of that other dimension, inaccessible to ordinary people, space ripples like water.

A vortex-shaped portal, its edges shimmering with an ominous black-red light, suddenly appeared in the void.

Immediately afterwards, a figure stumbled out of the door in a rather disheveled state; it was Cixian, who had just forcibly escaped the battlefield.

"Cough...cough cough!" As soon as he appeared, he couldn't help but cough violently, spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood.

The haori he wore, which was originally pure white and symbolized elegance and strength, was now tattered, covered with marks from the explosion and the force of the tearing, its edges charred and curled, making it look extremely disheveled.

Cixian's usually cold and arrogant face now showed signs of paleness and exhaustion.

For the first time, those eyes, which had witnessed a thousand years of vicissitudes, reflected disbelief and rage.

The boy who called himself "Otsutsuki Rakushiki" not only had a strange ability that could not be absorbed by the Karma, but he could also see through his "Shona Higana" state of concealment, and even forced him to use his last means to escape!

Cixian slowly raised his head and looked at this alien space that belonged only to him.

At the center of the space is a huge and ancient altar.

The altar was constructed of some unknown stone, with an ancient and wild style, full of an exotic atmosphere that did not belong to this world.

On the circular wall of the altar, strange giant symbols and marks are engraved, each mark representing the existence of a member of the Otsutsuki clan.

His gaze moved upwards, and at the very top of the wall, two of the largest and most conspicuous marks were placed one above the other. The one at the top belonged to him, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki; and below him was the name he hated to the core.

Kaguya Otsutsuki.

At the very center of the altar, beneath what resembles a pot lid, lies a huge, bottomless circular cavity.

Beneath the void lies not pure darkness, but a terrifyingly vast and unimaginable fluctuation of chakra, along with a primal, violent aura filled with destructive desire.

Cixian floated, drifting towards the edge of that empty space.

He looked down and, through the invisible barrier of the seal, could clearly see the breathtaking scene below.

A colossal, one-eyed beast, its size beyond description, is bound in the abyss by countless thick black chakra rods.

Its enormous, pale body had ten huge tails that writhed unconsciously behind it, and its single, enormous eye remained tightly closed, as if it had fallen into an eternal slumber.

It's the Ten-Tails!

However, Cixian had no time to play with the pet at the moment.

His gaze fell on his abdomen.

There, the cracks in the black wedge-shaped area had widened significantly, like porcelain about to shatter, with unstable arcs of light shimmering at the edges, bringing waves of piercing pain and weakness.

“This body… is still too fragile…” Cixian’s voice carried a hint of barely perceptible hoarseness and resentment.

Forcibly activating the "Wedge" state one, and then using "Daikokuten" and "Shona Bikkula" in succession for high-intensity combat, especially enduring the final "Small Spiral Wheel" attack, which put a load on the container far beyond expectations.

He couldn't wait any longer.

Drifting to the window directly above where the Ten-Tails was sealed, Jigen extended his palm, covered in black patterns, and gently pressed it against the invisible sealing barrier.

His eyes held a complex expression, a thirst for power mixed with a hint of regret for the precious "fuel."

“I’m sorry…” he murmured to himself, his tone revealing little remorse, more like a formulaic declaration: “Now, I need to borrow your strength.”

As he spoke, the black wedge-shaped mark on his palm suddenly glowed with a deep, eerie light!
A powerful suction force was instantly generated!

Om-! ! !
The Ten-Tails, which was sealed below, seemed to sense something. Its massive body twitched violently, and its tightly closed single eye opened!

A six-tomoe red Rinnegan!
"Roar!" The Ten-Tails roared unwillingly.

Its vast, ocean-like chakra was being forcibly extracted from the seal, transforming into a visible, turbid, and violent torrent of dark red energy that surged wildly into Jigen's palm, rushing down his arm and throughout his entire body!

As a massive amount of energy surged in, the black wedge-shaped patterns on Cixian's body seemed to come alive, greedily devouring this power.

The injuries he sustained from the explosions and battles were rapidly healing under the nourishment of this pure and immense chakra energy, and even his torn haori began to repair itself.

The worrying laceration on his abdomen was also forcibly stopped from spreading, and the edges began to slowly close and heal. Although it was not fully restored, it at least stabilized.

A moment later, Cixian released his hand and stopped absorbing the energy.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and his originally pale face regained some color. The fatigue in his eyes was also swept away, replaced by a deeper and more dangerous light than before.

Cixian felt the renewed, even stronger, power within her body, and looked down at the now stable crack in her abdomen.

“That’s enough…” he murmured expressionlessly.

"The game is over."

…………

Yuyin Village.

At this time, the atmosphere among these three forces is delicately confronting each other.

hum! ! !
Above the battlefield, that familiar vortex-shaped portal with black and red edges reappeared!
Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to it!

Cixian's figure emerged gracefully and slowly from the portal.

Completely different from his previous disheveled appearance, his feathered robe was brand new, all the damage was repaired, the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth had disappeared, and even his aura had become deeper and more expansive than before!
He looked down at the hempen mounds on the ground, his eyes, which had regained their indifference and arrogance, now held a kind of pity as if looking at ants.

"It seems it's time to let you, a slightly stronger insect, truly witness... what the power of 'gods' is."

Before he finished speaking, an immense pressure, far more terrifying and suffocating than "State One," erupted from Cixian's body!

The rain curtain in the sky seemed to be driven back by this momentum!

The black wedge-shaped lines on his body began to spread wildly as if they were alive, becoming even deeper and more complex!
Above his left eyebrow, a curved, bone-like black horn grew out, extending along the contours of his head, circling the entire skull, and finally stopping above his right temple!
Wedge - State Two, Activated!
At this moment, Cixian's appearance has already transcended the realm of humanity!

The overwhelming sense of oppression made everyone present, including the two toad immortals and Nagato, who claimed to be a god, feel a sense of dread and insignificance!

The members of Akatsuki were all shocked, their expressions changing drastically.

'This change in form and the surge in power...' Through Pain's perspective, Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, was most aware of Jigen's changes in strength.

Menma, faced with this overwhelming aura, merely waved the black chakra rod in his hand casually, as if he were loosening his wrist.

He looked up at Cixian, whose appearance had drastically changed. Far from showing fear, his face revealed a hint of "I knew it," his tone slightly mocking:

"That's more like it... It finally looks a bit like your original form."

He paused, then clearly uttered the name that had been sealed away for a thousand years:

"One style."

Upon hearing this name, Jigen's arrogant expression, which had just appeared due to the restoration of his power, suddenly froze, and then turned into utter rage!
He raised his left hand, covered in black markings, his index finger pointing straight at Mianma, his voice distorted with extreme anger:
"You bastard... you really were one of Kaguya's hidden traps!!!"

Black Zetsu: ?!

(End of this chapter)