Chapter no.157

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Naruto finally realized the utter hopelessness of the situation as he was forced to watch an entire section of a town be crushed by the influence of darkness until it simply ceased to exist. Naruto had no illusions that this 'man' could have easily done the same for the entire town if he had wished so, and had only not done so since that was only a demonstration of his power...

The differences in their power were just far too vast.

"Darkness is Gravity! The power to pull in anything...and spare not even a single ray of light...Darkness is a void that devours and crushes everything." Zetsu voiced regaining his previous composure as the darkness returned to him until it only coated his hands. "Now why don't I show you what became of it?!"

"Liberation!" Releasing the spiraling mass of darkness from his back once again, Zetsu expelled all the remains of what his darkness had swallowed up all at once. Shattered pieces of wood, crushed portions of buildings, flattened houses and so much more was expelled all at once until the wreckage created a large ring around them that stretched on for miles, leaving only a clearing in the middle of all of it where the three of them stood.

'...This looks like a pretty troublesome ability so far...I don't know where the townspeople were, but if they were in those buildings, they're probably dead at this point...Though something else has bothering me so far...I've never heard of this darkness fruit, but he claims it's a logia-type just as the others are...If so, then why did he need to absorb my Hiken instead of letting it pass through him...?' Were Naruto's thoughts as he stared down at his enemy from the single building still standing in the area.

Coating his fingers with fire, Naruto put his index fingers together in a cross shape, emanating a cross-shaped ray of light which locked onto his target. Traveling across that lone ray of light, Naruto launched a large column of cross-shaped fire at incredible speeds towards Zetsu only moments after he had finished releasing what remained of the southern sector.

"Jūjika (Cross-Fire)!"

Unknowingly proving Naruto's prior theory correct, Zetsu conjured a barrier of the black mist to absorb the powerful attack rather than avoiding it like any logia should have been capable of. As the Akatsuki member dispersed the darkness after completely nullifying his smirk turned into a frown when he saw the analyzing look that the boy was giving him.

"I see you've already noticed one of the glaring weaknesses of my chakra fruit...Naturally the greatest of all powers would have a drawback or two." Zetsu commented emotionlessly, shifting his piercing gaze from the boy to the building he was still standing on. He had left that lone structure standing in the area simply to demonstrate to that insect the power that he held, but now it seemed as if it would get in the way of the slaughter that was to come.

Raising up just one of his arms, Zetsu targeted the building and all the area surrounding it, singling out just the gravity aspect of his abilities instead of a combination of the two as he usually did. With a single flick of his wrist, the gravity surrounding the entire area of the lone structure increased until it became unbearable for the building to remain standing, let alone a person.

In less than a span of a second, the entire building gave into the incredible increase of pressure, cracking and collapsing until it was a mere pile of shattered wood just like the rest of the surrounding area. The damage did not just stop at the building though, the ground surrounding was forced to crack and cave in, making it impossible for anyone in the targeted area to remain standing.

Expectedly, Naruto was forced down onto the remains of the structure he was previously perched on as he was held there by the immense force of gravity. He had realized just how powerful gravity could really be when Zetsu had destroyed part of the town, but seeing and being subjected to it was a completely different experience.

Naruto felt like an insect facing off against a dragon...he had never truly felt fear in his life before, was this what it felt like? If he wasn't currently being crushed by at least a hundred times the normal gravity, he was sure he would be trembling at the moment. Though he could still feel the cold sweat that had broken out on his face. Had he not been made of fire, he would surely been dead by now as the shattered pieces of wood had pierced his body when the building had collapsed. Even fire had been subjected to gravity.

Nothing could escape gravity's influence.

Summoning every bit of strength he had within his grasp, Naruto struggled against the omnipresent force that was rendering judgement upon him and forced to one knee. Gritting his teeth as hard as he could while clenching his hands with enough strength to draw blood, with one final push Naruto managed to force himself back on his own two feet.

Despite gravity trying to force him back on his knees, Naruto took a single step forward. And then another. He just kept repeating the impossible process of walking under such intense pressure. He put everything he had into the simple movements of walking until he managed to step off the remnants of the collapsed structure and onto the broken ground before him.

Portgas D. Naruto would not kneel for anyone.

Seeing as how Naruto wouldn't be forced to his knees anymore, the gravity suddenly returned to normal, causing Naruto to stumble forward at how light he felt before catching himself. He looked up from the ground that had occupied his vision for the last few minutes and caught Zetsu's smirk. That had only been another demonstration of his power, Naruto realized.

"I already told you...Darkness drags in everything. Shuriken, kunai, swords, fire, and even lightning...I can't dodge attacks like the rest of you do, I can't turn into my own element. Actually, my body absorbs much more pain because of the Yami Yami no Mi...But with this much power at my disposal, I think those drawbacks are only minor annoyances at this point." Once again the black mist began to radiate from Zetsu's back and shoulders, though this time it wasn't in the form of the vortex that was used to release whatever it absorbed.

Zetsu continued to speak, "But in exchange for those risks there's one more thing I'm capable of absorbing. Kurouzu (Black Vortex)!" Extending one arm forwards, the black mist surrounding Zetsu's hand began to move in a spiral-like fashion. "The gravity of darkness can accurately absorb the entity of chakra fruit users."

Naruto stood there for a moment with a questioning look on his face since nothing was happening as of yet, but as soon as he began to wonder if the technique was a dud, an immense pull of gravity pulled him forward until he was in Zetsu's grasp a second later. One moment he was standing over thirty yards away and the next Zetsu was manhandling him.

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt Zetsu's hand gripping his shoulder with strength not reflected by his physique. He had expected his enemy to be aware of Haki and have a high level of mastery over it, but he had never expected his intangibility to fully be cancelled out...This was not the work of any kind of Haki.

"How does it feel...? Have you figured it out yet?" Zetsu mocked as he eyed the boy that was now within his grasp.

"No way...!"

Just as Naruto realized what was going on, Zetsu reared his free arm back and brought his fist right into the disoriented Naruto's gut with strength that made Jūgo's feel like a love tap. The force behind the punch forced Naruto to cough up a bit of blood before he was flung across the clearing into one of the boundaries of the battlefield that was a home that had been ripped in half earlier.

After feeling untouchable for so long, Naruto cursed his unfortunate luck for coming across two people who could actually harm him in the same day. His body screaming for mercy, Naruto pushed himself out of the crater on the side of the house the impact had created, forcing his body to slide down the wall until he reached the ground with his back still leaning up against the structure.

Naruto took his index and middle fingers and wiped away some of the blood that was leaking from the corners of his mouth, almost unbelieving that this could possibly be happening even though he had gotten beat fairly well only a few hours ago. But this guy...he was on an entire different level.

"You understood the moment I grabbed you. The other thing my darkness can absorb is...the chakra fruit powers! In other words, by being touched, those with abilities of the chakra fruits are unable to use their ability for that time!...Though it works best on chakra fruit users and those with a certain intangibility, my powers can nullify the chakra of any being as long as I'm touching them!" As Zetsu boasted about his strength, Naruto slowly made his way back on his feet.

"So it's fine as long as I don't get caught." Naruto spoke quietly, more to himself than Zetsu, with several different scenarios already running through his mind.

However, Zetsu seemed to hear his whisper, "I've already proved to you that you can never escape from the influence of darkness, yet you still have hope...? I'll make sure to correct that."

"Looks like I don't have much of a way out of this." Naruto clutched ripped what was left of his torn mesh shirt off his body and clutched his bleeding shoulder. He would need his phoenix flames as much as he could later, so he couldn't be wasting them on the few wounds and fractured bones he had at the moment, instead they were focused on the shattered and snapped bones within his body.