Nindō 0032: Small Tricks

"I remember you," Kinshiki, the bulky Ōtsutsuki said distastefully after noticing Sasuke's appearance in the arena.

"What?" Sasuke snarked. "Did you want your horn cut shorter? I don't mind remedying that."

"You aren't getting the chance this time," Momoshiki answered instead. "Unlike your initial encounter with us, we now have an abundance of chakra pills that the eight beasts have so graciously supplied us with."

"These guys are trying to get the chakra fruit to turn it into pills that will give them all sorts of benefits," Sasuke explained before Naruto could ask about the pills.

"Hm," He grunted as an even greater concentration of Kurama's chakra leaked from his body, solidifying the gold chakra cloak further.

"Pitiful resistance," Momoshiki snorted. "You can work as hard as you wish, but you will never compare to the might of a god." Popping some more chakra pills like they were candy, the slender alien pointed his finger at Naruto's cloaked figure. This time a concentrated lightning blast escaped the tip of Momoshiki's finger, reaching Naruto's cloak in an instant. A massive dust cloud was raised, enveloping the entire stadium. The impact made the earth around the stadium shake, damaging its foundation itself. Multiple pillars and support beams cracked, causing the floors and roofs of the different levels to collapse down onto the civilians. The competent shinobi all burst into action instantly. The Kazekage worked to an especially grand effect by spreading his sand through the entire stadium and holding up most of the rubble, allowing the other shinobi to focus on evacuating the civilians.

The other four Kage weren't too far behind either. Darui, The Raikage took advantage of his speed to transport multiple groups of people outside the stadium, his efficiency rivaling multiple Anbu ninjas working together. The Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi, on the other hand, took advantage of her Lava release to support Gaara's reinforcement of the stadium's structure by covering the weakened structures in lava and dousing them with water release to harden the lava. The Mizukage, Chōjūrō, seemed to be left behind by the other kage since his skills were mostly focused on swordsmanship and single combat. His efficiency in supporting the evacuation effort was barely on par with the stronger jōnin ninjas such as Sakura, Temari, and the rest.

Amidst this, Lee seemed to shine brightest. With his high physical prowess, he was easily able to match the Raikage's lightning-enhanced speed and show even greater efficiency in the evacuation process.

"You're doing great, everyone. Keep going, and focus on evacuating the civilians quickly. I will be protecting everyone," Naruto's words seemed to be magically enhanced as they reverberated through the ears of the ninjas and civilians alike. The confidence in their Hokage's voice seemed to instill a new breath of life in the ninjas of Konoha, allowing them to find the courage and willpower to double their efforts despite the exhaustion that threatened to take over some of them.

The dust settled, revealing the figure of Naruto's chakra cloak that covered Naruto, Sasuke, and the three genin. His chakra cloak had a purple armored head around it, having supported Naruto in blocking the attack.

At this time, Sarada's Sharingan, which was still active since the fight against Mitsuki, processed all of the events in her surroundings. She saw how the four Kage of the villages seemed to be spearheading the evacuation efforts initially. But the moment Naruto spoke his words, the Konoha-nin came into the spotlight, each and every one of them giving it their best. She was starstruck by how big of an impact Naruto's words seemed to have on the people.

'What an immense weight you hold up on your shoulders, Seventh-sama … sensei. You merely said that you would be protecting everyone and every single ninja trusted your words without hesitation. I don't see a single one of them covering their backs or even glancing at those two aliens.'

Sarada looked up at the twisted expression on the attacking alien's face and felt a shiver travel down her spine. It didn't take a genius to realize that the alien was completely infuriated.

"I know people like you," Momoshiki said with disgust, still not taking Naruto seriously. "You rely on your charisma and political sway to bring the masses to your side. To work together against a greater enemy. Is that how you defeated Kaguya?" A cruel look flashed in the eyes of the Otsutsuki, "I wonder what you will do when the targets are your own people instead. Will you stand up to your words?" The alien was more interested in breaking Naruto's spirit than capturing the tailed beast at this moment.

Sasuke couldn't help but snort amusedly at Momoshiki's words, "How about you show him your immense charisma, Naruto?" Even as he joked, Sasuke reinforced Naruto's Kurama cloak further with his armored Susanoo as Momoshiki started gathering another attack.

Naruto responded with a light smile, "What are you talking about? I have great charisma." His joking tone was the complete opposite of his internal seriousness. Momoshiki ate a large bunch of the red chakra pills before the orb gathered over his palm started enlarging, becoming as big as the stadium itself.

"Tailed-beast ball …" Sarada couldn't help but gasp as her Sharingan examined the attack. It was a perfect sphere of black violent chakra that would not only destroy the stadium but a huge part of its surroundings as well.

"Try and block this," Momoshiki grunted before throwing the magnified attack downward.

"Track me down once I'm gone," Naruto said to Sasuke. "I won't be able to return without the spacetime ability of your Rinnegan."

"What?" Sarada asked with widened eyes while the other two — Boruto and Mitsuki, were just as confused. Sasuke shared a look with Naruto and nodded, tacitly understanding what his rival was talking about.

Following Sasuke's response, Naruto joined his hands together for a moment before spreading them apart, exploding with a blinding gold light that forced all three genin to look away. Even Sasuke was forced to close his eyes as the blinding glow affected him.

Momoshiki couldn't help but raise a brow at the huge spike of chakra that he felt at that moment, the fox's chakra alone far eclipsed any of the other beasts that they had already taken and converted into chakra pills. Even combined, the beasts didn't seem to be comparable to the chakra quantity that was being released at the moment.

What emerged from the blinding glow was a huge fox, Naruto finally unleashed Kurama's chakra cloak completely. The entire stadium was covered in the glow of Naruto's released chakra and Kurama's tails protectively enclosed the stadium into a protected dome. As for the tailed beast ball that approached Naruto, he gathered an immense amount of natural energy from his surroundings, literally creating an invisible whirlpool of unruly natural energy that formed around the sphere of violent chakra.

The Ōtsutsuki was left standing with a raised brow, sensing the massive scale of the stirring natural energy.

"I'll send you a taste of your own medicine, Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki," A deep uncharacteristically heavy voice escaped from Naruto's throat as the natural energy took form around the beast ball while Naruto's own chakra invaded the construct. Within a moment, in the center of the sphere, a mark appeared. It formed into a red swirl that abruptly took control of the chakra infused into the attack. "Return," Naruto spoke with the same voice. The chakra of the beast ball seemed to listen to him and instantly changed directions, approaching Momoshiki instead.

Under the blinding glow of Naruto's cloak, neither his voice nor the impossible sight appeared in anyone's senses. Everyone in the stadium was blank as Naruto abruptly reflected the massive attack back to the alien.

"I like that shocked expression on your face, Momoshiki," Naruto's tone was amused as he crossed his arms and waited for the attack to reach the Ōtsutsuki.

As the sphere started approaching Momoshiki, Naruto felt something stir behind him, Kinshiki appeared right behind the neck of Kurama's chakra cloak before slicing through it with his relic axe. Before Naruto could turn around, the bulky Ōtsutsuki had his arms wrapped around his torso as Momoshiki's surprised expression disappeared as if it had never existed.

The alien smirked, "Feeble tricks. Do you think I will be helpless if you deflect my own attack at me?" Momoshiki extended his Rinnegan-clad arm and allowed the sphere to come into contact with his palm. Moments later the entire thing was completely absorbed by him.

Naruto showed an apathetic expression while struggling to free himself from Kinshiki's hold.

"It's meaningless to struggle," Momoshiki floated down, facing Naruto through the chakra cloak. "You cannot rival Kinshiki's physical strength. You should instead just give up and let us extract your chakra." An invisible wave of energy spread from him before the three of them, Naruto, Kinshiki, and Momoshiki disappeared.

Instantly, Naruto's protective chakra cloak disappeared, and with it the blinding light, allowing everyone to see the clear skies. Both their Hokage and the invaders had disappeared. Before anyone could show any worry, Shikamaru stepped up in a timely manner and took control of the situation, giving orders to the Anbu and the jōnin in Naruto's stead.

"Hey," Boruto pulled Sasuke's sleeve. "Where's my dad? What did he mean by looking for him?" Sarada looked at Sasuke with the same, if not even more imploring look, wanting to know what exactly happened.

As Sasuke was about to reply to Boruto's words, Hinata approached them and grabbed Boruto, hugging him tightly.

"We need to go home, Boruto. Your father is strong, he can be rescued by those who are right for the task," Her eyes hovered over Sasuke for a moment before turning back to her son.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Hinata's behavior. He was observant enough to notice that Hinata should've been the first person to have completely lost herself with Naruto's loss. Instead, she was acting calmly and even taking care of her children. He glanced at Naruto's daughter who was asleep in her mother's arms, undoubtedly induced into sleeping by external means.

'Did he already plan to get kidnapped and told his wife about it beforehand?'

***

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