Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

The Shinden Saga – Arc 4: The Otsutsuki War

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Chapter 147 – Susanoo Battle

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In the center of Kirigakure, on the roof of the apartment building where Takeshi Minamoto lives, the two celestials living in this land are confronted with Tokubei Otsutsuki, one of the Shinden. Right as he arrived, deranged by the reaction of Rihetsuki, he forced him under his control with one of his Rinnegan's powers. Jigokudo, the Naraka Path's interrogation.

"Rinnegan! So you really are Tokubei?" Rihei remarks, recognizing the eye of the one he knew by that name.

"Be careful with your words, old man." the masked man advises. "Your life is at stake here, and judging from your looks, your kalpa won't cover much of it."

Sakitsuki clenches her teeth in panic and trembles. Two years ago, by opposing one of the Shinden, she caused the death of Hyakki. She knows that Tokubei, who was the latter's master, won't be as playful or patient as he was and won't tolerate any opposition from her. So she can't dare to intervene. Rihei, held by the neck and paralyzed, is already under Jigokudo's trial and can't escape it on his own.

Noticing the sudden movement on the roof, Tojiki, the daughter of Rihei, looks at where her father and teacher were calmly discussing their matters, and sees a stranger hidden by a hood and mask holding her dad by the neck. By this sight, she is suddenly reminded of her own trauma. Hoods and masks. All the mercenaries who abducted her and kept her captive on a boat were wearing such things. So, to her, these accessories worn by someone mean evil.

"Daddy!" she yells as she hovers toward the roof to come to her dad's rescue. This gets the attention of Rihei and Saki, but also of Tokubei who squints when she sees the little girl.

"No! Tojiki!" Sakitsuki shouts to her. "Stay back! I beg you! Don't do anything. Go away! Hurry!"

The little girl stands still in the sky and hatefully stares at the intruder. Tokubei, staring back, only now notices the tomoe in her right Byakugan. Immediately, he recognizes the Dojutsu that only Naobi is known to wield nowadays. Not only that, but she also reminds of her without this detail. Tojiki, trusting her instructor, holds back and turns around to fly away. Already busy with subduing the little girl's father, Tokubei lets her go.

"Who is that girl?" he asks one first deadly question to Rihetsuki who slowly shakes his head, refusing to give an answer. "So you're refusing to reply? Very unwise."

"She's his daughter!" Saki exclaims to answer for him. "It's just his daughter."

"Sakitsuki, you know how Jigokudo works." Tokubei warns. "He refused to talk and your answer doesn't make up for him."

Following this statement, a black gate of Yomotsu Hirasaka opens in his back and an elongated fleshy arm emerges from it. This limb forcibly plunges into Rihetsuki's mouth and gets a hold on his soul. Considering his silence as a lie, it abruptly pulls onto his life energy. Since he is a member of the celestial race, it first steals away fragments of his kalpa, the psychic materialization of his longevity.

"This was already most, if not all, of it." Tokubei threatens. "I doubt you'll survive another lie."

Rihetsuki shakes powerlessly, unable to breathe or resist. Saki stays bowed but looks up in horror as she senses the elder's kalpa vanishing. Yet, the trial is not over.

"Now, second question. If she is just your daughter, why does she have the Sharin-Byakugan?" the god of winter adds, to no reply at first. "… Do you refuse to speak once again?"

"I don't know!" Rihetsuki answers to save his life by letting the sound of his voice be emitted without the need of his gagged mouth.

Tokubei waits a moment and, seeing no sentence applied, deduces that he is telling the truth. He looks at Saki insistingly, just to give her a chance to provide a more relevant answer if she has one. But she doesn't know either, which lets him wonder about it. In anguish, eager to save her fellow's life, Sakitsuki begs the Shinden.

"Tokubei-sama, please listen to me!" she screams, almost crying out of panic. "Tojiki has nothing to do with the clan or Ashihara. She is only an earthling. There's nothing more to know about her. Please, leave her alone!"

"… That kid is no earthling. She is a goddess, just like you, Sakitsuki." Tokubei corrects her, just to trouble her more, before complying. "But you are right. She's none of my business. Let's focus on the mission I was given instead… Tell me, old man, is Takeshi Minamoto in this village?"

Hearing this question, Sakitsuki stares agape and rises from her bowing position. She didn't expect it, but the Ryu Shinsen now has an interest in her boyfriend. She doesn't want to put him in danger in any way, but knows that Rihei has to speak to save his life. And so he does.

"Yes, he is." he simply says.

"I see." the masked man comments, noticing the distress of Saki. "Is he the bright inhuman chakra I sense in the distance behind me?"

"He is." Rihei still has no choice but to comply.

"One last question." Tokubei says, side eyeing Saki. "Is Sakitsuki in a relationship with this man?" he asks, out of curiosity, making her shiver.

"Yes." Rihei replies to save his life.

"Very well." the Shinden says before ending his trial and letting the exhausted retired god collapse on the ground.

Sakitsuki instinctively hurries to step forward and check on him, but is stopped by Tokubei who reaches out with one leg to get in her way. She stands still right next to him, swallows her saliva and, not hearing him say anything, asks what haunts her mind.

"Please, Tokubei-sama, don't hurt him." she implores for her boyfriend's safety.

"I have no reason to, if he behaves." he replies while slowly raising his hand toward her. "For now, it's finally time for Hyakki's last mission to be fulfilled."

Yomotsu Hirasaka

He abruptly catches her by the top of her sleeve as he opens a wide portal next to himself and pulls her to throw her in through. Shaken, Sakitsuki trips and falls into it, landing shoulder first in the dust on the moon's surface. Having accomplished one of his missions with this simple move, Tokubei prepares to close the gate but is distracted by a disturbingly fast moving chakra he feels in his back.

It is the same chakra he previously identified as Takeshi's. As he senses it reach him, he rapidly turns around and bends his shoulders to lean aside. Dashing over him he sees the ninja in black failing to strike him with a Shiroden, a chakra blade of white lightning. But the Minamoto doesn't mind his failure, making it seem like his goal wasn't to reach him.

Instead, seeing the gate still open in front of him, Takeshi hurries through to join Sakitsuki and bring her back. But Tokubei understands his intention soon enough, and prevents it with a clever move.

Yomotsu Hirasaka

Once on the other side, Takeshi crashes toward the ground next to his girlfriend, but falls right into another portal instead of the dust. Inadvertently going through in his momentum, he is brought back to the roof of his apartment, falling toward the masked man. Confused and frustrated, he tries to strike again with the same lightning blade but the Otsutsuki takes advantage of his disorientation to move first. He catches the ninja by the ankle before the blade reaches his face and undoes it.

Gakido

The white lightning is absorbed within his only visible eye as he maintains a tight hold on the Minamoto's hand to prevent him from running away again. Unable to flee, Takeshi sees the gate separating him from Saki close under his eyes. He stares speechless at it, realizing that he let happen so easily what he fought Hyakki over. This leaves time for Tokubei to analyze him.

"So you're Sakitsuki's boyfriend?" he comments. "You got to be somehow more than human for a goddess to fall for you."

With his attention drawn on the one responsible, Takeshi lets his anger out in the shape of his tengu, Fear Itself. The wooden shape of Makura appears behind him to trigger a demonic illusion, but is interrupted before being completed by Tokubei who keeps using Gakido to suck the chakra out of Takeshi and prevent him from using it.

To immobilize him properly, the Otsutsuki then swiftly turns around and pulls on the ninja's arm to make him flip over his shoulders and crash into the roof on his back. Still holding him by the ankle, Tokubei presses his foot on Takeshi's chest to keep him down.

"And this is the power of the Daitengu?" he remarks. "Why does it feel like something I've seen before?"

"What?" Tentoki is confused by this statement. "What does he mean, he's seen it before?"

No answer is given to that question. However, within Takeshi's soul, what only he and Makura can perceive, Sojobo steps out from his heir's shadow and gets a close look at the celestial, not only curious about his remark, but also intrigued by how he relates to it.

"My instincts tell me… that I did meet this man before, but where? And when?" the Daitengu wonders, which unsettles Takeshi and Fear Itself. Both Sojobo and the Otsutsuki seem to remember having met, but neither remembers anything about it or even knows the other. They're however not left bothered by this for too long, as Sojobo senses a connection being made and rises to look toward where the Minamoto family house is.

"You made Tsubai curious. He must have noticed you running off suddenly." the Daitengu says.

"Takeshi!" the ninja and his tengu now hear the voice of his father in his mind. "What's happening? Feels like something's going on."

Takeshi listens but doesn't answer immediately. While thinking of the question, he looks at the masked man holding him down curiously. There is definitely something going on. But he's too distracted to speak, noticing the god's odd expression in his eye, focused on his hand.

"Yes! Something is going on!" Amabie yells, letting Tsubai hear her through Takeshi's mind.

"Tsubai!" Tentoki completes her complaint with a request. "There's an Otsutsuki right here! Call Sasuke!"

Tsubai doesn't speak longer and hurries to do as Tentoki demands, startled by the situation. Takeshi, lost between Tokubei speaking to him in reality, Sojobo within his soul, Tentoki and Amabie's yells in his mind, and Tsubai's Shindenshin, stays disconnected but is brought to focus on the Otsutsuki who tightens his hold on his ankle.

In the palm of the ninja in black, Tokubei senses exactly what Yamitsuki sent him to find. It is a familiar presence. A fragment of a dead soul. To get some air, he takes off his hood from his head, inadvertently showing the black mask covering his skull entirely and letting not a single piece of skin or hair visible as he shockingly stares at the stigmata in Takeshi's palms.

"This… is unexpected." he says aloud, to the bearer of the mark. "It seems someone will have to pay the price for Hyakki's death after all."

"… I didn't kill him." Takeshi answers while struggling to move under the pressure of the Otsutsuki's foot. "He killed himself. Dismantled his own body."

"Oh, so you can speak?" Tokubei quickly mocks since he didn't hear him say a word until now, before getting serious. "No matter if you killed him physically or not, Minamoto, the subtle laws of the Otsutsuki are made so that a piece of his soul was still forced to find refuge in you."

"What do you mean by that?" Takeshi confusingly asks, seeing Tentoki gasp right after asking as he understood on his own.

"It means that in the eyes of the Tenshin, which I am certain your girlfriend told you about, you are the murderer of Hyakki and will be sacrificed for his revival when they find you."

"But you didn't kill him!" Amabie cries out in Takeshi's mind, afraid of what it means.

"Could it be that, …" Tentoki figures an explanation. "Despite being unable to mark the actual murderer in the case of a suicide, it held you as responsible for his death since you destroyed his last heart along with the curse that was forcing him to live?"

"We have to kill that man." Makura blindly declares about Tokubei, simply frustrated about this information.

"Certainly not!" Tentoki yells. "Being held accountable for one celestial's death is already enough. And I don't think we stand a chance against this guy."

Confused, almost already grieving for himself in his mind, but also feeling ill by the thought that these are just more consequences of what the god of destruction caused, Takeshi blankly looks at the Otsutsuki's mask and red right eye. In his field of view he notices the Daitengu still there.

"This… is not possible." the curse of time says. "In no possible path is this your end."

Takeshi and Makura feel oddly reassured by this statement, but don't show it. Noticing the ninja's long silence, Tokubei addresses him again, to make conversation now that his second mission is completed as well.

"Hyakki was my student, you know." he says to get Takeshi's attention. "I've been his master since he was only a young boy. I've taught him everything. From the simple tricks of the ninja, to the mastery of his natural might. More than anything else, I taught him to understand his heart… He, like Sakitsuki, forgot how to comprehend his own self because of his love for a human."

"What?" Takeshi whispers, squinting his eyes in disbelief before remembering the illusion of Kokoro that made Hyakki leave an opening for him to deliver his final strike. According to her, using Yureidanuki, she appeared as a white haired young woman to the god of destruction's eyes.

However, even if this is true, Takeshi doesn't understand why Tokubei is telling him this, and even less why he is comparing it to Sakitsuki's love. Maybe he's expected to feel sorry, but he certainly doesn't. He didn't kill Hyakki, and knows he never could have. Tokubei senses this lack of empathy in the Minamoto, and wonders aloud about what the following of this mission shall be.

"But Hyakki is certainly happier in the after world." he says as he grabs the ninja by the collar and lifts him up. "Should I prevent his reincarnation by killing you?"

This idea startles Takeshi who feels suddenly at threat. Yet, whatever Tokubei had planned to do next will not be his business, as the help called by Tsubai finally arrives.

Chimatakami

Tokubei sees a black space rift take form over Takeshi's shoulder. Judging from the color and the energy it emanates, he immediately guesses who made it and refuses to let him the pleasure of surprising him. To stop him, he uses the counter jutsu and forces the gate to close. He may have reacted quickly enough to prevent a physical movement through, but not any movement.

Ameno Tejikara

By switching with one of Takeshi's forearm vambraces, Sasuke Uchiha transports himself directly next to the Otsutsuki from the other side of the portal before it closes. Fully coated in the lightning of Raikiri Nagashi, he kicks Tokubei's arm and forces him to let Takeshi go before spreading his electricity on a wider area to shock his enemy.

Freed, Takeshi messily hurries away to let these two have their fight. Stunned, Tokubei rapidly absorbs the lightning with his Rinnegan and leaps away right before Sasuke can aim for his neck with the Raikiri on his hand.

"Uchiha Sasuke!" he exclaims, not hiding his surprise. "You're actually right on time. I was expecting this meeting. Killing you is the only mission I have left to complete for now."

Sasuke isn't motivated to chat. At the moment he's just pissed to find out that the reason he had to leave his wife and daughter so suddenly in what felt like a perfect moment is just this guy again. So he gives no answer to this provocation and fully unleashes both his Sharingan and his Rinnegan.

By spreading the energy absorbed by his left eye into his jutsu, he turns it black and amazes Tokubei. The masked man notices the mystical nature of this chakra. It feels like Senjutsu as he noticed last time, but not only. Also Rikudo chakra. The Uchiha must have figured out how to absorb and merge natural energy with his Rinnegan. Therefore, even though he isn't a Shinsen, he manages to create Shinjutsu.

Onyx Raikiri Eiso

Sasuke propels his sage lightning as a spear toward Tokubei who, refusing to believe his absurd thoughts, raises his hand and instinctively uses Gakido to absorb it. Yet, having mastered this ability of the Rinnegan to the point where it reacts safely and refuses to absorb energies it can't bear, his intuition is bitterly proven right. Sasuke's spear pierces through his hand and then his shoulder, leaving him confused.

In disbelief and confusion, Tokubei carelessly lets an opening for Sasuke to strike a second time in a row.

Raikiri Shunshin

The Uchiha leaps forth and, to take this fight elsewhere, pushes the Otsutsuki away with a spear kick enhanced in strength and speed by his lightning. Tokubei takes this hit right in the chest and is sent fluttering through the sky and buildings of Kiri, all the way past the frontiers of the village. In his fall, he catches a glimpse of Sasuke following him by flying with Susanoo's wings, waiting for his next chance to strike like a vulture over a dying prey.

Frustrated by this sight, he gets steady on his feet as soon as he reaches the ground and stops his crash. As soon as stable, still sliding away from Kiri in the momentum, he raises his hand and uses Gakido again but remotely, to vacuum Sasuke's chakra from a distance. However, the Uchiha has learned the same ability and uses it at the same time to counter.

Absorbing each other's chakra simultaneously causes them both to fail and be left with a short moment of silence. Seeing his target fly like an angel above him, Tokubei can't help but be flattered by how much his control of Gakido has improved. How much stronger could he really have become since their first fight?

Sasuke, seeing that Tokubei has no intention of joining him up there, decides to set foot on the ground but not without keeping him struggling. From the condensed wings, he brings the upper body of his Susanoo to shape and makes it shoot a range of arrows from its bow. To stop these projectiles, he expects the Otsutsuki to pull out the shield of Itachi, Yata no Kagami, but he doesn't. Instead, he opened a portal in front of him. The arrows pass through, transported to a place from which he then pulls out his double bladed black scythe. He then opens another larger portal.

Yomotsu Hirasaka

Just as the complete body of Sasuke's first form of Susanoo is about to set foot on the ground, a black gate opens along the soil and makes it fall through, toward another dimension. On the other side, it lands alone in a snowy desert. There, Sasuke stays aware, and manages to feel the hot wind coming through a portal that just opened behind his ear.

He pulls out his Kusanagi and blocks the scythe blade falling out from there in an attempt to stab him in the back like it did when it left him a scar on the shoulder. Tokubei joins him, weapon in hand, and so begins a harsh blade confrontation. Skillfully using Yomotsu Hirasaka, the Otsutsuki makes small gates around Sasuke to redirect his missed strikes.

This jutsu, unlike Chimatakami, isn't detectable, which makes it hard for Sasuke to keep up and avoid being sliced. Moreover, taking advantage of his missing arm, Tokubei mostly strikes on the left to tire the Uchiha. Since they are still in his Susanoo, he can't use its wings to take cover. But he figures out another clever way to turn this strategy against him. With a rapid hip swing he lets his scabbard go and get it into his opponent's back.

Ameno Tejikara

When he sees Tokubei plunging his scythe into another portal, he localizes the output as it appears and makes it switch with his scabbard. Without realizing, the Otsutsuki stabs his own back with his scythe through the portal. This leaves an opening for Sasuke who spreads his chakra along his tungsten blade and attempts to swiftly behead the celestial. But Tokubei hurries to duck before going through one last portal that gets him on solid ground, in front of the purple Susanoo.

He now unleashes a dark red chakra that shapes into his hooded and caped Susanoo. Sasuke turns around and sees him finally reveal this jutsu.

"So now you pull this out, out of scope for your fellows. Why not earlier?" he asks as he upgrades his own armor to its perfect winged form.

"How cute." Tokubei tempts him without answering his question before completing his avatar, greatly surpassing Sasuke's in height. The red caped figure pulls out the mythic blade of Totsuka and throws it down on the purple winged samurai who stops it with its sword while taking cover under its two large wings.

Bothered by this difference in size, Sasuke waits for Tokubei to raise the Totsuka and elevates himself in the air to get on the same level as the red giant's face. Follows another fierce sword fight in which Sasuke's Susanoo moves like a fly around his enemy, taking advantage of his freedom and superior speed to keep up. This doesn't go long however, as Tokubei decides to rise as well. His caped armor hovers to the same height as the purple samurai and takes over again.

Rapidly pushed into the ground by the massive fire blade of his opponent, Sasuke hurries to lift his wings and arms again to stop the tip of the Totsuka from crushing him. As he struggles to hold it back, he remembers Yamitsuki's silver Susanoo who was even larger than Tokubei's and wonders how they do it. Then, suddenly, he recalls what he learned from his first meeting with Tokubei.

Since he saw him do it, he learned to absorb all the chakra of Susanoo after using it to prevent any waste. It's certainly because they know and trust this technique that they allow their armors to grow so large and dense. He just has to do the same.

Following this logic, Sasuke lets out much more chakra to extend his avatar and rise until almost doubling in size and matching Tokubei's, reaching 800 meters tall. The Otsutsuki infuriatingly assaults the enlarged winged samurai with all his strength. All the chakra it takes to make a Susanoo this massive is a much greater percentage of his reserve for Sasuke than it is for him. That he dares using this much energy is bratty, arrogant.

What makes it worse is that it works just as the Uchiha expected. He totally took the upper hand in this fight. After a proper swing lifting the Totsuka out of range, he attempts to stab through the red Susanoo, yet expecting Tokubei to finally use his ultimate defense.

Yata no Kagami

And so does the Otsutsuki unleash his shield to block the sword of Sasuke who carefully kept his distance and strength in this strike, only willing to force him to show this weapon. His strike is contained and reflected, causing the sword to fly, disarming the Susanoo and breaking its left hand. Now equipped with the mirror or Yata, Tokubei rushes forward to push the purple giant toward the ground.

Sasuke confronts the shield and holds it back with his wings. The two armors set foot on the soil again. Stuck against each other, they keep pushing with their covers. To take over, Tokubei throws the Totsuka into the other hand attached to his left arm and lets it fall on Sasuke from above, passing by his wings. To counter, the purple Susanoo pulls out the sword hidden in its left wing with its right hand and blocks the sealing fire blade.

Enton – Susanoo Kagutsuchi

Using his right eye, he coats his sword in black flames and makes it slide along the Totsuka until reaching and cutting off the red hooded giant's two left forearms. Now unarmed and weakened, Tokubei lets Sasuke spread his wings open to stop his push and abruptly kick his legs to bring him to his knees.

Now at the Uchiha's mercy, he sees him lift his sword to plunge it down and impale him. Still armed with his shield, Tokubei waits until the last instant to rise the Yata no Kagami and enlarge its shape to block the purple Susanoo's burning blade. But this time again, Sasuke makes a smarter and less expected move.

Ameno Tejikara

Before he sees the sword land, Tokubei suddenly is transported inside the forehead of the purple armor, on his knees before Sasuke, both in the same position as their avatars. There, like his Susanoo, the Uchiha impales the unprotected Otsutsuki, stabbing through his neck with his blade. Pinned down, unable to rise, the masked man stares in pain at his enemy and panics when he sees his next move.

With his only hand on the handle of his sword, Sasuke makes the tiger hand seal and widely opens his left eye, full of a hatred that he lets fuel his power. Tokubei recognizes this position. He is about to create the same hell of black flames that he used to disintegrate Urashiki. And he can't let him do so. Before he can perform this jutsu, the hooded god raises his hand and rapidly grows a black rod that goes to stab through the Uchiha's hand and disturbs his hand sign.

Sasuke clenches his teeth to contain the pain and, seeing that Tokubei now widely opened his left eye and hand, attempts to quickly make a distance.

Shinra Tensei

Shinra Tensei

They both create an almighty push at the same time, making their forces collide and result in a divine arm wrestle. Having the high ground, Sasuke leans forward to impose himself over the injured god who witnesses in frustration his rival beating him and switching the roles. He is now the prey, and the Uchiha is the hunter.

Losing this confrontation, Tokubei is sent to flutter through and out of the Susanoo along with his black rod and crashes 8 hundred meters below in the snow. Forcibly removed from his avatar earlier, he lost all the chakra used to summon it while Sasuke still has his. Remembering the warning of Yamitsuki, saying that the Uchiha's intelligence and learning potential could give him the upper hand, Tokubei rages, refusing to admit defeat.

Katon – Fuku no Tsuru

As soon as he lands, he screams in anger and creates a large flock of giant cranes that head toward the flying Susanoo who brings back the sword he let fall earlier with Bansho Tenin and takes down the birds with his two blades with ease. While his avatar does so, Sasuke precisely stares at the Otsutsuki trying to recover on the ground.

Amaterasu

Using his left eye's Sharingan and Rinnegan abilities simultaneously, he instantly sets him on fire, burning in the blaze of Enton right as he takes down the last red fire crane. Tokubei, realizing that these flames are made from the Uchiha's Shinjutsu, can't absorb them and looks up in agony at the purple giant getting entirely absorbed by its master, who successfully dispels it without wasting any energy.

Ameno Tejikara

As soon as he's done undoing his Susanoo, Sasuke sneakily switches unseen with the black rod that fell with Tokubei in his back and swings his blade to put an end to this fight by beheading him.

Sukuna Bikona

However, he sees the incapacitated god suddenly shrink in size to avoid his dash and be freed from the black flames that were melting his clothes before vanishing through a tiny portal. He recognized this ability. Yamitsuki Otsutsuki used it when they fought him, but Tokubei shouldn't know it. Uneasy about what it could mean, he looks around to find the one who did this to save the masked man and finds relief when he sees a stranger in the sky.

It isn't Yamitsuki. It's a younger man, shorter in size and simpler in energy levitating in front of a gate of Yomotsu Hirasaka. To stop him, Sasuke rapidly throws a black rod toward him but sees it be blocked by the scythe of Tokubei. The hooded god, hardly rising before the one who saved him, blocked the projectile.

Sasuke takes a good look at the stranger. His black long hair, his brown antelope horns, and his intriguing eyes. In his right eye, the exact same Rinnegan as Tokubei. In his left, a bizarre Mangekyo Sharingan with an evil pattern. From that left eye, he gets an uneasy feeling of discomfort. Oddly, this man's aura doesn't seem as strong as he looks. For some reason, he finds it hard to believe that these Dojutsu are real.

"Taiyoshiki… why are you here?" Tokubei quietly says, which Sasuke barely hears.

"Sorry father, but I am just in time it seems." the stranger answers, to Sasuke's surprise. He then speaks up, to him. "Sorry to interrupt, but I can't let this go any longer."

After these simple words, Taiyoshiki lets the gate close around him and Tokubei, bringing them to safety and leaving Sasuke behind. Now alone on this planet from another dimension, Sasuke stands still in confusion. That person called Tokubei his father. He was the son of that masked man. A son who has the exact same right eye as his dad. A son who appears to be wiser and calmer than his dad. A son who reminds Sasuke of Izuna, from how pacific he seemed to be.

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Back to their newly established quarters on the moon, Taiyoshiki leaves his father and prepares to go again.

"I'll bring Mother. She'll heal your injuries faster than we can." he says.

"Wait!" Tokubei yells at him, making him stop and turn around. "How did you find me?"

"You brought Sakitsuki here. I was the only one there to welcome her back. She told me what you were doing until you disappeared. From there on, I localized you thanks to Mitamashiro, the chakra you stored in my soul."

"… And why did you step in?"

"… Honestly, father, because you were going to die." he frankly says, with a sad tone.

Tokubei stays silent for a moment, replays the fight in his mind, painfully realizes that his son is right, and feels shame and guilt. It is frustrating, but Yamitsuki was right. He can't beat Sasuke. This man is much stronger than Indra ever was. He is even way more powerful than Madara, and even than the Rikudo-Sennin.

"Sigh… You are right. Thank you, son." Tokubei admits. "Go look for your mother, but first listen. Don't intervene next time."

Taiyoshiki squints at this remark, realizing that it will take more than that to make his father hear reason. Of course, to Tokubei, this makes no difference. This was never about strength. The reason he needs to eliminate Sasuke is because, by submitting to Asura's ideal, he betrayed the dream and spirit of Indra. He betrayed his lineage, and brought shame to his own last name. He has to make him pay for that, one way or another.

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End of Chapter 147 – Next Chapter: Sasuke's fathering