628Devil From The Heavens
Chapter 48: Calamity
The veins over Ape's body bulged as his rage spiked to heights previously untouched. The hilt in his hand warped and screeched under the pressure of his titanic grip. Broly was almost proud at how effectively that taunt dug into the Hybrid. The Hybrid fell on Broly like a hammer from the gods and swung Samehada with reckless abandon.
Broly brought up his arms, too slow to do much else, and Samehada crashed into him like a meteor. The shockwave blew him away and sent him tumbling end over end. Below, the earth quaked and Konoha's citizens panicked in their shelter as debris fell around them. He arrested his momentum and hissed as he let his arms drop. The first layers of skin were shaved off his forearms and there was a massive red patches left behind.
The Hybrid appeared above him and swung down once more. The Saiyan raised his arms instinctively and he grunted in pain as Samehada's scales bit into his flesh once more. Ape put his hand onto the mutant blade and pushed it down. Their auras clashed before, with a scream of agony and effort, the Saiyan blasted away on a trail of emerald ki. Ape chased with wild abandon but the Saiyan expected this and let loose a gargantuan wave of ki that split the sky in two.
Ape raised Samehada and the sword swallowed the ki in one tremendous gulp where it became swollen with power. The sickly sword wrangled around in pain; its capacities were great but this was finally too much for the weakened weapon. A moment later, the sword exploded from the inside out.
Ape looked at his weapon's remains, unscathed by the sword's sudden demise. That one explosion tore of a sizeable portions of its shark teeth. He frowned; it wasn't going to be useless to him now. He grabbed the sword at its base and slid his hand upwards. Ape grunted as the scales cut up his hand but his progress remain unabated. After a few seconds, the sword was stripped, leaving behind a metal spine. Samehada's remains were left in a bloody pile on the dirt below.
Broly watched the morbid display with bated breath. Their melee just started but he could already tell: Ape was stronger than him. Did Jiraiya loosen the seals enough for his own transformation? He remembered accessing it against Might Guy briefly. He had to try.
He screamed as he pushed ki through his body and the clouds dissipated. His hair lifted and he felt his strength surge for just a moment before it waned. He kept pushing. His hair shifted between blue and black as he struggled to hold onto the Super Saiyan state. He did it before, instinctively, what was different now?!
The Hybrid shot towards him like a mad dog. Broly dropped under the first swing, half transformed, and sunk his arm into the Hybrid's guts. Ape gasped before he retaliated with an elbow to the top of his skull. His body bounced off the earth only for Ape to crashed down onto his back feet first. Broly cried in pain as Ape's sword crashed against his temple. He tore through dozens of tree before a particularly thick one arrested his momentum.
Ape stalked him; the edge of his fury wore down with every blow and his rational mind had asserted itself. Now he would squeeze every bit of blood from this stone.
Broly rose once more and once more he tried to ascend but his vision blurred. With one fluid motion, he sliced through the tree with the side of his hand and grabbed the now free trunk. He swung it around at the many Apes in front of him and hoped for a hit. The tree exploded as it crashed into something but Samehada's core flew out of the splinters and cracked his face.
Ape followed through, arms wide open, and Broly, barely conscious, caught his hands. The two pushed against each other, the environment around them collapsing under the weight of their struggle, but the Saiyan found himself quickly overwhelmed and he fell to a knee.
Ape took sadistic glee at Broly's crimson nose. This was what he had been waiting for. How did Karin, Suigestu, and Jugo look in their last moments as this monster murdered them? Did he even give them the dignity of struggling? Did they even register in his head when he slaughtered them?! He'd make Broly suffer.
The Hybrid pulled, surprising Broly, and kneed the Saiyan in the face. As he flew up, Ape grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him down on the ground again and again and again. After one final smash, Ape switched over to Broly's neck and squeezed the man's throat with everything he had.
Broly turned purple in short order as the blood pressure in his head skyrocketed. The capillaries in his eye quickly burst tainting his vision red. He could already feel his consciousness fading. 'Come on, come on! You've done this before!' He yelled at himself as his hair lifted again. 'You'll die here if you don't do something! Konan will die if you fail here!'
For a moment, there was quiet as he beheld her in his mind's eye. There was an odd clarity in that moment as he was confronted with a realization. Something he had never really put into words. He was worried for her. He wanted to make sure she was safe. That she'd live and thrive after this was all said and done.
He cared for her.
Ape's eyes widened as the Saiyan exploded with his own golden light and he was thrown off. He quickly flipped onto his feet just as Broly rose.
Blue hair gently waved in the wake of his aura.
"Let's try that again."
Hinata rushed down the Uchiha who paid her no mind. His quarry wasn't her; she wasn't worth the attention. At least that was the thought until he was sent rocketing into the forest himself as something hit his Susanoo's ribs.
There was an ache in his back as he pulled himself out of the trench. Susanoo took most of the damage, it was even cracked, but it still felt like he was hit by a train.
Hinata stood at the other end of the trench, her fists blazing with chakra and nature energy.
"I'll ask you this once, Sasuke, for Naruto's sake. Stand down..." It was a pointless question. They both knew he wasn't going to stop but it was obvious that she wanted to assuage whatever guilt she felt. He breath shook as she got the last words out. "Or I'll kill you."
Sasuke chuckled. "You don't have the strength or the spine to do it, Hyuga."
He rushed her down and slammed Susanoo's hand onto her head. She weaved out of the way and used the momentum to swing a kick into him. He was pushed back and he had to dig his heels in order to slow himself down. She was fast but his Sharingan could still track her.
Hinata was on him right after with a Twin Lion Fist but he dropped his defense at the last moment. She fell through, surprised by his sudden lack of Susanoo, and he feinted with a stab. She tried to parry the blade but she missed her response and left herself wide open.
She gasped as the air was suddenly forced out of her lungs by a gut punch from his pale arm. The ground cracked and her body was lifted clearly into the air by the force of the blow. Sasuke followed up by slapping her body away with Susanoo.
"I'll never understand how our clans had a rivalry if this is the best the Hyuga have to offer!" He yelled as she rolled over and vomited on the ground. "Stop wasting my time!"
Sasuke kept moving. If the moron was alive, every moment wasted allowed him to recover and keep being a pain in his ass. He could already see the familiar orange of his jacket from here.
"Sage Art: Eight Trigrams!"
He whirled around in a near panic. He wasn't close enough, he's got Susanoo up, what was she thinking?!
"A Thousand Palms!"
She was on him in a flash, the earth tearing under the power of each step, and he was forced back at the first strike. No wait, his Sharingan whirled as adrenaline pumped, it wasn't one, it was sixteen. Her arms were little more than blurs as another thirty two palms impacted his defense. Susanoo lost sharpness as the chakra that formed it destabilized and cracked.
He swung down Susanoo's arm on her to disrupt her technique. She turned ever so slightly and arc-shaped chakra blades flowed from her palms right before his arm made contact. Their techniques met in a violent clash and the recoil of Susanoo's sudden stop hit Sasuke hard enough to throw him off balance. One hundred and twenty eight strikes followed and Susanoo crumbled in front of his eyes.
The Uchiha was gobsmacked- he hadn't thought her capable of such a feat. He tried Amaterasu but she shifted, her Sage-empowered Byakugan allowing her to avoid the near imperceptible attack, and the forest behind her was aflame with black fire.
Sasuke blocked what he could with his sword or his new arm but Hinata ripped through with two hundred and fifty six palms regardless. The chakra in his body disappeared as tenketsu were closed and pathways shut. Pain seared through him as every touch was another slice through muscle and tissue. He was only standing as her blows kept him upright.
The Uchiha idly thought that she wouldn't follow through on her threat but their eyes met. He was wrong.
He didn't feel the remaining five hundred and twelve strikes; his body had already gone into shock. Hinata pushed natural energy out through her palms as she crashed her open hands into his chest for the final blow. She let out a heavy breath as Sasuke's body rushed into the forest. Wherever he ended up, she didn't care to know.
Sage Mode faded from her and her body suddenly felt ten times heavier. A searing pain hit her all across her body as the injuries she ignored caught up to her. Her Byakugan followed right after.
Alone and vulnerable, Hinata trudged over to Naruto and fell next to him; there was a lot of blood around his mouth and down his jacket. Her already rushing heartbeat picked up. She reached up to his neck scared for the worst. There was always a chance but what would happen if he was-? A weak heartbeat followed a moment later and she let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
She put her hands over his torso and tried to heal what she could. Just because he was alive now didn't mean he would stay that way. She could feel the Kyubi's chakra right under the surface doing its best to fix Naruto alongside her. Could she take him all the way to Tsunade? After agonizing seconds of concerted effort, his eyes fluttered open and he took a great breath in. She sat him up as his breaths turned to violent coughs and more blood splattered the ground.
"Naruto, please try not to move too much, I-I don't know how hurt you are."
He waved off her concern. "I'm- I'm not okay but Kurama is fixing me as fast as he can." His breathing had already become easier. "That should've split me in half; Sage mode ain't no joke, huh?"
Hinata wiped some tears away before she grabbed his arm. "Can you stand? I'm almost out of chakra, we're not safe."
"I'll need a minute." His face suddenly twisted as he recalled why he was near dead in the first place. "Wait, where's Sasuke?!"
Hinata grew quiet as she looked for the words; she couldn't even keep eye contact with him. How do you tell someone you killed their best friend?
"I-"
Blinding green light overtook them.
Sonic booms rang by the dozen in Konoha's skies as the two clashed. Entire bodies of water were emptied and acres of woodland flattened by mere happenstance when their fists met.
Broly and Ape were throwing hundreds of strikes at each other with lethal intent. Each blow could flatten a mountain, each kick could split an ocean, and every throw a meteor to kill a city. Ape slipped past Broly's guard with an impactful gut punch. Broly retaliated with a lariat into the earth. Tons of rock and dirt erupted into the sky like a geyser. The two shot to each other and atomized the debris with their meeting before they were launched to each horizon in opposite directions.
Ape screamed in frustrated anger as he slashed a wave of ki at the Saiyan who responded with an Eraser Cannon. The blasts fought each other for dominance until they lost their stability and exploded. The Hybrid burst through the remnants, a golden missile aimed straight for the Saiyan, and caught him with a spear. They hit the ground and the earth split open.
Broly held back his cries as his body was pushed through miles of stone in a fraction of a second. He fought through the agony wrapped his arms around the Hybrid's torso and heaved. They both exploded out of the ground and Broly bounced along as Ape was launched across the sky in an arc that landed him near the closest border.
The Saiyan flipped onto his feet; he couldn't give the Hybrid an inch. He sprinted forward, each step gathering momentum until his body exploded in gold, and he shot off through the trees. He cut a swath clean through the forest and anything not disintegrated by his passing was bowled over by the boom that followed him.
He slammed his fist into the unprepared Hybrid's stomach and carried him straight into a plateau. The stone structure shook as it fractured in its entirety. Broly rained down blows trying to punch through the Hybrid. His assault was quickly stopped as Ape caught his fist and grinned as its injuries healed. His other arm clamped onto the Saiyan's and the two switched places as the pseudo-clone twisted and threw him into the plateau.
Ape pulled back his fist and shot it into Broly's chest like a bullet. The Saiyan tore through the stone like it was wet paper and flew out the opposite side. His body split a lake before he hit its shore and slid along the soft ground.
He groaned as he sat up. He was hurting the Hybrid but it wasn't even keeping the injuries. He had to somehow kill it in one blow but how could he do that when he was weakening faster than it and it was stronger in the first place? His thinking was soon interrupted as the sun was eclipsed by the plateau.
Broly burst forth towards the projectile and punched it into hundreds of pieces. Behind it, Ape gleefully met the Saiyan with an elbow that he blocked with his own. The debris was launched in all directions as the speed of sound. The Saiyan pushed and the two separated.
They stared each other down, both fatigued but with Broly clearly the worse for wear, and readied for another bout.
In the distance, a green mushroom cloud pierced the skies.
He maintained an unbothered facade but, for the first time in years, Madara felt true fear at what he was seeing. He threw out his hand and masses of black tendrils shot out to kill the kunoichi.
"Protect Konan!" Kakashi yelled as he used his Kamui to absorb several of the limbs at once. The others rushed in but the mass bore through them without delay. Thinking quickly, the Jonin used Kamui on the former Akatsuki to teleport her to Obito.
Madara met Konan's eyes as she reappeared in front of him. He thrust his other hand forward, enshrouded in more black chakra, and it was stopped dead as emerald ki clashed against it. Paper rushed out of her and surrounded them both as the light coming from the seals reached its zenith.
"Know pain."
The hideout erupted from what would be recorded as the single largest explosive ever detonated in recorded history. A series of explosive tags connected in a chain to hold and deliver the ki that Konan stole from Broly. Some were meant to directed the force upwards to minimize damage, others to slow the flow of ki to avoid burning out the ink, and the one in its core that held the power to annihilate Madara.
In the final moments before the explosion, she saw him break. The fear and terror of a decades long plan being ruined right before his eyes. He was no longer some all powerful god ready to conquer the planet; Madara- no, Obito was just a man like any other. He was born, he lived, and he died like the rest.
Her lone regret in this moment was that Amegakure would disappear with her. There was no one left to carry on its name. No one left to mourn her people.
She'll beg for their forgiveness in the next life.
The hideout, and everything within it, was atomized in an instant. The boom was heard around the world and quakes were felt in neighboring countries. The furthest edges of the sky were scorched by it. Casualties among both factions from the explosion itself numbered in the hundreds of thousands; the pressure wave and debris killed thousands more in the minutes after.
The land would take decades to recover.
Author's Notes
A much shorter wait this time! I've gotten some help and I'm writing more and more everyday. I can't promise a return to the peak of this fic's schedule but we'll (hopefully) not see 6 month gaps between chapters now.
Let me know what you think.
Ent out.
P.S.: I've been getting a lot of DMs about people, with messages clearly written by AI because they all sound the same, offering to create art for me. Anyone else experiencing this? Its super annoying.