Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 537 Heavenly Obstruction and Zhenxing

The earth-shattering events on both sides briefly diverted people's attention, but the real crisis always occurs in quiet places.

Because the attack was so sudden and unexpected, Kakashi's movements were purely instinctive, and he was completely stunned, unable to stop Obito from leaving. However, Obito was too confident in himself; he failed to land on the head of the Ten-Tails that had been pushed away, and accidentally landed halfway down the road.

However, a being lurking beneath this land was watching him. Guided by some fragments, Black Zetsu seemed to have calculated Obito's landing spot beforehand, and Obito smoothly possessed it the moment he landed. This time, Black Zetsu mobilized almost all of his forces.

Obito's willpower was stronger than that of most people, but he encountered Black Zetsu. Although this guy could only crawl in dark corners, he was not a pure human. He was a survival instinct fostered by Kaguya and the Ten-Tails. A thousand years was enough to temper his will to an unbreakable degree.

Despite his near-death injuries, Obito struggled but was unable to resist forming the hand seals for the Rinne Rebirth. He stared at the Ten-Tails in the distance, Rin's smile flashing through his mind, and then inexplicably recalling the miracle born in the desert.

He had been observing the area for a whole year. Whenever he stepped onto the streets of Savile Row, he would briefly forget the heavy burden on his shoulders. This seemed to be the country of his dreams, where everyone wore a smile, and different tribes could live together without any prejudice. There were no conspiracies or life-or-death struggles, only a group of brave people full of fighting spirit, eager to fight the desert.

But...nowhere is absolutely perfect, and Savile is vastly different from the most remote corner of the Owl Kingdom. Building an entire nation is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it requires enormous resources and a united populace. There will always be those who resist "Hui" for their own interests, and there will always be incompetent, lazy, and utterly hopeless individuals.

Those imperfections were incredibly glaring in his eyes, but whenever he felt like giving up on humanity again, he would always remember that old man who lived an incredibly optimistic life even after losing an arm.

Should he, as a "god," deny human courage and achievements, and then force them to abandon reality and enter the illusory world of Infinite Tsukuyomi?

Because the best parts of that country are perhaps beyond the reach of even illusions.

Black Zetsu seized the moment of hesitation, the hand seals were formed, and chakra was rapidly draining away. In his final moments before closing his eyes, Obito was still refusing. He knew how cold-blooded and ruthless Madara was now; Madara was willing to sacrifice everything for the Eye of the Moon.

“Obito’s chakra has disappeared,” Naruto, who was standing next to Sasuke, said, announcing the sudden event.

"The Five Kage succeeded?" Sasuke stared at the collapsing giant below, not daring to let his guard down until the blue chakra completely disappeared.

"I think...that's probably not the reason."

Sasuke's judgment was correct. Even as it was being utterly destroyed, the giant torn open by Kirin still had the strength to launch an attack. It shrunk in size and used all four hands to simultaneously perform two hand seals. Sasuke immediately went to the ground to be on alert, but when Naruto said that Madara's chakra had also disappeared, he realized that something was wrong.

Suddenly, a gap was torn open in the clouds above the sky, and a meteorite that blotted out the sun was hurtling towards the ground.

"It seems he hid in Obito's alternate dimension."

Sasuke quickly made a judgment, drawing his purple Susanoo sword and slicing the meteorite into eight pieces with a few strikes. However, Madara was even more ruthless than they had imagined; there was another meteorite on top of it. If this attack had been used to hit the Allied Shinobi Forces, the casualties would have been unimaginable.

"This thing can't be thrown away carelessly; it has to be destroyed by force." Naruto finally stopped using space-time ninjutsu. Before the meteorite hit his face, he conjured a black ball the diameter of his forearm—the largest Truth-Seeking Ball he had ever made. After making it, his impure body couldn't withstand the force, and his vision went black again. Sasuke quickly lowered him to the ground, leaving the Truth-Seeking Ball with the meteorite.

The difference between Truth-Seeking Balls and Tailed Beast Balls is most evident during the explosion. A Tailed Beast Ball explosion creates a large mushroom cloud, and the strong impact can be felt even from a distance. However, the Truth-Seeking Ball explosion produces no smoke or dust, but rather a bright, blinding white light. This white light does not release any outward impact, but everything within its range will disintegrate into molecules and disappear, as if struck by Dust Release.

The white light engulfed the meteorite, leaving behind a clean night sky with only a lonely full moon hanging high in the horizon. The Truth-Seeking Balls, having completed their mission, miraculously floated back down to Naruto's side, albeit smaller.

With such a commotion, Minato and Nagato's battlefield should have noticed it. Nagato, reduced to mere fighting instincts, is actually quite easy to defeat, given his superior mobility; to Minato, he's just a stationary target. However, the Rinnegan's abilities are indeed quite versatile, and Minato, having never witnessed them firsthand, was genuinely curious, thus delaying the battle for a while. But the moment he saw the meteorite, he had to accelerate.

The Flying Thunder God mark had been made long ago, and the sealing preparations were complete. All that was needed was to seize an opening in Shinra Tensei, and Nagato, whose extra arm had been severed, would have nowhere to escape.

Minato ended the battle and, as promised, transferred the sphere carrying Nagato to the distant Land of Rain, where it would land on the desk of the Land of Rain's leader. Only when the Edo Tensei is released can the soul break free of control and possess a moment of self. Since everything has been handed over to them, whether or not to use Edo Tensei a second time is up to them.

After doing all that, Minato activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and returned to everyone's side. Just then, he saw the purple Susanoo fall to the ground and dissipate amidst the white light that bloomed in the sky.

Naruto's body, mostly torn apart, was repairing itself. The genjutsu, which had briefly stopped working, allowed Minato to see Naruto's black sclera and dull blue eyes. He was overwhelmed by intense self-blame and grief, and only now did he truly feel Naruto's "death."

The other Rinnegan is under "Ki's" control; Rinne Rebirth is a ninjutsu proven to be able to revive the dead. However, the price of activating Rinne Rebirth is death. What kind of deaths would be required to revive so many people?

No one knows Naruto's plans for this, because he was no longer alive when he took that eye.