Yellow Shadows

YELLOW SHADOWS 09 - The Ultimate Supreme Rasengan

Sāra was right. The sealing chamber glows with the eerie purple of the Ryūmyaku. There is no greenery here, and no natural life. The grass and moss from the underground garden is instead an open chasm, a huge well spanning the length of the room. It is a vast, round chamber, and a solitary bridge spans the circumference. Beneath it, Ryūmyaku swells like a sea. The drop is enormous, and though Naruto isn't afraid of heights, his stomach churns at the sight. The Ryūmyaku feels more alive here than anywhere else in the city; it is the rushing blood of a great creature, and this chamber is its heart. The violet chakra that powers the city is at its most intense here, and it bathes the room in fire-light, flickering across every wall.

Halfway across the bridge, there is a podium. It sits at the centre of the room - at the centre of the city, and maybe even the world. Sāra's eyes widen at the sight, and in her gaze, the Ryūmyaku shines.

"Come on!"

Naruto grabs her hand. They sprint across the bridge and it feels huge as they run, the podium looming ever from their reach. They only have a moment before the others follow - and the moment is over too soon. Anrokuzan bulldozes in through the door, scattering shinobi and the sacred stone. The ceiling here, too, quakes as he destroys everything in his path, and sand-dust shakes free from a century-long sleep. Naruto doesn't dare look up. Anrokuzan has already brought down the palace and half the city, and he'll bring this chamber down, too. His pursuit for power - his obsession with it - demands nothing less. He's controlled Rōran and its people through fear for too long, and Naruto clasps Sāra's hand tighter, knowing that it has to stop.

"It's just there!" Sāra cries, pointing to the podium. The palace sun-motifs decorate the seal here, too, and their sun-beams glow with the same purple light as the room. This place has never seen the sun. The Ryūmyaku is but an imitation of it, and the chakra drifts up from far beneath the bridge like steam, like sunlight, like liquid sand.

One day, Rōran will be buried. Naruto has seen that day.

He thinks it might be today.

He risks a glance over his shoulder. Chōza and Yamato are just a few paces behind, and the rest of the team are at the foot of the bridge, where Anrokuzan looms. The Ryūmyaku illuminates him from below, stretching his serpentine shadow up along the wall. The ceiling is much higher in this room than the last, and Anrokuzan's bug-like eyes swivel to the centre of the ceiling, where the stone dome reaches its peak. Web-like veins of chakra decorate the dome like stars.

"Come now Minister, can you afford to look away?" Minato taunts. He steps back onto the bridge, eyes never leaving Anrokuzan. Shibi mirrors him, silent but no less goading. Their weapons and jutsu have proved ineffective against Anrokuzan's armour, but even Anrokuzan had cowered from the surge of chakra flooding the garden. The pit of chakra below could swallow them all.

Minato is counting on it. He flashes a familiar grin, edging back across the bridge. It's a dangerous place for them all to be. He twirls a thunder kunai in his hand, and Naruto's gaze snaps to the kunai lodged in Anrokuzan's armour. That same armour has been burned by chidori and dented by rasengan, and surely it only needs one last push to drive Anrokuzan into the sea of chakra below?

Anrokuzan must think so. He lunges at Minato with a desperate fervour. His red eyes are violet now, and his claws sink into the stone bridge. Minato and Shibi scatter left and right in blurs of yellow and black. Kakashi-sensei is slower, leaping back to Chōza and Yamato. Little Kakashi dangles from his shoulder, half-conscious and blissfully unaware of Anrokuzan tearing the bridge apart.