Once More by ItsHardToFindAPenName

Chapter 41: Confrontation, Part 2

And then he looked up. Now he understood what it meant to be terrified.

Even though he had been with Isobu for quite a while, he had never seen him angry. Usually, the turtle, while a little bit too carefree and lazy for his own good, was very friendly and kind.

But right now, staring down at him was an Isobu in beast form, who was utterly furious. He snarled in a gruff, difficult-to-hear tone, but somehow, every single person there could understand clearly what he meant, and their necks all froze in place due to the fear his loud, angry voice brought to them.

"Humans... I have tried my best to avoid you since I returned to this world. I have wanted to get away to somewhere you wouldn't tried to find me, to make me your weapon of mass destruction. But nevertheless, you followed me even to this place... to bend me under your will again..."

"No!" Understanding what was going to happen, Naruto desperately cried. "We're not here for that! We just..."

"... so this time... I will... STRIKE BACK!"

Then he fired a Tailed Beast Bomb at the squad. At this close distance, no one would be able to dodge it. The only way to protect all of them from it was...

Jumping in front of the squad, Naruto deployed his last Truth-Seeking Orb. A barrier made of the black substance spread out and covered the whole squad right before the Tailed Beast Bomb landed on them. The massively destructive technique exploded, drowning the team in fire and intense heat, but the shield had already protected them from the worst effects of the attack. However...

"Urgh!"

Naruto collapsed on his knee, breathing heavily. The Truth-Seeking Shield was very powerful, indeed, but tanking a fully powered Tailed Beast Bomb head on at point blank with it was still not something a smart person would even think about doing. Just one shot and he had already felt his own reserve almost drained. And Naruto feeling himself drained was never a good thing.

"You... You are different," he heard Isobu growling. "You were able to take on my fully powered Tailed Beast Bomb without dying. I can feel the power of our Father inside you. But..."

Naruto suddenly had a dreadful feeling. Is he going to...?!

"... let's see what you can do about THIS!"

Then he fired another Tailed Beast Bomb, but not at the team in front of him, but rather... at the KPN Byakuren full of shinobi.

"No!"

Everyone yelled and moved to stop him, but it was too late; the deadly technique had already been fired, and there's no way to stop it...

And Naruto knew the one thing he needed to do, and must do. He didn't have enough chakra on his Chakra Mode to move with enough momentum to deflect a Tailed Beast Bomb of that scale like he had done during the Fourth War, so...

Pulling at the last bit of energy from the Tailed Beast Sage Mode that he had, he rushed after the Tailed Beast Bomb.

'Naruto! Are you trying to...?!'

'Don't worry. I'm not going to commit suicide. But I'm going to need everything you have, Kurama! Get ready to deploy the Mirror!'

Kurama's eyes widened in realization. The Mirror of Yata is her and Naruto's Regalia of the Soul, which is their ultimate defensive technique. If they utilized that, there's no doubt that they would be able to stop the Tailed Beast Bomb... but...

'But that would drain all of your remaining energy! You won't have enough power to handle Isobu after that!'

'I know, but,' Naruto answered Kurama with utmost confidence, 'we still have Fuu-chan over there. I believe that she can handle everything even without me.'