Chapter 301: Facing the Tribulation
Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 301: Facing the Tribulation
The full force of his full cultivation became focused on a single point, and then Naruto made this mass of energy begin to rotate, just like the first time he had used it.
Except that this one had the strength to obliterate a thousand mountains.
"Rasengan!"
The golden sphere of destruction collided against the terrifying Heavenly Tribulation.
The resulting encounter generated enough light to blind everyone present in the area, and it shook the ground with enough violence to break almost every single window in Konoha, which was several miles away.
Down on the ground, Tsunade and the others were hiding behind a wall of ice that Ino had created to protect them from all the heat that had been created by the collision of those two monstrous forces.
"Can someone tell me what in Kami's name is going on out there?!" Tsunade shouted.
"Sorry, Lady Tsunade," Hinata said. "But there is so much chakra around us that even I am blinded by it. The energy emanating from Naruto's body is colliding with the one that came from the sky…they are still struggling against each other."
"I hope they don't struggle for too long. Unlike Naruto, my chakra is not limitless," Ino said as she added another layer of ice to the wall.
"Even at this distance, the pressure and heat is tremendous…I cannot imagine what Naruto must be feeling up there," Tsunade said. "This Heavenly Tribulation…I have never heard of something like that before."
"There has never been someone like Naruto before…maybe that's why," Ino said.
"Wait! I can see something changing," Hinata exclaimed.
"What is it?!" Tsunade asked.
"The Tribulation seems to be receding," Hinata responded.
"Finally!" Ino said with relief.
Just moments later, the blinding lights began to diminish slowly until they completely disappeared.
The dark clouds dispersed and the skies seemed to recover their normal blue tone.
Ino dispersed all the ice she had created so they could see what was happening outside.
The first thing they did was to look upwards, in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Naruto.
"What the—" "What happened to the sky?!" "Did he do that?..."
The three women and two ANBU agents stared in shock.
In the middle of the blue sky, where Naruto had been floating just moments ago, there was now a massive black gap.
It was like a giant had punched a hole into the blue sky, pushing everything aside, and revealing what lay beyond.
They could all see the lights coming from the stars in the far distance of the cosmos.
"Hinata, where is he?" Ino realized that she could not find Naruto anywhere.
"Hold on…Byakugan!" Hinata activated her Sage Mode again so she could put more chakra into her eyes and increase the range.
It was then that she spotted something falling from the sky.
Not wanting to waste a second informing the others, Hinata put as much chakra into her legs as they could take and rushed out.
Ino and Tsunade exchanged a single glance before following her.
Hinata covered a large distance while moving like a blur and arrived at the exact spot in an instant.
The figure of Naruto was falling down at great speed, and it became immediately obvious that he was not conscious.
Hinata could not fly into the air like her husband usually did, but she was not out of options either.
"Water Release…Revolving Geyser!" She created a column of water right beneath Naruto, so she could stop his fall without causing more harm.
"Naruto!" Hinata gasped after she saw how terrible his state was.
She dispelled all the water and caught his body in her arms. His robes were completely gone and most of his skin was covered in severe burns.
Hinata could also sense that his chakra signature was dangerously low.
Naruto had to use everything he had to stop the Heavenly Tribulation, and it had barely been enough.
Had he not weakened it by sacrificing the Shinigami before, he would have likely perished by now.
After all, this is what usually happens. The tribulation was meant to kill a cultivator at the Spirit Transformation Stage, so the rate of survival was very low.
There are already few cultivators who make it this far, but only a small fraction of those are able to survive this deadly event in order to continue their journey.
Usually, the ones who survive only manage to accomplish this by making use of extremely powerful defensive artifacts of the highest rarity.
But Naruto had none of those. In fact, in this entire world, there are no artifacts that could help stop something like this tribulation.
So he did it by sheer power and guts.
"Oh no!" Ino looked at him with shock.
"Let me see him." Tsunade moved to Hinata's side. "Damn…" She was getting flashbacks to the day when she first met this young man. That day, she made a silly bet and he almost burned his arm off in an attempt to win it. This was much worse though.
"Those burns are very deep…we have to hurry." Ino tried to keep herself calm and collected as she assessed the wounds.
"Can you heal him?" Hinata was concerned for the first time.
"I'll do my best. How is his chakra? Can you see it?" Tsunade asked as she moved her hands over the burns while also checking his pulse.
"It's weak, but steady…it seems to be increasing now. I think his core is gathering energy from around us to recover. I have never seen him do that," Hinata said. But to be fair, she had never seen him get this injured either.
"He is going to be okay," Ino said with conviction. The best healer in the entire continent was right next to them, and she was no slouch either, even if she would not say it herself.
Hinata nodded. "I know…he still has much to do."
A.N: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.
You can Support me on P@treon if you like and get 20 advanced chapters.
-.com/Kriogenix
For donations and commissions, go to .com/kriogenix