Chapter 321: The Final 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 321: The Final Tribulation

It all started with a flash of light. The Heavens split open, and from within, a massive beam of energy descended upon Naruto.

Trying to avoid it was a pointless endeavor. The Heavenly Tribulation would find its target no matter where it went, even if he traveled to end of the world.

Naruto moved the two orbs of chakra closer to each other. These ones combined into a single mass of rotating energy and turned completely white, and he then brought them in front of him as he flew closer to the light.

Before it made impact, the rotating sphere of white light expanded several times over, covering Naruto's body completely and protecting him from harm.

"Urgg…" The moment he made contact with the Tribulation, Naruto's body shook violently, and he felt the power behind Heaven's fury. Whatever was up there...it wanted him gone for good.

"Tsk!" Small rays of light managed to pass through his Rasengan, and one of them pierced his shoulder.

'This is nowhere near enough.' Naruto poured everything he had.

His Golden Core was brimming with chakra and moved it across his veins until it reached his fingers.

The Rasengan became more powerful and was able to push back on the tribulation… for a while. So far, he was only keeping himself from harm, but he could not keep this up forever.

"Come on… this would have been enough to beat the previous Heavenly Tribulation ten times over." But this last one… was somehow different. It felt like it was not going to end until he died.

'Think… there has to be something I can do… something I haven't tried.'

Naruto made a quick estimation, and if he kept spending his energy at this rate, he was bound to become unable to maintain his technique after only two more minutes.

The moment he lowered the intensity of his jutsu, the Tribulation would pierce through his body and turn him to cinders.

His mind raced through countless possibilities as time passed and he became increasingly exhausted.

He could only think of one possible way out… In theory, the tribulation should be made of some sort of energy, so the absorption from his Cosmic Assimilation may be able to take away some of the intensity of the tribulation and exhaust it.

But to do that, he would have to remove the only thing in between him and the deadly ray of light trying to end his life.

'If I stay like this, I'm going to die anyway… it's all or nothing.' Naruto took a moment to think about those he cared about. He may not see them again.

"...here we go." He removed the Rasengan while placing his other hand ahead. "Cosmic Assimilation… ABSORB!"

A vortex appeared on the palm of his hand, and he could feel how the energy from the tribulation was entering his body at a tremendous pace.

'It's work-....no, it's still not enough!.'

Unfortunately, this was not sufficient to mitigate all the damage, as well as he had hoped. A large part of the Heavenly Tribulation was being absorbed, but the rest was washing over his body, causing injuries all over.

Naruto knew at that moment that he was going to die long before he could finish absorbing this beam of pure light.

Just when he thought it was all over, something he could never have predicted happened.

The Golden Scripture, which had not moved from the spot since the first time he acquired it… moved out of its spot inside his mind palace.

The Divine Artifact manifested above him, shielding him from further harm while it released nine golden pages that proceeded to surround the tribulation on all sides.

Naruto wasn't sure how it was doing it, but the pages pulled the Divine Tribulation apart and divided it into nine fractions before each one went inside the pages.

The pages shone brightly and dissolved into particles of bright light, leaving nothing behind.

"It's over?..." Naruto could barely hold himself floating in the air.

He knew that today he had suffered a great loss. Those golden pages from the Scripture were invaluable treasures, and he had yielded nine of them in a single moment.

There was no getting them back, but on the other hand, he was alive at least, so he couldn't really complain.

There may come a day when he regrets this moment, but it would not be today. The future is filled with possibilities, and he will certainly have the chance to recover today's loss.

The Golden Scripture had done its job and returned back into his soul without uttering a single word.

This was the second time he had seen this Divine Artifact act on its own accord. The first time was to give Ino a cultivation technique without him asking for it.

And now it came out to save his life.

Naruto finally landed on the ground and could not help but collapse on his back. His body was wounded and his reserves were exhausted, even more than the last time.

His eyes looked at the sky.

The black clouds were moving away, and the gaping hole left behind by the tribulation was closing up.

"It's really over… I survived the last one…" He would be laughing right now if his lungs weren't pierced in a dozen places.

So he just stood there, resting on the ground of this barren piece of land, looking at the sky as this one returned to normality.

He had passed all the tests, the Heavens would no longer attempt to stop him, and he had defeated all his enemies in this world.

Now all he had to do was finish his cultivation and ascend… although that was still going to take a very long amount of time.

'I am in no hurry… I still have things to do in this world, and a few promises to keep.'