When the Heavens Fall
Madara didn't waste time with pleasantries. He weaved a series of hand signs so fast even Sasuke's Sharingan could barely track them. The entire battlefield felt a sudden, terrifying pressure shift.
"Up!" Naruto roared through the psychic network.
Every shinobi looked up. A shadow fell over them, blotting out the sun. A colossal meteor, a mountain of rock and fire, was descending from the heavens. It was a jutsu of such impossible scale that it inspired only despair.
"It's over…" Onoki whispered, his old bones trembling.
"No, it's not!" Naruto's voice was a pillar of defiance in their minds. "He wants us to despair! He wants us to break! Don't you dare! Every single one of you! Push your chakra into my web! NOW!"
An astounding thing happened. The tens of thousands of shinobi, without hesitation, poured their will and their chakra into the golden threads connecting them. The web, Naruto's web, blazed with an intensity that dwarfed the sun. It expanded, shot upwards, and grew into a net of pure, unimaginable power, spanning miles across the sky.
The meteor hit the web. The sound was not a crash, but a deep, resonant GONG that shook the very planet. The web strained, the golden threads groaning under the impossible weight. The ground beneath the army cracked. But it held.
Madara's eyes widened slightly. "They stopped it? Impossible." He smiled, a cruel, vicious thing. "Then what about the second one?"
From behind the first meteor, a second, even larger one emerged, slamming into the first. The combined impact was too much. The web began to tear. The heavens were falling.
But Naruto had been prepared. The moment the second meteor appeared, he acted.
"Sasuke!" he yelled.
Sasuke didn't need to be told. His Perfect Susanoo manifested, a titan of amethyst chakra. It drew its bow, but instead of an arrow, it notched a single, golden, eight-limbed figure. Naruto, in his full Arachnoid Chakra Mode, became the arrow.
The Susanoo fired. Naruto shot through the sky like a golden comet. He passed through the first, cracking meteor and slammed into the second one head-on. "Sage Art: Massive Rasen-Web Barrage!"
From his body erupted a thousand spiraling Rasengans, each connected by a thread of his sage venom. They didn't just push against the meteor; they infected it. The venomous chakra spread through the rock, breaking it down on a molecular level. The giant meteor began to crumble from the inside out, dissolving into a shower of harmless pebbles and dust.
Naruto landed back on the battlefield, panting, his chakra cloak flickering. The Allied Shinobi Forces stared in stunned silence. They had faced a god's wrath and, against all odds, they had survived.
Madara Uchiha laughed. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated joy. "Magnificent! You truly are Hashirama's successor!" he declared, his Rinnegan pulsing. "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
From the ground erupted a forest of colossal trees, their branches twisting into monstrous, grasping claws, ready to crush the exhausted army. The real battle had just begun.
The Corrosive Forest
Madara's forest was a nightmare of splinters and death. The colossal trees moved with a malevolent intelligence, their branches snatching shinobi and crushing them, while the pollen they released was a potent anesthetic, putting entire platoons to sleep.
The Allied Forces, exhausted from stopping the meteors, began to buckle. Naruto's hive-mind web was still active, but coordinating tens of thousands of soldiers against a sentient, ever-growing forest was a chaotic, losing battle.
"We can't fight it head-on!" Naruto projected. "It's too big, it's everywhere! We have to get to Madara!"
Sasuke's Susanoo cleaved a path through the giant trunks, but for every tree he destroyed, two more grew in its place. "It's useless, Naruto! We're just flies caught in his web."
The word 'web' sparked an idea in Naruto's mind. Flies caught in a web… He's the spider now.
"Don't fight the trees!" Naruto suddenly yelled, his voice echoing in every soldier's mind. "Fight the ground!"
He disengaged from the front line, his chakra cloak blazing, and shot a dozen thick, golden webs deep into the earth. He closed his eyes, his Spider-Sense plunging beneath the surface. He felt it—a massive, sprawling network of chakra, like the root system of a single, immense entity. Madara wasn't just growing a forest; he was the forest.
"He's connected to all of it!" Naruto realized. He changed tactics. "Everyone! Don't attack the branches! Infuse your jutsu into my webs! Aim for the roots!"
The shinobi, trusting their commander, obeyed. Earth Style users channeled their chakra through the golden threads, causing seismic shocks deep underground. Water Style users sent torrents of water through the web, flooding the root system. But it was Naruto's own ability that turned the tide.
He began to pump his unique sage venom through the web, directly into the forest's chakra network. It wasn't a poison that killed; it was a corrosive agent that neutralized chakra. The great trees began to wither, their wood turning gray and brittle, crumbling to dust. The pollen vanished. The grasping branches went limp.
Madara, standing on a cliff overlooking the battlefield, felt it immediately. A sickness, a corruption spreading through his creation. "He's not just cutting the branches, he's poisoning the roots," he murmured, a flicker of genuine annoyance crossing his features. "This brat… is getting on my nerves."
The Man in the Mask
As Naruto focused on neutralizing the forest, the masked man, Tobi, made his move. He appeared in the center of the battlefield, the Gedo Statue rising from the earth behind him. He held the Benihisago, the gourd containing the Gold and Silver Brothers and their portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra.
"While you children play with the ghost of the Uchiha, the real plan proceeds," Tobi announced, his voice amplified.
The reanimated jinchuriki, from the Two-Tails to the Seven-Tails, appeared around him, each with a Rinnegan and a Sharingan. The true Paths of Pain.
Bee, in his full Eight-Tails form, charged forward. "Tobi! You'll pay for what you've done, ya fool!"
The battle between the jinchuriki was a clash of titans. Bee and the Eight-Tails were a powerhouse, but against six Tailed Beasts, all controlled by a single will, they were outmatched.
Naruto felt the shift instantly. The gargantuan chakra signatures of the Tailed Beasts were a roaring inferno on his senses. He had to make a choice: continue to pressure Madara, or go to Bee's aid.
"Sasuke!" Naruto projected, his mind made up. "You and the Kage keep Madara busy! I'm going to Tobi!"
Without waiting for a reply, Naruto disengaged from the root network and shot across the battlefield like a golden bolt, his six legs scuttling through the air. He landed between Bee and the attacking jinchuriki.
"Yo, Bee," Naruto said with a grin. "Looks like you could use a hand. Or eight."
"Naruto! What're you doin' here? You're a target, my dear brother!" Bee exclaimed.
"We all are," Naruto replied grimly. He faced Tobi. That strange, familiar feeling from his Spider-Sense returned, stronger than ever. The swirling void of Tobi's chakra felt like a warped echo of someone he knew.
The fight was disorienting. Tobi's Kamui made him intangible, a ghost that couldn't be touched. Naruto's webs passed right through him. His Rasengan hit nothing but air.
"Your attacks are useless," Tobi taunted. "I exist outside the realm of life and death."
"He's not a ghost," Naruto thought, his Spider-Sense working furiously. "He feels… hollow. Like he's sending parts of himself somewhere else. But where?"
Then he remembered. The crow. The dimension. The escape. That weak point in reality they had burst through.
His eyes widened. He's not becoming intangible. He's sending pieces of himself to his own private dimension. The Kamui dimension! And the only other person who should have that power is…
Naruto looked at Kakashi, who was fighting Zetsu clones nearby. The memory hit him like a physical blow: Kakashi's Chidori piercing Rin's chest. The overwhelming grief he'd felt from his sensei. The swirling vortex of Obito's Mangekyo. It all snapped into place.
The Spider-Sense wasn't just a danger warning. It was a lie detector. And it had been screaming at him every time Tobi spoke of being Madara. It had been screaming at the impossibility of Obito's death.
"I know who you are," Naruto said, his voice dropping low, his Arachnoid Chakra Mode flaring.
Tobi paused. "Oh?"
"You're not Madara," Naruto continued, taking a step forward. "You're a ghost. A ghost of the Kannabi Bridge."
The air grew cold. Tobi's single eye widened behind his mask.
Naruto pointed a finger. "You're Obito Uchiha."
A Crack in the Mask
The declaration hung in the air, a truth so shocking it silenced the surrounding battlefield. Kakashi froze, his Raikiri dissipating in his hand. Guy stopped mid-kick.
Tobi—Obito—was silent for a long moment. Then, he chuckled. A low, humorless sound. "Clever little spider. How did you weave that thread together?"
"My senses don't just feel chakra," Naruto explained, his eyes narrowed. "They feel truth. And your entire existence is a lie. Every word you speak is coated in it. But your Kamui… it feels the same as Kakashi-sensei's. It's a connection. A bond. The one thing you can't fake."
Obito slowly raised a hand to his mask. "So, the time for charades is over." He crushed the mask in his hand, revealing the scarred right side of his face and the Mangekyo Sharingan that mirrored Kakashi's. "What of it? Obito Uchiha is dead. He died in a world that took everything from him. I am no one."
"You're Obito!" Kakashi choked out, stumbling forward. "It can't be…"
"You let Rin die, Kakashi," Obito said, his voice now filled with a cold, bottomless hatred. "You broke your promise. This world you fight for is a failed reality. I will create a new one, where promises aren't broken, and heroes don't let their comrades die."
As Obito spoke, the Gedo Statue roared, the chakra of the Gold and Silver Brothers being ripped from their sealed prisons and fed into the statue. The final pieces of the Nine-Tails and Eight-Tails were all that were needed.
The ground shook violently. The Gedo Statue's nine eyes snapped open. Its massive mouth opened in a silent scream as it began to transform, swelling and contorting. Its flesh tore and reformed into a monstrous new shape—a grotesque creature with a single, massive eye, a gaping maw, and ten writhing tails.
The Ten-Tails had been revived.
Its roar was a wave of pure malevolence that washed over the entire battlefield. It was a power beyond comprehension, an anti-chakra that felt like it was erasing existence itself.
The threads of Naruto's hive-mind web snapped under the strain, the psychic backlash causing thousands of shinobi to cry out in pain. His Arachnoid Chakra Mode sputtered and died, leaving him panting and drained.
Sasuke appeared at his side, his own Susanoo flickering. "Naruto! What is that thing?"
"The end of the world," Naruto gasped, "if we don't stop it right now."
He looked at Sasuke, his oldest friend and bitterest rival. He saw the doubt, the hatred, but also the flicker of the boy he had fought alongside just hours before. He remembered Nagato's final words. Unite the beasts.
Naruto held out a fist. "He's going to put everyone in a dream. A lie. It's a world without bonds, without choice. A world where your brother's sacrifice means nothing. Where my parents' hopes mean nothing. I won't let him create that world. Are you with me?"
Sasuke looked from the monstrous Ten-Tails to Naruto's outstretched fist. He thought of Itachi's final, gentle touch. He thought of Naruto saving him from Danzo's spiteful curse. He thought of the world his brother had died to protect.
With a grim nod, Sasuke bumped Naruto's fist. His Susanoo flared to life, now stabilized and stronger than ever. Naruto's own golden chakra erupted once more, the six spider legs extending with defiant strength.
Team 7, in its own strange, fractured way, was reunited. And before them stood apocalypse.
The Armored Arachnid
The Ten-Tails was not an opponent; it was a natural disaster. It didn't have tactics or strategy, only overwhelming, world-breaking power. It fired a Tailed Beast Bomb, not the size of a normal one, but a condensed sphere of apocalyptic energy that could wipe a country off the map.
"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Naruto's voice, though strained, echoed through the minds of the Kage and the elite shinobi still standing.
The Kage combined their defenses—Gaara's sand, Onoki's earth walls, the Mizukage's water barriers—but they knew it was futile.
"It's no good!" Onoki grunted. "The scale is too different!"
"Naruto, what's the plan?" Sasuke asked, his Perfect Susanoo standing ready.
"We can't block it," Naruto replied, his Arachnoid Chakra Mode flaring back to life, though weaker than before. "So we have to misdirect it." He turned to Sasuke. "Your Susanoo is the perfect armor. Let me use it."
Sasuke didn't hesitate. He opened the Susanoo's chest cavity. Naruto leaped inside, his golden chakra merging with the Susanoo's amethyst aura. The result was instantaneous and spectacular. Golden webs erupted from the Susanoo's joints, reinforcing its structure. The six spider-legs fused with the Susanoo's back, becoming powerful, thrashing appendages. The ethereal warrior now wore a suit of golden, biological armor. It was the Arachnid-Clad Susanoo.
"Whoa…" Naruto breathed, feeling his senses and Sasuke's vision merge into one. He could see everything with the clarity of the Sharingan, and feel everything with the prescience of the Spider-Sense.
The Tailed Beast Bomb arrived. The Armored Susanoo didn't try to block it. Instead, Naruto used the spider legs to spin a massive, concave web in front of them, like a satellite dish. The bomb hit the web, and the web, instead of breaking, bent. It was a catch-and-release. The elastic, sage-infused threads absorbed and redirected the sphere's trajectory, sending the apocalyptic blast hurtling harmlessly into the sky.
Madara and Obito stared, momentarily speechless.
"A clever trick," Madara admitted. "But the Ten-Tails is endless. You are finite."
The Ten-Tails unleashed a barrage of smaller, faster Tailed Beast Bombs. The Armored Susanoo became a blur of motion. Naruto's spider legs, moving with a speed Sasuke's Susanoo could never manage on its own, deflected and parried the blasts, while Sasuke used the Susanoo's blade to slice others in half. They were holding their own.
It was then that four new chakra signatures appeared on the battlefield. Signatures Naruto knew intimately. One was his Jiji, Hiruzen. The second was the stern, imposing Second Hokage, Tobirama. The third was the powerful, life-giving presence of Hashirama Senju.
The fourth felt like looking in a mirror. It was Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash. His father. He arrived in a flash of gold, taking in the scene—the Ten-Tails, Madara, and the impossible, arachnid-armored Susanoo with his son at its heart.
"Naruto…" Minato whispered, his eyes wide with a mix of horror, pride, and utter confusion. "What in the world have you become?"
Sins of the Father, Will of the Sons
The arrival of the four reanimated Hokage changed the entire dynamic of the war. Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, immediately engaged Madara, their clash of titans a separate war unto itself. Hiruzen, Tobirama, and Minato turned their attention to the Ten-Tails.
"Minato, what is that thing?" Hiruzen asked, pointing to the Armored Susanoo.
"That's… my son," Minato said, a knot forming in his stomach. He could feel the Nine-Tails' chakra, but it was twisted, fused with something else—something potent and predatory.
Inside the construct, Naruto felt his father's arrival like a lightning bolt to his soul. The Spider-Sense, which had always been a solitary warning system, now felt a new kind of connection, a thread that vibrated with a deep, familial resonance. He reached out with his chakra, and his mind touched his father's.
"Dad?"
Minato stumbled, clutching his head. He heard his son's voice not with his ears, but in his very soul. He saw flashes of Naruto's life: the loneliness, the bite, the pain, the triumph. He saw the hive mind, the battle with Pain, the stand against the meteors. He understood.
"Naruto… I'm so sorry," Minato projected back, his own heart aching.
"It's okay," Naruto replied, his voice firm. "You did what you had to do. Now, we have to do what we have to do. I need you. I can see its every move, but I can't be everywhere at once. Be my teleport point."
The alliance was instant. Minato threw his marked kunai across the battlefield. The Ten-Tails swatted at the Allied Forces with one of its massive tails.
"Dad, now!"
Minato teleported. In that same instant, Naruto used the Armored Susanoo's web-slingers to fire a massive, condensed ball of Rasengan. The Rasengan traveled along the web-line, appearing right beside Minato as he teleported, slamming into the Ten-Tails' weak point. The beast roared in pain.
It was a perfect combination. Naruto's senses and power, Sasuke's defense, and Minato's speed. Team 7, now with its long-lost father figure, became an unstoppable force. Tobirama and Hiruzen provided support, their mastery of thousands of jutsu keeping the Ten-Tails off balance while Naruto, Sasuke, and Minato struck with devastating precision.
For a moment, it looked like they might win. They were sealing the Ten-Tails, binding it with a combination of Hashirama's wood, Naruto's webs, and the Hokages' sealing jutsu.
The Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails
But Obito had one last card to play. As the seals were about to close, he phased through the barrier. He stood before the monstrous beast, weaving the final hand signs.
"Obito, don't!" Minato yelled, flashing towards his former student.
He was too late. With a final, agonizing roar, the Ten-Tails was absorbed, pulled into Obito's body. The world went silent.
A new figure floated where Obito had been. His hair was white, his skin pale gray. He held a shakujō staff, and ten black spheres, the Truth-Seeking Orbs, floated behind him in a halo. He had become the Jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails. A god.
"This world… is over," Obito said, his voice a calm, detached monotone.
He moved. It wasn't speed. He simply ceased to be in one place and appeared in another. He appeared before Hashirama and Tobirama, half of their bodies disintegrating into nothingness as his Truth-Seeking Orbs passed through them. Their reanimated bodies began to regenerate, but the message was clear. Ninjutsu was useless.
He appeared before Sasuke and Naruto. The Armored Susanoo, which had stood against meteors, was shattered like glass by a single, casual tap of Obito's staff. Naruto and Sasuke were sent flying.
"Your bonds, your feelings, your power… it is all irrelevant now," Obito stated.
Naruto, his chakra cloak gone, his body battered, struggled to his feet. His Spider-Sense wasn't buzzing. It was silent. Utterly, terrifyingly silent. For the first time, he was facing an opponent whose actions he could not predict, because they existed outside the laws of nature he could feel.
"I can't… I can't feel him," Naruto gasped.
Obito raised a hand, a Truth-Seeking Orb forming into a blade. "Let me end your pain, Naruto."
He moved to strike. Minato flashed in front of his son, ready to take the blow. But the blade passed through him and continued on its path. The attack wasn't meant for him.
Suddenly, a massive, golden chakra leg erupted from Naruto's back, not in his control, but as a final, desperate, instinctual act of self-preservation. It met the Truth-Seeking Orb.
There was no explosion. The orb simply… erased it. The golden leg dissolved into nothingness, and the feedback sent a wave of agony through Naruto so intense that he screamed and collapsed.
Obito stood over him. "It is finished." He reached down, not to kill him, but to grab him. His goal was the final piece of the puzzle: the Kyuubi-no-Kumogumo. He was going to extract the beast, and in doing so, end the life of Minato's son right before his eyes. The ultimate despair. The final victory.
The Sage's Gambit
As Obito's hand descended, time seemed to warp. Sasuke, moving faster than he ever had, appeared between them, his Susanoo's blade intercepting Obito's arm. The clash was pathetic; the ethereal blade shattered against Obito's skin. But it bought a microsecond.
In that microsecond, Minato acted. He appeared beside Naruto, grabbing his son's shoulder. Tobirama, in perfect sync, appeared beside Sasuke. With two silent flashes of yellow and silver, they were gone, reappearing a hundred yards away, leaving Obito to grasp at empty air.
"Running is pointless," Obito stated, his voice devoid of emotion. "There is nowhere on this planet you can hide from me."
Naruto lay on the ground, clutching the stump where his chakra leg had been, his whole body trembling from the psychic shock. His Spider-Sense was still dead. It was like fighting blindfolded in a silent room.
"He's right," Naruto rasped, spitting out dust. "We can't beat him. Not like this. His power isn't ninjutsu. It's something else."
"It's the power of the Sage of Six Paths," Hashirama said, landing beside them, his own reanimated body regenerating from his clash with Madara. "Only senjutsu—Sage Art—can harm him now."
"My Sage Mode takes too long to enter," Naruto groaned. "And even then, he's too fast. I can't sense his attacks."
It was a moment of pure despair. They had Kage, legends, and a perfect jinchuriki, and they were all insects before this new god.
Naruto's hand, scrabbling in the dirt, brushed against something in his tattered jacket. The scroll from Jiraiya. "You'll know when you need it."
Now seems like a pretty good time, he thought, pulling it out.
He bit his thumb and smeared blood across the seal. It unfurled, revealing not a jutsu, but a complex diagram—a web. At its center was the symbol for the Nine-Tails. But branching off from it were eight other symbols, those of the other Tailed Beasts. And woven between them all were the characters for "connection," "harmony," and "venom."
"What is this?" Minato asked, peering over his shoulder.
"It's a key," Naruto breathed, his eyes widening in understanding. "Pervy Sage… you magnificent bastard."
Jiraiya hadn't just taught him to fight. He'd studied him. He'd realized Naruto's unique spider-venom chakra didn't just harmonize with sage energy; it was a universal solvent for chakra itself. It could break down barriers. The scroll wasn't a jutsu; it was a blueprint. A blueprint for hacking the Gedo Statue.
"I need time," Naruto said, his voice filled with a desperate, crazy hope. "A lot of it. And I need to get close to him."
"That's suicide," Sasuke stated flatly.
"No," Naruto grinned, a flash of his old self returning. "It's a web. You guys are the distraction. I'm the spider."
The Parliament of Beasts
The plan was insane. The four Hokage, the most powerful leaders in history, were to act as bait. Sasuke, with his Perfect Susanoo, would be the shield. Their goal: to buy Naruto five minutes.
What followed was the most legendary display of ninjutsu the world had ever seen. Hashirama summoned his Wood Golem. Tobirama unleashed torrents of water from a single drop. Hiruzen summoned Enma and used a combination of all five nature releases. Minato became a golden blur, teleporting entire volleys of Truth-Seeking Orbs away from the army. Sasuke's Susanoo stood as a defiant purple bastion, its arrows of Amaterasu harassing Obito relentlessly.
It was a glorious, futile battle. They were buying seconds with legendary techniques.
Meanwhile, Naruto, hidden behind the shield of the Susanoo, laid the scroll on the ground. He entered his base Spider Sage mode and placed his hands on the central seal. He began to pour his unique chakra into the diagram.
His consciousness plunged into darkness. He found himself in a familiar, yet different, mindscape. It was a vast, black void. Before him stood the Gedo Statue, and chained to its ten fingers were the nine Tailed Beasts. They were drained, their eyes dull with despair.
"Who are you?" Matatabi, the Two-Tails, hissed.
"Another human come to enslave us," Shukaku, the One-Tail, spat.
But Naruto didn't approach them as a conqueror. He approached them as he had Gaara, as he had Nagato. He let his Spider-Sense, useless in the real world, reach out into this mental one. It wasn't blocked by Obito's power here. He felt their centuries of loneliness, of being treated as weapons, of being feared and hated. It was his own story, magnified by nine.
"I know what it's like," said a new voice, deep and rumbling. It was Kurama, the Kyuubi-no-Kumogumo, manifesting behind Naruto, not as a monster, but as a partner. "This gnat… is different. He was bitten by a poison meant for gods, and instead of dying, he made it his own. He doesn't want to control us."
"He's right," Naruto said, meeting each of their gazes. "I don't want your power. I want your help. I want your names. I want to be your friend."
He extended his golden chakra, not as chains, but as threads of light. He didn't try to pull their chakra. He simply connected to them, sharing his own story through the web—his pain, his hope, his promise to Sasuke.
The beasts were stunned into silence. They had only ever known humans who wanted to take. Here was one who only wanted to share.
Son Gokū, the Four-Tails, who held a deep hatred for humans, looked at Naruto and saw not a jailer, but an equal. "The Sage of Six Paths… he spoke of one who would walk among us and show us a new path."
"My name is Son Gokū," the great ape said, and bumped his giant fist against Naruto's. A wave of immense, molten chakra flowed into Naruto.
One by one, they followed. Matatabi. Isobu. Kokuō. Saiken. Chōmei. Gyūki. And finally, Shukaku. They all gave him their names, and with their names, a piece of their power.
The Weaver of a Thousand Jutsu
Back on the battlefield, Naruto's body exploded with power. His golden chakra cloak returned, but it was different. It swirled with the blue flames of Matatabi, was coated in the coral of Isobu, and steamed with the heat of Kokuō. His six spider legs, once uniform gold, now each took on the properties of a different beast. One dripped with Saiken's acidic sludge, another was sharp and chitinous like Chōmei's wings.
Obito, who had been effortlessly dismantling the Hokages' assault, paused. He felt a fundamental shift.
Naruto opened his eyes. They were no longer just the slitted pupils of a fox. They were a cross-hatch of all nine beasts' eyes, a kaleidoscope of unimaginable power.
"Let's dance, Obito," Naruto said.
He was no longer just the Spider Sage. He was the Arachnid of the Ten Thousand Threads, a nexus point for all the Tailed Beasts.
He shot a web from his wrist. It was no longer just sticky. It was coated in the Four-Tails' lava. It melted through a Truth-Seeking Orb. He swung on another thread, this one leaving a trail of the Two-Tails' scorching blue fire. From his back, a spider leg shot out, not with a Rasengan, but with a miniature Tailed Beast Bomb from Gyūki's chakra.
He was a whirlwind of unpredictable, impossible power. He was using the Tailed Beasts' abilities not as a blunt instrument, but with the precision of a spider weaving its web. He was a perfect fusion of instinct, strategy, and overwhelming might.
Sasuke watched in stunned awe as Naruto single-handedly pushed back a god. This wasn't the monster he had fought. This wasn't the dead-last. This was something entirely new.
"He… he connected with them," Sasuke realized.
It was then that Madara Uchiha, his battle with a regenerating Hashirama reaching a stalemate, landed beside Obito. He looked at Naruto, who was now juggling Tailed Beast Bombs and lava-webs like a master artisan.
"Well now, Obito," Madara said, a genuine, predatory smile spreading across his face. "It seems your fun is over. It's time for the real Jinchuriki to take the stage."
Madara performed a single hand sign. The Rinnegan in his eye pulsed, and Obito screamed as a black receiver rod erupted from his own chest. Madara was using his Rinnegan to force Obito to perform the Rinne Rebirth jutsu on him.
"This world doesn't need a false savior in a dream," Madara declared, his body beginning to glow with life. "It needs a true god to command it."
Black Zetsu, who had been hiding, shot out from the ground, attaching himself to the dying Obito. The final stage of the plan was at hand. They weren't just going to cast a genjutsu. They were going to bring back the progenitor of all chakra.
The apocalypse had an apocalypse. And her name was Kaguya.
The God in the Cocoon
Madara Uchiha, fully resurrected, was a terrifying spectacle. He absorbed Hashirama's sage chakra, his power skyrocketing. He effortlessly dispatched Tobirama and turned to face Naruto and Sasuke. But as he reveled in his newfound life, Black Zetsu struck.
The inky black entity, Madara's supposed will, plunged a hand through his chest. "You were never the savior, Madara," Zetsu hissed. "You were merely the vessel."
Madara's body convulsed, swelling grotesquely as the entirety of the Ten-Tails' chakra surged into him. The ground erupted. A torrent of natural energy from every living shinobi was ripped from them, drawn towards the epicenter. Naruto's World Wide Web, which had connected the army, became a siphon, channeling their life force away.
He acted instantly. With a roar, he severed every thread, cutting himself off from the Allied Forces to protect them. The backlash was immense, and he fell to one knee, his kaleidoscopic eyes dimming.
The pillar of chakra coalesced into a serene, terrifying figure. A woman with impossibly long white hair, two horn-like protrusions, and a third eye, a Rinne-Sharingan, glowing ominously on her forehead. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the Rabbit Goddess, had returned.
Her presence was absolute. Gravity warped around her. The air crackled with a power that made the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki feel like a genin. This was not an enemy to be fought. This was a law of nature.
"This world is my nursery," Kaguya said, her voice a chorus of overlapping tones. "And you children have made a mess. It is time to put you to sleep."
With a simple blink of her eyes, the world dissolved. One moment they were in a war-torn desert; the next, they were floating in a sea of lava. A massive volcano erupted beside them, and only Sasuke's quick thinking, summoning his Susanoo, saved Naruto and Sakura from being incinerated.
"She can rewrite reality itself," Sasuke grunted, the Susanoo straining against the immense heat.
Naruto, his senses reeling, tried to cast out his web. But there was nothing to connect to. The lava, the rock, the very air—it was all her chakra. There was no natural energy here. It was a world made of her will alone. His Spider-Sense, his greatest weapon, was blind.
"This is her web," Naruto realized with dawning horror. "And we're the flies."
Kaguya fired a volley of All-Killing Ash Bones, projectiles that disintegrated anything they touched. Sasuke, using his Amenotejikara, swapped places with a stray rock, but he couldn't dodge them all. One of the bones grazed the Susanoo's wing, and a huge chunk of it simply ceased to exist.
"It's no good!" Sakura yelled, her own chakra low from healing the army. "We can't fight her! We can't even touch her!"
They were outmatched, outmaneuvered, and in a world where their enemy was the very ground beneath their feet. It was hopeless.
The Thread of the Ghost
As Kaguya prepared another volley, a swirling vortex appeared beside them. A hand reached out and pulled Naruto through. He found himself in the Kamui dimension with Obito, who was dying, the last vestiges of his life being consumed by Black Zetsu.
"Naruto… Uzumaki…" Obito rasped. "You were right. I was a fool."
"Save it, Obito!" Naruto snapped. "How do we beat her?"
"You can't. Not alone," Obito said, his breath ragged. "But her power… it is not absolute. She must travel between her dimensions. That is her weakness. A moment of transit." He looked at Naruto, a flicker of his old self in his eyes. "My Sharingan can connect us to those pathways. I can bring you to her. But I can only do it once."
Obito placed a trembling hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I wanted to be Hokage, once. To connect everyone. You… you actually did it. You became the weaver I only dreamed of being. Don't let my mistake be the end of everything."
Black Zetsu laughed. "Your sentimentality is useless! Mother is absolute!"
"Not quite," Naruto said, his eyes glowing with a faint, residual sage power. He looked at Black Zetsu. "You're a part of her will, right? You're a living thread of her chakra." He smirked. "And I know a thing or two about threads."
He focused all of his remaining sage venom, not into a punch, but into his own chakra signature. He let Obito's hand touch him, and as Obito prepared to use Kamui, Naruto pulsed his venomous chakra through their connection.
The venom didn't harm Obito. It traveled through him, a biological key, and latched onto the parasite controlling him: Black Zetsu. Zetsu shrieked as the venom, designed to neutralize and destabilize foreign chakra, began to corrode his connection to Kaguya. He wasn't being destroyed, but his signal was being scrambled.
"What are you doing?!" Zetsu screeched.
"Hacking the system," Naruto grunted.
Obito used the last of his strength. "Kamui!"
The world twisted. Naruto was ejected back into the lava dimension, but he wasn't alone. He was holding onto a struggling, flickering Black Zetsu, whom he had forcibly severed from Obito. And in his mind, he now had a new sense—a faint, staticky connection to Kaguya's dimensional pathways, courtesy of the venom-infected Zetsu. His Spider-Sense was back online.
The Final Weaving
Naruto appeared before Kaguya, holding the writhing Zetsu. "Looking for this?"
Kaguya's serene expression finally broke, replaced by a flash of rage. She shifted dimensions again, this time to a world of crushing gravity. Naruto and Sasuke were slammed to the ground, unable to move.
"You are an anomaly," Kaguya stated, floating towards Naruto. "That power… it is not of this world. It is the child of my fruit, and a pest from the dirt."
As she approached, the spirit of Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, appeared before Naruto and Sasuke. He bestowed upon them his final gift. The sun mark appeared on Naruto's right hand, the crescent moon on Sasuke's left. They were now the only ones who could seal her.
"She will separate you," Hagoromo's voice echoed. "You must touch her simultaneously. It is the only way."
Kaguya, seeing this, acted immediately. She shifted the dimension again, this time to an ice world, and teleported Sasuke to a separate desert dimension, leaving Naruto alone with her.
"Now you are alone, child of the web," she said.
But Naruto smiled. He held up Black Zetsu, which was still writhing in his grip. "Not quite."
He plunged his hand into the inky creature. His Spider-Sense, amplified by the Six Paths Sage Power and guided by Zetsu's corrupted connection, lit up like a switchboard. He could feel all of her dimensions at once. They were separate rooms, but he could feel the hallways connecting them.
"Sasuke! Can you hear me?" Naruto projected, not with his chakra, but through the dimensional pathways themselves.
In a desert of endless sand, Sasuke's head snapped up. He heard Naruto's voice as clearly as if he were standing next to him.
"How?"
"I hijacked her Wi-Fi," Naruto replied. "I'm going to open a door. Be ready."
Naruto focused. He used his new power not to create a web, but to find a loose thread in Kaguya's dimensional tapestry. He found it, and with a grunt of effort, he pulled. A tear in reality opened beside him, a shimmering window into a desert world. Sasuke leaped through just as Kaguya's All-Killing Ash Bone was about to impale Naruto.
They stood together again. Naruto, the master of connection, had turned the goddess's ultimate power against her.
Kaguya was enraged. This had never happened. She became a gargantuan, unstable monster, a fusion of all the Tailed Beasts. A final, desperate attack. She launched a massive Truth-Seeking Orb, an expanding sphere of nothingness that would erase the entire dimension.
"It's now or never!" Naruto yelled.
He and Sasuke charged forward. Sakura, from a safe distance, provided a critical punch to Kaguya's head, knocking the goddess down for a precious second.
Naruto and Sasuke flew towards her from opposite sides. Sun and Moon. Yin and Yang. Fox and Spider.
As their hands were about to touch her, Naruto did one last thing. He spun a final web, not of chakra, but of pure will. Threads of golden light shot out from him, piercing not Kaguya's body, but the forms of the nine Tailed Beasts trapped within her.
He wasn't just sealing her. He was pulling his friends out.
"Six Paths — Grand Arachnid Sealing!" he roared.
Their hands made contact. A blinding light enveloped the world. The monstrous form of the Ten-Tails was ripped apart, the nine beasts freed and pulled towards Naruto's web, while Kaguya's body was drawn to the gravitational core created by the seal. A new moon formed in the sky of her core dimension, sealing her away for eternity.
The Last Thread
They returned to their world. The war was over. The reanimated Kage were released, offering their final words of respect. Minato looked at his son, no longer a monster, but the savior of the world, radiating the combined warmth of nine beasts and a spider's spirit.
"You surpassed both me and your mother, Naruto," Minato said, his form beginning to fade. "Your father is so proud of you."
As the light faded, only Team 7 remained. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
"It's finally over," Sakura said, tears in her eyes.
"No," Sasuke said, his voice cold. "Not yet." He turned to Naruto. "The Kage will return to their bickering. The cycle of hatred will continue. I will change it. I will become Hokage and create a true revolution, a world united under my control. For that to happen, all remnants of the past must be erased." He looked at the Tailed Beasts, now free and whole. "Starting with them. And then… with you, Naruto."
He trapped the Tailed Beasts in an instant with his Rinnegan. The final battle was at hand.
They stood where it all began, and where it would all end: The Valley of the End.
"Why, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, his heart aching. "After all this… why?"
"You are the nexus of connection, Naruto. You believe in bonds, in trust. But those things lead to pain, to loss," Sasuke said, his Rinnegan and Sharingan blazing. "True peace requires a single, absolute will. A lonely ruler. I will shoulder all the world's hatred myself. I will become the darkness so others can live in the light."
"That's not peace, it's just a bigger cage!" Naruto yelled. "You don't have to be alone, Sasuke! I'm your friend!"
"I know," Sasuke said softly. "And that is why you are the last bond I must sever."
The clash was apocalyptic. Indra's perfect Susanoo, now infused with the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts, faced Asura's avatar, Naruto in his full Arachnoid of the Ten Thousand Threads mode. It was a battle of gods, a fight that reshaped the very landscape.
In the end, they were both drained, their ultimate forms gone. They lay on the ground, bleeding, their arms blown off. Just two broken boys.
"It always… comes to this," Sasuke rasped.
"Yeah," Naruto panted. "Looks like it."
Sasuke finally admitted defeat. He had seen Naruto's unwavering will, a will that refused to give up on him, no matter what. He understood.
Naruto reached over with his remaining arm and laid a hand on Sasuke's chest. He didn't say anything. He just… connected. He didn't share hope or friendship. He shared everything. He let Sasuke feel the silent, humming network of the world he had created—the peaceful sleep of a child in the Sand Village, the quiet satisfaction of a farmer in the Land of Earth, the hopeful prayer of an old woman in the rebuilt Leaf. He let Sasuke feel the truth he had always known: that the world, for all its pain and hatred, was alive with tiny, beautiful, interconnected moments worth saving.
Tears streamed down Sasuke's face. The curse of hatred, a fire that had burned for a thousand years, was finally extinguished not by power, but by empathy.
The Weaver's Peace
Years later, the world was different. It was not perfect, but it was at peace. Sasuke, his arm restored by Naruto's venom-infused cells, wandered the world, protecting the peace from the shadows, his way of atoning.
Naruto Uzumaki became the Seventh Hokage. But he wasn't a ruler in an office. His office was the world. From a quiet room in Konoha, he would cast out his World Wide Web. He didn't spy. He listened. He felt for the tremors of conflict, the stirrings of hatred, the cries for help. He was a global Spider-Sense, a guardian who could feel the pain of his world and dispatch aid before a spark could become a fire.
He was no longer the jinchuriki, the demon fox, or even the hero. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the Great Weaver, the center of a web of peace that stretched across the nations, a web held together not by fear or power, but by the unbreakable threads of connection. The boy who was once the loneliest person in the world had made the entire world his family.