“I’m glad to see you and your team made it to the rendezvous point in one piece.” Rito says warmly.

Hokuto gently rubs the bruise on her left cheek while stating, “I really wouldn’t say one piece… we encountered 2 enemy patrols on our way here, but they weren’t anything we couldn’t handle…”

Jin and Rito have joined up with Rito’s contact in the resistance, forming a larger party and are continuing their journey. Rito and Hokuto are leading the way while a cautious Jin silently follows from the very back of the group, eyeing his new and unexpected teammates; he walks hunched over, his arms swaying from side-to-side with each step; his expression is one of boredom mixed with some minor annoyance.

Let’s see now… we have Hokuto, a kunoichi from that star ninja filler arc way back in Part 1… Jin mentally goes through the roster of his new party members. …Then there’s Shira, a sand ninja from the New Chunin Exams filler arc. And lastly, Yomito Hirasaka, a dream ninja from the Kizuna Drive game for the PSP…

The valley they tread splits into three paths. As the group takes the middle road, the red-headed rogue decides to stop in his tracks; he has grown tiresome with being left in the dark.

“Alright, I’ve run out of patience… Can someone, ANYONE, please explain to me why the hell we’re here?” Jin interrupts the conversation, asking a question that has been on his mind for some time. “I’m not walking blindly into God knows where. What are we doing here?”

Hokuto turns back to face Jin and responds with, “We’ve recently uncovered the location where the women with kekkei genkai have been imprisoned. Our mission is to go and rescue them.”

♦♦♦♦♦

The mournful Echo rigorously shakes his head, returning to the present. Mustering up what little chakra he has left, the time-displaced Jin weaves the ram and snake hand signs. The chakra that Echo is infusing steadily gathers in his left eye.

I won’t fail you again… Never again… Echo closes his eyes and takes a deep breath; his hair color eerily changes from red to white. “Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth.”

Like clockwork, the King of Hell appears at Echo’s side; he opens his mouth wide, and a bolt of green light shoots out.

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Rito’s eyes spring open, he takes a breath and sits up; he feels like he’s just woken up from a deep sleep. Shocked and confused, the boy looks downward and sees a gaping hole in his shirt, but no injury to his torso, there in fact, appears to be no signs of damage whatsoever.

A flabbergasted Rito lets out, “Wh-Wha… What the hell happened?”

“YOU DIED AND ECHO BROUGHT YOU BACK.”

Rito looks to his left and sees Mecha-Naruto standing over him with an astonished Kakashi looking on from further back. The robotic duplicate is holding up a weak and feeble Echo. The white hair and exhausted look in the time-traveler’s eyes are the first things the young genius notices that are different about him; dark rings have already formed around his eyes. Rito scans his surroundings until he spots Sakura still lying on the ground motionless, lifeless.

“…Why didn’t you bring back Sakura?” Rito asks.

Mecha- Naruto is quick to answer. “ECHO ONLY HAD ENOUGH CHAKRA TO BRING BACK ONE. HE CHOSE YOU.”

“E-Eve… Even in his final moments… *COUGH* O-Obito proved to be a rather subpar… pawn…” A wheezing Echo states.

Even though the reincarnations were never told directly, they had already suspected that Jin or Mileena had either put Obito under genjutsu or mind controlled him. They all thought it was odd that Obito had a sudden change of heart despite not having those key conversations with Naruto like in the main timeline.

“By the way… where are Jin and Ayanami?” Rito asks while still examining his body.

“LOOK AND SEE.” The mechanical copy points into the distance with his free hand.

The young genius gazes into the distance only for his eyes to widen with surprise at that chaotic skirmish he’s witnessing; he sees Naruto (in his Kurama Mode) fighting Moryo, Sasuke (in his Perfect Senjutsu Susano’o) fighting Kaguya (in her rabbit form), and what appears to be a symbiote Spider-Girl fighting a giant, white eldritch horror.

“What the hell…?”

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“Jin, you idiot! You’re acting just like Kaguya…!” Ayanami shouts, desperately trying to reach her friend.

“Kill Moryo… …I will… …kill Moryo…”

The Lovecraftian horror fires two black beams from his numerous eyes, but the young Hyuga is undeterred; she charges forward and side steps to the left, evading the first beam then quickly follows-up by side stepping to the right, dodging the second laser. The beast thrusts several of his tentacles at the kunoichi in an attempt to skewer her, but she dodges by jumping into the air and disappears, substituting herself with a boulder.

Ayanami reappears directly behind the monster and says, “…Your moves and tactics are far too simple and straightforward!!”

The leaf ninja shoots out several black tendrils from her right arm; they cling tightly to one of the beast’s own tentacles. Ayanami then flies high into the air, dragging the beast along with her and spins as fast as she can; she uses her momentum coupled with the symbiote strength Mileena provides to throw the monster, slamming him hard into the ground; the beast’s crash leaves a large seismic event.

“Now’s our chance, Big Sis!” Mileena exclaims.

“I know.”

Ayanami braces herself and flies down towards her friend at top speed. While dive-bombing the beast, the leaf shinobi amasses six path senjutsu chakra into her hand; her hand begins to emit sparks of black lightning.

“…K-Kill Moryo…”

In an attempt to make a preemptive assault, the horror swiftly coils his tendrils into two massive club-like appendages; he swings them both with the intent to crush the quickly descending Ayanami. However, just as the two clubs close in on the kunoichi, a barrage of black tendrils shoot out from her body in every direction, stopping the clubs and pushing back against them.

“…I-I can’t… …h-hold them off for long…!” Mileena says with a strained voice. “Now! Ayanami! DO IT!!”

Ayanami screams at the top of her lungs, “SAGE ART: LIGHTING BEAST RUNNING FANG!!!”

The young Hyuga unleashes a colossal hound made entirely of black lighting on her friend; it sprints down in a zig-zagging motion with its maw gaping open, revealing rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth; it pounces on the eldritch horror and bites down on his flesh.

“Kill Mory--AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEE!!!”

The horror screams in agony as Ayanami’s jutsu detonates, resulting in a massive explosion. Large arcs of electricity tear into the ground, glassing it over. The ground rumbles and all the rock formations nearby fall apart, it is as if the entire region is trembling in fear.

When the dust clears, the horror lies in the center of a massive glassy crater with sparks of residual electricity emanating from it. The kunoichi can tell that her friend is still alive by the fact that his mouths and tentacles are all twitching ever so slightly; the tension remains high as she can’t be too careful with.

When this is over, I’m asking Captain Yamato for Wood Style lessons… Ayanami thinks to herself as she cautiously and slowly descends to the ground, landing right beside her companion.

The leaf kunoichi breathes a sigh of relief when she realizes that Jin truly is down for the moment. “Okay, Mileena… do your thing.”

Ayanami fist bumps her friend’s flesh and watches as the symbiote leeches off of her and goes onto Jin. Mileena hurriedly spreads across Jin, wrapping herself all around her creator’s massive, grotesque body, enveloping it in its entirety; she seeps deep within her father’s body, searching for his nervous system and connects herself to it.

Seconds pass before the kunoichi sees the fruits of her labor. The eldritch horror which lays before her gradually shrinks in size. As he grows smaller, his physique changes, returning to that of a young man in his mid-teens hunched over on all fours.

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When Jin opens his eyes like he’s just woken up from a deep sleep, he feels an extreme sense of serenity. For the briefest of moments, the Onikage is truly at peace. However, it all comes rushing back and he is overwhelmed by the loss, the anguish, the pain; each time it feels like he is about to be consumed by his emotions, he mysteriously calms down for a hot nanosecond only for his grief to rise again and calm down again. Within an extremely short span of time, Jin experiences this strange phenomenon nearly a dozen times.

“…Jin? …Are you okay?” A familiar voice asks in a soft and empathetic tone.

The young Uzumaki looks up and sees Ayanami kneeling before him, holding her hand out to him; she wears a warm smile, but her eyes, her watery eyes are brimming with concern and grief.

With a heavy heart, Jin hangs his head low and mutters, “I just lost the closest thing I had to a brother… What do you think?”

“You’re upset and grieving, I get that. Hell, I feel the exact same way too…” A patient Ayanami continues to hold out her hand as she speaks. “…But I need you to shelve your pain for right now. Once the fighting is over… Can you do that?”

Jin takes a moment to gather his bearings; he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, taking her hand. “Okay…”

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“This farce is over! Just give up, you foolish child!” Moryo commands with a thunderous tone.

“You sure love to hear yourself talk, don’t cha?” Naruto, however, defiantly stands strong with a fire in his eyes that refuses to go out. “I never give up and I never go back on my word. That’s my nindo, my ninja way!”

Hovering from within his Kurama avatar, the Chosen One builds up his chakra and weaves the clone hand sign producing two shadow clones. In preparation for his next attack, Naruto’s clones produce their own fox avatars.

“Gale Style: Gale Dragon!” Moryo immediately fires a pillar of red chakra from one of his mouths into the sky.

The heavens darken as a massive thunder cloud forms over the area, it is capable of infinitely expanding in size, strength and ferocity as the demon fills it with chakra. The cumulonimbus swirls ominously above the two combatants with minor sparks of electricity generating from it.

“This is the dawn of a new age, the Age of Moryo! All hail Lord Mor--WHAT?!!”

Both Naruto and Moryo stare at the storm cloud with eyes as wide as saucers; they are taken aback as they both can sense an invasive chakra taking root within the demon’s jutsu, co-opting it. All of the lightning gathers at the eye of the storm and changes in shape, taking the form of a massive beast with glowing red eyes.

“Naruto, you little… What did you do to my jutsu??!!!” Moryo roars, enraged by the perversion of his attack.

The lightning beast suddenly lunges for the dastardly demon; it detonates on contact, creating a massive explosion.

“You’ll hurt no one ever again, monster…” A familiar voice speaks with a determined yet cold tone.

Shocked, Naruto looks back and gasps at the sight of Ayanami and Jin; he assumes the kunoichi succeeded in bringing his cousin back to his senses. However, Naruto notices that Jin is not okay; his fists are shaking profusely, he wears a venomous scowl, his teeth are gritting, and his eyes… His eyes have a fire in them, a cold fire.

Before the Chosen One can even say anything the two reincarnations fly past him, they wait patiently for their shared adversary to rise from the crater.

“Okay… You fought well and stuck it out, Naruto.” Ayanami looks back and gives a confident smile. “Go and help Sasuke. Jin and I will finish things up here.”

Naruto nods and gives a thumbs up. “Alright! Go on and kick that creep’s ass!”

“Finally…” Jin mutters as Naruto flies off.

“Oh~, you’re going to finish me, are you?”

A pair of draconic wings emerge from the thick smoke cloud. With a single flap, the wings disperse the smoke to reveal Moryo, who is covered in second-degree burns.

“Oh, my, you children are quite mad. I’ll put you out of your misery and reunite you with your poor, pitiful friends…” The demon sneers. “I’ll even send Naruto and Sasuke there too so the four of you won’t be so lonely.”

Hearing Moryo’s words, Jin begins to seethe; from the depths of his soul, he is so furious, it hurts; he was unaware that he could hate someone so much. At last, he finally, truly understands what Sasuke and even Naruto have been feeling.

It’s at this very moment that Jin’s Rinne Sharingan resonates with his emotions and begins to pulsate. M-My eye…?! It feels like it’s talking to me… it’s like it WANTS to be used…

Memories from Jin's previous life flashes before his eyes; he sees a show he used to watch; it features Marvel’s premiere superhero team. From his memories, Jin recalls the Hulk’s advice when facing Thanos: Give your anger focus and direction.

“Before you die, there’s something I wish to tell you…” Moryo says, his tone has become calm. “When I absorbed Kazuya, I was amazed and horrified. I gained access to all of his memories, ALL of them.”

Ah… this is the part where the villain monologues and informs us of his endgame, his magnum opus. A still seething Jin thinks to himself as he continues to glare at his foe …But we already know what he plans to do… How odd.

“And why are you telling us this now? This doesn’t change anything.” Ayanami gives her enemy a look of dismissal.

“Oh, but it does… I know you two are reincarnations, reincarnations from a realm of gods.”

For a brief moment, Jin’s rage subsides from this revelation. This new information shocks them both to their very cores, so much so that some sweat begins to run down their faces.

“Imagine my disgust, my anger, my despair when I learned the truth that my creator, my TRUE creator, was just a human in another dimension. That I was to perish early on in some story.” The demon continues his monologue. “Once I absorb Kaguya, I'll find Isshiki and feed him to his own Ten-Tails. I will feast on the fruit the God Tree bears and then…”

With a cruel and sinister smile, Moryo turns to look at you, the reader; he can’t see you nor can he hear you, but the demon knows you’re there, watching him, watching them all.

“I will amass enough chakra to enter your world and conquer it. Anyone who dares to dictate my life will PAY DEARLY FOR THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS!!”

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