Chapter 680 - 680: Crash Landing on You

The turbulence was like nothing Sasuke had ever experienced before; simply being in the meteor's supersonic wake left him feeling like he was being torn apart. Thankfully, he and Tsubaki had managed to glue themselves to the airship's deck by coating the soles of their sandals with chakra, but the ship's crewmen standing outside were not so lucky.

"The envelope's ruptured!" Tsubaki screamed over the wind in their ears. "We're falliiiing!"

Sasuke pulled out a spool of razor wire and secured one end to the airship's railing and the other to his belt. "Bring Tazuna to the deck!" he yelled before launching himself from the deck into the void, rolling in midair to look skywards. Several other meteorites of varying sizes were hurtling towards the falling ship.

"Where are you going—"

The rest of Tsubaki's sentence was stolen away by the wind as Sasuke soared away from the airship. Several of the Land of Waves' shipwrights had been sucked out by the meteorite's wake when it had streaked past them; they had been knocked unconscious by the shockwaves and were currently falling alongside their battered vessel.

Sasuke focused on one of them.

"Amenotejikara!"

In a flash, Sasuke swapped places with the closest carpenter he could see, leaving him anchored to the ship through the belt of wire he had left behind.

'Why don't you use your Rinnegan powers more often?' Sakura's nagging voice seemed to echo in his ears. 'You've got the eye, but you won't use the jutsu, it's such a waste!'

Sasuke smiled wryly as he extended a hand towards the falling men. It wasn't for lack of wanting that he didn't use the majority of the Six Paths techniques… they were incredibly exhausting to use, and unlike a few people he could name, his stamina regenerated at a normal person's rate. If he exhausted most of his physical energy, he'd be bedbound for a week.

"Universal Pull!"

At once, the limp bodies of the carpenters began shooting towards him. Sasuke released his jutsu halfway through and prepared another length of steel wire, bracing himself for impact.

"Oof!"

The bundle of unconscious men slammed into him, part of their momentum transferring to him and knocking him back towards the airship. Sasuke looped the wire around them as best he could, and together, they soared back onto the deck.

Thankfully, the airship had been flying higher than most mountains to avoid detection, so there were still a few seconds before they crashed into the ground.

"Sasuke!" Tsubaki cried, hanging on for dear life as she inched along the side of the pilot's cabin, holding Tazuna's limp body under one arm. "There's so much blood, I don't know if he's alive or dead!"

At this point, Sasuke was beginning to feel more than a little faint. He had infused far more chakra in one go than he was comfortable, and he was about to use a lot more to summon the Susano'o.

"Sakura… I mean, Tsubaki! Toss me the old man!" Sasuke shouted. "Then use the Great Fireball Jutsu on me!"

"But the hydrogen gas—"

At the speed they were falling, the gas held in the airship's balloon had probably all dissipated by now. It was probably safe to use fire style. Probably.

"JUST DO IT!" Sasuke shouted, catching Tazuna and tying him up with the rest.

There was no time left.

A few seconds ago when the meteorite had narrowly missed them, they had nearly reached their destination, the Land of Redaku. That was all well and good, but the country was situated at the top of a mountain chain, which meant they had far less distance to fall before crashing into the ground. And indeed, as they burst through a cloud and emerged on the other side feeling as though they had been stung by a thousand bees, they found they were plummeting directly into a mountain ridge!

"As big as you can make it!" Sasuke roared. "Quickly!"

Tsubaki took a deep breath as she weaved hand signs, the buttons of her dress popping from the top down one after another as her lungs filled with air.

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

Sasuke thrust out his right hand as his purple Susano'o rapidly took form around him, swallowing up part of the airship and all the unconscious bodies he had collected.

"Six Paths Style: Preta Path — Blocking Technique Absorption Seal!"

Tsubaki unleashed a torrent of azure fire from her mouth. The blue flames crashed against the Susano'o, but before they could consume its purple chakra, they began swirling into its palm in a blinding flash of white light. Since Sasuke wasn't Ōtsutsuki, and since he didn't possess a technique like the Yin Seal, he could not metabolise the absorbed chakra to replenish his stamina or store it for future use, but he could still use it… like this!

"Perfect Susano'o!"

Fuelled by Tsubaki's chakra, the purple Susano'o began rapidly expanding, a layer of armour forming over its flesh and a pair of wings sprouting from its back as a chakra bow formed in its hands…

…but by some miracle, a single hydrogen balloon amongst dozens had survived the destruction of the main envelope. Fed with a constant stream of oxygen and superheated by the close proximity of Tsubaki's blue flames, it violently detonated.

BOOM!

Without warning, an ear-shattering explosion tore through the airship, rupturing the wooden deck and shattering the keel. Tsubaki never had a chance; she was struck full on by the shockwave and sent hurtling off the deck like a meteor, leaving a trail of smoke behind her.

"NO!" Sasuke screamed, grasping at Tsubaki's already distant form. "SAKURA!"

Drawing upon the deepest depths of his being, Sasuke clawed at space and time.

"Universal Pull!"

With the force of desperation, he attempted to pull her back, but she was already far out of his range. Perhaps he would have had a chance to catch her using the Amenotejikara, but swapping places with her would not have saved her, and worst still, it would have caused his Susano'o to dissolve due to the removal of its power source, and the carpenters of the Land of Waves would have all fallen to their deaths.

Pof.

And moments later, the Susano'o containing half of the airship and all the craftsmen crashed into the mountainside. Sasuke's last thought before he blacked out was déjà vu, as though this wasn't the first time he'd been forced to make an emergency crash-landing exactly like this.