He flickers in and out - but the people on the other end must be keeping track of him, too, because he reappears with injuries she didn't cause.

She keeps up the area pressure. With no safe place to hide in either realm, they can wear him down.

He disappears for a short time -

And reappears, hair white, surrounded by balls of black. He's still relying heavily on his ability to flicker between dimensions, and she can inconvenience him - but the black is absorbing her attacks, and there's a feel to him like the ten tails had, and he's fast enough to strike her -

And then she's pulled out.

'Sorry. Swapped you for the Second Hokage, who has a self-renewing bomb. The masked man sealed the ten tails in himself, which freed up the zombies, so,' Ino explains, tersely.

That's fine. She'll switch to helping on this side.

The fight's a different rhythm, now. The masked man is better able to maneuver versus the zombies, doing permanent damage, and they're force to rotate out zombies pretty often. He's a smaller target, more fleeting, harder to hit than the ten tails had been. Both sides are wearing each other down - but it's hard to tell who's losing faster.

Ellisaria does her best to control the battlefield and limit his possible range of movement.

She's effective enough that he's clearly getting frustrated at least, and he starts lashing out with larger and larger attacks.

And then Naruto - and a giant glowing golden Kurama - return to the field.

It turns out they're able to negate the masked man's black spheres.

Well, isn't that useful. That was one ability they didn't really have a counter for.

It's extremely convenient!

They're also able to now be definitely winning.

Winning is good. She enjoys winning.

Naruto and Kurama, after getting everyone to back off, send off a massive tailed beast bomb that could've easily engulfed the ten tails - 

And there's a boom, that shakes in their minds and the senses telling them to fear more than in their bones -

And the dust clears, to the masked man barely visible within the wood that's wrapping him.

Wood that's quickly growing and mutating.

A tree shoots up around him, growing, until its base is the size of the ten tails and its trunk is probably easily visible from space - 

And, directly aligned under the full moon overhead, a flower starts to form at the top.

And Ellisaria isn't going to make it underground in time-

And the flower opens, and the moon glares down at them, red and perfect.

She spreads her wings and soars over the mountaintops, snow-crested peaks falling down to the foothills that roll onto the plain. She can feel the gentle pulse of magic beneath her, elementals humming in their repose, placid, content, alive. She knows that at her call, they will rise up, towering forces devoted to her will. But there is no need for that. All is quiet in the world, all is ordered. There are no matters pressing for her attention. She can devote her time to whatever study or activity pleases her best.

'- Hey! Hey! Anyone, can you hear me - '

-that voice is familiar. She remembers talking to it...

'What do you want?'

'- Oh thank fuck. There's an illusion. You're trapped in it. I think I can get people out - '

An illusion? The masked man. The tree, and the moon. Ah. This is not real.

'Do it, then.

And Ellisaria is seeing through another's eyes, the world awash in chakra and painfully detailed, the crawl of insects on the ground obvious, the souls of the dead visible, blanketing the battlefield, gravity a visible draw, the planet dwarfing everything around it, the tree bright and deadly as it draws the light into itself -

And then both the illusion and the weird double vision break, and Ellisaria is returned to herself.

She shakes her head and reorients herself, looking around.

Sasuke, Itachi, and Madara are all free. Sasuke seems to have regained his Susano at some point. Naruto seems to be waking up, as do the assorted Kage - Ino's clearly going for the heavy hitters first.

Any sign of the masked man?

On his knees, breathing hard, at the base of the tree.

Vulnerable, then.

She attacks.