Escape From Konoha

After repelling Liuli, Naruto did not take advantage of the victory and glanced back.

In the afterglow, a huge shadow shrouded down, and a living dragon that was a hundred meters long fell from the sky with the overwhelming momentum of a mountain, relying on its extremely heavy body.

The golden nine-tails quickly swung its tail and tightly wrapped around the body of the live snake. However, the live snake's size was too shocking. With such a heavy blow, the golden nine-tails and Naruto began to fall back uncontrollably.

After all, the hundred-meter-long body has completely surpassed the size of the nine tailed beasts.

Only the aggregation of tailed beasts like the Ten Tails can exceed the size of a living dragon.

Using its own weight to suppress the golden body and nine tails, the live snake's mouthparts expanded again, revealing a dark and deep cave. Its body surged, and yellow mucus splashed out all over the sky. When it came into contact with the air, white steam emerged directly.

This is slime with corrosive power.

It contains amazing magic chakra.

These acidic liquids splashed on the body of the Golden Nine Tails, and white bubbles immediately emerged from the parts contaminated by the liquid, and the flesh and blood cast by chakra quickly dissolved, as if they had been corroded by strong sulfuric acid.

Seeing this scene, Naruto didn't show any worry. Sure enough, after corroding the outermost layer of skin, the acid couldn't move any further.

After previous experiments, more than half of the tailed beast's chakra has begun to combine with natural energy. This means that it is only a matter of time before the nine-tailed chakra enters the sage mode.

Even if it is only half of it, it still possesses the characteristics of immortal magic. It is naturally extremely resistant to the same magic.

The golden nine-tailed man opened his mouth, and jet-black marbles whizzed out of his mouth.

The living dragon pressing down on the golden nine-tailed body at close range was unable to dodge.

Those jet-black marbles exploded directly on the living snake.

The spitting energy storm and the fiercely heated tongues of fire swallowed up most of the living dragon's body in an instant.

This kind of high temperature naturally makes slugs like live slugs, which like wetland environments, very unhappy.

Moreover, the power of the explosion was so severe that even it felt the pain and let out a whimpering groan.

It naturally recognizes this move of Kyuubi.

It is a tailed beast bullet that can be fired quickly without the need to accumulate power.

It can be seen as an infinitely reduced Tailed Beast Jade.

A normal tailed beast jade is extremely destructive and requires a sufficient amount of chakra. Therefore, its release requires cumbersome preparations and is easily interrupted.

The Tailed Beast Bullet has no such concerns. Even if it is less than 10% of the power of the Tailed Beast Bullet, it can instantly condense chakra and spit it out from the mouth anytime and anywhere. Its flying speed is several times that of the Tailed Beast Bullet. It is simple and efficient. Taken to the extreme.

Like the tailed beast jade, this move is almost every tailed beast's skill.

Although the power of one was not enough to pose a threat, the Nine-Tails spit out dozens of them in one breath and exploded directly on the body. The living dragon couldn't help but feel pain. The magic chakra in the body also began to be chaotic, and it could not be effectively controlled for a while. The power used to suppress the Golden Nine Tails was also weakened uncontrollably.

Seizing this opportunity, the golden nine tails roared and swept forward like sharp claws, attacking the living snake.

The body of the living viper was torn apart in an instant, but at the critical moment it decomposed its body into palm-sized fragments and once again escaped the fatal blow.

As long as this ability exists, pure physical attacks will not be able to cause a fatal attack on living slugs.

Kyuubi and Naruto also understand this. It is obviously unrealistic to kill the live slugs in one go.

This is a long tug of war. It was very different from the battles he had experienced in the past, as well as the difficulty of the enemy.

There must be a careful and feasible plan.

The golden nine-tails suppressed the living dragon, and Liuli acted again, splitting his figure into two, occupying both sides of Naruto, as if he suddenly became two people.

But all Naruto sensed was a breath of chakra, and it was obvious that one of them was the afterimage left behind on purpose by Ruri when he moved quickly, to distract Naruto.

On the other side, Ayane stepped on the broken ground and ran forward. Her full-strength running posture had exceeded the limit that humans could achieve. Only with the naked eye, she could only vaguely capture the white afterimage on the road. In a flash, Pass away.

Naruto's attention was not here, but on Shiraishi.

But in the space where his eyes were, Shiraishi's figure and aura suddenly disappeared without knowing when.

Naruto blinked his eyes, bit the black rod between his mouth, and formed a seal with his hands:

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

In the exploding white smoke, golden figures moved like golden movies.

The golden light that was pulled was like chains sealing the entire space. In just an instant, the numerical advantage shifted to Naruto's side.

These shadow clones of Naruto, whose whole bodies are wrapped in golden chakra, also have the ability to perform magic, and there are about a dozen of them.

Everyone was running fast, and in the process of running, the compressed air in the palms made a harsh noise. The white blades cut the air, and the speed became faster and faster. In the end, only the remains of the rotating blades could be seen. Shadow, the noise also reached the limit at this time, making people's eardrums sting.

"Senjutsu, Wind Release, Spiral Shuriken!"

Spiral shurikens containing senjutsu chakra came out one after another, blocking all Ayane's paths of advancement and retreat.

For a time, the area was shrouded in sharp noises, and a storm as sharp as a knife raged in all directions, forming an airtight cage.

More than a dozen Naruto shadow clones rushed towards the storm cage in unison, swarming up and pressing towards Ayane.

As for Naruto's true form, he took the black stick from his mouth, raised his heels, and his body flew out like a hurricane.

As if he had seen through the future, Naruto took out the black stick and slashed at Ruri on the left.

boom!

Liuli's body sank, her feet cracked the ground, and the surrounding earth and rocks were squeezed by the distance and bulged upwards.

Liuli, who was holding the flame fan, had blood-red eyes flashing.

"Sakurai!"

The blood-red electric light wrapped around the flame fan, causing twisted cracks in the space where the edge touched.

However, facing the extremely sharp flame fan, the black stick only had an undetectable mark on it, and scattered black powder.

Naruto frowned.

Liuli waved her left arm and held the air with her left hand. The dark red sword shadow was also attached with blood-red electric light, tearing the space and swinging towards Naruto's neck.

The dark red sword shadow swept across the golden figure, but Liuli's hand did not feel like it had hit an entity.

Sure enough, the golden figure that remained in place disappeared and was just an afterimage used by Naruto to hide from others.

However, Naruto, who retreated to a safe distance, had a shallow scar on his face.

"Is your nerve reaction so amazing?"

Liuli held a flame fan in her right hand, a chakra sword in her left hand, and a thrilling smile on her lips.

The corner of his eyes rested on the black stick in Naruto's right hand.

Compared to a body that can be cut by a knife blade, the black rod's ability to be strong is a bit unusual.

"That thing really cannot be touched easily with the body."

Naruto didn't even take a breath and looked at Ruri who was holding the weapon in both hands.

"Now you don't have an extra hand to use with your ninjutsu."

"Yeah?"

Hearing Naruto's words that seemed to be contemptuous, a dark red ghost warrior standing proudly appeared behind Liuli. He only had his upper body. The ghost warrior made a seal with his hands as if to deny Naruto's words.

"The Immortal Technique: The Great Fire is extinguished!"

The sea of ​​fire surged forward.

The fire wave that wiped out everything was like a roaring tsunami.

In the blink of an eye, the flames stretched hundreds of meters across the ground.

Naruto returned to the side of the golden nine-tails, and the tails rolled around, blocking the impact of the waves of fire.

The hot breath heated up the air to a temperature of thousands of degrees, enough to roast a person into dried meat. Even with the protection of chakra, Naruto felt a slight burning pain on his skin.

The water in the earth has also evaporated, and there are dry and cracked scars, as if there has been a severe drought for several years.

boom!

There was an explosion in the storm cage.

Earthquakes were heard frequently, ignoring the cutting of the wind blade, Ayane shuttled through the storm cage, kicked away a golden shadow clone of Naruto, and then swung an air cannon to fly away the shadow clone of Naruto who was attacking behind.

Naruto's shadow clone, who was knocked back by the soft fist, suddenly twitched and showed a painful expression after standing up. Only then did he realize that the Senjutsu chakra in his body was completely disrupted and exploded directly.

The storm cage gradually dissipated. After a long period of raging, the earth had been scarred with shocking wounds by the wind blade, and the terrifying sounds of battle continued to erupt.

At this time, Naruto's shadow clones had shocked expressions on their faces.

But they could clearly see that Ayane was flying without any hindrance during the anti-Spirak Shuriken attack, and she didn't appear to be injured at all.

If it cannot penetrate the opponent's body, then the ability of the Rasen Shuriken to attack cells will be meaningless no matter how powerful it is.

"Be careful, don't get hit by her soft fist!"

A shadow clone shouted.

The more shadow clones are dispersed, the less concentrated the power becomes.

Although the number of people has increased, they are still unable to face top ninjas like Ayane.

Soft Fist can confuse and block the chakra in the target's body. It can be said that this is undoubtedly a huge threat to Naruto's shadow clone.

"I just realized it now, don't you think it's too late?"

Ayane dodged in front of a shadow clone, and when the opponent wanted to retreat, she hit her forehead with a palm.

boom!

The shadow clone's body exploded, and there was no time to react.

The remaining shadow clones were unwilling to sit still and wait for death, and quickly approached Ayane's side.

The magical chakra in the body quickly concentrated and condensed.

Ayane's face changed slightly. Through Byakugan's observation, how could she not understand what such a concentration of chakra meant.

At the moment when the chakras of these shadow clones were mobilized and gathered, Ayane's palms gathered almost at the same time and expelled the senjutsu chakra from her body. She quickly tapped the ground with her toes, causing her body and long hair to rotate.

"Back to the days!"

The released magic chakra forms a spherical rotating wind ball, and is compressed tightly so that no water can enter.

Although the power of the self-exploding shadow clone shattered the surrounding land, the fire and shock waves caused by the self-destruction were unable to penetrate the rotating chakra balls.

The flying hair slowly fell down, and Ayane stopped turning. Several layers of the ground beneath her feet had been worn away by her physical skills.

The night wind stretches along the earth, blowing away the dust and flying into the sky.

After solving these shadow clones, Ayane rushed into the sea of ​​​​fire not far away and entered another battlefield.

Ayane also ignored the high-temperature flames that could burn the earth. She didn't even need to glance at her. After all, with her current physique and magical skills, she could get in and out even in an extreme environment like magma. In the end, Unscathed.

Ayane repeatedly jumped forward in a straight line, gradually shortening the distance between her and Naruto.

The flames distorted the air and interfered with the vision, but Ayane, with her white eyes, did not need to determine the enemy's position through her sight, but relied on the enemy's meridian system to locate it.

Her Byakugan Technique is far more insightful than Ruri's Sharingan, and is enough to see the difference between the true body and the shadow clone.

His pupils bloomed, and Naruto felt his brain sink, as if his head had been hit hard with a hammer.

"God's Sky Strike!"

The surrounding air pressed inward, and with an explosion, several golden tails protecting Naruto's body were blasted away.

"Thunder!"

Liuli galloped forward as fast as thunder.

The blood-colored electric light covered hundreds of meters of space on the ground, spreading out dense blood-colored thunder nets on the ground, so that all parts of Naruto's knees were swallowed up by the blood-colored thunder nets.

Even with the golden chakra protection, Naruto still felt his legs and feet twitching.

"Rabbit hair needle!"

Ayane launched a second wave of offensive when those protective tails bounced away.

The roots of his black hair fluttered, and thorns as thin as hair poured out towards Naruto's body, making Naruto feel like he was in a hail of bullets.

Some of the spikes were dodged by Naruto, but some of them still hit Naruto, impacting Naruto's acupuncture points. The chakra in some meridians immediately began to be confused, or even stopped functioning.

Ruri arrived in front of Naruto just in time, as if carefully calculated and coordinated with Ayane's support, neither too fast nor too slow.

The ghost warrior who appeared behind him condensed the long sword with his hands and waved it on the golden nine-tailed body. The electric light rose and filled with mighty thunder.

The target of her body is Naruto. She dances the dark red chakra sword with her left hand, and waves the flame fan with her right hand. The two weapons are crossed like scissors and combined in interlaced trajectories.

The center of the intersection was Naruto's neck.

Naruto quickly dispersed the bloody lightning on his legs and feet, and lay down.

The golden ribbon fluttering on the forehead protector was interrupted by the crossed weapons.

Still lying prone, Naruto turned the black stick in his hand into a long, narrow cone and hit Liuli's leg.

Liuli missed the attack and retreated directly. However, in the process of retreating, the rope of the iron leggings on her right leg broke and the leggings fell off with a snap.

Naruto secretly regretted that the opponent was very agile, and if she hit her slower, her right leg could be completely destroyed.

Without the right leg, the opponent's combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

However, he did not get entangled. Ayane's attack came again, interrupting his counterattack at the critical moment.

It seemed like a soft palm strike, but Naruto knew that once hit by such a move, even he would find it difficult.

He himself does not know medical ninjutsu. If he is injured, it can only reduce the chakra in the Sage's Talisman.

The chakra of the Immortal Talisman is difficult to regenerate. Therefore, it must be used sparingly to avoid the possibility of excessive injury.

Ayane, on the other hand, grabbed a gap in Naruto's position, leaned forward, and raised her heels slightly with an undetectable movement, which was impossible to tell with the naked eye.

Is it that divine air strike? wrong! Naruto's expression changed.

The surrounding airflow began to rotate consciously, converging from the outside to the inside towards the center.

Ayane's palms discharge chakra.

Her hair and clothes danced like living creatures.

"Back to the days!"

Instead of deflecting the attack and causing the chakra to impact outwards, the two internal and external celestial chakras began to flank the target within the area under clever control.

The powerful air turbulence swept away the sand and rocks, and the ground was lifted up. The continuous squeezing force was enough to crush the steel.

Facing this turbulent flow of air attacking from both inside and outside, Naruto felt like he was facing a formidable enemy. He desperately used his magic chakra to resist this turbulent flow, and then his pupils looked down.

A shadow rushed out from Ayane's shadow and was close to the ground. It didn't know when it was approaching.

Another figure was seen flying out of the shadows, wearing a blood-stained white coat, with countless soul tentacles emerging from behind. It was Bai Shi hiding among the shadow dancers.

As soon as he came out, he used the soul tentacles behind his back to attack.

Shadow Dancer also split countless shadow blades from the shadow comprehension.

Naruto seemed to have expected it. He calmly kicked the shadow blade into pieces and then turned around with the help of his strength. The long black thorn in his hand had turned into a black stick with a sharp aura wrapped around it. The soul tentacles were cut off.

The part of the soul tentacles that broke off and landed on the ground was like a fish that landed on the ground. It struggled and jumped twice on the ground, and then lay there, motionless.

"Nine Lamas!"

As Naruto shouted.

The golden nine-tailed sword shook away the ghost warrior's swords, turned around and opened his mouth.

Tailed beast bullets were ejected one after another, directly blasting a hole in the outer wall of Ayane's Kaiten, disrupting the movement of chakra inside.

Naruto escaped, but it was not easy, and he began to gasp.

The fire spread all around and continued to burn, using the earth as nourishment.

He pulled out the long black needles on his body, black needles as thin as hair, made entirely of Ayane's hair, but as straight and hard as steel needles.

"Can that thing still attack the soul?"

Shiraishi swept towards the soul tentacles that fell to the ground. After being disconnected from the main body, he could no longer sense their breath.

Generally speaking, even if the tentacles are chopped off, he can still sense and control them.

But now I can't sense it, and I can't control it.

While paying attention to the black rod in Naruto's hand, while releasing the soul tentacles and recovering those broken tentacles that fell to the ground, Shiraishi's eyes were thoughtful.

"Seeking Daoyu... is more troublesome than expected."

Naruto ignored Shiraishi's deep thoughts and just glanced slightly sideways. The body of the golden nine-tails began to twist and compress, and rolled into Naruto's back, integrating with Naruto.

At the same time, a black scratch appeared on Naruto's left and right faces, like a fox's beard.

The aura on the other party's body also fluctuates between stability and instability.

It gives people a wonderful feeling of peace and violence.

"that is……"

In Ayane's white eyes, she saw that the quality of chakra in Naruto's body had increased again.

"It seems that the senjutsu is about to be completely integrated with the Nine-Tails. It's interesting, is it a competition to see which time is faster?"

Shiraishi chuckled, not afraid of Naruto becoming stronger again. On the contrary, the look in his eyes was more interesting than ever.

"Have you thought of a solution?"

Ayane turned to look at Shiraishi and asked.

"I can give it a try. However, my chakra doesn't seem to be enough."

So, Shiraishi squinted his eyes and landed on the Eight-Tails in a corner of the battlefield, with a gleam of light flashing in his eyes.

"This guy is so lucky not to be absorbed by the Ten-Tails. He just needs a new 'battery'."

Sensing the change in Shiraishi's goal, Naruto, who had just managed to keep the various energies in his body in balance, finally changed his face:

"Uncle Bi, be careful!"

◎

The fireballs falling from the sky were like bolides, exploding on the ground and lighting up the night sky.

It was already past midnight.

From the initial opening to now, I don’t know how long the battle has been.

Although there was still plenty of chakra, the long battle also made Kazuki feel slightly irritable.

Especially after devouring part of the Ten-Tails' flesh and blood, her unsatisfied desire made her body even more itchy and unbearable.

I want to be one with that thing.

This intense excitement never stopped after eating the first piece of ten tail meat.

Sasuke, who came to support, unfolded the complete purple Crow Tengu warrior and soared into the sky with wings on his back.

On the earth, the huge wizard covered in lava burned everything he passed into a red ground.

The Ten-Tails in the second stage is ugly enough, but has become strong and healthy, and is obviously in a critical state of transformation.

Nagato, who was on top of it, faced the fierce attack of two top ninjas. Although he managed to achieve a tie with the momentum of the Ten-Tails, the long-term fierce battle caused his physical strength to decline sharply.

Black Zetsu was on the edge of the battlefield, with only half of his body exposed, and the rest was integrated into the earth.

Facing the earth-shattering explosions, his eyes were very calm.

For ordinary ninjas, the battlefield looks like a natural disaster, but it feels sparse and ordinary.

The only difficulty is probably to wait for the right time to get close to the 'target'.

"Although Nagato is the key to resurrecting 'Mom', who is that little girl...? The aura that entered her body before was definitely unmistakable..."

There was hesitation on Black Zetsu's face, and his eyes wandered uncertainly on Nagato and Kazuki.

"Anyway, let's release 'Mom' first and then talk about it. The Ten-Tails is almost in its state, and the only thing left is fusion. I hope there won't be any more mistakes..."

As it murmured this sentence, as if to prove the correctness of what it said, it was colliding with the lava wizard with its body, sweeping the Sky Crow Tengu Warrior with its tail, and forcing the Ten-Tails that Sasuke could not approach, and its body trembled suddenly.

The flesh and blood of the body began to swell, and the muscles that were already strong began to swell again.

"Chirrup!"

It was the usual scream that was so sharp it could pierce the eardrums.

The sound contained substantial sonic energy, and the ten tails danced wildly. There was a roar, and the ground thousands of meters deep sank several meters at the same time.

The cracks moved in all directions, continuing to expand the attack range of the sound waves.

The fireballs in the sky were swept away in an instant. The black clouds originally created by Ichiji began to be disturbed by the Ten Tails, becoming darker and more solid, and then rolled up, forming a huge black hole vortex.

The black clouds that flowed up were accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Sasuke, who was flying in the sky with the help of Susanoo, felt his whole body sink, and the flying height dropped by more than ten meters before he withstood the pressure and stagnated in mid-air.

And with the help of chakra wings, Ichiki, who was just remotely controlling the lava wizard, was also flying in the air, and was also embarrassed by this sudden pressure.

The momentum created by this pressure is completely different from the previous Ten-Tails.

Kazuki and Sasuke glanced towards the sky.

The black hole formed by the dark clouds in the sky is conquering the sky at a jaw-dropping speed. The size of the black hole is enough to swallow a city.

The black clouds at the edge are even bigger, like vortices revolving around the black hole, like thick pythons wrapping around the black hole in circles.

As far as the eye can see, the sky is covered with this abnormal celestial phenomenon.

"The Kingdom of Rain... No, I'm afraid the sky in further areas has also been affected by the power of the Ten-Tails."

Sasuke's face was solemn.

He originally thought that Shiraishi's words to let him and Kazuki escape were a bit too ambitious.

The Complete Susanoo can flatten a mountain with one sword. With such power, one person can rival an entire country.

And there are two complete Susanoos here, can't they still deal with one Ten-Tails?

But now it seems that if this kind of monster is used as an opponent, the result is really hard to say.

Once this monster launches an attack, I am afraid that it will destroy the entire Kingdom of Rain in a very short time, and even the surrounding countries will be within its attack range.

The strongest tailed beast with the power to destroy the world!

Ten tails!

Sasuke further saw the true face of this ferocious beast.

This is definitely not something that one person can deal with alone.

Ichiji didn't reply, but stared at the Ten-Tails' position with a pair of bright red eyes. She could no longer hold back the heat in her eyes, and her body instinctively wanted to get closer.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Feeling the abnormality in Ichiki's aura, Sasuke was slightly startled.

"Stop it for me."

Yi Ji said something.

"What?"

The wind was so loud that Sasuke couldn't hear clearly.

"I'm going to eat it!"

The wings behind Yi Ji flapped violently, striking the air behind her hard, and her body flew out. Her black hair was like another wing, flying to both sides, and her body dived into a straight line, approaching the Ten-Tails.

The lava wizard below let out a scream of a living thing, and pressed the Ten-Tails' head with one hand, as if he wanted to scratch the Ten-Tails' head into pieces. The gem at the top of the long staff flew away from the round wheel and expanded into a huge ball of lava.

The hot energy roasted the earth, and the Ten-Tails' skin seemed to be melting, and the air deformed.

Nagato moved his feet away from the Ten-Tails, using the repulsive force to isolate himself from the high temperature.

Welcome Ichiji.

The Ten-Tails roared again, as if stimulated by the high temperature of the lava gem. The dark and bright red chakra balls gathered in the gushing mouth, eventually forming a black ball that was bigger than its head.

The black ball is mixed with purple, red, and dark blue spots, and the aura of extermination of all things is wrapped around the ball.

The black ball shot into the sky and actually hit the lava jade.

Kaka!

Like the spherical jade of the sun, cracks appeared on the surface.

Countless rays of hot golden light shot out from the cracks in the fragments.

Boom!

There was a heavy sound in the atmosphere.

The hot jade exploded from the inside, and the hot energy swallowed up in all directions.

The black tailed beast jade was also severely damaged, and the high concentration of energy gathered in the air also went berserk in the explosion of the lava jade.

Dazzling bright light shone in all directions, even the dark clouds covering the sky were swept away.

The trembling breath will probably cause even the creatures outside the Rain Country to tuck their tails and run away under its power.

"These two people are really messing around!"

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched, and he took the complete Crow Tengu warrior away from the core explosion site. The strong pressure that hit his face made the Crow Tengu warrior seem to be trembling, and he did not dare to approach the center rashly.

However, the aftermath has not dissipated, and the breath that flew out is still lingering like waves of wheat blown by the wind.

This devastating impact was so shocking that Sasuke suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness in his heart, and then he threw away this boring thought.

Drive the Crow Tengu warrior and rush into the strong storm.

The strong light is still shining, and the smoke is also filling the air.

Sasuke looked for Kazuhime and Nagato. Although he knew that the two people could not die in the explosion, his heart was beating.

Could he really be dead? With the chaotic aura, even the perception of magic is declining.

Just then, a deep sound attracted his attention.

He looked down, and the swirling smoke slowly dispersed, revealing the shadow of a majestic monster, slowly revealing its strong and mighty outline.

Before he could see his true face, Sasuke's heart beat violently and his muscles subconsciously tightened.

"Ten-Tails?"

Determination showed on Sasuke's face.

The Crow Tengu warrior swooped down.

The blade of the sword was filled with dense electric light, like a thousand birds crying with blood.

boom!

The fulfilling feeling of hitting a hard object was accurately transmitted to Sasuke's arm through the sword blade, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

The clouds and mist slowly dispersed, and the body of the ten tails appeared. It sat cross-legged, with its ten tails slowly swaying behind it, and clasped its hands together, as if the Buddha was coming.

The body stopped swelling and tended to a peaceful stability. The chakra was still as deep as the sea, but it was no longer wild and violent, and it didn't know how to restrain it.

The blade struck it in the neck.

The skin and flesh are not broken.

The Ten-Tails' red eyes turned and looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke also looked at Ten-Tails, the smile on his face disappeared at some point, and his body was frozen there as if he had been hit by a time-stopping spell.