Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
The massive fireball roared toward them, crashing against the barrier like a wave smashing into a reef. It exploded violently, the scorching flames sliding down the smooth surface of the barrier wall, failing to leave even a scratch!
The Iwagakure's Ninjas who charged forward slashed at the barrier with their kunai and swords, producing ear-piercing metallic screeches.
The tremendous recoil sent their weapons flying, their hands splitting open from the impact. They were sent flying backward as if they had slammed into an invisible wall.
They screamed as they crashed into the rocky walls or the ground, the sound of bones cracking echoing clear!
Despair, like an icy tide, instantly drowned the hearts of all the Iwagakure's Ninjas.
Their strongest attacks couldn't even breach the enemy's defense! This wasn't a battle on the same level at all!
The opponent's strength far surpassed that of an ordinary Ninja!
Nono's pupils constricted sharply.
The moment Hokuto Sennin's barrier was deployed, she moved!
Not to attack… but to retreat!
Her body fluttered backward like a weightless willow leaf, her speed unimaginably fast. Her target was the narrow escape route at the back of the stronghold, leading into a complex network of rocky fissures!
Years of spy career had taught her one thing… against absolute power, resistance was futile. The only path to survival was escape!
She had to use the complex terrain to her advantage!
This wasn't the first time Nono had faced such a crisis, but her caution and decisiveness had always saved her.
Her movements were ghostly, almost simultaneous with the barrier's activation and the Iwagakure's Ninjas defeat. In an instant, she had already reached the entrance of the passage.
Just one more step, and she could slip into the fissure, fleeing the stronghold at top speed!
However, just as she was about to enter the passage-
Shura in the center of the battlefield turned his head slightly. Beneath the white three-eyed fox mask, his left eye suddenly gleamed with a flash of crimson light!
That was not the scarlet Sharingan… but something more sinister, more primal!
Like boiling blood, like molten lava!
[Akaigan]
An invisible, perception-disrupting force erupted instantly!
Nono's vision blurred violently, and the familiar rocky passage entrance twisted and distorted before her eyes!
Her sense of direction was completely scrambled… the entrance, which was once within arm's reach, now seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance!
A wave of intense dizziness assaulted her mind, disrupting her high-speed movement and causing her to stumble.
That fatal delay, which is less than half a second, was all it took!
In that instant, Shura appeared behind Nono in a flash!
A large hand clad in black fingerless gloves clamped down on her slender yet powerful wrist like an iron vise, its grip unyielding!
At the same time, his other hand shot forward like lightning, seizing the back of her neck with precision!
Nono felt an overwhelming force surge through her. With her vital points, her wrist and neck, controlled, her Chakra was instantly suppressed and sealed by a cold, violent foreign energy!
Her body felt as if bound by invisible chains, and every technique, every ounce of strength was rendered useless under that iron grip.
She jerked her head around, coming face-to-face with the white three-eyed fox mask mere inches away.
The mask's cold surface seemed to press against her cheek, and within its hollow eye sockets, two faint crimson lights flickered.
"Don't move." A voice devoid of emotion whispered beside her ear.
Nono's body froze completely. Her will to resist dissolved under absolute domination.
She closed her eyes in resignation, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.
A life spent dancing on the edge of a blade had taught her one thing… struggling now would only bring death.
The stronghold fell into dead silence.
The surviving Iwagakure's Ninjas stood dumbfounded, watching as the mysterious and powerful Shura effortlessly subdued a Medical-Nin under their combined assault.
Holding Nono by the neck, Shura ignored the terrified gazes around him, his eyes sweeping across the stronghold.
The barrier created by Hokuto Sennin still glowed faintly, isolating them from the outside and also crushing any remaining will to fight.
Even the Iwagakure's Jonin sat slumped on the ground, watching helplessly as the enemy captured the Medical-Nin. He barely dared to breathe, afraid of drawing the attention of that slaughter god.
Nono seemed to have resigned herself to fate, her body no longer resisting in the slightest. She simply kept her eyes closed, her face pale.
However, just as Menma was about to activate the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave-
Nono seemed to sense something. Or rather, her instincts as a top-tier spy allowed her to grasp a trace of abnormality even in this desperate situation.
"You-" Beneath her slightly panicked eyelids, her pupils seemed to flicker faintly.
She could feel it… the hand gripping the back of her neck, while suppressing her Chakra, carried an indescribable, immense, and scorching presence, as if emanating from the very essence of life itself.
What shocked her even more was that, at such close range, through the slight gap in the mask's hollow eyeholes, she seemed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a flash of scarlet?
That color wasn't the white or dark red of the mask itself… it looked more like… 'A Sharingan?'
This thought exploded in her mind like thunder!
'Shura?'
'Possessing a Sharingan? How was that possible?!'
The sheer shock nearly made her lose control and open her eyes wide.
However, she was given no further opportunity to observe or think.
Menma didn't grant her any time to investigate or ponder. The Flying Thunder God Technique activated instantly!
The eerie black figure, the restrained Iwagakure's Medical-Nin, and Hokuto Sennin's powerful barrier, as if erased by an invisible hand, vanished without a trace under the stunned gazes of all the Iwagakure's Ninjas in the stronghold.
All that remained was the wreckage-strewn ground, the traumatized Iwagakure's Ninjas, and the cold wind howling outside the stronghold, kicking up swirls of dust.
A long time passed before the suffocating pressure in the air gradually dissipated. The Iwagakure's Jonin was the first to stand up.
But what was left in his heart was an even deeper mark of fear… one branded with the name [Shura].
In the underground prison of Star City.
As Menma pushed open the iron door, Hikari hurriedly hid a book she had been reading.
"Stay here for now. Don't even think about escaping." Menma said, tossing Nono, whose Chakra Points he had sealed, into a cell.
In the adjacent cell, Hiruko cowered in the corner, trembling, his arms wrapped around his knees as if still trapped in the Genjutsu of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Hmm?" Menma noticed that Hikari's face was slightly flushed and couldn't help but ask, "Why is your face so red?"
"N-Nothing… Why are you back so soon?" Hikari's eyes darted away as she subtly hid the book in her hands.
Glancing at the covered book, one could vaguely see the words [XX Paradise].