Ryoma Aburame hovered in the sky, watching Danzo being trampled underfoot by Gisei Shiraishi. His face beneath the mask remained expressionless.
To be honest, after witnessing the scene just now where Gisei turned into lightning and slaughtered everyone, Ryoma knew he didn't stand a chance.
Over fifty Root elites, including nearly twenty Jonin, were massacred in just ten seconds.
Their strength wasn't even in the same dimension—no, their speed wasn't in the same dimension.
Superb speed combined with the high-temperature nature transformation of Lightning Release meant that a simple touch brought a fatal crisis. If he hadn't flown into the sky, he feared he would have already become one of those corpses.
But compared to that raw strength, what made Ryoma's heart pound even harder was Gisei's intelligence.
Even in this overwhelming situation, Gisei hadn't revealed a single flaw. Among the four "Gisei Shiraishis" inside the barrier, Ryoma still couldn't tell which one was the main body.
Should he just sit and wait for death?
Ryoma thought for a moment, then began to control his kikaichu bugs to attack all four Giseis simultaneously.
Seeing the kikaichu swarm toward him, Gisei frowned. As someone who raised bugs himself, he knew exactly how terrifying they could be.
Looking up at Ryoma in the sky, Gisei raised his hand and threw a shuriken.
At that very moment, Danzo, who was still being trampled, suddenly began to form hand seals and spat out a rotating ball of high-pressure wind from his mouth.
"Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku!" (Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!)
Gisei hadn't expected that Danzo, beaten to such a pulp, would still have the fight in him to resist. Caught off guard, he took the full brunt of the ninjutsu.
After the blast cleared, Gisei sighed.
This substitute body was completely ruined. Half of it had been crushed into fragments by the high-pressure wind sphere.
"Danzo, you're pretty capable!"
Inside a tree hollow outside the barrier, the real Gisei clicked his tongue and decided to detonate the nearly destroyed substitute.
Danzo had just caught his breath when he smelled the sharp scent of gunpowder. The half-destroyed Gisei turned into lightning and lunged forward, wrapping Danzo in a bear hug.
BOOM!
A burst of intense fire mixed with the roar of an explosion flashed by.
Danzo stumbled out of the thick smoke, clutching his right hand with his left, his body covered in blood.
Gisei, watching from his tree hollow, wore a strange expression.
Danzo's right eye hadn't been blinded by him, but gouged out by Danzo himself. Now it looked like his right hand was useless too.
Sure enough, he and Danzo were naturally at odds.
Why not just kill him once and for all? With such a huge grudge, Danzo must hate him to the bone anyway.
Once the killing intent arose, Danzo inside the barrier felt the atmosphere shift instantly.
The other three Gisei substitutes abandoned their fight with the kikaichu and turned into lightning, rushing straight for Danzo.
Sakumo Hatake also sensed the killing intent. He tightened his grip on his short blade and intercepted one of the substitutes.
Ryoma hurriedly used his kikaichu to wrap around Danzo, lifting him slowly into the sky.
Two of the Gisei substitutes looked up at the flying pair and fell silent.
They began pulling shuriken from their bodies, placing them one by one on the ground. Then, chakra threads extended from their fingers, connecting nearly a hundred shuriken together.
Seeing this, Sakumo hurriedly shouted, "Don't kill Lord Danzo! If you do this, your relationship with the village will break down completely!"
Gisei acted as if he hadn't heard a word. He raised his hand, preparing to launch the hundred-plus shuriken into the sky.
Danzo knew this was a critical moment and began releasing ninjutsu as if his life depended on it.
"Fūton: Shinkū Renpa!" (Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!)
"Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku!" (Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!)
After Danzo fired off the attacks, Ryoma used his kikaichu to form a shield in front of them to block the incoming shuriken.
Gisei frowned and slammed his hands onto the ground.
"Doton: Doryūheki!" (Earth Style: Mud Wall!)
"Suiton: Suijinheki!" (Water Style: Water Wall!)
After blocking Danzo's Wind Style jutsu, he looked up at the two in the sky and fell silent again.
With his main body outside the barrier, it was actually a bit difficult to kill these two guys.
With no other choice, the two Gisei substitutes suddenly held hands and began to concentrate their combined chakra into one person.
Danzo saw this from the sky. He glanced at the third substitute still entangled with Sakumo, his face grim.
"These three are all clones. Gisei's main body shouldn't be inside the barrier."
Ryoma remained silent. Just the clones had beaten them into this miserable state; what kind of monster was the main body?
A sense of powerlessness rose in his heart. He asked, "Lord Danzo, is there a way to break this barrier?"
"It seems to be the Shishienjin" (Four Violet Flames Formation). "With our current power, it's impossible to break."
After transferring the chakra, one substitute fell softly to the ground. The remaining one began to slowly form hand seals.
Inside the tree hollow, Gisei sighed. While this kind of long-distance control was useful, its chakra precision was significantly worse than using his own body.
Just as he was thinking this, his expression shifted. His face turned serious.
In his perception, new chakra signatures had suddenly appeared—and not just one or two. A lot of people were coming.
Moreover, judging from the intensity, the leader's chakra was quite strong.
It had to be the Third Hokage. He needed to hurry up and kill Danzo.
Inside the barrier, after Gisei finished the seals, he slammed his hands violently onto the ground.
"Doton: Garan Kyozō!" (Earth Style: Garan Colossus!)
The ground began to shake. A moment later, a rock colossus ten meters tall rose from the earth.
Gisei jumped onto the head of the colossus and began forming seals again.
"Katon: Ryūha no Jutsu!" (Fire Style: Flowing Wave Jutsu!)
Flames suddenly erupted from the head of the rock colossus beneath his feet, slowly spreading downward until they enveloped the entire stone giant.
Earth Style and Fire Style...
A chill ran down Danzo's spine. Gisei already had dual attributes of Lightning and Water, and now Earth and Fire had appeared.
Although he hadn't seen Wind attribute yet, Gisei might very well have it.
Was this guy actually a five-attribute ninja?
Before Danzo could figure it out, the rock colossus swung its massive arm and smashed down toward them.
Ryoma only had time to form a few bug shields before the two of them were smashed into the ground by the immense force.
Gisei controlled the Garan Colossus to start violently pounding the spot where they had fallen.
"Ninpo: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!)
A gigantic Baku suddenly appeared. Its long trunk whipped directly onto the body of the colossus, knocking it back. The trunk then rubbed back and forth on the ground to extinguish the flames stuck to it.
Gisei controlled the Garan Colossus to charge up again.
Danzo's summon beast, the Baku, was Wind attribute, while his Garan Colossus was dual Earth and Fire.
He refused to believe he couldn't smash a summon beast to pieces.
To protect its master, the Baku endured the pain of being burned by the flames and fought back with all its might. Unfortunately, after a dozen heavy punches from the Garan Colossus, it could hold on no longer.
With a poof, the summoning jutsu was released, and the beast vanished.