As the silver pyramids rose across the Hidden Sand Village following Shiraishi's grand entrance, Shikaku Nara's heart skipped a beat.
A gnawing sense of unease took hold, and he immediately ordered the Hyuga members of the sensory team to investigate.
"Inside those towers... There is a massive amount of unknown chakra."
Shikaku gritted his teeth, looking at the Hyuga ninja beside him. "What kind of chakra is it, exactly?"
"It's unclear for now. This chakra burns like fire, but I've never seen a composition like this before."
The Hyuga ninja strained his eyes, trying to see through the cyan-flame structure within the silver pyramids.
This was a flame that had never appeared in the history of the shinobi world, making it impossible to categorize, but the terrifying energy within was unmistakable.
From a distance, Jiraiya watched Shiraishi's display of power, clicking his tongue in amazement. "Destroying the ley line energy of the reversed barrier using raw chakra alone... in the desert, this guy truly possesses Tailed-Beast-level strength."
The moment "Black Mist" Shiraishi appeared on the battlefield, the plummeting morale of the Sand ninjas surged. Cheers erupted across the village.
Without anyone realizing it, Shiraishi had become the backbone of the Hidden Sand. His presence restored their fighting spirit, and they brandished their weapons to clash once more with the Leaf.
Six rings manifested around Shiraishi. Controlled by his metallic Magnet Release, they transformed into six Dimensional Holes. These mysterious dark wormholes exerted a suffocating pressure on the Leaf forces.
"What can one man truly change?"
Danzo Shimura quickly unleashed a wind blade at Shiraishi, only to see Shiraishi's silhouette distort. In an instant, Shiraishi appeared behind Danzo, his Sage's Blade swinging down with a cold, heavy edge. Danzo's eyes narrowed as he raised his weapon to parry.
As the weapons clashed, Shiraishi delivered a brutal kick. Uchiha Zhan flickered into existence as an afterimage, intercepting the strike for Danzo.
Zhan gripped his tachi in a reverse hold, channeling chakra as he pulled back his wrist, trailing a brilliant, clear light. He struck with a combination of a thrust and a bash, echoing the fiery glow of his earlier attacks.
Facing an Uchiha for the first time, Shiraishi was not careless. He pulled his left arm back, his fist crossing his chest before swinging out in a heavy horizontal hammer-strike.
Combining Scorch Style with the Hellfire, a terrifying purple flame erupted, meeting Uchiha Zhan head-on!
Boom! Boom!
Two consecutive explosions rang out as the clear light scattered. Zhan transformed into countless afterimages, performing a multi-stage attack with almost zero interval, but Shiraishi blocked every single one with rock-solid precision.
Zhan's emotions remained steady, showing no frustration, as if he had anticipated this. He retreated several steps, coughing violently, his three-tomoe Sharingan fully locked onto Shiraishi.
As the afterimages blurred, Zhan twisted his joints and swung his tachi with the speed of a thunderbolt.
The edge was so sharp it felt like it pierced to the bone, and the air currents in its wake condensed into water droplets, forming a faint cloud.
In addition to Fire Style, Uchiha Zhan had mastered Lightning Style!
Shiraishi abandoned the heavy upward punch and struck the flat of the blade with perfect timing, coating it in a layer of crimson heat. The explosive power of Scorch Style combined with Shiraishi's fist to create a gargantuan, red-hot aura.
Zhan's blade followed through with a rhythm so tight and a speed so ferocious that it felt savage, a stark contrast to his earlier refined appearance.
His body, already burdened by illness, was pushed to the limit. He vowed to eliminate this great enemy for the Leaf. In this moment, Zhan's mind was clear; his blade and Body Flicker merged into a single, ultimate strike.
Before the campaign, Zhan had already passed the scrolls of this specific Body Flicker Swordsmanship to his nephew, Uchiha Shisui. He had no regrets. He would defeat this enemy of the Leaf.
One afterimage! Two, three, five!
Surpassing the speed of his father, Kagami Uchiha, Zhan's high-speed assault turned into a blur of steel. The blade-light overlapped with his afterimages until they were indistinguishable, and the electrical current intensified.
Faced with this extreme assassination technique, Shiraishi utilized the six rings as guardians, creating a specialized domain that blended reality with spatial distortion.
"Are the rings used for spatial coordinate shifting?"
Danzo, retreating as he resumed his duel with Ebizo, watched closely. On the other side, the Third Hokage—who was dealing with Rasa and Karura with ease—continued to analyze Shiraishi's abilities.
He confirmed that Shiraishi possessed a unique Space-Time Ninjutsu mediated by those black energy spheres. As the "Professor" of the ninja world, Hiruzen wanted to help Zhan, but he restrained himself, waiting to gather more intelligence on the "Black Mist."
In a ninja battle, information is everything.
Confronted by Shiraishi's spatial defense, blood sprayed from Zhan's mouth.
He gripped his tachi and manifested even more afterimages—until there were fifteen! Fifteen shadows attacked Shiraishi simultaneously, appearing and vanishing in a seemingly endless cycle designed to exhaust the opponent.
"There it is—Zhan's ultimate Body Flicker!"
This technique, inherited from Kagami Uchiha, was the most powerful movement jutsu in the Leaf, second only to Minato Namikaze's Flying Raijin.
However, against Shiraishi's Regeneration Core, it was meaningless. Every afterimage was captured and photographed by his eyes, then processed and categorized by the supercomputer within milliseconds. Every block Shiraishi made was calculated to the millimeter.
"It's my turn to draw my blade," Shiraishi said.
He took a step forward. The sudden surge in his aura created a near-vacuum in the area. Using the pressure differential, he drew everything toward him.
No matter how skilled Zhan's swordsmanship was, it paled in comparison to Asura's. When Shiraishi had sparred with Asura's projection, it was the inability to capture the "intent" that was most difficult.
Asura's blade hid its will, making it impossible to predict where the next strike would land.
After two years of training, Shiraishi had touched that threshold. As his silver blade swept out, Uchiha Zhan found himself unable to judge the trajectory of the strike.
How is this possible?
The light of the Sage's Blade, moving at a speed that defied evasion, slashed through Zhan. A bright red line appeared across his neck—a testament to the lethality of the strike.
"Impossible... Zhan's Body Flicker was broken in a single strike..."
A sense of absurdity washed over the Leaf ninjas. The strike had been too fast for them to even react.
"Zhan!"
Unlike the Third Hokage, Danzo Shimura reacted instantly. He fired a Wind Style blade, attempting to destroy Zhan's body to prevent the Sand from obtaining the Sharingan.
But Shiraishi was faster. His blade-light transformed into a vortex of air currents, blocking Danzo's attack. Simultaneously, he moved with cold, decisive cruelty, targeting Zhan's corpse.
Ryoko Yamaji watched, slightly dazed. This was the same technique that had taken the life of a Yamaji elder years ago at the Sand Festival. Two years later, his Wind Style swordsmanship was even more devious.
With one swift motion, Shiraishi severed Zhan's head and tossed it into the sand beneath his feet.
"Who's next? The Third Hokage? Or Jiraiya of the Sannin?"
As the words left his lips, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, finally moved.
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