Regarding Xuan's sudden appearance directly in front of him, Kimei Takuya was startled. However, he was, after all, a Peak Jōnin who had dominated the north. Before his mind could even fully process the situation, his body instinctively reacted.
His nodachi struck out, arriving first despite moving later. With a crisp clang, it blocked the Ama-no-Murakumo Sword.
"Not a bad reaction speed. Haa!"
Xuan chuckled lightly, the three tomoe in his eyes looking exceptionally demonic. After his brutal battle with Akahane Sora, he already had a rough estimation of the true strength of these Peak Jōnin.
With his soft shout, Xuan wove a seal using just his left hand. With a poof, two more Uchiha Xuans appeared. Each holding a rapidly spinning sphere of chakra, they flanked the opponent from the left and right, thrusting the spheres forward.
"Shadow Clone Rasengan!"
What the hell kind of Ninjutsu is this? Kimei Takuya caught a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye, frowning secretly at this never-before-seen technique.
Substantive, hyper-condensed chakra violently erupted from Takuya, forcing the original Xuan back. Simultaneously, he pivoted lightly on his feet, dodging the two Shadow Clones. His nodachi slashed out in rapid succession. With two consecutive poofs, the two Shadow Clones dissolved into white smoke.
However, right before one of the Shadow Clones vanished, it managed to briefly brush against Kimei Takuya's wrist. In a flash, a tadpole-like formula materialized on his skin, though Takuya himself remained completely unaware of it.
Kimei Takuya's reaction speed was nothing short of blistering, pushing his movements to the absolute limit. Now that the Uchiha clan had abruptly entered the fray, the battlefield had become incredibly unpredictable. He wanted to quickly finish off the youth in front of him and then lead his men back to the Ghost Fire Alliance's compound. He had absolutely no idea that his clan's main base had already been thoroughly slaughtered by Uchiha Shinji's forces.
The very instant he cleaved the two Shadow Clones, Kimei Takuya was already weaving hand seals. His movements flowed seamlessly like water. Although he had never seen the opponent's Ninjutsu before, the boy was, after all, only a twelve-year-old child. How strong could he possibly be? It was best to end this battle swiftly.
His hands blurred into afterimages, completing the sequence in under two seconds. Eerie blue chakra abruptly rapidly condensed in front of him. Kimei Takuya unleashed the absolute strongest Ninjutsu in his current arsenal.
"Ghost Secret Art: Nether Ghost Cannon!"
The eerie blue chakra coalesced into a sphere radiating a boundless aura of destruction. With a deafening boom, it transformed into a massive beam of energy that blasted toward Xuan, violently shattering the earth wherever it passed.
This level of power... is it a single-target S-rank Ninjutsu? Xuan thought to himself. His Sharingan carefully observed the opponent's hand seals, but unfortunately, this technique was a clan Secret Art and could not be copied. Since you're so eager to die, I'll grant your wish.
With that thought in mind, Xuan stabbed the Ama-no-Murakumo Sword into the ground beside him. His hands flashed through a seal in an instant. Reaching back, he pulled out a specially marked kunai covered in formula seals and held it horizontally across his hands. The three tomoe in his eyes locked dead onto the incoming beam of blue light.
Suddenly, eight lines of runic seals materialized in the space directly in front of him, linking together to form a barrier. Upon closer inspection, each runic line was composed of microscopic, tadpole-like characters. The very center of the barrier was pitch black, looking as though it connected to an entirely different dimension.
"Flying Raijin Second Step: Spatial Transfer!"
As Xuan activated his Ninjutsu, the eerie blue energy beam came to an abrupt halt. It was as if it had struck an invisible barrier. Bit by bit, it vanished completely, swallowed whole by another dimension. It was an incredibly bizarre sight.
"Right back at you," Xuan sneered coldly.
His spiritual energy expanded violently, locking onto the formula mark planted on Kimei Takuya's wrist. Without warning, a spatial rift tore open right beside the Peak Jōnin. The exact same Nether Ghost Cannon that had just vanished instantly blasted out of the rift, striking straight at the utterly horrified Kimei Takuya.
This 'Spatial Transfer' was a technique Xuan had mastered after comprehending the Flying Raijin's Second Step. In the original story, both Namikaze Minato and Senju Tobirama had used it. However, when they used it, their goal was to protect the village or the Allied Shinobi Forces, so they always teleported the attacks far away.
Xuan currently had absolutely no such reservations. Who cares how big the collateral damage is? What does that have to do with me? He simply threw the attack right back at the sender.
Kimei Takuya's reaction was swift. His honed life-and-death intuition saved him once again. He instantly triggered the Body Flicker Jutsu, leaping straight up into the sky, as there was no time to dodge to the sides.
Having missed its primary target, the Nether Ghost Cannon continued its trajectory as a devastating beam of light, shooting far into the distance. Far away, dozens of Akahane shinobi were currently locked in a bitter struggle with the forces of the Three-Clan Alliance. Before they could even register what was happening, the energy beam swept through them. They didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were completely vaporized. Finally, the beam violently detonated. With a deafening boom, the earth trembled, and a towering mushroom cloud of dust and debris blotted out the sky. Dozens of shinobi were instantly wiped from existence, leaving no survivors.
"Your running skills truly are top-notch," Xuan remarked. Though it sounded like a compliment, it was dripping with mockery.
He wove the seal for the Shadow Clone once more. Two clones materialized and immediately used the Flying Raijin to teleport directly beside the airborne Kimei Takuya, each thrusting a Rasengan toward him.
Damn it! How exactly is he appearing right next to me?! Kimei Takuya gritted his teeth, thoroughly forced into a miserable state by these completely unprecedented Ninjutsu. Worse still, he was now suspended in mid-air with absolutely no leverage to maneuver.
"Ghost Secret Art: Ghost Hands!"
Even in this desperate situation, he refused to give up. Two massive, shadowy spectral hands instantly materialized, grabbing the two Shadow Clones and crushing them. With two consecutive poofs, the clones vanished once again.
"Wind Style: Wind Binding!"
The very instant he destroyed the Shadow Clones, Kimei Takuya felt the surrounding winds condense into invisible chains that lashed tightly around his four limbs. In his current airborne state, trying to counter this was exceedingly difficult.
However, he wasn't too worried. At the end of the day, that brat was still just a standard Jōnin; his chakra density was insufficient. If this B-rank Ninjutsu had been cast by a Peak Jōnin of the same level, it could naturally trap him. But cast by a mere Jōnin? It could hold him for two seconds at absolute most. And from this distance, what could the opponent possibly do in just two seconds?
Two seconds is enough time to do a lot of things. At least, that was what Xuan believed, and he immediately proved it with his actions.
"Kamui!"
Spitting out the single word lightly, the three tomoe in Xuan's left eye began to spin madly, rapidly merging and transforming into the shape of a triangular windmill. The space surrounding Kimei Takuya instantly warped and violently folded inward. Xuan's gaze was locked solely on the man's upper torso.
What's happening? Kimei Takuya wondered in confusion. He abruptly felt the space around him become impossibly heavy. Immediately after, an overwhelming, tearing force ripped through him. An excruciating pain erupted from his waist, followed instantly by his vision going pitch black as he lost consciousness completely.
Thud! The remaining lower half of Kimei Takuya's severed body plummeted from the sky, crashing into the dirt and kicking up a cloud of dust.
After his grueling battle with Akahane Sora, Xuan now knew exactly how to dismantle these Peak Jōnin. From start to finish, his strategy was singular: leverage his absolute advantage by continuously pressuring the opponent with long-range Ninjutsu, find a razor-thin opening to bind them, and then execute a flawless one-hit kill with Kamui. Judging by the results, the tactic was phenomenally successful.
"The only downside is that the chakra consumption is a bit steep," Xuan chuckled lightly, sensing the significant drain on his internal reserves, though he didn't mind it too much.
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