After two consecutive Sixteenfold Slashes,
Yuu flourished his sword and came to a stop.
At this moment, the chakra allocated to the dozen or so shadow clones had nearly been exhausted. However, they had not disappeared yet and continued standing in place, each Sword of the Thunder God angled toward the ground.
The azure flames wrapped around the blades danced and hissed like living creatures, producing constant crackling sounds.
Then,
Yuu raised his head and calmly swept his gaze across the entire battlefield.
Wherever his eyes passed, whether they were Konoha ninja or Kirigakure enemies, everyone's body trembled involuntarily.
It felt as though an invisible blade had brushed across their skin, sending chills down their backs.
"Will you surrender?"
"Or… would you rather die than surrender?"
Yuu asked.
His young yet icy voice seemed to suppress every sound around him.
Not far away, Uchiha Fugaku opened his mouth but stopped before speaking.
No, wait…
How was this brat even better at acting impressive than members of the Uchiha clan?
Such an entrance, paired with such a declaration of battle, was truly enviable…
No, that was not the important point.
The important point was—
had this guy become even stronger again?
The previous Yuu had certainly been powerful, but his strength had generally remained within Fugaku's understanding.
In close combat, he merely relied on that pseudo–space-time ninjutsu to catch enemies by surprise.
As for his Fire Release, it resembled the Kagutsuchi recorded in Uchiha clan documents, so there were still ways to respond to it overall.
But now…
Fugaku felt as though he were seeing another Namikaze Minato.
A White Flash that corresponded to the Yellow Flash from afar.
An attack like the earlier Thunder-Fire Divine Punishment was not something an ordinary ninja could possibly withstand.
The gap had already grown too wide to bridge through effort alone.
Only bloodline power might be capable of making up the difference.
Thinking of this, Uchiha Fugaku raised a hand to cover his forehead.
He felt a sharp pain piercing through both eyes as the Mangekyō pattern that had already begun taking shape started rotating quietly.
However, because everyone's attention was focused on Yuu, no one noticed Fugaku's movements.
On Konoha's side,
most people breathed a sigh of relief after Yuu's appearance.
They could finally see hope of surviving—and even turning defeat into victory.
Rin and Kurenai's eyes shone especially brightly, as though they could see a rainbow-colored cloud behind Yuu.
Everything that had happened since his arrival felt like a dream, almost too unreal to believe.
As for Kirigakure…
their situation was miserable.
More than one hundred Kiri ninja had participated in the attack on Shakuka Town, nearly twice the number of defenders inside the stronghold.
This was precisely why Fuguki Suikazan and the others had been confident that they could completely capture Shakuka Town.
Although some of those ninja had been killed while fighting Fugaku and the others, their total force still remained above one hundred.
They continued to possess an overwhelming numerical advantage over Konoha.
But now…
Yuu had only just returned and made a relatively small move, yet Kirigakure's forces had already been reduced by thirty percent.
Calling this development a bolt from the blue would not be enough.
If the attack he had just used was not a one-time killing move and could still be repeated…
then slaughtering every Kiri ninja present might require no more than a few additional breaths from Yuu.
At this moment,
the savage smile on Raiga Kurosuki's face had frozen.
The lightning surrounding his twin Lightning Blades: Kiba had also quietly gone out.
He stared blankly at Yuu and the dozens of blackened skeleton-like corpses around him.
A chill surged from the soles of his feet directly to the top of his head, while cold sweat appeared across his palms.
Raiga had always been arrogant.
He believed that his strength ranked among the best in Kirigakure and that even against the so-called White Reaper, victory might still be possible.
But after personally witnessing Yuu's attack, he finally realized that the previous rumors had not been exaggerated.
If anything, they had been far too conservative.
This brat's strength…
was probably even more terrifying than Fuguki had described.
As for Fuguki Suikazan, he had directly experienced Yuu's terror before.
The fat on his face twitched violently as he once again recalled the humiliation and fear of being dominated by Yuu.
His body instinctively stepped backward, and his teeth began chattering.
"Damn it…"
Hadn't the intelligence said Yuu had left the stronghold and gone to the Land of Whirlpools?!
How had he returned so quickly?!
He had not even given them enough time to finish their battle with Fugaku and the others!
Could it be…
that this was actually bait?
A conspiracy specifically targeting the Kiri ninja?!
For a moment, Fuguki's mind fell into chaos.
Even Samehada sensed his fear. The scales across its blade opened and closed slightly, producing faint scraping sounds as though quietly whispering something.
Even the two members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had been reduced to this state.
The ordinary Kiri ninja were naturally even more terrified, each feeling as though they had fallen into an icy abyss.
Like ducks being strangled by the neck, even the sounds of their chattering teeth could be clearly heard.
Except for the Kaguya clansmen.
Many members of the Kaguya clan were genuinely missing something in their heads and could not properly feel fear.
Although they understood that Yuu's strength was extraordinary, they did not become terrified like the others.
Some even looked eager to fight.
Everyone died eventually.
If they could battle such a powerful opponent, then even dying would make the experience worthwhile!
After a brief silence,
one Kaguya clansman roared and charged toward Yuu first.
The enormous bone blade on his arm resembled the scythe-like foreleg of a praying mantis!
Whoosh—!
The bone blade passed through "Yuu's" body and cut him into fragments.
Mm… that was right.
Yuu had not released his shadow clones.
The Kaguya clan possessed neither the Byakugan nor the Sharingan and therefore could not accurately distinguish between the original and the clones.
Thus, the bone blade had struck a shadow clone and dispersed it instantly.
Certain Victory of the Desperate buff +1.
Yuu's original body remained standing in place.
He watched the Kaguya clansman disperse three or four shadow clones before arriving in front of him and delivering a vicious downward slash from the upper left with his bone blade.
Then…
Splash—!
The struck Yuu's body transformed into a mass of water, allowing the bone blade to pass straight through him.
Yuu's body then solidified again.
With a casual slash, he sent the Kaguya clansman flying backward.
Several pieces of hardened bone armor shattered in midair, while crimson streams of blood sprayed from his body.
Under normal circumstances, such a casual slash could not have produced this result.
But after stacking three or four layers of the Certain Victory of the Desperate buff and combining it with Super Strength, even an ordinary straight slash was enough to overpower a Kaguya clansman renowned for taijutsu.
However, what shocked Kirigakure the most was something else—
"?!"
"Th-this is the Hydrification Technique?!"
Fuguki Suikazan's eyes widened abruptly.
As someone who had dealt with the Hōzuki clan many times and personally sparred with them on numerous occasions, he could not have been more familiar with the technique.
It allowed the user to become immune to nearly every physical attack, except those infused with Lightning Release.
But the problem was…
how did this Konoha brat know the Hydrification Technique?!
Had he learned it on the spot?
Or was this actually a Konoha secret technique whose appearance merely resembled Hydrification?
In the span of a single thought,
Yuu's gaze had already shifted toward him.
It landed casually on Fuguki, the commander.
"You refuse to surrender, yet you also refuse to die.
"You're making things difficult for me."
"…"
Fuguki Suikazan's body trembled.
He realized that he no longer had any path of retreat.
Last time, he had survived by selling out his teammates and fleeing from the battlefield.
That had already required extraordinary luck.
The same opportunity was unlikely to appear twice.
Therefore, now there was only one choice—
"…Raiga, attack together!"
With a loud roar meant to bolster his own courage,
Fuguki rapidly formed seals with both hands and spat forward.
"Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!!"
Boom—!
It was as though a dam had suddenly burst into existence.
A violent flood poured from Fuguki's mouth and surged toward Yuu.
At the same time,
Raiga Kurosuki drove his twin Lightning Blades: Kiba into the ground.
"Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning!!"
Crackle—!
Blue bolts of lightning erupted from the Lightning Blades and caught up to Fuguki's Exploding Water Colliding Wave from behind.
The surging water was instantly saturated with violent electricity, becoming a roaring tornado of lightning and water that charged toward Yuu!
"…A combination ninjutsu? Interesting."
Yuu nodded slightly.
His body remained motionless, but towering white-hot flames roared upward around him.
They formed a blazing domain of fire that surrounded him and firmly stopped the incoming lightning-water tornado!
Hiss—!!
A deafening explosion echoed across the battlefield!
Large quantities of scalding white steam rose from the collision, engulfing a wide area nearby.
At this moment,
Obito watched from the distance, the corner of his mouth twitching as he displayed a speechless expression.
"That guy Yuu…"
He was not even pretending anymore!
Previously, whenever Yuu released Fire Release, he would at least clap his hands together, making it look as though he had used simplified hand seals.
But now…
Obito had seen everything clearly.
From beginning to end, Yuu had remained standing in place without moving at all.
How could he still release a technique like that?
How had he done it?
Had he formed the seals with a single finger?
Once this crisis was over, Obito absolutely had to interrogate him properly and find out whether this seal-less Fire Release was something he could learn too.
Compared with Obito and the others, whose mental state had already relaxed,
Fuguki Suikazan and Raiga Kurosuki remained extremely tense.
After his previous encounter with Yuu, during which Kaguya Ryūga and the others had been killed, Fuguki had carefully reviewed the battle.
His conclusion was that they absolutely could not engage Yuu in close combat.
Yuu's swordsmanship was already close to—or perhaps equal to—that of the White Fang of Konoha.
Combined with the strange Body Flicker Technique that might have been Flying Thunder God or something similar, once he began using it, even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen could do nothing but defend.
The slightest opening could result in death.
Therefore…
their only chance of victory lay in exchanging ninjutsu from a distance.
But ordinary Water Release would not work either.
Yuu's Fire Release was too powerful. Even while suffering an elemental disadvantage, it could forcibly cancel out Water Release.
Furthermore, Water Release was not naturally suited for direct offensive power. It specialized more in control.
Of course, this was partly because Fuguki's own mastery of Water Release was not especially impressive.
If it had been the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, an adult Kisame Hoshigaki known as the "Tailless Tailed Beast," or a certain unnamed Second Hokage, Fire Release would have found it far more difficult to cancel their Water Release.
Therefore…
Fuguki had devised a particular tactic.
"Raiga, now… Haaah!!"
With that shout, Fuguki used every last bit of strength he possessed.
He pressed his palms together and desperately controlled the water that had reached Yuu and been stopped by the flame domain.
It rotated, spread, and rose…
forming an enormous spiraling vortex that surged toward the sky!
At the same time, Raiga drew upon the thunderclouds above and created seven or eight thick bolts of lightning.
They descended from the sky.
Some struck toward Yuu, who remained protected by the flames, while others plunged directly into the rapidly rotating vortex of water!
Within only a few breaths,
an enormous "water prison" more than ten meters in diameter and over twenty meters tall formed between heaven and earth.
At its center was Yuu's flame domain.
The outer layers contained vast quantities of blue-violet lightning.
Red, white, blue, and purple light reflected against one another.
The roar of surging water, the shriek of exploding electricity, and the crackle of burning flames merged together, producing terrifying momentum!
"He actually didn't take the opportunity to escape…"
Fuguki frowned.
He had originally worried that before the water prison fully formed, Yuu would escape by walking across the water or using that space-time ninjutsu.
If that happened, this tactic might fail.
But it seemed Yuu had done nothing of the sort.
From an observer's perspective, his figure had already been swallowed by the water and steam.
Only the white-hot flame domain at the center remained visible, gradually compressed beneath layer after layer of water that coiled around it like enormous pythons.
Milky-white steam continuously formed and obscured everyone's vision.
"…Forget it! Lock that bastard inside!!"
Fuguki desperately poured out every bit of chakra inside his body without reservation.
As the surging water sealed itself twenty meters above the ground, the Lightning-Water Heavenly Prison was finally complete.
On the other side,
Raiga had not remained idle either.
He raised both blades high and once again drew upon the remaining thunderclouds in the sky.
Countless fine, leaping arcs of electricity fell like torrential rain, furiously striking the rotating water prison!
"Lightning Blade Art: Falling Thunder!!"
Crackle, crackle, crackle—!!!
The enormous sphere of water instantly became a raging purple pool of lightning!
Violent electrical currents surged, intertwined, and exploded wildly throughout the water.
Any attempt to merge with the liquid would result in the horrifying agony of ten thousand bolts devouring the body!
With this, even if Yuu attempted to use the technique resembling the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique to escape the water prison, he would be unable to do so.
"Hey, Kakashi, Rin."
Obito swallowed hard.
"Yuu… he isn't really trapped in there, is he?"
"…"
Kakashi and Rin exchanged uncertain glances.