When power exists on completely different levels, any form of resistance becomes utterly meaningless.
With a single swing of the blade, another life was taken.
It wasn't easy for a ninja village to cultivate a single jōnin, yet before Ye Zi, they were like blades of grass before the scythe.
The sensory perception of Sage Mode allowed Ye Zi to effortlessly dodge incoming ninjutsu and sword strikes.
With the Black Lightning Cloak surrounding him his long blade became peerlessly sharp, no matter what kind of defense was raised, a single strike split all in two.
He charged into the enemy ranks, unleashing a massacre. Once Ye Zi set his eyes on a target, not one could withstand even a single blow.
Ye Zi didn't use any other ninjutsu, not even the Inorganic Reincarnation Technique. He relied solely on swordsmanship honed through countless battles killing in the most direct, efficient manner possible, wasting no strength, making no unnecessary movements.
He would flicker in close, the blade would flash, and corpses would fall.
In less than ten seconds, more than ten bodies lay on the ground.
It wasn't that the jōnin present were weak, Ye Zi was simply far too strong.
Though Sage Mode's amplification wasn't as extreme as the Eight Gates, it was still beyond what an ordinary jōnin could ever hope to resist.
When combined with the speed boost from Lightning Mode, even the Fourth Raikage couldn't compare. So even though a hundred ninjas tried to spread out to lessen their losses, it did nothing to slow Ye Zi's killing efficiency.
And the way Ye Zi slaughtered, mowing through enemies like weeds, was something Shisui and the others couldn't stop.
If genjutsu could affect Ye Zi, they might have been able to interrupt his chain of attacks. But Ye Zi was immune to illusions.
He didn't even need to use the powers of the Rinnegan, yet the corpses on the ground kept multiplying, each one cleaved perfectly in half, their deaths gruesome and pitiful.
"Sixty-eighth."
Human life had become nothing more than a number.
After cutting down another enemy, Ye Zi ignored the incoming barrage of shuriken and fire-style jutsu, tanking them with the Black Lightning's defense, before charging at his next target.
"Damn it…"
Obito could only watch helplessly as his comrades fell one after another, unable to stop Ye Zi's rampage. The frustration in his chest boiled into fury.
Shisui and Itachi were the same. They both realized that Ye Zi was deliberately avoiding them, striking only at their companions.
That deliberate cruelty made their attacks feel hollow, useless. Watching their comrades die such horrific deaths right before their eyes made every nerve in their bodies tighten with rage.
"We can't even hold him back!" Shisui ground his teeth.
"Seventy-sixth…"
Ye Zi's eyes were as cold as ice. Behind him, a sea of corpses and rivers of blood. Every swing of his blade took another life, yet it was as casual as crushing an insect. Whether it was numbness or cold-bloodedness no longer mattered.
When killing becomes habit, this is the result.
Even his bones and blood had turned to ice.
"Eighty-second…"
No trace was left behind... no blood, no sound.
His body and sword seemed one. When the blade sliced through bone and viscera, it was as effortless as brushing away dust.
Those hands had been soaked in blood for decades, yet now they bore neither stain nor tremor.
"Ninety-sixth…"
Numb, cold, emotionless.
It was almost over.
"The last one."
He swung one final time, then looked expressionlessly at the three remaining figures... Shisui, Obito, and Itachi.
The battlefield was littered with corpses, the ground scorched and cratered from jutsu, and thousands of shuriken lay embedded in the dirt.
Only those three remained standing. The rest had been wiped out in less than five minutes.
Even without using other ninjutsu, merely maintaining the Black Lightning Cloak consumed chakra every second, an unavoidable drain.
The three could only watch as Ye Zi butchered all their comrades, powerless to stop him, like clowns in a nightmare.
The mix of fury and helplessness twisted their faces in anguish.
"You think you can stop me?"
Ye Zi's voice was cold. Before the words even faded, he moved, a blur heading straight for the youngest among them: Itachi.
In Ye Zi's eyes, of the three, Itachi was the weakest, so he became the first target.
Without the danger-sensing of Sage Mode, relying solely on his Mangekyō Sharingan's sight wasn't enough to evade Ye Zi's attacks.
Even if he could dodge once or twice, he wouldn't last long. His only option was to unleash Susanoo immediately.
The moment Ye Zi moved, Itachi activated it. The red chakra took shape, forming a humanoid guardian that wrapped protectively around him.
Clang!
The jet-black blade tip stabbed forward, but it was stopped by the red skeletal armor in front of Itachi.
Staring at the blade so close to his face, Itachi's pupils tightened. Though the Susanoo had blocked it, he could still feel a stinging pain in his eyes, as if the black sword had pierced his very soul.
"What an annoying technique," Ye Zi muttered.
Seeing that Susanoo remained unscathed, he frowned slightly and kicked off the ground, retreating swiftly.
A moment later, a massive, vein-covered fist smashed into where he'd just stood, the ground shattering with a thunderous boom as debris flew in every direction.
That was the second form of Susanoo, it was the limit of Itachi's current mastery.
As long as he remained within Susanoo, he was safe.
Itachi took a deep breath, channeling more chakra to complete the unfinished portions.
A red giant's upper body materialized, its sinews and musculature visible, with Itachi standing inside its chest, glaring sharply at Ye Zi.
Only Susanoo gave them any chance of victory. Ye Zi's attacks couldn't break through its defense, that alone secured them a foothold to fight back.
After dodging the punch, Ye Zi turned his gaze toward the other two.
Shisui and Obito didn't hesitate, they too activated Susanoo.
In an instant, two more giants materialized beside Itachi:
A towering green warrior clad in armor, wielding a spiral-shaped spear, Shisui's Susanoo. Compared to Itachi's half-formed upper body, Shisui's was a complete humanoid figure.
Itachi's Susanoo was red; Shisui's was green; and Obito's flared to life in a brilliant blue.
When Obito's blue chakra erupted, Shisui turned his head in surprise.
The warrior Obito summoned was also a complete humanoid, not a partial form like Itachi's.
"So quickly… he's already reached this level?" Shisui muttered in disbelief.
Itachi's talent was exceptional, yet even he hadn't reached Shisui's degree of mastery. But Obito had.
Three Susanoo stood before Ye Zi.
Shisui's and Obito's full-bodied warriors flanked Itachi's half-formed giant, looking, at a glance, almost like a family of three.
Ye Zi stared at the trio expressionlessly.
He could simply leave, Susanoo's defense was near absolute, and taking the three down would cost him a significant amount of time and chakra. But he chose to stay.
He didn't think they posed much of a threat, yet if he could eliminate these three elite fighters here and now, his side's burden would be greatly reduced.
"…Seems I'll have to waste some chakra after all," Ye Zi thought silently.
These three were no mere fodder.
Wood Release: Wood Human Technique!
Ye Zi's hands flashed through seals.
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