Pain clasped his hands together, chakra surging violently through his body as he released a vast amount of energy, performing a technique beyond what ordinary people could even imagine.
Unlike regular ninjutsu, whether in power or chakra requirements, Senjutsu completely surpasses it.
You could say that Senjutsu is the upgraded form of ninjutsu—and only those who have mastered ninjutsu to an extreme degree can even hope to wield it.
Under the influence of Pain's Sage Arts, the thousands of shells that had been hurtling toward Hachinosu suddenly froze in midair.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
From a distance, it looked as though time itself had stopped, leaving the massive cannonballs suspended motionless above the sea.
The Marines, who had placed all their hopes on that bombardment, stared in shock, their jaws hanging open.
"Wh–what's going on?!"
"Huh?"
"Why did the shells just stop in the air?"
"What happened?!"
Their minds reeled in disbelief.
The barrage they were counting on to crush the enemy… had backfired completely?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
"Could this… be a Devil Fruit ability? Otherwise, this is too unbelievable," Kizaru muttered, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.
"As expected of the Kamui Pirates… there are so many monsters among them who can even pull off something like this," Aokiji sighed, once again reminded of the terrifying level of talent their enemies possessed.
Even within the Kamui Pirates themselves, many looked surprised.
"This should be Pain's doing," Uchiha Madara said calmly.
"His Senjutsu seems to have improved even further," Senju Hashirama nodded.
Both men were among the strongest shinobi in history and themselves masters of Senjutsu. For them, seeing Pain freeze a sky full of shells in midair was shocking but still within the realm of possibility.
What did surprise them, however, was the scale. To halt an artillery strike of that magnitude all at once was no easy feat. Even they would have had to pour out one-third of their chakra at full power to replicate it.
Otherwise, such a thing would be impossible.
Kronos, standing with his hands behind his back, smiled with deep satisfaction. He looked at Pain and said, "Well done, Pain. I knew I wasn't wrong about you."
Receiving his captain's approval, Pain doubled down, intensifying his power. With a calm voice, he spoke:
"Return to sender."
In the next instant, countless shells twisted in midair, spinning around before diving back down toward the Marine fleet.
The soldiers aboard the warships could never have imagined that the very shells they had fired would now turn into instruments of their own destruction.
Caught completely off guard, the Marine fleet suffered devastating losses.
Warships erupted in flames, explosions lit up the sea, and chaos consumed the formation.
If Sengoku hadn't transformed into his golden Buddha form at the last moment to block most of the shells, the losses would have been catastrophic.
Even so, the counterstrike was brutal: nearly one-sixth of the Marine fleet was destroyed, and over a thousand soldiers were killed outright.
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[Naruto: I Don't Want Recognition]
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