At the moment Hoshiyomi opened his eyes, an incomparably sharp aura burst from his body—like a peerless divine blade sealed away for a thousand years, suddenly unsheathed.
And the brilliance it released upon unsheathing was sharp enough to cut through all things in existence.
Even the clouds in the sky were sliced cleanly in half in that instant, as if swept through by an invisible, terrifying sword energy.
But feeling this pressure—one no weaker than his own—Kimimaro's eyes blazed with battle intent. He recalled the same crushing pressure he once felt fighting Six Paths Madara.
Since defeating that Ōtsutsuki clansman named Isshiki, he had never again felt pressure of this magnitude.
Feeling it again, Kimimaro's blood surged with heat. While Hoshiyomi's blade was still sheathed, Kimimaro was the first to act.
Just from Hoshiyomi's aura alone, he already knew Storm Style would be terrifying. Kimimaro wasn't arrogant—he needed to prepare.
Natural energy surged toward him like a roaring tidal wave. His already overwhelming power rose even further.
Senjutsu chakra flooded across his body, transforming immediately into Shikotsumyaku strength. In the blink of an eye, shimmering blue-silver bones wrapped entirely around Kimimaro.
But it didn't stop there.
The skeletal armor covering Kimimaro kept growing—first the torso, then the limbs. Within a few breaths, a towering white-bone giant appeared in the field, eerily similar to a Susanoo.
Its bones alone weren't enough—the giant continued evolving. Plates of armor formed over its joints, covering the skeletal frame completely.
If Hoshiyomi had opened his eyes at that moment, he would've recognized it instantly—
the armor resembled the Strike Freedom Gundam.
The only difference was that instead of large flight wings, Kimimaro had replaced them with a more practical thruster system.
The bone giant's left hand held a massive bone shield; its right, a strange bone sabre. Mounted on its shoulders were two Gatling-like cannon barrels.
Within the chest cavity of the bone giant, Kimimaro looked down at Hoshiyomi and nodded in satisfaction.
This Anti-Susanoo Armor hadn't been used in a long time. Even Madara's Perfect Susanoo would have to kneel before it.
It should definitely be enough to withstand Hoshiyomi's Storm Style… right?
Just as Kimimaro was thinking this—
Hoshiyomi drew his blade.
ZING!
A blinding silver flash burst from the freshly unsheathed Mikazuki Munechika.
The light spread like lightning, forming a massive circular arc. Before the Anti-Susanoo Armor could even respond, the arc enclosed it completely.
The silver arc promptly solidified, and in the blink of an eye transformed into 24 elegant blades, each different in shape.
"Fall!"
With Hoshiyomi's shout, twelve of the blades dropped, embedding themselves in a ring around the Anti-Susanoo Armor, roughly a hundred meters in diameter.
The twelve blades in the air and the twelve in the ground resonated, forming an enormous sword formation spanning a hundred meters.
At the forefront of the formation stood none other than Hoshiyomi's Mikazuki Munechika.
Within the chest of the armor, Kimimaro searched for Hoshiyomi's presence but sensed nothing. All he could do was examine this bizarre sword formation.
A playful glint flickered in his eyes. Controlling the armor, he lifted the bone sabre, intending to chop down and test whether this strange formation could be broken.
But as he lifted his arm, he suddenly noticed something—
It was like an invisible gravitational field existed within the formation.
Even raising his arm had slowed tremendously.
"This kind of thing won't stop me."
As he spoke, Kimimaro's Tenseigan flashed—
and a wave of invisible repulsive force spread outward, negating the gravitational pull within the formation.
"So that's all it is?"
Muttering softly, Kimimaro controlled the massive bone sabre and swung it down with a force powerful enough to split mountains.
Just as the sabre was about to strike the sword formation, Hoshiyomi's silhouette appeared silently—beside him floated a massive greatsword.
CLANG!
At the moment the bone blade fell, Hoshiyomi shot forward with the greatsword.
The collision of bone and steel erupted into showers of blinding sparks.
Inside the Anti-Susanoo Armor, Kimimaro's expression shifted instinctively.
What tremendous strength!
Hoshiyomi had forcefully knocked his attack off its original trajectory!
Kimimaro was still processing this when Hoshiyomi's figure vanished again, reappearing silently somewhere beneath the sword formation. With a single motion, he drew a slender sword from the ground.
The moment the blade was drawn, Hoshiyomi disappeared—and a soaring sword flash took his place.
The sword light streaked across the Anti-Susanoo Armor's shoulder like a shooting star. Kimimaro's Tenseigan managed to track Hoshiyomi's presence, but the giant armor simply couldn't move fast enough to respond.
The sword light sliced past, shattering an enormous chunk of shoulder armor—the supposedly indestructible bone plating cracked apart with ease!
Kimimaro had just prepared to counterattack when he suddenly realized—
the gravitational field around him had intensified yet again with that sword strike.
Even lifting an arm in the armor now felt painfully slow.
While the Anti-Susanoo Armor struggled to move, Hoshiyomi had already appeared beside one of the blades floating in midair.
This time, the sword strike shattered the armor at the waist.
Kimimaro could sense Hoshiyomi's movement, but he couldn't do a thing about it—
Inside this sword formation, it felt as though the entire world was controlled by Hoshiyomi.
Even the Truth-Seeking Orbs were slowed, moving like molasses; they simply couldn't keep up with Hoshiyomi's lightning-like speed.
Waist, shoulder, thigh, arm, heart, spine, nape—
Hoshiyomi's form flickered like a stream of light, impossible to catch.
With every completed dash, his speed increased again. After seven sword strikes, the gravity had grown so intense that the Anti-Susanoo Armor was completely immobilized.
And Hoshiyomi—he had already become pure motion, pure speed.
Even Kimimaro's Tenseigan could only barely catch afterimages.
Twenty-four sword flashes.
Every strike carved a terrifying wound into the Anti-Susanoo Armor, and the massive bone shield was already nearly destroyed.
After fifteen sword flashes, the armor was fractured everywhere.
After twenty strikes, the Anti-Susanoo Armor completely collapsed, and Kimimaro stood fully exposed before Hoshiyomi.
Even Kimimaro had to use every technique at his disposal just to survive the remaining four sword blows.
His gaze locked on the final remaining blade within the sword formation—
Mikazuki Munechika, the final and strongest strike.
I must block this last strike!