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Almost at the same instant Sawara Kiri charged into the crowd.
Around the vast forest area, centered on the entire Barrier Team, ripples spread outwards like waves, expanding in all directions. On the ground, countless Sealing Technique runes, starting from the center, extended and distorted like tadpoles into the far distance until they connected.
A large amount of Chakra poured into it.
"Buzz—!"
A brilliant curtain of light unfurled like a veil.
Sawara Kiri, who had cut through the entire crowd, looked up at the sky and saw that the earth within a radius of several kilometers was completely covered by this light blue barrier, thoroughly obscuring his vision.
Behind him, in that entire stretch of crowd covered in bloodstains, everyone turned to look at him.
Sawara Kiri then raised his hand.
The barrier formed by the Limitless, which was clearly visible within the Six Eyes' field of vision, flickered like an old television screen the moment it was released, maintaining itself for only an instant before abruptly forming a void under intense spatial interference.
If he wasn't careful, he might even hurt himself.
At the same time, the Chakra within his body seemed to be continuously absorbed and sealed under this barrier—though this process was very slow, so slow that it was difficult to even notice if one wasn't careful.
However, if the speed was fast enough, the forward and reverse rotation of the technique was not significantly affected.
After all, in this extreme rotational state during casting, the spatial influence they experienced was already very small.
"Sa! Wa! Ra! Kiri!"
Just as he noticed the changes in his body, the wound on the Third Raikage's chest and abdomen had completely healed. Only the torn fabric of his clothes, a shattered gap, still bore witness to the severe injury he had just suffered, with faint dark red bloodstains around it.
The Third Raikage looked at the monster before him with a ferocious expression, growling:
"Now, you can't use that invincible jutsu anymore, can you!"
"This is the sure-kill trap I set for you!"
"I told you, you will definitely die here today."
As he spoke, a blazing, violent Lightning Release flash gradually appeared on the Third Raikage's body, and an outer layer of Tailed Beast Chakra cloak continued to emerge.
There were Eight-Tails behind him!
Whether it was spatial interference or Chakra absorption, for a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki like him, it wasn't that there was absolutely no effect, but rather that there was almost no effect at all.
Not only that, but all the Cloud Ninja behind him were now filled with murderous intent.
Sawara Kiri's invincible technique had been sealed.
That meant that even ordinary Ninja like them had the right to harm him!
Since that was the case—
Numerous Cloud Ninja almost simultaneously had this thought, their gazes towards Sawara Kiri instantly becoming as fierce and violent as jackals spotting blood.
"Pfft—!"
However, upon seeing their surging fighting spirit and solemn, awe-inspiring posture, Sawara Kiri suddenly chuckled, shaking his head with a somewhat helpless expression.
"Ah, ah…"
"It's rare for me to be genuinely serious, willing to honestly go head-to-head with someone."
"And I got ambushed."
"I even thought you, Third Raikage, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, were an honest person."
He walked towards the many Cloud Ninja with one hand in his pocket, his body as spotless as it was at the beginning.
His azure Six Eyes glowed with a pure, sky-like brilliance, yet when they swept over, they caused a strangely intense stinging sensation, as if some mark had been deeply branded into one's eyes.
Sawara Kiri took step after step until he was only a few meters in front of the Third Raikage, casually waving at him as if beckoning a stray dog, his voice filled with pure, unadulterated mockery:
"But, to be honest."
"I am very surprised."
The Third Raikage's face was gradually covered by the upward-spreading Tailed Beast Chakra cloak, but his smile was more uninhibited than ever:
"What? Are you already preparing to say your last words?"
Sawara Kiri's smile gradually softened, turning into a chilling coldness that seemed capable of freezing people:
"What surprises me is that you are foolish enough to think you can defeat me this way."
"Raikage-sama."
The Third Raikage looked at his face, but for some reason, a sudden chill rose in his heart.
However, the other Cloud Ninja completely lacked this perceptiveness.
"Kill him!"
Almost as soon as they sensed that the spatial Chakra on his body had completely vanished, all the Cloud Ninja instantly unleashed extremely blazing black Lightning Release from their bodies, roaring and charging towards Sawara Kiri at their fastest speed.
Taijutsu-type Ninja charged at the forefront, roaring furiously and swinging their blades;
Ninjutsu-type Ninja formed hand signs, mercilessly unleashing Ninjutsu from all directions;
Assassination-type Ninja had already burrowed underground, attempting to pierce his legs with their blades.
For a moment, people wanting to kill him were everywhere, overwhelming him.
Only the Third Raikage himself, and Darui, who stood in the center of the crowd, seemed to clearly feel an extremely intense sense of danger, and couldn't help but shout at the surrounding Cloud Ninja:
"Scatter—!"
However, their warning was already too late.
"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."
Almost at the same instant, all the Cloud Ninja present seemed to have some dazzling and pure light flickering in their eyes. Amidst furious roars, they unhesitatingly pointed their blades, Ninjutsu, and Kunai at their companions.
In just an instant.
The dozens of Cloud Ninja still alive all turned into corpses, easily falling to the ground.
Only Darui, trembling with fear, remained standing beside the Third Raikage.
Sawara Kiri stomped his foot down, and with a "thud," he crushed several Cloud Ninja hidden beneath, turning them into thick blood that oozed from the ground cracks.
The Third Raikage's expression was one of astonishment.
"This, this is… a Genjutsu?!"
"Impossible!"
"Such a powerful Genjutsu, even a Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't…"
"How could you possess such a powerful Genjutsu!"
All previous intelligence had never mentioned similar information.
Sawara Kiri's tone was calm:
"Well."
"Now we're back to the beginning, aren't we?"
"Oh, there's still one left."
His gaze shifted to the Cloud Ninja behind the Third Raikage who hadn't had time to act, and he seemed about to raise his hand towards him.
The Third Raikage suddenly let out a furious roar:
"Don't you dare!"
With a boom, his figure was like a giant cannonball, shattering the earthen platform beneath his feet and charging straight towards Sawara Kiri.
At this moment, an indescribable sense of unease filled the Third Raikage's heart.
However, the immense power he possessed, coupled with Sawara Kiri's significant weakening, allowed him to suppress this feeling as much as possible, roaring and charging at him.
Yet this time, Sawara Kiri's figure suddenly vanished from his original spot, as if he had no further interest in standing still and playing with him.
"Boom—!"
The Third Raikage's chest and abdomen suddenly suffered a heavy blow, and his body spun and flew into the sky under the tremendous impact, transforming into a conical arrow piercing the air, outlining a pure white arc in mid-air.
All eight of his tails spread open, seemingly trying to adjust his body's posture in mid-air, fanning out like wings.
However, Sawara Kiri's figure followed him like a persistent shadow.
"But thanks to your help."
"Before today, I was still a bit unaccustomed to the feeling of [Mind's Eye]."
"Now, I'll try it on you."
Sawara Kiri's voice hadn't even finished falling when the Third Raikage in mid-air suddenly distorted his body, and an enlarged heavy punch, accompanied by a piercing whistle, swept past the direction he had just been in.
However, the young man's figure, holding onto his outstretched arms, flipped over and leaped into the air.
His azure Six Eyes met the Third Raikage's gaze, and at the same time, he bared a violent smile at him.
"Thump!"
Like a great bell, or a heavy hammer striking a drum.
The muffled sound made even Darui's heart on the ground seem to skip a beat, followed by the solid earth beneath his feet undulating and striking like waves, causing him to stagger back several steps.
The next moment, a violent, spreading shockwave swept like a storm across the entire area covered by the barrier.
"Ugh—!"
The Third Raikage suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, but he had no time to feel the pain from his body, and instantly flipped over to dodge.
Almost the moment he avoided that landing spot, Sawara Kiri's attack had already arrived like a shadow.
Although under the influence of spatial interference, his Limitless could only be maintained on his body surface for a brief instant.
If it was for defense, it would naturally be slightly insufficient, but for offense and movement, it was more than enough.
"You monster!!!"
Blood gushed from the Third Raikage's mouth as he roared hysterically, trying to attract his attention.
The moment his gaze swept over, he immediately spat out several giant Tailed Beast Balls.
Before the Tailed Beast Balls could explode on the ground, the Third Raikage, on all fours, had suddenly transformed into a blurry shadow along the undulating ground, sweeping in a semicircle around the impending explosion point, just waiting for Sawara Kiri to rush out of the blast radius.
However, before his figure could reach the predicted dodging range—
A figure, almost entirely enveloped in a conical airflow formed by several times the sound barrier, like a dark flash, abruptly appeared beside him.
Even though both were in a state of ultra-high-speed movement that was difficult for ordinary people to perceive, there was still a difference between high speed and high speed.
The Third Raikage only managed to turn his head the moment he sensed danger, and then his eyes reflected Sawara Kiri's azure eyes, which were almost pressed against his side.
"Where are you going?"
The voice couldn't even propagate, so the Third Raikage could only discern the mocking intent from his lip movements.
Immediately after, his figure was kicked into mid-air, and continuous heavy punches, like bullets, brutally slammed into his body at an ultra-high speed that was impossible to react to.
Hundreds and thousands of spreading impact points suddenly bloomed on the surface of the Tailed Beast Chakra cloak, bursting open like lotus flowers. The fine sounds of bone shattering and muscle tearing were so fast that one couldn't react at all.
Finally, another fierce kick sent him from mid-air deep underground, blasting open a long trench that pierced nearly a kilometer.
Dust rose, and the earth trembled.
Darui stood silently in place, staring blankly at this scene. Unbeknownst to him, his dark face had distorted into the shape of a shriveled orange peel.
This was simply… the power of a god.
At the same time, the Third Raikage finally realized.
Sawara Kiri just now was treating him like a child—or rather, as he himself said, he was using him as a target to adapt to some special ability.
At this very moment, when he began to unleash his full power, whether it was speed, strength, or reaction… everything had risen by more than one level compared to their previous engagement.
That's right.
The Third Raikage suddenly seemed to remember something, a flash of insight crossing his mind.
During their recent battle, Sawara Kiri had not only tried to stay in the same spot, but had also primarily used power levels consistent with his own.
"A test, huh?"
"You bastard!!"
The Third Raikage once again leaped out of the deep pit, but the initial confidence that he would definitely kill Sawara Kiri was steadily fading with each passing moment.
Or rather, the moment he witnessed that strange Genjutsu, he knew something was wrong.
"Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Sealing Technique, Reaction, Chakra."
"Just the combination of the most basic Limitless and Taijutsu can achieve this level."
"Sawara Kiri."
"What else can't you do?"
The whispered thought carried a wave of despair, yet it spurred the Chakra radiating from the Third Raikage's body to become even more intense than before.
He let out an uncontrollable roar born of despair, his voice like thunder:
"Sawara Kiri!!!"
The wind howled.
The Third Raikage's feet scraped against the ground, and even protected by Chakra, his Ninja shoes sparked with tiny scorched embers from the extreme speed, as a swift and violent punch slammed down, aimed directly at the young man's handsome face.
"That's more like it."
Sawara Kiri ducked, reaching out to bat away the swinging arm, his upward-palmed hand met by the Third Raikage's sudden headbutt, followed by a thick leg lifting to knee-strike the crouching youth.
With a muffled thud, Sawara Kiri held his knee with one hand, his body like a shadow, sliding past with the momentum, then spinning low to sweep kick the Third Raikage's supporting leg.
But before he could follow up with a continuous uppercut, the Third Raikage's Eight-Tails had already "thud, thud, thud" plunged into the ground, forcibly supporting his massive body, even using it to arc a full circle in mid-air, delivering a sharp kick towards Sawara Kiri's head.
However, it missed.
This series of close-quarters rapid strikes was so fast that the two blurred into inhuman forms in the eyes of onlookers, and even the surrounding air was shaken into expanding waves of air by the rapid movements, with every percussive impact of their limbs, no matter how brief, seemingly making the internal organs of those nearby resonate.
"Tailed Beast! Lightning Release: Lariat—!"
A violent, piercing thunderclap mixed with the sizzling of Tailed Beast Chakra's tiny bubbles, streaked across the air, sweeping directly towards Sawara Kiri's waist and abdomen.
His slender figure was suddenly thrown back several meters by the impact.
The tangible sensation brought a surge of joy to the Third Raikage's heart, and with a sudden burst of power, his entire arm extended forward, as if to cut his entire body in half.
He hit him!
However, just as he was about to slice that figure in two, the body 'thumped' and turned into two rough tree trunks.
The Third Raikage's nerves momentarily froze, and his entire upper body tilted forward several degrees; at this incredible speed, the expanding conical airflow wrapped around him like a rope, leaving him no time to control his body.
The moment he swung and missed, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Damn it.
He instinctively looked down.
Then, he saw Sawara Kiri with both hands on the ground, his entire body inverted, his slender calves following the momentum of his flip, and the violent immense force brought by the instantaneous compression of space, like the final snap of a fine whip.
"Thud—!"
It slammed hard into the Third Raikage's elbow joint.
The cracking sound of bones breaking like firecrackers echoed in their ears.
In this moment of relative stillness, the Third Raikage could only watch as his upper arm caved in and shriveled like a distorted garment, muscles and bones breaking simultaneously.
He had no time to cry out in pain; the next attack had already fallen with him.
Sawara Kiri's speed, however, suddenly increased by another fraction.
His feet planted on the Third Raikage's broad chest, his hands gripping the broken arm, his entire body fixed onto him in a cross-arm-lock-like posture, his direct, clear blue eyes meeting his:
"That was close."
"It's this arm, right?"
The Third Raikage seemed to sense something, his heart instantly slowing by half a beat, as Sawara Kiri's curled body suddenly exerted force.
Under the confrontation of their explosive power, that fragile arm lasted almost only an instant, before being forcibly torn off amidst the Third Raikage's painful roars.
"Thump."
Sawara Kiri flipped onto his feet, half his body stained with blood, casually tossing aside the severed arm, and looked at the tall figure opposite him:
"The vitality of a Tailed Beast is indeed useful."
"But, it can't possibly allow for limb regeneration, can it?"
"Lord Raikage."
The Third Raikage knelt on the ground, clutching the constantly bleeding stump of his right arm, panting heavily:
"Ha, ha."
"Is this your full strength?"
"Sawara Kiri."
At this point, his voice had become calmer than ever before.
Like a patient who had already learned of his impending death, composed to the point of lifelessness.
The Third Raikage's eyes involuntarily drooped.
Even before that Genjutsu began, no, to be precise, it should have been during the very beginning of that battle, he had already personally felt the power of this monster.
But, he hadn't expected it to come to this point.
He looked at Sawara Kiri's clothes and body, which, though stained with blood, still had no tears or wounds, and a slowly kindling fire seemed to ignite in his eyes, gradually beginning to emit light.
Sawara Kiri looked at him and said honestly:
"No."
"Not yet all of it."
"Is that so."
The Third Raikage, clutching his severed arm, slowly swayed as he rose from the ground.
The shift in his center of gravity caused by the loss of an arm and blood loss made his steps seem slightly unstable, but he still stood up firmly.
At the same time, he spoke apologetically to the Eight-Tails Gyuki in his mind:
"I'm sorry, Gyuki."
"Ah, it's unavoidable when facing a monster like this."
Gyuki also seemed to have anticipated something, looking at these two 'humans' from within the mental space.
Even with a lifespan exceeding a thousand years, the number of humans it had seen with such strength was merely a handful.
Originally, it had thought that the Third Raikage, who could defeat it head-on, was already the pinnacle of this era, but then, such an outrageous monster appeared among humans?
At this very moment, the Third Raikage actually had many other choices.
He still had the Heavenly Transfer Technique, he still had the Eight-Tails Gyuki's method of escaping by detaching a horn, he still had his Village he couldn't abandon, his son who hadn't grown up, his unchosen successor…
He had many, many regrets and things he couldn't let go of.
Even if he only had one arm from now on, he would still be the strongest Raikage standing at the pinnacle of the entire Ninja World.
However, he did not choose to flee like Shimura Danzo had back then, but instead stood firmly in place.
The Third Raikage looked directly into Sawara Kiri's eyes without flinching, and a slow smile spread across his blood-stained, dark face:
"In any case, let this old man witness it."
"Your true strength."
"In return—"
As he spoke, gigantic, octopus-like tentacles continuously surged out from his body, his form rapidly expanding and deforming, finally transforming completely into the appearance of the Eight-Tails Gyuki.
His entire body was engulfed into Gyuki's head, and surging Chakra continuously spread in all directions, exuding an intense pressure that could make ordinary people struggle to breathe.
At the same time, a deep, pitch-black giant Biju Bomb condensed in its mouth.
"…This old man will also present you with the final blow."
"Is that so."
Sawara Kiri quietly looked at him, exhaled a long breath, then tilted his head back and extended one hand forward.
His middle finger curled behind his index finger, forming a strange hand seal.
"Then you better watch closely."
"It'll only be for an instant."
At that moment, the Third Raikage, completely fused with the Eight-Tails Gyuki, paid no heed to minor issues like injuries or Chakra levels, or even his own life.
He poured all the Chakra he and Gyuki could muster into the Biju Bomb before him, forming a pitch-black sphere whose total volume was even larger than Gyuki itself.
Compress! Compress! Compress!
Finally, it transformed into a 'point' so condensed it was almost glowing.
This was his and the Eight-Tails' final attack.
"Super Biju Bomb!"
However, before he could unleash this attack from his mouth.
Sawara Kiri's voice had already softly sounded.
"Domain Expansion."
"—Unlimited Void!"
Almost the instant the words fell, a thick, dark curtain, as if solid, covered everything Gyuki and the Third Raikage could see, like it pierced the sky; from the outside, it appeared as a giant sphere that had swallowed the Tailed Beast.
At the same time.
The Third Raikage and the Eight-Tails Gyuki were both silently frozen in place.
Only their minds could still operate with difficulty.
Sense of time, sense of space, all disappeared.
But "infinite" information, like an ocean pouring into a small ceramic bowl, furiously assailed every apparatus capable of 'thinking' that they possessed.
In less than 0.1 seconds, the information they processed in their minds directly exceeded the scale of thousands, even tens of thousands of years, suddenly crossing into a 'vast quantity' that neither humans nor Tailed Beasts could bear.
Almost instantly, both of their bodies froze there, even forgetting the action of spitting out the Biju Bomb.
Only Sawara Kiri slowly stepped forward, floating in front of the Third Raikage, who stood atop Gyuki.
He quietly looked at the powerful man with a dull expression and dark skin, and seemed to say with some emotion:
"To be able to achieve such a level with a mortal body."
"Truly an incredible person."
"In this era, there is no one who can compare to you."
"I will remember you for as long as possible, Lord Raikage."
The next moment, almost the instant Sawara Kiri's palm touched his body.
The Third Raikage seemed to suddenly awaken from that strange state.
And then, looking at the headless corpse and Sawara Kiri standing in the sky, he seemed to finally understand everything.
"Indeed, it was only for an instant."
"To think you feigned a standoff with this old man for so long."
"You truly are a gentle person."
"Sawara Kiri…"
Gradually, his consciousness dissipated into this space.
The curtain at the zenith also dispersed.
Along with it, the corpse of the Eight-Tails Gyuki also vanished.
"Thud."
The Third Raikage's body fell to the ground.
Sawara Kiri stood quietly before the corpse.
It was all over.
join p atreon.com/KeyofStars and become a Sequence 9: Reader for advance chapters | Every 100 powerstones = 1 extra chapter | Report issues @discord.com/GVBdncd9Wr