"Not bad."
Rasa glanced back at the ball of lava that had passed straight through his body.
After Gold Dust had lowered its temperature to a certain degree, the greatest threat left in that lava sphere was its impact force.
"And with a body turned into sand, I took that kind of attack without suffering the slightest damage."
"Just like the Hozuki clan's Hydrification Technique. It perfectly nullifies physical attacks."
"Does this count as a hard counter to taijutsu?"
"I wonder what would happen if it faced the Eight Gates."
Roshi's expression darkened.
He had never had much confidence against Rasa to begin with.
Now Rasa had revealed yet another abnormal new ninjutsu. Roshi found it even harder to imagine how he was supposed to win.
On top of that, his attack just now had failed to take effect. The surviving Suna shinobi had already pulled far enough away, which meant using those survivors to threaten Rasa was no longer realistic either.
"Situational Awareness!"
Rasa looked in one direction.
"They've already moved several kilometers away."
Then he withdrew his gaze.
"In that case, I can proceed with my next arrangements without concern."
Killing Roshi was inevitable.
Roshi had destroyed two Suna outposts and caused the deaths of more than a dozen Sunagakure shinobi.
A blood debt had to be repaid in blood.
But in Rasa's view, simply killing Roshi directly would be too cheap for him.
And too wasteful.
Roshi was strong, but not strong enough.
He had a large amount of chakra, and as a jinchuriki, his vitality was extremely tenacious.
In that case, he was an excellent target for testing ninjutsu.
Rasa already had several techniques he had not yet tested against a reasonably strong opponent.
Without testing them, he would never truly know their exact strength.
Rasa's body descended toward the ground.
Roshi froze.
Everything he had done was to force Rasa down to the ground, where Roshi could bring out his full strength.
Yet his plan had already failed.
And after it failed, Rasa actually came down on his own initiative.
"What is Rasa thinking?"
Then Roshi saw a sword appear in Rasa's hand.
Anubis.
"Forget it!"
"No matter what scheme Rasa has, an opportunity has appeared. I can't miss it!"
Roshi charged forward violently.
A red-yellow afterimage was left behind him.
"In a direct clash of power, no one can beat me!"
But after closing the distance, Roshi immediately realized something was wrong.
Rasa's swordsmanship was too strong.
Absurdly strong.
It forced Roshi back so thoroughly that he could not close in at all.
Every attack was blocked.
And each of Rasa's counterattacks landed exactly at the point that made Roshi most uncomfortable.
That feeling made Roshi think of Hatake Sakumo from back then.
"How is this possible?"
"Hatake Sakumo specialized in swordsmanship. But Rasa mainly studies ninjutsu and Magnet Release, and he still has the official duties of the Kazekage to handle. Where would he find time to train swordsmanship?"
"Is Rasa's talent really this terrifying?"
And even when Roshi did manage to hit him, that part of Rasa's body would turn into sand.
His fist might as well have struck empty air.
After repeated collisions, Roshi gained no advantage at all.
Worse still, Roshi discovered that the sword in Rasa's hand was astonishingly sharp. Even with his Lava Release Chakra Mode and a layer of magma wrapped around his body, hard enough to be terrifying, he was still being injured.
The pain was intense.
It made Roshi think of the Kusanagi Sword that had once appeared in Orochimaru's hand.
"But compared to Rasa, Orochimaru's swordsmanship is far too lacking."
Yet very soon, Roshi realized that it was not only Orochimaru's swordsmanship that was far inferior to Rasa's.
Anubis was not something the Kusanagi Sword could compare to either.
Facing Anubis's slash, Roshi raised his magma-covered arm to block.
But in the next moment, Roshi felt a burning pain from his arm.
He could sense that his arm had been severed.
Yet when he looked carefully, he saw that the magma covering his arm showed no trace of being damaged at all.
"What's going on?"
Roshi's heart jolted. He hurriedly pulled back and opened the distance.
He stared fixedly at Rasa, his expression heavy.
In close-quarters combat, Roshi had originally believed he held the advantage. He had never expected to be suppressed by Rasa to this extent.
He wrapped himself in magma and attacked madly.
Rasa merely waved the sword in his hand, looking calm and effortless.
And after Roshi retreated, Rasa showed no intention of pursuing him.
He simply watched in silence, as if deliberately waiting for Roshi to recover.
"Is Rasa arrogant… or does he have some other plan?"
Roshi removed the magma covering his arm.
Plop!
A severed arm fell to the ground.
Rasa withdrew Anubis.
His previous fight with Jiraiya had been too rushed, so the test results had been only average. This time, after fighting Roshi, Rasa felt even more strongly that Anubis was truly an excellent ninja tool.
It automatically granted top-tier swordsmanship, along with its ability to cut through things without cutting their outer shell.
"Among the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist, perhaps only Hiramekarei and Samehada can be compared with Anubis."
"In addition, Anubis and the Sand Transformation Technique work extremely well together."
"It is practically a perfect combination."
Rasa looked toward Roshi across from him.
"Next is the railgun test."
He raised one hand.
Immediately, a vast amount of Gold Dust appeared. Under Rasa's control, it continuously changed shape, assembled, and formed an incomparably enormous cannon barrel.
The muzzle aimed directly at Roshi.
Roshi looked at his severed arm, his face ugly. Sensing something wrong, he looked up and saw the enormous cannon barrel.
He had never seen this ninjutsu before, but he could feel the intense pressure it emitted.
Electromagnetic force began to act.
A shell inside the cannon barrel accelerated to its limit.
"Shatter him, railgun!"
The next instant—
Boom!
The shell blasted out violently.
"What is this now? Another ninjutsu that wasn't in the intelligence reports!"
Roshi's pupils constricted.
"Complete Tailed Beast Mode!"
The Four-Tails, Son Goku.
An incomparably massive red ape appeared, its expression ferocious and savage.
But at this moment, on the face of that giant ape, there was only gravity.
The shell came too fast.
By the time Roshi noticed it, it was already too late to dodge. He could only enter Complete Tailed Beast Mode and borrow the Four-Tails' power to see if he could block it.
Bang!
The metal shell struck the Four-Tails.
The tremendous force slammed into the Four-Tails' chest, directly caving in its entire chest.
Afterward, that immense power carried the Four-Tails' body and sent it flying violently.
Roshi revealed a shocked expression.
"Even the Four-Tails can be blasted away… what kind of terrifying force is this?"
Rasa raised an eyebrow.
"It consumes quite a lot of chakra, but the return in power is worth it."
"As expected, testing it on a real opponent is far more intuitive. Blasting apart a mountaintop is too difficult to convert into its effect on a ninja."
"One shot landed, and even a Tailed Beast was heavily injured!"