"Konoha Whirlwind!"
With all his strength, he kicked into the air, directing the powerful kick at the enemy in front of him.
Faced with this sudden attack, the Uchiha ninja swiftly raised his arms to shield himself.
In the next moment, Uchiha ninja's expression changed abruptly as he took the brunt of the roundabout kick. He immediately felt a surge of force comparable to a beast, pressing on his body through his arms, causing him to lose his ability to think all of a sudden. His body quickly flew backwards, rolling on the sand.
Swiftly planting his feet on the sandy ground, the Uchiha ninja leaped up, shooting an angry glare at the Konoha ninja who had just sent him flying. His opponent has a thicker eyebrows than the average person, wore green tights and the standard vest uniform of a Konoha Jonin. If he recalled correctly, his name was Might Guy. He was one of the students of the clan head during her time in Konoha. There was also a point marked in the intelligence that he specialized in a terrifying Taijutsu.
In mid-air, the Uchiha ninja weaved seals with both hands and then expelled a massive fireball from his mouth, hurtling toward Guy.
With a whoosh, Guy's figure vanished from the spot, evading the fireball attack.
The Uchiha ninja's Sharingan tracked Guy's movements, spinning in the air. He continued to release fireballs, targeting Guy who kept reappearing reappeared.
Guy's muscles bulged suddenly, and Chakra surged throughout his body, entering a state of frightening enhancement. He threw a powerful punch. His body cut through the coming fireball, and the fist, steadily growing larger in the Uchiha ninja's field of vision before he unceremoniously sent the opponent flying with the blow.
The Uchiha's body collided with the sandy ground, a solid impact accompanied by a painful muffled sound from his mouth.
"As expected of Ruri-sama's student, you actually smashed through my fireball with your fist alone…"
With a poof, the Uchiha, reachrd his limit, and disappearing into a cloud of white smoke.
"Shado- shadow clone!?"
Guy who saw the Uchiha ninja he had been blown away by his fist disappear into a cloud of white smoke after being hit hard, and immediately widened his eyes in shock. It was only then did he realize what he's been fighting with all along was just a shadow clone.
"So, it's Guy? Being able to easily defeat a shadow clone of our clan's Jonin, he seems to have grown a lot."
Ruri, observing from a distance, was slightly surprised at this scene.
While the three Uchiha ninjas accompanying her were merely shadow clones, maintaining only part of the main body's strength, she hadn't anticipated them being dispersed so effortlessly.
Although Guy used the Eight Inner Gates Formation to specially strengthen his Tainutsu, she noticed that he entered the Eight Inner Gates state instantly and he never panted aloud nor did kt cause excessive strain on his body. This showed that her former student had extraordinary attainments in the Taijutsu.
However, the Sixth Gate...no, for him now, opening the Seventh Gate was his limit. Ruri secretly evaluated inwardly.
The Eight Inner Gates Formation was a forbidden jutsu that had been honed over time. After all eight gates were opened fully, it could unleash the body's restrictions in a short period, bursting out with unparalleled power. But in that state, the user's life force would also be burned up.
In short, it was a forbidden jutsu used for mutual destruction with the enemy.
Moreover, based on Ruri's assessment, Guy's body has already undergone extensive conditioning to use the Eight Gates. However, in return, numerous concealed injuries plagued his body.
It wasn't obvious now, but as he aged, these hidden injuries would be infinitely magnified, making his later years miserable. This was the nature of forbidden jutsus - they required the user to bear huge risks and costs.
Just as Ruri was about to step out to meet her former student, she suddenly felt her body stiffen. At some point, an extremely long and narrow shadow had rushed up from behind, closely connecting with her own. Immediately, a strong binding force came from the shadow, firmly locking her body in place, she was unable to move.
"I'll advise you not to make any movement. I think you should experience our clan's Shadow Strangle Jutsu as well."
The Nara ninja who had performed the shadow possession jutsu, showed a smile on his face. The hand seals he made changed slightly and two shadow hands emerged, wrapping around Ruri's neck and clenching with all their might.
Ruri frowned slightly, feeling uncomfortable breathing as chakra rushed through her body, trying to break free of the restraints.
"Choda! Dont miss the opportunity!"
The Nara hurriedly shouted, feeling the terrifying power brewing in Ruri's body. If this continued, his shadow possession jutsu would be broken soon. After the Nara shouted, a huge spinning shadow descended from the sky woth speed, falling right above Ruri's head.
"Human Boulder!!"
Ruri looked up suddenly, her black pupils glowed bright red as three tomoe appeared. The shadow hands around her neck seemed to be suppressed by some force and it quickly retreated. The Nara ninja who was performing the shadow jutsu, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his palms which cracked loudly as the technique was forcibly dispelled.
Pfft!
Blood rained down from the sky.
The Akimichi ninja, Choda, stopped spinning mid-air. A dark red chakra sword had pierced through his body at some point, his eyes widened slightly with an expression of disbelief.
"Is this.. how i die..."
The Akimichi coughed, spat out blood, swallowed the words back into his stomach, unwilling to fall down from mid-air. He landed at Ruri's feet with his eyes closed weakly.
"Although, i find it a bit troublesome, it just saves me the energy of walking around. Who's next?"
Ruri pulled out the sword which had pierced the Akimichi's chest, flicked it lightly in her hand to dry the blood on it, and laid it on the ground in front of him. Her red sharingan eyes coldly glanced at the Konoha ninjas around her.
"Choda!" The Nara shouted loudly, but the ninja, who had fallen at Ruri's feet, could no longer respond. He had turned into a cold corpse.
"Damn it!" The Nara wasn't overwhelmed by anger but quickly backed away to keep a safe distance from Ruri.
The surrounding Konoha ninjas also stared at Ruri vigilantly, not daring to relax in the slightest. Unexpectedly, it was just a tentative attack that had turned into this, instantly causing Choda's sacrifice.
And the ability to condense the chakra blade, if their information was correct, it was from the exclusive Susanoo after its activation. Uchiha Ruri could now condense chakra blades with her fingertips was an ability not revealed in their intelligence. The Konoha ninjas present speculated that this might be one of Ruri's hidden abilities.
Whoosh.
At this time, two figures appeared to Ruri's side - the remaining two out of the three Uchiha who had followed her. Both appeared awkwardly with their clothes covered in a lot of dust.
On Konoha's side, the man with thick eyebrows resembling Guy had also returned to the Konoha formation. Judging from the relatively few traces on his clothes, he seemed to be slightly better off than the two shadow clones.
"Ruri-sama." One Uchiha ninja said slightly.
"You two can go back. I can handle the next battle alone."
Ruri said, not expecting these three shadow clones to provide any help. Their reason for using them was to make her and Shiraishi appear more like they were on a covert mission. Of course, Shiraishi might make the best use of the shadow clones so as not to waste their chance at appearing.
"Yes."
Without hesitation, the two Uchiha formed seals with both hands, dispelling the shadow clone as they disappeared in smoke beside Ruri.
"Sure enough, those two were also shadow clones? When I was fighting eith them, I felt something was off." Duy frowned slightly.
No matter what, with just Taijutsu and without using the Eight Inner Gates, his strength hadn't yet reached the level where he could simply deal with two Jonin level Uchiha. But if they were shadow clones, then everything could be explained. However, with all three Uchiha ninjas appearing as shadow clones, the Konoha ninjas also had some doubts about the Ruri who appeared here - could she also be a shadow clone?
The Hyuga clan Jonin in the team opened his Byakugan for a while before shaking his head helplessly. Shadow Clone was a special clone jutsu that couldn't distinguish the clone from the original even with the Byakugan. No matter how they observed, they couldn't confirm whether this Ruri was a clone or the original.
Seeming to have guessed what the Konoha ninjas were thinking, Ruri patiently explained, "Don't worry, I'm not a shadow clone. Your encirclement strategy worked quite well. However, to a certain extent, you're also unlucky sincere I'm not a shadow clone."
Standing within the encirclement of Konoha ninjas, Ruri showed no fear on her face. Without warning, a cold and murderous aura erupted from her body, causing the surrounding air to stagnate for a moment.
The Konoha ninjas were suffocating, feeling as if a huge boulder might press down on them at any moment. They stared at Ruri solemnly, struggling to breathe a little. Just a simple burst of killing intent was enough to suffocate their bodies. If things really came to blows, the results would be unimaginably terrifying.
In the ensuing battle, a careless mistake could cost them their heads - this was the thought in the minds of every Konoha ninja present.
"Guy! Don't hesitate in the next fight, or you'll die." Duy advised his son in a low tone as they stood side by side. Although he knew Guy had a mentoring bond with Ruri, that would be meaningless here. Any hesitation could bring death.
"I understand, Father."
Guy clenched his fists, raising his thick eyebrows vigorously, and his eyes were full of determination. Indeed, if he hesitated now, not only would he endanger his companions' lives, but he would also be looked down upon by his former sensei. In this battle, he had to go all out.
"Then, I'll attack first and the rest of you will provide support! To be able to fight against such a powerful ninja, my youth will be ablaze as well!"
After speaking, Duy let his hands go and shook his whole body. Extremely violent and uncontrollable Chakra vented crazily from his body, blowing away all the wind and sand around him, forming a vacuum field. Through his green tights, Duy's bulging muscles were full of explosive power. His body also began emitting green steam like flames spreading out like mist.
Even the Konoha ninjas beside him looked at Duy in surprise. Although it was known Might Duy's explosive power when using the Eight Gates would be greatly multiplied, the explosive force of his Chakra was still too exaggerated.
Boom!
Duy's figure disappeared from the spot in an instant. The sand under his feet exploded and boundless wind and sand rolled up, blocking their vision.
Among the swirling wind and sand, Ruri also involuntarily squinted due to the obstructed view and slightly raised the corners of her mouth in a smile. "Green steam...that's a sign of opening the third gate. However, I think there's still a lack in terms of speed and power at only the level of the third gate."
"Lacking in speed and power? We'll only know after fighting!" Duy's voice rang out, but at that speed it was impossible to discern where it came from. Only a sharp sound of something breaking through the air was heard before his figure suddenly flickered behind Ruri, spinning in mid-air as his right leg swept out fiercely.
Ruri quickly turned around, concentrating her strength in her right hand to swing the sword as well. The sword swiftly passed through where Duy's body had been.
'An afterimage?'
It had only hit the shadow left in the air.
Realizing this, Ruri immediately raised her left palm and pointed it downwards, lightly blocking the upward kicking foot that suddenly attacked her from below, preventing it from striking her jaw.
"I see. That previous roundhouse kick was just a feint. And this upper kick was probably meant to use the Front Lotus on me."
With his strategy seen through, Duy was startled. He retracted his leg and swiftly retreated. Before he could stand firmly on the sand, an eerie feeling came from behind him. Duy had no time to stabilize his body. He lifted his left foot off the ground, tilted sideways, narrowly avoiding the dark red sword that brushed past his face.
Boom!
The fireball Ruri spat from her mouth directly hit Duy's body, blasting him away mercilessly.
Duy's body was surrounded by the green steam as a protective layer, so the fireball's burns were not too serious. He bounced nimbly during his roll, spreading his arms out. The green steam deepened as chakra continued erupting continuously from his body while his teeth clenched tightly from the strain.
Ruri clearly heard the straining sounds from Duy's body.
"The Gate of Pain? Interesting."
Ruri held the chakra blade in her hand, considering whether Duy's current strength could prove entertaining. Then she kicked off the sand and leapt out with a murderous look.
"Your opponent is still us!"
At this moment, a Konoha ninja wearing a black windbreaker and black sunglasses made hand seals. A cloud of black clouds flew out from his sleeves, intercepting Ruri's path to Duy.
"Don't get in my way!"
Ruri took a deep breath and shot another huge fireball from her mouth, engulfing the black bug cloud.
Unexpectedly, the black swarm cloud emerged unscathed from the flames with excited creaking sounds. The bugs within crazily gnawed on the flames - in less than a moment, the fireball would be completely consumed by the bugs. Bathed in the flame-blackened shells, the bugs' shells became smoother and brighter.
Seeing this, Ruri couldn't help frowning slightly.
The cloud advanced to envelope her. With their slightly opened mouths, they seemed to want to devour her like the flames before.
Ruri's gaze flickered for a moment and she stopped moving forward. A dark red materialized chakra suddenly appeared around her, forming a huge hard exoskeleton to protect her body.
The bugs rushed to bite, crazily eating away at the released materialized chakra. Suddenly, as if poisoned, the flapping speed slowed down visibly. They fell to the ground one by one.
The Aburame Jonin controlling the bugs changed his expression slightly. He hurriedly recalled the bugs to recover inside his body. Unexpectedly, the moment the bugs returned to his body and began accumulating, his body suddenly stiffened. A dark will to kill and destroy immediately eroded his brain, dying his pupils pitch black. He let out a painful roar as countless bugs scattered from his body, bumping around crazily.
The overwhelmed Aburame ninja fell to the ground and began rolling all over. His black glasses shattered and something writhed wildly under the skin of his face. His ferocious visage could be seen.
"It's best not to indiscriminately absorb chakra, some can kill." Ruri looked indifferently at the miserable state of the Aburame ninja.
The Konoha ninjas gritted their teeth upon hearing Ruri's words.
Ignoring their angry eyes, Ruri surrounded herself with the dark red bone armor which immediately attached itself to her. It instantly formed like a dark blood-colored giant - the Susanoo. Only half of it's huge body was visible.
The chakra swoed in her hand dissipated but a larger sword condensed in the half-length warrior's hand. Glancing into the distance, Ruri saw a large black area spreading from the sand dunes - the Sunahagakure assault corps had officially arrived on the battlefield. Her three tomoe suddenly turned into the Mangekyou state. A cold aura spread out, sending chills down the spines of the surrounding Konoha ninjas.
"I'll warm up first before cooking you all." Ruri said.
Then Ruri and Susanoo's figures disappeared from the spot, leaving only faint flashes of lightning in the air where they had moved swiftly through cracks that soon vanished without a trace.
"This is bad, her target is Suna's assault troops!" Realizing what Ruri intended to do, a Konoha ninja looked towards the Suna troops with an expression of drastic change.
Duy reacted the fastest. After opening the Gate Of Pain, his speed increased again as he quickly chased after Ruri.
The first and second Suna assault regiments totaled 2,000 ninjas. According to instructions from Fourth Kazekage Rasa, they would disperse their troops in an encirclement maneuver.
Just as the lead Suna ninja began directing the dispersal, there were sudden exclamations. An enormous shadow directly covered them and the Suna ninjas looked up.
Boom!
A giant sword slashed down from the sky. Dozens of Suna ninjas had no time to dodge and died instantly under the ravages of the sword. The emitted sword glow also erupted among the crowd, blowing away all the Suna ninjas in a straight line. Against such a natural disaster, even ninjas were extremely helpless.
Ruri glanced coldly at the Suna ninjas around her and released her left eye's power. She softly muttered one words.
Yakusanoikazuchi
For a while, screams of pain came and went. Countless blue lightning covered the earth, turning the desert land into a sea of lightning. The Suna ninjas around were paralyzed by the lightning snakes, terror evident in their eyes.
Ruri's sword swept across ruthlessly and all the wailing was silenced. Heaven and earth returned to a chilling tranquility.
"Damn you..."
Ruri moved forward steadily. Looking at the Suna ninjas who had regained their fighting spirit and frantically rushed towards her, she slowly controlled Susanoo to raise its chakra blade again with one hand.
"Honoikazuchi (Fire Lightning)."
The giant sword fell. The soaring lightning accompanied by the light of the sword, spreading in all directions and mercilessly devouring the lives of the Suna ninjas rushing forward.
...
"Ruri seems to be having a lot of fun."
Shiraishi put his hands in the pockets of his usual white coat, letting the wild wind tousle his hair as he looked towards the distance beyond the violet barrier where intense lightning crackled. Faint rumbles of thunder striking the ground could be heard even from where he stood.
"But she'll be consuming chakra quite fast that way. Hopefully there won't be any issues." Shiraishi muttered to himself.
Yakusanoikazuchi was indeed powerful and well-rounded. However, with that state active plus Susanoo, Her chakra consumption speed would be much faster than with the Susanoo alone. Even though her chakra level was excellent among ninjas, Shiraishi was still a little worried she might be weakened in the aftermath after going so wild.
Shiraishi then turned his eyes away, looking at the 'corpses' of the nine Oni ninjas lying in front of him which disappeared into clouds of white smoke. Not far away were five corpses of Konoha ninjas lying in pools of their own blood. Their chests pierced by Shadow dancer's blades, completely devoid of vitality. Even their soul colors had dulled.
Shiraishi smiled at the Konoha ninja who had been attacked by him yet survived. Especially Sarutobi Takashi, as he had dodged in time, with only his shoulders injured. The other three Konoha attackers, although they had miraculously survived, still had bleeding wounds showing no signs of stopping.
"Don't accuse me of being merciless, this is a battle of life or death." Shiraishi smirked.
Takashi remained, but Masaki appeared close to him to use medical ninjutsu to heal the wound on his shoulder before she was about to move to the side of the three injured ninjas to treat them.
Shiraishi naturally wouldn't let his opponent succeed. His shadow rushed out again, transforming into over a dozen shadow blades that shot towards Takashi and the others.
Takashi's figure flickered in front of the shadow blades. Clenching the chakra metal sword in his hand as he infused with fire, he took a deep breath.
"Fire Release - Flame Explosion!"
Boom!
The terrifying explosive flames immediately swallowed up all the attacking shadow blades. The horrifying high temperature lingered within the barrier for a long time.
"Kenjutsu? It seems similar to Sakumo-sensei's."
Looking at the shadow blades driven back by the fire style kenjutsu, Shiraishi pondered for a while, analyzing the difference between Takashi's and Sakumo's white light.
If he had to point it out, Sakumo's Kenjutsu tended more towards being sharp and fast while Takashi's focused on destruction and explosions with fairly straightforward, violent moves. The Kenjutsu was probably related to Takashi's fire release ninjutsu.
The Sarutobi clan was a rare Konoha ninja clan adept at fire release ninjutsu like the Uchiha clan. It was also a remarkable feat to integrate fire style into Kenjutsu - something ordinary ninjas couldn't accomplish.
"I wouldn't dare campare myself to Sakumo-san's , but even so, it should be more than enough to deal with a traitor like you." Takashi said in a deep voice, exuding a sharp, awe-inspiring killing intent.
"Admirable confidence you have there. You do have some tricky moves."
After speaking, Shiraishi formed hand seals. His shadow squirmed again, making Takashi and the other Konoha ninjas secretly vigilant as they watched solemnly. In their perspective, Shiraishi's mysterious, unpredictable Yin release ninjutsu that could perfectly integrate offense and defense was even deadlier than the Nara clan's jutsu - extremely tricky to handle.
After forming the seal, a mass of pitch blackness separated from the shadow under Shiraishi's feet, protruding from the plane. A girl in black tights with fluttering long hair emerged, revealing an exquisite but bloodless pale face. There was a astonishing chill in her pitch-black eyes, seeming able to freeze the surrounding space.
"A girl?"
Takashi tilted his head slightly, feeling puzzled. He never expected there to be a human girl hidden in Shiraishi's shadow. What was the relationship between the two? And how were they integrated? It was all unknown.
Takashi now understood why Jiraiya had activated Sage Mode right from the start. Much about Shiraishi was still unknown and the unknown meant mystery and extreme danger. Even a living person could be hidden in his shadow, so it wouldn't be surprising if Shiraishi showed some more strange ninjutsu next.
"Be careful, this girl might not be simple." Takashi whispered. The Konoha ninjas nodded solemnly.
"Go." Shiraishi said.
As soon as he finished speaking, Shadow dancer's figure swayed in place before disappearing from Shiraishi's side. When she reappeared, she had already arrived in front of Takashi.
Takashi unceremoniously swung his fire-natured sword, slashing at Shadow dancer's body.
Shadow dancer's pale, slender palm grasped the violently powerful sword. Pitch black darkness passed from the her palm, eroding the fire-natured chakra coating the sword and the hilt itself.
The darkness was still rapidly spreading, extending towards Takashi's palm. Takashi's expression changed. He quickly released the sword, jumping back. The sword eroded by the darkness dissipated into the air along with its coating.
Shadow dancer's body disappeared again. Takashi turned stiffly to see a pitch-black figure appear beside him with dark eyes brimming with cold aura as she stretched out a pale palm.
Without hesitation, Takashi flipped out an explosive tag in his palm which detonated between him and Shadow dancer.
Boom!
The shockwave pushed Takashi's body out while Shadow dancer also retreated in an ungainly manner. Her eyes swept towards Takashi tumbling on the ground with a trace of dissatisfaction.
Takashi got up from the ground with large burn areas on his waist. His bloodstained clothes showed the still bleeding wound. Although the explosive tag's power let him avoid Shadow dancer's certain blow, he was still injured by the explosion.
"Masaki!"
Takashi shouted loudly. A strong gust of wind struck as Masaki hastily waved her chakra scalpel, slashing at her attacker.
"Now's not the time to worry about others' injuries, Deputy Minister Masaki." Shiraishi said with a smile. His face was close as he grabbed Masakii's wrist, causing the chakra scalpel to swing into empty air.
Masaki broke free of Shiraishi's grasp and jumped backwards. Shiraishi waved his other hand quickly and three syringes full of venom flew at Masaki who nimbly dodged them. She quickly took out and unfolded a scroll from her cuffs.
A giant shuriken appeared in her hand.
Gripping the giant shuriken, she swiftly threw it at Shiraishi. At the same time, she formed seals. What was originally just one giant shuriken turned into over a dozen, blocking all of Shiraishi's escape routes.
Shiraishi stood still as Shadow dancer flashed in front of him. Extending her hands, she turned into a twisted solid black shadow, splitting into numerous shadow blades to intercept all the giant shurikens, chopping them into pieces.
"Success!"
In the moment Shadow dancer blocked the shurikens, a figure flashed behind Shiraishi. The Konoha ninja quietly approached Shiraishi's back holding a sword which he swung at Shiraishi's back.
Water splashed in front of him with a refreshing touch against the dry sand. The Konoha ninja attacking Shiraishi was stunned as his open mouth but was flooded with water, making it hard for him to breathe.
It was the Water Prison Jutsu.
The Konoha ninja suddenly held his breath and stopped breathing, feeling better. Staring at the nearby Shiraishi, he clenched his sword, trying to violently break the water prison.
Pfft! Pfft!
As he took action, shadow blades pierced in from outside the water sphere, stabbing through his body. Blood stained the water sphere red. He bled profusely but even his screams couldn't transmit outside.
Boom.
The blood-filled water sphere burst and the Konoha ninja fell limply behind Shiraishi without even struggling.
"Let me give you some advice. Don't get close to me recklessly - it would very dangerous." Shiraishi looked at Takashi, Masaki and the rest with an increasingly solemn expression as he kindly warned.
"Next...it's time to get serious."
Shiraishi raised his palm to his mouth, biting it lightly as he smiled faintly at Takashi and company before forcefully slapping his palm onto the void beside him.
The summoning contract's seal floated above the void, beginning to spread out.
"Summoning!"
******
**Ruri's Left Eye Mangekyou: Yakusanoikazuchi**
1. **Ōikazuchi (Great lightning) :** Engulfs the target in a massive thunderstorm, dealing widespread damage.
2. **Honoikazuchi (Fire Lightning) :** Ignites the opponent with searing lightning, causing persistent burning damage.
3. **Kuroikazuchi (Black lightning):** Shrouds the user in dark lightning, enhancing stealth and striking from the shadows.
4. **Sakuikazuchi (Cleaving lightning):** Splits the air with a thunderous cleave, cutting through defenses and barriers.
5. **Wakaikazuchi (Young lightning):** Unleashes quick and agile lightning strikes, overwhelming opponents with speed.
6. **Tsuchiikazuchi (Earth lightning):** Manipulates the earth's magnetic field, disrupting and disarming metallic objects.
7. **Naruikazuchi (Rumbling lightning):** Creates a rumbling vibration, destabilizing the ground and disorienting foes.
8. **Fuchiikazuchi (Couchant lightning):** Lays a dormant thunder trap, activating upon the opponent's movement with a sudden and powerful surge.