"It is not me who has you pinned, but the Divine Tree has you pinned."
Ryun smiled as he said this, his entire body turning into a stream of light as he charged towards Ōtsutsuki Isshiki once more.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki raised his hand, forming a black iron rod. After blocking Ryun's strike, he decisively used his ocular technique, wanting to shrink the Truth-Seeking Black Rod in Ryun's hand. However, he found his ocular technique actually could not affect that Truth-Seeking Black Rod at all.
"What."
While shocked, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki quickly activated his Byakugan. The result was he discovered the Truth-Seeking Black Rod was tightly connected to Ryun's palm, the two seemingly as one entity. His 'Sukunahikona' could not affect anything that possessed life.
Furthermore, Truth-Seeking Orbs are the product of chakra compressed to its limit. The Truth-Seeking Orb in Ryun's hand was even more powerful and special.
It was formed from the convergence of Sage Art Chakra, Ten-Tails Chakra, the five elements Yin-Yang Release, and Rinnegan ocular power. All four of these powers within Ryun had reached perfection. Therefore, his Truth-Seeking Orb was also blacker than ordinary Truth-Seeking Orbs. If compared to the black iron rod in Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's hand, the difference was even more obvious.
The iron rod in Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's hand was a greyish black metallic color. The black rod in Ryun's hand, however, was an ink black color, so black to the extreme it even seemed to glow faintly.
Ryun, having activated the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki mode, wielded the black rod with each strike carrying a terrifying, mountainously heavy force. The black iron rod in Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's hand was beaten severely out of shape. His entire person was also forced back continuously under the pounding of this monstrous strength.
Clang.
After one particularly violent collision, the black iron rod in Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's hand was knocked flying from his grip. Ryun seized the opportunity and swung his rod at the opponent's head.
The instant before the black rod was about to strike his head, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki decisively used his ocular technique to shrink himself.
The Truth-Seeking Black Rod struck empty air. The six tomoe in Ryun's right eye spun uniformly. The Rinnegan's insight ability was also instantly heightened to its extreme.
Simultaneously, outside the barrier, the Deva Path puppet, through shared vision, saw the shrunken Ōtsutsuki Isshiki. In the next moment, it quietly opened a gap in the golden barrier. Then, raising a finger-seal hand sign, it lifted the single golden steel needle in its hand to eye level.
Inside the barrier, Ryun was rapidly and continuously lashing out at the air. Outside the barrier, Toneri Ōtsutsuki (the Deva Path puppet) received the main body's visual feed through one Rinnegan eye. Its other Tenseigan Byakugan had veins bulging, performing final positional calibration on the shrinking Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
The tiny steel needle held between the Deva Path puppet's finger-seal moved in sync with Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's movement.
Just as Ryun swung out a rod at full speed, which the shrunken Ōtsutsuki Isshiki barely dodged, repulsive force fully erupted from within the Deva Path puppet's eyes. The tiny steel needle suspended before it shot out explosively, its target precisely the minuscule Ōtsutsuki Isshiki.
'Hmm.'
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, having just dodged an attack, had no time to relax before an extremely intense sense of crisis abruptly rose in his heart. However, by the time he instinctively looked to his side, he saw a pillar, immense as a sky-supporting column, crashing towards his face at an absurdly exaggerated speed.
This strike, containing an element of ambush, was ultimately something Ōtsutsuki Isshiki could not avoid. He was struck squarely by that colossal pillar. In the next instant, his entire body was sent flying violently by that powerful kinetic energy.
"Cough."
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki violently vomited a mouthful of bloody pus mixed with internal organ fragments. His shrinking ability abruptly failed. The moment he returned to normal size, he slammed hard into the golden barrier.
Clang.
The collision with the hard barrier caused Ōtsutsuki Isshiki to involuntarily spit out another mouthful of old blood. But before the dazed him could regain even a sliver of clarity, four rapidly shooting Truth-Seeking Black Rods precisely pierced his four limbs.
Ryun instantly flashed to the spot the next moment. Just as Ōtsutsuki Isshiki was about to hit the ground, Ryun used another Truth-Seeking Orb in his hand to accurately stab into the opponent's abdomen. Then, with speed faster than lightning, he plucked out Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's '米'-patterned eye.
This eye-plucking technique was already quite familiar to Ryun.
The Truth-Seeking Black Rods contained extremely powerful sealing forces. Having lost one eye, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's entire body was like a zombie, held aloft in Ryun's hand. He didn't even have the qualification to twitch.
"Victory is decided."
Looking at the special, blood-drenched eye in his hand, a smile of victory involuntarily appeared on Ryun's face.
Hearing Ryun's declaration of victory, the Deva Path puppet and the Akatsuki members also dropped the highly chakra-consuming space-time barrier the next moment and gathered around him.
After prioritizing the removal of one '米'-patterned eye, adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, Ryun also gouged out the other Byakugan.
Having obtained two eyes, Ryun threw Ōtsutsuki Isshiki directly on the ground like trash.
"Ah."
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki opened his mouth and let out a shrill, unwilling roar. However, before this roar could last long, another Truth-Seeking Black Rod accurately pierced his mouth, nailing his head firmly to the ground.
"Noisy." Ryun looked at the dog-like Ōtsutsuki Isshiki on the ground and spoke calmly.
Towards a parasitic alien who viewed humans as inferior beings, Ryun would not show the slightest softness.
"Haha. As expected of the boss."
"Boss is mighty."
The Akatsuki members all stepped forward with smiles. The respect in their eyes was unconcealed. An enemy who could overpower them was easily defeated by the boss. Ryun had already become an undefeatable war god in their hearts.
"This guy's strength is formidable. If not for the boss being here, we brothers probably would have really been finished by this person." Deidara said with lingering fear after kicking Ōtsutsuki Isshiki a couple of times.
"Indeed. Honestly, I still don't quite understand that ability even now. How did those black rods that pierced us suddenly appear? There was simply no warning at all." Kisame Hoshigaki asked curiously.
Hearing this, everyone looked at their boss.
"An ocular technique that shrinks objects and can instantly restore them. Also called 'Sukunahikona'." Ryun explained, holding up that golden '米'-patterned eye.
Upon hearing this, everyone showed expressions of surprise. Even Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's body on the ground suddenly trembled. He couldn't understand, even in death, how Ryun knew the intel on his ability.
No wonder the other side didn't use any ninjutsu that could be absorbed throughout the entire fight, and could think of the 'fight small with small' method to counter his ability so quickly. Someone stronger than him also possessed his intel. How could Ōtsutsuki Isshiki possibly have any chance of winning?
"An ocular technique. So the black rods didn't suddenly appear. It was that our eyes couldn't see their existence."
"This guy threw the shrunken black rods near us, then used his ability to restore the black rods to their original size. That is probably what caused our bodies to be pierced."
The Akatsuki members spoke one after another. These battle-hardened individuals quickly analyzed the specific usage method of 'Sukunahikona'.
Unfortunately, the gap in strength between them and Ōtsutsuki Isshiki was too large. Analyzing it was one thing. Whether they could actually counter it was another matter entirely.
Ryun paid no heed to the group's intel analysis. He handed the two eyes in his hand to the Deva Path puppet, then retrieved the Deva Path puppet back into the Kamui dimension.
After doing this, he squatted down, grabbed Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's head with one hand, and decisively activated a Rinnegan ability.
"Human Path."
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