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In his rage, Nagato had long forgotten his original purpose for coming here, and he had also forgotten that his current body was merely a Wood Clone, utterly unqualified to contend with the man before him.
A surging Chakra erupted from his body like flames; the immense force from his feet shattered the office floor tiles, sending large clouds of dust flying, and his body, propelled by this enormous recoil, shot towards Sawara Kiri at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
At this moment, he himself did not realize that infusing the White Zetsu body to form this Wood Clone allowed him to unleash abilities that even his original body would struggle to match.
Reflected in his pale purple Rinnegan was only the scene of Konan being embraced by Sawara Kiri, with no intention of resisting.
It was as if something important had been stolen from him at that moment.
"Wait!"
Only Black Zetsu, completely unaffected, remained rational at this time, almost instinctively shouting towards him, attempting to intercept him.
However, upon seeing Nagato completely lose his sanity, he immediately and decisively abandoned this Wood Clone, his entire body merging quickly into the ground like a true shadow, attempting to escape from this massive trap that had revealed its true nature.
But, how could it be so simple?
"Boom—!"
A full-power Shinra Tensei surged forth from Nagato's hand, its immense repulsive force spreading through the air in a visibly convex spherical shape, pushing the air and all matter around him, moving everything towards Sawara Kiri with all its might—whether it was the ground beneath him, metal filing cabinets, the ceiling, the sofa... everything in the surroundings was instantly distorted, shattered, forming a wall pressing down on Sawara Kiri.
Even Konan seemed to realize something, involuntarily looking up at him, then her gaze darted away as if denying reality.
However, facing this attack that completely surpassed the concept of a Ninja, Sawara Kiri merely raised his hand.
"Buzz!!"
The compression between the repulsive force and space caused an ear-splitting, sharp buzzing sound among the countless materials in the short distance between Sawara Kiri and Nagato; the wall pushing forward suddenly plunged into a static quagmire, all of it stopping within three meters of Sawara Kiri.
Not only the matter, but even the Shinra Tensei itself, which he had unleashed with all his might, solidified before Sawara Kiri.
Even the force capable of pulverizing the entire office, or even the entire floor, vanished in this instant, failing to even stir a ripple.
The narrow world between the two seemed to be abruptly severed at this moment.
Reflecting this scene in his pale purple Rinnegan, Nagato's eyes widened involuntarily, and his mind went blank for a moment.
However, before he could regain his consciousness.
Sawara Kiri suddenly released Konan from his embrace.
He stepped forward.
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
"Thump!!"
Though it was nothing more than an ordinary step, to Nagato's ears, it sounded like a series of heavy drumbeats.
The 'wall' he had formed with all his might before him, under Sawara Kiri's steps that pushed the entire space along, was actually pushed back inch by inch towards him.
This difference in absolute power even caused a strong sense of absurdity to rise in Nagato's heart.
Reflected in his wide-eyed Rinnegan were Sawara Kiri's forelocks, brushed by the air at high speed, and the long-lost excitement on his face.
Until Sawara Kiri actively closed the distance between them to within one meter.
Nagato's expression was almost trembling.
"Let me show you."
Sawara Kiri's voice carried a hint of suppressed exhilaration as he raised his hand and pointed it like a gun at Nagato's brow.
A crimson, pinpoint structure showed extremely high concentration.
Even his frozen Shinra Tensei seemed to be completely distorted within this tiny area, presenting spatial ripples like a whirlpool.
"—This is what repulsion is called."
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red"
At this moment, Nagato, with his Rinnegan that could see through all Chakra flows, personally witnessed the reality of what was called 'Cursed Technique Reversal.'
The deafening, harsh roar instantly deprived him of all hearing.
The 'wall' that stood between him and Sawara Kiri, which had spread to cover the entire office, was instantly enveloped the moment this Cursed Technique formed, tearing apart his frozen Shinra Tensei along with it.
It transformed into a line, like a battering ram, appearing as a concentrated stream.
"Boom—!!!"
The deafening sound suddenly startled Konan from her self-hypnosis, causing her eyes to widen involuntarily and all her muscles to tense up at that moment.
The entire office in front of her, along with this entire floor, was pierced through by this seemingly simple attack; the floor tiles beneath her were torn open into a trench dozens of meters long, and Nagato's figure was pushed to the very front of this long stream, continuously smashing through walls behind him until he plunged into the depths of the dark night.
Konan's heart trembled incessantly, yet she vaguely held onto a sliver of fantasy that 'this was also an illusion,' but her body couldn't stop shaking, her lips subtly mumbling, seemingly wanting to say something.
To be honest, she had thought she had long accepted this cruel Ninja World.
Since she had decided to act against Konoha's people back in Hidden Rain Village, even if she ended up as a captive, it seemed like no big deal.
The victor is king, the loser is bandit—this was the most fundamental logic of the Ninja World.
However, at the moment she once again witnessed Nagato, who had come to rescue her, being blasted away, she suddenly realized that she, too, was just like everyone else—merely one of the ordinary people swept up by the great tide of the Ninja World, forced to accept this rule.
"No!"
From Konan's mumbling lips, a voice finally squeezed out, suppressed.
Sawara Kiri looked back at her.
Konan stiffened her neck and met his gaze, staring intently into his deep blue eyes, her lips tightly pressed.
Even if this was another Kyōka Suigetsu, she would accept it.
Almost the instant she uttered that sentence.
"Sawara's Book of Friends: Konan"
"Bond Level Increased ↑"
"Konan Bond Level: One → Two"
Indeed.
If Megumi's bond increase method was to give her love, and Tsunade's bond increase method was to protect what was most important in her heart, then the primary way for him to increase his bond with Konan was 'degradation.'
Or, to put it another way, it was to gradually make her accept her captive status, thereby slowly giving up resistance.
Although he had experimented many times with Kyōka Suigetsu before, it seems reality still feels more authentic?
For Sawara Kiri, this was indeed a somewhat fresh experience.
This series of thoughts flashed through Sawara Kiri's mind like lightning, but he actually did not continue to pursue Nagato.
Seeing him stop, a momentary hope rose in Konan's heart.
However, Sawara Kiri's steps only paused slightly before he immediately charged towards the floor-to-ceiling window, smashing through the glass and plunging directly into the shadows further down the village street.
Seeing his action, Konan's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively ran in the direction Sawara Kiri had charged, standing at the height of the tenth floor and looking out into the distance.
In that instant, Sawara Kiri's figure seemed to be enveloped in a whirlwind, striking the distant concrete road with lightning speed.
Large chunks of shattered concrete shot into the sky, and even the earth seemed to tremble for a moment.
However, looking in his direction, Konan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
She hadn't seen it.
At the end of the trench created by "Cursed Technique Reversal: Red," Nagato's original body had already turned into a piece of rotten wood with a pierced chest.
As soon as he appeared, Sawara Kiri had seen through the true nature of his Wood Clone with his Six Eyes and had no intention of striking a second time.
Moreover, the true target he intended to lure with Konan as bait was never Nagato, this pathetic 'mastermind.'
However, the true mastermind was naturally going to suffer.
Black Zetsu, who was rapidly moving underground in his shadow state, felt as if he was being targeted by some natural predator the moment he detected Sawara Kiri's Chakra reaction nearby.
Almost instinctively, he shifted his body to the other side in his shadow state.
"Puff!"
A long arm, like a long-handled spear, directly pierced through all obstacles on the surface; Sawara Kiri, as if smashing tofu, reached out and grabbed Black Zetsu's body, which was deep within the shadows.
Black Zetsu, who was in the Zetsu Spore Technique, felt confusion rather than fear as the first thought that came to his mind the moment he felt the sensation on his shoulder.
'Impossible!!'
As the third child born to the true god, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, Black Zetsu possessed a bloodline limit that inherently surpassed all Ninja in this world.
Even though his 'bloodline limit' was incomplete and could not compare to his two elder brothers, it was certainly not something these mortals could touch.
In fact, even Uchiha Madara, who was once one of the two strongest Ninja in the thousand-year history of the Ninja World, failed to see through his true nature and was manipulated by him, tricked into circles—this confidence accumulated from every single experience over a thousand years was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
The Zetsu Spore Technique, as his trump card, was even more crucial.
But now, he had been discovered and captured by a mortal.
"You're having a lot of fun, aren't you!"
"However, my technique isn't that easy to break."
Sawara Kiri's tone carried a hint of mockery, but the underlying meaning in his voice was cold enough to freeze Black Zetsu's bones.
He suddenly realized something.
This man in front of him had been targeting him for a very long time.
Almost instantly, Black Zetsu's mind conjured the Chakra glow that had adhered to his body the moment he stepped into the barrier, and the portion of White Zetsu's body he had separated.
Could it be that from the very beginning, he had failed to break this technique?
However, now that he was seized, he no longer had time to think.
Sawara Kiri's five fingers gripped Black Zetsu's shoulder like hooks; if one were to get close to the one-inch point where they touched, one would see that the surface of his palm was enveloped in an invisible spatial membrane—a more advanced application of the Limitless.
He suddenly yanked upwards, and Black Zetsu's originally shadowy body was instantly stretched into a completely inhuman shape, like a piece of rubber stretched out a great deal; his black body completely abandoned its white portion, suddenly inflating into a large mass like a canvas blown by the wind.
From the ultra-slow perspective of the Six Eyes, one could clearly see several convex individuals bulging outwards from within his body, clearly intending to split into multiple bodies to escape.
However.
How could it be so simple?
Sawara Kiri stepped forward, his body lunging, and his free right hand suddenly clenched into a fist.
Even in the dim moonlight, one could clearly see his wrist surface suddenly covered in a metallic, jet-black sheen, subtly reflecting light.
"Armament Haki"
"Information localization complete"
"Can inflict real damage on touched objects"
Suddenly, a fierce storm surged.
Like white waves surging forward under the moonlight, piercing the limits of sound propagation, the fist, as the tip of the thrust, abruptly struck his blurred torso at a speed faster than Black Zetsu's splitting.
Just as he touched the opponent, Black Zetsu, who was still in a diffused state a second ago, found that his body, which had no concept of 'touch,' actually felt an extremely intense and sharp pain from his abdomen at that moment, as if this blow could penetrate his torso and strike his decaying soul directly.
"Dong—!"
Heavy as a great bell, a dull hum resonated.
What on earth is this guy?!
Black Zetsu's body tumbled in mid-air, but he was still tightly held by Sawara Kiri's other hand.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that perhaps knowing what it felt like to defecate wasn't so great after all.
The concept of 'death,' so real it felt as if it could devour him the next second, for the first time flooded Black Zetsu's mind, causing him to unleash an unprecedented terrifying potential at this moment.
In just an instant, he noticed the tiny Chakra light points that resonated with Sawara Kiri from deep within his body the moment he was struck.
However, just as he said, it couldn't be easily expelled.
In that case...
Looking at Sawara Kiri, whose expression was fanatical and who was so close, Black Zetsu made a swift decision, actively splitting off the portion of his torso that Sawara Kiri was tightly gripping.
With a 'pop,' the shoulder he was holding in his hand surprisingly broke off into thin air.
A momentary look of surprise flashed across Sawara Kiri's face, but his movements showed no sign of stopping; propelled by the Limitless, he appeared almost face-to-face with Black Zetsu at a speed even faster than before, as if directly undergoing spatial teleportation.
Suddenly, another black fist smashed into his torso.
Intense pain struck again, but it couldn't suppress the look of distress on Black Zetsu's face.
The moment Sawara Kiri touched him, Black Zetsu's abdomen immediately became like a mire, instantly coiling around Sawara Kiri's arm.
Then it suddenly expanded, like a black balloon, completely enveloping Sawara Kiri's figure into a spherical shape.
Only a head split off.
In the fleeting moment before he fell, his voice, hoarse, shrieked:
"Seal—!!!"
Precisely because his life essence was a special bloodline limit, his body itself possessed all the characteristics that any Ninjutsu should have.
The black torso, amidst this fierce shriek, erupted with unprecedented power, actually freezing Sawara Kiri's body in place.
If not for the barrier of the Limitless maintaining a very close-range defense, it would not have been difficult to devour him like Uchiha Obito in the original timeline.
However, how could Black Zetsu not know this?
Almost immediately after shouting that sentence, he held no hope of reclaiming his body; from the base of his head, where his neck should have been, several thin tendrils immediately sprouted like tentacles, quickly forming the shape of two legs.
Following that, his head, now with two short legs, quickly burrowed underground and, with a 'pop,' vanished into the distance.
Until a moment later.
Konoha Anbu, who had heard the commotion, traced their way there and instantly discovered the black sphere on the street.
"Pop!"
A crisp sound, like a balloon bursting.
Sawara Kiri's figure emerged from the black liquid, his brows furrowed as he shook his hand.
He looked down at the black torso that had bound him; his Six Eyes easily saw through the surface, revealing the Chakra tracking glow that had been fixed within Black Zetsu's body, his gaze pausing slightly.
"He's quite decisive, though."
Just as he was muttering lowly, he saw several small snakes crawl over from a distance, quickly coalescing into Orochimaru's form before him.
"What happened?" Orochimaru asked, looking at the still wriggling black tendrils on the ground.
Sawara Kiri shook his head: "Perfect, Orochimaru-sama."
"There are some research materials here again that need your attention."
"Hmm?"
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