Although Arata already possessed the Lightning Armor, whose power was not inferior to Susanoo, Lightning Armor still required channeling his Rumble-Rumble power and transforming step by step. Even if the process was fast, it was still slightly slower than Susanoo's instant activation.
In that split-second clash just now, only Susanoo allowed Arata to kill the ten summoned beasts along with Hiruzen and Sarutobi Hayato before anyone could react.
In the original story, Susanoo could even manifest instantly to protect Sasuke against the Raikage's lightning-fast attacks. That alone showed how lightning-quick its activation was.
That was why Arata chose to use Susanoo for the first time instead of his more familiar Lightning Armor.
And Susanoo did not disappoint him.
Aside from Hiruzen—who seemed to have seen this jutsu before and tilted his head away at the first moment, narrowly avoiding instant death—the Sarutobi monkeys and Sarutobi Hayato were all decapitated in a single flash.
Even then, Arata had held back out of concern that others might notice Susanoo. He hadn't used its full form. If he had manifested the complete Susanoo, its power would have been even more terrifying—cleaving through mountains within dozens of kilometers would not be difficult.
What he used just now was only the skeletal stage, the weakest phase of Susanoo. Even so, its power was still horrifying.
At the very least, against Kage-level opponents, if one ignored the risk of vision loss, it could provide near-absolute defense against attacks.
In the original story, when Sasuke first awakened Susanoo, he dared to crash the Five Kage Summit relying purely on its defensive power. His downfall was simply that his chakra reserves and ordinary Mangekyō couldn't sustain it for long.
Arata, however, possessed the Eternal Mangekyō, so he didn't need to worry about blindness. As for chakra, he had Madara's bloodline plus his own cultivation, already placing him at the Super-Kage tier and not far from its peak.
Naturally, he didn't have to worry too much about consumption.
After using skeletal Susanoo once, Arata barely felt any drain at all.
The ten elite members of the Monkey clan were beheaded so quickly they couldn't even react. Once their heads hit the ground, they turned into white smoke and vanished.
Only the Monkey King's corpse didn't disappear immediately. In Arata's perception, it gradually dissolved into natural energy and scattered into the air.
But the Monkey King was far inferior to the Monkey Sage. His senjutsu chakra dissipated after only a few breaths, fully returning to nature.
Even Arata couldn't absorb much from it. Compared to the Monkey Sage, this Monkey King was worlds apart.
Behind him, Hiruzen watched all his allies die in an instant, and his fear deepened beyond measure.
He had always respected Arata's strength, but he never imagined Arata had reached the point where killing Kage-level fighters was as easy as crushing ants.
The Monkey King was a genuine Kage-level combatant. His brother Sarutobi Hayato was an elite jōnin capable of standing his ground against a Kage. Yet in Arata's hands, they couldn't last even a single breath.
Another Super-Kage might achieve something similar, but never this fast. All of it relied on Arata's Rumble-Rumble ability.
That ability boosted his speed to near space-time ninjutsu levels. Compared to that, ordinary Kage-level perception and reaction were meaningless.
Without reaching the Super-Kage tier, one simply couldn't keep up with Arata's speed.
Like Madara in the Fourth Shinobi War—despite facing the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God for the first time, he reacted with ease and nearly killed Minato in a single move. At that level, even space-time speed could be perceived.
Hiruzen survived not because of sharp perception, but because he had once witnessed Madara's Susanoo.
Back then, he had merely been a tag-along envoy visiting other nations with Madara, but that single glimpse taught him how terrifying the jutsu was.
It was a true Super-Kage-level ability. Even its lowest form was beyond what ordinary Kage could handle.
And Susanoo's specialty was exactly that—lightning-fast slashes and near-unstoppable cutting power.
So the moment Arata's skeletal form appeared, Hiruzen didn't even bother with Reverse Summoning. He simply twisted his head aside.
Otherwise, even if he had activated Reverse Summoning, his head would have been severed first. He would only be summoned back as a headless corpse—death all the same.
Looking at the blue skeletal Susanoo, Hiruzen subconsciously asked:
>M"You… that's Susanoo!? How can you use that? Isn't that something only the Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan can wield?"
He had heard of Arata's Lightning Armor. Intelligence reports said it was merely lightning shaped into form—not true Susanoo formed from Yin-Release chakra.
But the blue giant before him was clearly Yin-Release chakra condensed. Even from afar, it gave off a chilling aura. If it were Lightning Armor, Hiruzen would have sensed the intense heat of lightning.
Arata turned around but didn't answer. He simply looked at Hiruzen the way one looks at a dead man.
He hadn't expected Hiruzen to be so knowledgeable—to distinguish Susanoo from Lightning Armor. But it didn't change his intent to kill.
From the day Hiruzen tried to kill him, Arata had already marked him for death.
As Arata slowly approached, Hiruzen showed no intention of fighting back. That was the suppression of absolute power.
Still, he didn't forget his Reverse Summoning.
In the next moment, he slapped his hand down and finally activated the jutsu.
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