"This power! This power…"
Feeling the searing heat in his body, and looking at Uchiha Chizumi in the distance controlling nine blazing fireballs that looked like suns, Satori—who had lived for who knew how many years—actually felt the urge to kneel and worship?
He knew very well that he was absolutely no match for this figure who seemed to wield the authority of the sun itself.
But… he hadn't really done anything, had he?
The problem now was that Satori kind of wanted to surrender, but the person in front of him clearly intended to use him as a test subject.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Once he realized that, Satori's body erupted with savage battle intent.
He had fought his way through the ancient era of the shinobi world. The legends in Kusagakure still said he had once come close to ruling the entire world. Even if he wasn't at his peak anymore, he wasn't some weakling who could be bullied at will.
Most importantly, Satori could tell that Uchiha Chizumi was still using chakra.
And unfortunately for Chizumi, Satori had extremely high resistance to wind and fire.
Or rather, ordinary wind- and fire-based powers were almost incapable of breaking his defenses.
"Since you don't know how to respect your elders, then this elder will teach you what respect means!"
With a flap of the grotesque wings on his back, Satori's speed instantly reached an absurd level. And as he moved, black feathers shot out from his wings one after another.
Each feather carried terrifyingly sharp force. Even if mountains or boulders stood in their path, they would be destroyed.
But before the feathers Satori was so proud of could even reach Uchiha Chizumi, they had already begun to wither—and then crumble into ash.
At some point, the entire Hōzuki Castle had already been engulfed in blazing fire. Ten suns hung high in the sky, and at that moment Uchiha Chizumi truly looked like a legendary god who ruled over the sun.
Naturally, those feathers were melted away by the horrifying heat of Radiance Release.
"Then let's test the power of one Radiance Release sun sphere first."
Uchiha Chizumi brought his hands together, and one of the Radiance Release suns shot out.
What was strange was that this Radiance Release sun sphere didn't fly in a straight line like an ordinary jutsu—it carried a strange kind of instinct, even seeming to actively pursue Satori.
Radiance Release and Dust Release were ultimately different. At the very least, when Uchiha Chizumi used Radiance Release sun spheres, he could mix in a trace of Six Paths power, allowing the nine sun spheres around him to roughly understand his intent.
Most ninjutsu in the shinobi world—or rather, all ordinary ninjutsu—were simply released and then left to fly forward. They had no capacity to adjust themselves, which was why even supposedly "unavoidable" techniques could still be dodged.
RUMBLE!
Once Satori realized he couldn't evade the Radiance Release sun sphere, this ancient monster finally gave up on dodging altogether.
With both arms thrust forward, a deafening crash erupted.
Satori had collided head-on with the Radiance Release sun sphere.
The instant his arms touched it, Satori felt a terrifying, indescribable heat. Even so, he still managed to block the sun sphere through sheer toughness.
But the price was brutal.
His arms had turned charred black. The feathers on his wings twisted and curled. Even his grotesque mouth couldn't help but gape open.
It hurt. It hurt far too much.
Even with his innate resistance to fire-based power, the force of Radiance Release had still almost cooked him alive on the spot.
Still, the outcome was in his favor.
At the very least, he had blocked that Radiance Release sun sphere.
Tiny golden-red flames fell from the sky, making the inferno around Hōzuki Castle burn even fiercer, to the point that the entire castle seemed to have become a gigantic furnace.
Far away, in Karin and Kitsujiro's eyes, the scene looked like this: out of the ten suns hanging over Hōzuki Castle, one suddenly went dark and fell.
For Karin, who knew very little about ninja combat, the sight was so overwhelming that she almost felt like she was witnessing a battle between gods.
"I take back what I said earlier. Your chakra reserves may be less than the Three-Tails', but your speed, your strength, and your resistance to fire are all far beyond the Three-Tails."
"Your strength is no weaker than an ordinary tailed beast. In fact, you may even be stronger."
Looking at Satori's charred body, Uchiha Chizumi's eyes showed a trace of surprise.
When his Tenseigan first picked up Satori, Chizumi had thought a single Radiance Release sun sphere would be enough to erase him. But looking at Satori now, it was obvious he could withstand several more.
For once, Uchiha Chizumi found himself thinking the same way Uchiha Madara might have: he wanted to see where the limit of this monster really was.
As Uchiha Chizumi brought his hands together again, two more Radiance Release sun spheres flew out from around him.
These two had lingered by his side longer, and the power inside them had grown even more terrifying. In terms of size alone, each one was nearly as large as the head of a Perfect Susanoo.
The moment those two sun spheres shot forward, the air itself began to wail.
The temperature was too high, and the speed too great—the atmosphere simply couldn't bear it.
And on the other side, when Satori saw those two Radiance Release sun spheres flying toward him, even that savage face of his couldn't help showing a trace of helplessness.
He truly had no idea how he had offended this strange man in front of him.
But with Uchiha Chizumi's relentless assault pressing down on him, Satori had no choice but to fight.
This time, though, he had no intention of taking the Radiance Release sun spheres head-on.
Even with his body, there was no way he could survive being hunted down by two of them at once.
He could sense Uchiha Chizumi's killing intent—that was an instinctive talent of his.
But the two Radiance Release sun spheres themselves held no killing intent at all. They were only jutsu constructs, and that meant Satori had no way to predict their flight paths.
So he could only fly higher—higher and farther into the sky.
His thinking was simple. Since he wasn't a match for this strange man, there was no reason to keep fighting. If he could just escape this place, wouldn't that count as surviving?
"Hm?"
Watching those two Radiance Release sun spheres follow Satori farther and farther away, Uchiha Chizumi's eyes sharpened.
"So my control range over the sun spheres is only three kilometers?"
The moment he felt the two distant Radiance Release sun spheres slip out of his control, and saw Satori fleeing ever farther into the sky, Uchiha Chizumi himself shot forward—
along with the six remaining suns around him.