Chapter 296: That's Why I Like Impure Ninja the Most
"This guy still hasn't used Kamui. Could it be that he really doesn't have his Sharingan?" Obito glanced to the side while dealing with the expressionless First Hokage, but he couldn't make anything out.
The entire area was shrouded in thick fog, obscuring everything. Although Obito possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, it was still only the Mangekyo Sharingan, not some divine eye, so at best he could make out a few vague silhouettes.
Still, his suspicion toward Amamiya Kenichi had eased a little, because in that situation, Kamui would have been the simplest solution. Obito already had a theory about the abilities he gained after awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan.
Especially after being bombed while hiding inside the Kamui dimension, Obito became even more convinced that the other eye should have a similar ability, and perhaps both eyes even used the same dimension.
However, he still could not understand what had caused the attack he suffered inside the Kamui dimension just now.
As he was thinking, he suddenly heard a faint hissing sound.
At the same time, the Edo Tensei First Hokage began entangling him even more tightly, as if trying to pin him down and stop him from escaping.
"What is this guy trying to do?" Obito felt a faint sense of unease.
If it were anyone else, he might not have cared so much. But because it was Amamiya Kenichi, he could not help but feel nervous. This bastard had too many strange and powerful Ninjutsu.
With that thought, Obito's attacks became fiercer. However, the First Hokage before him was merely carrying out Kenichi's earlier orders with mechanical precision, doing everything possible to bind Obito in place. It was not enough to truly threaten him, but it was enough to stop him from retreating cleanly.
"No, I have to get out of here quickly."
Just as the thought flashed through his mind, a black streak of light suddenly shot through the fog and spread at terrifying speed.
In the next instant, Obito felt his entire body go numb.
Then a blinding fireball rose from within the fog, and the violent shockwave instantly tore the thick mist apart.
"It's about time I left." Amamiya Kenichi looked down into the dense fog, sensed the positions of Obito and Tsunade, and scratched his head.
He had no intention of continuing to fight them here. There was no point. His objective this time had already been achieved. He wanted to find out what Obito was trying to do, and now he knew.
That guy, still carrying obvious ill intent, had wanted to test him again and confirm whether he truly possessed his Sharingan. Although the test had failed and Obito had nearly capsized because of it, Kenichi did not intend to drag this out any longer.
After all, even if the Third Hokage had not appeared yet, this place was not far away. There was no telling when Hiruzen Sarutobi might arrive, so leaving immediately was the right choice.
That was why Kenichi had not hesitated to spend chakra using this Hidden Mist Technique, one specifically meant to conceal his position.
Of course, he had never expected this Ninjutsu to defeat Tsunade and Obito. To be blunt, the Hidden Mist was only meant to stop them from finding him in time. So after tossing a lightning sphere into the fog and letting it spread, Kenichi leaped down from the treetops without even looking back and opened a paraglider in midair.
Then he rapidly formed hand seals, and a Wind Release technique blasted against the glider, propelling him upward.
At the same moment, the God-Slaying Bomb he had buried below during Obito's earlier Ninjutsu was detonated by one of his Shadow Clones. The overwhelming explosion instantly generated a tremendous shockwave and violent air current, sending Kenichi even higher into the sky, though not in the most graceful fashion.
"Hiss… my calculations are still a bit off…" Kenichi touched his face. It was covered in scratches, all caused by tree branches.
Although the immense shockwave created by the God-Slaying Bomb had blasted him upward as intended, that same violent force was not easy to ride safely. He had nearly been smashed into everything around him. Fortunately, he had desperately protected the paraglider, which let him stabilize himself, break out above the forest canopy, and avoid crashing back down.
Kenichi turned his head and looked back.
A huge fireball had risen within the forest around Konoha, but neither Tsunade nor Obito had chased after him, which made him sigh in relief.
"Those two really are troublesome. Good thing the Third Hokage didn't show up… Hmm?" Kenichi froze for a moment.
He rubbed his eyes, then used Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to adjust his position. Right after that, he saw a massive humanoid figure on the far side of the fireball swinging something around.
"Is that Sasori?" Kenichi quickly recognized the enormous figure as Sasori's Unit 1. After all, he had seen it before. But he clearly had not asked Sasori to come down and help. Yet Sasori was here now.
That meant Sasori was most likely holding up Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Thinking of that, Kenichi immediately changed direction and flew toward Sasori.
Sasori was his friend. Kenichi absolutely did not want anything happening to him. Besides, if Sasori had not intercepted the Third Hokage and bought him time, letting Hiruzen arrive earlier, Kenichi's escape would have become truly difficult.
Facing Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tsunade, and Obito at the same time was simply too absurd. Even someone on the Raikage's level in the current ninja world would probably curse at that lineup.
"With the God-Slaying Bomb exploding at that range, those guys probably aren't doing too well either. It'd be even better if Obito got blown to death." Kenichi flew while glancing back at the blast zone, but there was nothing visible there anymore, only a charred black patch and surrounding trees still burning.
Well, thankfully this was the ninja world. There were specialized ninja whose job was to maintain the environment. Otherwise, after a few large battles, the entire world would turn into a desert.
"What is this thing? A puppet?" The Third Hokage had a headache.
He stared at the giant monster before him in confusion. In all his long years, Hiruzen Sarutobi had never seen anything like it. Though structurally it somewhat resembled the Hidden Sand Village's Puppet Technique, the problem was that this puppet was far too large.
Standing before it, even Hiruzen had to crane his neck upward just to look at it, and he realized he only came up to its ankle.
"Hokage-sama, this thing's resistance to Ninjutsu seems incredibly strong!" one of the surviving Konoha ninja shouted.
At the moment, the Konoha forces still able to fight were all engaged with the giant figure. But the more they fought, the more obvious one problem became.
Ordinary Ninjutsu had almost no effect on the thing at all.
Not only did those Ninjutsu fail to leave visible damage, they even seemed to make the giant move faster.
"...Take the injured back to Konoha Hospital and find Tsunade. Tell her to save the wounded immediately. Jonin, stay and fight," Hiruzen ordered grimly.
At the same time, his summon Enma appeared beside him and transformed into the Adamantine Staff.
He might not know what this thing was, but engaging it directly was clearly the right decision.
Once he began fighting it in earnest, however, Hiruzen became even more bewildered, because the giant in front of him completely overturned his expectations.
First of all, it was definitely not a ninja.
Even if people like Kinkaku, Ginkaku, or certain others with unusual physiques were exceptionally large, they were nowhere near this scale.
But if it was a puppet, then why could Hiruzen find no puppet strings attached to it? And why could he not locate a puppeteer hiding nearby? He had fought the Hidden Sand Village many times and knew very well how to locate a puppeteer.
Yet with this giant before him, he found nothing.
Worse, once he began testing it with Ninjutsu, Hiruzen sharply noticed that the metal covering its surface seemed to absorb his Fire Dragon Flame Bullet. There was not even a visible scorch mark left behind.
That immediately reminded him of the special metal from the Land of Snow that Kakashi had reported about before.
At the time, he had not paid much attention to it. The world was full of strange materials, and he had too many matters on his mind. But now, he suddenly realized just how useful that metal could be.
"The speed is decent. The defense is very high. But the Ninjutsu it uses doesn't match its size. This thing should still be a puppet, and the puppeteer is probably hiding inside it," Hiruzen muttered after leaping back.
He had already gathered some information. Although the giant looked intimidating and would be a nightmare for genin and chūnin, it was not invincible. In fact, its great size and relatively slow mobility were obvious weaknesses.
Since he had figured that much out, it was time to cripple it.
Thinking that, Hiruzen rapidly created Shadow Clones and prepared a Five Style Bullet.
Against a target this large, it was an excellent technique.
And in order to prevent the giant from absorbing the attack, Hiruzen deliberately chose to have all five bullets strike the same point, its left leg.
If he could break one leg, its mobility would effectively be crippled. It was well worth the trade.
But before he could finish forming the seals, a gigantic scorpion suddenly burst out from behind the giant. It was made of metal as well, and though smaller than the humanoid construct, it was still enormous.
Immediately after, a flock of white birds flew out from within it and swooped down. The moment they made contact with the battlefield, they exploded violently.
"Explosion Release?" Hiruzen's pupils contracted.
At the same time, he glanced up at the giant. Was that giant actually coordinating with this metal scorpion?
"Hmph."
Hiruzen snorted coldly and unleashed the Five Style Bullet at once. Although the attacks came from different angles, they nearly struck the giant scorpion simultaneously.
In the next second, the scorpion crumpled and went still.
"This old man! He nearly scared me to death!" Deidara grumbled as he climbed out from the ruined War Scorpion. For an instant, he really thought he was done for. Even the special metal plated on the outside had not achieved the effect they wanted.
"Don't underestimate him. This is the Third Hokage." Sasori's voice had barely faded when Amamiya Kenichi arrived on the battlefield.
He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the nearly ruined War Scorpion.
Sasori's path of mechanical modification still had a long way to go. He even needed to start considering energy shields. Kenichi was already thinking about researching something like that himself, then handing it to the system for improvement. That might yield better results.
After completing his research into combining chakra and explosives, Kenichi had not continued because he had not known what to work on next.
Now, however, he had found a new direction.
"-senpai!" Deidara called excitedly. He almost blurted out Kenichi's full name and made Kenichi's heart skip a beat, but fortunately he corrected himself in time.
"We parked the airship over there," Deidara whispered.
But the Third Hokage was obviously not going to sit around and let Kenichi and Deidara chat in peace. Almost the moment Kenichi appeared, five streams of flame shot toward them, followed by several rapidly approaching figures.
Kenichi had no choice but to fend off Hiruzen and the jonin first.
"Later, when the lightning comes down, you two leave immediately," Kenichi said while awkwardly dealing with the attacking jonin.
Deidara was helping too, but his assistance did not amount to much.
"Heavenly Demon," Hiruzen said coldly, "since you've come all this way, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
This man had attacked Konoha for a second time.
He had even desecrated the dead. And then there was the mysterious Wood Release user. That man definitely was not from Konoha, so where had he come from? Why did he possess such a powerful Wood Release?
"How about…" Kenichi said with a faint smile, "you take a look at your village first?"
Hiruzen froze for a moment, though he did not let his guard down. He only glanced toward Konoha out of the corner of his eye.
There was nothing above the village.
"What do you mean?" Hiruzen frowned. He could tell that the man before him was far too confident.
"I mean," Kenichi said with a shrug, "with all of you gathered here, will Konoha's barrier hold against a second attack? Or a third? How many people will die in Konoha? Or are you planning to rebuild a new Konoha with the people you have left?"
Hiruzen's pupils contracted.
Of course, he had not sent absolutely everyone out.
The leaders of several major clans were still in Konoha, and Danzō was there too. But what if a second or even a third attack like the last one came?
The barrier could not hold. One more direct hit and it would shatter. At that point, Konoha would be devastated, even if he succeeded in capturing...
"I'm only a Shadow Clone, you know," Kenichi added.
That single sentence silenced Hiruzen.
Could he really gamble?
Could he really gamble the lives of all those people in Konoha on the chance that Amamiya Kenichi was bluffing?
.....
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