Shinichi gave his right wrist a slight flick. Driven by his will, that terrifying long staff—strung with five corpses and extended over twenty meters—suddenly shuddered like a living giant python. Then, with a sharp whoosh, it snapped back at a speed even faster than when it had extended.
As the staff scraped against flesh and bone, it let out a teeth-grating sound. The five pierced bodies collapsed limply like discarded burlap sacks.
The pitch-black staff swiftly returned to its normal form, a little over two meters long.
Almost the instant the staff retracted, Shinichi's figure had already shifted one step to the left, as light and nimble as a leaf blown by the wind. The movement was small, yet precise enough to let a fierce tachi slash sweeping in from the right skim past his waist by a hair's breadth.
Seeing his sneak attack miss, the Sunagakure shinobi did not hesitate in the slightest. With a twist of his wrist, he turned the stab into a slice and once again slashed at Shinichi's throat, his blade work vicious and swift.
And in that split second of lightning and flint—
Shinichi had already used that tiny sidestep to adjust his balance and stance. Not only did he not retreat, he advanced instead, twisting his waist and hips, using his left foot as a pivot. He drove his right arm holding the staff, and with the Adamantine Staff—which had just returned to normal—he thrust backward in a lightning-fast reverse stab at the Sunagakure shinobi pursuing him!
This thrust looked like a hasty counterattack delivered with his back to the enemy, but in truth it perfectly poured the full force of his body's twist and his burst of chakra into the tip of the staff!
Whoosh!
The staff's body once again expanded wildly in defiance of all logic, instantly stretching more than ten meters!
Unlike the spiral-piercing force of Adamantine Staff, which fused the core techniques of his Rasengan and Chidori—this time, the tip of the staff carried an even purer, more savage power of straight-line penetration. Tearing through the air with a shrill scream, it struck the man squarely in the face with flawless precision!
Pfft!!!
A dull, utterly muffled blast rang out, mixed with the crunch of shattered bone and the explosive burst of flesh and blood!
Under the terrifying kinetic force contained within the staff strike, that Sunagakure shinobi's head exploded like a watermelon smashed head-on by a sledgehammer!
Red and white matter sprayed backward in all directions, splattering the faces and heads of several Sunagakure shinobi behind him!
The headless corpse maintained its forward-charging, slashing posture, staggering ahead two more steps from inertia before crashing heavily to the ground.
And Shinichi, borrowing the exquisite reactive force generated, twisted his waist, planted his feet, and turned smoothly back to face forward. His movements flowed like running water, without the slightest delay, as though killing and evasion had always been parts of the same dance.
Without slowing in the slightest, he even rode the momentum of the turn, his whole body flipping lightly and swiftly through the air toward the rear flank like a passing breeze.
Whoosh!
A blazing fireball almost brushed across his back, scorching and distorting the air, before ultimately crashing into the distant ground and exploding into a burst of flame.
The instant he landed from the roll and bent his knees to absorb the impact, Shinichi narrowed his eyes and locked onto several Sunagakure shinobi ahead of him, whose positions had drawn a little too close together in their brief shock at their comrade's grisly death.
Now!
The muscles in his legs suddenly tensed. Chakra burst through his lower body, and the ground cracked with a sharp snap!
His figure shot forward like an arrow loosed from the string. At the same time, both hands gripped the tail end of the Adamantine Staff, swinging it up in a half-arc at his side brimming with explosive power!
The staff in his hands followed the momentum of his forward charge, sweeping upward from below and transforming into a pitch-black staff shadow that blanketed a wide fan-shaped area ahead—a heavy, violent strike carried out with overwhelming ferocity!
This sweep contained no fancy technique—only the purest, most brutal force and speed!
The staff tore through the air, unleashing a deep, rolling roar like a raging river in flood, like ocean waves crashing against the shore!
The heavy wind pressure surged ahead of it, sweeping up every shard of gravel and cloud of dust from the ground, forming a murky tide that advanced forward alongside the sweeping shadow of the staff!
The three or four Sunagakure shinobi in front felt their breathing seize. The violent gale already pressed down on them so hard they could barely open their eyes. They tried to dodge, only to realize that the range covered by the staff's shadow—and the sheer ferocity of its approach—had completely exceeded the limits of their reaction speed!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!!
The staff shadow swept through!
Dull impacts and teeth-grating sounds of bones snapping instantly blended into a chaotic burst!
The two Sunagakure shinobi at the very front had their kunai and ninja blades knocked flying like straw. Their chests visibly caved in, blood spraying wildly from their mouths as their bodies were hurled backward like they had been struck head-on by a rampaging beast!
One on the flank tried to block with his arm—only for the bones in that entire arm to shatter into several pieces on impact, twisting into a grotesque angle. The staff's momentum did not diminish in the slightest; it smashed into his ribs, sending his entire body flying sideways until he slammed into and snapped a tree as thick as a bowl before finally stopping.
Another was slightly more fortunate, only brushed by the edge of the staff's wind. Yet even that immense force lifted him off his feet, spinning him through the air and flinging him over a dozen meters away. Blood spilled from his mouth, and for a time he could not get back up.
Yoshida Go's pupils contracted as he stared at the scene in shock. The twenty men they had sent to surround Higashino Shinichi included three experienced jōnin, and the rest were all elite chūnin hardened by countless battles!
Yet in that fleeting clash—no more than the span of lightning and a breath—they had already lost more than half!
Some were dead, others wounded—and among the fallen was even a fairly powerful jōnin!
Wasn't the intel saying this guy had only just been promoted to Special Jōnin this month?
How could he be this strong?!
"Retreat! Retreat!" Yoshida Go shouted urgently. At his command, the remaining Sunagakure shinobi felt as though they had been granted amnesty. They immediately broke off the attack and scattered into the surrounding darkness in a panic, retreating at full speed.
Shinichi watched the Sunagakure forces collapse and flee but did not recklessly give chase. The battlefield shifted in an instant—advancing alone into enemy lines was a grave taboo.
However, the moment his stance settled, he smoothly delivered a precise thrust with the Adamantine Staff toward his rear flank. The staff tip instantly extended more than ten meters—shk!—piercing straight through the back of a retreating Sunagakure chūnin whose injured leg had slowed him down.
The staff then retracted, and in the same motion, Shinichi swung it horizontally in a backhand sweep, sending another Sunagakure shinobi—who had been fleeing in panic from the side and trying to throw a smoke bomb to obscure vision—flying at the waist. The man slammed into a massive rock, his fate unknown.
In the blink of an eye, two more lives were taken—clean and efficient.
After that, Shinichi's gaze swept rapidly across the entire camp. Battles were still raging fiercely in every direction, but this targeted assault by Sunagakure against his position had been repelled, clearly easing the immense pressure in this sector.
His eyes locked onto a middle-aged Konoha shinobi who had just driven back his opponent and was now catching his breath while looking toward him. This was a veteran in the team—a Special Jōnin who had once casually mentioned having some knowledge of barrier techniques.
"Maeda-senpai." Shinichi strode forward quickly, planting the Adamantine Staff casually into the ground as he spoke. "I remember you mentioned before that you have considerable expertise in barrier techniques?"
The Konoha shinobi called Maeda froze for a moment, then nodded, wiping the blood from his face. "Yes, Shinichi-kun. I know a bit—I've set up defensive and detection barriers before, but I wouldn't call myself proficient…"
"That's enough." Shinichi cut him off, sweeping his gaze over the surroundings. "Time is tight. Could I ask you to immediately set up, around me, a simple barrier with the strongest possible effect for sound suppression and chakra fluctuation concealment? The range doesn't need to be large—just enough to cover a few meters around me. But the sound isolation and chakra masking should be as effective as possible. The faster, the better!"
"Understood!" Maeda did not ask a single unnecessary question. His hands flew at once, forming a rapid sequence of complex hand seals.
Barrier Technique: Four-Direction Silent Formation!
As his chakra flowed and the technique was completed, a faint blue, semi-transparent spherical membrane rapidly formed with Shinichi at its center, enclosing him within.
The membrane rippled gently like water. The shouts of battle and explosions from outside instantly became extremely faint and muffled, as if separated by a thick wall.
"This barrier isn't very strong, but it should be enough to block ordinary sound and conceal normal chakra fluctuations inside!" Maeda maintained his hand seals, sweat already forming on his forehead as he called out a reminder.
"That's sufficient. Thank you, senpai." Standing at the center of the barrier, Shinichi nodded to him. Then, looking at the Adamantine Staff in his hand, he spoke in a low voice, "Enma-senpai, no matter what happens next, please suppress your chakra fluctuations as much as possible."
"I understand!"
Seeing the Monkey King agree, Shinichi took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the Adamantine Staff.
At the very instant his five fingers closed and chakra flowed from his palm into it—
Bzzz!
The Adamantine Staff suddenly trembled violently, letting out a low hum. A faint crimson-gold glow—like molten metal—abruptly lit up across the pitch-black surface!
Hmm?!
This kid—just a few months apart, and not only has his strength and staff technique improved this much—
how have his physique and chakra increased so much as well?
The Monkey King was inwardly shaken. The chakra pouring into the staff not only far exceeded its estimates from a few months ago, when it had guided Shinichi in taijutsu, but its density—and the pure, domineering force contained within—left it astonished.
What shocked it even more was that, at its core, this chakra carried an indescribable sense of familiarity and affinity.
But the battlefield shifted too quickly to allow deeper thought.
As Shinichi continued to steadily pour in an enormous amount of chakra far beyond normal limits, the Adamantine Staff began to vibrate faster and faster, with increasing amplitude!
The hum it produced gradually rose from a low vibration into a clear, high-pitched metallic resonance with a strange penetrating quality. Each note rang out like a heavy hammer striking the inner wall of a massive bell. Tiny vortices of air even began to form around the staff, accompanied faintly by the sounds of wind and thunder.
Clang!
Clang! Clang!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
With each ringing strike, the crimson-gold glow on the staff grew more intense—shifting from a faint sheen to flowing flames, then to a blazing, scorching brilliance, as if magma had begun to surge within the staff itself.
A moment later, the hum and radiance of the Adamantine Staff in his hands had reached an astonishing peak!
The crimson-gold light burned so brightly it was impossible to look at directly, as though what he held was no longer a weapon, but a solidified bolt of crimson lightning—a volcano on the verge of eruption!
The air around the staff twisted and crackled, and the sound of wind and thunder became ever clearer!
"Kid! Where did you get so much chakra?!" The Monkey King could finally no longer hold back and asked urgently. "Enough! Stop! If you keep pouring it in like this without restraint, your chakra will run out first! Your body—"
"Enma-senpai!"
Shinichi cut it off, replying calmly, "Please trust my judgment. You don't need to worry about my chakra—I know my limits. Right now, just make sure you suppress your own chakra fluctuations!"
At that, Shinichi lifted his head and locked onto a direction, a bold, unrestrained curve forming at the corner of his mouth: "In a moment, we'll give Sunagakure a heavy blow together!"
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