BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!!!
The sound of exploding fireballs rang out in rapid succession, echoing across the entire battlefield!
In terms of single-shot power, Pakura's Scorch Release fireballs were indeed far stronger than Phoenix Sage Fire's. After all, Scorch Release was a kekkei genkai.
But Mikami Yuu's Phoenix Sage Fireballs won through sheer numbers. If one couldn't match it, then three or four—sometimes even five or six—would slam into it together and trigger the Burst Shot trait.
For a while, flashes of fire erupted nonstop in midair. Explosions rose and fell one after another, and scorching waves of air spread outward like tangible shockwaves, accompanied by clusters of crimson flame.
Those flame clusters were extremely hot. The moment they touched the ground, they ignited the nearby vegetation, and the fire quickly spread. In no time at all, everything within a hundred meters was swept into the blaze. Towering ancient trees crackled and popped in the flames, their leaves curling and turning black! The surrounding temperature rose sharply, as if everyone had been thrown into a giant furnace.
The commotion made Kakashi and Rin, farther away, feel their hearts pound with alarm. They were afraid something had gone wrong on Yuu's side.
At that moment, the galgame system's text box flickered again. This time, Phoenix Sage Fire popped out:
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: (starry-eyed) Wow! Yuu! Yuu! Did you see that? That person's fireballs are so pretty! They actually glow! And they feel so warm too. They look so dazzling. I'm so jealous!]
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique: I want that too! Give it to me, okay? Pleeease! (๑>ᴗ<๑)]
"…"
Mikami Yuu's mouth twitched slightly. Do I look like a glowing fireball to you?
You want it? I want it too. But it's blocked by a kekkei genkai, so I can't just NTR it away…
Just as he was thinking that, the text box jumped again:
[Ding! Special event keyword detected. Time-limited mission triggered.]
[Phoenix Sage Fire Technique loves bright, flashy things and longs for the day when she can stand in the spotlight in her most dazzling form, receiving everyone's attention. Her encounter with Scorch Release has made this desire even stronger. Please decide whether to fulfill her wish: Yes / No]
"…"
Alright.
Since a special event had appeared, there was nothing more to say. He could only accept.
However, the galgame system did not provide any option to romance Scorch Release. It seemed to expect Mikami Yuu to figure out the solution himself. And for the time being, he had no real idea how to make Phoenix Sage Fire sparkle like Scorch Release, so he pushed those thoughts aside for now and decided to exchange a few more moves with Pakura first.
Across from him—
"…Using Fire Release to counter Scorch Release? Then can you block this one too?"
Pakura narrowed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and changed her hand seals. Chakra gathered wildly in her chest!
"Scorch Release: Corona!"
This time, a white-hot fireball nearly three meters in diameter, blindingly bright and with molten lava seemingly churning inside, rumbled toward Mikami Yuu with surging flames and brilliant light. Wherever it passed, the air distorted violently, and the ground beneath it was carved into a blackened trench!
"Fine. If you're using Scorch Release, then I'll use Scorch Release too!"
Facing that terrifying attack, Mikami Yuu's hands blurred through seals.
"Great Fireball Jutsu: Burn to Ash!"
BOOM—!!
At that moment, a blazing white fireball almost twice as large as Corona erupted from Mikami Yuu's mouth!
Then—
BANG—!!!!
The two massive spheres, both containing terrifyingly high heat, smashed into each other and unleashed an unimaginable force! Rings of scorching steam visible to the naked eye, mixed with white-hot flame and gold-red fire waves, surged outward alongside a dreadful shockwave like a volcanic eruption!
RUMBLE—!!!
Wherever the steam and shockwave passed, the ground trembled faintly. Grass and trees withered and carbonized at visible speed! Grass and dirt on the ground were scraped away, then melted into a glass-like glaze under the intense heat! A huge column of smoke mixed with white vapor rose into the sky like a small mushroom cloud!
Seeing the shockwave rushing toward them, Kakashi and Rin no longer had the luxury of continuing their fight with the two Suna ninja. Kakashi hurriedly pressed both hands to the ground and raised a dog-headed Earth-Style Wall in front of himself and Rin.
The cloaked man and the black-haired spiky-headed one, on the other hand, failed to react in time. They were directly blown away by the hot blast, tumbling into a pit, their condition unknown.
"S-so amazing… Yuu-kun's Fire Release has already reached this level…"
Rin stared in stunned disbelief.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes too, his gaze complicated. Just moments ago, he had thought that if he were the one fighting this female ninja, he could probably take her down after some effort. But now… he wasn't so sure.
This scale and level of ninjutsu destruction was something he currently did not possess. He could only defend against it with Earth Release, not withstand it head-on.
But that didn't mean he had no chance at all—
as long as he got an opening to use the new technique he had just developed, the one called Chidori, then even against a jōnin, he had some confidence he could kill.
The smoke and fire lasted for nearly half a minute before slowly dissipating.
The battlefield's center was revealed—
a huge blackened crater nearly thirty meters across had appeared. At the bottom, traces of molten heat still remained, wisps of greenish smoke curling upward.
On opposite sides of the crater, Mikami Yuu and Pakura reappeared.
At this moment, both of them looked somewhat dusty and disheveled, but surprisingly, Pakura looked the worse of the two.
She was no longer standing where she had originally been.
And on that once-fair, pretty face of hers, several cuts had appeared. Her clothes also showed multiple burned and torn patches, clearly showing that she had come out worse in the ninjutsu clash. But Pakura paid no attention to that. She simply stared at Mikami Yuu in disbelief.
"…Impossible!"
He actually… could use Scorch Release?!
No, wait… it didn't seem quite the same!
Of course it wasn't the same.
Because what Mikami Yuu had used wasn't Scorch Release at all. It was just Konoha's most ordinary Great Fireball. The fireball was just a little bigger and a little hotter than usual, that was all.
After observing that exchange,
Mikami Yuu had vaguely started to understand the nature of Scorch Release.
As a kekkei genkai formed from the combination of Fire and Wind attributes, its transformation mainly showed itself in two ways.
First, wind fed the flames, pushing the temperature of the fire even higher than normal, reaching a white-hot state of one to two thousand degrees and instantly drying the enemy out. This trait was very similar to Great Fireball: Burn to Ash.
Second, it absorbed Wind Release's advantage of "compression and explosive force," making the flames more condensed and giving them stronger piercing power. This was somewhat similar to Phoenix Sage Fire's Burst Shot trait. Although the principles were different, the results converged in the same direction.
In that case…
Could he learn it?
In theory… yes.
~~~
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