Surprised as he was,
Kaguya Hiromitsu did not consider retreating merely because something unexpected had happened.
Quite the opposite.
He drew a deep breath and mobilized even more chakra within his body. Additional pale bone material emerged all over him, wrapping him in layer after layer. Then he attempted to force his way through the flames and charge at Yuu once again.
Seeing this,
Yuu's thoughts shifted. Before Kaguya Hiromitsu could break free, he opened his mouth and spat out a second fireball.
The two fireballs met and fused in midair.
The enormous white-hot mass of flame suddenly began to change, as though manipulated by a pair of invisible giant hands. It continuously contracted and rotated…
until it transformed into a violent tornado of fire that surged into the sky above the forest!
"Great Fireball: Storm Dance!!"
Visually, this technique did indeed resemble the Storm Dance used by white-masked Obito. However, it was not achieved through cooperation with a dōjutsu. Yuu had simply used Heavenly Fire Judgment to shape the flames into a swirling vortex.
At that moment,
a roar resembling the cry of a giant dragon violently exploded through the air—
Whoosh—!
The flames towered into the sky!
Kaguya Hiromitsu had nearly forced his way out of the burning area, only to be swallowed once again by the suddenly expanding blaze.
The chaotic vortex of fire surrounded him, furiously tearing, burning, and spinning.
Within a radius of one hundred meters, countless dry branches and withered leaves were sucked into the inferno and reduced to ash in an instant!
Even trees farther away began turning red, as though they might ignite at any moment!
"…Not good!"
Alarmed cries came from Kirigakure's formation.
Several members of the Kaguya clan could no longer restrain themselves. They rushed forward, large numbers of bone spikes and blades emerging from their bodies as they attempted to rescue their clan head from Yuu.
Seeing this, Uchiha Fugaku and Kakashi charged out one after another, leading several Konoha ninja to confront the approaching Kiri forces.
Several other Kiri ninja skilled in Water Release joined forces and attempted to extinguish the flames around Kaguya Hiromitsu.
Asuma, Shisui, and the others also spread out, using Wind Release and Earth Release to protect Yuu and control the battlefield.
For a time,
kunai, shuriken, long swords, short blades, and ninjutsu of every elemental nature continuously appeared throughout the forest.
Aside from the relatively open area occupied by Yuu and Kaguya Hiromitsu, the rest of the forest had already descended into a chaotic melee.
Dozens of Konoha and Kirigakure ninja moved and dodged across their respective positions, fighting desperately.
At this moment,
a furious roar suddenly came from within the fire tornado!
Then—
Boom—!!!
Accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion, violent chakra that seemed almost tangible erupted from inside the tornado!
Countless thick, pale bone spikes burst outward like a volcanic eruption, forcibly tearing apart the fire tornado from within and shooting in every direction!
Even the tornado itself was violently forced apart by this brute strength, dispersing into streams of flame that filled the sky!
Amid the firelight,
a hideous and terrifying figure appeared.
Kaguya Hiromitsu now looked completely different from before.
The clothes covering his upper body had been entirely torn apart. In their place was a thick layer of pale, jagged bone armor.
Two enormous bone blades shaped like shark fins had appeared on his thick arms.
A vicious bone whip composed of countless vertebrae extended from his spine.
His current appearance somewhat resembled Kimimaro in his Cursed Seal state from the original story, though he was not quite as grotesque and his original features were still recognizable.
But…
compared with an ordinary human, he still looked extremely inhuman.
"Haa…"
Kaguya Hiromitsu released a long breath and raised his head.
His blood-red eyes remained firmly fixed on Yuu, containing nothing but the most primitive desire to kill.
"Impressive, brat. No wonder you managed to kill Ryūga. Your strength truly is formidable…
"But today, you must die here!"
"…Then come."
Yuu replied coldly.
They stared at each other briefly.
The next moment—
"Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Clematis!!!"
Kaguya Hiromitsu shot forward again.
Moving even faster and more violently than before, he crossed dozens of meters in an instant. His bone blades and bone whip swept toward Yuu simultaneously!
Wherever they passed, the air exploded apart. Trees and boulders were effortlessly severed at the waist!
Whoosh—!
Yuu vanished from his original position, evading the strike.
But Kaguya Hiromitsu's next attack followed immediately!
With the bone blades on his arms and the bone whip extending from his spine, his attack range had increased several times over.
During the assault, he continuously fired bone blades outward. They struck the surrounding trees and rocks, piercing straight through them.
Amid loud creaking noises, trees thick enough to require several people to embrace began swaying dangerously.
Stones of every size flew in all directions. Whenever fragments struck nearby ninja, they immediately tore through their clothing and left bloody wounds.
"Hiss…"
While fighting, Uchiha Fugaku found a moment to glance over and drew in a sharp breath.
"Is this the true power of the Dead Bone Pulse?"
That terrifying form, resembling some ancient vicious beast, was truly intimidating.
Even the proud Uchiha Fugaku doubted whether he could handle it.
Elsewhere,
Rin and Kurenai, who were also paying close attention to the battle, tightly gripped the White Fang short blades in their hands.
Their knuckles turned white from the pressure as they worried about Yuu.
Of course, Rin and the others still trusted Yuu's strength.
They merely shifted their own battlefields farther away, avoiding getting too close and interfering with his fight, which might instead create unnecessary trouble for him.
At the center of the battlefield,
Yuu moved left and right beneath Kaguya Hiromitsu's relentless attacks.
He attempted several slashes and threw several heavy punches enhanced by Super Strength, but none managed to break through the opponent's bone armor.
Rather than discouraging Yuu, this result caused a trace of eager excitement to rise within him.
"I originally wanted to wait until a Kage-level enemy appeared before testing the power of this technique…"
"But I'll use you as an early practice target."
At once,
Yuu used the Substitution Technique once again to create distance. His hands rapidly formed a series of seals before he used the Summoning Technique.
Poof—!
As a cloud of white smoke dispersed, the three weasel brothers' short yellow-brown figures appeared, squeaking noisily.
"Huh? It's Yuu! You finally remembered to call us out to play?"
"Whoa! What is that?! What an incredible skeleton!"
"Squeak, squeak!"
Almost the instant the three brothers appeared, Kaguya Hiromitsu's bone whip swept toward them.
The violent force startled the three weasels. They hurriedly transformed into a gust of wind and barely avoided the attack, then loudly began complaining to Yuu.
"…Enough nonsense. This guy is much weaker than the last one. He can't threaten you. Hurry up and help."
Yuu spoke rapidly.
Kaguya Hiromitsu was indeed weaker than Sasori—or more accurately, weaker than Sasori when he possessed the Third Kazekage puppet.
The latter had genuinely reached Kage level, while Kaguya Hiromitsu could only be considered an elite jōnin approaching Kage level, specializing mainly in taijutsu.
After receiving Yuu's instruction,
the three weasel brothers understood. They spread out into a triangular formation, puffed out their cheeks one after another, and began inhaling furiously.
Meanwhile, Yuu mobilized the chakra within his body and began gathering power.
Until, at a certain moment,
Yuu caught an opening.
He suddenly stopped, took a deep breath, then exhaled!
At that instant, the enormous chakra within him surged outward like floodwaters released through an opened dam!
The surrounding air began twisting and heating, nearly igniting by itself!
Whoosh—!!!
With Yuu's body at the center, an indescribably vast quantity of fire erupted in every direction!
This time, it was neither a fireball nor a tornado.
It was an immense, surging sea of golden-red flames!
After the sea of fire appeared, Yuu continuously compressed, shaped, and elevated it under his control.
In midair, the flames condensed into the forms of blades, spears, swords, halberds, and countless other weapons!
Then…
"Go!"
Yuu raised his hand and swung it forward forcefully.
At the same time,
the three weasel brothers opened their mouths together.
"Weasel Style: Hurricane Barrage!"
Whoosh—!!!
Three cyan tornadoes surged from the brothers' mouths and converged from different directions.
They formed a massive spiraling drill of wind several meters in diameter. Carrying an ear-piercing scream that tore through the air, it plunged directly into the vast, churning sea of fire Yuu had released!
Wind and fire stimulated one another!
It was like pouring boiling oil into an inferno!
The sea of fire had already been astonishingly enormous.
Now, under the violent compression, tearing, and fueling of the Wind Release, it underwent an unimaginable transformation and began to boil!
The wind strengthened the flames.
At this moment, the blades, spears, swords, halberds, lances, and arrows formed entirely from pure fire seemed to come alive.
Enhanced by the Wind Release, they shot forward, filling the sky as they descended upon Kaguya Hiromitsu's jagged white-boned figure!
This was no longer merely a collision of ninjutsu.
It was a meteor shower of fire falling from the heavens!
It was an apocalyptic divine punishment that would incinerate everything!
"?!"
Kaguya Hiromitsu was completely dumbfounded.
No, seriously…
What rank of Fire Release was this?!
An S-rank ninjutsu?!
Even an ordinary S-rank technique should not possess such scale and power!
Wasn't the White Reaper supposed to specialize in swordsmanship? How had he trained his Fire Release to this level as well?
Had he started refining chakra inside his mother's womb?!
Mm…
By normal logic, Yuu's cultivation progress was indeed absurdly fast.
After all, he did not obtain his abilities through ordinary training. He relied on攻略, and Fire Release had been one of the earliest and easiest targets he had begun攻略ing.
The combination of those two factors had created the current scene.
But to everyone else,
this would be an unforgettable sight for the rest of their lives.
"Clan Head!!!"
A Kaguya clansman fighting a Konoha ninja in the distance released a heart-rending scream and attempted to rush over to help.
However, the Uchiha before him firmly blocked his path.
On the battlefield,
for the first time, the shadow known as "death" was clearly reflected in Kaguya Hiromitsu's blood-red pupils.
Every flaming sword falling from the sky released terrifying heat and impact powerful enough to pierce steel and melt refined metal!
There was nowhere to dodge!
No way to block!
If it had been Yuu or Namikaze Minato, they could actually have escaped by using space-time ninjutsu.
But Kaguya Hiromitsu possessed no such ability.
Nor could he abandon his clansmen and flee for his life like Fuguki Suikazan had done before.
"AAAAAHHHH—!!!"
At the boundary between life and death, Kaguya Hiromitsu released the dying roar of a wild beast.
All the chakra in his body began burning wildly without restraint!
He abandoned every attacking stance and crossed his arms tightly over his head and face.
The bone spikes, armor, and shields covering his body began growing, layering, and thickening as though they possessed lives of their own!
Pop, pop, pop, pop—!!!
In an instant, the area around him seemed to transform into a rapidly growing forest of white bones!
Countless thick and sharpened bone spikes erupted from the ground, twisting and interlocking around Kaguya Hiromitsu.
They formed ring after ring of airtight pale barriers!
This was the result of him squeezing out his life potential and driving the Dead Bone Pulse to an unprecedented extreme!
"Hold—hold it back for me!!!"
Boom, boom, boom—!!!
The first wave of flaming weapons had arrived!
The destructive flood of white-hot and golden-red fire violently crashed into the towering barriers of bone!
Deafening explosions merged into one continuous roar!
Blinding flames instantly swallowed the entire area!
Visible shock waves erupted outward in rings, instantly shredding, launching, and igniting everything within dozens of meters—
trees, rocks, and even Kirigakure ninja unfortunate enough to be caught within the blast!
The intense heat violently distorted the air, turning everyone's vision blurry.
Even the nearby ninja protected by chakra felt waves of burning pain across their skin, while every breath carried the scorching taste of rusty iron.
"Is… is that still Fire Release?!"
After defeating the opponent before him, Obito turned around and stared at the battlefield in complete horror.
Honestly, this was the scene Obito had always dreamed of.
Even in his dreams, he hoped that one day his Fire Release would reach the level of his ancestor Uchiha Madara—where a single technique would shock everyone present.
He had never expected that dream to be realized by Yuu instead.
The realization left a rather bitter feeling in Obito's heart.
A little farther away, Rin tightly clasped her hands and stared unwaveringly at the sea of fire.
Her small face was filled with concern, but also with shock at the strength Yuu was now displaying.
Rumble…
Under the initial impact, the bone barriers had actually managed to hold.
The dense impacts sounded like torrential rain striking a metal roof.
Countless bone fragments and streams of melted bone splashed and vaporized beneath the extreme heat, but the main structure of the barrier had not yet collapsed!
Seeing this result, Kaguya Hiromitsu secretly released a breath of relief.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling somewhat fortunate that he was still alive.
However…
Yuu's attack had not yet ended.
"You can still endure it, can you?"
"Then let's see exactly how long you can hold out!"