Dense air bullets rained down from the sky like a torrential downpour; even a single, ordinary air bullet possessed the destructive power to blast a person to smithereens.
While she could use the Vacuum Great Orb, a concentrated chakra technique, which, when amplified by Sage Mode, might even contend with a Tailed Beast Bomb, this wasn't what Asuna needed.
The secret technique used by the enemy was truly bizarre; not only were there many of them, but they also seemed capable of swapping positions with others, similar to the Body Replacement Technique.
In Asuna's perception, the black-robed man's true body was constantly shifting.
To prevent that guy from escaping using some kind of Body Flicker Technique, Asuna gave up on a single powerful attack and instead chose to greatly amplify the range and speed.
For the ninjas of this world, unless they possessed a robust physique like the Third Raikage, this level of destructive power was already sufficient.
And even the Third Raikage, due to the counter-effect of wind-style chakra, might not be able to fully withstand this Vacuum Serial Orb attack.
Although the destructive power of a single orb was limited, its sheer number was overwhelming!
Because Asuna focused her energy elsewhere, the number and speed of the Vacuum Serial Orbs were astonishing; even the Third Raikage might be taken down by the chain explosions.
Of course, this was just Asuna's estimation; she had never truly fought the Third Raikage and didn't know how astonishing his physical abilities were.
However, she felt that even if the Third Raikage didn't die, he wouldn't come out unscathed if he took the attack head-on.
After all, Sage Mode was cultivated through immense effort, capable of elevating the power of ordinary ninjas to a level approaching that of legendary sages—a formidable power difficult for ordinary humans to achieve.
The reason Asuna hadn't used ninjutsu before, besides the unknown capabilities of the enemy, was that she had already used a significant amount of senjutsu chakra, causing her Sage Mode duration to rapidly shorten.
If a wide-range attack failed to completely clear out the illusions, Asuna, whose abilities would plummet upon exiting Sage Mode, would clearly be an easy target for the enemy.
At that point, facing illusions from all directions, Asuna would have no chance to counterattack.
Therefore, Asuna had just used taijutsu, which consumed the least senjutsu chakra, and when her senjutsu chakra was almost depleted, she summoned her Wind Wings, burst upwards with full power, and concentrated for a period of time.
After confirming her safety, she finally used wide-range ninjutsu.
"Taste this!" Asuna was genuinely a little angry this time, shouting loudly at the enemy on the ground.
Asuna's Vacuum Serial Orb quickly enveloped the ground, extending its range as much as possible, except for the area where Sakumo Hatake and the others were, ensuring the black-robed man had no escape route.
On the ground, Uchiha Kokuya witnessed this scene and was instantly shocked.
In his impression, Asuna hadn't used many long-range ninjutsu; she primarily engaged in mid-to-close range combat.
He had never imagined that a long-range ninjutsu could possess such power.
Although the amplified power from Sage Mode was certainly a factor, it genuinely exceeded Uchiha Kokuya's imagination; based on his own abilities, he simply couldn't keep up.
The Uchiha clan inherited the "eyes" of the Sage, and their power naturally lay primarily in the Mangekyo Sharingan, not in mere physical ability or techniques.
Perhaps the strongest visual jutsu stored within the Mangekyo Sharingan—Susanoo—could withstand the attacks raining down from the sky.
Uchiha Kokuya wasn't a young man who had just awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan like Sasuke; over the years, he had already advanced his Susanoo to the third stage.
However, due to chakra limitations, he couldn't push it to its perfect form.
Legend has it that the perfect form of Susanoo possessed the immense power to fight a Tailed Beast one-on-one.
As long as it wasn't facing anomalies like the Eight-Tails or Nine-Tails, in a one-on-one battle, the perfect form of Susanoo had a complete chance of fighting and even winning.
Even against the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, the genjutsu of the Mangekyo Sharingan could suppress their power.
Uchiha Madara primarily relied on genjutsu to tame the Nine-Tails, not his combat abilities.
In terms of combat ability, facing the Nine-Tails, which possessed immense and seemingly inexhaustible power, even Hashirama Senju, if he didn't use Wood Style to suppress the Tailed Beast's chakra and the Sage Art: Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence to put the Nine-Tails to sleep, could only temporarily suppress it before being outlasted by the Nine-Tails' superior stamina.
However, Uchiha Kokuya wouldn't use Susanoo at this moment; he still wanted to keep Susanoo as his trump card and couldn't casually reveal it.
Of course, this was also because Uchiha Kokuya had other methods; otherwise, he would have used it without hesitation—if his life was gone, what good was a trump card?
"Tch, so this is the formidable side of Sage Mode, huh? This guy isn't just good at close-quarters combat after all." Uchiha Kokuya gritted his teeth and retreated.
Even if he would eventually be caught, he wanted to distance himself as much as possible to minimize his losses.
However, against the speed of the Vacuum Serial Orb, Uchiha Kokuya couldn't run far before being enveloped by it.
After a very brief silence, a series of continuous explosions erupted.
The powerful wind pressure unleashed its force in all directions without restraint.
The destructive power of a single Vacuum Orb was not great, but the explosions caused by all of them combined were astonishing, even creating an upward shockwave from the ground.
Asuna could feel the airflow hitting her, and she quickly used natural energy to block it.
She looked at the trees and dirt blasted up from the ground, which were then pulverized into countless tiny particles in the chaotic airflow, appearing as dust in Asuna's vision.
After everything settled, a giant crater remained on the ground, vast in area but not particularly deep.
However, if anyone had been caught within it, it was almost certain they wouldn't have survived.
Asuna carefully sensed her surroundings but could no longer detect the guy's presence.
In her Sage Mode state, Asuna possessed sensing abilities, and due to the natural energy, her precision was very high, but she lacked the innate bloodline talent of the Uzumaki clan, so her range wasn't particularly vast.
At least within the range Asuna could sense, she could no longer find the person's presence.
She felt that the opponent should be finished; if they weren't, she would be surprised.
"...They should be dead." Asuna confirmed it once and decided not to waste any more time, beginning to search for Sakumo Hatake and the others.
The commotion caused by Asuna also reached the other side, noticed by Sakumo Hatake and his group, including the Zetsu and his companions they were fighting.
Zetsu, following Uchiha Kokuya's orders, brought two other Jashinists to block Sakumo Hatake and his group.
To prevent Asuna from sensing their presence, these two Jashinists were specifically summoned by Uchiha Kokuya using a summoning jutsu.
Although he was a step behind everyone else, Uchiha Kokuya, using the abilities of his Mangekyo Sharingan, arrived outside faster than the others through a series of jumps similar to the Flying Raijin, and summoned the two Jashinists using the Summoning Jutsu.
Although the Summoning Jutsu could summon living beings—like summoning animals—it was based on a summoning contract.
However, in the secret ninjutsu of the current ninja world, there was no jutsu that allowed for a summoning contract with living people, which might be due to certain differences in their respective characteristics.
However, the current state of the Jashinists was not like normal humans; they resembled the clay dolls of the Impure World Reincarnation, which allowed Uchiha Kokuya to use the summoning method.
This was also why Asuna only found one Jashinist and didn't find the others.
While Uchiha Kokuya went to find Asuna, Black Zetsu was lurking on the ground, waiting with the two Jashinists for Sakumo Hatake and his group to arrive.
When Sakumo Hatake and his group noticed someone was there, they instinctively assumed the opponents were the Jashinists who murdered the lord.
After all, they didn't have Asuna's sensing range in Sage Mode.
Although they felt a hint of surprise when they saw Asuna wasn't there, it was too late to think of anything else.
The two Jashinists charged forward; they both possessed Jonin-level taijutsu combat abilities and were immune to pain and fatigue, making them, to some extent, even more troublesome than their actual combat prowess suggested.
Of course, with Sakumo Hatake's strength, even two Jonin-level opponents, with the assistance of others, were not particularly troublesome enemies.
However, Sakumo Hatake hadn't expected the opponents to be immortal.
He also didn't resort to dismemberment but, like Asuna, knocked them flying, theoretically rendering them unable to get up.
Yet, when they shakily stood up again, he finally recalled the rumors about Jashinists.
At this moment, Black Zetsu couldn't help but make a move.
If it didn't act now, Sakumo Hatake, who had recognized these two as possibly immortal, would definitely resort to more thorough methods, and then its plan would be ruined.
Besides its achievements in the mental aspect, Black Zetsu also had another ability: by leveraging its connection to Kaguya Otsutsuki, it could slightly draw upon natural energy.
It didn't possess the immense power of Sage Mode, but it could stimulate the earth, causing plants to grow and be controlled by it.
In its manifestation, it was very similar to Wood Style, likely stemming from its connection to the God Tree.
However, Black Zetsu clearly lacked the power of Hashirama, and its Wood Style was not true Wood Style.
In the original story, it was only by utilizing the Hashirama cells within Yamato, captured by White Zetsu and Kabuto Yakushi, that Black Zetsu gained the power to fight against people like Mei Terumi.
Fortunately, this was a dense forest, allowing Black Zetsu to somewhat make its plant control ability resemble Wood Style.
Coupled with the two Jashinists, no matter how weak they were, they still possessed Jonin-level combat abilities.
Jonin were not common like street vegetables, casually brought out.
Jonin-level ninjas were the top combat force of a ninja village; the assessment for each Jonin was very strict, and the elites among Jonin were those who could bear the title of "Kage."
Sakumo Hatake was undoubtedly an elite among Jonin, his strength having already reached the stage where he could be called a "Kage."
Of course, there were differences between Kage; compared to Fumori masaki, Sakumo Hatake undoubtedly had a particularly large gap, not to mention his attribute was countered by Wind Style.
Therefore, if those two Jashinists were to fight Sakumo Hatake one-on-one, Sakumo Hatake would still have to exert some effort to defeat them.
However, with companions, he could naturally speed up the process.
But now, Black Zetsu personally stepped forward.
It controlled plants to launch attacks, and everyone initially mistook it for Wood Style and was startled, allowing Black Zetsu to regroup.
By the time Sakumo Hatake and his group realized that this was vastly different from the legendary Wood Style, Black Zetsu had already stabilized its formation and began directing the battle.
Sakumo Hatake recognized Black Zetsu as the leader of the Jashinists recorded in their files and planned to take him down with his comrades.
However, in this lush plant environment, Black Zetsu's support ability was exceptionally strong.
Coupled with the assistance of two Jonin-level Jashinists who were immune to pain and fatigue, they truly couldn't defeat him for a while.
At the same time, Sakumo Hatake, sensing the battle nearby, immediately realized that he and his group might have fallen into a trap; the enemy had deliberately separated them, and their true target was likely Asuna.
Despite wanting to help, Sakumo Hatake couldn't break free from Black Zetsu's obstruction.
Not long after, everyone heard a sound slicing through the air.
Looking up, Sakumo Hatake saw Asuna in the sky and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Mizuki, beside him, was also overjoyed, saying, "Akemi-nee's Wind Wings that she gave her have come in handy! That's great!"
Black Zetsu was also startled by this sight; this girl actually carried such a thing.
It immediately realized it might be a Summoning Jutsu.
While it was still in shock, Sakumo Hatake, who had recovered, launched an attack from behind.
Having been a ninja for so many years, Sakumo Hatake had long since discarded some of the foolish and pedantic aspects of Bushido.
Facing these shameless Jashinists, he wouldn't talk about any samurai ethics.
Black Zetsu was instantly pierced through, and it probably never expected that one day it would be on the receiving end of such a 'heartfelt' attack.
However, Sakumo Hatake found that Black Zetsu's body slid like liquid, almost coiling around his own body.
Relying on his lightning-enhanced reaction speed, he quickly retreated, shaking off Black Zetsu, who then immediately reformed.
"What's going on with this guy?" Sakumo Hatake's face showed surprise.
While he was somewhat surprised by immortality, at least there were rumors to back it up.
But Black Zetsu was completely different; not only was it immortal, but it could also rapidly heal its body and even turn into a liquid.
"It's very similar to the Water Transformation Secret Jutsu of the Hidden Mist Village, but judging by its appearance, it also bears some resemblance to the Nara clan's Shadow Secret Jutsu, as if a shadow has come to life," said Yamanaka Takuma, who had been a long-time partner of the Nara clan, having some other thoughts.
If Black Zetsu knew that Uchiha Madara had planted Izanagi in his Mangekyo Sharingan back then, he would probably regret not saving Uchiha Madara now.
Uchiha Madara possessed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and his combat power and experience were both stronger than Uchiha Kokuya's.
And Black Zetsu's worries indeed came true; Asuna dropped a large number of air bullets from the sky, and the resulting shockwaves could be felt even here.
If it weren't for knowing that Uchiha Kokuya possessed that jutsu which guaranteed survival, Black Zetsu might have tried to find other people to put forward.