GA: Chapter 214: Conqueror's Haki That Shakes the Soul — The Black Hole That Consumes Everything
A violent roar rang out. A bolt of lightning of blinding intensity tore through space, and in the crackling storm of electricity, Kakuzu's body was run through.
He hadn't even had time to react. Shock was written plainly across his face. When he finally registered what had happened, his gaze locked onto the black thing in Chen Yu's hand.
"Compared to an ordinary person's heart, this is admittedly a little unusual."
"Though just as fragile."
Chen Yu turned the round, plump heart over in his hand — then calmly crushed it.
"Who are you?!"
Kakuzu couldn't stop himself from demanding it aloud. Any semblance of calm had left him.
There were certainly powerhouses within the ninja world capable of destroying one of his hearts — quite a few, in fact, including most members of Akatsuki. But this easily, this quickly, without him even registering the attack? He had never encountered that before.
Perhaps Pain, Akatsuki's former leader, or the current ruler of the ninja world could have managed it — but what truly made it impossible for Kakuzu to stay composed was the ability Chen Yu had just demonstrated.
That violet lightning that had torn through space. As if his entire body had become electricity itself. An unimaginable speed.
Even the lightning-style chakra mode once so prized by Kumogakure couldn't produce speed anywhere near this.
And the most critical point — he had sensed no chakra fluctuation whatsoever.
Which meant this almost certainly wasn't ninjutsu. It wasn't even taijutsu enhanced by chakra. It was pure physical technique.
But how could any physical technique channel the power of lightning?
After all his years of living, he had never heard of such a thing.
Chen Yu floated in the air. He didn't answer Kakuzu's question. An aura like a bottomless abyss erupted from him — the pressure of Conqueror's Haki descending like the wrath of heaven, landing on both Kakuzu and Hidan like a physical weight.
Both men let out a muffled grunt. Their minds seemed to receive a direct blow. Their faces went pale.
"Oh. That you can withstand this level of pressure surprises me."
"You're shadow-level — your willpower and mental fortitude are decent."
"Then — what about this?"
At Chen Yu's voice, a presence even more crushing than before slammed into Hidan and Kakuzu — body and mind both.
The earth trembled. Lightning crackled across the sky.
Wild wind tore through heaven and earth.
This was the celestial phenomenon triggered when Conqueror's Haki reached a sufficient level of mastery — the wrath of the natural world itself made manifest. But compared to the spectacular omens filling the sky, what Kakuzu and Hidan were enduring in this moment was a pain beyond words.
Conqueror's Haki was not an illusion. It created no agonizing hallucination, no enthralling false world. It was the will of a conqueror — the presence of one who stood above all others. Those too weak to bear it simply lost consciousness. Those with iron will felt nothing at all.
It was the people caught between — those whose minds flickered on the edge of collapse, where one more second might plunge them under, but whose own will refused to submit.
Both men were being ground against that edge right now, their consciousness fraying under the assault of Chen Yu's Conqueror's Haki, teetering on the brink of unconsciousness at any moment.
All hostility toward Chen Yu had drained from them. Or rather — the courage to fight him at all had evaporated.
If they could choose again, they would never have left the house today. Never would have started this.
How had they stumbled into someone this monstrously powerful?
When had the ninja world produced a figure like this, and how had they not heard a single word about it?
Hidan's willpower was the weaker of the two. Compared to Kakuzu — who was suffering, but still holding on — Hidan was heaving ragged breaths, his black-and-red robe soaked through with sweat. Then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.
"Damn it all!"
"A presence like this — even Hashirama at his peak would have fallen short!"
"How can someone like this exist in the ninja world?!"
"I have to survive and bring word back to the King!"
Kakuzu had no attention left to spare for Hidan, who had already lost consciousness. That man had an immortal body — even if his willpower shattered and he passed out, no matter how brutal the assault against him, he'd survive.
Better to focus on himself.
CRACK.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kakuzu drove a kunai straight through his own palm.
The violent physical pain tore across his entire body — and that physical agony, just for a moment, overpowered the assault on his mind, letting him wrench himself free of Chen Yu's Conqueror's Haki.
But that alone wasn't enough.
Without hesitation, he drove the kunai through another part of his body.
Again and again — until the physical pain consumed so much of his awareness there was nothing left to give to anything else.
"Using pain to redirect focus. A way to stay conscious."
"Not a bad approach."
Chen Yu looked down at Kakuzu from above and gave a small nod.
Self-inflicted, but effective.
However—
His expression remained calm. A pale, jade-like arm rose slowly.
Then — he pressed it down.
"Dark Cave."
Black mist seeped outward from his body in all directions, forming a massive dark space around him.
The earth shook. Wind screamed outward.
Every tree, every piece of rubble, every handful of soil in the surrounding area began moving toward the black space — consumed by it.
Hidan, already unconscious and stripped of any combat capability, was pulled in immediately. Kakuzu had the will to resist, but no ability left to do so — and with a look of despair, he was dragged in alongside Hidan, swallowed by the black hole.
"It's over."
Chen Yu said it quietly. Neither Kakuzu nor Hidan had any chance of surviving the endless tearing force of a black hole.
Even Hidan's special constitution and immortal body — being ground to powder would leave him with virtually no hope of reconstituting.
But just as Chen Yu decided it was done — the Dark Cave abruptly stalled.
"Using gravitational control against my Dark Cave. Interesting."
"To be capable of this — your strength is somewhat higher than I estimated."
"A god who rose through war yet longed for peace. Uzumaki Nagato."
The Dark Cave was his own power — he could naturally sense when another force was interfering with it. In the current ninja world, there was only one person who could do this.
Uzumaki Nagato.
Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in. The forces of repulsion and attraction.
That he could achieve this much wasn't surprising.
No one else came to mind.
That said — to actually exert control over his casually deployed Dark Cave — perhaps it was simply that someone chosen by Uchiha Madara lived up to the distinction. Both in talent and in power, undeniably top tier.
But what happened next made him furrow his brow.
Four figures emerged from empty space, appearing within his field of vision.
He swept his gaze across three of them — pausing for a few seconds on one wild-looking man in particular — and then his eyes settled on the last figure.
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