As the Iwagakure shinobi were left dazzled and disoriented, the Hoshiyomis had already plunged into their ranks. The clones charged into the crowd like wolves among sheep—utterly unstoppable.
Although the afterimages created by Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms weren't as powerful as the original body, Hoshiyomi's strength was already so far beyond that of the Iwa shinobi that even his clones possessed nearly Kage-level, if not full Kage-level, power.
Worse still, these clones didn't vanish when injured—this was nothing short of a nightmare.
The Hoshiyomis tore through the Iwagakure shinobi ranks, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake. Wherever they passed, not a blade of grass was left standing. The blue-flamed Mikazuki Munechika claimed three to five lives with every swing.
The desperate Iwa shinobi tried to sacrifice their own lives to slow him down, but when they finally struck what they thought was Hoshiyomi, their hands passed through nothing but an illusion.
Thud! Thud!!
Whether genin, chūnin, jōnin, or even elite jōnin—none could withstand even a single strike from Hoshiyomi's blade.
In mere seconds, hundreds of Iwa shinobi had fallen. The casualties were already approaching the scale of those suffered against the Third Raikage.
It was only then, in their despair, that the Iwa shinobi remembered—the man who severed the Third Raikage's arm was this very same person standing before them.
Even when tens of thousands had fought together, they hadn't been able to inflict much harm on the Raikage. Yet this man alone had gravely injured him and even cut off his arm.
Ōnoki watched his men fall one after another, clenching his teeth in fury. But there was nothing he could do—he couldn't even pick Hoshiyomi out of the crowd.
Even if he could find him, he had no effective means of counterattack. As an area-of-effect–type shinobi, if Ōnoki used wide-scale techniques among his own troops, he would only increase the slaughter of his people.
So, even he could only pray silently—pray that this terrifying jutsu's duration would soon end.
Perhaps his prayers were heard. The Iwagakure shinobi began to notice that the once-rampaging afterimages of Hoshiyomi were starting to flicker and fade, their outlines growing indistinct. For the first time, a flicker of hope returned to their hearts.
"Everyone, hold on! This technique is almost over! Once it ends—Gekko Hoshiyomi is finished!"
But just as they shouted encouragement to one another, the fading afterimages of Hoshiyomi smiled.
"This… will be the final strike."
As he spoke, each of the remaining afterimages drew a second sword from their backs—the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, which they usually used as a mode of transportation.
It was time for the finishing move of Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms—
the final attack: Crescent Moon Slash– Modified: Moon Shadow Step!
If Ōnoki had been watching from the sky at that moment, he would have seen that the ten afterimages had unknowingly formed a ring, and at the very center of that ring stood the real Hoshiyomi, the only one capable of delivering the true attack.
Zheng!
The afterimages, gripping their twin blades in reverse, all unleashed the final Crescent Moon Slash simultaneously. Ten intersecting X-shaped arcs of swordlight burst outward in all directions.
This—was true Musō-style mowing down.
The army fell like stalks of wheat before the scythe, collapsing in waves like dominoes, the devastation spreading endlessly through the Iwa shinobi ranks.
That final Moon Shadow Step caused as much destruction as all the prior slaughter combined. The Ultimate: Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms killed at least 1,500 Iwa shinobi in total.
The ten Moon Shadow Steps cleared a vast open space in the dense Iwa shinobi formation, leaving only a few dozen lucky survivors who somehow escaped death.
As those survivors touched their necks in disbelief at their fortune and shouted that Hoshiyomi's real body had appeared—
they looked up in horror.
Standing alone in the open clearing, Hoshiyomi had drawn his sword once more.
This time, it wasn't the Moon Shadow Step.
It was the Sky-Splitting Draw Slash!
A massive ring of cyan-green sword energy roared through the air, cutting down the last few dozen survivors in an instant.
In that moment, Gekko Hoshiyomi accomplished a feat of pure terror—
in less than one minute, he had singlehandedly slaughtered nearly 1,500 Iwa shinobi.
The blood of the fallen Iwa shinobi dyed the earth red, staining everything within a mile radius in a deep crimson hue.
When the Konoha shinobi finally arrived at the battlefield, this was the sight that greeted them—
The Iwa shinobi surrounded Lord Hoshiyomi in the center, yet around him was a vast, empty clearing. On that clearing… lay nothing but the severed limbs and broken remains of the Iwagakure shinobi.
At the very center stood Lord Hoshiyomi himself, quietly sheathing his blade amidst the sea of dismembered bodies.
The ground around him was soaked completely red with blood—yet he alone stood untouched, not a speck of blood staining his body.
The contrast between the two sides' emotions could not have been sharper.
The Iwagakure shinobi were trembling uncontrollably, their hearts quaking in terror.
Just looking at that spotless figure standing in the middle of the carnage made their blood run cold.
One man.
Just one man—Gekko Hoshiyomi.
Before even clashing with Konoha's main forces, he had already slaughtered nearly a tenth of their entire army by himself.
Could such a war even continue?
The Konoha shinobi, on the other hand, felt their blood surge with awe and fervor.
What words could describe such a miracle of strength?
There was only one thing to say—
"Lord Hoshiyomi is incredible!"
As silence blanketed the battlefield, a trembling, furious voice broke through:
"Unforgivable… Gekko Hoshiyomi! I will never forgive you!"
The voice belonged to none other than Ōnoki, his rage boiling to the brink of madness.
If he could travel back in time—to that night during the Second Great Ninja War when he first fought Hoshiyomi—
he swore he would do everything differently.
Even if it meant sacrificing the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, even if it meant letting the Third Raikage strike his homeland—
he would have unleashed his Dust Release back then and obliterated this damned man into nothingness!
Now, shaking with fury, Ōnoki rose into the air, glaring down at Hoshiyomi and bellowed:
"You will pay for my fallen comrades!
Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique"
The deaths of so many Iwagakure shinobi had driven him into a frenzy.
He had been waiting—waiting for this exact moment.
With Hoshiyomi having cleared such a vast space around himself, there was finally no danger of hitting his own men.
This was it—
the moment bought at the cost of 1,500 lives—
his one chance to utterly annihilate Gekko Hoshiyomi.
Once he confirmed the Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique had locked the area down, making escape impossible,
Ōnoki raised his trembling hands and roared:
"Turn to dust—
Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
Vmmm—!
A white, cone-shaped mass of chakra formed between his palms,
and a moment later, the devastating beam shot toward Hoshiyomi—
a force capable of disintegrating all matter it touched.
As that terrifying energy surged toward him, Hoshiyomi showed no fear at all.
Instead, he smiled—radiantly, almost playfully—
and said softly:
"Bye-bye~."
A heartbeat before Ōnoki's Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique struck the ground,
Gekko Hoshiyomi vanished.