Chapter 382: Strength Classification in the Naruto World
"What does she want to do?"
Watching the girl forming seals on the ice surface, Kisame and the White Zetsus fell into the same question.
The face of the burly merman inside the ice ball generally retained human features, and it could be vaguely seen that his eyebrows were tightly locked, his face gloomy, and his eyes solemn.
Kisame originally expected the Super Shark Bomb Jutsu to swallow Sakura's ninjutsu in one bite during the frontal confrontation, thereby defeating her in one fell swoop. But now it seemed that even if she did nothing and let him do as he pleased, it would probably take a long time to gnaw through this ice ball, making Kisame's confident Super Shark Bomb Jutsu almost a joke. However, would a duel between Kage-level experts give him that much time?
Haruno Sakura's Ice Style actually froze Kisame's water ball into ice, causing his home field advantage to instantly become the enemy's home field, which plunged Kisame into an extremely disadvantageous situation instantly!
With Kisame's Water Style attainment, the super-large Water Style used with all his strength was suppressed and frozen by Sakura, showing how domineering her Ice Style was.
"What's going on? Ordinary Ice Style can't do this at all!" Kisame had fought people from the Yuki clan before and immediately realized the unusualness. But how could he know that Haruno Sakura's current Ice Style had crudely incorporated the power of Yin Release, developing from Kekkei Genkai towards Kekkei Tōta.
If only discussing the power of ninjutsu, the power of traditional elemental ninjutsu can be roughly distinguished like this: ordinary Five Elements Jutsu are weaker than Kekkei Genkai ninjutsu, and Kekkei Genkai are weaker than Kekkei Tōta. Ignoring special cases like the Water Pistol Technique, the rule of the ninja world is like this: Water Style is inferior to Ice Style, Fire Style is inferior to Boil Style, Lava Style, etc., and the power of these ninjutsu is all weaker than Mū and Onoki's Particle Style.
As for the power of Yin-Yang Release, although it is a notch higher than the Five Elements Jutsu, it is too special, mysterious, and unfathomable. Not to mention Haruno Sakura who is still in the exploration stage, even influential figures throughout the ages, as strong as Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, may not have fully mastered its secrets, so it is usually skipped. Of course, what must be mentioned is Hashirama Senju's Wood Style, which is actually a Kekkei Tōta synthesized from Earth, Water, and Yang attributes. Its power is obviously stronger than the Tsuchikage's Particle Style. Therefore, Kekkei Genkai and Kekkei Tōta incorporating the power of Yin-Yang Release are a notch higher than ordinary Kekkei Genkai and Tōta.
If the Naruto world used the worldview of classic Qidian fantasy novels, then the strength classification of Kage level might become like this: those who only know ordinary elemental jutsu are early-stage Kage level, those who master Yin-Yang Release secret techniques are peak early-stage Kage level; possessing Kekkei Genkai attributes can be called mid-stage Kage level, and Kekkei Genkai containing Yin-Yang Release is grand completion mid-stage Kage level; Kekkei Tōta corresponds to high-stage Kage level, and so on...
If so, then Kisame's thought at this moment should be: Damn it! An expert who just stepped into the grand completion mid-stage Kage level can actually restrain me completely! Although I am only early-stage Kage level, relying on Samehada's power, I can completely challenge across levels. An opponent not reaching high-stage Kage level should absolutely not be able to defeat me!
Of course, the strength stratification in Naruto will never be so clear-cut. Factors affecting strength level, besides what attribute jutsu the ninja masters, also include taijutsu, genjutsu, senjutsu, secret techniques, as well as non-jutsu attribute Kekkei Genkai, combat experience, battle IQ, stamina, skills, etc., and even including knowledge mastered by the ninja in their previous life... varied and numerous.
And what determines the outcome of a battle, besides strength level, also includes fighting will, venue factors, restraining relationships, etc., which are extremely complex.
Therefore, ninja's distinction of strength is usually very rough. Those far exceeding ordinary ninja are Jonin level, the outstanding ones among Jonin are Elite Jonin, and those far exceeding Jonin are Kage level. Going further up, those far exceeding Kage level are figures like immortals and gods, such as the Sage of Six Paths and the God of Shinobi, the First Hokage. As for the strength distinction between Chunin level and Genin level, because there are too many examples of Genin killing Chunin, it is not very meaningful.
Back to the main topic.
At this moment, Kisame had no time to be shocked, nor did he have the leisure to study why Haruno Sakura's Ice Style was unusual, whether she had stepped into the level of small completion high-stage Kage level and other messy things.
He just stared deadly at Haruno Sakura's figure standing on the ice surface, while constantly squeezing the potential of his body, wanting to squeeze out more chakra.
Haruno Sakura's current appearance had nothing to do with the elegant, beautiful, calm, and composed look before the battle started.
Clothes torn with countless holes by Samehada, small wounds too late to treat, spots of red and black bloodstains and muddy water traces, as well as messy hair wet with sweat sticking to her cheeks, and slightly heaving chest, all indicated the difficulty of the girl in this battle—it could even be said, a little embarrassed.
But her momentum did not diminish at all. Instead, after crushing Kisame's Water Style with one move of Ice Style, it gradually climbed.
The crazily billowing chakra stirred up a strong wind, blowing her clothes bulging: the hem at the waist flipped up, revealing a touch of snow white, vest lines looming; the sleeve on the right shoulder was torn into strips by Samehada before, and had long been torn off by the girl casually, revealing the slender right arm, the skin stained with spots of blood appearing even whiter.
She stood high on the ice surface above Kisame's head, a pair of light green and pure eyes looking down, so deep as if bottomless.
Killing intent condensed into substance, permeating the air.
Kisame's heart was jolted violently, and a huge sense of danger hit him suddenly, piercing his temples and drumming crazily, as if a shrill alarm sounded in his mind, a voice warning him that that person was extremely dangerous, get away from her quickly!
Completely unnecessary for the warning from intuition, just looking at the momentum of that chakra, Kisame felt palpitating spontaneously. Even if he didn't know what kind of move Haruno Sakura would use against him, just sensing the vigorous and pure chakra on her body, he could guess that the next thunderous blow must carry terrifying power!
At this moment, Kisame's brain spun crazily. Sakura's intelligence flashed quickly in his mind, her common moves, her ninjutsu habits... etc. contents emerged in his heart one by one.
"This posture, could it be..."
In just an instant, Kisame thought of the answer.
"She wants to explode the entire ice ball!"
The White Zetsus watching the battle also got the answer almost at the same time.
It was just too late.
Haruno Sakura cast ninjutsu extremely fast. Her slender hands flipped up and down like dancing butterflies, drawing blurred afterimages in front of her body, completing the seals at high speed in less than two or three seconds.
"See you."
The girl said softly, faintly, emotionlessly.
The monstrous astonishing momentum climbed to the peak at this moment!
Right under her feet, Kisame widened his eyes, realizing what she wanted to do, and quickly brought his hands together, wanting to cast ninjutsu.
And a little further away, the White Zetsus' heartbeats accelerated crazily in an instant.
"Kisame is finished..."
"How can she still have so much chakra? Does the Yin Seal really have such good effects?"
"Don't care about this... Quick, quick, hide in the ground!"
Then, the next moment—
"Explode!"
Chakra was released like a bursting dam!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom—!
The ice ball several hundred meters in diameter actually turned into a super-giant bomb at this moment, exploding loudly!
In an instant, endless brilliance and infinite sound waves bloomed from the ice layer under the girl's feet!
As if a thousand thunderclaps exploded simultaneously; the dazzling light turned the entire world into black and white.
What a magnificent, what a terrifying scene that was!
It was simply indescribable. The White Zetsus farthest from the battlefield had the same thought in their hearts at this moment: a second sun seemed to have appeared on the ground.
Even hiding outside the imagined "safe distance," even preparing to hide underground immediately, the White Zetsus still paid the price for peeping at this super confrontation: excessive dazzling light spread the moment the Ice Style exploded. Although they closed their eyes immediately, the intense light still penetrated the eyelids effortlessly, reaching the retina behind the eyeballs, causing temporary blindness to the White Zetsus.
The last image left in their eyes was Kisame jumping out of the ice ball violently, a giant water wall rising beside him, then, the intense light reflected him as a black shadow, and then completely swallowed him.
Finally, only a dazzling white remained in the field of vision.
The extremely fast reaction of the watchers saved their lives.
Just as the White Zetsus drilled into the ground with blinded eyes, the air wave created by the explosion swept across like a wall. The fierce wind carrying infinite power swept the earth. Boulders several meters in size succumbed to this force, rising with the wind, flying and whistling, uprooting and smashing everything on the ground, leaving only a mess.
Even the Uchiha brothers further away had to pause their battle—more accurately, it should be Itachi's one-sided beating—and turn to face the fierce wind ravaging the earth.
"What kind of move is this exactly?" Itachi lowered his body, blocking his face with his hand. His expression remained calm without ripples, but turbulent waves were set off in his heart.
He withdrew his gaze from Sasuke who was squatting on the ground in embarrassment, turning faintly to the place where the air wave came from. Accompanied by a thunderous loud noise, a huge mushroom cloud was rising into the sky, straight into the clouds.
Further away, the masked young man hiding in the hidden cave was looking through Haruno Sakura's intelligence, but suddenly frowned, stood up abruptly, threw the papers in his hand onto the table, turned to look in the direction of the battle, his Sharingan narrowing dangerously.
"Hmph... Haruno Sakura..."
The girl's name burst from his mouth word by word.
On the table, a corner of the paper printed with a large headshot of Haruno Sakura had been torn by Obito.
Crossing more than half the distance of the Land of Fire, far away in Konoha, a beautiful long-haired lady's heart jumped suddenly, subconsciously looking up in a direction: "Eh? What's going on?"
Her hand tightened, and the baby in her arms immediately cried loudly.
"Eh eh, did mommy hurt you? Baby don't cry, be good and continue drinking milk, okay?"
She hurriedly put away the look of doubt on her face, lowered her head and gently comforted the little baby in her arms.
And many ninja with keen perception and not far away looked towards the same location from afar with strange expressions... in unison!
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