"Fugaku, how is it that I didn't know the swordsmen of the Mist possessed strength like this?"
Watching the Mist swordsmen release a torrent of powerful chakra without pause, Orochimaru couldn't help turning to the Uchiha beside him to ask.
Ever since the First Shinobi World War, most Uchiha had been assigned to battlefields in the Land of Water.
After all, Hidden Mist Technique made even the Sharingan struggle, its sight blurred and unable to penetrate the dense fog, though of course a Sharingan user still fared far better than an ordinary shinobi without dojutsu.
After two Shinobi World Wars, the Uchiha's understanding of Kirigakure was so deep that in some ways it surpassed even many Mist-nin's understanding of their own village.
"To be honest, I don't know what's going on either. Never mind the others, just me alone, I've clashed with the Seven Swordsmen plenty over the years.
But in all that time, I never once heard of them having chakra like this."
Fugaku was just as baffled.
If the Mist's Seven Swordsmen had always possessed the ability to unleash chakra powerful enough to tear up the earth and reverse the flow of a waterfall, then the Uchiha population today would probably be less than a third of what it is.
"This chakra… it's practically like facing a Susanoo.."
Tsunade, along with the Ino–Shika–Cho trio, instinctively turned their eyes toward Shisui.
Right now, the seven figures wrapped from head to toe in an overwhelming mass of chakra, towering like small mountains, really did resemble Susanoo in its second stage.
Only the chakra's structure and form were unstable.
But in sheer volume, they really weren't much weaker than Shisui's Susanoo in its second form.
"The problem isn't with the Seven Swordsmen themselves… it's with those seven blades!"
Hizashi pushed his Byakugan to its absolute limit.
Through the clarity of the Byakugan, he could clearly see that each of the seven blades seemed to have a tailed beast sealed within them, like seven human Jinchuriki.
The moment the Seven Swordsmen released the seals, chakra within the blades burst forth like floodwaters from a broken dam, pouring through the connection between blade and hand, flooding directly into their bodies.
"It's the seven blades that are giving them this overwhelming chakra!"
Shisui opened his Mangekyo Sharingan wide.
Though his insight couldn't match the Byakugan, he too had detected the source behind the Seven Swordsmen's sudden eruption of chakra.
"I didn't expect the Mist to be hiding something like this. But they sure have some patience, don't they?
If the Seven Swordsmen had used a technique like this in the previous two wars, the casualties they would've inflicted on us would be unimaginable."
Tsunade stared in disbelief.
"Maybe it's not that they were patient. Maybe they didn't even know about this themselves.
Otherwise, with the Mist's usual cruelty, selfishness, and insanity, there's no way they'd have held back this long.
Think about it, what was it that triggered them to reveal this power now?"
Shikaku seemed to realize something and sharply turned his gaze toward Garp.
"Lord Garp…"
Orochimaru, Tsunade, Fugaku, Hizashi, and Inoichi all exclaimed in unison.
At that moment, it wasn't just those five, many sharp-minded Konoha shinobi understood immediately.
…
"There's actually something like this?"
Watching the Seven Swordsmen undergo such drastic change, Garp's expression indeed flickered with a hint of surprise.
But only a hint.
Even if they now resembled seven tailless, human-shaped Tailed Beasts, radiating chakra so powerful that even a typical Kage-level shinobi couldn't rival it, it was still nothing more than that.
"Hahahaha! Are you surprised by our power… Iron Fist?"
Seeing the flash of surprise on Garp's face, Raiga laughed even more wildly.
"This must be Byakuren's idea."
Garp examined the seven blades in their hands with genuine interest.
From appearance alone, these seven ninja swords looked no different from the ones he had encountered in the past.
But their abilities… were completely different.
"As expected of that old monster who lived across two generations."
Mangetsu's pupils shrank slightly.
Before today, even he had no idea his sword held power like this.
Yet the man standing before them saw it instantly, and even recognized whose handiwork it was.
"So this is what the Third Mizukage meant by Observation Haki…?"
Jinpachi and the others tensed inwardly.
If Garp hadn't personally come to the Land of Water, they would have died never knowing their swords held such a secret.
Yet Garp had gleaned it with a single glance.
Naturally, they immediately thought of what the Third Mizukage had told them before they left, about Garp and the legendary abilities he possessed.
Observation Haki.
"It's not that I look down on you seven, or on the Mist itself. But in the entire Land of Water, the only one with the talent to prepare a gift like this across an entire era… is Byakuren.
As for the other Mizukage or the other Mist shinobi, they simply don't have that capability.
It seems that after he lost to my fist all those years ago, he didn't just feel unwilling, he didn't give up. He used that shame as fuel to grow stronger."
Garp sighed softly, but his eyes held a faint glimmer of anticipation.
A set of ninja swords personally devised by the old Mizukage who once shared his era, prepared over decades specifically for him…
Garp was truly curious just how much of a surprise Byakuren intended to give him.
Indeed, though the Seven Swordsmen wielded the blades, in Garp's eyes this so-called challenge from the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had long since become something else.
A challenge from Byakuren, decades after his death.
The so-called Seven Swordsmen were nothing more than the legacy and embodiment of the already departed Byakuren.
......
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