"Screech!"
With a single swing, Kirito cleaved the surging inferno in front of him straight down the middle. The icy chill emanating from within his body clashed violently against the searing heat around him, creating a stark contrast, a column of steam now billowing from his skin.
"This can't go on..."
Kirito's heart sank.
In terms of elemental advantage, Sode no Shirayuki held the upper hand. But Kakuzu was, after all, a genuine Kage-level monster, with a chakra reserve that could only be described as monstrous. Kirito's physical stamina, his main weakness, was already showing signs of strain.
While he had the upper hand now, it was only a matter of time before the tide would turn.
Kakuzu, a veteran of a hundred battles, understood this as well.
Though he had no way of knowing exactly how much chakra Kirito had, just judging by his age, there was no way he could maintain this level of output for long.
As the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover, but in this case, Kakuzu's assumptions were accurate. Kirito's chakra pool, unlike that of traditional shinobi, was tied to his physical stats.
And while his constitution wasn't bad, even after gaining buffs from the Conceptual Armament: Phantom Cloak, it wasn't high enough for drawn-out warfare.
He could dominate below-Kage-level opponents, but against two genuine Kage-level threats like Kakuzu and Hidan in succession?
It was only a matter of time before the cracks started to show.
"I have to end this quickly."
Kirito narrowed his eyes and steeled his resolve.
He dismissed the Sode no Shirayuki in his right hand, not because it wasn't powerful enough, but because he couldn't afford the drain any longer.
Its cutting power was monstrous, yes, any clean hit could cripple or kill Kakuzu outright.
But what use was a deadly weapon if it couldn't hit?
This wasn't about the sword, it was about Kirito's own limitations.
So he dismissed it, reducing the chakra consumption.
Then, with calm precision, he lowered Senbonzakura in his left hand.
Blade and hilt slowly phased out, swallowed into a swirling dimensional rift.
"Bankai: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
Kakuzu's gaze sharpened.
He scanned the sudden rise of rows upon rows of massive blades, stretching like a forest of steel.
"Hmph... Genjutsu?"
But the heavy killing intent flooding from the field told him otherwise.
No illusion, this was real. Deadly real.
And Kakuzu wasn't about to be outdone.
He snapped his fingers.
Two of the elemental mask creatures, the Fire and Wind types, began to merge.
Their bodies twisted and fused, and their masks locked together in unison.
A storm sphere of air pressure...
A fireball of pure, blazing wrath...
They fused.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"
"Fire Style: Head Grudge!"
"Secret Technique: Infernal Hell!"
The fireball alone was enough to incinerate forests.
But now, amplified by high-compression wind chakra, the explosion would be ten times stronger.
This wasn't a simple additive fusion. This was exponential escalation.
An A-rank Fire Release Forbidden Jutsu. Unlike something like Kakashi's Raikiri, which, while S-rank in damage, was focused into a single point, this jutsu spanned a kilometer if left unchecked.
This scale of destruction would leave nothing behind.
Even with his elemental advantage, Sode no Shirayuki wouldn't cut it here. Not against something of this magnitude. Its power was focused on precise, single-target devastation, not wide-area suppression.
For a battle of scale, Kirito needed numbers.
He needed,
"Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
The colossal blades crumbled into billions of petal-sized shards.
A hurricane of pink steel swept through the air, a swirling tidal wave of razor-thin cherry blossoms, beautiful and lethal.
On one side: a maelstrom of flame and wind, incinerating all.
On the other: a crimson tide of bladed petals, slicing through the sky.
And then,
Impact.
Boom!!
A colossal vortex erupted at the center of the battlefield, as the two forces met in violent conflict.
Gale-force winds, superheated air, and millions of razors whipped across the field.
Everything in the blast radius was torn, melted, or shredded.
"Earth Style: Earth Fortress Wall!"
Kakuzu raised a massive defensive jutsu, an entire miniature fortress of stone walls to block the backlash.
Kirito, on his end, directed a portion of the petal storm to shield himself.
Even so, the residual heat seeping through the gaps in his defense was enough to singe his flesh.
If this was the aftermath,
Then the center of that explosion...
Had to be hell incarnate.
The clash had long since ended, but the shockwaves still raged on.
Under the relentless heat, even Kirito's sakura petals began to glow red, as if transformed into burning embers. Petals that brushed past his skin sliced him, then seared the wounds instantly, double-layered pain.
But these weren't accidental injuries.
Kirito's control over the petals was precise.
Almost all the crimson blossoms veered away at the last moment.
Only a few slipped through.
Kakuzu, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.
Though his fortress-scale Earth Wall held off the bulk of the explosion, it cracked under the strain. The burning petals tore fissures into the stone, slicing it apart layer by layer.
Fortunately, he had prepared. Behind the Earth Wall, he had erected a secondary Water Curtain Wall to absorb the heat.
Still, a few stray petals pierced even that, leaving countless shallow gashes across his body.
He looked battered, yes, but not broken.
<><>---------------------------------------
45 Advanced Chapters on p(a)treon
p(a)treon.com/Aaltairr
200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapters