"Hmm. Pick three out of seven…"
Looking at the new Keystone Runes listed by the system, Rei Kaguya thought for a moment and quickly came up with two completely different selection plans.
The first was Glacial Augment, Fleet Footwork, and Stormraider's Surge.
This would raise his speed to the extreme while also granting his chakra the Wind nature.
The idea behind this set was to greatly increase his own speed while relying on Glacial Augment's ice-slow effect to lower the enemy's speed, using overwhelming kiting ability to keep the initiative in battle firmly in his own hands.
When Fleet Footwork and Stormraider's Surge triggered at the same time, he could obtain a total speed increase of up to 75%. Meanwhile, enemies struck by his attacks would have their speed lowered to 85% of its original value because of the ice-slow effect.
With one side rising and the other falling, even if both sides had the same base speed under normal conditions, within the five seconds when all three Keystone Rune effects were active, the gap between them would be pulled apart by more than double.
Under such an exaggerated speed difference, an enemy struck by ice-slow could not be called a harmless wooden stake, but they would not be much different from a target locked in place.
And when it came to squeezing in more skills and dealing higher damage under a limited-time target-dummy condition, Rei was rather experienced.
However, this plan's improvement to his offensive ability was extremely limited. If he chose this plan, he would somewhat become another Minato Namikaze in the world.
Fast enough, yes.
But his damage would scrape.
The second plan was to choose Arcane Comet, Electrocute, and Glacial Augment.
This would complete his chakra attributes while developing him in the direction of a ninjutsu-type shinobi who could flexibly use ninjutsu of every attribute.
Rei's original chakra natures were Water, Earth, and Yang. Through Dark Harvest, he had gained Yin.
If he obtained Wind, Fire, and Lightning this time, he would directly gather every chakra nature.
The advantage of this choice was that it would maximize the value of First Strike's ability to obtain proficiency from others. At the same time, gathering all seven nature transformations in one body was basically equivalent to finding the key to the door of Kekkei Mora.
From the perspective of future potential, perhaps its upper limit was even higher than the first plan.
However, considering that almost every late-stage boss could basically either ignore or absorb ninjutsu attacks, and considering that he neither knew how to raise Kekkei Genkai into Kekkei Mora nor was he the reincarnation of one of the Sage of Six Paths' sons, making it hard for him to obtain the corresponding cheat from the Sage—
Rei still felt he was better off continuing to stick to a taijutsu-centered path.
As for the other two options, Aftershock's value could be said to be infinitely low. After all, he neither lacked life-saving ability nor needed to choose it to obtain Earth Release chakra.
As for Windspeaker's Blessing…
The support ability it could provide was indeed very strong, but he neither had the kind of ability that could heal multiple targets across a large area, nor did he intend to go to Shikkotsu Forest and learn medical ninjutsu from the Slug Sage.
How he would trigger this rune's effect was still an unsolved problem for him.
"Wait. But thinking about it that way, the special version of Biscuits needs to be infused with my chakra to obtain the full effect, right? If that also counts as me providing healing to others…"
After hesitating for a while, Rei took a deep breath and ultimately chose the combination of Stormraider's Surge, Windspeaker's Blessing, and Fleet Footwork.
"Please, please, let them synergize. Bone Plating, a minor rune, can have special synergy with First Strike. Then Biscuit Delivery and Windspeaker's Blessing having synergy shouldn't be too much, right?"
Just as Rei experienced the strange feeling of a light yet sharp breeze forming inside his body, while praying that the special version of his Biscuits could trigger Windspeaker's Blessing exactly as he imagined, the chakra inside his body suddenly trembled.
It resonated faintly with a target dozens of kilometers away.
…
"Die, you damn Lava Release brat!"
"Gah… Lava, Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
"AAAAAAAH—"
A shrill scream quickly weakened as the attacker's body melted.
Mei Terumi bit her lip hard, her face twisted as she pulled out the short blade that had pierced through her abdomen from the front. Then she clutched her stomach and staggered back into the Kirigakure defensive line.
The battle on the frontal battlefield was nearing its end.
Without a doubt, this was a victory belonging to Konohagakure.
They had already retaken most of the Kannabeyama stronghold. Only the southeast corner remained under Kirigakure's control. But looking at the Kirigakure shinobi, whose numbers had already fallen to less than half of what they had been before the battle, and whose every member was wounded and battered, everyone knew their defeat was inevitable.
Mei did not know how the battle had turned into this.
She had clearly suppressed that insect user from the Aburame clan very well. The Bone Clone Rei left behind had also dragged Konoha's main force, including the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, into a bitter battle. As for the remaining Konoha shinobi, compared to the high-spirited Kirigakure shinobi, they had been at a clear disadvantage in both numbers and strength…
Although she, the commander, had been unable to coordinate the overall situation and issue orders in time because the other side had desperately held her down at all costs, that should not have led to a total collapse like this… right?
Mei took out the last special Biscuit hidden close to her chest and stared at Shikaku Nara, who was clearly so weak that he needed his companions' support just to stand, yet was still calmly and logically issuing orders to the people around him.
Recalling some of the battlefield adjustments she had caught out of the corner of her eye while fighting Shibi Aburame, she let out a long sigh.
No wonder that insect user was willing to let all his kikaichu die just to hold me back. So the goal was to stop me from commanding the Kirigakure shinobi to regroup with Rei's clone, allowing the main force on Ino-Shika-Cho's side to lock down Rei's clone and control it to death in one breath?
As expected, the gap between Kirigakure and Konoha was not only in strength…
"Lady Mei, we should retreat!"
A chunin whose right arm had been severed at the root, and who had barely stopped the bleeding only by relying on the ordinary Biscuit Rei left behind, came close and shouted at Mei, whose expression was bitter.
"Konoha's people are already spreading out the encirclement. If we don't leave now, we won't be able to escape! You are the adjutant Lord Rei values. You can't die here meaninglessly…"
"No. I can't leave first… If I leave first, none of you will escape."
Mei stood up and placed the Biscuit into her mouth, chewing and swallowing it.
Then, as she rapidly formed hand seals, she spoke to the anxious chunin who still wanted to persuade her.
"Someone has to stay behind and hold back Konoha's people for a while. Only then will the others have a chance to escape… My Lava Release and Boil Release are best suited for creating large-scale lethal ninjutsu. Aside from me, none of you have the ability to stop them."
"But Lady Mei…"
"Go! That is an order!"
"…Yes."
The one-armed chunin squeezed that word out from between his teeth. Then, while conveying the order to the battered Kirigakure shinobi around him, he retreated toward the southeast, where Konoha had not yet completed its encirclement.
"We won't let you get away like this! Human Bullet Tank!"
Choza Akimichi, who had been rolling back and forth across the battlefield, destroying Kirigakure's formation, noticed the Kirigakure shinobi's movement and immediately turned his direction, charging toward them.
He intended to force Mei away as she tried to cast a technique to obstruct Konoha's pursuit, interrupting the large-scale ninjutsu she was preparing.
But to Choza's surprise, Mei acted as if she did not see him approaching from the side at all.
She simply stood where she was and finished the final seal.
Then, one second before the Human Bullet Tank slammed into her, she took a deep breath and shouted in a decisive voice.
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
A surging wave of powerful acid erupted from Mei's mouth like a roaring sea. It surged toward the Konoha shinobi, whose expressions changed drastically, smashing apart the encirclement formation they had finally managed to establish.
Even Shikaku Nara, who had not expected Mei to forcefully use Melting Apparition Technique with such disregard for her own life, nearly got swept into the giant wave of acid.
Then, Choza Akimichi's Human Bullet Tank slammed into Mei's small body without holding anything back, sending her flying sideways like a broken rag doll.
"Good work, Choza—"
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Inoichi Yamanaka's praise had not even finished when Choza was sprayed directly by the still-continuing Melting Apparition Technique. He lost control on the spot and crashed into a building inside the stronghold, then rolled in place in pain, screaming.
"Wha—"
"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique!"
The river of acid covering the ground no longer poured out endlessly.
But at the same time, an acid mist with equally terrifying corrosive power began descending over the Konoha shinobi.
Seeing this, Inoichi had no time to think about how Mei could continue using her Kekkei Genkai after taking a direct hit. He clamped the barely able-to-walk Shikaku under one arm and grabbed an acid-free part of Choza's body with the other, commanding the Konoha shinobi to retreat from the Kannabeyama stronghold without looking back.
Inside the ruins of a watchtower in Kannabeyama, Mei stopped exhaling acid mist.
She stared blankly at her own body, which had been struck head-on by Choza Akimichi yet remained completely unharmed, and murmured to herself.
"That feeling just now… was Rei's chakra…"
"Did you protect me, even while fighting for your life against the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?"
"Rei… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"