Yagura was distracted by the corpse of the Six-Tails Jinchuriki. Aka seized the opportunity to appear behind Yagura and launch a lethal strike.
By the time he reacted, it was already too late.
But at the critical moment, an ice mirror condensed beside him. A slender, pale hand reached out from within, grabbed his shoulder, and threw him aside.
Bang!
The fist, enhanced by Steel Release and launched with the Strength of a Hundred Technique, smashed the mirror to pieces.
But the person inside had already reflected away to escape.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Strike!"
Raiga raised the Lightning Blade high. Dark clouds churned in the sky, and lightning descended.
This Lightning Release technique, drawing on natural forces, could not be absorbed.
Aka frowned slightly and took a step to the side.
Boom!
The thunderbolt struck the ground where Aka had just been standing, instantly blasting out a crater over three meters in diameter.
But Aka, having dodged a step earlier, was completely unscathed.
"It seems you can't wait to die first!"
Aka turned her gaze to Raiga, who responded with a disdainful sneer. "If you think I'm afraid of death, you're completely mistaken!"
"Then go die!"
"No, you die!" x2
Arrogant voices came from above.
Jinin and Juzo swung their great blades down from the sky.
Blunt Sword: Kabutowari… this blade possessed the power to cut through anything.
As long as it hit, even if the opponent was a woman who could withstand a slap from the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, she absolutely could not withstand the power of Kabutowari.
While the Executioner's Blade didn't have the power to cut through everything, the blade itself was nearly as large as a person and extremely heavy.
Slashing down from a height, leveraging the momentum of the fall, the power generated would absolutely exceed that of Kabutowari by several times.
But before they could land, two sand pillars rose from beneath Aka's feet.
The constantly compressed and solidified sand pillars possessed formidable destructive power, especially when their tips were spiraled into sharp points… their lethality multiplied.
Facing this sudden counterattack, Jinin couldn't react in time. His chest was pierced, and he was impaled and killed on the sand pillar.
Juzo seemed slightly more skilled. Although he also hadn't anticipated this countermeasure and was caught off guard, at the last possible moment, he slammed the slash intended for Aka hard onto the sand pillar.
After all, it was just sand. No matter how compressed and solidified, it couldn't compare to a solid object.
Faced with a slash powerful enough to cleave a fissure in the ground, the sand pillar was shattered and scattered. The attack, its momentum barely diminished, continued slashing toward Aka.
But hindered by the sand pillar, Juzo's attack had lost its element of surprise.
Aka simply stood to the side lightly, causing the blade to miss entirely.
Juzo had anticipated this. The moment his blade missed, using the recoil from striking the ground, he tried to swing the great blade up for another strike.
But how could Aka give him such an opportunity?
The instant the blade struck down, she stepped onto the flat of the blade, flew up, and kicked Juzo under the chin. Amidst the sound of shattering bone, she sent him flying.
Before she could land, two figures stealthily attacked from left and right.
It was Fuguki and Jinpachi.
One wielded the nearly two-meter-long Samehada; the other held the endlessly explosive Shibuki. They attacked while Aka was mid-air, with no leverage to dodge.
"Die!"
"Hmph!"
Aka snorted disdainfully, raising both hands. The metallic sheen on her delicate skin was glaringly bright.
Clang! Clang!!
Two tremendous metallic clangs rang out, painful to the eardrums. But the violent explosion that followed left everyone present dumbfounded.
A simple explosion was within everyone's expectations.
The Exploding Sword: Shibuki's function was to slash close to the enemy and then unleash one-sided explosive shockwaves.
But this time, the explosion's direction was wrong.
The explosive shockwave should have engulfed Aka, the enemy. Instead, the shockwave at the explosion's epicenter radiated outward from Aka as the center, engulfing both Jinpachi and Fuguki.
Moreover, the explosion's power was off!
Shibuki's explosive effect came from the explosive tag summoning scroll on its back. Its power was equivalent to an explosive tag, usually covering about a 1-meter radius.
But now, just the shockwave spanned twenty to thirty meters. Shibuki absolutely could not produce an explosion of this scale.
Could Jinpachi have detonated the Exploding Sword?
No, if that were the case, the power would be even greater.
Shibuki had a mutually assured destruction technique… completely detonating the summoning scroll on its back, triggering an explosion several kilometers in diameter, capable of utterly destroying even an immortal being.
But the current situation was clearly not that.
The smoke and dust cleared. Aka's figure stood proudly erect.
Fuguki and Jinpachi, however, were charred black, mouths smoking silently as they collapsed.
"Though I don't carry explosive tags, something as simple as Explosion Release, I can manage."
As if responding to everyone's confusion, Aka spoke calmly. Sparks, like lit fuses, flickered in her palms.
Seeing this, everyone's eyes widened, filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible!?" Raiga said incredulously. "Scorch Release, Swift Release, Dark Release, Magnet Release, Steel Release, Explosion Release... This woman has already used six Kekkei Genkai. How can one person master so many Kekkei Genkai?"
This wasn't a matter of an individual's strength level but a violation of common sense.
Although Shinobi's existence defied common sense, even among these illogical Shinobi, there was their own set of logic.
Mastering six Kekkei Genkai simultaneously was an anomaly among anomalies.
"It's just combining two Chakra Natures Transformations. Such a trivial thing, what's difficult about it?" Aka tilted her head slightly, a genuinely puzzled expression.
Unbeknownst to her, her matter-of-fact tone and expression inflicted immense psychological damage on the Kirigakure's group.
'Trivial thing? What's difficult?'
'What damn trivial thing! What damn 'not difficult'!'
'Do you have any idea how many Chunin spend their whole lives unable to master a single Chakra Nature Transformation, doomed to fight only with kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and basic Ninjutsu/Taijutsu?'
'Do you know only Jonin-level Shinobi can master more than two Nature Transformations?'
'Do you know how few in the entire Shinobi World can successfully combine two Chakra Nature Transformations to become a Kekkei Genkai wielder?'
'Do you know there currently exists no Shinobi in the world who can simultaneously master two Kekkei Genkai?'
"Whether she's intentionally demoralizing us or genuinely thinks it's simple, I truly feel the difference in our strength is on another dimension." Juzo, having reset his jawbone, couldn't help but voice his thoughts.
The wielder of the Hiramekarei couldn't help but nod in agreement.
Because the opponent possessed Dark Release, he hadn't found a suitable opportunity to attack, observing from the sidelines. Thus, he had a clearer view of the entire battle.
"Hah~" Aka exhaled slowly. "It seems Kirigakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, is just a bunch of country bumpkins hiding on an island overseas, fighting amongst themselves, ignorant of the outside world. Far inferior to Konoha."
Hearing this, the Kirigakure's group's faces darkened, yet they couldn't refute it.
Their opponent had wreaked havoc in Konoha just a week ago and was now battling Kirigakure's elites. She was the most qualified to judge.
"...I'll buy time. You all escape."
After a moment of silence, the Third Mizukage stepped forward and said.
He too truly felt the gap in strength. Even with so many elites on their side, victory was difficult.
But his words made Yagura and the others exchange glances in surprise.
Kirigakure was not Konoha; they didn't have a doctrine of sacrificing oneself to protect the younger generation.
Rather, their policy was always to ensure the safety of important individuals or objectives, even at the cost of sacrificing numerous subordinates.
The Third Mizukage could have simply ordered them to stay and hold the line while he escaped with others.
"You can't hold her off. If I leave you to cover the retreat, none of us will escape."
The Third Mizukage explained helplessly, a touch of sorrow in his tone.
As the village's Kage prepared to sacrifice himself to cover their escape, his subordinates' first reaction was suspicion, not gratitude. This was undoubtedly sorrowful for the person involved.
Hearing this, the others understood.
The wielder of the Hiramekarei even left a parting remark, "Take care, Mizukage-sama," before turning and fleeing without hesitation.
"How long are you going to keep talking among yourselves?"
Aka's displeased voice rang out.
Along with her voice came violently shaking ground, and then...
Boom!
The ground suddenly fractured. The area they stood on, a five-kilometer diameter platform, rose into the air, trapping everyone on a plateau two hundred meters high.
[Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!]
Aka clapped her hands together, rising from her stance.
She looked down upon the Kirigakure's group, a grin spreading across her face. "None of you are escaping."
—Silence!
After a long silence came a desperate, life-or-death counterattack.
Although Shinobi could still descend from such an environment,
But fleeing on open ground with their backs to a super-Kage level opponent… the outcome was self-evident.
Therefore, their only option was a fight to the death.
Raiga raised his twin blades, summoning heavenly thunder.
The Hiramekarei wielder condensed a massive Chakra Blade.
The Three-Tails Jinchuriki opened its mouth, firing a high-density Chakra Sphere: the Bijudama.
The Third Mizukage formed hand seals, conjuring an ice dragon in the air.
Yagura waited on the side, ready to use the Water Mirror Technique to counter the enemy's Ninjutsu.
Only Juzo, who lacked large-scale destructive Ninjutsu or functional Ninjutsu like the Water Mirror Technique, could only charge forward with his Executioner's Blade.
For a moment, thunder rolled, Chakra Blades slashed, Bijudama roared, the frost dragon shrieked, the great blade howled... On this platform where defeating the enemy was the only path to survival, the Kirigakure's group fought with their lives on the line.
But their enemy, Aka, revealed a smile.
"Now this is starting to get a little interesting!"