Boom! Boom! Boom!
The massive fireball roared as it collided with the barrier, exploding like a wave crashing against a reef. Scorching torrents of flame slid harmlessly down the smooth walls of the結界 (barrier), failing to make it tremor even slightly.
The Iwa ninjas who had lunged forward felt their kunai and blades strike the barrier with an ear-piercing screech of metal. The violent recoil shattered their grips and split the skin between their thumbs and index fingers. Their weapons flew from their hands as they were thrown back, as if slamming into an invisible mountain.
They cried out as they tumbled through the air, crashing heavily into the stone walls or the hard ground. The sound of snapping bones was sickeningly clear.
Despair, like a cold tide, instantly flooded the hearts of every Iwa ninja. Their strongest attacks couldn't even scratch the enemy's defense. This wasn't a fight; it was a massacre across different dimensions of power.
Yakushi Nono's pupils constricted. The moment the Northern Star Sage Barrier expanded, she moved!
Not to attack—but to retreat.
Her body became as weightless as willow catkins, drifting backward with incredible speed. Her target was the narrow escape tunnel at the rear of the outpost, leading into a complex labyrinth of rock fissures. Years as a spy had taught her one thing: in the face of absolute power, resistance is futile. The only path to survival is flight.
She had encountered such crises more than once, but she had always survived through caution and lack of hesitation. Her movement was ghostly; almost as the barrier fully extended and her comrades were sent flying, she had already reached the entrance. One more step and she would vanish into the crevice.
However, in that split second, Shura turned his head. Beneath the white, three-eyed fox mask, his left eye suddenly ignited with a crimson light!
It wasn't the scarlet of the Sharingan, but something more sinister and pure—a blood-red glow like boiling gore or burning lava.
Red Eye: Open.
An invisible wave of interference targeting perception and vision erupted. Nono's world suddenly blurred. The familiar rock tunnel entrance twisted and deformed before her eyes. Her sense of direction was instantly scrambled; the exit, which was within reach, now seemed as distant as the horizon.
A wave of intense vertigo struck her brain, causing her high-speed movement to falter. She lost her balance for less than half a second.
That was the fatal delay.
In that heartbeat of hesitation, Shura flickered and appeared directly behind her. A large hand clad in a black fingerless glove snapped out like a steel vice, seizing Nono's slender yet powerful wrist with irresistible force. Simultaneously, his other hand shot out with lightning speed, precisely gripping the back of her neck!
Nono felt an overwhelming surge of power. With her wrist and neck seized, her chakra was instantly suppressed and locked by a cold, violent foreign energy. Her body felt bound by invisible chains; all her skills and strength were rendered pathetic under that iron grip.
She snapped her head around, meeting the white fox mask at point-blank range. The cold texture of the mask seemed to graze her cheek.
"Don't move," a flat, emotionless voice whispered in her ear.
Nono's body went rigid. Her will to resist crumbled under the absolute weight of his presence. She closed her eyes in resignation, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. Years of dancing on the edge of a blade told her that struggling now would only invite death.
The outpost fell into a deathly silence. The surviving Iwa ninjas watched in stunned silence as the mysterious and powerful Shura easily subdued a medical ninja in the midst of their combined assault.
Menma held Yakushi Nono by the neck, ignoring the terrified gazes of the survivors. The Northern Star Sage Barrier continued to pulse with light, walling off their courage. Even the Iwa Jonin sat paralyzed on the ground, watching the woman be taken, his breathing shallow and careful for fear of drawing the reaper's attention.
Nono seemed to have accepted her fate, her body limp, her face pale. However, just as Menma prepared to activate the Flying Thunder God, her top-tier spy instincts caught a trace of something unusual.
Beneath her panicked eyelids, her pupils shifted slightly. She felt it—the hand gripping her neck, while suppressing her chakra, carried an indescribable warmth and vastness, as if originating from the very source of life itself.
Shura...
What shook her even more was that at this proximity, through the narrow angle of the mask's eye sockets, she caught a glimpse of... a fleeting scarlet?
That color wasn't the white or dark red of the mask. It looked like... a Sharingan?
The thought exploded in her mind like a thunderclap. Shura has the Sharingan? How is that possible?!
The shock was so great she almost opened her eyes to confirm it. But Menma gave her no time for further observation. The formula for the Flying Thunder God was instantly triggered.
The twisted black figure and the captured medical ninja—along with the massive barrier—were wiped away like ink by an invisible hand. They vanished into thin air before the hollow eyes of the Iwa ninjas.
Land of Stars, Underground Prison.
When Menma pushed open the iron door, Uchiha Hikari hurriedly slammed a book shut.
"Stay here and don't think about escaping," Menma said as he tossed Yakushi Nono—whose chakra points were completely sealed—into a cell.
In the neighboring cell, Hiruko was curled in the corner, hugging his knees and shivering, seemingly still trapped in the aftereffects of the Mangekyo's genjutsu.
"Hmm?" Menma noticed Hikari's face was unusually flushed. "Why is your face so red?"
"It's... it's nothing... Why are you back so fast?" Hikari's eyes darted around as she tried to hide the book behind her back.
Menma's gaze shifted toward the concealed volume. On the cover, the words "XX Paradise" were faintly visible.