Whoosh!
Shedding its plain facade, the vacuum wind blade erupted in a blinding flash!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt—!
As the violent wind surged, the long-suppressed lightning let out a shrill, ear-piercing scream, sounding like a thousand birds singing in unison!
"Tsk—what is this?!"
The Third Raikage, A, couldn't help but furrow his brows tightly, his face contorting in pain.
The shrill vibration and thunderous roar, pushing the limits of human hearing, instantly burst the eardrums of both men. Blood trickled down their ears, staining their jaws.
The lightning assisted the wind, making it razor-sharp! The wind assisted the lightning, making its wail resonate through heaven and earth!
This was the sonic attack that A's Lightning Release Armor could not defend against! This was the true terror of a composite ninjutsu!
At this moment, Ren Uchiha showed no concern for the collateral damage. He was willing to pay the price of mutual deafness just to temporarily shatter A's sense of hearing.
The Third Raikage was far too powerful; his close-quarters combat experience was overwhelming. Ren suspected that if the man had a status screen, his Taijutsu would be at a level beyond mastery.
The only way to win was to drag the opponent down to his own level!
If we go blind, we go blind together. If we go deaf, we go deaf together! There would be no favoritism here!
Without a heartbeat of hesitation, the golden sword light shot directly toward the lightning-shaped scar on A's left chest!
Seeing this, A's pupils shrank.
How is this possible? How could this kid know about that weak point?!
Is it... a lucky guess?
The intel couldn't have leaked. Tutai, the only one who knew, died at the hands of Uchiha Setsuna.
And yet, this boy made a life-or-death gamble based on a single encounter...
This brand of madness instantly reminded A of a powerful man he had personally slain ten years ago.
The sudden surge of danger caused his entire body to tense. He instinctively retracted his left hand, which had been reaching for Ren's head. In an incredibly narrow window of time, he pulled back his elbow and opened his palm, slamming it over the scar on his left chest just before the golden blade could pierce through to his heart.
Pshhh!
The golden light slammed into the surging Lightning Release Armor on the back of A's left hand!
Zzzzzzzzzzz—!
A shrill, grinding screech erupted as the lightning and wind blades pushed forward like a drill! The brilliant golden light swallowed both men, robbing them of their sight.
Then, this technique—a fusion of extreme piercing power and elemental advantage—actually sliced through the surface of the Lightning Release Armor!
The golden blade bit into the back of A's hand, piercing through the flesh and bone of his palm. It was a mere hair's breadth away from touching his chest!
But then, Ren felt a massive resistance. He could no longer push forward. The Third Raikage had used the muscles in his palm to clamp down on the wind blade!
Underneath that armor, A's body was so resilient it didn't even feel human. It felt like trying to cut through a diamond.
Ren narrowed his eyes. He could try to push further, using the Kusanagi's innate sharpness to sever the man's arm, but he decisively abandoned the thought. A hair-raising premonition of danger told him that staying here was a death sentence.
In the original story, Sasuke's Chidori could pierce through the Fourth Raikage's armor but couldn't push through his body. Ren realized that while he was facing the even sturdier Third Raikage, his Super-Vibrating Vacuum Blade had achieved a similar result.
The verification was complete. There was no need to stay fixated on the chest scar.
The Third Raikage, in his non-reanimated state, wasn't invincible. The throat, the carotid artery, the brain, the upper abdomen, the stomach, the liver, the groin—any of these points, if struck, could paralyze or kill a human.
He had many chances!
Ren's gaze turned cold. He slammed a foot into A's armor, using the recoil to rip his bloodied, hollowed chest away from A's right arm. He flipped backward and landed.
Without a moment of lag, Ren dropped into a low crouch, twisted his foot against the ground, and whipped a kunai from his pouch. Holding the wire attached to the kunai, he used the Water Style: Surface Slash to glide between A's legs, passing behind him. Using his immense core strength, he pushed off into a handstand and leaped.
He flipped 360 degrees in mid-air, his blade gleaming! He gripped the Kusanagi with both hands and twisted his body.
"Go to hell, you old dog in a turtle shell!!"
Ren let out a furious roar, gripping the golden blade in a reverse hold and driving it straight down toward A's crown! The golden edge reflected A's startled face as the old man looked up.
In the next moment, the old man—who couldn't hear Ren's words but knew they weren't compliments—flared with rage. This kid's techniques were full of deception and trickery, and it was starting to grate on his nerves!
To him, it felt like fighting a cunning flea, a buzzing mosquito, or a frantic fly. His vast combat experience was being neutralized by these petty tactics, giving him a stifling sense of frustration.
His blood pressure was rising. He had had enough!
"Brat!"
"You've truly angered me!"
Thud! Thud!
A pivoted, slamming both feet into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust! He clenched his blood-stained left palm, his hair and beard standing on end as he roared:
"Now, I'm going to beat you to death!!"
Ren, who also couldn't hear the old man's rambling, suddenly felt the Zero-Tails in his abdomen process a large amount of chakra, replenishing the energy he had lost when his flame sword and fist were shattered.
Then, he saw the old man turn around and stand perfectly still. He even tilted his head back, glaring up at Ren with wide, furious eyes.
The sight was almost comical. Ren wanted to laugh.
What, you old fossil? You think you can catch my blade with your teeth?!
A was practically offering his head on a silver platter. Ren's eyes lit up. Without hesitation, he gripped the hilt so hard the veins on his arms and forehead bulged!
He stabbed downward with all his might!
However, as he looked up at the golden blade capable of grinding stone to dust, A coldly squeezed out a few words:
"The Strongest—"
"LIGHTNING RELEASE ARMOR!!"
The moment those chilling words fell, the spiraling, thick black clouds in the sky suddenly brightened!
—CRACK!
A bolt of lightning snaked through the clouds, striking the Third Raikage and connecting him to the heavens!
Bathed in the falling bolt, the lightning armor on A's body exploded outward, deforming and expanding drastically! His long white hair stood straight up! Intense electricity arced everywhere, charring the ground and sending a wave of paralysis through Ren, even as he was still above the man's head.
A heartbeat later, the golden sword struck the erupting armor. Ren felt as if he had stabbed a massive block of adamantite. Despite the piercing power of his jutsu, he could only push in inch by inch.
Against this old man, that speed was an uncrossable chasm.
Looking at the old man who had suddenly transformed into something resembling a "Super Saiyan," Ren's face contorted. He wondered if he had wandered into the wrong genre. His eyes filled with dread.
"Holy—! This thing has a second phase?!"
A terrifying premonition exploded in his mind. But before the vision could even form, a speed far exceeding Ren's Battle Intuition took over.
A pair of thick arms, wreathed in violent lightning, appeared like a flash and vanished just as quickly.
Then, Ren felt his waist being seized and his body lifted. The brute force, like that of a rampaging bull, hoisted him high. For a moment, he saw flashes of his life—he saw himself being held high by his father eighteen years ago before being dropped.
Great, now I'm seeing my life flash before my eyes...
The world spun and blurred in a dizzying whirl. And then, all Ren could see was—
The ground!
"Uryahhhhhh—!!"
"LIGER BOMB!!!"
In the blink of an eye, the thunderous strike of steel hammered down, sending Ren straight toward nirvana!
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