Chapter 97 (Patreon)

The thought alone caused Rasa’s expression to darken.

If his secret agreement with Kirigakure had truly been uncovered—or worse, exposed to the public—how could he possibly maintain his standing as the Kazekage?

His gaze swept across the elders seated before him, his expression grave.

“We may need to prepare for the worst.”

“Lord Kazekage, are you saying Konoha discovered the agreement between us and Kirigakure?” one of the elders asked in a low voice.

“It’s highly likely. Otherwise, why would Pakura still be alive? And why would she be accompanying shinobi from Konoha?” Rasa replied, taking a deep breath.

The atmosphere inside the room immediately grew heavier.

“If the ordinary shinobi of Sunagakure learn the truth, the consequences could be disastrous.”

“Then what should we do?” another elder asked solemnly.

“Send someone to inform Chiyo. For now, we’ll head to the village entrance and assess the situation ourselves. We’ll decide what to do after that.”

With a wave of his hand, Rasa rose from his seat and left the room with the elders following behind him.

At that moment, outside Sunagakure’s main entrance, Yujiro and the others stood calmly beneath the scorching desert sun.

“It seems Sunagakure has already made its intentions clear,” Yujiro remarked with a faint smile.

Through his chakra perception, he could sense at least a thousand Sunagakure shinobi positioned throughout the surrounding area.

They had taken full advantage of the desert terrain, concealing themselves behind dunes, rocky outcroppings, and defensive structures. To an ordinary shinobi, their positions would have been nearly impossible to detect.

Before Yujiro’s perception, however, they had nowhere to hide.

A series of sharp sounds suddenly cut through the air.

Rasa arrived with a group of Sunagakure elders and landed opposite Yujiro’s party.

The moment Yujiro laid eyes on the Fourth Kazekage, he activated his Simulation ability.

Five seconds later, the power was successfully copied.

Rasa’s kekkei genkai—Magnet Release—had become his.

【Ding! Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the Magnet Release kekkei genkai!】

【Limiter-unlocking progress increased by 5%. Current Limiter progress: 50%.】

【Congratulations to the Host for reaching 50%! Level Three has now become your normal state!】

In that instant, Yujiro’s aura surged dramatically before quickly settling once more.

Normal Level Three.

From now on, Yujiro no longer needed to consciously activate the third level of his Limiter. That state had become his new natural condition.

More importantly, his overall strength had risen significantly once again.

As he stood there, he felt as though he could wipe out every person before him with a mere lift of his hand.

Rasa and the elders had also sensed the sudden eruption of power. They assumed Yujiro had deliberately released his aura as a warning.

Only those familiar with him understood the truth.

He had just grown stronger again.

Shisui and Kakashi exchanged a brief glance, both suppressing the shock rising within them.

“What is Konoha’s purpose in coming to Sunagakure?” Rasa demanded coldly, his brow furrowing.

“I don’t particularly like that attitude.”

Yujiro’s voice suddenly came from behind him.

Rasa’s pupils contracted.

A streak of black light flashed through the air.

Before anyone could react, Rasa’s body was severed cleanly in half.

Yujiro had already attacked.

His movement had been so fast that none of the elders or surrounding shinobi had even seen him leave his original position.

However, Rasa was still the Fourth Kazekage. He had naturally taken precautions before confronting an unknown enemy.

The body that had been cut apart collapsed into loose sand before sinking into the ground.

More than ten meters away, Rasa slowly emerged from beneath the desert floor.

What incredible speed!

His expression became far more serious.

No. It looks like a battle is unavoidable.

Rasa possessed little reliable information regarding Yujiro’s true combat strength. He knew the young man was powerful, but he still believed that power remained within the limits of what Sunagakure could handle.

Furthermore, he had already deployed over a thousand shinobi around the village entrance.

Perhaps this was an opportunity.

If Sunagakure could eliminate Yujiro and his companions here, the village’s name would resound throughout the entire shinobi world.

As long as a person lived, ambition would exist within their heart.

Rasa was no exception.

“All shinobi, listen carefully!” he shouted as he rapidly retreated. “Kill Yujiro and every member of his group!”

He had made his decision.

Yujiro would die here.

The moment Rasa’s order rang out, the hidden Sunagakure forces burst from their concealed positions.

Shisui, Kakashi, and the others immediately entered combat stances.

Pakura’s expression turned exceptionally grim.

Rasa had not even attempted to speak with her after seeing that she was alive. Judging by his actions, he had already decided to sever every possible connection between them.

“Everyone, step back,” Yujiro said suddenly.

The others looked toward him.

“I want to test a few techniques.”

After acquiring so many kekkei genkai, Yujiro had rarely been given an opportunity to properly use them.

The army before him had arrived at the perfect time.

Shisui and the others immediately withdrew behind him.

Yujiro remained where he was, quietly watching the Sunagakure shinobi charge toward him without the slightest hesitation.

He could only sigh.

“If you want someone to blame, blame yourselves for following the wrong leader.”

Yujiro slowly raised his left hand.

The power of Level Three activated instantly.

“Ice Release: Absolute Zero!”

The temperature between heaven and earth plummeted.

A thin layer of frost spread over Yujiro’s left hand as an invisible field of extreme cold expanded from his palm.

The first wave of charging shinobi entered its range.

They immediately began coughing violently.

Their faces rapidly lost all color, becoming deathly pale before anyone could react.

The blood flowing through their bodies slowed.

Then it coagulated completely.

As their blood froze, their internal organs began to fail one after another. Their hearts stopped beating, their lungs ceased functioning, and even their brains gradually lost the ability to think.

Yet the temperature continued to fall.

Nearly a hundred shinobi had rushed into the range of Absolute Zero.

Within five or six seconds, every last one of them was dead.

Their frozen bodies toppled to the ground and shattered into countless fragments of ice.

They were all gone.

It was an eerie and horrifying death.

The remaining Sunagakure shinobi immediately halted their advance.

Every one of them stared at the scene in terror.

What kind of technique was this?

It had transformed almost a hundred people into frozen crystals in only a few seconds. Even their bodies had been shattered beyond recognition.

Yujiro studied the results before shaking his head slightly.

The power was acceptable, but the effective range was still somewhat lacking.

If he reached the later stages of Level Four—or perhaps advanced to an even higher level—would he be capable of freezing the entire world with a single thought?

Yujiro tilted his head and looked at the shinobi who no longer dared to approach.

A faint sneer appeared on his face.

“Where did all that courage go?”

However, their unwillingness to attack did not mean Yujiro intended to stop.

He raised his right hand and aimed it toward the densest concentration of enemy shinobi.

A faint smile touched his lips as he activated another Level Three ability.

“Storm Release: Black Thunder Kirin!”

The clouds above the desert churned violently.

A colossal black Kirin erupted from the heavens, its enormous body formed entirely from dark lightning.

Dazzling rays of Storm Release chakra twisted around its body. These were not ordinary flashes of light, but highly concentrated beams formed from powerful Storm Release chakra.

Their destructive force surpassed even that of ordinary lightning.

“ROAR!”

The black Kirin released a deafening roar before diving toward the Sunagakure forces below.

Its speed was truly comparable to lightning.

In an instant, the enormous beast struck the earth.

Blinding white and black light swallowed everything in sight.

BOOM!

The ground shook violently.

Cracks spread across the desert as a massive wave of destruction swept through the surrounding area.

The surviving shinobi stared at the terrifying scene with horror-filled eyes.

An attack of this magnitude had surely surpassed the level of an ordinary S-rank technique.

What kind of monster was Yujiro?

The destructive force of the Kirin gradually subsided.

When the light finally faded, only a handful remained of the more than one thousand Sunagakure shinobi who had originally surrounded them.

After examining the devastation caused by his Storm Release, Yujiro nodded slightly.

It had barely reached the level of destructive power he wanted.

Under normal circumstances, Storm Release alone would never have been capable of producing an attack of this scale.

However, after Yujiro acquired a kekkei genkai, he could enhance it through the power of his Limiter.

Any kekkei genkai that fell into Yujiro’s hands could become the foundation of an S-rank technique—or even something surpassing S-rank.

“YUJİRO!”

Rasa finally recovered from his shock.

Yujiro’s attacks had unfolded far too quickly. Only a few seconds had passed, yet almost every shinobi Rasa had deployed had already been wiped out.

Rage twisted the Kazekage’s features.

He raised both hands and unleashed his Magnet Release without the slightest restraint.

He immediately used one of his strongest killing techniques.

“Magnet Release: Gold Dust Burial!”

Rasa slammed both palms against the ground.

The entire desert began to tremble.

A vast quantity of gold dust surged beneath the sand.

Unlike ordinary sand, Rasa’s gold dust possessed far greater density and weight. Because of that, the destructive force it could produce was also significantly greater.

Shisui, Kakashi, and the others immediately prepared themselves to fight. All they needed was a single order from Yujiro.

“Don’t panic,” Yujiro said with a faint smile. “It’s only Magnet Release. You say that as though you’re the only one who can use it.”

Rasa’s body stiffened.

“Magnet Release?”

Magnet Release was a rare kekkei genkai associated with Sunagakure’s Kazekage lineage.

How could Yujiro possibly possess it?

Even after hearing the words directly from Yujiro’s mouth, Rasa refused to believe them.

The gold dust beneath the ground continued gathering around Yujiro’s group, forming a massive wave that threatened to swallow them all.

Yujiro watched it approach.

Then he spoke a single word.

“Stop.”

The advancing gold dust froze in place.

It remained suspended across the desert as though time itself had come to a halt.

“What?!”

Rasa’s eyes widened fiercely as he stared at the scene in disbelief.

That gold dust was being controlled by his own chakra.

How could someone else seize control of it?

Refusing to accept what he was seeing, Rasa poured even more chakra into his Magnet Release.

“Magnet Release: Gold Dust Great Wave!”

An enormous quantity of gold dust erupted from the ground behind him.

It rapidly gathered together, rising higher and higher until it resembled a vast golden ocean.

The wave roared toward Yujiro and the others.

“Interesting.”

Yujiro faced the approaching sea of gold dust without the slightest change in expression.

He swept one hand through the air.

His own Magnet Release erupted without restraint.

“Magnet Release: Magnetic World Method!”

The desert beneath Yujiro’s group exploded upward.

As the sand was torn into the air, the ground below revealed an even more terrifying sight.

Ordinary sand, gold dust, and even the iron buried deep beneath the desert began to churn violently.

Sand.

Gold dust.

Iron sand.

All three materials erupted into a frenzy.

Across an area nearly a kilometer wide, they gathered together and hardened into countless enormous spikes.

In the next instant, those spikes burst outward in every direction.

Within the range of the Magnetic World Method, the remaining Sunagakure shinobi were pierced before they could escape.

The village elders suffered the same fate.

In a matter of moments, every remaining shinobi and senior elder had been killed.

Only Rasa remained.

The Fourth Kazekage stood alone amid the devastation, desperately struggling to resist Yujiro’s technique.