Was this the new Outsider Power he had gained?
Looking at the scene before him, feeling through Susanoo's sensory touch the unyielding hardness that could no longer be compressed even as he clenched tighter, Uchiha Nobuhiko's expression slowly froze, and his heart sank.
At that moment, reflected in his eyes was a humanoid stone statue with a metallic sheen, as hard as steel—no, even harder than steel. Even the second stage of Susanoo could not crush it, not even leave a crack in it.
Rock Hardening Technique! Uchiha Nobuhiko knew very well that this was the defensive Earth Release jutsu Taki Chiba often used.
But an ordinary Rock Hardening Technique could not possibly become this hard.
Earth Release was, at most, a defensive Earth Release jutsu. Compared with absolute defensive techniques like Susanoo and Rotation, it was ultimately far weaker, much less capable of withstanding Susanoo's crushing grip.
Clearly, it had been improved.
It was not merely the Rock Hardening Technique.
It was even possible that it was not any currently known Earth Release jutsu at all, but a new technique formed purely through Chakra's Nature Transformation and Shape Transformation—a new branch of Earth Release.
For example, through further Nature Transformation, Water Release could become oil.
This Earth Release jutsu was likely something Taki Chiba had developed by further transforming Earth Release's nature, turning stone into a substance like an extremely hard metal.
And that was not even the most important part. What mattered most was that this further Nature Transformation could produce such an incredibly hard, metal-like substance capable of resisting Susanoo's power. That was already nearly unimaginable, even enough to overturn everything he knew.
Even Uchiha Nobuhiko, who had lived so many lives and could be called the most knowledgeable Reincarnator in the ninja world, had never seen