Madara charged alone into the Stone Ninja army.
Like a raging war chariot, he barreled through them, unstoppable.
Ordinary ninjas could barely make out his figure. They only caught flashes of crimson darting through the ranks, as if he were painting a picture.
Wherever the red light passed, men were sent sprawling. He swept through them like a storm, leaving death and destruction in his wake.
The Stone Ninjas couldn't even brush the hem of Madara's clothes.
The Sharingan was formidable for more than just Genjutsu and special Dojutsu. Its tremendous boost to taijutsu and dynamic visual acuity was just as terrifying!
Even in a fight between ninjas with equal taijutsu skills, superior dynamic vision could easily give one a huge advantage.
Your movements looked as slow as a snail's to your opponent, while theirs seemed as fast as lightning to you.
There was simply no way to fight!
What's more, the Sharingan could easily see through and copy an enemy's taijutsu.
Whether it was ninjutsu or taijutsu, Madara was the pinnacle among ninjas.
He was the only person in all these years who could go toe-to-toe with the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, in close combat.
His famous line, "Do you want to dance, too?" was proof enough that Madara had reached the heights of taijutsu mastery.
In just a few minutes,
hundreds of Stone Ninjas had already fallen beneath Madara's dance.
And for Madara, that barely counted as a warm-up. It wasn't even enough to make him give his taijutsu everything he had.
High atop a sheer cliff, Natsu Yuu watched the slaughter with great interest.
Thanks to the Rinnegan's powerful boost to dynamic visual acuity, Natsu Yuu could follow Madara's movements and quickly imitate and learn his formidable taijutsu.
An opportunity like this didn't come often.
This was the strongest taijutsu in the Ninja World at the moment. Every move Madara made had been honed into a deadly technique over decades of combat.
Every strike was lethal, without any needless flourishes or wasted movement.
Of course, Natsu Yuu couldn't master it completely in just a few minutes.
But even copying the basics with the Rinnegan would be enough to make his combat skills soar. At least he wouldn't be a complete novice anymore.
Not bad, not bad!
Madara was dancing beautifully. He could keep it up a while longer.
Natsu Yuu continued to study Madara's taijutsu with rapt attention.
But before long,
he suddenly noticed two Stone Ninjas sneaking around the battlefield below and making their way toward him.
And they looked pretty strong.
One was a Chunin, while the other seemed to be a Tokubetsu Jonin.
They couldn't deal with Madara, so they were going after me, the easy target?
Did they think I was from Konoha, and that they could use me to threaten Madara?
Natsu Yuu instantly guessed what the two Stone Ninjas were thinking. Since they couldn't defeat their powerful opponent on the battlefield, they could only resort to underhanded tactics.
Still, Iwagakure couldn't be sure what kind of relationship he had with Madara.
That was probably why they'd only sent two people to test him.
Natsu Yuu didn't immediately teleport away.
This was a rare opportunity to test his Rinnegan's abilities.
He'd have to find a way to unite the seven parallel Ninja Worlds someday. He couldn't just teleport away in a panic whenever he saw an enemy ninja, could he?
Soon,
the two Stone Ninjas crept up behind Natsu Yuu, ready to strike.
"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Prison!"
"Wind Style: Thousand Wind Bullets!"
The two Stone Ninjas launched their ninjutsu at the same time. Both techniques were designed to restrain their target.
They were here to test Natsu Yuu, and ideally capture him alive so they could question him for information—or use him to threaten Madara.
Killing him outright would defeat the purpose.
Unfortunately,
Natsu Yuu had been ready for them and wasn't about to let them succeed.
"Sealing Technique: Absorption Seal!"
Natsu Yuu activated one of the Rinnegan's abilities in advance, forming a shield of suction all around himself.
It absorbed the ninjutsu they unleashed with ease.
Neither the Rock Pillar Prison nor the Thousand Wind Bullets so much as touched Natsu Yuu.
This was one of the reasons the Rinnegan was hailed as the most powerful Dojutsu. It could absorb nearly all ninjutsu, making it almost impossible for ordinary ninjas to deal with.
At the sight,
the two Stone Ninjas were horrified. They had no idea how Natsu Yuu had nullified their ninjutsu.
The unknown was often the most terrifying thing of all.
But Natsu Yuu was looking at the two of them with a very friendly smile.
The ninjutsu they'd used had been absorbed by his Rinnegan, giving him some extra Chakra.
It was only temporary, but still enough to have a little fun.
Well, well! Thanks for the Chakra, buddy!
I was just worrying that I didn't have enough Chakra to use the Rinnegan's abilities properly.
The next moment,
Natsu Yuu activated the ability of his left Rinnegan: Kagutsuchi!
An invisible force enveloped the Stone Ninja Chunin on the right. He immediately began convulsing, overcome by an unbearable itch inside his body.
Then countless tiny red spots appeared on the surface of his skin.
A faint gray-black mist seeped out through his pores and gradually gathered in front of Natsu Yuu.
At last, it formed a tiny black iron bead.
It was obvious that the substance was iron from the ninja's body.
Natsu Yuu had forcibly drawn it out with the magnetic field created by Kagutsuchi!
Kagutsuchi: Allows the user to generate and control electromagnetic forces within a certain range at will!
Natsu Yuu hadn't drawn much iron out of the ninja.
Only a few grams—about half the size of a fingernail.
Unfortunately, the Kunai his opponent carried were made of steel, so they weren't easy to control. Natsu Yuu would need more power to activate Kagutsuchi, strengthen the magnetic field, and magnetize them before he could manipulate them freely.
Still, this little bit of iron was enough.
He only wanted to try out what Kagutsuchi could do, after all.
It felt pretty good!
With just one Rinnegan ability, he was practically a knockoff Magneto.
He hadn't expected he could really pull all the iron out of an enemy's body!
By now,
the Stone Ninja whose iron had been drained had turned bloodred and stopped breathing. He'd collapsed unconscious on the spot.
In a few moments, he would die from a lack of blood and oxygen.
The Stone Ninja on the left had been too stunned to move. He'd never seen such a bizarre ninjutsu before.
He had no idea what the black mist Natsu Yuu had drawn from his teammate was, or how it had killed him.
Terror quickly overwhelmed him. He no longer cared about capturing Natsu Yuu alive.
All he wanted was to get as far away from this monster as possible.
So he turned and ran, scrambling to retreat.
"Don't leave so soon."
"Here, I've got a present for you. Catch!"
Natsu Yuu wasn't Magneto, and he certainly wasn't about to turn himself into some kind of Iron King like him.
Even the Rinnegan's gravitational force could be developed into a whole range of skills and applications.
And electromagnetic force was one of the other four fundamental forces!
At that moment,
Natsu Yuu used up all the Chakra he'd absorbed and activated Kagutsuchi again, controlling the small iron bead in front of him and aiming it at the fleeing Stone Ninja.
Bright blue arcs of electricity coiled around Natsu Yuu's arm, forming loops of rapidly fluctuating electromagnetic coils. They ultimately applied tremendous Ampère force to the iron bead.
"Boom!"
The iron bead instantly became a raging stream of metal ions and shot out with a thunderous roar.
It traced a dazzling arc of electricity through the air.
In the blink of an eye, it struck and pierced through the fleeing Stone Ninja.
At the sight, Natsu Yuu was thrilled.
Clearly, his derived Dojutsu, Railgun, had worked!
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