With Tsuchikage Ishikawa and the other Iwagakure elites dead,
the battle was drawing to a close.
Looking around,
the vast battlefield in the Gobi had been hacked to pieces by Susanoo. Countless bodies lay in pools of blood, and the whole place was a shambles.
A rough estimate put the death toll at at least a thousand ninjas.
The number of wounded was even greater.
The terrain around Iwagakure had been transformed on a massive scale. Deep canyons thousands of meters long were especially shocking to behold, enough to make anyone tremble.
The surviving ninjas were still fleeing, wishing they had never joined [Iwagakure].
As for Natsu Yuu,
ever since he saw Madara activate [Perfect Susanoo],
he had been certain that there was almost no suspense left in this battle.
At the Super Kage level, it was almost impossible to wear someone down with sheer numbers.
The Third Raikage, for instance, had been able to fight tens of thousands of Stone Ninja on his own, and even he had only died after exhausting himself.
How could the newly established Iwagakure possibly gather ten thousand ninjas?
And even if they somehow managed to scrape together that many,
did they think [Perfect Susanoo] was inferior to the Third Raikage's [Lightning Release Armor]?
Or that Madara had less Chakra than the Third Raikage, who could fight for three days and three nights?
Therefore,
the outcome of this battle had long been decided.
After all, the concept of ninja villages had only just emerged in this era. How many ninjas would be willing to risk their lives for Iwagakure, a village that had been founded less than three months ago?
Several thousand people against one person.
They might throw their weight around when things were going their way, but who would be willing to throw their life away when the tide turned?
Besides, even if they fought to the bitter end without fear of death, did that mean they could defeat Madara Uchiha?
The brutal wars of the Ninja World had never changed according to the will of ninjas.
In the end,
the ninjas of the [Land of Earth] had suffered because they lacked experience. They had heard of Hashirama and Madara's fame and knew they were powerful.
But just how powerful were they?
They had absolutely no clear idea.
If they had been one of the ninja clans in the [Land of Fire], who had witnessed the great battle between the Senju and Uchiha, they would never have found the courage to oppose Madara.
Otherwise, why had the Sarutobi Clan, the Shimura Clan, the Hyuga Clan, and the others
come running to join as soon as they heard that the Senju and Uchiha had joined forces to found a village?
Did they really think they were all fools?
The battle was over.
Madara was still clearing the battlefield. A tiny handful of Iwagakure loyalists were putting up a desperate resistance, attacking Madara without the slightest fear of death.
Normally,
Madara, having had his fill of fighting, couldn't have been bothered to deal with these Sand Ninja.
But considering his deal with Natsu Yuu and the hope of bringing his younger brother Izuna back to life, Madara decided to put in a little more effort and wipe out these Iwagakure diehards.
Natsu Yuu was very pleased.
That's Madara for you!
His reliability, execution, efficiency, and craftsmanship...
Even the most dedicated corporate drone would have to bow down to him.
With Madara and Hashirama on their side, unifying the Ninja World was just around the corner!
Natsu Yuu eagerly opened the system and checked the increase in the unification progress for this [World 1].
[Unification Progress of Naruto World 1: 35%→52%]
Just as expected, the progress had shot up!
It had increased by a full 17%!
It seemed the destruction of [Iwagakure] was indeed very important.
But how could he make up the remaining 48%?
At this point in time, apart from Konoha and Iwagakure, the other three of the Five Great Hidden Villages hadn't officially been founded yet.
There was nowhere else to go and destroy!
As for the other small countries, they hadn't even shown the first signs of establishing ninja villages.
Was he supposed to kill all the other ninja clans in the remaining three countries?
Or would he have to completely destroy the nations of the other four great countries?
Destroying a ninja village wouldn't be difficult.
But completely conquering a country wouldn't be so easy.
He could destroy it entirely by force, but even if he put the Ten-Tails to work, it would be exhausted—and he couldn't be sure that would count as "unification."
Or he could crush the country completely in spirit and culture, but that would be no easy task either. It would take a great deal of preparation and planning.
Natsu Yuu thought it over for a while, then decided not to worry about it just yet.
He would have plenty of time and energy to figure it out later.
For now, he should use his rewards.
The unification progress had risen from 35% to 52%, passing the 40% and 50% milestones and earning Natsu Yuu two lottery draws.
Natsu Yuu immediately opened the two lottery chests.
[Congratulations! You obtained one Modern Item Redemption Voucher!] [Congratulations! You obtained one Premium Ninjutsu Scroll: Lightning Release: Raikiri!]
Natsu Yuu was taken aback.
He had already gotten the former from the Beginner's Gift Pack, so he was familiar with it.
But what was the latter?
A ninjutsu scroll?
[Lightning Release: Raikiri]?
Would using it let him learn the technique?
Probably.
But why was it labeled "premium"?
Natsu Yuu opened the system and looked into it. Only then did he understand.
There were three kinds of ninjutsu scrolls from the system's lottery chests: ordinary, rare, and premium.
[Ordinary Ninjutsu Scrolls] allowed the user to quickly master the ninjutsu recorded in the scroll. [Rare Ninjutsu Scrolls] allowed the user to master the recorded ninjutsu extremely quickly and granted a certain amount of additional Chakra. [Premium Ninjutsu Scrolls] allowed the user to instantly master the recorded ninjutsu, granted a large amount of additional Chakra, and bestowed the corresponding Chakra nature.
So he really had gotten lucky!
He had drawn a premium ninjutsu scroll right off the bat.
Wait, it could grant a large amount of additional Chakra?
He was in desperate need of Chakra!
Although he had [World Teleportation] as a fallback and a powerful pair of [Rinnegan],
his physical constitution was too weak and he had too little Chakra. He couldn't bring out the true power of the [Rinnegan] at all!
Now he could improve that right away.
He really liked a system like this—whatever he needed, it gave him!
It was far better than those other systems that treated their hosts like donkeys, worked them to the bone, and pinched every last penny.
Natsu Yuu immediately used the ninjutsu scroll.
The scroll dissolved into a shower of light and swiftly merged into Natsu Yuu's body.
A vast amount of ninjutsu and taijutsu knowledge flooded Natsu Yuu's mind, allowing him to instantly master the S-rank technique [Lightning Release: Raikiri].
[Raikiri] wasn't just a ninjutsu. It also involved a powerful taijutsu technique for charging in at high speed.
Although it was technically similar to [Chidori], its difficulty and power as a taijutsu technique were clearly greater.
But that wasn't what Natsu Yuu cared about.
The important thing was
that this [Premium Ninjutsu Scroll] had indeed granted him a new Chakra nature.
Natsu Yuu's Chakra natures had changed from [Fire, Wind] to [Fire, Wind, Lightning].
On top of that,
his originally meager Chakra had increased dozens of times over!
And the increase to his maximum reserves was permanent!
Simply put, Natsu Yuu's physical constitution and mental strength had both surged by a considerable amount!
Without concrete measurements, Natsu Yuu couldn't tell exactly how much his Chakra had increased.
But he was far stronger than the two Stone Ninja who had just emerged!
He had more than enough Chakra to use [Shinra Tensei] several times!
That meant that, whether or not he could kill anyone,
he had enough Chakra to freely use the two unique abilities of his [Rinnegan] and keep experimenting with new Dojutsu.
Natsu Yuu was delighted, practically buzzing with excitement.
He was just about to try out a new way to use [Kagutsuchi], or fire off another high-powered "Railgun" to see if he could blast a small mountain away!
But over on the battlefield in the distance, Madara had just finished mopping up.
He was heading back this way.
Natsu Yuu had no choice but to suppress his excitement and prepare to welcome the "great hero who destroyed a village."
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