Iaijutsu

"Iaijutsu!"

Ruri slashed his blade through the air. A surge of sword intent erupted, soaring toward the waterfall. The strike was earth-shattering; even the ninjas far away in Takigakure witnessed the scene, their hearts filled with shock and disbelief!

In that instant, the void was torn open by a sharp, several-meter-long blade of energy. A white shockwave rippled outward in all directions. Before the roar of the sonic boom could even reach them, the blade energy had already slammed into the waterfall!

The momentum of this strike was magnificent, forcing every Iwagakure ninja beneath the waterfall to retreat several steps!

Under the weight of this blade energy, the waterfall, dozens of meters high, was cleaved in two.

The waterfall, which had been surging with enough force to cause landslides, was sliced clean through the middle. The upper half of the cascade stopped flowing as if blocked by a massive dam!

A blade that cuts a waterfall! The ultimate strike!

What kind of power was this?

Perhaps Uchiha Madara could achieve this with a full-power strike while activating Susanoo, but that would be borrowing the power of those cheat eyes! Yet, Ruri's strike was merely pure sword intent combined with chakra!

At this moment, the residual shockwaves of the blade energy scattered completely!

"Squeak!"

The Iwagakure ninjas looked up in unison, staring at the broken flow. The blade energy had pierced straight through the waterfall and severed the entire cliffside!

The cliff was visibly shorter; the section where the blade energy had passed was forcibly erased into thin air!

Countless people in Takigakure were left dumbstruck. They only knew that the Takikage had gone to that waterfall with the Iwagakure delegation today, but they had no idea what had actually transpired!

"Is this something that can be achieved through swordsmanship?" Hagane Masamasa couldn't help but doubt his own existence, while the ordinary Iwagakure ninjas were already too stunned to speak!

Mu's expression was unreadable. Who the hell knew you could pull off a strike like that?! If you can slice a chunk off a cliff, why do you need me to laboriously carve out mountains with Particle Style? If you can stop a waterfall, why make me waste my time and effort altering the terrain? Am I just sitting around with nothing better to do with my chakra?!

Before this, Mu had been full of joy, thinking that even a Kage like the Takikage—one of the Six Kage—had to beg for his help with Particle Style. But now, he realized he was completely wrong. This guy was a monster! Forget Atomic Dismantling Jutsu; even Limitless Atomic Dismantling Jutsu probably couldn't slice mountains and waterfalls with such ease!

"Eh?! Oh no, Lord Mu, the waterfall is starting to flow again!" A quick-witted Iwagakure ninja reacted just in time. The waterfall, which Ruri had defied common sense to split, had only paused for a minute before cascading down once more! And this time, because the mountain had been further damaged, the water flow was even more violent!

So I still have to clean up after you cut it! Mu scrambled to issue orders, and everything returned to the previous state, relying on the Iwagakure ninjas' Earth Release to maintain stability, continuing to build the lake and lower the terrain.

"..." Hagane Maomori felt a bit awkward. His own Takikage had unleashed such an earth-shattering strike that it cut the waterfall in half, yet nothing had actually changed?

Ruri rubbed his nose, feeling he might have overestimated himself. His chakra was limited; although this strike had surpassed the Kage level, it still couldn't defy the laws of physics. If the waterfall was meant to flow, it would flow...

"Ahem... well, Masamasa, forge me a steel blade." Ruri coughed lightly to hide his embarrassment; the katana he had borrowed earlier didn't even have a hilt left.

"..." Lord Takikage, what are you trying to do? Another strike? The one you just did didn't even work! However, Hagane Masamasa didn't voice his thoughts and, following Ruri's instructions, forged a steel katana.

The texture of this steel blade was far superior to the Iwagakure ninjas' flimsy swords. Ruri found it much more comfortable to hold. Somehow, after grasping the intent of Iaijutsu, he felt an innate sense of familiarity with blades.

That was my first time using Iaijutsu, so I was a bit rusty and lacked enough chakra. This time, I'll make the Seven-Tails pay some rent, use more chakra, and with a better blade, it will definitely work! Ruri thought to himself as he assumed his stance.

A massive amount of the Seven-Tails' chakra gathered in his body. He suddenly raised the katana, holding it across his waist. His entire being seemed to transform into the blade itself. Whether it was chakra or sword intent, all his power fused into a single point at this moment!

"Iaijutsu!"

The blade energy unleashed this time was even more condensed than before. Infused with a vast amount of chakra, it became almost tangible, illuminating the darkening sky as if it were broad daylight, like the rising sun in the east. Furthermore, it was laced with a trace of natural energy!

Although Ruri could not enter Sage Mode and could not actively manipulate natural energy, this strike had drawn it in! To be precise, this blade energy had caused the natural energy to follow in its wake spontaneously!

The Earth Release ninjas stopped once again. Whether it was the stunned Iwagakure ninjas or the Takigakure ninjas gazing at this from afar, their eyes held nothing but this blade energy, which seemed even brighter than the sun. They could see nothing else!

The blade energy slammed into the cliffside with a deafening roar. The cliff, already shortened, suffered again. As it cut through the waterfall and shattered the cliff, the sound of the mountain crumbling was even louder than before!

Hagane Masamasa felt this scene was familiar. In Ruri's hands, the cliff was like the ingredients in Ono's hands. The difference was that Ono sliced ingredients piece by piece to make delicious sushi, while Ruri had forcibly shaved several meters off the cliff out of thin air!

"It... it completely stopped?" Mu stared at the waterfall in disbelief. A minute had passed since the strike, yet the waterfall showed no sign of flowing again!

The sun gradually peeked out. Under the sunlight, the waterfall seemed as if time had stopped, reflecting a myriad of brilliant rays.

Just as Mu began to feel that this opponent was insurmountable, a leisurely voice drifted into his ears: "Are we still building the lake or not?"

Ruri maintained a calm demeanor. If Kakuzu were here, he would know Ruri was definitely faking it. It was just like when he had detonated the Truth-Seeking Orb earlier; he had exhausted not only his own chakra but the Seven-Tails' chakra as well.

But Mu and the others didn't know the truth; they assumed Ruri had unleashed that strike with ease!

"Yes, yes, sink this part a bit more to serve as the center of the lake... if we could make an island in the middle, it could be used for vacations..."

"Build two river channels here to divert the flow, and create a shallower paddy field so we can relocate some villagers to farm."

"Build a dam here to block the water, otherwise, it won't hold."

"Hey, you there, don't you know Fire Release? Roast this area to evaporate the moisture and reinforce it..."

"Masamasa, don't just stand there, use Steel Release to block this side..."

The Iwagakure ninjas numbly followed Ruri's commands, inadvertently serving as a construction crew once again.

Ruri was very satisfied with the gradually changing terrain. He couldn't keep the waterfall stopped forever; that defied physics and wasn't scientific. Once the sword intent and natural energy dissipated, the waterfall would naturally continue to flow. But by then, the terrain below would be ready, waiting for the water to fill the artificial lake!

Furthermore, he had deliberately left space for paddy fields. Takigakure didn't have large tracts of arable land, so this would be perfect for fertile fields. He could even use the new waterwheels he had designed! How delightful!