True Face

"Mu of the Hidden Stone? Why have you come here?" A figure suddenly appeared on the surface of the lake nearby. He was barefoot, dressed in white, and possessed a head of white hair, yet his face was that of an eerily youthful man.

"Lord Seimei!" Upon seeing the newcomer, the four men shouted in excitement. Even the armored fat man with the severed arm seemed to forget his pain, his expression turning fanatical.

Seimei hovered in the air, looking down at the four with a blank expression. "As tools, if you cannot serve a purpose, you become scrap metal. You are no different."

A massive suction force emanated from Seimei, extending toward the four men. The ninja tools on their bodies turned into specks of white light and flew away from them!

"Disgusting. I have waited here for three days. Fujiwara Clan, the Cursed Blade Muramasa belongs to me. Your performance is disappointing." Seimei took a few steps forward and spoke with his head held high.

His voice was not loud, but it traveled across the lake as if he were speaking right into one's ear.

"Save... save me..." Fujiwara Masatsune struggled for a moment before collapsing to the ground, blood leaking from his seven orifices.

Genjutsu? Or was it the ninja tools? Could they really do something to this extent? Looking at Seimei, who was fully armed with countless ninja tools, Ruri felt this was going to be tricky.

Seimei looked at Ruri and asked again, "Why have you come here?"

"Hidden Stone classified intelligence." Ruri stepped forward, landing on the surface of the water.

Chakra erupted from him, and in an instant, the calm lake surged with towering waves. Columns of rising water struck at Seimei like swords!

His blade was already drawn. Ruri held the sword in his left hand, its surface covered in a layer of violet-blue chakra. He shot forward like a sharp arrow, his figure obscured by the splashing water, leaving only a long white wake on the lake to mark his position.

The distance of over a hundred meters was covered in an instant under the full burst of the Seven-Tails Chakra Mode. Even if it didn't reach the level of the Flying Thunder God, it was not far off.

This was the trump card Ruri had developed over the past three months. He did not want to rely on a system that gave out rewards at random. Naruto had developed the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode using the Nine-Tails' chakra; since it was all Tailed Beast chakra, there was no reason Ruri couldn't do the same. Moreover, he possessed a Truth-Seeking Orb and the perfect seal of the Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals, making the process even more intuitive for him than it was for Naruto.

Although the Seven-Tails Chakra Mode could not manifest multiple chakra arms or sense malice and goodwill, its other functions were no different from the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Furthermore, due to the nature of the Seven-Tails itself, the mode could manifest a pair of chakra wings, facilitating flight.

Wings sprouted from his ribs! Violet-blue wings appeared behind Ruri, lifting him off the lake and toward Seimei in the air.

"Get down!" He slashed with his blade. The Seven-Tails Chakra Mode could not be maintained for long, so Ruri chose to end the fight quickly.

"This chakra? It is nothing more than a ninja's tool." The armor on Seimei's back shifted and expanded, extending two iron wings. He glided through the air, nimbly evading Ruri's strike.

"Come." Seimei pointed at the ground. The four men by the lake were connected by threads of chakra. Before long, their chakra dissipated bit by bit, becoming fuel for the ninja tools on Seimei's body, leaving behind only mummified corpses.

"They were your subordinates."

"Subordinates? They were merely tools. If they are not strong enough, they remain tools. Even you are nothing more than a tool for the Tsuchikage, and the Tsuchikage is merely a tool for the Land of Earth. My existence is meant to end all of this!" Seimei retracted his iron wings and stepped onto the water with his bare feet, speaking eloquently without a hint of emotion.

"A madman..." Ruri didn't know what was wrong with this guy, but he didn't look like a sane person. Regardless, Seimei had to die.

"Go." Seimei stood motionless. With a light tap of his toe and his hands pressed together, three dragon-shaped chakra constructs extended from his armor. Guided by these, the lake water around Ruri formed two walls, closing in on him.

Is this the power of ninja tools? The power Seimei possessed after his resurrection in the original story was far greater than this! But perhaps only someone with this level of strength could speak of destroying the Five Great Nations. To be able to unleash attacks no less powerful than A-rank ninjutsu using only ninja tools and a minuscule amount of chakra...

Ruri's expression was grave. He swung his blade horizontally, and the violet-blue blade aura infused with Seven-Tails chakra sliced the water walls into pieces, causing them to collapse back into the lake as mere water.

However, at that moment, Seimei launched his second attack.

What would it feel like to be hit by light? The armor on Seimei's body evolved into a giant sword. The sword reflected the light, and the brilliant radiance formed physical entities, scattering toward Ruri like countless senbon. They were not only incredibly sharp but moved at near light speed.

"Iaijutsu!" Ruri slashed out, as if delivering countless strikes at once. Each ray of light was met by a blade, falling into the lake with dull, rhythmic splashes.

"Who exactly are you? Mu's ninjutsu should be Particle Style." Having had two consecutive attacks easily neutralized, Seimei began to sense that something was wrong. As one of the figures standing at the pinnacle of the ninja world, Mu's information was well-known. Aside from Particle Style and various elemental releases, he rarely used the two swords he carried on his back.

"Mu's ninjutsu? Bandage Entanglement Technique!" Ruri naturally couldn't use Particle Style, so he channeled his chakra and launched the bandages from his body!

"Who are you, really?" Seimei waved his hand, scattering all the bandages.

"The one who will kill you!" Under the cover of the bandages, Ruri had condensed a massive amount of chakra onto his blade and unleashed a violet-blue blade aura several meters long.

"It's useless. On this lake, with the assistance of my ninja tools, my Water Style is on the same level as the Mizukage." Seimei raised his hand slightly, lifting towering waves from the lake, each possessing a defensive capability no less than a Water Style Wall.

Yet, in the face of a strike that could even halt a waterfall, these defenses appeared powerless. They were sliced through as easily as tofu. The blade aura passed through, carving a path that exposed the muddy lake bottom and leaving behind the unfortunate, severed corpses of fish.

The strike hit Seimei square in the chest, but the chakra within the blade aura was absorbed entirely, leaving only the raw kinetic force. This power pushed Seimei back dozens of steps, yet he appeared to have suffered no damage.

"You are strong, but you are also a tool of the Five Great Nations, unable to defeat me, the creator!" Seimei floated into the air, the chill in his eyes deepening. He waved his hands, and the armor on his body suddenly manipulated the airflow: "Retreat!"

A powerful wind pressure descended, making it difficult for Ruri to even lift his head. The willow trees by the lake were uprooted, and the barely surviving Fujiwara Shizume coughed up blood repeatedly under the pressure.

"Let me see your true face!"

The bandages Ruri used to disguise himself as Mu were blown away, revealing his true appearance!

Silver hair, red eyes, three red markings on his cheeks, dressed in blue iron armor with a collar made of unknown white fur...

"Tobirama Senju?!"