The Clash of Natural Energy

Ruri continuously converted the natural energy around him into Sage Chakra. The natural energy that Seimei had gathered became a helping hand; if not for the density of natural energy in this place, he would not have been able to enter Sage Mode so easily.

The blade in Ruri's hand had long since vanished. He extended his palm, manifesting Sage Chakra in the manner of a Rasengan, and the natural energy gradually gathered, coalescing into a sphere!

Furthermore, the natural energy surrounding his body did not harm Ruri in the slightest; instead, it became the energy source for his Sage Mode. The natural energy seemed like a docile servant, being refined entirely into Sage Chakra!

"How is this possible?!" Seimei's face was filled with disbelief. At this point, he could no longer maintain his composure! That was a power he had spent decades forging into his ninja tools, yet the opponent had easily turned it to his own use?!

"No, I must stop him!" Seimei instinctively sensed the danger of the ninjutsu in Ruri's hand. He waved his sleeves, and the three-bladed sword extending from his back transformed into a chakra dragon, roaring as it surged forward with a hint of natural energy!

It was useless!

The moment the chakra dragon approached Ruri, it was destroyed by the rapidly rotating Sage Chakra. All the natural energy that Seimei had struggled to gather became a part of Ruri's Sage Mode.

Ruri took a step forward and raised his left hand high. Guided by the Sage Chakra in his palm, the natural energy filling the sky converged, gradually forming the shape of a katana!

"Sage Art: Iaijutsu!" Using natural energy to perform swordsmanship, blending Sage Art with the intent of the blade, he unleashed a single strike. The surface of the water exploded with a roar, and the blade aura, resembling a long white dragon, carried countless amounts of natural energy wrapped in Sage Chakra as it shot toward Seimei!

Mitsunosuke and Fujiwara Shizume, who were silently watching the battle, were left with nothing but awe in their eyes. They saw a blade aura over a hundred meters long, spanning the entire lake! The entire lake was sliced open by the sharp blade aura, forcibly split in two!

Seimei's ability was at most a clumsy perception of natural energy, allowing him to borrow it through the use of ninja tools. But Ruri was capable of converting natural energy into Sage Chakra and utilizing Sage Art; the gap between the two was absolute!

"Still!" Seimei slightly raised his hands, his face showing unprecedented gravity. He poured all his chakra into the armor on his body. His robes billowed, his white hair scattered, and he inhaled the natural energy into his armor!

Then, the armor emitted bursts of white mist, and the turbulent, split lake surface actually calmed down under the shroud of the mist, rapidly freezing into ice! An artificial refrigerator? This maneuver made Ruri's eyes burn with envy!

"Crack... crack-crack..."

Cracks appeared on the ice surface, and several ice walls rose up like city walls. It turned out that Seimei hadn't just frozen the surface of the lake, but the entire lake itself!

The ice walls were as thick as the lake was deep. Where the ice walls had been raised, the muddy bottom of the lake was visible to the naked eye!

However, in the face of Ruri's strike infused with Sage Chakra, over a dozen ice walls shattered instantly!

Nevertheless, these ice walls served to consume the attack, and the blade aura became slightly dimmer, though it still looked unstoppable!

"Shrike!" Taking advantage of the gap created by the ice walls, Seimei flew toward his four subordinates at the lakeside who had lost all their chakra. Fujiwara Shizume and Mitsunosuke, seeing this, hurriedly dodged, but fortunately, Seimei had no time to pay attention to them.

The armor on Seimei's body transformed into a cage, enveloping the four men. The next moment, the cage opened, and the four had vanished without a trace. The blood-colored iron cage formed a sphere, spreading a net in front of Seimei to resist the blade aura. He had actually sacrificed the lives of the four to enhance the effectiveness of his ninja tools!

Was it useful?

The sword aura struck the net with a clanging sound. It was indeed worthy of being called Seimei's strongest ninja tool; if it were ordinary steel, or even Thousand-Refined Steel, it likely wouldn't have been able to withstand such a strike!

The pity was that this sword aura was not just pure sword intent, but also contained a massive amount of Sage Chakra! Under the reinforcement of Sage Chakra, the terrifying level of this strike had broken through the heavens! The ninja tool that Seimei had painstakingly forged for decades, comparable to an absolute defense, had also been blood-sacrificed with the lives of four men; its defensive power had reached a terrifying level. It was likely that even a strike from a Susanoo wouldn't have left a mark!

But what did it matter if you were the strongest ninja tool? Even the strongest ninja, Senju Hashirama, wouldn't have been able to handle this! Under this indestructible blade aura, it was actually shredded into countless fragments!

The blade aura was consumed once more, but it had already reached Seimei!

"Wind Style: Vacuum Cannon!" Seimei spat out dozens of high-density wind pressure bullets the size of baseballs toward the sword aura. In previous battles, he had relied on his ninja tools, so his chakra was basically unspent, and he had even absorbed the chakra of his subordinates earlier!

The Wind Style had been condensed into a physical form, with visible air currents churning! Unexpectedly, with the enhancement of his ninja tools, Seimei's ninjutsu prowess was not weak at all, reaching at least the level of an elite Jonin!

If it were an ordinary Wind Style, this blade aura would have been enough to break through it, but after repeated consumption, the blade aura lacked sufficient momentum and was forcibly blocked!

"Bang, bang!"

The collision between the Wind Style and the blade aura actually produced the sound of metal clashing! The two had condensed to such an extent!

Five meters away, thirty of the dozens of wind pressure bullets remained!

Three meters away, only a dozen remained!

One meter away, the last one was also broken through!

The blade aura finally broke through the layers of the Vacuum Cannon and flew toward Seimei!

Seimei grabbed with one hand; the glove on his hand was also a ninja tool. With a single grab, he used no chakra at all, purely using his hand to disperse the blade aura!

"The distinction between the strength of tools, Senju Tobirama, do you understand now?" Seimei regained his composure, returning to his expressionless state.

"Yes, a very clear distinction of strength." Upon hearing the name Senju Tobirama, he almost couldn't help but laugh. Ruri forced a look of indifference, continuously gathering Sage Chakra in his left hand. With a sudden roar, the frozen lake surface surged into the sky, shattering into ice shards, which were mixed with plenty of mud, sand, fish, and shrimp!

"Sage Art: Ultimate Technique: Iai!" The natural energy here was incredibly abundant. Through this short period, Ruri had fully familiarized himself with the application of Sage Mode and Sage Art. With this strike, the blade aura spanned the entire sky!

Fujiwara Shizume and Mitsunosuke were both pale with shock. Was this still ninjutsu?! It was truly an unprecedented battle, brilliant beyond compare! It was said that Senju Tobirama was far inferior to his brother Senju Hashirama; could a ninja truly be this terrifying?!

In an era before the battle at the Valley of the End had begun, the battle between Ruri and Seimei was likely the largest one-on-one in the ninja world! Beyond the lake being frozen into ice and split in two, the surrounding living things were decimated!

"You are nothing more than a tool for the ninja tools in your hands!" The Sage Chakra resonated with the natural energy, and the blade aura swept across a hundred-meter radius!