Heavenly Storm Sky Dance

As soon as the two sides collided, the Rain Ninja unit's senbon trap mechanism activated automatically, unleashing a dense barrage of "Rain of Senbon" upon Touma and his group.

Uncle Umino reacted the fastest; with a clap of his hands, a high-speed rotating water wall enveloped him and the nearby Haruno Kizashi. Shinku Yuhi also grabbed Shibi on his right, diving into the earth without even needing to weave hand signs.

Only Touma, trailing at the very back of the formation, took the full brunt of the senbon. Fortunately, he reacted at the final moment, instantly entering "Wind Style Chakra Mode" and using "Storm Substitution" to evade the attack.

Do not let the simplicity of the name "Storm Substitution" fool you; in reality, its difficulty is on par with applying chakra nature transformation to a Shadow Clone. It requires Touma to mark the substitute object as air, which not only demands high precision in marking but also strict control over the chakra used, or the technique will simply fail.

During the use of "Storm Substitution," Touma's state is extremely similar to the elemental state achieved through "Wind Style Chakra Nature Transformation." Therefore, for that brief moment, Touma can also achieve immunity to ordinary physical damage.

In fact, "Storm Substitution" is the foundation for his further development of the ultimate Wind Style technique, "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance." To fully enter a permanent state of elementalization, the practitioner must first understand what nature transformation truly is.

Water Style and Earth Style nature transformations are easier to manage; they are essentially states based on the objective material world. As long as one completes the full training of nature transformation, reaching this step is merely a matter of time.

Conversely, the pure energy-based chakra nature transformations of Fire, Wind, and Lightning are not so easily understood or adapted to by the practitioner.

Even though Orochimaru's intellect is impeccable, and he was able to perform "Storm Substitution" perfectly after reading Touma's scroll just once, he still could not make his body understand what nature transformation actually was.

Therefore, even after Touma completely dismantled the S-rank Wind Style ultimate "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance" in front of him, Orochimaru could not replicate it one-to-one, leading him to even doubt his own intellect.

In reality, according to Touma's hypothesis, this final step of nature transformation cannot be bridged by intellect alone; it certainly requires some innate bodily sensory ability to achieve.

Otherwise, the process of nature transformation can only follow the logic of the Second Hokage Mizukage Hozuki Gengetsu's "Hydrification Technique," using Yang Style chakra to fuse with elemental chakra to revitalize body cells, eventually reaching a pseudo-elemental state.

Yes, according to the conclusions Orochimaru drew from cell samples of Hozuki Mitsuki, the Hozuki Clan's "Hydrification Technique" is a bloodline limit that can be learned post-natally. However, when Hozuki Gengetsu originally developed it, he added a chakra lock to restrict its spread, ensuring it only functioned within the Hozuki bloodline.

Breaking such a chakra lock is not particularly difficult; Senju Tobirama had already mastered it by the end of the Warring States period, intending to use it as an insurance policy for passing down Wood Style within the Senju Clan.

Little did he know, once Wood Style was placed on others, its power was inferior to more common bloodlines like Ice Style or Boil Style, and it was nothing like the display seen from his older brother.

For instance, the Wood Style of the Kazamatsuri Clan has a chakra lock. Following their training methods not only fails to grant the Wood Style bloodline but also carries a certain risk of causing chaos in the body's chakra acupoints, leaving the ninja completely unable to perform techniques.

Danzo never understood the principles of the chakra lock, so even after obtaining many Kazamatsuri test subjects, he never achieved a single successful replication of Wood Style, forcing him to focus his energy on transplanting Hashirama's cells.

As for Orochimaru, he likely cracked the chakra lock shortly after graduation using the scattered materials left behind by Senju Tobirama, applying it to the Iburi Clan to stabilize their otherwise uncontrollable Smoke Style bloodline.

In truth, Orochimaru could also use the chakra lock combined with Yang Style nature transformation to achieve a so-called pseudo-elemental state. However, for his already mature combat system, adding another chakra nature transformation would not have a significant impact.

But for Touma, having completed "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance," his combat power has undergone a world-shaking transformation.

Seeing that Touma had not been killed, the Rain Ninjas stopped hiding and directly summoned a torrential downpour resembling acid, hoping to quickly kill the child.

However, Touma in his elemental state had no physical form. The acid rain passed through his body without obstruction, leading the Rain Ninjas to mistakenly believe they were seeing an illusion!

Yet, the next second, they realized how ridiculous their thoughts were. Touma appeared instantly in front of a Rain Ninja, slowly extending his right hand toward the man's chest.

Touma's right hand formed a claw, piercing the Rain Ninja's chest as if there were no resistance at all. He gripped the heart and squeezed hard; the Rain Ninja's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed on the spot.

There was not a single mark on his skin. If someone were to open his chest now, they would find that the heart inside had been turned into a mass of minced meat, with no possibility of recovery.

Seeing the effectiveness, Touma followed suit, taking advantage of the rainy, misty environment created by the Rain Ninjas to quickly eliminate several more of them.

By the time Shinku Yuhi and Uncle Umino rushed out of the mist with Shibi and Kizashi, the enemies behind them had already been mostly slaughtered by Touma.

Shinku Yuhi and Uncle Umino could not let Touma take all the glory. After coordinating to lock onto the hiding spots of the nearest Rain Ninjas, they summoned water dragons that crashed down from above.

For a moment, the mist lingering across the entire battlefield was stained with a thick, bloody hue.

It was truly a mistake for the Rain Ninjas to ambush their targets without gathering intelligence. Facing a top-tier Water Style ninja like Umino Shiba, they dared to choose an environment so rich in water vapor—wasn't this just the prey handing the hunter a gun to kill them with?

They likely only focused on the intelligence regarding Shinku Yuhi, hoping to change the battlefield environment to mask the effects of his genjutsu, not believing that a Water Style ninja from a small village on the coast of the Land of Fire could have any impact on the battle.

Unfortunately, they failed to even execute the tactics intended to limit the genjutsu; Shinku Yuhi's techniques had long since moved past the primary stage of requiring sensory input.

Especially after developing the communication genjutsu "Phantom Leaf Transmission" during his time in the capital, Shinku Yuhi's genjutsu had entered a whole new dimension. He could fully utilize sensory techniques as a medium to transmit genjutsu effects silently.

Using only a single "Demonic Illusion: Eightfold Cherry Blossoms," he sent the remaining Rain Ninjas into a state of mental confusion, causing them to launch suicidal attacks against their own comrades.

About half an hour later, the last Rain Ninja affected by the "Eightfold Cherry Blossoms" committed suicide with a kunai, declaring the total failure of this long-planned ambush.

In truth, one cannot blame these Rain Ninjas; with such a massive disparity in intelligence between the two sides, no amount of preparation could guarantee the success of an ambush.

Not to mention, these Rain Ninjas had just infiltrated via underground water veins; they had to begin their ambush mission before their chakra had even recovered. Even if it were Konoha ninjas in their place, the success rate would not necessarily have been any higher.

The Rain Ninjas present were basically all Chunin, without even a single Special Jonin. Facing two long-renowned Jonin, simply piling on numbers was useless. Otherwise, Hatake Sakumo, who had just arrived at the Fire-Wind front line, would not be so feared by the Sand Ninjas!