With One Man's Strength, Defeating Half of Sunagakure (3)

High in the air, Rasa gasped for breath, his heart hammering wildly; this was the closest he had come to death in many years.

Missing its mark, Iori's spear slammed into the ground, gouging a deep crater into the earth as soil and stone sprayed outward, filling the air with dust.

Uchiha Iori raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings to find nearly thirty jonin scattered in every corner.

How troublesome... Iori frowned slightly; they were spread out far too thin.

With these jonin so widely dispersed, picking them off one by one would not only be time-consuming and laborious, but it would also likely allow a few to slip through the cracks and escape.

After all, they were jonin, and with so many of them, if the enemy realized the situation was dire and chose to flee, he might not be able to kill them all.

Since that is the case, I have no choice but to use my Reality Marble to bury you all here! A cold, ruthless light flashed in his eyes.

"Feel honored; this is the first time I have truly used this technique in the Ninja World." Iori looked at the Sunagakure ninja, his expression stern and cold.

"What exactly are you trying to say, you bastard?"

Rasa gritted his teeth in the air; after the failed sneak attack, he knew there was no chance of victory left.

He looked at the miserable state of the nearby ninja—the dead and the wounded—and realized that if they did not retreat now, they might truly be wiped out here by Iori.

Sunagakure cannot perish by my hand. Rasa's eyes sharpened; as the Kazekage, he did not lack the resolve to sacrifice himself.

"Ebizo, I leave Sunagakure to you. Join up with the others and retreat!" Rasa shouted to the Sunagakure ninja, his tone resolute; he had already prepared himself to die here.

"In the name of the Kazekage, I appoint Advisor Ebizo as the acting Kazekage. Now, withdraw from this place; I will cover your retreat."

Rasa thought, To die on the battlefield as the Kazekage—that is not such a bad fate.

"Magnet Release: Gold Dust World Method." He manifested sharp, bamboo-shoot-like spikes of gold dust and launched them toward Iori.

Uchiha Iori's expression was indifferent as he spoke calmly, like the judgment of the apocalypse.

"You need not worry about what comes after, for you shall all die here."

"I am the bone of my sword."

In an instant, a shield composed of seven petals appeared before Iori, blocking the incoming gold dust.

Iori ignored Rasa's attack and calmly chanted the incantation.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood."

"I have created over a thousand blades."

"Unknown to Death, nor known to Life."

"Have withstood pain to create many weapons, yet those hands will never hold anything."

He recited the five brief lines of the incantation rapidly, and Uchiha Iori's chakra swept across the entire battlefield like a violent storm, his power eroding this space.

Before the Great Magecraft that reshaped the world, the Sunagakure ninja had no power to resist and were dragged into his heart's landscape, even the Kazekage, Rasa, was no exception.

As the world clarified once more, the Sunagakure ninja stared at the scene before them in shock.

Countless sharp swords were thrust into the red wasteland, the distant horizon pulsed like a burning flame, and in the gloomy sky, massive gears rotated incessantly like an ironworks, emitting a dull, rumbling sound.

"Damn it, what is this place?" The Sunagakure ninja Junpei looked around, finding that this terrain was nothing like the area near the Land of Fire; rather, it resembled the Land of Wind.

"What kind of jutsu is this? Is it a genjutsu?" Another ninja attempted to disrupt his own chakra, trying to wake himself up.

Of course, it was useless; a Reality Marble was not a genjutsu, but a Great Magecraft capable of altering the heavens and the earth.

The world would yield to the user's heart, with the only flaw being the massive consumption of chakra.

Unlike the Holy Grail War, where he relied on Command Spells to obtain near-infinite magical energy, Iori was merely an ordinary ninja in the Ninja World and lacked that kind of power.

At this rate of consumption, it seems the space of the Ninja World is not very stable. It is actually lower than I imagined—I wonder if the space in Type-Moon was tighter or if the world here is looser.

Uchiha Iori calculated his chakra consumption; all his skills were heavy mana-drainers, so he had to be precise.

"What kind of ninjutsu is this? Where have you brought us?" Rasa looked at the world before him, his expression livid.

Looking around, he realized that not a single ninja had escaped the spatial displacement; this included nearly half of Sunagakure's jonin!

Half of their jonin plus two Kage-level powerhouses—if they all died here, Sunagakure would likely not recover for a decade.

Even if they managed to retain their status as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, they would have to bow their heads and live like dogs just to survive.

If he truly allowed Sunagakure to fall to such a state, Rasa, as the acting Kazekage, would be nailed to the pillar of shame for eternity.

"Answer me, Uchiha ninja, what exactly do you intend to do?" Rasa's composure was shattered, and the scales in his heart began to tip; he started to consider whether he should surrender Sunagakure.

If they surrendered, Sunagakure could preserve its vitality and perhaps rise again later, though as the Kazekage and a surrenderer, Rasa himself would be finished.

Rasa hesitated, never once considering that Iori might refuse his surrender.

"Then, let's start with a greeting." Iori snapped his fingers, and countless weapons appeared above his head.

"This is a world of swords, and it is my world. Feel it with your own bodies."

Following Iori's words, the swords fell like a torrential rain, blotting out the sky.

"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Waves." Rasa went all out, a massive tide of gold dust rising to meet the rain of swords.

"We cannot let the Kazekage fight alone!" Ebizo shouted, leading the Sunagakure ninja to release Wind Release techniques in unison, striking down the incoming weapons.

The launched weapons were blocked by the gold dust and disrupted by the Wind Release, failing to achieve much of a result.

Iori looked somewhat displeased: "It seems I still need to release a Noble Phantasm. How troublesome; I still have to deal with the One-Tail Jinchuriki later, and I don't know if my chakra will be sufficient by then."

Rasa struggled to fend off the barrage from Unlimited Blade Works, and upon hearing this, he made up his mind. "Wait a moment, I am willing to surrender. Sunagakure will admit defeat and withdraw, please stop."

"Lord Kazekage, no!"

"Lord Kazekage, we cannot surrender!"

The jonin of Sunagakure were not cowards, they were merely prepared to die; the spine of Sunagakure could not be broken.

"Enough, I am the Kazekage!" Rasa said firmly, "I will bear the consequences of everything!"

Ebizo understood Rasa's intentions and stepped forward in agreement: "Very well, trust in Lord Kazekage. We have failed."

"However, I refuse." Uchiha Iori laughed wildly, "How naive. Do you think this is a game of house?"

"Reconciliation? At this very moment, you aren't joking, are you?"

"The performance is over, now go to your deaths!"

Iori drew a long sword from the void and looked at them as he spoke.