High in the sky, Rasa gasped for breath, his heart pounding wildly. He had never been this close to death in all his years.
Iori's attack missed, and he drove his spear into the ground with all his strength, gouging out a deep crater. Soil and rocks flew in every direction, and dust billowed through the air.
Uchiha Iori raised his head and scanned the area. Nearly thirty elite jonin remained, scattered across the battlefield.
"What a pain..." Iori frowned slightly. They were spread too far apart.
With the elite jonin so widely dispersed, picking them off one by one would take too much time and effort—and some might escape in the confusion.
They were elite jonin, and there were a lot of them. If they realized things were going badly and fled, he might not be able to kill every last one.
In that case, I'll just have to bury you all here with a Reality Marble! A cold glint flashed in his eyes.
"Feel honored. This is the first time I've truly used this technique in the Ninja World." Iori looked at the Sunagakure Ninja, his expression grim.
"What are you even talking about?"
Rasa gritted his teeth in midair. After his ambush had failed, he knew he had no chance of winning.
He looked at the nearby shinobi. Some were dead, others wounded. If they didn't retreat now, Iori might wipe them all out here.
Sunagakure can't fall under my watch. Rasa's gaze sharpened. As Kazekage, he wasn't afraid to make sacrifices.
"Ebizo, I'm counting on you to look after Sunagakure. Go join the others and retreat!" Rasa shouted to the Sunagakure Ninja, his tone resolute. He was prepared to die here.
"In the name of the Kazekage, I appoint Advisor Ebizo as acting Kazekage. Now, get out of here. I'll cover your retreat."
It wouldn't be so bad to die on the battlefield as Kazekage, Rasa thought.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust World Method." He created sharp, bamboo-shoot-shaped spikes of gold dust and fired them at Iori.
Uchiha Iori looked at him coldly and spoke in an even voice, like a judge delivering the final sentence.
"You don't need to worry about what happens next. You're all going to die here."
"My body is made of swords."
In an instant, a shield made of seven petals appeared in front of Iori, blocking the incoming gold dust.
Ignoring Rasa's attack, Iori calmly recited the incantation.
"Blood is iron, and the heart is glass."
"Having crossed countless battlefields, never once defeated."
"He stood atop the hill of swords, drunk on victory."
"Thus, this body is destined to be made of swords."
He quickly recited the five briefest lines of the incantation. Iori's chakra swept across the battlefield like a violent storm, and his power ate away at the space around them.
Before the grand sorcery that remade the world, the Sunagakure Ninja were powerless to resist as they were dragged into his inner world. Even Kazekage Rasa was caught up in it.
As the world came back into focus, the Sunagakure Ninja stared at their surroundings in shock.
Countless swords stood embedded in the red wasteland. The distant horizon flickered like a sea of flames, while enormous gears turned ceaselessly in the murky sky like the machinery of an ironworks, rumbling dully.
"Damn it, where are we?" Junpei looked around. This place was nothing like the terrain near the Land of Fire. Instead, it looked a little like the Land of Wind.
"What kind of technique is this? A genjutsu?" Another Sunagakure Ninja tried to disrupt his chakra in an attempt to wake himself up.
Naturally, it did nothing. A Reality Marble wasn't a genjutsu, but grand sorcery capable of changing the world.
The world itself would yield to the user's mind. Its only drawback was the immense chakra consumption.
Unlike during the Holy Grail War, when Iori had relied on Command Spells to obtain near-infinite magical energy, he was just an ordinary shinobi in the Ninja World. He didn't have access to that kind of power.
At this rate of consumption, space in the Ninja World must be pretty unstable. It's draining less than I expected. I wonder if space in Type-Moon is tighter, or if this world is looser.
Uchiha Iori calculated his chakra consumption. Skills were all big chakra guzzlers, so he'd have to be more careful.
"What kind of jutsu is this? Where have you taken us?" Rasa stared at the world before him, his expression ashen.
He looked around and realized that not a single shinobi had escaped the spatial shift. Nearly half of Sunagakure's elite jonin were trapped here!
If half their elite jonin and two Kage-level fighters all died here, Sunagakure probably wouldn't recover for ten years.
Even if they managed to hold on to their place among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, they'd have to grovel and live like dogs to survive.
If Sunagakure really fell that far, Rasa, the Kazekage at the time, would be remembered forever as a disgrace.
"Answer me, Uchiha shinobi! What are you trying to do?" Rasa had completely lost his composure. The scales in his mind began to tip the other way as he considered whether to surrender Sunagakure.
If he surrendered, Sunagakure could preserve its strength and might rise again someday. But as Kazekage—and as the one who surrendered—Rasa himself would be finished.
Rasa hesitated, never once considering that Iori might refuse to accept his surrender.
"Then let's start with a greeting." Iori snapped his fingers, and countless weapons appeared above his head.
"This is the world of swords, and it's my world. Let your bodies feel it."
At Iori's words, swords rained down, blotting out the sky.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Waves!" Rasa gave it everything he had, sending a vast wave of gold dust to meet the rain of swords.
"We can't let Lord Kazekage fight alone!" Ebizo shouted. He led the Sunagakure Ninja in unleashing Wind Release, knocking the incoming weapons out of the air.
The gold dust blocked the weapons, and Wind Release threw off their trajectories. The attack caused little damage.
Iori looked displeased. "Looks like I'll have to unleash my Noble Phantasm after all. What a pain. I still have to deal with the One-Tail Jinchuriki afterward. I wonder if I'll have enough chakra left by then."
Rasa struggled to hold off the barrage from Unlimited Blade Works. Hearing Iori, he made up his mind. "Wait! I'm willing to surrender. Sunagakure will admit defeat and withdraw. Please, stop!"
"Lord Kazekage, don't!"
"Lord Kazekage, we can't surrender!"
The elite Sunagakure jonin weren't cowards. They were ready to die, but Sunagakure's backbone couldn't be broken.
"Enough! I'm the Kazekage!" Rasa said firmly. "I'll take responsibility for the consequences!"
Ebizo understood Rasa's reasoning and stepped forward in agreement. "That's enough. Trust Lord Kazekage. We've lost."
"But I refuse." Uchiha Iori laughed wildly. "How naive. Do you think this is child's play?"
"Reconciliation? You can't be serious."
"Now that the show's over, you can die!"
Iori drew a long sword from thin air and looked at them.