Iwagakure, Tsuchikage's Office.
Ōnoki floated in midair once more, but this time his short frame no longer gave the impression of a mountain's steady calm. Instead, he trembled slightly, as if desperately suppressing an emotion on the verge of erupting.
Before him, an Anbu Ninja responsible for receiving urgent frontline intelligence knelt on one knee, head bowed low. He even kept his breathing deliberately quiet, afraid of becoming an outlet for the Tsuchikage's fury.
The office was deathly silent, save for Ōnoki's heavy breathing and the creak of the intelligence scroll in his clenched grip.
"Shu... the Stone Spider Squad... wiped out..."
Ōnoki's voice was as dry as sandpaper. Each word seemed forced from his throat, edged with disbelieving coldness.
"At the ambush site they had carefully prepared... that Uchiha Ling... killed them all by himself?"
"Y-yes, Lord Tsuchikage."
The Anbu Ninja's voice carried a faint, barely perceptible tremor.
"According to... according to fragments of information last sent back by our observation post nearby, which was fortunate enough to escape the attack, and our preliminary analysis of the traces left on the battlefield, the entire battle was extremely brief. Uchiha Ling seems to have used an ability we have never recorded before."
"Speak!"
The Anbu Ninja shuddered and hurriedly reported, "According to the description, the instant the attack came down, dazzling azure lightning erupted around Uchiha Ling.
He seemed to turn into pure lightning energy. Every attack, including falling rocks, mud, and Explosion Release, was completely nullified on contact with the lightning."
"Nullified?!" one of the elders listening in cried out. "How is that possible? Could it be a Hydrification Technique like Kirigakure's?"
"No... it doesn't seem that way." The Anbu Ninja swallowed with difficulty.
"The observer described it as more like immunity!
"After that, he entered a state similar