"Who are you? Why are you here?"
"Were you the one who did all this?"
Kitsuchi bellowed.
He had also seen the several Iwagakure Ninja lying around them. His expression turned grave, and he warily readied himself.
Just then.
The masked man across from them suddenly opened his right eye and looked at the two of them.
"That's a Mangekyō Sharingan!"
"Don't look him in the eye!"
Kitsuchi shouted, quickly warning his teammate beside him.
But it was already too late.
Though Natsume's Mangekyō Sharingan was nowhere near Itachi's, whose Mangekyō was specialized in Tsukuyomi, when it came to genjutsu,
the genjutsu abilities of any Mangekyō Sharingan were powerful in their own right.
A direct gaze was enough to control an ordinary jōnin for a short time.
As a result,
the Iwagakure Ninja, who was only at jōnin level, had his mind seized by Natsume in an instant.
He drew a kunai with a quick flip of his hand and stabbed at Kitsuchi beside him.
At the critical moment,
Kitsuchi, whose strength was formidable, still managed to react in time.
"Earth Style: Fist Rock!"
Kitsuchi's right hand quickly transformed into a hardened rock fist, greatly increasing its hardness and weight.
He swung it fiercely.
The blow snapped his teammate's kunai, sent him flying, and slammed him hard into the ground some distance away.
His punch was powerful enough to knock away even a Jinchuriki in Tailed Beast Transformation!
Clearly, he had held back most of his strength this time.
"Earth Style Barrier: Earth Prison Dome!"
Then, as soon as his teammate hit the ground, Kitsuchi cast a barrier ninjutsu.
He used earthen walls to form a prison, perfectly shielding his teammate, who was under genjutsu, inside.
In just a few seconds, over the course of two exchanges,
Kitsuchi had swiftly defeated a jōnin teammate and captured his opponent alive.
That was enough to show how formidable he was.
In fact,
it was because he didn't want to start a war and hoped the undercover agent could escape, preventing Iwagakure from continuing its plan to attack Konoha and ignite a war.
That was why, in the original story,
Kitsuchi let Kabuto go.
Otherwise, given Kabuto's strength and condition at the time,
how could he possibly have escaped Kitsuchi, who was so powerful he could even suppress the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for a time?
"Not bad! You've got some strength."
"Was Iwagakure deliberately downplaying your presence to hide its strength?"
Natsume smiled faintly, hitting the nail on the head.
Kitsuchi was undoubtedly at Kage Level!
"What exactly are you trying to do?!"
Kitsuchi frowned and shouted.
At the same time, he launched another fierce attack.
Since this man had attacked them first, Kitsuchi considered him an enemy, not an ally!
He'd beat him up first and ask questions later!
"Earth Style: Earth Core Rising!"
"Earth Style: Rock Pillar Spears!"
Faced with a powerful enemy who possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, Kitsuchi didn't dare underestimate him for an instant.
He unleashed one Earth Release technique after another with practiced ease.
In moments,
the ground around Natsume rose sharply, its surface uneven, as though the entire earth were roaring.
At the same time, countless sharp stone spears shot out from the upheaving earth, striking at Natsume with considerable force!
"That's an impressive amount of chakra, to use Earth Release on such a scale!"
"Too bad your attacks are still too slow."
Natsume chuckled.
Relying on his nimble Taijutsu, he easily and gracefully dodged among the surging rocks all around him.
The Earth Rising Spears thrusting toward him had even less chance of hitting.
After all, Earth Release favored weight over speed.
Compared with techniques like Wind Release and Lightning Release, it was less nimble and had a hard time hitting a Taijutsu expert.
Seeing how casually his opponent evaded his attacks only enraged Kitsuchi further.
He abruptly increased his chakra output.
"Earth Release: Earth Rising Spear!"
"Earth Release: Gōryūshi Technique!"
In an instant, dozens of stone spears, each more powerful than the last, shot out.
They completely blocked every direction Natsume could dodge in.
At the same time, two enormous clay golems summoned by the Gōryūshi Technique roared into view and leaped into the air.
They swung their fists down from above, slamming them toward Natsume.
That way, even if the enemy somehow survived the Earth Rising Spears, the two clay golems' devastating blows would surely pound him into a meat paste!
Kitsuchi was clearly fighting for real now.
In the face of this dense, downpour-like barrage, Natsume remained completely calm.
Instead, he steadily grasped the hilt of the Divine Blade at his waist.
The next moment, red light flared.
The sharp Kunwu Divine Blade slid from its sheath with a ring.
He didn't slash or swing it.
Natsume merely bent a finger and lightly flicked the blade.
"Vmm—"
An intangible, mysterious sound wave rippled outward from the blade, spreading rapidly.
Time, space, and everything around them seemed to tremble with its rhythm, like ripples spreading across water.
Nothing could obstruct the sound wave's expansion.
At the same time, its powerful vibrations acted upon Natsume himself.
The muscles, bones, blood, and everything else in his body surged as though he'd been struck hard by a giant hammer.
His boiling blood even steamed out through his pores, forming a halo of crimson light around him as mist rose into the air.
One use of Heaven and Earth Grand Sound had nearly made Natsume cough up blood from the backlash!
And now,
even Natsume himself, the wielder of the Kunwu Blade, had been shaken to this extent.
The surrounding stone spears and chunks of earth stood no chance.
As the sound wave spread outward,
the dozens of stone spears were shattered instantly, reduced to heaps of fine dust.
The two clay golems that had leaped down also crumbled apart.
Their massive forms shattered into countless chunks of earth that rained down. Even the chakra contained within the golems was scattered completely...
Even Kitsuchi, who had launched the attack from dozens of meters away,
had his ninjutsu disrupted by the incomparably mysterious rhythm of heaven and earth.
He was forced to stagger back three steps, clutching his churning chest as a thin trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth...
"What kind of ninjutsu is that?!"
"How can it be this powerful?!"
"Wind Release?"
"No, that doesn't seem right!"
"It seems to be connected to the weapon in that man's hand!"
"Could that be some kind of sacred blade?!"
Kitsuchi guessed in shock.
As he wiped the blood from his mouth, he struggled to suppress the churning chakra and blood inside him.
His expression had never been more solemn!
He felt as though he'd encountered the strongest opponent of his life.
"Phew—"
Natsume stood with his blade held horizontally and let out a long breath, expelling a great cloud of steaming, turbid air.
As expected of a sacred weapon worth 5,000 Gold Coins!
A mere glimpse of its power had easily shattered Kitsuchi's barrage of attacks.
From now on, he could wield the Kunwu Divine Blade and clash blades with his enemies.
It probably wouldn't take more than a few strikes to make their blood roar and their internal organs rupture!
His own physique was a little too weak, though. It seemed he'd have to use this Divine Blade to temper his body whenever he had free time.
Otherwise, he might end up shaking himself until he coughed up blood before he managed to kill his enemies...
After testing the Divine Blade's power,
Natsume decided not to drag things out any longer.
He gripped the blade, bent his knees, and leaped toward Kitsuchi.
At the same moment,
seeing his enemy suddenly charge, Kitsuchi's alarm soared, and his eyes widened.
He didn't dare hold anything back.
He drained more than half of his vast chakra reserves and unleashed the ninjutsu he was most proud of—his trump card!
"Earth Style: Mountain Earth Jutsu!"
The next moment, the earth roared and stone rumbled.
Countless chunks of earth surged upward, rapidly forming two enormous hemispheres, each over a hundred meters across, which closed in on Natsume from both sides!
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