The Land of Wind had no shortage of places to fight. After all, it was vast and sparsely populated.
"Are you ready?"
Pakura stood at a distance, brimming with fighting spirit. Today, she was going to show that Red-Hair just how formidable she was.
Rasa clasped his hands behind his back. If he was going to put on a show, he might as well see it through. He looked calmly at Pakura and said, "Anytime."
"Tch!"
Pakura spat indignantly. Her saliva landed in the desert and was instantly evaporated by the hot wind and waves of heat.
Damn Red-Hair! Who did he think he was looking down on?
Her hands blurred as she produced two shuriken and hurled them at Rasa. They spun and fluttered like drunken butterflies. Even as a Kekkei Genkai user, Pakura had never neglected the basics.
Then, kunai in hand, she bent her knees and sprang forward, charging at Rasa. I'm going to beat your face to a pulp today!
A moment later, Pakura abruptly halted her own charge, jamming her legs into the sand to brake.
A sheen of cold sweat appeared on her jade-white forehead, only to be evaporated by the heat.
It had taken less than the time needed for a single blink.
The shuriken she had thrown at the start had stopped in midair, a mere inch from Rasa's throat. They neither advanced another inch nor fell.
Meanwhile, a sharp short blade had appeared just three millimeters from Pakura's throat. Sunlight glinted off its edge, flashing painfully bright.
Pakura's throat bobbed. She glanced down at the blade as her heart began to race. Her left hand crept toward her waist, but the short blade she had kept hidden there was already gone.
What a bizarre ability!
Killing someone was actually simple. There was no need for Sand Burial or Sand Burial.
All you had to do was take the enemy's kunai or short blade and hold it in front of their throat, then wait for them to run into it and kill themselves.
"Has your Magnet Release reached a new level?" Pakura asked shakily. Rasa had simply stood there. He hadn't made any Hand Seals or even blinked.
That was the most terrifying part. If she had stopped just a little later—or if Rasa had exerted force instead of leaving the blade suspended—she would have died on the spot.
A bizarre ability. A deadly first encounter!
"Yeah. Just a few days ago."
Rasa replied calmly. The Third Kazekage's Magnet Release, like the original Rasa's, had far too many limitations. If their Magnet Release was a single leaf, then the Electromagnetic Force he wielded was a ten-thousand-year-old tree.
Countless branches could grow from its trunk, and countless leaves from those branches. Magnetism and magnetic fields were merely branches of Electromagnetic Force.
The magnetic field had twisted the two shuriken into a pair of iron butterflies. It hadn't rearranged them at the molecular level; the precision required was beyond what Lv. 1 [Electromagnetic Force Precision] could manage.
The iron butterflies fluttered around Rasa before finally landing on his outstretched index finger.
He held his finger beneath his nose and breathed in the scent of the iron butterflies, as though he could smell the unique fragrance of iron. Smiling, he said, "Show me what you can really do.
"If all you have are tricks like this, you won't just fail to beat me—you won't even get close.
"Because I'm the king of all metals."
All metals!
This was only the beginning of Electromagnetic Force, yet it had still deeply shaken Pakura. Even the mighty Third Kazekage could only manipulate Iron Sand and slightly influence weapons containing iron.
Had his Kekkei Genkai really become this powerful?
She had always heard that the Uchiha Clan could awaken the Sharingan through pain. Since when could Magnet Release be used like this, too?
Pakura grumbled inwardly, but refused to back down. She tossed aside everything she had on her that was metal: the short blade in front of her and the silver hairpin in her bun.
She gave a couple of huffs, her face flushing slightly. "You said it yourself! That last round doesn't count. Let's start over!"
Watching from a distance, Yashamaru beat his chest in frustration. "Honestly, brother-in-law, you already won!
"What if something goes wrong when you start over with Pakura?"
Karura's eyes were fixed on Rasa, who had a tiger in his heart and yet delicately sniffed at butterflies. She smiled gently. "Your brother-in-law will definitely win."
Karura hadn't had much faith in Rasa before, but now she was brimming with confidence. Perhaps his self-assured bearing had rubbed off on her.
Pakura's expression was grave, as if facing a formidable enemy. Rasa's unruffled calm put more pressure on her than any enemy she had faced before.
It weighed on her like a mountain.
She quickly formed Hand Seals. "Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder!"
Extremely Steaming Murder worked much like sand manipulation, offering great flexibility. She could create several fireballs with Scorch Release, then use them in combination with Taijutsu.
She could also shoot the fireballs directly at her opponent, instantly evaporating all the water in their body. Or she could gather them together and create a massive explosion.
True masters usually made their name with a single technique.
"Ha!"
Pakura gave a low shout and sent the fireballs toward Rasa, while she herself zigzagged forward, rushing at him in a Z-shaped path.
Rasa smiled. Such a trivial trick. The iron butterflies on his finger took flight and continued circling him.
Electromagnetic Force, move!
A shuriken Pakura had tossed aside suddenly broke the sound barrier as it shot toward her, blocking the path she had to take.
Pakura bent backward with difficulty and dodged it, breaking into another cold sweat. Too fast!
Rasa summed up the attack:
His current ability level was too low, and its limitations were too great. To make metal break the sound barrier, he had to accelerate it by creating repulsive force with Electromagnetic Force. That came at the cost of maneuverability.
Without acceleration, simply manipulating the metal left it too slow to be dangerous, putting him at a disadvantage.
As Rasa considered this, several fireballs rushed toward him, yet he still didn't move.
A vast amount of chakra poured into the earth and turned into Gold Dust. Then, using Electromagnetic Force, he extracted the gold from the Gold Dust, along with various metallic substances in a stretch of desert beneath his feet.
He formed a metal barrier in front of himself and blocked the Scorch Release fireballs Pakura had thrown.
The metal atoms in the barrier were spaced relatively far apart. Put simply, it was made of all kinds of metal particles drawn together. Once the Electromagnetic Force was released, they would scatter like sand.
Its physical defense was weak, but its defense against energy was strong. It was a combined application of ninjutsu and Electromagnetic Force.
The Scorch Release burned through the metal barrier, melting it at a visible speed until the metal fused into a single mass of liquid.
Rasa smiled and said a few words: "Thanks."
He had good reason to be grateful. Rearranging metal required atomic-level [Electromagnetic Force Precision], and Pakura had indirectly helped him out.
Then, multitasking, he lifted every metal object within a radius of 150 meters into the sky. They crowded together in a dense mass.
The sky abruptly darkened. Pakura looked up and saw that even the sun had been blocked. Was this the power Rasa possessed now?
Rasa then used Electromagnetic Force to accelerate most of the metal objects in the sky. They fell toward Pakura like raindrops, cutting off every possible path of movement.
He had borrowed the earth's gravity, so the effort was slightly less taxing.
If he replaced all the metal objects with snow, the scene would be beautiful: like the heroine in a TV drama, with snow falling in a small area just a few dozen feet around her.
Unfortunately, he couldn't change them.
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