Rumble!
With a thunderous crash, the sphere of Gold Dust Rasa had used for defense was smashed apart by the Iron Sand Giant Hammer.
Seeing Rasa revealed, Hyuga Lan's Iron Sand Wings flipped behind him, and he shot toward Rasa at tremendous speed.
Rasa watched Lan descend from the sky, his brows twitching. He hurriedly channeled chakra, gathering Gold Dust into a barrier in front of him.
The instant the Gold Dust barrier appeared, countless Iron Sand feathers shot from the wings on Lan's back. They struck the barrier with a series of sharp cracks.
Under the assault of Magnet Release: Iron Sand Wings, the hastily formed Gold Dust shield soon showed signs of collapse.
Seeing his Gold Dust defense on the verge of giving way so quickly under Lan's attack, Rasa's breath caught.
After becoming Kazekage, he had looked down on the Third Kazekage, his predecessor who had mysteriously vanished from their village. He had believed that, as someone who also possessed the Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai, he was hardly inferior to him.
Only after fighting this man, who wielded the same Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai as the Third Kazekage, did he realize how laughable his previous assumptions had been.
Iron Sand far surpassed Gold Dust in hardness, as well as in the range and quantity available underground. With the same technique, Magnet Release: Iron Sand was much greater in both scale and strength than Magnet Release: Gold Dust.
Of course, that wasn't to say Magnet Release: Gold Dust was useless. At least for Lan, who desperately needed financial support, Rasa's Magnet Release: Gold Dust was far more valuable to him.
After all, Gold Dust was much more valuable than Iron Sand. Given Sunagakure's poverty, if Rasa hadn't used his Kekkei Genkai to mine gold and raise funds, the village would have gone bankrupt long ago.
A Kekkei Genkai capable of supporting an entire ninja village's expenses would greatly benefit Lan's future plans.
So when Pakura proposed luring Rasa out of the village and then dealing with him, Lan had agreed without hesitation.
During their brief exchange, Lan had been very impressed with Magnet Release: Gold Dust. Even setting aside its usefulness for mining gold, it was more than capable of holding its own in both offense and defense.
The more Lan watched Rasa, the more eager he became to claim him. He had to capture Rasa today. If he let him go and Rasa became wary, it would be difficult to lure him out again.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
As the sustained assault from Iron Sand Wings battered the Gold Dust barrier to pieces, Rasa shaped Gold Dust into a flying carpet and rode it into the sky.
It seemed that after their exchange, he had realized he was no match for Lan. To avoid falling into his hands, he had decisively chosen to flee.
You're not getting away!
Lan's figure blurred as he pursued Rasa, the Iron Sand Wings on his back carrying him forward at high speed.
As Rasa rode his golden carpet through the air, his view suddenly darkened.
Lan was right in front of him, like a black-winged angel blocking his way.
So fast!
He's even faster than me. This is bad.
As Rasa marveled at how troublesome Lan was, he saw Lan clench his hand around a spear of black Iron Sand and thrust it at him.
Facing the spear hurtling toward him, Rasa crossed his arms in front of his chest. The Gold Dust flying carpet beneath his feet rippled, and golden arrows shot out of it toward Lan.
Lan dodged the first volley of Gold Dust Flying Arrows by banking to the side with his Iron Sand Wings. When the second volley arrived, he swung his iron spear.
The spear spun in his hands like a wheel, knocking every incoming golden arrow aside.
Before Rasa could launch a third attack, Lan was already upon him.
Seeing the iron spear thrusting toward him, Rasa didn't dare take it head-on.
He leaped awkwardly off the Gold Dust Flying Carpet, then sent it hurtling toward the black spear at even greater speed.
As the Gold Dust Flying Carpet rushed toward him, Lan transformed the iron spear in his hand into a massive black sword and swung it down.
With a tearing sound, the Gold Dust Flying Carpet was cleaved in two and fell toward the ground. But its brief resistance gave Rasa enough time to catch his breath and land.
The moment he touched down, Rasa gathered a large amount of Gold Dust around himself, ready to counter any attack Lan might launch.
Hyuga Lan had decided to take action and control the Third Kazekage Human Puppet not only to capture Rasa and make him provide funds, but also to test the puppet's combat strength in a real battle.
The results had delighted him. He had managed to suppress the Fourth Kazekage Rasa in the desert with Magnet Release: Iron Sand. That meant that by possessing the Third Kazekage Human Puppet with his spirit, he really had attained Kage Level strength.
Fighting a powerful opponent like Rasa had made him more and more adept at controlling the Third Kazekage Human Puppet. Now that he had it mostly under control, he'd better finish Rasa off quickly before things got complicated.
Once he had made up his mind, Lan stopped worrying about chakra consumption and began pouring chakra into his techniques. In an instant, torrents of black Iron Sand rose from underground and gathered in the air, forming enormous cubes.
The iron cubes collided, triggering a chain reaction. Countless Iron Sand spikes sprouted from their surfaces, spreading down from the sky.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Method!"
Rumble!
The earth trembled, and countless iron spikes burst from the ground. Soon, an iron forest surrounded Rasa.
A mass of iron spikes surged from above and below, closing in on Rasa at the center.
As the space he had to survive in grew smaller and smaller, Rasa's expression darkened.
Though he had already tried to account for how powerful his enemy was, he hadn't imagined the other man could use the Third Kazekage's strongest Magnet Release technique.
With the situation growing dire, Rasa could no longer spare any thought for the Anbu squad members.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Imperial Funeral!"
Rasa pressed both hands to the ground as Gold Dust surged around him, layer upon layer closing in. Soon, a pyramid of Gold Dust rose from the earth, and Rasa disappeared inside it.
The iron spikes created by Iron Sand World Method soon met the Gold Dust pyramid. Their sharp points burrowed deep into it.
Before long, the Gold Dust pyramid was bristling with iron spikes like a hedgehog. The deeper the spikes penetrated, the denser the Gold Dust became and the greater the resistance. After burrowing several meters, they finally came to a halt.
Hyuga Lan hovered in the air and frowned beneath his mask as he looked at the pyramid, now completely surrounded by iron spikes.
Rasa was clever. He had used a sealing technique powerful enough to suppress One-Tail Shukaku as a defensive measure.
Iron Sand was harder than Gold Dust, but piercing the defense of Gold Dust Imperial Funeral and reaching Rasa inside wasn't something he could accomplish in a short time.
It seemed Rasa was trying to buy time until help arrived. Unfortunately, he was about to be disappointed.
In Hyuga Lan's field of vision, a slender figure was rapidly approaching.
Inside Gold Dust Imperial Funeral, Rasa watched the situation through the Sand Eye high above. He saw the same thing, and his heart sank. The person approaching was none other than the one he had wanted to eliminate as soon as possible...