The Will of Stone!

"Everyone, fall back! Keep your distance!"

Onoki's roar exploded across the battlefield.

As if granted amnesty, the Hidden Stone ninja swiftly retreated, clearing an open area several hundred meters wide around the two of them.

Yotsuki Sora did not pursue them. He merely stood where he was and rolled his neck, producing a crisp crack of bone.

A bloody golden aura swirled around him like burning flames.

He craved worthy opponents!

Before his transmigration, Sora had been no battle maniac. He had not even been particularly interested in fighting games or bloody AAA titles.

But everything that had happened since his transmigration, along with the bloodline carried by this body, had influenced him at every moment, even leaving the deepest marks upon his soul.

Warlike!

Proud!

Frenzied!

With his bloodline endlessly reverting to its ancestors, Yotsuki Sora was more bloodthirsty than Gold Horn and Silver Horn, more frenzied than the Uchiha, and more obsessive than the Senju!

The wind from the plains of the Land of Earth swept through White Stone Gorge, stirring Onoki's small frame. He looked at Yotsuki Sora, who stood before him with his arms folded, at the disdain in his opponent's eyes, and suddenly felt a slight daze.

That gaze, that bearing—he seemed to have seen them decades ago.

He had been eighteen that year. Before that man, he had been as weak as an ant.

Though decades had passed, though he had learned his teacher's Dust Release, though he had become the Kage of an entire village, whenever he dreamed of that figure at night, he still felt a helplessness that came from the depths of his soul.

He had thought he had hidden it well. He had thought time would let him forget everything.

But in that instant, it all came rushing back!

No!

Onoki's eyes sharpened as he crushed the stone in his hand. Pulverized fragments spilled through his fingers.

"I can already shoulder an entire village! I have already realized what the true Will of Stone is!"

"I am no longer the person I was!"

The ground across the battlefield suddenly shook violently. Countless stones rose from the earth, circling Onoki as though drawn by an invisible force.

Though his body remained small, he radiated a crushing pressure as heavy as a mountain!

The next moment, he slammed his hands together, his cheeks swelling high.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

An air cannon compressed to the utmost limit howled forth.

Yotsuki Sora twisted aside to evade it. The rock wall behind him was instantly blasted into a smooth crater several meters wide.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

Three Vacuum Waves came in succession in a triangular formation.

Yotsuki Sora met them with a savage grin. Blood Lightning surged around his right fist as he shattered the central blast with one punch, but the currents on either side grazed him, instantly leaving two bloody gashes across his chest.

"Interesting."

The wounds on his chest healed at a visible speed, and the battle intent in Yotsuki Sora's eyes intensified.

Onoki, the Tsuchikage, was renowned throughout the world for his powerful Earth Release, but that did not mean his Wind Release was weak.

As someone who possessed the Bloodline Selection Dust Release, Onoki's mastery of Earth, Wind, and Fire chakra had undoubtedly reached the pinnacle. Otherwise, even the slightest imbalance would have made it impossible for him to condense Dust Release chakra!

It was simply that in past battles, there had never been any need for the Tsuchikage himself to act. Yet in this duel against Yotsuki Sora, he had finally brought out his deepest reserves.

Gale winds surged wildly.

Onoki was like a magical machine gun, continuously unleashing Wind Release ninjutsu one after another.

Wind Release's suppression of Lightning Release chakra was exceptionally obvious. Coupled with the fact that these techniques were cast by Onoki, even Sora's strongest Lightning Release Armor could not provide much effective defense.

But that was all.

Though Wind Release was sharp enough to break through Sora's Lightning Release Armor, it still could not inflict a truly lethal wound.

More often than not, the moment the gale broke through his defense, Sora's absurd regenerative ability had already healed the injury.

But as Onoki continuously released Wind Release techniques, the airflow between heaven and earth seemed to undergo an obvious change.

Winds rose and clouds gathered; heaven and earth turned murderous!

After another ineffective Wind Release attack, Onoki took a deep breath. The chakra within his body burst forth without reservation. Amid piercing howls, the air currents between heaven and earth slowly condensed into form, transforming into a seventy-meter-tall giant of gale winds that swept toward Sora!

The raging winds supported Onoki's body.

Even as small as he was, against the backdrop of the wind giant, he appeared incomparably tall and majestic, as though he too possessed the bearing and capacity to command the world and rule over all beneath heaven!

"Using Wind Release to display the Will of Stone?"

Looking at Onoki atop the wind giant's head, Yotsuki Sora sneered. "You might as well switch places with Rasa."

"How could a brat like you possibly understand this old man's Will of Stone!"

Standing atop the wind giant's crown, Onoki was brimming with heroic spirit, even his voice becoming full and resonant.

"It doesn't matter what kind of ninjutsu I use, nor what methods I employ!"

"As long as I can do it, as long as I can achieve it, as long as my heart has never wavered, then there is no problem with any of it!"

"Unyielding and immovable—this is this old man's Will of Stone!"

Onoki's chakra aura suddenly surged by another huge degree. The currents around the wind giant beneath him grew ever more violent, as though a fierce storm was rising within it.

Countless patterns also emerged across its shoulders and arms, as if it had donned indestructible armor!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Feeling the wind giant's vast chakra, Yotsuki Sora laughed madly. "Onoki, you really are to my liking!"

Cowardice.

Hesitation.

Indecision.

No matter how great their power or how mighty their authority, in Sora's eyes, such people were nothing more than insects.

Only those who remained steadfast in their will from beginning to end, only those with the firmest goals and ideals, only those with such caliber were worthy of Sora's regard!

Amid the howling gale, Yotsuki Sora slowly raised his right arm. At that moment, the overbearing ambition of an overlord condensed to its true peak. Blood-gold flames enveloped Sora's body, and paired with scarlet lightning, he looked just like a Super Saiyan.

A Super Saiyan 2 Full Power!

"This old man will use your head to announce who this war's victory belongs to!"

"Your Will of Stone probably can't shatter my fist!"

Onoki stared fixedly at Yotsuki Sora. The fear he had once felt toward Madara Uchiha now fell entirely upon Yotsuki Sora. His gaze grew ever firmer, and his conviction ever more impassioned!

I will use this victory to wash away everything from the past. I will use this war's victory to prove it all!

"Die, Yotsuki Sora!!!"

"Onoki!!"

BOOM!!!

Within the devastated White Stone Gorge, the fierce wind giant swung its massive fist, while blood-gold radiance tore across the heavens...