As Long as I Still Have Chakra! Rasa's Death

"As long as I still have chakra, the gold dust won't stop!" Rasa watched Yuan give up defending with the giant sword and thought his opponent was already spent. His laughter grew even wilder. With a roar, he increased his chakra output again. "Die! Gold Dust Barrier: Absolute Crush!"

Even more gold sand rose from all directions like several enormous pythons, opening their bloody maws as they tried to swallow the crimson god of war whole.

"Annoying."

Yuan stood inside Susanoo's crystal, his gaze cold to the extreme.

In the palm of his outstretched right hand, that furious mass of black lightning had already been compressed to its limit. This was no ordinary Lightning Release, but a fusion of Flame-Lightning Chidori's piercing power and the unreasonable conceptual disintegration force of the ocular technique "Annihilation."

"I'll cut your strings and see if your sand can still fly!"

Yuan did not attack the gold sand blotting out the sky. Instead, he aimed at the invisible chakra network in the air and slammed his fist down with brutal force!

"Flame-Lightning Chidori: Severing Line!"

"Crackle—!"

A thick pillar of black lightning erupted from Susanoo's hand, like an incomparably huge pair of black shears, cutting straight into the empty space ten meters in front of Rasa.

In that instant, the Magnet Release chakra threads Rasa was so proud of snapped and disintegrated inch by inch the moment they touched this Black Lightning carrying disintegration properties, like cotton thread catching fire! And that Black Lightning followed the remaining chakra lines like a venomous snake, savagely backlashing toward Rasa's hands in reverse!

"Ah—!"

Rasa screamed. His hands sprang apart as if electrocuted, and the nails on all ten fingers split open in an instant, dripping with blood.

The chakra connection network was completely severed.

The gold dust tsunami that had been incomparably fierce and had already climbed to Susanoo's waist lost all power and support in an instant. Tens of thousands of tons of metallic sand collapsed like dead matter, crashing down and turning into lifeless metal mounds on the ground.

"Impossible! My gold dust... how could you possibly cut off Magnet Release's chakra connection?!" Rasa's face was bloodless as he stared in terror at the mountain of gold on the ground that he could no longer control. The small clump of gold dust beneath his feet, used to keep him suspended, was also falling apart, and his entire body plummeted straight down from more than ten meters in the air.

Bang! Rasa crashed miserably into the sand, kicking up dust everywhere.

Before he could climb up, a huge shadow had already loomed over him.

Yuan dispelled the massive, conspicuous Susanoo. He used the Body Flicker Technique, moving so fast he did not even leave an afterimage, and appeared directly in front of Rasa.

Rasa was horrified. Instinctively, he mobilized the last bit of chakra in his body and condensed a thin layer of gold dust defensive armor over his body.

"Die!" Rasa swung his fist wrapped in gold dust, making a trapped beast's final struggle.

Yuan could not even be bothered to dodge. Facing Rasa's fist head-on, his left hand shot out like lightning and clamped around Rasa's wrist. Pure monstrous strength crushed Rasa's wrist bones outright.

Immediately after, Yuan's right fist, carrying a layer of violent airflow visible to the naked eye, slammed into Rasa's chest without holding back.

Crack!

The incomparably hard gold dust armor shattered before Yuan's Chakra Enhanced Strength Punch like a thin, brittle biscuit. The terrifying force of the punch punched straight through the protective gear and broke more than half of Rasa's sternum.

Rasa was sent flying like a ragged sack, smashing heavily into the rock wall of Thread-of-Sky Canyon and blasting out a large pit before sliding to the ground.

He spat out mouthful after mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, trying to struggle back to his feet.

A foot in a black leather boot stomped down hard on his shoulder.

Yuan grabbed Rasa by the throat with one hand and lifted him from the pit into the air like a chick. Those scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan stared fixedly at him.

"That desert home field you were so proud of can't save your old bones either." Yuan's voice was as cold as a death sentence.

The thousands of Sunagakure elites ahead of the canyon were all stunned. The Kazekage they were so proud of had not even lasted two exchanges in this man's hands, and was now being held like a toy!

"Let Lord Kazekage go!" Several fearless Sunagakure Anbu charged forward with bloodshot eyes.

"Get lost!"

Yuan did not even turn his head, merely giving a cold shout. A terrifying chakra pressure swept straight out. Those Anbu were like they had slammed into an invisible wall, directly blasted backward more than ten meters, falling to the ground and coughing up blood like mad.

Rasa was being choked, his feet kicking wildly in midair. He glared with bulging, bloodshot eyes and squeezed out threatening words through his teeth. "If you kill me... the Daimyō of the Land of Wind... and all of Sunagakure... will never let you go... you'll face endless pursuit!"

"Pursuit?"

Yuan seemed to have heard some extremely funny joke. He pulled Rasa closer to himself, his expression savage and arrogant.

"You idiot still don't understand? The common people can live, but anyone who blocks my way must die. As for Sunagakure..."

Yuan paused slightly, his gaze sweeping over the thousand-plus trembling Sunagakure ninja ahead.

"From today on, Sunagakure is mine."

The instant his words fell.

Yuan's five fingers suddenly exerted force, crushing Rasa's windpipe with a crack. Immediately after, a mass of violent lightning-natured chakra gathered in his right hand, and he mercilessly punched Rasa's head!

Splat—!

It was like smashing a watermelon. The head of Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, was forcibly blown into a mist of blood by Yuan's punch before everyone's horrified eyes! The headless corpse dropped limply to the ground.

[Ding! Killed Kage-level Rasa! Obtained Orange Fragments ×50!]

[Host detected crushing and killing in public. Drop-rate doubling bonus triggered! Fragment acquisition increased to 1.5 times! Final gain: Orange Fragments ×75!]

The system notification rang pleasantly in Yuan's mind.

Yuan casually shook the blood from his fist and slid the short blade back into the sheath on his back. He looked around at the deathly silent Sunagakure army, killing intent spreading from him as if it had taken physical form.

Just then, a blond female ninja squeezed out of the crowd. It was Temari.

She bit her lower lip hard, her eyes red as she looked at her father's headless corpse on the ground. But she did not cry, nor did she rush up to take revenge. Her highly political mind knew very clearly that if she charged forward now, all thousand-plus Sunagakure elites here would be buried with her father.

Temari walked to a spot ten paces in front of Yuan, bent both knees, and knelt ramrod straight on the yellow sand.

"The Kazekage is dead. Sunagakure... surrenders unconditionally." Temari pressed her head deeply against the sand, her voice trembling yet exceptionally clear. "Sunagakure needs a new leader."

As Temari knelt, the thousand-plus Sunagakure ninja behind her, whose courage had long since been shattered by Yuan, dropped their weapons in a clatter and knelt in a mass.

Yuan looked at Temari submitting at his feet, a trace of appreciation flashing in his eyes.

"You're very smart. Much smarter than that idiot father of yours. Get up and follow me into the village." Yuan stepped over Rasa's corpse and strode into the absolute natural stronghold of Thread-of-Sky Canyon.

The news that the Kazekage of the Land of Wind had been killed by Uchiha Yuan of the Hidden Leaf Village with a single punch, and that all of Sunagakure had surrendered, spread across the entire shinobi world as if it had grown wings, taking less than three days.

Land of Earth, Iwagakure.

The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, sat on that enormous stone chair, clutching the intelligence scroll in his hand, every old bone in his body trembling.

"One man... single-handedly slaughtered his way through the entire desert and even forced Sunagakure to surrender? Is this Uchiha Yuan the reincarnation of Madara Uchiha?!" Ōnoki smashed the stone table beside him with one palm.

Land of Lightning, Kumogakure.

A, the Fourth Raikage, tore that report to shreds outright. Blue lightning wrapped around his entire body as he paced back and forth in his office in a frenzy. "Bastard! That brat from the Hidden Leaf Village simply looks down on everyone! He's trying to start the Fourth Shinobi World War!"

And in the Daimyō's residence in the Land of Water, shrouded in mist all year round.

The corners of Mei Terumi's lips, painted with bright lipstick, curved into a meaningful smile.

"He took down Sunagakure so easily... what a terrifying and charming man." She looked at the dense fog outside the window, her slender fingers lightly tapping the windowsill.

"Uchiha Yuan... you've stirred this stagnant pond into such a mess. Who will be next?"