Improved Sage Art! Super Big Ball Multi-Rasengan!
The second level of the underground fortress.
The cascading waterfall surged in from all directions, and dozens of missing-nin tangled their Chakra together, creating a volume of water far exceeding the limits of ordinary Ninjutsu, as if an entire river had been poured into this enclosed space.
The water wall advanced extremely quickly, its surging waves shattering the stone pillars on both sides. The dome's rock layers cracked under the immense pressure, and rubble mixed with mud and water crashed down.
Gikazo hid at the very back of the crowd, his features contorted in a grimace, laughing almost maniacally.
"Drown him! Even if you don't kill him by chopping, the water pressure will crush him into mincemeat!"
The churning waves had already reached within three meters of Naruto's face.
The steam hit his face, wetting his short, golden hair and making it stick to his forehead.
Naruto looked up, his gaze passing over the five-story-high wall of water, his azure eyes reflecting the churning white foam.
"Is that all the prestige you have?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hands and interlocked his fingers.
A cross mark.
"Multi Shadow Clone Technique."
His tone was mostly drowned out by the roar of the water.
But what happened next made even the last living person in the underground space forget to breathe.
Bang bang bang--!
Large plumes of white smoke billowed into the air.
It's not a few, nor a dozen.
Beneath the dome, countless golden figures crowded together.
Forty-seven in total.
The exact number was exactly the same as the number of missing-nin remaining in the arena.
Each Shadow Clone raised its right hand in unison, and Chakra its palm.
A highly compressed azure halo lit up, stirring up violent spirals of air.
It didn't stop at the size of a fist.
It's still expanding.
It continues to expand.
From the size of a basketball, it was transformed into a millstone, and then into a water tank.
Each Rasengan was expanding wildly, and the overflowing high temperature evaporated the splashing water droplets.
Gikazo's maniacal laughter froze completely.
"What... what the hell is that...?"
Naruto's main body stood at the forefront of the formation, and the mobilization of his immense energy caused his breathing to become slightly heavier.
He held up a blue sphere of light, over two meters in diameter, with one hand. The spinning Chakra cut through the air, emitting a mournful howl like a dying beast.
He tilted his head slightly, his smile exuding a nonchalant yet wicked air.
"To broaden your horizons."
"What do you mean by 'absolute firepower coverage'?"
The forty-seven Shadow Clone simultaneously raised the giant ball of light above their heads.
The interwoven beams of light illuminated the dim underground fortress as bright as day.
Forty-eight voices converged into a torrent.
"Improved version of Immortal Technique - Super Big Ball Multi-Rasengan!"
Forty-eight orbs of light were released from his hand simultaneously.
It crashed down from above with a whooshing sound.
The moment the massive water wall merged with the sphere of light, not a sound could be heard.
The sound wave frequency exceeded the limit of human hearing, and the violent airflow pierced through the eardrums, leaving only an extremely sharp buzzing in everyone's minds.
Then—light.
A pure white tide of light erupted from the center of the collision, engulfing everything in sight.
The water wall is gone.
It wasn't dispersed, but rather completely vaporized.
Hundreds of tons of fresh water instantly turned into boiling steam, and the terrifyingly high temperature caused the surrounding stone walls to appear as a melting gel.
The first Rasengan tore through the water curtain and slammed heavily into the group of missing-nin.
Boom--!
The spherical shockwave spread out, crushing everything within a 20-meter radius into dust.
The second one.
The third one.
The fourth one.
The dull explosions continued one after another.
Forty-eight Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan rained down on this underground fortress like a meteor shower.
Each impact creates a spherical hole tens of meters in diameter in the same spot.
Rock strata, pillars, and stone slabs are as thin as paper in the face of absolute violence.
Gikazo his mouth wide.
I wanted to run, but my legs felt like they were made of lead.
A pure white tide of light filled his last glimpse of vision.
The only remaining thought in my mind was--
This is not human.
This is an irresistible natural disaster.
Ground.
Terumi Mei witnessed this scene firsthand.
The ground beneath my feet suddenly collapsed by half a meter, and the supporting structure beneath was completely shattered.
Immediately afterwards, the ground three hundred meters in front of her seemed to be pierced through from below by an invisible giant hand—
The entire mud layer bulged upwards, riddled with cracks, and then—
A towering white beam of light burst forth from the ground, reaching the night sky, with a diameter of hundreds of meters.
A scorching hot wind swept in, Terumi Mei's battle robe to flutter wildly.
Genji grabbed her wrist and staggered back more than ten steps.
The beam of light dissipated.
A terrifying giant sinkhole has appeared on the once flat ground.
It is a near-perfect circle, with a diameter of no less than one mile.
The rock walls at the edges, scorched by high temperatures, gleamed with a chilling glassy sheen.
White smoke curled from the bottom of the pit.
Four hundred missing-nin, six veteran Jonin, and the entire fortress.
Completely vanished.
Not even a single intact fragment could be found; it was as clean as a fingerprint left casually by a deity on earth.
Terumi Mei stood at the edge of the abyss, her emerald green eyes fixed intently on the bottom of the pit.
The wind, carrying scorched earth and lingering heat, brushed against my cheeks.
Her lips moved as if she wanted to speak, but no sound came out.
The Genji beside him had trembling arms, and his cane had dug a deep dent in the mud to barely support his hunched body.
The silence lasted for about ten breaths.
An outline emerged from the mist of the deep pit.
Golden, tousled hair.
His left hand was casually tucked into his pocket, while his right shoulder carried a broken piece of metal—the hilt of a Ninja Blade that Oni Gikazo along with its master.
Naruto climbed up the steep pit wall step by step.
The military boots crunched crisply on the vitrified rock.
His clothes were dusty, his short hair was a little messy from the moisture, and there was a red mark on his chin from a pebble.
But those azure eyes shone breathtakingly bright in the darkness.
Reaching the edge of the pit, he casually tossed aside the broken knife handle, which rolled twice with a clatter.
He lifted his eyelids, and his gaze met Terumi Mei's.
The two were no more than five steps apart.
Terumi Mei's breath hitched, and her chest heaved noticeably.
Naruto turned his head, his smile revealing a hint of wildness and languor.
"Lord Mizukage"
The boy's voice, slightly hoarse from puberty, was incredibly magnetic.
"The work is done."
He strode forward, closing in.
His gait may seem casual, but in Terumi Mei's eyes, his extremely aggressive masculine aura is pressing down on her with overwhelming force.
Terumi Mei rooted to the spot.
My chest felt as if a heavy stone was pressing down on it, and the air inside my chest was churning wildly.
She should have retreated, but some domineering force had already destroyed her defenses, leaving her with no strength to back down.
Naruto stopped just a fist's distance away from her.
Bend down.
His warm breath brushed against her earlobe, sending a shiver down her spine.
"So--"
"What should we call it now?"
He lowered his voice, his tone undisguisedly provocative, "Or are you sure I don't need to pay some extra price to put the Mizukage at ease?"
Terumi Mei's ear tips flushed a fiery red, which spread all the way down her slender neck.
She clutched the hem of her dress tightly, her once aloof face now showing only awkwardness and helplessness.
On the distant sea, the eastern horizon was just beginning to lighten with a pale, fish-belly white.
One night.
He said three days.
It only took one night to quell all of this.