Boom!
As the Root captain completed his final hand seal, an immense chakra force capable of warping the air gathered in his palm, transforming into a spiraling purple energy drill. He was about to unleash a forbidden sealing technique powerful enough to tear apart mountains.
However, at the instant before that energy left his hand.
Buzzz...
A faint hum, so slight it was almost imperceptible, swept across the entire battlefield.
The invisible barrier that had once seemed indestructible, only rippling beneath the bombardment of dozens of ninjutsu, suddenly and without warning dispersed silently like a thin mist.
"Hm?"
The captain in the hawk mask froze, and the purple energy in his palm wavered unstably.
It dispersed?
The barrier... dispersed on its own?
Had its energy run out, or had the caster been caught up in the chaos inside and become unable to sustain it?
Before he could think further, the battle instincts of a Root elite led him to the correct judgment at once.
"Everyone, break in! Target: the Ancestral Shrine's Castle Keep! Eliminate all resistance!"
The cold command was instantly conveyed through the hand signals unique to ANBU.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens of black figures hesitated not at all. Like arrows released from a bowstring, they became gray afterimages and crossed the former boundary of the barrier in an instant, entering the Hyuga Clan Grounds!
Success!
A glint of cold delight flashed through the hawk captain's eyes.
Yet the moment his toes touched the ground, an indescribably strange sensation abruptly seized his entire body.
Something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
The instant he entered the clan grounds, the deafening explosions outside, the howls of his comrades' ninjutsu, even the rustling of the night wind through the leaves... everything vanished.
It was as though the entire world had been