Just as the Raikage's fist, wreathed in destructive lightning, was about to strike his face—
"Seal!"
The Uzumaki Clan Head uttered a cold syllable, his hands forming an exceptionally strange seal before his chest, one that seemed to contain the meaning of spatial distortion.
The crimson chakra around him did not erupt outward. Instead, it suddenly contracted inward, forming a faintly rippling chakra "mirror" less than a foot in front of him, nearly invisible to the naked eye.
This was no ordinary defensive ninjutsu, but the Uzumaki Clan's secret Sealing Jutsu, designed specifically for high-energy impact attacks—Reverse Flow Mirror!
Its principle was not to withstand force head-on, but to use exquisite chakra control and spatial interference to form a temporary "reverse sealing field" in a tiny area, one capable of directing the flow of energy!
The Raikage's heavy punch, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone, slammed squarely into that invisible "mirror"!
The expected explosion or sound of breaking bones never came.
The violent lightning on the Raikage's fist seemed to strike some bizarrely slick curved surface. It abruptly veered along the "mirror's" arc, most of its impact and Lightning Release chakra forcibly redirected—
At an even trickier, more concentrated angle than before, it shot back and smashed fiercely into the side of the Raikage's own chest!
"Bang—!!!"
A dull boom rang out, accompanied by the shriek of lightning.
The Raikage's forward charge came to an abrupt halt as though he had struck an invisible wall of rubber, defying all physical sense. Then, driven by the portion of force reflected back at him and the additional deflecting force exerted by the "mirror"—
Like a rag doll struck by a massive hammer, he was flung diagonally backward, crashing heavily into the Iron Sand ground dozens of meters away and kicking