[Wind Release: Vacuum Blade!]
Almost the instant Sasuke spoke, a vicious gleam flashed through Danzo's eyes. Even a lion used its full strength to hunt a rabbit. After immersing himself in Wind Release Chakra Nature Transformation for so many years, his mastery had reached the point of pure perfection.
Though he hadn't expected Sasuke to catch it, he had never intended to stab Sasuke to death with an ordinary kunai in the first place.
As Danzo's gaze hardened, a foot-long blade of wind suddenly extended from the tip of the kunai caught between Sasuke's fingers. Combining chakra shape transformation and nature transformation, this move was one of Danzo's signature techniques.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your mastery of wind blades really is impressive, you old dog. You must have been quite the Blade Taijutsu expert back in your day."
Shinra Tensei, radically modified from Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, activated instantly and blasted Danzo several meters back. Staring at the wind blade in his hand, Sasuke clicked his tongue in admiration.
He truly deserved his reputation as the greatest Wind Release expert in Konoha, if not the entire Shinobi World. Even this little Vacuum Blade offered a glimpse of his skill.
This move combined nature and shape transformation, bringing wind's sharpness and cutting properties almost to their utmost limits. Sasuke even suspected that, in the original story, Danzo had merely intended to test the waters before stabbing Susanoo with this move, only to underestimate Susanoo's durability and have his kunai shattered outright.
Judging by his performance in the original Tenchi Bridge battle, Danzo had managed to fight the young, vigorous Uchiha Sasuke that well with a single aging eye. He had definitely been a Nintaijutsu expert in his youth.
Of all the elemental releases, wind and lightning were undoubtedly the most suited to Nintaijutsu. The paths Naruto and Sasuke were currently taking could both be counted as such.
But unlike Danzo's pursuit of ultimate sharpness, Naruto had followed another property of wind: [godlike speed]. Perhaps because of his bloodline, Sasuke had discovered that Naruto's reflexes were several times faster than an ordinary person's, while some kind of intuitive perception was even sharper still.
And Sasuke's own approach differed somewhat from that of the Raikage's line. Conventional Lightning Release Nintaijutsu in the Shinobi World followed the route of activating and stimulating cells, adding properties such as vibration and penetration, but above all using lightning to temper the body.
Perhaps influenced by the insights he had drawn from Xiao Yan's Flame Mantra, Sasuke leaned more toward commanding lightning and making it his own. Put plainly, he preferred elemental attacks. Compared to those rune warriors, he was closer to a melee mage.
Aside from penetration, an inherent property of lightning, Sasuke had no intention of training its vibration aspect. Instead, he planned to develop properties such as its supreme yang energy and unyielding force.
He also intended to draw on the Eight Gates Technique and Ring Detonation to combine lightning and fire within his body into a lightning-flame chakra mode.
In its ideal form, this move was excellent in every respect, except that it burned through a little too much of his life. Sasuke planned to train his chakra nature and shape transformations further before tackling it.
Shape transformation meant giving form to originally shapeless, intangible chakra, producing things such as wind blades, earth walls, and water dragons. Nature transformation, meanwhile, meant amplifying a property an elemental release already possessed, or granting it a new one.
Besides general nature transformations such as compression and condensation, there were Wood Release's [absorption] and [sealing], Fire Release's [incineration] and [explosion], wind and water's [cutting] and [sharpness], and lightning's [vibration] and [penetration]. It was like attaching an enhancement modifier to an elemental release.
Properties such as wind's cutting and sharpness or fire's incineration and explosion were outwardly apparent. As for tangible elemental releases such as water and earth, their nature transformations were more difficult, being hidden within. Unless one was an expert in the field, they were difficult to cultivate.
Put simply, one concerned outward expression, while the other concerned internal composition.
As Sasuke saw it, Wood Release's [sealing] was most likely a second nature transformation the First Hokage had added himself through his exceptional Sealing Jutsu. In theory, the First Hokage's Wood Release should also have possessed properties such as [absorption] and [vitality].
So far, Sasuke had only successfully cultivated [penetration] in his Lightning Release. He was still working out properties such as [activation] and [swiftness]. Perhaps developing unusual forms of lightning, such as purple lightning or black lightning, was another viable path.
As everyone knew, thinking took almost no time in the world of Naruto. His thoughts flashed like lightning, all within an instant, yet Sasuke suddenly felt a little moisture on his face.
He reached up and touched it, only to discover that an extremely fine cut had appeared on his face at some point.
Looking in surprise at the empty patch of ground ahead, where Danzo had already vanished, Sasuke couldn't help freezing for a moment.
He had underestimated the heroes of the world. He had thought only of using Danzo as a touchstone, neglecting the man's actual strength.
Danzo had drawn first blood while they were still testing each other.
But as though something had occurred to him, Sasuke suddenly threw back his head and laughed. Lightning instantly bathed his entire body, every strand of hair standing on end and streaming behind his head. Violet-red light flickered in his eyes as he reached behind him at a speed barely visible to the naked eye, once again clamping Danzo's Vacuum Blade tightly between two fingers.
The cries of a thousand birds erupted alongside the clash of metal. The Vacuum Blade in Danzo's hand collided repeatedly with the Chidori in Sasuke's. Though they were clearly two masses of chakra, they now seemed completely solid, emitting shrieks that made the eardrums ache.
"Hahahaha, hahahaha-"
His laughter was utterly unrestrained, rivaling the original story's four great mad laughers. Danzo frowned deeply as he abandoned his kunai, flickered backward, and casually hurled more than a dozen Wind Release: Shuriken back at him.
Clang, clang, clang-
The Chidori in his hand condensed into a Heavy Blade, which Sasuke swung around himself. Its sharp whistle through the air was overshadowed by the cries of a thousand birds, but remained clearly audible. Every Wind Release: Shuriken struck by the Heavy Blade shattered on contact, whether it was the wind blade formed through chakra nature and shape transformation or the weapon itself, made of special metal. All of it turned into molten iron.
Watching the molten iron drip onto the ground, Danzo's eye twitched violently, and he couldn't help sucking in a cold breath. Sasuke's laughter ringing in his ears only deepened his frown.
"Why are you laughing, Sasuke?"
After Danzo detected his attempted ambush from behind, Naruto gave a carefree grin. His hands never stopped moving as he blasted out a Wind Fist.
"I merely laugh at this old dog's lack of strategy and wisdom. He ignores the grand, proper path of training and insists on studying petty, perverse tricks."
Shaking his head slightly, Sasuke stared at Danzo's right arm, violet light flickering in his eyes as he gave a disdainful smile.
If Danzo had kept training his Wind Release all these decades, he would long since have reached greater heights. Beyond its inherent properties, he might even have developed a special wind nature transformation akin to purple lightning.
Unfortunately, Danzo had spent all these years pursuing Hashirama cells and the Sharingan. He was nothing like Kakashi, whose strength had climbed even higher after losing his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Had Danzo known what Sasuke was thinking, he probably would have lost all composure and unleashed a torrent of curses.
Fucking Kakashi had Naruto mold him another aging eye! What about me? I lost an arm and an eye! How was a Nintaijutsu expert supposed to maintain his combat strength indefinitely? Slowly transitioning to a mix of midrange and close combat, like I'm doing now, makes much more sense, all right?!
Sasuke: If you suck, train more.
"Hmph! Glib little brat! Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
Before you continue