The battle was on the verge of breaking out.
With Chiya's provocative throat-slitting gesture, the air in the core area of Amegakure seemed to freeze.
The rain fell even harder.
Leading Sasuke and Izumi, Chiya stepped through the puddles and the corpses of the Rain Ninja, advancing step by step toward the towering steel skyscraper.
"Chiya-neesan, the chakra signatures around us... vanished?"
Sasuke looked around vigilantly. Those dense Anbu auras had seemingly retreated all at once, but this did not put him at ease; instead, it brought an oppressive feeling of being targeted by a much more terrifying entity.
"The small fry have withdrawn, naturally to let the big names take the stage."
Chiya did not stop walking, his gaze fixed firmly on the high tower.
Just as the three of them were about to step onto the final iron bridge leading to the tower, a sudden change occurred.
An anomaly arose abruptly!
The cold raindrops that had been falling vertically suddenly underwent a bizarre morphological change in midair.
Splash-!
The rain was no longer droplets; wrapped in chakra, it instantly transformed into sheets of white paper!
Billions of paper sheets danced and circled in the sky, actually blocking out the heavens and completely turning the originally gloomy rainy curtain into a white ocean.
"This is... paper?"
Uchiha Izumi raised her head in astonishment, reaching out to catch a falling piece of paper. The moment the paper touched her fingertips, it was as sharp as a blade, slicing her skin.
"Careful!" Sasuke shouted, hurriedly activating his Sharingan and pulling Izumi back with a leap.
The next second.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The paper filling the sky seemed to hear an order, instantly transforming into countless sharp lances that launched an indiscriminate bombardment on the spot where the three had just been standing!
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
The steel bridge deck was instantly pierced into a hedgehog, sending sparks flying.
Amidst the flying white paper, a sacred and aloof figure, accompanied by the clustering of countless paper butterflies, slowly descended from the high tower.
She wore a black robe embroidered with red clouds, and a paper flower was pinned in her short, light purple hair. Behind her, countless sheets of white paper condensed into a pair of huge, pristine white wings, making her look like an angel from legend.
The sole female member of the Akatsuki, codenamed "White Tiger".
The Angel-Konan.
She hovered in midair, looking down condescendingly at Chiya on the bridge. Her pale orange eyes held not a trace of emotional fluctuation, only the aloofness of an "emissary of God".
"This is the realm of God."
Konan's voice was cold and detached, echoing through the empty rainy night.
"Mortals stop here."
"To take another step forward is blasphemy."
Looking at this suddenly descending "angel", Sasuke and Izumi both felt immense pressure. The ability to manipulate the environment and infuse chakra into every single piece of paper clearly exceeded the scope of ordinary ninja.
"An angel, huh..."
Sasuke gripped his kunai tighter, cold sweat sliding down his forehead.
However.
Facing the overwhelming pressure of the paper sea, Chiya merely smiled.
He laughed until his shoulders shook, as if he had seen the most ridiculous joke in the world.
"Pfft... Hahaha!"
Chiya raised his head, his pair of scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan brimming with mockery.
"God? An angel?"
"It's one thing for that cripple Nagato to call himself a god, but you fold a pair of wings out of some scraps of paper and actually think you're an angel?"
Chiya slowly drew the Ryūjin Jakka at his waist, the tip of the blade pointing obliquely at the ground.
"Before my flames..."
"This so-called realm of god of yours is nothing more than a flammable garbage dump."
"Arrogant!"
Konan's gaze turned cold. As a partner who had accompanied Nagato to this day, she would never allow anyone to insult the dreams of Yahiko and Nagato.
"Since you refuse to listen to advice, accept the punishment of God!"
"Dance of the Shikigami: Paper Shigure!"
Splash!
The paper wings behind Konan snapped open.
Countless sheets of paper instantly folded and hardened, transforming into dense shuriken and senbon that swept toward Chiya like a white storm!
The sheer quantity of this attack was enough to cover the entire iron bridge, leaving no room for evasion!
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Sasuke instinctively wanted to form hand seals to counterattack.
"Fall back, Sasuke."
Chiya spoke indifferently, stopping Sasuke's movement.
"An attack of this level requires no hand seals."
Facing the overwhelming rain of paper, Chiya did not even swing his blade.
He merely gripped the hilt, the Reiatsu within his body vibrating slightly as he released a wisp-a mere wisp-of heat belonging to the strongest fire-attribute Zanpakuto.
"Ryūjin Jakka, Shikai: Heat Wave."
Hum-!!!
A visible golden ripple centered on Chiya spread rapidly in all directions.
No flames erupted.
There was merely a sudden, drastic rise in temperature!
The scene that followed caused Konan's expression of perpetual ice to crack, showing utter horror for the first time.
Those aggressive paper shuriken, fierce enough to pierce solid rock, suddenly began to curl, yellow, and smoke at a distance of ten meters from Chiya.
Then at five meters...
Whoosh!
They burst into spontaneous combustion!
Tens of thousands of paper shuriken instantly turned into balls of fire in midair, followed by transforming into black ash that drifted down powerlessly like dark butterflies.
Not a single piece of paper could break through that five-meter "absolute high-temperature domain"!
"This... How is this possible?!"
Konan's pupils dilated in shock.
Her paper was not ordinary paper; it had been specially treated with chakra, making it not only waterproof and fireproof, but even comparable to steel in hardness. Ordinary Fire Release could never ignite it in an instant!
"Is your paper waterproof?" Chiya asked with a smile.
Konan instinctively nodded; of course her paper was waterproof.
"Then is it fireproof?"
Konan gritted her teeth. Her paper could also resist fire to a certain extent.
"Too bad, then."
Chiya stepped forward, treading on the floating paper ash as he walked toward Konan step by step.
"My fire is not ordinary fire."
"This is the temperature from the surface of the sun."
"Never mind these few scraps of paper of yours, even steel, I can instantly bake it into gas!"
"Impossible! I don't believe it!"
A strong sense of unease welled up in Konan's heart. She formed hand seals with both hands, deciding to unleash her trump card.
"Dance of the Shikigami: Dance of the Shikigami: Paper Person of God Technique: Detonation Mode!"
The paper flying out this time was no longer ordinary paper, but special paper mixed with countless high-potency explosive tags!
Since it burned fast, she would blow him to pieces before it burned away!
"Explode!!"
Konan gave a low cry.
However...
The anticipated chain explosion did not occur.
The moment those explosive tags flew into Chiya's heat wave domain, before they even had time to detonate the chakra within them, the material of the paper tags themselves was instantly carbonized!
The principle of an explosive tag was to detonate the technique inscribed on the paper, but if the medium itself turned to ash in an instant, how could the technique even activate?
"Dud?"
Chiya looked at the explosive tags turning to ash before they could detonate, shaking his head as the mockery in his eyes grew denser.
"Truly pathetic."
"When elemental suppression reaches this degree, I almost feel like I'm bullying someone."
At this moment, Chiya had reached the end of the iron bridge, a mere dozens of meters away from Konan, who hovered in midair.
As he approached, the surrounding rain completely vanished.
The perpetually humid air of Amegakure became bone-dry in this instant, making one's throat parched and skin burning.
"Y-You don't come any closer!"
Konan panicked.
She felt as though she were not facing a human, but a moving giant furnace! The paper wings behind her began to turn yellow, brittle, and some edges were already starting to smoke.
As a ninja who manipulated paper, encountering Chiya who possessed extreme high temperatures was simply a mouse meeting a cat-a complete, dimensional suppression!
"This is the so-called 'emissary of God'?"
Chiya stopped walking, slowly raising the Ryūjin Jakka in his hand.
Golden flames began to dance merrily along the blade, as if they could hardly wait to devour the "fuel" before them.
"An angel made of paper wants to block the blazing fire?"
"Don't make me laugh."
Chiya's gaze chilled, and the long sword in his hand swung out fiercely.
"All Things in the Universe, turn to ashes!"
"Ryūjin Jakka: Flame Barrier!"
Rumble-!!!
This time, it was no longer an intangible heat wave, but a substantive sea of fire!
Golden flames surged from the edge of the blade, yet instead of burning Konan directly, they wrapped around behind her, above her head, and beneath her feet like fire-snakes possessed of consciousness!
In the blink of an eye.
A massive cage constructed of golden blazing flames appeared out of thin air, trapping Konan, who hovered in midair, squarely in the center!
"Ah!!"
Konan let out a miserable scream.
Though the flames did not touch her directly, the high temperature within the cage instantly ignited her proud paper wings.
Whoosh!
That pair of pristine white wings instantly transformed into two balls of fire.
Losing the support of her wings, Konan plunged from the sky in disarray, like a bird with broken wings.
Bang!
She slammed heavily onto the scorching ground, the red-cloud black robe on her body burned full of holes, revealing large patches of burned skin.
"How could it... be like this..."
Konan lay on the ground, looking at the dozens-meter-tall walls of fire surrounding her.
Those flames showed no sign of extinguishing; instead, they burned ever brighter, like a group of greedy evil ghosts waiting for their master's command, ready to devour her at any moment.
She lost.
Lost thoroughly and completely.
She had not even managed to block a single move from her opponent.
"Too weak."
Chiya's voice pierced through the wall of fire, entering with indifference.
"Is your so-called 'God' just sending weak toys like you out to die?"
Tap, tap, tap.
Chiya passed through the flames, stepping into the cage completely unscathed.
He walked up to Konan, looking down condescendingly at the once lofty angel.
"Call your god out."
Chiya raised his foot, stepping onto Konan's half-burned paper face, grinding down with slight pressure.
"Tell him."
"If he doesn't come out to greet guests..."
"I'll send this roasted angel to him for dinner."
Boom!
The moment Chiya's voice fell.
A repulsive force so massive it was suffocating suddenly erupted from the top of the tower, slamming fiercely against the flame barrier of the Flame Barrier!
"Shinra Tensei!!!"
A cold voice devoid of any emotion resounded through the heavens.
Before you continue