Rock Lee and Gaara stood rooted to the spot, both looking as though their souls had been sucked out and their thoughts had ground to a halt.
Before them, a "broad highway" dozens of meters wide, with no end in sight, had been forcibly carved out.
Its surface was smooth and level, reflecting the daylight like a gigantic slab of carefully polished obsidian.
The forest, rocks, and earth that had originally been there had all vanished.
Only on either side of this road of destruction remained the scalp-prickling white forest of bones Kimimaro had created.
But now, this bone forest that had once symbolized death and finality looked like a ridiculous decoration lining the broad highway.
"That... that wasn't ninjutsu..."
The gourd on Gaara's back trembled slightly. Sand spilled uncontrollably through its gaps before he forcibly suppressed it again.
His green eyes, always filled with indifference and murderous intent, were now full of uncertainty and bewilderment.
"What... was that power?"
Rock Lee's mouth hung even wider open, his signature thick eyebrows raised high in shock.
"So... so powerful!"
He stared at the little figure standing at the beginning of the road of destruction, his voice filled with fervor.
"Could that be... the ultimate secret of taijutsu?! Is this youth in its most ultimate form?!"
Tayuya, who hung like cured meat from a distant tree branch, was completely dumbfounded.
She stared at the passage of death that had been leveled flat, feeling the scorching heat lingering in the air, and only a buzzing roar remained in her mind.
Earlier, she had thought Kimimaro's Dance of the Young Fern was a world-destroying move, certain that both she and Goten would be skewered like hedgehogs.
Now it seemed that the ultimate dance Kimimaro took such pride in was nothing more than building blocks