Kamehameha

"Ka-me-ha-me-HA!!!"

Ryuto thrust both hands forward from his waist.

BOOM!!!

An absurdly thick pillar of golden light erupted from his palms.

Unlike the thin beams from before, this was a torrent of energy over three meters in diameter, like a goddamn locomotive, blasting straight toward Uchiha Izuna twenty meters away with the force to crush everything.

The air tore apart with a shriek like howling ghosts.

A deep furrow was plowed through the ground, all the rubble and dirt vaporized.

Izuna's Sharingan spun frantically.

He could "see" the terrifying density of the energy compressed inside that golden pillar. Its trajectory was straight, its speed tremendous. If he couldn't dodge, he would die.

"Body Flicker Technique: Extreme Flash!"

Izuna left an afterimage where he stood, his real body shifting sideways to the limit in an almost contorted posture.

The golden pillar blasted past the spot where he had just stood.

It missed.

But it hit what lay behind him.

RUMBLE!!!

The pillar swept straight onward. Everything in its path-houses that had yet to collapse, half-burned trees, ninja tools and corpses lying on the ground-vanished.

They weren't blown apart. They were vaporized outright, without even ashes remaining.

The pillar shot out of the clan grounds and blasted into the dense forest beyond their perimeter.

Then-

BOOM!!!

Within a circular area over a hundred meters in radius, every tree, rock, and patch of earth evaporated instantly.

A smooth, steaming crater appeared there, its bottom covered in molten, glasslike material.

Only then did the shock wave catch up.

WHOOSH!!!

Centered on the pillar's path, violent waves of air exploded outward to either side.

The dozens of Uchiha ninja surrounding the Uzumaki defensive line were blown away like scraps of paper, crashing down all over the ground.

Several of those closest to it coughed up blood and passed out on the spot.

The center of the battlefield fell quiet.

Ryuto stood where he was, panting heavily.

That single shot had drained nearly thirty percent of his ki. His arms felt a little numb, and his palms burned painfully.

But it was worth it.

"I... holy shit..." Behind some distant rubble, an Uzumaki clansman gaped, barely able to speak.

Mito Uzumaki gripped the edge of the cover, her fingers turning white.

She looked at the forest that had been leveled, then at Ryuto's back.

No hand seals.

No chakra fluctuations.

A pure outpouring of energy.

This form of attack completely overturned her understanding of "power."

"Rena, hurry!" Mito suppressed her shock and turned to Rena, who was still staring blankly. "Treat the wounded and reinforce the defensive line! He's bought us time!"

"Huh? Oh! Right!" Rena snapped out of it and hurriedly crouched down, fumbling as she applied a healing seal to a clansman with an abdominal wound.

Over by Ryuto.

A brief period of weakness.

Only two seconds.

But Uchiha Izuna seized it.

Whoosh!

Izuna appeared five meters to Ryuto's left. The three tomoe in his Sharingan had already transformed into an intricate pattern.

Mangekyo.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

A buzzing filled Ryuto's head.

The scene before him began to distort. Izuna's figure split into two, then four, appearing in every direction.

But he had prepared for this.

Ki instantly covered his brain, not in a uniform layer, but in a multilayered defensive structure with reinforced points, like a honeycomb.

The genjutsu's chakra struck the protective layers, sending ripples across them, but failed to penetrate.

"He blocked it?" Izuna raised an eyebrow.

He changed his hand seal.

"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Jutsu!"

Three enormous fire dragons lunged at Ryuto from three directions, cutting off every escape route on the ground.

Ki erupted from the soles of Ryuto's feet.

"Flight Technique!"

He lifted straight off the ground and shot into the sky.

The fire dragons collided beneath his feet, exploding into a sea of flames, the heat surging upward after his backside.

"Aerial advantage?" Izuna looked up, his Sharingan locking onto the little golden dot in the sky. "Troublesome."

Ryuto rose to about thirty meters and stopped.

Looking down at Izuna below, he brought his hands together in front of his chest.

Ki began to gather.

But this time, it wasn't a major attack like the Kamehameha that required a long charge.

It was a continuous volley of small ki blasts.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seven or eight fist-sized golden orbs rained down on Izuna.

Izuna flickered rapidly through the barrage, his Sharingan precisely predicting each orb's trajectory.

Boom, boom, boom-

Small craters were blasted into the ground.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Izuna formed hand seals. Three clones appeared in different positions and simultaneously hurled shuriken at Ryuto in the air.

Explosive tags hung behind the shuriken.

Ryuto made a sharp turn in midair, dodging the first wave. The direction of the ki jets beneath his feet changed again, and he spun through an arc like a top, circling behind and to the side of Izuna's real body.

"Found you!"

He dove at full speed.

His golden aura trailed afterimages behind him.

Izuna's real body looked up at the diving Ryuto without dodging.

He formed hand seals.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Fire Claw Red!"

Dozens of fireballs carrying shuriken spread over Ryuto like fireworks.

Ryuto neither dodged nor evaded. He covered his entire body in ki and took them head-on.

Bam, bam, bam, bam-

The fireballs struck his ki barrier and exploded, filling the air with smoke.

Ryuto burst out of the smoke and punched toward Izuna's face.

Izuna raised a hand to block.

Bam!

Fist met palm, and a wave of air burst outward.

The ground beneath their feet split with a crack.

"Good taijutsu," Izuna said, his Sharingan fixed on Ryuto's eyes. "But this isn't all the strength you have, is it?"

Ryuto didn't answer, driving his other elbow toward Izuna's ribs.

Izuna turned sideways and drove his knee toward Ryuto's abdomen.

At extremely close range, their fists, feet, elbows, and knees collided furiously.

Bam, bam, bam, bam-

They moved so fast that ordinary people could see only a blur of afterimages.

Every collision between ki and chakra sounded like muffled thunder.

The longer Ryuto fought, the more smoothly he moved.

He was gradually figuring out Izuna's rhythm.

The Sharingan's perception really was monstrous, able to predict most of his movements. But predicting them was one thing; whether the body could keep up was another. Ryuto's physique surpassed that of most people in the Shinobi World.

Ryuto's ki circulated faster and faster as he fought.

Cover, burst, contract, then cover again.

As natural as breathing.

He's adapting. Izuna's heart sank.

They had been fighting for less than three minutes, and this fellow named Ryuto's fighting style was clearly evolving.

From straightforward attacks at the start, he had begun incorporating feints, changes of moves, and shifts in rhythm.

His learning speed was absurd.

I can't drag this out.

Izuna forced Ryuto back with a kick and changed his hand seals again.

Three shadow clones suddenly lunged at Ryuto from the side, each holding a kunai aimed at a vital point.

Ryuto swept a glance over them.

He pushed his ki sense to the limit.

The one on the left has the weakest chakra flow. A clone.

He ignored the left clone's attack, turned slightly to dodge the kunai of the two clones on his right, then punched straight ahead-toward Izuna's real body.

Izuna's real body was forming a complex seal.

Seeing Ryuto identify the clones and come straight for him, his hands paused.

He saw through it?

Ryuto's fist was already in front of his face.

Izuna had no choice but to interrupt his hand seals and raise his hand to block again.

Bam!

This time, the ki on Ryuto's fist erupted even more fiercely.

Izuna was jolted three steps backward, his arm numb.

He shook his hand and looked at Ryuto, the patterns in his Sharingan rotating slowly.

"You're more interesting than I thought," Izuna said. "But this ends here."

He pressed his palms together.

The Mangekyo patterns in his eyes began to seep blood.

A cold, savage chakra, filled with an air of destruction, erupted from his body.

The surrounding temperature plummeted.

White frost formed on the ground.

Ryuto's hair stood on end.

His ki sense screamed warnings.

Danger!

Lethal danger!

Izuna raised his head, blood running from the corners of his eyes, but he smiled.

"Let me show you the true power of the Sharingan."