"Could it be..."
A bold and exciting guess flashed through Shengu Xuan's mind.
Among the Twelve Talismans in Jackie Chan Adventures, only one had an ability related to the eyes-the Pig Talisman!
It controlled lightning, firing scorching rays of boundless power from both eyes!
This ability was practically a perfect extension of the Dragon Talisman's "combustion" authority in another direction!
One was a large-scale, violent release of energy.
The other was precise, sustained energy projection that pierced through everything!
"System, activate it!" Uncontainable excitement surged within Shengu Xuan.
[Ding! Activating a new ability for the host...] [Congratulations, host! Successfully unlocked a new ability: Pig Talisman (control lightning, wield the divine pig's power-the Lightning Divine Authority that burns all things to ash)!]
Boom-!
The instant the system notification ended, energy more concentrated and scorching than the Dragon Talisman's slammed against Shengu Xuan's eyes like two red-hot branding irons!
Dazzling crimson instantly flooded his vision!
He felt as though his eyeballs had become two miniature stars, containing terrifying heat capable of melting steel and evaporating rivers!
A charging boar totem, radiating a dark red glow, flashed deep within his pupils and vanished!
"Ah-!"
Shengu Xuan instinctively shut his eyes. An indescribable burning pain radiated from his eyeballs, forcing a muffled groan from him.
"Shengu Xuan? What's wrong?"
Kakashi, who had been supervising Naruto's training nearby while secretly observing Shengu Xuan, immediately noticed something was wrong. He appeared beside him with a Body Flicker Technique and asked anxiously.
"Your eyes..." Kakashi's heart tightened as he looked at Shengu Xuan's tightly shut eyes and pained expression.
Could those bizarre abilities from earlier have caused some sort of aftereffect?
"I'm fine."
Shengu Xuan waved a hand. Enduring the burning pain, he slowly opened his eyes again.
The instant he opened them, Kakashi's lone eye contracted sharply!
What had he just seen?
Shengu Xuan's formerly ink-black eyes had actually turned a... deep, dark red, as though flames burned within them!
Within those red pupils, he could even see faint wisps of red light flickering and dancing like electrical arcs!
Those eyes...
They were more sinister than Sasuke's Sharingan!
More savage than the Nine-Tails' beastly pupils!
Merely meeting their gaze, Kakashi felt a terrifying pressure that seemed ready to burn straight through his soul!
"Your eyes..." Kakashi's voice grew utterly dry.
"Oh, nothing. I just... unlocked a new function." After Shengu Xuan adjusted to the changes in his eyes, the burning pain gradually faded, replaced by an unprecedented, wondrous sense of control over everything.
His vision became incredibly clear. He could even make out every tiny vein on distant leaves.
More importantly, what he could "see" of this world was no longer limited to light, shadow, and color.
He could see the wind flowing through the air, the energy slumbering within the earth, and even the ceaseless flow of chakra inside Kakashi's body!
Beneath his "Lightning Divine Eyes," the entire world became a brilliant, colorful painting composed of various forms of energy!
"A new... function?" Kakashi felt his vocabulary could barely keep up with Shengu Xuan anymore.
Shengu Xuan offered no further explanation, because he was already impatient to test the power of this "new function."
His gaze passed over Kakashi and settled on the shimmering sea in the distance.
Where the sea met the sky, an enormous black reef, scoured by waves year after year, stood in the sea like a solitary island, at least several thousand meters from their shore.
"I choose you."
A cruel smile curved Shengu Xuan's lips.
The dark red light in his eyes suddenly blazed!
He gathered every last bit of the Pig Talisman's power within his body into his eyes, holding nothing back!
"Zzz-zzz-"
Two crimson energy beams, visible to the naked eye yet finer than strands of hair, shot from his pupils!
There was no sound!
No shock wave!
Only two silent... death rays, representing absolute destruction, tore across the sky!
Even straining his Sharingan to its limit, Kakashi could only catch two fleeting streaks of red light!
The next second.
That enormous black reef, several thousand meters away, abruptly and soundlessly... split cleanly through the middle!
The cut was smooth as a mirror. The extreme heat had even given it a strange, half-melted, glassy texture!
After pausing for a tenth of a second, the severed upper half of the reef slid off with a crash and plunged into the sea, raising towering waves!
"Rumble-!!!"
Only then did the tremendous roar of the waves belatedly reach the shore.
"..."
Kakashi turned his head stiffly, looking at the enormous reef split in two, then at the boy before him, whose eyes gradually lost their red glow and returned to black.
His brain had completely given up thinking.
Using his eyes... to fire rays... and split an enormous reef thousands of meters away... in two...
This...
What the fuck kind of monster was he?!
A Kekkei Genkai?
What kind of Kekkei Genkai could do something like this?!
This wasn't ninjutsu at all! This was myth! This was legend!
Kakashi felt his many years as a ninja had been nothing but a joke. The copying ability he had once taken such pride in, the Chidori that had made his name, were more laughable than children's tricks before Shengu Xuan's endless, godlike powers!
"Hmm, the power's pretty good."
Shengu Xuan nodded in satisfaction.
The Pig Talisman was even more powerful than he had imagined.
Not only did it have an extremely long range, but its highly concentrated energy gave it practically unrivaled cutting power.
Most importantly, it activated silently and with incredible speed. It was nothing short of the ultimate weapon for ambushes and assassinations!
The Dragon Talisman specialized in "combustion," sweeping and forceful, mighty and domineering.
The Pig Talisman specialized in "piercing," precise and ruthless, silent and soundless.
Together, they were simply perfect!
"Ka... Kakashi-sensei... wh-what was that just now?"
Naruto had also seen the severed reef and towering waves in the distance. He stammered out the question, his face filled with even greater fear than when he had seen the Water Dragon Bullet.
Kakashi did not answer. He merely drew a deep, deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
He walked up to Shengu Xuan and spoke in an unprecedented, almost pleading tone. "Shengu Xuan."
"I don't care what you really are, or what kind of power you possess."
"I only ask one thing of you."
"Until the bridge is completed, until Mr. Tazuna is safe, please... no matter what, stay on our side."
Kakashi-the elite jonin renowned for his composure and laid-back manner, Konoha's Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake-bowed his proud head to his own student for the first time.
Because he knew perfectly well that, with the power Shengu Xuan had now displayed, he could easily destroy the entire Land of Waves alone if he wished.
Team 7, Konoha, and perhaps even the entire ninja world might be nothing more than insignificant existences he could easily erase.
Looking at the man before him, who practically had "fear" written across his face, Shengu Xuan put away his flippant smile for the first time.
He watched Kakashi quietly. Only after a moment did he slowly speak.
"Don't worry."
"I won't flip the board before the game is over."
"Because that would be far too boring."
Hearing this answer, Kakashi did not know whether he should feel relieved or even more afraid.
Just then.
Hurried footsteps, filled with panic, came from the direction of the village!
"Something terrible's happened! Something terrible's happened!"
A villager came scrambling over, his face filled with terror.
"Ga... Gato! Gato's men have stormed the bridge!"
"They... they've also taken Inari!"
"What?! Inari's been taken?!" Naruto's expression changed drastically. Inari was Tsunami's son, a little boy who admired heroes but had become extreme because of his father's death.
"That's not all!" Panting heavily, the villager pointed a trembling finger toward the bridge. "That man wearing the demon mask... and that boy wearing the hunter-nin mask... they... they've appeared too!"
"They're guarding the bridge entrance, saying... saying they'll settle everything here!"
As his words fell.
Everyone's gaze turned in unison to Shengu Xuan.
Shengu Xuan slowly raised his head and looked toward the bridge. In his eyes, which had only just returned to black, two crimson sparks of heart-stopping lightning flickered once more.
A cold, cruel smile appeared on his face.
"Oh?"
"Finally... tired of waiting?"
"Very well."
"The warm-up is over. It's time... to taste the main course."
Before you continue