After clearing away the traps, Ziyun returned to the eight hundred Hidden Cloud ninja.
"Hm? What's with those looks? Why are you staring at me like that?" Ziyun noticed that the eight hundred Hidden Cloud ninja were looking at him strangely.
"They're impressed by your fearless spirit, Ziyun," Dodai said, caught between laughter and tears.
"Lord Ziyun, we will give our all for you and remain loyal unto death!"
The eight hundred Hidden Cloud ninja suddenly spoke in unison.
Ziyun understood at once. They had been moved by his use of his own body to clear the traps.
It had taken hardly any effort on his part, but to the Hidden Cloud ninja, it showed how much Ziyun cared about them.
Of course, Ziyun wasn't about to tell them that. Loyalty and prestige gained for nothing were pretty nice.
"Ninja Art: Shadow Clone Shuriken!"
Just then, a giant shuriken suddenly shot out of the bushes.
The shuriken split apart again and again in midair: one, two, four, eight, until there were dozens, all flying toward Ziyun.
"They're still using shuriken? How boring."
Ziyun watched the shuriken fly toward him without dodging. The next instant, they all struck him with a clatter and knocked him back several meters.
"It works! These specially made ninja tools really work!"
At that, an excited voice suddenly erupted from the shadows, and the Konoha Ninja lurking all around them revealed themselves.
"Hehehe, didn't expect that, did you, Yeyue Ziyun? I've seen through every one of your weaknesses!"
At their head, Orochimaru appeared before Ziyun, dressed in a peculiar set of ninja clothes.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and more than a dozen Konoha Jonin at his side wore the same ninja clothes as Orochimaru.
"Ninja tools made from an insulator?"
Seeing Orochimaru and the others, Ziyun understood. The shuriken had been able to hit him because they were made from some kind of insulating material.
It was just like how Luffy's insulating Gum-Gum Fruit had been Enel's natural nemesis in the original Pirate King story.
But... if these people thought he was like that good-for-nothing Enel, they were sorely mistaken!
In the original pirate story, aside from his fruit being Enel's natural nemesis, there was another very important reason Luffy had been able to hit Enel: Enel was fucking weak.
Relying on the Elemental Transformation ability of his Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit and his innate Observation Haki, Enel had secluded himself on the little Sky Island, holding the lives of the Skypieans in his hands. In the end, he had actually come to think of himself as a god.
Not one of the Sky Island's inhabitants knew Armament Haki, which meant a bumpkin like Enel knew nothing about it either. As a result, Enel had never been injured before he met Luffy.
In fact, just as Luffy had said, there were far too many people among the pirates who could beat Enel senseless.
In terms of Taijutsu, Enel couldn't even beat Luffy, who only knew how to swing his fists wildly. The only reason he made such a strong impression and seemed so impressive was the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
As the saying went, if Akainu had eaten the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he could have beaten the shit out of Luffy with one punch.
Ziyun reckoned he could do much the same.
"Weaknesses? Even I don't know what weaknesses I have."
"But you do? Orochimaru, you're even better than I am. You really are Konoha's number one genius."
Facing the Konoha Ninja in their specially made ninja clothes, Ziyun spoke with extreme sarcasm.
"Hehehe, you really are arrogant, Yeyue Ziyun. Every Ninjutsu has a weakness. Perhaps you haven't even discovered yours yourself."
Orochimaru chuckled, his slit pupils gleaming.
In his view, Ziyun had become too full of himself. A young genius whose path had always been smooth did have reason to be arrogant.
But today, he would pay a price for his arrogance-a terrible price, perhaps even his life!
"Orochimaru, stop wasting words on him. Let's put some scars on his face first. I've been sick of that pretty-boy face of his for a long time!"
Jiraiya spoke excitedly.
Perhaps because he was used to being shown up by Orochimaru, he hated geniuses more than anything, especially geniuses this handsome.
Even Tsunade called Yeyue Ziyun a pretty boy whenever she mentioned him. Someone who didn't know better might think she was interested in Ziyun.
Why were the heavens so unfair? Today, Jiraiya was going to demand justice.
"Don't hit people in the face, Jiraiya. Konoha is as shameless as ever," Ziyun said leisurely.
"In this world, power is everything! In the eyes of the strong, the weakness of the weak is the most shameless thing of all."
Orochimaru retorted to Ziyun.
Whoosh!
Flashing in front of Ziyun, Jiraiya struck first, viciously stabbing a specially made kunai toward a vital point.
With a bang, the kunai struck Ziyun's body and rang out with a sharp metallic clash. Ziyun then kicked Jiraiya more than a dozen meters away.
"Excellent!"
Seeing this, the dozen or so Konoha Ninja were excited.
Although Jiraiya had been sent flying, that blow had indeed struck Ziyun's body, proving the insulator worked.
If they could attack Yeyue Ziyun's physical body, they could certainly hurt him.
Seeing that Konoha was about to attack, Ziyun turned to Dodai. "Teacher Dodai, leave these dozen or so ninja to me. It would be best to have the Hidden Cloud ninja move farther away, so they don't get caught in the crossfire."
"All right, I understand. Be careful."
Dodai had actually been a little worried at first, since he too had noticed that Konoha could now hit Ziyun's physical body.
But seeing how confident Ziyun was, Dodai decided to trust him.
Besides, he had seen Ziyun's strength before. His techniques covered such a wide area that using them could easily hurt allies by mistake.
So Dodai led the eight hundred Hidden Cloud ninja into the Konoha camp, and Orochimaru and the others did nothing to stop them.
Their job was to hold Ziyun back and kill him here.
"Attack together! Finish him and end this war!"
At Orochimaru's command, the dozen or so Jonin all attacked Ziyun.
"Coming at me together? The same old human-wave tactic."
Ziyun smiled faintly. As his aura surged to its peak, Armament Haki covered his entire body, making him look like a pitch-black god of war!
"Armament Haki: Hardening!"
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The dozens of kunai fired from different angles struck Ziyun's body and bounced away.
"Wind Release: Great Wind Cutter!"
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Technique!"
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
"Water Release: Water Shockwave Technique!"
More than a dozen Ninjutsu attacks, mixed with special materials, followed. Wind and fire, lightning and water-these Ninjutsu could combine in subtle ways, producing an effect greater than the sum of their parts.
The combined Ninjutsu unleashed by the dozen or so Jonin was enough at that moment to gravely wound a Kage Level fighter.
But... Ziyun still blocked it without a scratch!
"How is that possible? Even attacking his physical body can't hurt him... Is this guy a monster?!!"
Orochimaru and the other Konoha Ninja were all stunned.
Why were the kunai and Ninjutsu still being deflected when they could already strike Ziyun's physical body?
His pitch-black body was like a steel alloy, giving the impression that it was indestructible.
"Is that all? You've really disappointed me, Orochimaru." Ziyun smiled faintly, transformed into lightning, and flashed in front of a Jonin.
Crackle!
A Thunder Dragon carrying tens of millions of volts shot out from the lightning in his body, burning the Jonin to charcoal on the spot.
No, rather than saying the Thunder Dragon had burned him to charcoal outright, the insulator had indeed absorbed some of the damage from the Thunder Dragon, but it had been unable to withstand the damage caused by Armament Haki.
After Armament Haki destroyed the insulator, the Thunder Dragon burned the Jonin-level ninja to a crisp in one blow.
Or perhaps, before his ninja clothes had time to break apart, the Jonin had been unable to withstand the destructive force of Ziyun's powerful Armament Haki. His body had been knocked out of alignment, and he had died from his injuries.
In any case, it was impossible to defeat Ziyun using only an insulator as in the original story.
"What?!! What happened? Wasn't he wearing ninja clothes made from an insulator? Why did this happen?"
Seeing that the Jonin wearing his specially made ninja clothes still couldn't withstand Ziyun's lightning, a flicker of surprise passed through Orochimaru's slit pupils.
The remaining dozen or so Jonin, along with Tsunade and Jiraiya, were stunned as well.
What was going on? Why couldn't the insulator protect them from lightning damage?
Seeing how utterly shocked they were, Ziyun smiled.
Sure enough, his decision to train in Armament Haki had been right. One more trump card meant one more possibility.
Without training in basic Armament Haki, he still wouldn't have lost today, but he would have been drawn into a hard fight.
"Orochimaru, aren't you a genius? Have you ever seen a genius who trained in only one Ninjutsu?"
"I told you, I have no weaknesses. At the very least, as you are now, you can't find one."