"Lord Tsuchikage, would you be interested in seeing firsthand how I sever an old dog's grasping hand from hundreds of kilometers away?"
Uchiha Gen'yō's voice was quiet, yet it exploded like thunder in Ōnoki's ears.
Ōnoki stared fixedly at the writhing mass of purple cursed seal chakra in Gen'yō's palm. Disbelief covered his aged face.
"You intend to attack the caster in reverse through this cursed seal?"
"That's impossible!"
Ōnoki cried out involuntarily.
"Juinjutsu is vast and profound. An advanced cursed seal bound to the soul, in particular, has a structure far more stable than you can imagine!"
"To unravel it in reverse, both your understanding of cursed seals and the strength of your mental power would have to surpass the caster's by several orders of magnitude!"
"Not to mention the hundreds of kilometers between you!"
"This is already beyond what ninjutsu can accomplish!"
Ōnoki's words reflected the entire Shinobi World's general understanding of juinjutsu.
Yet Uchiha Gen'yō merely smiled disdainfully.
"Just because ninjutsu can't do it doesn't mean I can't."
A godlike radiance shone in his eyes.
"Lord Tsuchikage, you need to understand one thing."
"So-called rules exist to be broken."
With that, Gen'yō wasted no more words.
He held the mass of the Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal in his left palm and pressed the fingers of his right hand together like a sword. A deeper, purer purple lightning began flickering and dancing at his fingertips!
Senjutsu chakra!
Mixed with his mental power, which had already reached the realm of gods!
"A simple mental assault would indeed have trouble crossing such a great distance."
Gen'yō's voice was calm and confident.
"But what if I fitted this gift with a navigation system?"
The navigation system he referred to was precisely the unbreakable soul link between the Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal and Danzo!
"Danzo, are you ready to receive your delivery?"
The corners of Gen'yō's mouth curved into a cruel smile.
His right hand, its fingers pressed together like a sword, plunged savagely into the Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal, carrying a world-destroying psychic lightning storm!
"Secret Technique: Divine Soul Heavenly Subjugation!"
Hum!
An indescribable humming suddenly exploded on the plane of souls!
Ōnoki felt his very soul shudder, as though he had glimpsed some utterly terrifying being!
Upon contact with Gen'yō's psychic lightning storm, the Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal did not explode. Instead, like an activated signal tower, it instantly erupted with dazzling light!
An ethereal passage made of pure mental power, invisible to the naked eye, instantly pierced through space from the cursed seal.
It crossed hundreds of kilometers and connected to its source with absolute precision!
At the same time.
Amid the ruins of the enormous crater in Konoha.
Shimura Danzō was listening to a medical-nin's report with a grim expression.
"Lord Danzo, although your arm has been reattached, all the Sharingan on it have become necrotic, and the nerves have also..."
"Get out!"
Danzo waved his hand impatiently, sending the medical-nin flying.
He looked at his right arm, swathed in bandages and now completely numb, his lone eye filled with fury and resentment.
"Uchiha Gen'yō!"
He ground out the name through clenched teeth.
"Once Owl brings back your eyes, I'll transplant them into my own sockets myself!"
He seemed to already see a future in which he obtained those invincible Kamui eyes and reigned over the entire Shinobi World.
But just then!
"Argh!"
Without warning, Danzo's body suddenly went rigid!
An indescribably horrific pain, as though from the deepest depths of hell, instantly erupted from the depths of his soul!
It felt as if hundreds of millions of red-hot steel needles were frantically piercing his soul!
"Aaaaaah!"
Danzo let out the most agonized, inhuman scream of his life!
He clutched his head and dropped heavily to his knees. His body convulsed violently, shaking like a leaf!
The white of his lone eye rapidly filled with blood vessels. His entire eyeball looked ready to burst from its socket!
"Lord Danzo!"
"What's wrong, Lord Danzo!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, and the others nearby all paled in shock and hurried over.
But they had no idea what had happened!
They could only watch helplessly as this root of Konoha rolled on the ground in agony, wailing like a madman!
Only Danzo himself knew what he was experiencing.
He felt an incomparably overbearing psychic lightning storm pouring madly into his sea of souls through the Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal he had left on Uchiha Gen'yō!
That power was tearing through his mental defenses with unstoppable force, burning the very essence of his soul!
No... impossible!
How can you attack me in reverse through the cursed seal!
Danzo howled in despair within his mind.
The most vicious tool he took such pride in using to scheme against others had now become a deadly poisoned sword piercing his own heart!
"Pfft!"
After enduring more than ten full seconds of his soul burning, Danzo could hold on no longer. He violently spat out a large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
His body collapsed heavily to the ground, and he lost consciousness completely.
Although he did not die on the spot, his soul, already incomplete from using Izanagi, was now riddled with holes after this devastating blow.
Even if he was lucky enough to wake up, he would be nothing but a cripple!
The grasping hand he had extended toward Uchiha Gen'yō was utterly severed at that moment!
In the valley on the border of the Land of Earth.
Uchiha Gen'yō slowly withdrew his hand.
The Soul-Devouring Cursed Seal in his palm had now lost all its light. It turned into a wisp of smoke and dissipated into the air.
"It's over."
He dusted off his hands as though he had merely done something insignificant.
Beside him, Ōnoki had been rendered completely speechless.
Cold sweat had soaked his back.
He had personally witnessed a miraculous curse attack across hundreds of kilometers!
Not only was the man before him unimaginably powerful, but his methods were also appallingly ruthless!
He finally understood why Uchiha Gen'yō dared to say he would stand as his equal.
Because this man had not been negotiating terms with him at all!
He was telling the entire Shinobi World in the most direct, brutal way possible.
Those who follow me shall prosper; those who oppose me shall perish!
"All right, Lord Tsuchikage."
Uchiha Gen'yō turned his head, that harmless smile returning to his face.
"Now we can continue our negotiations."
"Have you considered my three conditions?"
Did they even need considering?
Ōnoki smiled bitterly inwardly.
Did he still have any right to refuse?
Yet just as he was about to agree, he noticed that Uchiha Gen'yō's face seemed a little paler than before.
His breathing also seemed ever so slightly faster.
An almost imperceptible gleam suddenly flashed through Ōnoki's cloudy old eyes.
Perhaps this monster wasn't truly invulnerable after all?