Chapter 196: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken
The vast, boundless sky was a domain Hyuga Ritsu couldn't reach. The Byakugan, Shikotsumyaku, and Wood Release—these Kekkei Genkai all lacked flight capabilities. His superpower Physical Regeneration likewise had absolutely no connection to flight.
However—
This didn't mean he had no methods for dealing with enemies flying in the sky. Though it would inevitably prove more troublesome, methods still existed.
And now with Namikaze Minato's support, matters became much easier.
Wood Release: Wood Human Technique.
Hyuga Ritsu clapped his hands together, summoning on this plateau a towering wood golem reaching over thirty meters tall, majestic as a mountain. He himself stood atop the wood human's head.
At this height, wind blew strong—cold and biting.
Hyuga Ritsu bore Wind Release Chakra Mode. Violent wind wrapped around both shoulders and chest howled. He looked up toward even greater heights. The strange bird still circled beneath the gloomy cloud layer above.
One should know ordinary birds mostly circled at altitudes below one hundred fifty meters, while more impressive birds flew at heights reaching hundreds or even thousands of meters.
This strange bird wasn't ordinary—its flight altitude calculated likely exceeded several thousand meters.
However—
If flying that high, it couldn't restrain Hyuga Ritsu and others. So this strange bird, carrying the Animal Path, circled at approximately one hundred meters altitude. Its tail feathers trembled, squeezing out massive eggs that tumbled toward the wood human—this supersized target.
Hyuga Ritsu's Byakugan saw clearly.
These eggs contained extremely concentrated refined Fire Release chakra. Simply put, these eggs were alternative explosive tags with far greater power than explosive tags. Judging from chakra quality and quantity, one egg's explosive power probably equaled five or six explosive tags.
"Futile effort."
Hyuga Ritsu's lips curved slightly.
Such attacks appeared quite powerful.
But any reasonably skilled jonin could dodge such attacks. The reason was simple—eggs falling weren't particularly fast. With jonin agility, timely evasion wasn't difficult. For Hyuga Ritsu currently, he wouldn't take them seriously at all.
Even these falling eggs could actually help him!
His mind moved. The wood human beneath his feet immediately acted. Its left hand raised high, palm spreading to shield overhead. Simultaneously, its right hand lowered and pulled back. The instant the raised left hand covered the head—
Hyuga Ritsu left a wood clone standing atop the wood human's head. His true body suddenly exerted force. Under Wind Release Chakra Mode's enhancement, he instantly retreated behind the wood human, arriving in the lowered right hand's palm.
The next second—
Falling eggs struck the wood human's left hand. The instant of impact triggered detonation. Blazing flames like exploding fireworks brought brief brightness to this gloomy world.
Individual eggs possessed the destructive power of five or six explosive tags. These dozens of eggs detonating almost simultaneously possessed destructive power sufficient to collapse a four or five-story concrete building. The wood human's palm was also blown to pieces.
But under Hyuga Ritsu's control, the wood human completely ignored the destroyed left hand. Instead twisting its torso and swinging its right arm, it hurled Hyuga Ritsu's true body standing in the right hand violently toward the strange bird circling at high altitude.
Hyuga Ritsu shot toward the sky like a thrown shot put at extreme speed.
Naturally, this extremely fast movement speed meant his physical body consequently endured tremendous wind pressure. This pressure impacted his skeleton and internal organs. Fortunately, the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai let him enhance his skeleton's strength. As for damage suffered by internal organs and flesh, relying on Physical Regeneration superpower, instant restoration to original condition was possible.
This change shocked the Animal Path—more accurately, shocked Nagato.
With the other four Path avatars destroyed, shared vision advantages no longer existed. Only the Animal Path's single Rinnegan observed conditions. But the Animal Path currently rode the strange bird circling at high altitude. Vision was naturally more distant. Add to this the wood human raising its left hand earlier—flames from collision with eggs had blocked view. So Nagato hadn't seen the scene of Hyuga Ritsu's true body fleeing to the wood human's right hand.
Evade.
When the wood human adopted a throwing posture, Nagato reacted. He hastily controlled the strange bird to dodge.
Simultaneously—
He again executed Summoning Technique on the strange bird's back.
This time the summon was a strange bird with similar appearance but only about two meters in body length.
The massive summoning beasts the Animal Path summoned weren't naturally born and raised but bred and modified using Rinnegan power. Consequently, these summoning beasts possessed many peculiar abilities—like the endlessly dividing, regenerating vicious dogs, the Hell Crab that could spew massive foam, and the strange bird beneath his feet that produced explosive eggs.
But breeding and modifying these summoning beasts wasn't accomplished overnight. Moreover, these modified summoning beasts required his chakra nourishment to maintain existence forms long-term. Even though Nagato's chakra was massive, he couldn't simultaneously nourish too many summoning beasts. Every Rinnegan ability's activation extremely consumed chakra.
Currently, summoning beasts the Animal Path had previously bred and modified were mostly exhausted. Only the strange bird beneath remained.
So—
The strange bird he currently summoned was a backup for the completed modified strange bird beneath—only receiving minor modification, requiring negligible chakra to nourish. If the strange bird beneath was lost, completing replacement would require very little time.
Of course, this "very little time" still couldn't be accomplished immediately.
The Animal Path's purpose for summoning this backup strange bird was also simple—using it to interfere with the approaching Hyuga Ritsu. He saw clearly that Hyuga Ritsu completely relied on the wood human's throwing force to surge skyward. He personally didn't possess flight methods. So as long as interference was maximized, preventing him from approaching too close, safety could be guaranteed.
The backup strange bird flapped wings, diving down like lightning. Using that sharp, keen long beak, it crashed toward Hyuga Ritsu.
A "bang" sounded.
Flesh exploded. Feathers scattered.
The strange bird was shattered into meat paste. Hyuga Ritsu's Wind Release Chakra Mode possessed quite good defensive power. He himself suffered almost no injury. Only being struck by the strange bird consumed the momentum the wood human had granted him. Upward rushing speed greatly decreased. It appeared unable to further resist planetary gravity's pull.
"Still thirty meters away?"
Hyuga Ritsu sighed after instantly measuring.
This distance—his attacks could still cross it. But the problem was that after crossing such a distance, any of his attack techniques' power would significantly decline, making it difficult to inflict effective damage on the Animal Path.
So—
Before being pulled downward by planetary gravity, a three-pronged kunai slid from his sleeve into his palm. Then toward the Animal Path nearly thirty meters distant, he threw the kunai with full effort.
This time—
The Animal Path truly couldn't respond further.
The three-pronged kunai didn't charge straight at the Animal Path but arrived above the Animal Path's head. The Animal Path looked up. After seeing the kunai's appearance clearly, Nagato controlling the Animal Path from the shadows felt nerves instantly tense.
Though he'd never dealt with Minato before, though in today's great battle he'd basically fought Hyuga Ritsu, while five Rinnegan watched Hyuga Ritsu, they'd naturally also seen the Yellow Flash display great power.
He very clearly understood what approaching this distinctively shaped kunai meant.
It meant the Yellow Flash would descend at any moment.
No longer possessing powerful summoning beasts and judging insufficient time to use Summoning Technique, the Animal Path drew out a pitch-black rod, gripping it in hand and adopting a posture ready to receive attack.
Just needing to withstand the Yellow Flash's one strike, then with the strange bird's speed beneath, complete distance could be pulled. The Yellow Flash likewise not mastering flight methods—no matter how formidable his space-time technique, he'd have no way to deal with the Animal Path.
His judgment was correct.
In just an instant—
The Yellow Flash appeared in the sky overhead.
At this hundred-meter altitude, cold wind howled, blowing Minato's rain-soaked clothing with flapping sounds. Large sheets of water were shaken off. Appearing here, Minato had nothing to rely on. Planetary gravity immediately pulled him downward.
At this moment—
Minato and the Animal Path's Rinnegan met.
Then—
A pale white Rasengan appeared in Minato's hand. Atop it, extremely fast-rotating violent wind vaguely constructed a shuriken's form while erupting extremely sharp, piercing explosive sounds.
The Animal Path's pupils contracted sharply.
Rinnegan ocular power naturally could see through just how terrifying this thing was. This technique's destructive power was completely beyond what this body could withstand—
Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
Maintaining Sage Mode, Minato's expression was cold. He stared at the Animal Path, forcefully hurling the Rasenshuriken in his hand.
In such short time, Nagato fundamentally couldn't think of any countermeasures. This wave of attacks came too fast, too fierce. White Yaksha and Yellow Flash's cooperation proved seamless. The Animal Path's abilities were singular—completely unable to cope.
The next instant—
The Rasenshuriken producing massive noise landed on the Animal Path's body.
Then—
The Animal Path together with the massive strange bird beneath were completely swallowed by strong wind like white light erupting from the Rasenshuriken. When this white light dispersed, only partial remains of the strange bird fell from midair.
The Animal Path plus most of the strange bird's body were completely pulverized.
Within the mountain belly—
Pain standing on the Gedo Statue exclaimed, "What an impressive technique!"
This praise came completely from the heart.
With his Rinnegan's vision, he still found that move exceptionally stunning.
Seeing this, Uchiha Tatsuhata impatiently asked, "What's the situation?"
Hearing this, Pain answered, "My last avatar was also destroyed. White Yaksha and Yellow Flash coordinated an attack. Yellow Flash even used a technique with especially tremendous power. If you encounter it, I think you'd best avoid it."
Now all five Path avatars were destroyed.
No need to divide attention anymore. He could focus all attention on Pain's side.
"Even your Rinnegan avatars couldn't withstand Konoha's offensive?"
Uchiha Tatsuhata raised an eyebrow. "Konoha truly is strong enough to give one headaches!"
Pain remained expressionless, not producing anger or similar emotions due to the five Path avatars' destruction. Anyway, as long as Pain's body remained intact, even if other avatars were destroyed, it didn't matter—just collect corpses and remake them.
The current key problem was without his Rinnegan avatars, could Uchiha Tatsuhata's single trump card hold out? A full two-plus hours remained until completely finishing the seal.
He looked at Uchiha Tatsuhata, speaking gravely, "Uchiha Tatsuhata, considerable time remains until the One-Tail's seal completion. Do you think your trump card can hold off Konoha's offensive? If not, I think we can abandon the One-Tail's seal now and seek other opportunities later."
Uchiha Tatsuhata fell silent for several seconds. He sighed somewhat helplessly. "I'd originally planned to preserve trump cards as much as possible. But now it appears impossible."
He raised his head, looking toward Pain, speaking with full confidence. "Don't worry. Continue the seal. I'll let Konoha's ninja experience just what abilities Uchiha Madara—who once swept through the shinobi world together with the First Hokage—truly possesses!"
His ocular technique Toyoakitsushihime couldn't control things as smoothly as Nagato controlling Rinnegan avatars. The replicas he created using life threads all fought relying on instinct.
However—
He could still interfere with his replicas to a certain degree, issuing relatively simple commands understandable through instinct alone.
When dispatching replica Uchiha Madara, this trump card, he'd done precisely this. He'd given replica Uchiha Madara a simple command—not permitted to use Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.
Though replica Uchiha Madara's Sharingan only remained at three-tomoe level—forget Rinnegan, even Mangekyō Sharingan couldn't manifest, naturally unable to use Uchiha Madara's own high-tier ocular techniques. Powers of god like Susanoo were also impossible to deploy.
But through multiple investigations and research, he'd unexpectedly discovered replica Uchiha Madara could use Wood Release, this Kekkei Genkai. Moreover, replica Uchiha Madara's Wood Release Kekkei Genkai mastery proved extremely profound. Even just relying on instinct to wield it, it far surpassed the Wood Release Uchiha Tatsuhata himself used.
Uchiha Tatsuhata could rely on this ocular technique to copy others' chakra and nearly all techniques. But he couldn't fully and thoroughly deploy these techniques with all the original master's power. The same technique in different people's hands produced vastly different power levels.
This was a situation Toyoakitsushihime also couldn't change!
And replica Uchiha Madara's Wood Release—
Was overwhelmingly powerful!
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