Chapter 444: Jiraiya: What Is There to Resent in Getting What You Seek?
Kenichi had always felt that his Mangekyo Sharingan ability was rather peculiar.
Its direct boost in combat was not especially obvious. Of course, it might also have been because he had not yet developed the right way to use it.
But at this moment, while facing Jiraiya and Gamabunta's coordinated attack, Kenichi still activated his Mangekyo Sharingan without hesitation.
The elements forming Gamabunta's webbed feet appeared clearly in Kenichi's eyes. As long as he analyzed the material composition in front of him, he could do whatever he wanted with it.
In an instant, the webbed feet restraining Kenichi's hands vanished without a trace.
Gamabunta was startled.
Kenichi did not hesitate. He immediately used the Air Burst Technique to shift his position, narrowly avoiding Jiraiya's Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan.
The Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan slammed into the ground, and its violent power instantly destroyed countless houses.
Kenichi felt a pang of heartache.
This was the capital of the Land of Water, yet now, a large number of civilian homes had been reduced to ruins.
At some point, dark clouds had covered the sky. The bright sunlight was hidden above the thick cloud layer. Because of the Land of Water's unique geography, the weather here was somewhat strange, and many civilian homes had been designed so rainwater could quickly drain off their roofs.
However, those designs that prevented rainwater from gathering on rooftops clearly offered no resistance against the destructive power of Chakra.
The valuables inside those houses were completely annihilated.
Fortunately, Kenichi had already notified the nearby residents to evacuate. At this point, even if he and Jiraiya tore down the entire capital of the Land of Water, it was still within his expectations.
"Mangekyo, the Eight Gates, Wood Release, Sage Mode..."
Jiraiya panted as he looked at Kenichi, who stood atop a utility pole. A trace of awe flashed in his eyes.
This brat's growth speed was truly astonishing.
Jiraiya had not expected Kenichi to reach this level in such a short time. Now, he could say with certainty that Kenichi's strength was more than enough for him to become the next Hokage.
And more importantly, how old was Kenichi?
A Hokage that young would be able to protect the village for decades.
Jiraiya understood better than most just how much a single powerful individual could force the world to bow.
One could easily imagine it.
If Kenichi had remained in Konoha and become Hokage, Konoha would have entered a long period of peace. Its economy would have developed rapidly, the lives of its people would have improved, and a new generation of geniuses would have risen in great numbers.
"Jiraiya, wouldn't it be better to just write novels happily every day?"
Kenichi stood on the utility pole and looked down at him.
Jiraiya was old now.
With age, his stamina and other physical abilities had inevitably declined. On top of that, in order to counter Kenichi's Susanoo-covered Wood Golem, Jiraiya had already consumed a massive amount of Chakra.
How much Chakra did he have left for battle now?
Through Kenichi's Mangekyo, he could even clearly see the wrinkles on Jiraiya's face.
Time had left its marks on Jiraiya after all.
"Heh. Kenichi, in this world, someone always has to do the foolish things no one else wants to do."
Jiraiya wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
His condition was poor. Because he had consumed too much Chakra, he had already been forced out of Sage Mode.
Now, the traces of age on Jiraiya's body were especially obvious. The enormous Chakra consumption had also made his spirit and energy feel much weaker than before.
Gamabunta was crouched weakly behind him.
Its webbed feet were gone.
Although there was no pain, the sensation of watching its own feet disappear in an instant still left Gamabunta deeply shaken. It kept its eyes fixed on Kenichi with extreme vigilance.
How had this brat become so strong?
Kenichi looked at the panting Jiraiya and shook his head.
"Uncle Jiraiya, let me send you off."
Kenichi raised his hand, and surging Chakra rapidly gathered in the sky.
He had just noticed the cloud layer covering the capital of the Land of Water.
It had to be said that the capital of the Land of Water was an extremely suitable place to use Lightning Release.
"Gamabunta, return to Mount Myōboku."
Jiraiya looked up at the dark clouds overhead and immediately understood what Kenichi wanted to do.
This brat had unleashed a similar attack in Konoha before. That technique had been extremely powerful and had covered a wide area.
A target as large as Gamabunta simply could not escape it.
"Jiraiya, you leave too! I'll use the Reverse Summoning Jutsu!"
Gamabunta looked at Jiraiya anxiously.
Although it did not know what kind of ninjutsu they were about to face, it had already sensed death from Jiraiya.
Jiraiya did not speak.
He formed hand signs and tried to dispel the Summoning Jutsu, but it failed.
Kenichi looked down at Jiraiya, who was trying to send Gamabunta away, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
How could he possibly let Gamabunta leave?
From the very beginning, this giant toad had caused him quite a bit of trouble and had repeatedly annoyed him.
Kenichi planned to taste what one of the great toads of the ninja world was like.
With a loud boom, a deafening sound echoed throughout the capital of the Land of Water.
Lightning had already begun flashing inside the dark clouds.
Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
This was not enough.
Far from enough.
Lightning was a powerful natural discharge phenomenon.
Kenichi's Lightning Dragon was an imitation of Sasuke's Lightning Release: Kirin, except he poured in more Chakra, giving it a wider attack range.
But ultimately, it was still only a form of lightning.
Powerful, but limited.
Fortunately, this was the Land of Water.
Kenichi's Mangekyo looked toward the clouds in the sky. Under the astonishing visual enhancement of the Mangekyo, he could see even more details.
He wanted to create a brand-new ninjutsu.
A ninjutsu unique to himself.
One that no one else could imitate or use.
"What is this guy doing?"
Jiraiya felt uneasy.
Kenichi's attack had not yet fallen, but Jiraiya already felt a deeply unsettling pressure. Worse, he still could not dispel the Summoning Jutsu and send Gamabunta back.
"I have a very bad feeling about this."
Gamabunta's eyes were extremely solemn.
It did not know why, but it felt a despairing sense of imminent death.
But waiting for death had never been Jiraiya's style.
Even though he had already exited Sage Mode, Jiraiya charged forward without hesitation. He wanted to take Gamabunta out of this place.
Jiraiya had already prepared himself to die here, but he did not want his partner to die with him.
A large amount of Chakra gathered in Kenichi's hand.
Water Release and Fire Release alternated under his control, and the clouds grew visibly heavier. At the same time, cold sweat began to bead on Kenichi's forehead.
Just as Jiraiya and Gamabunta were about to rush in front of him, two figures blocked Jiraiya's path, one in front and one behind.
Jiraiya recognized them instantly.
"Danzo! And... Old Man!"
Jiraiya's eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at the two figures before him.
A kunai was embedded in the back of Hiruzen's head.
Danzo had no such restraint. He simply stood calmly in front of Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya."
Danzo looked at Jiraiya and revealed a faint smile.
During his time in Konoha, Danzo's impression of Jiraiya had been rather ordinary.
After all, Jiraiya was very strong and had the potential to become the next Hokage. But precisely because Jiraiya was so strong, Konoha also needed his reputation greatly. For that reason, Danzo had mostly chosen to ignore Jiraiya to avoid unnecessary trouble.
"Danzo, you..."
Jiraiya recalled the masked man standing near Danzo when he encountered him at the Ninja Alliance headquarters that day.
That person seemed to have been his student, Minato Namikaze.
But Danzo clearly had no intention of reminiscing.
He immediately began holding Jiraiya back, preventing him from interfering with Kenichi.
Meanwhile, the unconscious Hiruzen mechanically obstructed Gamabunta.
Although Hiruzen was currently limited by his resurrected vessel, he was still Hiruzen Sarutobi. Moreover, Gamabunta's webbed feet were completely gone. Against a large toad in that condition, Hiruzen could still manage.
"So troublesome..."
Kenichi looked at the clouds overhead.
Under his efforts, the clouds had grown even heavier, and the power accumulating within them had become even more astonishing.
However, this still might not achieve the effect he wanted.
Overall, the process was also extremely troublesome.
The preparation took too long, and the amount of Chakra required to reach the desired effect was enormous.
"I remember that the formation of superbolts seems to be related to the distance between the cloud layer and the discharge zone. According to previous research papers, superbolt phenomena often occur in high-altitude regions..."
Kenichi licked his lips.
He had previously tried to increase the chance of super lightning by creating cumulonimbus clouds and thickening them, but he soon discovered that this idea was not feasible.
Ordinary lightning usually released energy on the scale of billions of watts.
But superbolts could release terrifying energy on the scale of trillions, even tens of trillions of watts.
That was an enormous increase.
If his previous Lightning Dragon could destroy a city, then an attack formed by super lightning would be enough to make the world tremble.
Of course, concentrating the energy of super lightning and releasing it in a controlled way was not easy.
"It seems I still need... another method."
Kenichi activated his Mangekyo.
He began analyzing the elements and energy contained in the current clouds. Soon, he discovered that as lightning flashed through the clouds, many strange ions appeared in his field of vision.
"Positive and negative charges?"
A flash of insight struck Kenichi.
He probably knew what he needed to do to achieve his goal.
He needed to gather a large number of positive charges on the target he wanted to attack. At the same time, he needed to guide all the negative charges to gather in one location.
Positive and negative charges attracted each other, constantly drawing closer.
The moment they met, the accumulated energy would erupt instantly.
One had to know that the temperature of ordinary lightning could reach three to five times the surface temperature of the sun.
Then what about super lightning?
How astonishing would the energy released at that instant be?
Kenichi's eyes gleamed with excitement and curiosity.
In his previous life, humanity had not made much progress in the study of lightning.
Although mature inventions like lightning rods existed, the energy released by the lightning strikes that occurred across Earth every day could not truly be utilized by humans.
Let alone guiding the power of lightning to gather together and erupt at a specific point.
Although humans had created nuclear weapons with powerful destructive effects, compared to nature and the entire blue planet, nuclear weapons were still too small.
Kenichi's eyes began to ache faintly, but he completely ignored it.
He simply focused on the clouds, then saw all the negative charges within the entire cloud layer.
After that, Kenichi began looking at the positive charges on the ground.
Positive and negative charges moved and attracted one another, but under normal circumstances, the movement of positive charges could not be seen.
At this moment, however, under the Analysis effect of Kenichi's Mangekyo ability, he successfully saw what he wanted to see.
Then, according to his will, those charges came under his control.
Warm liquid flowed down his face.
Kenichi knew that he had overused his ocular jutsu, and that it was now placing a severe burden on his eyes.
After all, this time, he had truly gone all out.
The longer this continued, the greater the strain would become.
"Jiraiya..."
Kenichi's bleeding eyes looked toward Jiraiya.
Jiraiya was still desperately fighting Danzo. From his frenzied fighting style, it seemed that this legendary ninja, once renowned throughout the entire ninja world, had completely cast aside life and death.
Perhaps for Jiraiya, from the moment he stepped into the Land of Water, he had already prepared himself to die here.
If one obtained what one sought, what was there to resent?
If one obtained the death one sought, what was there to resent?
"Jiraiya!"
Kenichi's eyes locked onto Jiraiya.
Jiraiya heard his shout and looked up at him.
When he saw Kenichi's bleeding eyes, he seemed to understand something instantly.
Then Jiraiya forcefully kicked Danzo away.
The price was his knee being shattered by Danzo's Vacuum Great Sphere.
Jiraiya's left leg bent at an unnatural angle.
Looking at Jiraiya's resolute expression, Kenichi sighed softly.
"Deconstruct."
The air suddenly trembled.
"Reconstruct!"
Following Kenichi's will, all the positive charges he had observed and controlled beneath the dark clouds gathered onto Jiraiya at that moment.
At the same time, the negative charges gathered within the heavy thunderclouds finally found an outlet.
A world-ending white light illuminated the entire Land of Water.
.....
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