Whoosh! Whoosh!
More Iwagakure shinobi landed in the battlefield.
At this moment, the Iwa forces had essentially all arrived.
At the front stood an ANBU operative and the elite jōnin Iwagakure commander Iwato. Both of them stared at Yuya—and more precisely, at the sword in his hand—with deeply furrowed brows.
"That sword…"
"It should be the Kusanagi Sword. Wasn't it in Sunagakure's possession? How did it end up in the hands of a Konoha ANBU?"
Both of them grew visibly cautious.
Just then, a sensory-type ninja rushed over and reported:
"Sir, there are no other shinobi nearby. Only those two."
Iwato froze for a moment.
"That woman can't move anymore… which means there's only this one Konoha ANBU left?"
"Yes."
"Then what are we waiting for?! Take them down immediately! If we can't capture them alive—kill them on the spot!"
"Yes!"
The surrounding shinobi responded in unison, their eyes filled with chilling killing intent as they locked onto Yuya and Tsunade.
Tsunade, meanwhile, had been left speechless by Yuya's earlier words.
Even Sakumo Hatake, or even the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, wouldn't dare say something like that so casually!
This was simply—
She didn't even know how to complain anymore. She truly couldn't understand what kind of confidence—or madness—this ANBU possessed.
And at that very moment, Yuya finally swung his sword.
This strike was not pure shock force—
It was a shockwave.
Shockwave Slash!
Humm—!!
The shockwave released through the Kusanagi Sword spread like an invisible ripple through the air. It looked slow, yet was actually terrifyingly fast.
On the shattered battlefield, the air itself seemed to turn into the surface of a pond.
From its edge, a ripple appeared—
And in the next instant, that ripple expanded outward.
Shhkk—!!
Some shinobi dodged it.
Some did not.
But regardless of whether they avoided it or not, the ripple swept past them—passing through shinobi bodies, cutting through towering trees—before finally dissipating in the distance.
"What was that?!"
Those who had dodged stared in shock.
And in the very next second, their eyes widened in absolute horror.
Everything the ripple had passed through—
Whether shinobi or massive trees—
Split apart cleanly along its path.
Cut in two.
The cross-sections were impossibly smooth, as though space itself had been sliced apart by a perfectly straight line!
Crash—!!
One towering tree after another collapsed.
Along with them, more than ten Iwagakure shinobi were severed at the waist, blood spraying everywhere!
One sword—
More than ten killed!
The entire battlefield fell into dead silence.
Only the thunderous sounds of falling trees echoed through the forest.
Iwato, the Iwa commander, stared at Yuya with eyes filled with disbelief, his face pale with shock.
Nearby, the masked Iwa ANBU was just as stunned.
"You… you're not just any ANBU… are you?"
"Are you… Konoha's ANBU Captain?!"
Yuya did not answer.
He merely raised his sword again—
And brought it down once more.
The previous strike had been a horizontal sweep.
This one was a vertical cleave.
After witnessing that terrifying display, who would dare try to block Yuya's attack head-on?!
Although the power of the shockwave diminished with distance, at close range it barely weakened at all.
And its speed—
Though visible to the naked eye—was impossible to evade, as if it transcended conventional notions of speed itself.
Shhkk—!!
The second sword strike landed.
This time, only one shinobi was killed—
But that one shinobi was a jōnin of Iwagakure!
No time to use substitution.
No time to create a clone.
He was casually erased by a single slash.
At the same time, because the shockwave traveled vertically, it struck the ground—
Tearing open a massive fissure that stretched endlessly into the distance.
Behind Yuya, Tsunade was completely stunned.
She couldn't say a word.
Just two simple sword strikes—
And the entire battlefield had been overwhelmed!
This was not power that a normal shinobi could possess.
In fact, this wasn't power that a genin, chūnin, or even a jōnin should have.
The same word surfaced in the minds of every shinobi present.
Kage.
In this world, there was no official "Kage-level" rank—
But a Kage was a being who stood above all other shinobi.
Was Yuya already at that level?
Even Yuya himself wasn't entirely sure.
He only knew that before obtaining the Kusanagi Sword, he could defeat quasi-Kage-level opponents—unless they possessed absurd forbidden techniques like the Reaper Death Seal.
After obtaining the Kusanagi Sword, Yuya felt that even those quasi-Kage shinobi wouldn't get the chance to use such forbidden techniques against him.
He wasn't certain whether his Shockwave Slash could match—or even surpass—Sakumo Hatake's White Fang.
But one thing he was certain of:
Below Kage-level, he had no equal.
That was the confidence behind his declaration to wipe out all the Iwagakure shinobi here.
His power did not fear numbers.
Once a certain threshold was surpassed, everyone below it became nothing more than ants.
Less than twenty Iwagakure shinobi remained.
Every one of them was an elite—
And yet now, facing Yuya alone, they swallowed nervously.
Some even began to retreat unconsciously.
At this moment—
Not a single one dared to attack Yuya.
But their hesitation did not mean Yuya would spare them.
Whoosh—!!
In the next instant, Yuya finally moved.
No longer merely swinging his sword from afar—
He vanished in a blur, transforming into an afterimage as he charged straight at the nearest Iwa shinobi.
The speed was terrifying.
Even the elite jōnin Iwato showed a look of alarm.
"Watch out!!"
He shouted—
But it was already too late.
Yuya's figure flashed past that shinobi without slowing down in the slightest.
A thin line of blood appeared—
And then the body split apart.
Yuya continued on to the second shinobi.
This time, the shinobi barely had time to react.
But the only thought in his mind was—
Defense!
Pale with terror, he didn't dare attempt any offensive jutsu. His hands flew through seals at top speed.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Since Yuya's earlier horizontal slash had destroyed all the surrounding trees, leaving only bare stumps behind, everyone had already dropped down to the ground.
BOOM—!!
A massive, towering wall of earth rose up instantly.
Yet Yuya didn't even slow down.
Gripping the Kusanagi Sword with both hands, he swung again without hesitation.
"Shock Release: Void Shatter!"
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/FinalArcHero789