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GSiN: Ch. 69
🕑 Added 2025-04-18 22:52:04 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
"Watch your head!"
Jūzō shouted a warning to Fuguki, who was enveloped in steam and couldn't see the figure above clearly.
At that moment, a dark purple fireball emitting terrifying heat suddenly appeared mid-air. The fireball resembled a burning meteor, descending with overwhelming power and speed, crashing down toward the top of Fuguki's head. The intense flames distorted the air around it.
In truth, Jūzō's warning wasn't even necessary.
Just as Fuguki had used Samehada to absorb the Rasenshuriken with a second powerful swing, he already sensed a wave of scorching heat approaching from above.
Of course, he wanted to swing Samehada again to defend himself, but there wasn't enough time. All he could do was hastily activate a technique to force his hair to grow rapidly upward, forming sharp spikes in an attempt to block the attack.
However, the hair technique had absolutely no effect on stopping it.
Those chakra-enhanced hair spikes could pierce through solid rock, but the moment they touched the blazing sphere, they were burned away like ordinary weeds.
He twisted his massive body with all his might, trying to shift his vital areas out of harm's way. In this life-or-death moment, even his enormous size became a tool for survival.
His will to live was off the charts.
But Ryouma had no intention of giving him that chance. Under his remote control, the blazing spheres exploded directly in the center of Fuguki's body, engulfing him in dark purple flames right before his despairing eyes.
Inside, the fire chakra ruthlessly raised the temperature within several meters to an unimaginable level.
His skin and muscles began melting under the extreme heat that far exceeded what his body could endure. The pain caused him to cry out in agony. Yet even then, he did not abandon his desire to survive. He clenched his hand and pressed Samehada against his chest, shouting desperately.
"Hurry!"
But the Samehada in his hand did not cooperate. Not only did it refuse to help, it even turned and bit off half of his arm before diving into the water and escaping on its own.
"You…?!"
Clearly, he never expected that Samehada, which had accompanied him through countless battles for so many years, would betray him at the moment he was closest to death!
And without its help, he was inevitably burned to death by the flames.
To be honest, the whole scene felt absurdly dramatic.
Ryouma had been preparing to fire off a Rasengan Gun to finish the job, but he hadn't expected Samehada to turn on its master like that.
"Even your swords betray their wielders. What's even real in a village so full of lies? The fact that such a hollow place still exists is a joke in itself, don't you think so?"
Now, with most of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen already gone, the remaining four grimaced at Ryouma's mocking words. Even Satoru, who had been filled with rage at the start, now looked uneasy.
Before they came here, they had gathered extensive intel on Ryouma, and what troubled them the most was his space-time jutsu, his flames, and the Wind Release technique from which his title was derived.
According to the original tactical plan, he was supposed to first create a water field to restrict Ryouma's use of space-time ninjutsu.
Then, Fuguki would serve as the front line, tanking enemy jutsu, while the remaining swordsmen launched a pincer attack from different directions.
In terms of tactics, they had executed the plan thoroughly. Even though they lost one member before the battle began, they still carried out all the steps of the strategy to the letter.
Then why… why has it turned out like this?
This question echoed in the minds of the remaining members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
Truthfully, they weren't entirely to blame. After all, not much intel on Ryouma had leaked from the Kiri battlefield. In fact, the very fact that they managed to force him to use his other Rasengan variant already meant they had done better than any other Kiri unit currently on the field.
The weakness of the Rasengan-type jutsu was fairly easy to identify, limited quantity.
Jūzō stared fixedly at the glowing blue chakra spheres floating behind Ryouma, swallowing nervously before calmly analyzing the situation.
"That sphere disappears after using a single jutsu. Right now… he only has three left."
In fact, even without Jūzō speaking up, Raiga, Jinin, and Satoru had all already noticed it.
Logically, they should launch a coordinated attack again, aiming to force Ryouma to use up those chakra spheres one by one.
But the horrific scene with Fuguki just now had made them all hesitate, none of them dared to charge in recklessly. Who knew if they'd become the next target of those mysterious chakra spheres?
If even a frontline tank like Fuguki couldn't survive being targeted by just one, what chance did squishier fighters like them stand?
"Why didn't you go in just now?!"
Satoru suddenly pointed at Raiga, blaming him.
Raiga was stunned that even at this point, Satoru was still trying to shift the blame. He spat to the side and barked back angrily, "I was never meant to be the close-range attacker in the plan! The enemy has some weird jutsu that reflects attacks. If I use my lightning strikes, I might end up harming you guys instead!"
"So you just stand there and watch?!"
"What?! You four charged in and one of you got killed instantly! What the hell was I supposed to do?!"
Jūzō glared at them, disbelief all over his face. His expression darkened immediately. Did these guys even have a brain? At a moment like this, they were still wasting time arguing among themselves!
Meanwhile, Jinin furrowed his brow and quietly stepped back a few paces.
He had lost the will to fight.
He was hoping that Satoru and the others would charge in and distract Ryouma long enough for him to find an opening to break the barrier and slip away.
Kabutowari was a hammer-axe combo. While not the most flexible or powerful, it had the strongest armor-breaking ability among all the Seven Ninja Swords.
He had never seen this red barrier before and wasn't sure of its exact strength, but he was confident that Kabutowari could break through it.
The only problem… was how to escape right under the eyes of that Leaf's Gale.
Unfortunately, Ryouma couldn't read minds.
Just as Jinin had no idea how strong the barrier created by the Four Red Yang Formation was, Ryouma also didn't really know how powerful the so-called "armor-breaking ability" of Kabutowari actually was.
But one thing was certain: no matter how powerful Kabutowari's piercing force was, it couldn't break the Four Red Yang Formation.
Without sparing even a moment to mourn the death of Fuguki, the remaining four members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were about to face the second wave of attack.
With a single thought, the sphere behind Ryouma seemed to come alive and shot forward at great speed, tracing a blue streak across the sky.
Immediately after, the sphere slammed into the water's surface, splashing up a spray and then transformed into a surge of intense blue lightning.
This current of blue electricity didn't dissipate. Instead, it rapidly split into four massive thunder hounds, each with lightning dancing between their fur. They sprinted across the surface of the water, charging toward the enemies.
At the same time, Ryouma's body became enveloped once more in the arcing lightning, enhancing his strength as he accelerated toward Satoru.
Raiga struck Kiba together, releasing a massive surge of electricity that intercepted the four thunder hounds several meters away.
Seeing Ryouma rushing toward him, Satoru realized that using the Hiramekarei's release attack would be useless, it might even backfire and hurt him instead.
So, he used water to form powerful muscles around his arms.
Then, with his enhanced strength, he gripped the hilt of Hiramekarei tightly and swung a heavy, forceful slash toward his enemy.
At the same time, Jūzō also swung Kubikiribōchō, aiming for Ryouma's back.
Though the three had been blaming each other moments before, their coordination in this moment was surprisingly seamless.
Without hesitation, Ryouma controlled two spheres to fly out.
One sphere was instantly ignited by dark purple flames, quickly forming a giant circular flame shield that firmly blocked his back.
At that moment, Jūzō's blade slammed into the flame shield, but shockingly, the blade instantly melted on contact!
Under Ryouma's control, the second sphere shot toward the water's surface and instantly merged with it.
At the same time, a massive whirlpool suddenly formed beneath Satoru's feet, threatening to swallow him whole. He looked at the sudden vortex in shock but had no time to react.
High-pressure water jets shot from the vortex like cannon blasts, striking Satoru and sending him flying into the air.
But the attack didn't stop there.
Next, a massive water dragon burst out of the water, jaws wide open, and bit down on him without mercy. The tremendous strength of the dragon made it impossible for him to break free.
Feeling an intense chill sweep over his body, he quickly used the Hydrification Technique, channeling chakra to turn his body completely into liquid.
The moment the water dragon emerged and bit Satoru, Ryouma had already stabbed Lostvayne into the water dragon's body, connecting it to the underwater currents.
A massive amount of chakra was instantly transformed into raging blue lightning, which, using the water as a natural conductor, surged through the water dragon's body in mere milliseconds.
Just as Satoru entered his liquid state and was about to relax, a wave of numbness suddenly overtook him. He immediately realized he had fallen into a trap.
"You'll never—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Ryouma had already formed a one-handed seal, controlling the massive water dragon to bite down hard. This was the Water Release: Water Dragon Biting Explosion, an offensive jutsu originating from the Second Hokage. It was said to have a bite force of ten thousand tons, enough to tear through any defense.
While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, killing a paralyzed ninja was child's play for it.
Blood poured from the corners of the water dragon's enormous mouth. Within seconds, the jutsu dissipated, and the massive dragon collapsed into a small rootless waterfall that fell from midair.
Falling along with it were two severed halves of Satoru's body.
On the other side, Jūzō looked grimly at Kubikiribōchō, now reduced to only a third of its original length. He was feeling a bit melancholy.
Although it could repair itself by absorbing the iron in blood, the catch was... it had to actually hit someone. And so far, over half of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had been taken out, yet none of them had even landed a single hit on Ryouma.
To be honest, he was already starting to lose hope. From the very beginning, their opponent had clearly come with the intent to wipe them all out. The barrier had been set up from the start, they hadn't even been given a chance to flee.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a pained scream rang out from the edge of the barrier. A figure was blasted dozens of meters away by the high-intensity chakra flowing through the barrier.
That figure was none other than Jinin.
He had tried to sneak away during the chaos of the others fighting Ryouma. Quietly, he'd slipped to the edge of the barrier and swung Kabutowari's axe hard against it. To maximize force, he'd even used a hammer to strike the back of the axe for extra impact.
The result? Just what you saw, the barrier remained completely unscathed, and instead, he got blasted back by the powerful chakra recoil.
Ryouma had long since noticed that the chatterbox of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen was trying to sneak off. But he wasn't the least bit concerned, with the Four Red Yang Formation in place, there was no way out. So he hadn't bothered stopping him.
Now that he had just finished off Satoru, he happened to have a free hand and Jinin had practically walked into it himself.
Taking advantage of the moment, he controlled a sphere and launched it toward the airborne, helpless Kiri ninja.
As the sphere soared, it rapidly grew in size, dark purple flames coursing within.
The giant flaming arrow cut across the water's surface, leaving a searing trail of white-hot steam and in the next moment, pierced straight through Jinin's chest.
The intense heat instantly liquefied all of his internal organs. He didn't even have time to scream more than a couple of syllables before his lifeless body fell into the water.
