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Chapter 27 — The High-Altitude Chase
"Keh keh keh! Power, power! This is the power I've been studying for thirty years!"
"Ha!!"
Shinnō roared, his body overflowing with ever more chakra. The pressure of his chakra shattered the ground beneath his feet like mirrored glass. The surrounding stone statues trembled and flaked, sand and grit peeling off their surfaces.
His aura surged violently—rising from early Kage-level to mid, then late, and then to the very peak of Kage. He was only a hair away from transcending into the super-Kage threshold.
Konan's expression grew grimmer by the second.
A terrible power was coalescing around Shinnō—an overwhelming might that only manifested when someone like Nagato unleashed the Rinnegan at full force. From Alex's intel on power tiers, that signaled a change in quality; it was the hallmark of strength beyond the Kage scale.
Alex watched Shinnō closely. After coming back from being beheaded, Shinnō had already risen from Special Jōnin to early Kage. Now, after releasing the Eight Gates-like surge, his power spiked again—reaching the pinnacle of Kage level and flirting with the super-Kage threshold. If he truly broke through, there would be no point in fighting; Konan wouldn't stand a chance.
'Wait—no…'
Alex noticed the faint super-Kage aura beginning to fade. In the end, Shinnō failed to fully transcend; he stalled at the summit of Kage level. Alex let out a small breath of relief. Shinnō wasn't the same as Might Guy opening all Eight Gates—he hadn't actually mastered the Eight Gates. Instead, he'd ripped his body open with dark chakra in a brutal, unnatural way to forcibly unlock something like the gates, and his terrifying regenerative power prevented the usual fatal backlash. That granted him the ability to smash through his bodily limits and unleash most of his potential.
"Looks like my strength has reached this world's limit…"
Sensing the endless chakra welling up inside him, Shinnō laughed like a man intoxicated by power. He felt he'd reached a barrier he couldn't pierce by mere accumulation; whatever lay beyond would require new insight or time. With his cunning, perhaps he could find a way later.
Alex's mind raced as the distance to the ground grew rapidly. Good news: Shinnō didn't cross into super-Kage. Bad news: he'd become stronger than Konan—still beatable, but dangerous. From the air they could kite him: use the sky to stay out of his reach and whittle him down.
Though the Sky Ninja could fly with pack-type devices, the flying speed on the pilots they'd tracked earlier wasn't impressive. If the fortress' resident could match or exceed that speed, any aerial advantage would vanish.
On the ground, Shinnō sneered. Two swift black beams of chakra sliced downward and shredded the knives, kunai, and Exploding Tags that had been raining down from above.
"Hah, so you can fly?"
He produced a storage scroll and broke its seal. With a thud, a compact black pack appeared in his hands.
"Heh heh—let me show you my special flying pack."
Smaller than normal packs but clearly superior in performance, Shinnō's black chakra wrapped the pack and fused with it, as if it grew out of his back itself. "As a Sky Ninja, flight is my specialty!" he bellowed.
The black box on his back spat three dark beams, then with a thunderous blast he rocketed skyward like a missile. His long hair whipped straight back, and his coarse features were pressed hard by the airflow. A black streak marked his ascent.
Alex's heart dropped to his stomach. What the—he'd turned himself into a manned rocket? The speed gap was huge; Shinnō closed the distance at terrifying pace. The one aerial advantage they'd counted on had vanished. This fight had turned brutal.
Konan pumped her paper wings, becoming a white line streaking upward to chase. She flew with everything she had to keep separation, constantly firing dense volleys of weapons and Exploding Tags downward. Alex couldn't just sit by—he shifted onto Konan's back and, using paper cover, launched sneak attacks: wind blades, water dragon bullets, earthen shot—he threw three-element jutsu as if they were endless.
"Keh keh keh! White Tiger, you think you can run—too late!" Shinnō cackled.
"Those attacks just tickle me."
Shinnō paid them no mind, flying headlong with his ultimate body taking hits. Scratches, burns, cuts—he healed through them almost as fast as they appeared. With the gates partially forced and the Zero-Tails' chakra providing obscene reserves, his chakra pool rivaled even a Nine-Tails'. Consumption wasn't a problem.
'It's useless—useless, all of it!'
Alex stared in disbelief. He'd rained nearly a hundred jutsu on him, plus Konan's Exploding Tags, and Shinnō hadn't even flinched—only slowed marginally. The extent of that regenerative ultimate body was terrifying. Alex's envy of the Dark Medical Ninjutsu deepened into a cold dread: this was no longer about getting the technique—it was about whether they could survive being hunted.
They plunged into a thick cloud layer, but no matter how Konan twisted or changed direction, Shinnō clung like a tenacious hound and closed the distance further. Forced, she kept ascending.
"Cough…"
Suddenly Konan gasped and a pained look crossed her face.
[Konan, what's wrong?] Alex asked, jittering closer. He floated by her right cheek, half in front of her and half melded into her.
She looked at him, lips pressed, shaking her head.
[Can't talk?]
Her face flushed. Then with a single burst, the dense clouds thinned and they burst through to the upper atmosphere. The sky opened and they flew above the cloud deck; the sun blazed on the horizon in full clarity.
We've reached the stratosphere?
Alex realized instantly what had happened. The rapid change in temperature and pressure—and the biggest problem of all:
—lack of oxygen.