At this moment-
As the billowing smoke and dust finally began to clear, at the very epicenter of the explosion, an incredible, diamond-crystal-like ice shield had appeared, perfectly enveloping Sora and completely isolating him from the terrifying, swirling serpents of fire outside.
The terrifying sea of fire reaching hundreds of meters into the sky had not been able to harm Sora in the slightest.
This is the power of the Zanpakuto, Hyorinmaru!
Multilayer Vacuum Ice Wall!
That's right.
In the instant before the explosion occurred, Sora had released the Shikai of his Hyorinmaru and used the Zanpakuto's power to create a crystal-like ice wall shield, perfectly isolating the force of the explosion and the flames.
'I...'
'Seem to be stronger than I imagined!'
Sora gazed at the sea of fire outside the ice shield, thinking somewhat thoughtfully.
Surviving the epicenter of such a terrifying explosion was no simple feat. The combination of a fully incanted Shakkaho and the stacked detonation of over a hundred thousand explosive tags meant that even a Jonin, or even an Elite Jonin, would face certain death here.
Yet, Sora had dealt with the terrifying explosion quite easily.
At this time, Sora realized that he had probably misjudged his own combat power.
After all, over the years, the strongest enemies he had encountered were the group of five Uchiha Clan's Jonin from Konoha, but he had almost wiped them out entirely.
Based on his previous assessment, being able to crush Jonin, Sora had naturally considered himself to be at the Elite Jonin-level. But now, it seemed that perhaps Elite Jonin wasn't the limit of his combat power?
Just as Sora was pondering this, a system notification sound suddenly rang in his ears.
[Ding!]
[Special Challenge Mission Triggered!]
[Mission 1: Defeat the Konoha's Ninja, Uchiha Shisui. Reward: Random]
[Mission 2: Kill the Konoha's Ninja, Hyuga Hizashi. Reward: Random]
[Mission 3: Repel the Konoha's Sannin, Jiraiya. Reward: 10,000 Reiatsu Points, Portable Gigai, Random Kido x1]
[Special Challenge Missions are not mandatory, have no time limit, and can only be completed once. Reward is obtained upon mission completion. No penalty for mission failure.]
…
'Huh?'
'A special mission?'
Hearing the prompt, Sora was first stunned, then became excited.
Special Mission!
He never expected to trigger an extremely rare special mission this time!
Moreover, three special missions were triggered at once, which delighted Sora greatly.
'Uchiha Shisui, Hyuga Hizashi, Jiraiya...'
'They are all familiar names!'
Sora gently stroked the hilt of his Zanpakuto, his gaze piercing through the thick black smoke around him to look into the distance.
His target in coming to the Land of Fire was Jiraiya in the first place.
Now, with the system issuing special missions as well, there was naturally even less reason to hesitate.
Special mission rewards were similar to ordinary survival mission rewards, both very generous.
This time, three were triggered at once. If Sora could complete them all, it would be equivalent to saving three years of time.
Furthermore, defeating Shisui and killing Hizashi presented basically no difficulty for Sora.
As long as he could find the targets, he could definitely complete them.
After all, Hizashi was just a Jonin from the Hyuga Clan's branch family. A Ninja of this level would find it difficult to last more than a couple of rounds against Sora.
And as for Shisui, based on the intelligence Sora possessed, he was still a genius under ten years old. At best, he might have the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and the probability of him having awakened the Mangekyo was less than one in a million.
As for Mission 3, repelling Jiraiya, the difficulty probably wasn't that high either.
With Sora's current combat power and confidence, killing Jiraiya might be very difficult, but if the goal was merely to repel him, it should be relatively easy to accomplish.
'Since the system issued special missions, then based on the previous example with Mei, the targets should be not far from me now...'
As his words fell, the vacuum ice wall enveloping Sora slowly opened from the middle, and then Sora's figure shot out like an arrow.
'They're here!'
The moment he left the black smoke, Sora's powerful Reikaku rapidly extended outwards and soon detected several powerful energy reaction points a few kilometers away.
Swoosh!
'Shunpo.'
Sora took a single step and was already a hundred meters away. Then, after several more flickers, he quickly disappeared into the ruins of the town.
…
Meanwhile,
Kurumi, Matsunaga Yuzuki, and the others, who were rushing towards the town taking advantage of the huge explosion, encountered a major crisis.
Just as the four of them approached within one kilometer of the town, a few barely perceptible, strange sounds suddenly came from behind them.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh!
Swoosh swoosh swoosh!
The air whistled softly.
All four present were elite Kirigakure's Anbu. Their ears twitched, and they reacted instantly.
"Enemy attack!"
"Watch your backs!"
In that split second, Kurumi, who was at the rear of the group, twisted her body in mid-air to look back. As her sword swung, she deflected all the incoming kunai.
Clang clang clang!
Clang clang clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out continuously.
"Beautiful!"
Matsunaga Yuzuki's eyes lit up.
However, before Ringo Kurumi could even land, a youth wearing Uchiha Clan's attire suddenly flickered into position. His hands formed hand seals at high speed as he leaped high into the air.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Instantly, a massive fireball over five meters in diameter spewed furiously from the youth's mouth, carrying a scorching heat as it bore down on the four present.
"Damn it!"
"Konoha's Ninjas!"
Matsunaga Yuzuki's heart sank, but the hand seals he formed were extremely fast. Once the seals were complete, a thick wall of water immediately surged up, blocking the path of the great fireball.
[Water Release: Water Formation Wall!]
Boom!
The next moment.
The enormous fireball slammed violently into the Water Formation Wall. Where water and fire met, powerful Chakra overflowed, generating vast amounts of scalding steam, so hot it made their skin sting.
Water Release naturally countered Fire Release, so the Water Formation Wall conjured by Matsunaga Yuzuki naturally suppressed the Konoha's Ninja's Fire Release.
However,
Before the scorching steam could even dissipate, another sound of something cutting through the air suddenly rang out.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Thump!
In that instant, a precise air cannon slammed hard into Matsunaga Yuzuki's body.
Even with his rich combat experience, managing to block partially with a kunai at the critical moment, he was still sent flying violently by that Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
Steam filled the air.
By the time the mist completely cleared, the scene that appeared before the eyes of Kurumi and the other Kirigakure's Anbu was Matsunaga Yuzuki being sent flying through the air, and the tall, imposing, and dread-inspiring white-haired figure that had appeared before them at some unknown time.
'He...'
'He's Jiraiya!!!'
At this moment, Kurumi was so terrified her very soul began to tremble.