"One strike…"
"And it collapsed!???"
"How is this possible!!!"
A look of horror and disbelief appeared on Jiraiya's face. He had intended to use Sage Mode and join forces with Kushina against the enemy, but he never expected the plan to seem on the verge of ending before it even began.
'Kushina could now freely use the Nine-Tails' Chakra, possessing such amazing power. And yet, she still wasn't a match for this monster, Yuki Sora!??'
"Ku… Kushina-sama seems to have been knocked down again. The Chakra on her body instantly became stagnant!"
"Is she injured?"
"I'm not sure, it just looks like the situation isn't too…"
A Hyuga Ninja, his veins bulging, was about to continue when he was harshly interrupted by Shinsuke beside him: "Shut up! Don't say any more! It must be because Kushina-sama used consecutive Tailed Beast Bombs, exhausting her body too much. That's all it is. She just needs to recover a bit, and she will definitely win, understand?"
Shinsuke saw the morale of the surrounding Konoha's Ninjas beginning to crumble again upon hearing the news of Kushina's defeat, so he quickly spoke up to stop the Hyuga Ninja from spreading negative sentiment.
"Kushina, and Jiraiya-sama…"
"Will definitely win!"
Shinsuke clenched his fists tightly. At this level of combat, a mere Elite Jonin like him was completely unable to intervene.
Now, he could only hope that Konoha's two aces had the strength to turn the tide.
Simultaneously, Kushina, who had been knocked out by Sora's single strike, instantly regained consciousness under the frantic infusion of Nine-Tails' Chakra.
She looked up at Sora, and the Chakra Cloak that had been shattered on her body healed once again.
"I will definitely win!"
Kushina, who usually had a fiery and volatile personality, appeared exceptionally calm after this heavy blow.
In an instant, Kushina's Chakra and aura were raised to their peak once more.
"She's back!"
"Kushina-sama has recovered!"
"That's the same Chakra as before. The Tailed Beast's power is truly terrifying!"
"Excellent! That Kirigakure monster Yuki Sora also consumed a large amount of Chakra just now, and he doesn't have a Tailed Beast's Chakra as a supply. This time, with Kushina-sama and Jiraiya-sama joining forces, they will definitely kill him!"
The Hyuga Ninjas who had been closely watching this part of the battlefield were all boosted in spirit upon seeing the fully restored Kushina.
Hearing this news, however, Mei, Yagura, Ao, and others on Kirigakure's side couldn't help but frown.
"The Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki really isn't easy to deal with…"
"That's the power of the Nine-Tails, the peak even among Tailed Beasts. For Sora to have repelled consecutive Tailed Beast Bombs earlier is already inhumanly strong."
Yagura's eyes were full of helplessness.
The intensity of combat at that level was probably something even ordinary Kage-level Ninjas couldn't withstand.
If he were to go in, he would last at most five minutes before being torn to shreds by the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.
"Sora…"
Mei, who was using Water Release Ninjutsu to clear the area, looked up at the sky battlefield, her almond-shaped eyes brimming with worry.
The power possessed by Tailed Beasts was quite fearsome.
When Kirigakure captured and sealed the Three-Tails and Six-Tails before, even with the Mizukage taking action, they paid a considerable price.
If one wasn't careful, even a Kage-level powerhouse could be killed by a Tailed Beast at any time.
If the Three-Tails and Six-Tails were so dangerous, let alone the Nine-Tails…
At this moment, a sense of annoyance welled up inexplicably in Mei's heart. She was always like this, watching helplessly as Sora fought powerful enemies, unable to help in the slightest, only able to be a useless and insignificant spectator.
'I…'
'Must obtain more power!'
Mei bit her pink lips. She worried for Sora's safety and hated her own weakness.
However,
Just then,
The originally clear sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds, and then large, goose-feather-like snowflakes began to fall.
"It's…"
"Snowing?"
Mei was stunned, looking up at the sky.
At this moment, snow was falling everywhere. The battlefield spanning several kilometers was covered by the snowflakes falling from the sky.
As the snow fell, Sora glanced at Kushina and Jiraiya on his left and right, then lightly spread the ice wings on his back, his entire person flying upward into the sky.
Seeing this, both Kushina and Jiraiya instinctively wanted to stop him, but both were forced back by a flash of sword light radiating cold air.
"Damn it…"
"What does he want to do? Does he want to escape?"
Kushina landed disgracefully. If it weren't for the Chakra Hands altering the sword light's direction just now, she would have been sent flying again.
"Escape?"
"No…"
Sora ascended into the sky, a light smile still on his lips. "Ninjas often like to deceive themselves with false truths, even using them to test their own capacity. It's a pity…"
"Self-deception is utterly worthless, because it's merely a truth mistakenly believed by the weak. Relying on such empty truths to live is probably a kind of tragedy, right?"
"So…"
"The hardest thing for human nature to accept is that those false yet happy truths are precisely the real yet hurtful lies. And it is these false truths that deceive our eyes, making us unable to see the reality of this world anymore."
As he spoke, Sora's figure rose higher and higher.
He stood poised in the void, snowflakes around him emitting a faint, clear radiance, slowly connecting into a sheet, forming an ice thorn cross shimmering with a cold light, suspended in the firmament.
At this time, as if endless Reiatsu surged from within Sora's body, surging like a tidal wave, causing the ice thorn cross suspended in the void behind him to glow brighter and brighter.
On the ground, countless Ninjas looked up, barely able to make out a black dot.
Their gazes were frightened and helpless, not knowing what would happen next.
Finally, Sora raised his hand, swinging his Zanpakuto down towards the earth from the heavens.
"Frozen Heaven Hundred Flower Funeral!"
In the void where the blade passed, frost patterns suddenly arranged themselves, like ancient serpents meandering, gradually descending from the sky to the ground, forming a terrifying pattern that pierced the world.
The patterns extended, coiling around the snowflakes, making the snowfall even heavier.
At this moment, Kushina, who had activated the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and could sense killing intent and malice, suddenly had her expression changed drastically.
She looked in horror at the snowflakes falling everywhere and the mysterious patterns so terrifying they seemed capable of piercing the world. She felt her scalp go numb and her soul tremble.
Too powerful!
And too terrifying!
It was as if every single snowflake was surging with energy and killing intent.
At this moment, the entire world had turned into a weapon of murder. Wave after wave of severe killing intent ran rampant and intertwined, weaving an inescapable curtain of death.
'Escape!'
'Escape!'
'Escape!'
"Run away!!!"
"You foolish woman, this is a natural disaster! What are you standing there for? Waiting to die!???"
Not only was Kushina's instinct trembling, even the Nine-Tails was roaring frantically in her ear, its voice hoarse, clearly having sensed something dreadful.
"Jiraiya-sensei!!!!"
"Run away!!!!"
Kushina shouted sharply, turning and jumping off Gamabunta's head.
As she fell towards the ground, she was still roaring loudly: "Retreat, retreat quickly! Hurry!!!!"
Her piercing voice resounded across the entire battlefield, causing many Konoha's Ninjas to freeze, not reacting to what was happening.
Of course, some people reacted much faster than Kushina.
"Retreat!"
"Don't linger in battle!"
"Withdraw from the battlefield area at the fastest speed, especially…"
"Try not to touch those white snowflakes as much as possible!!!"
Fugaku gave the order first. Back when the sky had just started snowing, he was already gathering the Uchiha Ninjas to withdraw from the battlefield area.
Before,
He had heard from Jiraiya that Sora had a rather fearsome Jutsu that turned falling snow into shuriken, causing large-scale casualties to enemies within the technique's range.
Konoha's intelligence analysis department had even speculated that this Kirigakure's Ice Release User might already be able to, to a certain extent, alter the climate!!!
An incredible speculation, but it was the most probable possibility after eliminating all other impossibilities!!!
"Retreat!"
"We can't fight anymore!"
Hyuga Hiashi, the head of the Hyuga Clan's main family, had also given the order early. As the head of the main family, he shouldn't have appeared on the battlefield in the first place. But since he was here, it represented Konoha's stance.
A desperate, all-or-nothing fight!
However,
They couldn't fight anymore now!
"It's very likely that seal-less Ice Release Jutsu. Notify the clansmen, retreat immediately!"
As the leader of the Sarutobi Clan on the battlefield, Shinsuke also sternly gave the order.
"But…"
A Sarutobi Clan's Chunin panicked, "The other Ninjas from the village are still fighting the Kirigakure's Ninjas. Wouldn't withdrawing now…?"
"Execute the order!"
Shinsuke's eyes widened in anger, clear rage appearing on his face.
"Yes, I understand!"
The Sarutobi Clan's Chunin immediately turned to relay the retreat signal, a signal only the Sarutobi Clan could understand.
"Comrades, I'm sorry…"
"To protect the Will of Fire, we must preserve the Sarutobi Clan's fighting strength!"
Shinsuke was no fool. As a battlefield commander, one must remain calm at all times to make the right choices.
If they notified all Konoha's Ninjas to retreat in a swarm at this moment, the battle lines would definitely collapse instantly, giving the Kirigakure's Ninjas a chance to pursue and kill them relentlessly. The casualties would only be greater then.
So…
Someone had to stay behind, to cover the retreat with their lives!
Uchiha, Hyuga, Sarutobi, Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka…
The Ninja Clans' members began to retreat frantically.
By the time the Konoha's Civilian Ninjas realized something was wrong, far too many snowflakes had already landed on their bodies.
Really…
Far too many.
Splat!
Splat!
Splat!
Abruptly, dozens of Konoha's Ninjas with snowflakes on their bodies suddenly had ice thorns burst forth from the napes of their necks, spines, kidneys, ribs, and other areas. Those bursting ice thorns instantly shattered the Ninjas' bodies, forming the shape of an ice thorn cross out of nowhere.
In an instant, dozens of ice thorn crosses took shape, standing on the battlefield like flesh-and-blood scarecrows.
The horrifying scene directly made the Konoha's Ninjas who hadn't escaped yet bristle.
"What?"
"What is this?"
"The power of Ice Release! It's Yuki Sora!"
"Monster! That monster has made his move after all! Run away!!!"
The morale on Konoha's side, which had somewhat recovered, collapsed once again. The ice thorn crosses were simply too terrifying, making these battle-hardened Ninjas lose their composure.
Escape!
Escape!
Escape!??
But where could they escape to?
When the sky-blotting snow began to fall, the fate of these Konoha's Ninjas had long been sealed.
The more snowflakes accumulated on their bodies, the faster they died.
Splat splat splat!
Bloody ice thorn crosses bloomed everywhere. Instantly, the entire battlefield became a river of blood and a field of corpses, as terrifying as the eighteen layers of hell.
Death!
Frantic death!
The sky-blotting snow swirled, taking with it the lives of countless Konoha's Ninjas.
The bloodiness of death spread like a plague across the battlefield. Regardless of their level, any Ninja wearing a Konoha's forehead protector would have their body explode in an instant, transforming into an ice thorn cross standing in place.
Destruction.
Apocalypse.
Hell.
No vocabulary used to describe terror was sufficient to depict the hellishly terrifying scene before them.
Over a thousand ice sculptures stood erected in the area, surrounded by sprayed blood and white bones, dyeing the muddy earth a dreadful black.
Finally, no one knew how much time had passed before the madly blooming crosses gradually ceased.
When the surviving Ninjas looked up, they could only see that the originally chaotic battlefield had long become a bloody mass grave.
This was also a vast, black slaughterhouse filled with ice thorn crosses.
The bloody aura gathered from the deaths of over a thousand Konoha's Ninjas almost dyed the entire space with the hue of death.
An utterly terrifying and shocking scene.
All the fortunate survivors among the Konoha's Ninjas, and even the Kirigakure's Ninjas, looked in disbelief at everything that had happened in the field.
They stared fixedly at the shocking ice thorn crosses, their dazed and bewildered eyes as if they were dreaming.
"Dead…"
"All dead…"
An Uchiha Ninja muttered tremblingly, the three tomoes in his eyes long devoid of their previous arrogance, instead filled with fear.
"Impossible, what kind of Jutsu is this? How can there be such a Jutsu!!!!"
Kushina, who had barely managed to save over a hundred Konoha's Ninjas by relying on her Nine-Tails Chakra Cloak, looked at the horrifying scene, her eyes wide with fury to the point of bleeding profusely.
She simply couldn't imagine what kind of Jutsu could turn falling snowflakes into such a terrifying murder weapon.
In just a few dozen seconds, it had taken the lives of over a thousand Konoha's Ninjas!!!
Petrified.
Stupefied.
Terrified.
The fortunate escapees among the Konoha's Ninja Clans' members all looked with extreme astonishment and fear at everything happening in the field.
No one could have imagined that Sora held such a dreadful Forbidden Jutsu in his hands.
Finally…
The morale of the Konoha's Ninjas completely collapsed at this moment.
Even Kushina, who still had some strength left, was forcibly dragged away from the battlefield by the heavily wounded, nearly dead Jiraiya.
Minato decisively defeated, Jiraiya severely injured, Kushina outmatched.
When Konoha's ace combatants were suppressed single-handedly by Sora, their main forces naturally collapsed.
As the Konoha's forces disintegrated, the Kirigakure's Ninjas, instead of showing overly excited emotions, also stood frozen in place one by one. The looks they directed at Sora were filled with extremely complex colors.