Meanwhile, Yoshida Gota personally led the remaining twenty elites and attacked Shinichi from multiple directions in a storm-like assault!
Kunai and shuriken flew like rain. Wind, fire, and earth techniques struck from tricky angles.
There were also ninjas skilled in Taijutsu and swordsmanship closing in, blades flashing, and chains whipping through the air!
The twenty-man assault instantly turned Shinichi's area into a vortex of death.
Shinichi moved rapidly, maneuvering within a limited space.
The Adamantine Nyoi swept and deflected, blocking and knocking away most ranged attacks.
Each swing of the heavy staff generated a heart-shaking gust of wind.
He stepped with precision, narrowly avoiding two intersecting slashes, twisting his body to evade a kunai aimed at his throat.
At that moment, a tall Sunagakure ninja good at Taijutsu seized a fleeting opening after Shinichi's evasive movement. Roaring, he leaped high, his heavy, broad blade raised, and slashed down at Shinichi's head with the force of splitting a mountain!
Before the blade even arrived, the sharp wind pressure already made his scalp tingle.
Shinichi's eyes turned cold. He shifted his footing deftly, retreating several meters. The powerful downward slash struck only air. At the instant the attacker's momentum was spent, and his body leaned slightly forward, Shinichi, holding the Adamantine Nyoi in one hand, suddenly raised it from a diagonal downward position and thrust forward with incredible speed!
The movement was simple, swift, and precise, as if practiced thousands of times.
Clang!!!
The staff emitted a strange metallic tremor!
The next instant, a sudden change occurred!
The originally just over two-meter-long Adamantine Nyoi, under Shinichi's chakra infusion and will, trembled violently, then…
Whoosh!!!
The black, heavy staff extended forward more than tenfold in an instant, as if it possessed life!
Not only that, the rapidly extending shaft carried a powerful, visible spiral force. The tip rotated as it advanced, tearing through the air with a shrill scream, stabbing straight toward the ninja whose attack had missed!
"What?!"
The ninja barely had time to raise his broad blade horizontally before his chest, his eyes filled with shock.
"Pfft!"
The staff tip, wrapped in spiraling force, pierced through his hastily raised blade without resistance, then, like a hot knife through butter, penetrated his heavy armor and solid chest!
Blood burst out from his back!
But the power of this fatal thrust did not end there!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
After piercing the first man, the staff did not slow down. With terrifying spiral penetration and extension momentum, it continued forward, like skewering candied hawthorn, consecutively piercing through the bodies of four more Sunagakure ninjas positioned closely behind him in the encirclement formation!
Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The black staff, extended over twenty meters long, skewered five corpses of Sunagakure ninjas whose lives had been extinguished instantly, their expressions frozen in shock and pain, suspended in the bloody night wind.
One strike, five kills!
Phoenix Piercing The Flowers!
Shinichi's right wrist flicked slightly. Driven by his will, the terrifying long staff that had skewered five corpses and extended more than twenty meters suddenly trembled like a living giant python, then with a whoosh, retracted at a speed even faster than its extension!
The staff scraped against flesh and bone, producing a grating sound. The five pierced bodies collapsed limply like discarded sacks.
The pitch-black staff quickly returned to its normal length of just over two meters.
At almost the same time that the staff retracted, Shinichi's figure shifted lightly like a leaf blown by the wind, sliding a small step to the left, just enough to narrowly let a fierce horizontal slash from the right pass by his waist by a hair's breadth.
The Sunagakure ninja who launched the sneak attack did not hesitate after missing. With a twist of his wrist, he changed the slash into a cut, once again aiming for Shinichi's throat with ruthless speed.
In that instant, Shinichi had already adjusted his balance and stance with that slight sidestep.
Instead of retreating, he advanced, twisting his waist and hips. Using his left foot as a pivot, he drove his right arm holding the staff, thrusting the newly restored Adamantine Nyoi backward with extreme speed toward the pursuing Sunagakure ninjas!
This thrust appeared to be a hasty counterattack made with his back turned to the enemy, but in reality, it perfectly channeled the rotational force of his entire body along with an explosive surge of chakra into the tip of the staff!
Whoosh!
The staff once again defied common sense, expanding wildly and extending over ten meters in an instant!
Unlike the previous spiraling piercing technique of the Phoenix Piercing The Flowers, which fused the core principles of Rasengan and Chidori, this strike carried an even more pure and brutal linear thrusting force. It tore through the air with a piercing shriek and struck the enemy squarely in the face!
Bang!!!
A dull yet extreme sound erupted, a mixture of bone-shattering and flesh exploding!
Under the terrifying kinetic force contained within the staff, the Sunagakure ninja's head burst apart like a watermelon struck head-on by a heavy hammer!
Red and white matter splattered outward, spraying the faces of several Sunagakure ninjas behind him!
The headless corpse maintained its forward-charging slashing posture, staggering forward two more steps due to inertia before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Meanwhile, Shinichi used the precise recoil from that backward thrust. Twisting his waist and pushing off with his feet, he smoothly turned back to face forward. His movements flowed seamlessly, without the slightest delay, as if killing and evasion were part of the same dance.
Without stopping, he even used the momentum of the turn to perform a light and swift midair roll toward the rear side.
Whoosh!
A blazing fireball grazed his back, scorching the air into distortion before exploding on the ground in the distance.
As he landed and bent his knees to absorb the impact, Shinichi narrowed his eyes, then locked his gaze onto several Sunagakure ninjas ahead who had momentarily faltered in shock at their comrade's gruesome death and were standing relatively close together.
Now!
The muscles in his legs tensed suddenly, chakra bursting through his lower limbs. The ground cracked with a sharp sound!
His body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. At the same time, he gripped the end of the Adamantine Nyoi with both hands, swinging it in a powerful half arc at his side!
The long staff in his hands followed the momentum of his charge, sweeping upward from below into a vast, fan-shaped area ahead, forming a heavy, violently destructive black shadow as it swept forward!
This sweep contained no fancy techniques, only the purest, most savage strength and speed!
The staff tore through the air, producing a deep roar like a raging river or crashing ocean waves!
The immense wind pressure surged ahead, sweeping up gravel and dust from the ground into a murky wave that advanced alongside the staff's shadow!
River and Sea Overturn!
The four Sunagakure ninjas in front felt their breathing stifle. The violent wind pressure forced their eyes shut. When they tried to evade, they realized the staff's range and ferocity far exceeded their expectations!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Crack!!
The staff shadow swept through!
Dull impacts and bone-crushing sounds merged instantly!