Chapter 446: Explosion Release Gari Completely Sealed
Gravel tore through the air like shrapnel. Several Hidden Mist Anbu, too slow to evade the blast radius, were caught by the violent shockwave and violently hurled backward.
"Found him."
A cruel, predatory glint flashed across Gari's grayish-white, reanimated eyes. Deep within the churning banks of dense fog stood Ao, barking out tactical commands.
"You're the one commanding this swarm of flies, aren't you?"
Gari pushed off the shattered earth. Riding the kinetic recoil of his own detonation, he crossed dozens of meters in a fraction of a second, closing the distance to Ao's face. He drew back his right arm, fist clenching tight. Volatile chakra compressed wildly around his knuckles, emitting a terrifying, high-frequency hum.
Ao stood his ground. The veins around his right eye bulged sharply as his Byakugan tracked the incoming strike. As a Sensor Ninja, close-quarters taijutsu was far from his specialty, and the explosive shinobi was simply too fast to outrun. Yet, Ao's weathered face betrayed no panic. His hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals.
"Water Release: Water Wall!"
A thick, surging barricade of water erupted from the earth, rising to intercept the blow.
"Naive!" Gari sneered. Without a shred of hesitation or fancy footwork, he drove his glowing fist directly into the rushing current.
The terrifying, superheated chakra generated by the Explosion Release ignited upon impact. In a fraction of a second, the entire water wall vaporized. Scalding white steam blasted outward, blanketing the immediate vicinity.
"It's over!" Gari roared, tearing straight through the scalding mist to deliver the killing blow.
Just then, a piercing, high-pitched hum of raw chakra sliced through the chaos from his blind spot.
Immediately after, a massive, twin-handled greatsword shimmering with a blinding, ethereal blue light cleaved through the steam. It materialized like a phantom wall between the attacker and his prey.
Gari's explosive fist slammed dead-center into the flat of the broad blade.
For a fraction of a second, the reanimated shinobi froze, his destructive momentum entirely halted. Then, the kinetic energy violently rebounded. A colossal counter-shock force erupted from the weapon, striking Gari squarely in the chest. He was flung backward like a ragdoll, tumbling end over end through the air before violently skidding across the rocky terrain to regain his footing.
He shook his right arm, the dead nerves tingling with residual numbness, and glared ahead with a dark, grim expression.
The lingering steam finally dissipated, swept away by the displaced air.
Standing firmly in front of Ao was a slender, unassuming figure.
It was Chōjūrō.
"My apologies, Senior Ao." The young swordsman gripped his weapon tightly, his voice holding a trace of nervous respect. "I arrived late."
Ao looked at the boy's back and allowed a rare, genuine grin to surface. "You arrived just in time." He straightened his posture, casually wiping a streak of dust and grime from his cheek. "As for Pakura..."
"She has been dealt with," Chōjūrō reported, his tone steadying. "The Sealing Squad has completed the sealing."
Hearing this, the cruel smirk vanished from Gari's face. His grayish-white eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
"That woman possessed the Scorch Release, yet she lost to a scrawny brat like you?" Gari scrutinized Chōjūrō from head to toe, his gaze finally locking onto the massive, bandage-wrapped weapon radiating blue chakra. "So that's it. Hiramekarei."
Gari let out a cold, contemptuous snort and raised both hands simultaneously, his palms facing outward.
"Since that trash Pakura lost, I'll just have to send both of you to the afterlife myself!"
"Explosion Release: Chain Explosion!"
Gari's figure vanished in a blur of motion. He ricocheted across the battlefield at blinding speeds. Every time his boots struck the earth, he left behind a highly condensed, volatile chakra landmine primed to detonate. In a matter of seconds, he had woven a deadly web. Centered directly on Ao and Chōjūrō, the entire area within a hundred-meter radius was laced with lethal, invisible traps.
"Don't think you can run!" Gari shouted, coming to a halt atop a jagged boulder. His hands locked into a single seal.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The chain explosions were deafening. A synchronized wave of destruction ripped through the earth. Pillars of scorching flame shot high into the sky, violently churning the air. Countless fragments of shattered rock and thick, choking black smoke completely engulfed the two Mist shinobi.
Gari lowered his hands, curling his lip in absolute disdain. "Dealt with..."
Before the final syllable could leave his mouth, a brilliant azure light suddenly flared deep within the heart of the smoke plume.
The glow intensified, growing brighter and more concentrated by the millisecond. It eventually pierced straight through the thick, suffocating ash, casting an eerie, luminous glow over the cratered battlefield.
"An attack of this level..." Chōjūrō's voice echoed from within the inferno, no longer nervous, but ringing with absolute resolve.
A massive, crescent-shaped wave of blue chakra swept outward, violently scattering the smoke and flames in an instant.
Chōjūrō stood at the epicenter, his feet planted firmly in the scorched earth, holding Hiramekarei high above his head with both hands. The legendary sword was no longer bound in its standard hammer-like shape. Instead, the raw chakra had surged and molded, transforming the weapon into a colossal, ten-meter-long blade of pure, destructive light.
"That's still not enough!!" Chōjūrō roared. The muscles in his slender arms coiled tight as he swung the titanic light blade down with terrifying force.
"Hiramekarei: Bone Splitter!!"
The massive energy blade tore through the atmosphere with irresistible might, emitting a shrieking hum as it cleaved a path straight toward Gari.
Gari's face twisted in alarm. Knowing his reanimated body would be obliterated if he tried to tank such a concentrated strike, he abandoned his high ground and retreated rapidly.
The light blade slammed into the earth where he had just stood.
The ground was instantly split open. A massive, jagged fissure tore through the bedrock, stretching for over a hundred meters and kicking up a tidal wave of dirt and stone. Although Gari narrowly dodged the direct bisection, the overflowing shockwave of compressed chakra slammed into his side, violently throwing him off balance.
Before the explosive shinobi could even steady his footing, Ao's calm, authoritative voice cut through the ringing in his ears.
"Everyone!"
"Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!"
Dozens of surviving Hidden Mist elites, scattered around the perimeter, slapped their hands together in perfect synchronization.
A dense, unnatural fog erupted from the damp earth, rapidly expanding and swallowing the entire battlefield in the blink of an eye. The visibility dropped to absolute zero.
Gari lost his sight once again.
"Damn it!" he cursed, his back hitting a cold rock face as he warily scanned the impenetrable white void. "This technique again!"
A subtle shift in the air pressure caught his attention. 'The left?'
Gari violently pivoted, swinging a chakra-loaded punch into the empty mist to his left.
The air itself exploded from the sheer force of his strike, but his fist met nothing but vapor.
"Over here."
A cold, detached voice suddenly sounded from his right blind spot.
Gari subconsciously turned his head.
A highly compressed jet of water shot through the fog like a sniper's bullet, instantly piercing straight through his right shoulder.
"Water Release: Water Gun Technique!"
"Bastard!!" Gari roared, ignoring the gaping hole in his flesh as he raised his remaining arm to counterattack.
But in the very next second, the solid rock beneath his boots lost all structural integrity, melting into a thick, clinging mire.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
A Konoha Jonin, arriving just in time to reinforce the Mist squadron, slammed his palms onto the ground, channeling his chakra to completely restrict the Edo Tensei zombie's movements.
Gari's legs sank deep into the heavy, viscous mud. His explosive mobility was instantly neutralized.
Ao's voice echoed from the surrounding void, sharp and decisive.
"Chōjūrō!!"
"Oooohhhh!!!"
The response was a guttural, desperate battle cry from the young swordsman.
The dense fog directly above Gari was violently blown away by a descending vortex of raw chakra.
Gari snapped his head up.
Chōjūrō had leaped high into the air. The Hiramekarei in his grip had swelled to an exaggerated, monstrous size, its blue chakra taking the shape of a colossal hammer head.
'I can't dodge...' Gari realized, his feet firmly cemented in the earth. He could only watch helplessly as the massive, glowing blue hammer eclipsed his entire field of vision.
"Hiramekarei: Burst Crush!!"
An devastating boom ripped across the battlefield.
The ground trembled violently under the sheer weight of the impact. Centered directly on the strike zone, the earth within a fifty-meter radius instantly caved in, forming a massive, jagged crater. The terrifying shockwave that followed blew away the remaining dense fog in a single, violent gust. Even the Konoha shinobi standing in the distance were thrown off balance by the seismic tremor.
Thick smoke and dust billowed into the air.
It took a long time for the debris to settle. When the chaotic battlefield finally returned to a dead silence, the results were laid bare.
At the bottom of the massive crater, Gari's reanimated body had been smashed to pieces. His form was a mangled wreck, barely recognizable as human. The unnatural paper fragments of the Edo Tensei jutsu began to flutter slowly, swarming over the wreckage in a desperate attempt to repair his shattered vessel.
But Chōjūrō was not about to give him the chance.
"Sealing Squad! Hurry!!" Chōjūrō yelled, leaning heavily against the hilt of Hiramekarei as he gasped for breath.
Several shinobi from the Sealing Squad immediately leaped into the pit. A massive sealing scroll was unfurled across the dirt. Pitch-black incantations crawled off the parchment like iron chains, instantly wrapping around Gari's scattered remains layer by layer.
"Sealing: Bind!"
As the final character of the incantation flared with chakra, the swirling paper fragments froze. Gari's body stopped repairing entirely, locked away in the absolute darkness of the seal.
"Hoo..."
Seeing the seal hold, the last ounce of adrenaline drained from Chōjūrō's body. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the ruined earth, panting heavily.
They had won.
They had actually won.
Not only had he defeated Pakura of the Scorch Release, but he had just assisted Senior Ao in taking down Gari of the Explosion Release.
"Well done."
A calloused hand reached out into Chōjūrō's line of sight.
Ao let out a soft, relieved sigh, looking down at the exhausted boy with a proud smile.
"Chōjūrō."
"You are now a truly qualified member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."
Chōjūrō was stunned for a moment. His eyes widened, staring at the offered hand. Trembling slightly, he reached out and grasped Ao's forearm, using the older man's use to pull himself up.
Finding his footing, Chōjūrō straightened his back. A wide, confident grin broke across his face, revealing his sharp, jagged teeth.
"I will not disgrace the Hidden Mist!"
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