A massive amount of white water vapor covered the battlefield.
But the crystal beneath their feet never stopped moving.
Whether it was water or earth, under the corrosion of the crystal, everything was assimilated.
"Dammit! I can't find him anymore!"
"Yamanaka Yanagi, hurry up and locate him!"
Yamanaka Yanagi was the only Yamanaka clan member among the thirty, the top-tier of sensory-type shinobi. But no matter how loudly his teammates called for him,
there was no response at all.
Because at this moment, standing right in front of him was Gekko Chizan, and Yamanaka Yanagi himself had already been encased in crystal.
"Hmph, serves you right for always sneak-attacking me. I'll deal with you properly when I get back."
After dealing with this annoying Yamanaka clan member, Gekko Chizan was just about to start moving when a violent gust of wind blew away all the water vapor.
"Tsk tsk, a nice Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. Using it to blow away smoke, huh."
Gekko Chizan smacked his lips. He still acknowledged Root's swift reaction.
Ninjutsu was like this— not every technique was meant for attack. It was about applying what you learned to the situation at hand.
Once the white smoke was completely dispersed, everyone finally saw the Yamanaka Yanagi they had been searching for.
No, now he should be called Crystal Yanagi, because he had already turned into a crystal statue.
"Yanagi, damn it!"
"Keep attacking! Don't give him a chance to catch his breath!"
"We have the numbers advantage!"
Facing the swarm of Root shinobi rushing at him, Gekko Chizan helplessly shook his head.
Numbers advantage?
That sounded a bit ridiculous.
"You've already delayed the schedule."
"What I need is the stuff inside the base."
"So please, all of you, stay here."
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique."
White smoke rose again, but this time it meant the battle had already lost all suspense.
More than a hundred Gekko Chizan clones directly gave their opponents a lesson in what true disparity in combat power looked like.
There were no flashy techniques at all. The clones simply swarmed forward—Crystal Release power meant that as long as they grabbed their opponent, the fight was over.
Turning them into crystal was Gekko Chizan's mercy. After all, it could be undone later, and wouldn't truly kill them.
With the clones handling the mass of Root shinobi, he immediately turned and headed toward the base entrance.
...
The Four Violet Flames Formation was still being maintained.
"Hmph, this seal absolutely must not be touched."
"Even if—"
"What????"
The Root captain was still putting on a tough front at first, but what happened next completely shattered his understanding.
He saw Gekko Chizan lightly press one hand against the ground.
Countless crystals scattered across the surface, and those crystals even directly crystallized the Four Violet Flames Formation.
"Let me give you a bit of science."
"My Crystal Release is a bloodline limit that can crystallize even chakra."
"The chakra content in your barrier is too low. It can't block crystallization, so it gets assimilated by my crystal."
"Understand?"
"Crack!"
The fully crystallized barrier was lightly knocked apart by Gekko Chizan.
The four people inside were exposed.
"Dammit! The intel was wrong—his strength has already surpassed that of an ordinary Kage!"
"Team Ten!"
The captain's face looked extremely ugly, but he still prepared for a final struggle.
The three members of Team Ten, who had never participated in the fight, were already in position.
Three gazes fell on Gekko Chizan, making him feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Because those were three pairs of eyes devoid of any vitality.
"Team Ten?"
"What are you—"
"Holy shit!"
Gekko Chizan had been a little curious about this so-called Team Ten, but the very next second, he was shocked.
So shocked that he even cursed out loud.
What did he see?
The three Root shinobi simply stripped off their clothes, revealing three powerfully built bodies—each of them carved with a sealing formula.
It was the Four Symbols Seal formula, but not the ordinary one.
It was the Reverse Four Symbols Seal.
This technique converts the caster's entire body's blood into sealing medium, drawing the sealing formula while expanding into a spherical shape, sealing surrounding matter along with the target and dragging everything into the underworld.
It was a suicidal sealing technique, used to perish together with the enemy.
"Have you all lost your minds?!"
"Is that damn Danzō really worth it?!"
"Bunch of bastards!"
It wasn't that he couldn't accept self-sacrifice or devotion, but if the object of that devotion was Danzō, he truly couldn't understand it.
The first person's seal had already begun.
That shinobi charged straight toward Gekko Chizan. His originally bright-red blood turned into pitch-black ink, splashing outward around him.
"Tch!"
"Is it already impossible to stop it?"
"Damn it."
"Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique!"
There were many ways for Gekko Chizan to fly—Chōmei's wings, Sage Mode.
But this time, he used a different method.
A technique from the Tsuchikage Ōnoki—Light-Weight Rock Technique—greatly reducing his own weight and allowing him to rise into the air.
Below him, the Reverse Four Symbols Seal had already completed.
A massive pit dozens of meters in diameter appeared in his view.
"Shit, that bastard Danzō."
Ordinary shinobi couldn't even touch this kind of sealing technique. Only Danzō personally teaching it made it possible.
Clearly, Danzō had cultivated a suicide squad.
"One person's already dead—don't even think about the other two!"
This time, Gekko Chizan used his full power. The might that erupted in an instant was completely incomparable to his earlier Crystal Release.
Surging chakra caused the world before his eyes to turn into crystal in an instant.
Trees, land, and Root members alike—all of them were crystallized.
"Sigh, I'll leave the follow-up headache to that guy Minato."
After dealing with all the Root members, Gekko Chizan finally walked into the base.
...
The interior of the base had already changed drastically. Everything was in complete chaos.
Gekko Chizan's brow twitched.
"Ara ara, the progress is pretty fast."
"Too bad, still a bit slow."
From the start of the battle until now, not much time had passed. The three of them simply lacked enough mobility.
At this moment, three Root members were still destroying various documents.
They knew nothing about what had happened outside. Even if they did, it wouldn't change anything—after all, their mission was to destroy all the data.
"Shua!"
The very next second, just like those outside, the three of them turned into crystal—without even a moment to react.
Gekko Chizan slowly stepped forward, looking at the documents they had gathered together but hadn't yet destroyed, and casually picked one up.
"Tsk tsk tsk, Danzō… you're really going to suffer for this one."
Then he began tidying up and collecting those materials in place of the Root members.