Chapter 97: Gojo Yoru vs Hanzo of the Salamander, Space-Time Release: Laser Beam
Although Hanzo couldn't hear what the three of them had been discussing, the moment Orochimaru and Jiraiya vanished via Body Flicker and left only Yoru to face him, he pieced together their intent.
Hanzo showed no anger. He simply watched Yoru retrieve a chakra blade from a storage scroll, then spoke. "Kid, where exactly did you go during that absence, and what did you experience?"
It was a question the entire shinobi world wanted answered.
Shinobi who underwent sudden power surges were not unheard of. In the heat of battle, certain circumstances could push a person far beyond their normal limits. But that kind of power was always temporary.
Yoru's sudden strengthening was permanent.
The way his chakra had surged made it clear he hadn't been hiding his true strength before. He had genuinely become stronger all at once. And it wasn't a modest improvement in chakra alone. It was a comprehensive transformation, as though he had shed his old self entirely.
Every faction, enemy and ally alike, along with every power watching from the sidelines, was deeply curious about what had caused it.
"Where else would I go? Secret training, obviously."
Yoru leveled his blade toward Hanzo and smiled. "Thanks to the pressure you put on me. I had no choice but to get stronger so I could stop running."
"Save that story for people your own age." Hanzo gave a cold laugh, then drew a straight ninja blade rather than his chain-scythe, and said in a low voice, "Let this old man see just how much you've changed."
The moment those words fell, the atmosphere turned heavy.
The two of them faced each other across a considerable distance, one high, one low. Both wore their specially made masks. The only sound around them was the dense rain hammering the earth.
Some unknowable moment passed.
Then both of them vanished simultaneously. No afterimage remained.
The clang of metal broke through the rain's dominance.
To Orochimaru and Jiraiya watching from a distance, Yoru and Hanzo seemed to have abandoned their identities as shinobi entirely. They were fighting like swordsmen from the Land of Iron, trading pure technique and physical ability.
No ninjutsu, no taijutsu. Just a straight contest of skill and body.
In terms of strength and technique, Hanzo had the clear upper hand. His body was at its absolute peak, honed through years of killing. Even the swordsmen of the Land of Iron turned and fled at the sight of him. The finest warriors of this era had all fallen before his blade. He suppressed Yoru with ease.
But only to that extent.
Every time one of his strikes was about to connect against Yoru, who wore no vest or armor and was covered in apparent openings, the boy managed to dodge just in time or throw up a hasty block.
Once or twice could be called coincidence. Every single time was Yoru's ability.
If not for the ice-blue eyes visible beneath Yoru's goggles, Hanzo might have thought he was fighting an Uchiha. But this reaction went beyond simply having exceptional dynamic vision. What was more absurd was his reaction speed. Not only could he respond in time, he could immediately correct for any mistake.
This was their first direct confrontation, since every previous engagement had been mutual assassination attempts. Only now did Hanzo begin to understand how Yoru had been able to learn Flying Thunder God Technique and kill fifty-five Sand ninja at once.
Only neural reaction speed at that level could pair seamlessly with Space-Time teleportation, eliminating an enemy before they had any chance to respond.
This was pure talent dominance.
In this simple exchange of swordsmanship alone, Hanzo could already see the potential to reach the shinobi world's pinnacle in the boy across from him.
And this was only the beginning of the surprises.
Before twenty exchanges had passed, Yoru shifted from passive defense to active offense.
Hanzo caught an opening and thrust forward. Not only did Yoru deflect it with a sideways parry of his chakra blade, he used the redirected force to slide to the side and launched an upward slash toward Hanzo.
Hanzo flickered back, putting distance between them.
Watching the boy across from him, a trace of genuine alarm surfaced in Hanzo's eyes from that single upward slash.
What a terrifying reading ability and memory. This kid was growing during the fight itself.
In fewer than twenty exchanges, Yoru had already familiarized himself with Hanzo's combat style and attack patterns, then deliberately shown an opening to manufacture a perfect opportunity to shift from defense to offense, nearly landing the hit.
It was the first time Hanzo had faced Yoru directly, and he had assumed this was simply the type of fighter Yoru was.
Watching from a cliff on a distant mountainside, Orochimaru's eyes trembled.
Since Yoru's return, he hadn't fought alongside his student directly. He had only heard reports of drastic changes, new Lightning Release techniques developed, terrifying dominance displayed, Rain ninja fleeing at the mere mention of his name.
Now watching the fight unfold with his own eyes, even in this simple exchange of swordsmanship, Orochimaru could no longer find any trace of the old Yoru.
The old Yoru, even using Phantom Body Flicker, had only been somewhat troublesome. Orochimaru could suppress him through combat experience and Earth Release terrain manipulation alone.
Even after mastering Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Yoru had only gained a boost in speed, but without using his Space-Time bloodline his movement still carried a slight stiffness. That flaw had also prevented him from using Phantom Body Flicker properly, since he couldn't transition the phantom clone between tangible and intangible states smoothly.
But now, Yoru was using neither the Space-Time bloodline nor Lightning Release Chakra Mode. On pure swordsmanship and physical ability alone, he had gone from being suppressed for nearly twenty exchanges to nearly wounding Hanzo.
Compared to last year, this didn't look like the same person.
Orochimaru quietly wondered: could improvements to the Space-Time bloodline also cause such astonishing physical changes? That neural reaction speed of his, could it be that he is perceiving space itself?
The continuous ring of metal filled the rain.
Clashing chakra of different attributes burst outward as pressure waves, turning the surrounding rain into a vacuum.
That upward slash had ended the pure swordsmanship exchange and pushed the fight into the realm of ninjutsu taijutsu.
Unlike the Eight Gates that released physical limiters for pure taijutsu, ninjutsu taijutsu was the integration of body techniques or swordsmanship with chakra, a specialized skill. By refining chakra to activate the body, it achieved high-speed movement and amplified attacks without hand seals. The two main branches were Lightning Release and Fire Release, the former for speed, the latter for area of effect, both with devastating damage output.
Normally a shinobi would choose one of the two. But the reason Hanzo was called a demigod and the shinobi world's pinnacle was precisely that he could do what ordinary shinobi could not.
Yoru, now wreathed in blue-white electrical current, moved with lightning speed, the previous stiffness completely gone. His chakra blade, also coated in Lightning Release nature transformation, had turned blue-white. As he swung it rapidly it looked as though he was attacking with a bolt of lightning in his hand, the force of it staggering.
His Body Flicker flashed white, like lightning splitting the sky.
Against an ordinary jonin, speed of this caliber was a death sentence. But Hanzo not only blocked those cutting, penetrating strikes with his own blade wrapped in flowing water, his speed was equally matched.
The only difference was that their clashing attributes gave their techniques and combat styles entirely different character.
Bzzt bzzt bzzt.
Flickering multiple times per second, Yoru's extraordinary neural reaction speed combined with the improved mental agility that the evolution had brought finally caught an opening in Hanzo's defense.
The blue-white chakra blade in his hand suddenly erupted with the piercing shriek of a thousand birds.
As Yoru flickered into position and drove into a thrusting stance, the chakra blade shot forward as a blue-white lightning beam.
The speed of the Chidori Sharp Spear was beyond reckoning.
In an instant it pierced straight through Hanzo's body.
The next second, Hanzo's body dissolved into flowing water.
At the same moment, the sound of a blade cutting air rose from directly behind Yoru.
From Orochimaru and Jiraiya's viewpoint, Hanzo appeared behind Yoru from nothing, like Space-Time teleportation, his footwork silent as Yoru's own, as though he were wearing shoes made of flowing water.
Having witnessed just how extraordinary Yoru's neural reaction speed was, Hanzo's blade, coated in flowing water yet carrying sharpness that rivaled Wind Release, did not aim for the back of Yoru's neck. Instead he swung for the midsection.
Yoru became two.
The speed of it left no time to even activate Flying Thunder God.
Bzzt bzzt bzzt.
Before the bisected body hit the ground, both halves of Yoru suddenly blazed with blinding blue-white light.
"A Lightning Release shadow clone, but when did he..." Hanzo's eyes widened slightly.
In that single moment of surprise, the blue-white light in his vision vanished from thin air, replaced by a flash of black.
Then his field of vision tilted left and right and dropped downward.
His body had been cleaved cleanly in two by a single stroke.
With a soft thud, both halves hit the ground, and dissolved into water just the same.
Not a Water Substitution. Not a Water Body Flicker.
"A Lightning Release shadow clone and a Water Release shadow clone. These assassins are absolutely disgusting."
Jiraiya, watching from a distance, felt a chill he couldn't suppress.
Orochimaru exhaled quietly. "Yoru's strength has already surpassed ours."
He had known this day would come. He simply hadn't expected it so soon.
Hanzo's ninjutsu taijutsu, combined with his masterful assassination technique, had always been able to toy with Orochimaru, who was not a ninjutsu taijutsu specialist, leaving him with nothing to work with. Without Jiraiya providing support, Hanzo could have easily destroyed Orochimaru's poison-resistant mask or drawn blood. Then a single summoning of the salamander to release poison smoke would force Orochimaru to consume an antidote vial. That was exactly how he and Jiraiya had burned through their supplies over the past year of fighting.
Yoru had only been able to help at critical moments, teleporting in via Flying Thunder God to pull them out before Hanzo could land a finishing blow. Outside of that, he couldn't do much for them. Every battle, they were both useful allies creating openings for Yoru and burdens forcing him to expose himself when Hanzo pressed them.
Now without those two liabilities present, a Yoru with massively elevated strength had been suppressed only in the opening swordsmanship exchange. From ninjutsu taijutsu to assassination technique, he was completely matched with Hanzo.
Even the two of them couldn't tell at exactly what moment Yoru and Hanzo had swapped out for lightning and water shadow clones.
Without the Space-Time bloodline at all, Yoru's current overall ability had already surpassed theirs.
That devastating Lightning Release was like having a second White Fang of the Leaf standing on the field.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.
Returning to the moment Yoru used Flying Thunder God to swap positions with the Lightning Release shadow clone and simultaneously execute Flying Thunder God Slash to split Hanzo's Water Release shadow clone in two.
Several sharp sounds of things tearing through air rose from behind him.
Before he could turn to see, a series of thunderous explosions split the air.
An enormous fire dragon came roaring toward Yoru.
This was Hanzo's signature explosive tag Fire Release.
To reach the level of a grandmaster in any release type, a shinobi had to command both peak nature transformation and shape transformation, and also had to have made it their own. Orochimaru in the original series had done exactly that with Earth Release, turning its basic extensions into something bordering on divine. The Third Raikage had done the same with Lightning Release. Hanzo's Water Release ninjutsu taijutsu, his assassination technique, and this explosive tag Fire Release were the same.
He could use explosive tags simply to blow things apart, or he could use the flames they produced as a medium for techniques. Exactly how he managed the latter was something even Yoru couldn't read. If it were that easy to see through, Hanzo wouldn't be a Fire Release grandmaster.
Yoru found himself thinking: if Konan could get her hands on this Fire Release technique. Paper Release combined with Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags combined with explosive tag Fire Release. He didn't dare imagine what level her area damage would reach. What he could say with certainty was that Konan would become one of the strongest Fire Release users in the shinobi world.
As that thought passed through his mind, Yoru moved without hesitation and activated Black Lightning Mode.
The blue-white chakra blade in his hand quietly shifted to black and white.
Extending the chakra blade outward, Yoru made a single, almost casual swing, and split the fire dragon cleanly in two. A technique with nature transformation and shape transformation at a training difficulty of at minimum B-rank, cut apart without ceremony.
Rustle rustle rustle.
The sound of pages turning suddenly rose.
Something was crawling up toward his feet.
He didn't look down. Instead he glanced toward the ten o'clock position.
Several dozen meters in that direction stood a massive rock formation shaped like an artificial mountain. Hanzo stood at its peak, hands pressed together in the Snake seal, and spoke sharply: "Fire Release: Explosive Flame Formation!"
Boom, boom, boom.
A chain of explosions far louder than before shattered the ground, threw up clouds of dust and debris, and formed a mushroom cloud blazing with high-temperature flame.
Hanzo shifted his hand seals and used sensory technique to lock onto Yoru's chakra, wanting to read his situation.
Then his expression changed sharply. He looked down.
His gaze landed on a black-white lightning serpent climbing the rock face from below.
It was not moving in a straight line but bending and curving like lightning itself, moving so fast that the black-white trail below hadn't faded yet before it was nearly at Hanzo's feet.
Hanzo had no time to build up a Body Flicker. He burst out a sharp release of chakra, shot himself off the rock like an arrow, and turned in midair to face the formation.
The nearly ten-meter-tall rock had been sliced into sections like a radish. The cut surfaces were smooth and perfectly straight.
At the top of the rock, the black-white lightning serpent had taken the shape of Yoru.
Swoosh.
Yoru held his blade in one hand. With the other, he threw a Flying Thunder God kunai coated in electrical current toward Hanzo.
Boosted by Lightning Release chakra, the Flying Thunder God kunai moved at extraordinary speed.
Even Hanzo had no time to form a technique to block it.
He could only draw his ninja blade, without even a moment to coat it in Water Release nature transformation, and hurl it at the incoming kunai.
With his other hand he quickly pulled several kunai with explosive tags tied to their ends from his tool pouch and threw those as well.
If Yoru used Flying Thunder God to teleport to the kunai's location, he would land squarely within the explosive tags' blast radius.
Hanzo still did not relax his guard. He kept his sensory technique locked on Yoru's chakra position to prevent him from teleporting to another Flying Thunder God formula elsewhere. His hands remained ready to shift seals at any moment, prepared to use Fire Release to control explosive tag flames or use Water Release and other ninjutsu in response.
"It seems," Yoru said, "that this is the real body."
Yoru did not teleport to the kunai. Seeing how many preparations Hanzo had made, he immediately concluded there was a high probability this was the real body.
He extended his right index finger toward the airborne Hanzo.
Brilliant black-red light gathered at his fingertip, condensing into a small black-red star.
With a sharp sound, the star at his fingertip became a black-red laser beam and shot toward Hanzo.
Everything the beam passed through, the Flying Thunder God kunai, the ninja blade, the explosive tag kunai, was all severed without slowing for even a hundredth of a second.
The speed was like a painter driving a pencil hard across white paper in one stroke, drawing a black-red line to connect two points.
Even Hanzo could only manage to shift his body slightly before the laser beam punched straight through his right chest.
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