Amidst the vast ocean, there was a space sealed off by the barrier known as Danku, enclosed with no way in or out. Inside the barrier lay layers upon layers of thundering storms—a place where life and death were seized, a space suspended between illusion and destruction.
Where the thunder strikes with immense force, it is a hell of lightning. Where the thunder strikes with millions of tons of force, it is a great hell of lightning. Where the thunder strikes endlessly with millions of tons of force, it is the Avīci great hell of lightning.
For the four Hidden Mist ninjas forced to fight Hagoromo—who had directly opted for an all-out burst—this barrier was undeniably a hell of lightning.
Regardless of who it was, choosing to fight Hagoromo in a confined space was absolutely the wrong choice. The smaller the space and the more it restricted the enemy's movements, the more advantageous it was for Hagoromo. In such an arena, he could easily secure an advantage, an absolute advantage, or even something beyond that... He had practically locked in his victory beforehand.
In this second showdown with Yagura, the outcome was actually predetermined the moment Hagoromo's barrier seal was completed. It signaled the arrival of the victory Hagoromo desired.
Within the barrier seal, Hagoromo's enemies had nowhere to flee, nowhere to hide, and no path to victory.
The combat method Hagoromo chose this time was visibly different from his previous battle with Yagura: it was simple and brutal. There were no complex tactics; from beginning to end, he only used a single "jutsu."
Fundamentally, Hagoromo's mission this time wasn't to fight the Hidden Mist at all, but to end the fighting. Combat wasn't the focus of the mission, nor was it the main objective, which was exactly why he needed to finish the battle as quickly and decisively as possible.
He couldn't afford to miss his scheduled rendezvous by getting bogged down in a dogfight.
Therefore, Hagoromo opened with his sharpest attack—the Level 5 Electromaster's Super Electromagnetic Cannon (Railgun)... dual-wielding rapid fire, at a firing rate of 16 rounds per minute.
Doing a simple calculation: under normal conditions, the range of the baseline Super Electromagnetic Cannon Hagoromo used was 50 meters. The current barrier sealing space was a perfect cube with sides of 81 meters. In other words, as long as Hagoromo fired from the center point of the barrier space, his attack range covered a spherical volume with a 50-meter radius. Hagoromo's attack range could comprehensively blanket the entire sealed space.
Within this barrier zone, Hagoromo could hit exactly what he aimed at; the enemies had nowhere to hide.
For Hagoromo, who possessed area-saturation rapid-fire capabilities, it didn't really matter whether this space trapped 4 enemies or 40. The difference was negligible.
Therefore, the four Mist ninjas could only hug the edges of the sealed space and attempt to attack Hagoromo from afar.
Thus, the actual combat dynamic between the two sides looked like this: within the lethal range of the Super Electromagnetic Cannon, the enemies traded long-range ninjutsu fire with Hagoromo.
Just visualizing it revealed what a simple, pathetic, and tragic picture this was.
Under such circumstances, even a ninja of Yagura's caliber was utterly powerless once trapped inside.
With Hagoromo's ultra-high rate of fire, combined with the restriction on the enemies' mobility within the confined space, he could make highly accurate predictions of their movements. Consequently, dodging the Super Electromagnetic Cannon was virtually impossible.
And being unable to dodge meant the Super Electromagnetic Cannon could not be defended against.
Relying on ninjutsu to defend against this overwhelmingly powerful single-target attack? Water Encampment Wall? Earth-Style Wall? Or perhaps the absolute defenses that these Mist ninjas couldn't possibly possess anyway: Lightning Release Chakra Mode? Rotation? Armor of Sand? Or even... Susanoo?
As for completely defending against the Super Electromagnetic Cannon, he hadn't fought a Susanoo yet so it was unclear, but the preceding techniques were absolutely out of the question.
Perhaps if Yagura had become the perfect Three-Tails Jinchuriki, he would have had the power to fight back. After all, at the very least, he could have used a Tailed Beast Bomb to shatter the barrier. But now, he didn't have that chance.
And he wouldn't have that chance in the future either, because he no longer had a future.
Looking down from above or observing the battlefield from the outside, the exact situation inside couldn't be seen clearly. The barrier itself was translucent, and Hagoromo's attacks generated powerful air currents and high temperatures that filled the interior with swirling steam.
However, the explosive roar of the lightning transmitted clearly through the barrier.
All that could be seen was lightning filling the entire enclosure. Thick bolts of electricity occasionally crawled along the sealing walls, like ivy growing and receding at the speed of light.
And that single point of light in the center of the space, like a candle flame within a lampshade, never extinguished.
Then there were the scattered, seemingly infinite and inexhaustible orange-yellow beams of light, accompanied by the occasional blossoming of blood mist.
Those were the crimson flowers representing the death of an enemy.
The exact details of the battle were invisible from the outside, but very soon, the roaring thunder and flashes of lightning ceased, and the barrier was subsequently dispelled.
From start to finish, it hadn't even lasted five minutes.
When the barrier vanished, the only figure revealed was Hagoromo. The four enemies—who had held a numerical advantage and mistakenly believed they held a strength advantage—had disappeared.
They only left behind a few spreading clouds of blood mist on the ocean's surface.
It was impossible for Hagoromo to maintain that full-power, high-speed rapid fire for the entire five minutes. That would mean he fired 80 Super Electromagnetic Cannons, which was impossible no matter how you looked at it.
If he had done that, his body truly would have been hollowed out. In the enclosed space, using a single method to attack continuously dodging enemies, Hagoromo's total number of attacks didn't even reach twenty.
This had already caused a massive drain on him. Hagoromo had now entered a power-saving, energy-efficient mode and needed to rest for a while to recover.
The Super Electromagnetic Cannon's linear attack pattern was indeed highly singular. But so what if it was monotonous? It was fast enough, powerful enough, and precise enough. Against such a "ninjutsu," what could the enemies possibly do?
For Yagura and his team, this interception was merely binding their own hands and feet before throwing themselves into the jaws of a Thunder Tiger—a Thunder Tiger with an unprecedented thirst for destruction. Although they hadn't realized it beforehand, the four of them were nothing more than meat on the chopping block.
The sealing barrier hadn't been actively dispelled by Hagoromo after the battle ended; it had actually disintegrated naturally. Although it had held up, the barrier had been shot full of holes by the Super Electromagnetic Cannon during the course of the crossfire.
When the sea breeze finally blew away the high-temperature steam, Hagoromo's appearance was fully revealed. Aside from the exhaustion of using his abilities, he was exaggeratedly unharmed.
The ocean surface returned to its tranquil state. Hagoromo resumed walking forward, his steps devoid of any hesitation or faltering.
Yagura was someone who should have become the future Fourth Mizukage. But now, like the most ordinary of ninjas, at an unknown time, he died in an unknown place.
The only difference was that he died from an extremely radical combat method.
Perhaps until the very end, Yagura and his team never understood why Hagoromo's attacks completely violated the fundamental laws of ninjutsu.
The power of a jutsu formula is always directly proportional to its risks. The stronger the jutsu, the greater the risk. Yet Hagoromo used S-rank and above ninjutsu consecutively as easily as eating meals or drinking water. Setting aside the physical burden, what about the chakra consumption?
Unfortunately, no one would ever answer his final doubts. One could only hope Yagura reads more books in his next life to broaden his horizons and knowledge.
The mountain of books has a path forged by diligence, so in your next life, don't be born a ninja of the Mist.
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