Chapter 101: A Test in Real Combat

Chapter 101: Chapter 101: A Test in Real Combat

Whoosh...

A powerful gust swept across the desert, whipping up clouds of yellow sand that blotted out the sky, causing the surroundings to flicker between light and shadow.

Standing alone atop a sand dune, Hyuga Kagami coldly glanced at the eight approaching Sunagakure shinobi in the distance. Then, he slowly raised both hands and calmly began forming hand seals one after another.

Whoosh...

In an instant, sky-blue Tenseigan chakra enveloped his entire body.

The moment he entered Tenseigan Chakra Mode, his entire presence underwent a subtle transformation. Like a deity descending upon the mortal world, he slowly floated into the air.

At that moment, Kagami’s expression was utterly indifferent.

As he carefully sensed the rate at which his chakra was being consumed, he focused his concentration and began condensing a Truth-Seeking Ball—something that could only be formed from Tenseigan chakra while he was in Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

One...

Two...

Three...

After condensing the third Truth-Seeking Ball, Hyuga Kagami’s brows furrowed slightly.

He discovered that merely maintaining three Truth-Seeking Balls was already placing a noticeable strain on his body. If he continued condensing more, the consumption of his Tenseigan chakra would rapidly skyrocket.

"Why is this happening?"

Kagami’s gaze sharpened, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.

Truth-Seeking Balls were formed from the convergence of seven chakra natures—Yang Release, Yin Release, and the five basic elemental transformations.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, only those who had mastered transformations of all seven chakra natures could condense and wield Truth-Seeking Balls.

As a result, throughout the entire shinobi world, the number of people capable of using Truth-Seeking Balls could be counted on one hand!

Setting aside figures from a thousand years ago such as Kaguya Otsutsuki, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, and Hamura Otsutsuki, the only people Kagami could remember who were capable of using Truth-Seeking Balls were Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara, who had successively become the Ten-Tails’ jinchuriki; Naruto, who had obtained Six Paths Sage Mode; and Otsutsuki Toneri, who likewise possessed the Tenseigan.

But upon closer examination, it seemed that the only ones who could truly use Truth-Seeking Balls entirely through their own power were Kaguya Otsutsuki, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, and Hamura Otsutsuki—a mere handful of individuals.

As for Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Madara, Naruto, Toneri, and the others, whenever they wanted to use Truth-Seeking Balls, they all had to rely, to varying degrees, on some form of external power to complete the chakra natures they themselves lacked.

In other words, they only possessed the ability to use Truth-Seeking Balls while in certain special states.

With that realization, everything suddenly became clear to Kagami.

Only by strengthening his own mastery over all seven chakra natures would he be able to wield Truth-Seeking Balls more freely and effortlessly. Otherwise, he could only rely on Tenseigan Chakra Mode to forcibly condense them.

And unlike the extraordinarily gifted Otsutsuki Toneri, Kagami’s own natural aptitude was far too mediocre. As a result, condensing and maintaining Truth-Seeking Balls placed a much greater burden on him than it did on others.

Having vaguely identified the reason, Kagami did not stop.

Aside from dealing with the Sunagakure shinobi, another purpose of this battle was to test his own strength. More importantly, he needed to find out exactly where the upper limit of his combat power lay now that he had become the Dragon Vein’s jinchuriki!

And so, he continued condensing Truth-Seeking Balls.

The fourth...

The fifth...

Before long, another two Truth-Seeking Balls had condensed beside Kagami, floating silently around him.

"Is this my limit...?"

At this point, he could feel that his body had already reached its limit. If he continued trying to condense more, the burden on his body might become too great, forcibly knocking him out of Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

Even so, Kagami was quite satisfied with the result.

After all, with his own chakra alone, maintaining a single Truth-Seeking Ball had been his absolute limit. Now, he could condense five of them at once. Even calling such an improvement "rapid" hardly did it justice.

At that moment, the eight Sunagakure shinobi finally arrived before Kagami.

Judging from their formation, the eight appeared to belong to two four-man squads. And judging from their chakra signatures, the two squad leaders were both jonin-level, while the remaining six were all around chunin level.

Looking up at Kagami, who hovered in midair with five Truth-Seeking Balls floating around him, the Sunagakure shinobi immediately became wary.

Flight!

It was a relatively rare ability in the shinobi world. Those capable of flight were almost always elites among the major shinobi villages, and not a single one of them was someone to be trifled with.

One of the leading Sunagakure jonin remained completely on guard as he demanded, "Were you the one who stole the Dragon Vein?"

Kagami didn’t answer.

Instead, he slowly floated toward the Sunagakure shinobi.

These Suna shinobi had no idea what Tenseigan Chakra Mode was, nor did they know what the Truth-Seeking Balls were.

But that did nothing to stop their biological instincts from screaming at them in fear.

And so, the Sunagakure jonin leading the group roared, his voice warping from the strain,

"Attack!"

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, he rapidly formed a series of hand seals and shouted,

"Fire Style: Blazing Fire Tiger!"

At the same time, the three chunin who had clearly coordinated with him countless times shouted in unison,

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

BOOM!

The Fire Style and Wind Style techniques merged together with a thunderous explosion.

Fueled by the wind, the flames surged violently. A gigantic tiger of fire seemed to ride upon the gale itself, hurtling toward Kagami in midair at terrifying speed!

Seeing this, Kagami merely raised his right hand.

In an instant, one of the Truth-Seeking Balls floating beside him transformed into a thin, black hemispherical shield, positioning itself directly in front of him.

BOOOOM!

The wind-empowered fire tiger slammed head-on into the black shield formed from the Truth-Seeking Ball, unleashing an enormous sea of flames that filled the sky!

"We got him!"

"It worked!"

"He’s dead for sure!"

Seeing Kagami take the full force of their combined Fire and Wind Style technique, the Sunagakure shinobi immediately broke into expressions of excitement and anticipation.

A combination ninjutsu simultaneously unleashed by a jonin and three chunin with excellent coordination was no trivial matter. Even a Kage-level shinobi wouldn’t dare take such an attack head-on.

So in their eyes, there was absolutely no way that the thin black shield in front of Kagami could withstand their combined ninjutsu.

Whoosh...

A powerful gust swept away the smoke and dust, revealing Kagami’s figure once more.

The thin black shield protecting him remained completely intact.

There wasn’t so much as a scratch on its surface. Even its shape hadn’t changed in the slightest.

The combined ninjutsu that had seemed so overwhelmingly powerful just moments ago now looked like nothing more than a flashy display of fireworks.

"How is this possible!?"

The Sunagakure jonin who had used the Fire Release stared in shock.

Although his instincts had already warned him that those Truth-Seeking Balls were anything but ordinary, he had never imagined that his signature Fire Style technique would fail to leave even the slightest mark on one of them.

The other Sunagakure jonin leading the second squad hurriedly shouted, "Oura, there’s something strange about those black spheres!"

The Sunagakure jonin named Oura, who had just used the Fire Release, suppressed the shock in his heart and regained the composure expected of a jonin.

"Nosuke, this guy isn’t simple. Let’s take him on together!"

The other Sunagakure jonin, Nosuke, nodded. He bit his fingertip and lightly pressed his hand against the sand.

"Summoning Technique!"

Poof!

Following a tremendous burst of smoke, the entire sand dune began to tremble.

As the sand rose and shifted in uneven bulges, the vague outline of some monstrous creature hidden beneath the dune gradually became visible...