Chapter 392: A Grand Spectacle

Chapter 392: Chapter 392: A Grand Spectacle

Under the amplification of the dōjutsu Mikoto, the four-armed, two-winged Complete Body Susanoo appeared within this unremarkable little valley in the Land of Hot Water.

Standing within the crystal at the center of the Susanoo’s forehead, Hyuga Kagami willed it into motion.

The colossal Susanoo immediately beat its wings and soared into the sky.

The Complete Body Susanoo stood over a hundred meters tall. Even a casual flap of its wings produced force comparable to an ordinary B-rank Wind Release ninjutsu.

As a result, while the Complete Body Susanoo rose into the air, the dense fog blanketing the small valley was already torn apart and scattered by the violent winds generated by its wings.

The members of Kirigakure’s pursuit force raised their heads and stared at the golden giant hovering overhead, exchanging bewildered looks with one another.

The moment they encountered Hyuga Kagami, they had already expected the enemy before them to be extremely troublesome.

But never in their wildest imaginations had they expected him to be this troublesome.

"Damn it!"

Ao gritted his teeth, his face filled with anger and helplessness.

Compared to the other Kirigakure shinobi, Mei Terumi remained the calmest.

After her initial surprise, she had already begun silently considering possible tactics.

As a powerful shinobi possessing two Kekkei Genkai—Lava Release and Boil Release—Mei Terumi had no obvious weaknesses. Even against airborne enemies, who were extremely troublesome for most shinobi to deal with, she possessed plenty of methods to counter them.

In the sky, Hyuga Kagami did not spend much time savoring the stunned gazes of the Kirigakure shinobi below.

Given the current strength of his Fire Release clone, using two Mangekyō Sharingan-level dōjutsu at full power in rapid succession placed an enormous burden on its body.

He might have looked overwhelmingly imposing as he hovered in the sky, like a god descending upon the mortal world, but in reality, a wave of dizziness had already begun washing over his mind, and even his vision had grown slightly unfocused.

For the moment, however, these abnormalities were still not severe enough to affect the battle.

Knowing he couldn’t afford to drag things out, Hyuga Kagami immediately urged his Susanoo to swing its flaming longsword, viciously slashing down at the Kirigakure shinobi in the valley.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The flaming longsword, dozens of meters in length, smashed violently into the valley, immediately unleashing a series of earth-shaking explosions. It felt as though the entire land itself was trembling.

Amid the surging clouds of dust and smoke, countless golden flames scattered outward like flower petals, raining down across the entire valley.

In an instant, dazzling golden light blossomed everywhere, illuminating the valley beneath the night sky in brilliant radiance.

For a fleeting moment, it was as though night and day had suddenly switched places, turning the darkness into broad daylight.

The Kirigakure shinobi throughout the valley were left in an utterly miserable state.

Fortunately, they were all experienced shinobi. The moment Ao cast the Hiding in the Mist Technique, they had already used Water Clones to replace their real bodies, while their true selves concealed themselves throughout various parts of the valley.

Because of this, Hyuga Kagami’s deliberately missed strike did not directly cause any casualties.

However, they had clearly underestimated the power behind a single attack from a Complete Body Susanoo.

Even without being struck directly, the tremendous shockwave sent their blood and chakra churning violently within their chests. Worse still, quite a few unlucky shinobi were caught by the scattered golden flames and fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

"Just a casual strike... has this much power?"

Staring at the valley, which had nearly been reshaped by the blow, and the terrifying golden flames scattered everywhere, Mei Terumi’s face filled with bitterness.

The strength displayed by this Homura had completely exceeded her expectations, leaving her momentarily overwhelmed by discouragement and despair.

After all, she was only twenty years old at this point.

Whether in strength or experience, she was still far inferior to the woman she would become in the original timeline—the Fifth Mizukage who fought during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The rest of the Kirigakure shinobi were in an even worse state.

Every one of their faces was consumed by fear, and several members of the sealing team had even begun trembling uncontrollably.

At that moment, Hyuga Kagami descended from the sky and landed on the ground.

The Complete Body Susanoo also regressed into its half-body form. The wings on its back vanished, leaving only the upper body and its four arms.

In truth, that previous strike had been all flash and little substance.

It looked overwhelmingly powerful—enough to reshape the terrain and even set the entire valley ablaze—but the actual damage it inflicted on Kirigakure’s pursuit force was extremely limited. Aside from a handful of Kirigakure shinobi who were caught by the golden flames that scattered afterward, the others, despite looking utterly miserable, were practically unharmed.

Yet that single attack had consumed an enormous amount of Hyuga Kagami’s ocular power and chakra.

Just one strike had already left him somewhat short of breath.

But that was exactly what he wanted—

the spectacle!

What he wanted was precisely this overwhelming sense of absolute, irresistible power!

Enveloped within the half-body Susanoo, Hyuga Kagami forcibly suppressed the increasingly violent dizziness washing over him, as well as the urge to breathe heavily. He slowly walked toward Mei Terumi in the distance and spoke in a flat, emotionless voice.

"In my eyes, you’re nothing more than insignificant ants who have no bearing on the greater picture. If you hadn’t failed to recognize your place, I wouldn’t even have bothered killing you with my own hands!"

Seeing the incomparably arrogant Homura advancing toward them step by step, Mei Terumi gritted her teeth and ordered the subordinates beside her, "Retreat! I’ll hold her off!"

Ao replied, "Don’t be stupid! That woman isn’t going to let us go. There’s no chance of retreating anymore!"

Against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy capable of flight, abandoning their comrades and dignity to flee in panic was practically no different from throwing their lives away.

The more experienced a shinobi was, the better they understood that in such a desperate situation, the moment they lost their will to fight, they would completely become prey—helpless quarry to be pursued and slaughtered by the hunter.

"All right, then we’ll fight her to the death!"

Mei Terumi immediately surged all the chakra in her body and rapidly formed hand seals, seemingly preparing to unleash some terrifying ninjutsu.

Feeling the fierce chakra erupting from Mei Terumi, Hyuga Kagami’s expression stiffened beneath his mask.

He cursed inwardly,

"That idiot Yagura! Why the hell isn’t he here yet?!"

His previous attack had certainly delivered the spectacle he wanted, and he had successfully established an image of absolute invincibility.

But at the same time, it had severely depleted his ocular power, and the discomfort throughout his body was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

After all, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in his eye sockets did not originally belong to him.

In terms of compatibility, there was still an obvious difference between him and Uchiha Madara or Uchiha Sasuke, who used their own eyes. As a result, whenever Hyuga Kagami activated the Complete Body Susanoo, his ocular power was consumed at a much greater rate than Madara’s or Sasuke’s.

That was also why Hyuga Kagami rarely used the Complete Body Susanoo.

Most of the time, he only manifested the half-body form—or even just the phantom of a single arm.

One had to understand that even Sasuke, who possessed the chakra of ōtsutsuki Indra and wielded his own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, still suffered an enormous burden when activating the Complete Body Susanoo.

And standing opposite him was Mei Terumi, who possessed the Boil Release Kekkei Genkai.

In the original timeline, she had once used Boil Release to melt Sasuke’s Susanoo. Therefore, against Mei Terumi, the Susanoo’s defense was by no means impenetrable.

"You can all stand down. I’ll deal with her."

Just as Hyuga Kagami found himself in an increasingly awkward predicament, a cold voice suddenly echoed throughout the valley...