Chapter 466: It Has a Weakness

Chapter 466: Chapter 466: It Has a Weakness

On the battlefield.

To stop the monster Satori from advancing any deeper into the village, Kagami also used Magnet Release to take to the skies, engaging Satori in a fierce aerial pursuit.

In terms of sheer size, Kagami naturally couldn’t compare to a monster like Satori.

However, thanks to his Magnet Release, all the black Iron Sand filling the sky could essentially be regarded as extensions of his own body. So when it came to sheer presence and momentum, Kagami actually had the upper hand.

Whoosh...

Whoosh...

One in front and one behind, one pursuing and one fleeing—the two black figures continuously tangled with each other beneath the darkening sky.

By now, the setting sun had completely disappeared beyond the horizon, and faint stars had begun to emerge in the night sky. Above the village, Satori’s crazed laughter echoed everywhere, mingling with the piercing whistles of black Iron Sand tearing through the air.

With Kagami, who was capable of aerial combat, holding Satori back, the vast majority of the villagers had successfully made it into the shelters.

Even so, casualties couldn’t be completely avoided.

Cries of pain and desperate shouts still echoed endlessly through the streets.

Just then, Kagami crossed his hands in midair—

Then violently pulled them apart!

Driven by his Magnet Release chakra, countless grains of black Iron Sand instantly transformed into more than a dozen enormous black clouds, sweeping toward Satori from different directions.

The dozen or so black clouds formed entirely from Iron Sand intertwined with one another in midair, as though weaving themselves into a colossal, boundless net—

One that blotted out the sky as it descended upon Satori!

"Hahahaha..."

Laughing wildly, Satori’s figure flickered, moving almost like a phantom as it evaded every Iron Sand cloud attacking it. It was so slippery that it resembled a loach wriggling through mud.

However, to evade the overwhelming Iron Sand clouds coming from every direction, it had no choice but to lower its altitude, skimming just above the ground as it swept across a broad avenue.

"Now!"

Suddenly, Tsunade shouted as she launched herself from a tall building beside the street, smashing a fist toward the speeding Satori!

Satori should have been struck squarely by the punch.

Yet at an almost impossible angle, it slipped right past Tsunade, continuing toward the end of the street amid its crazed laughter.

At that moment, an enormous figure emerged at the far end of the street.

It was none other than Jiraiya’s summoned beast—

Gamabunta!

Seeing Satori hurtling toward him, Gamabunta leaped forward with a powerful frog jump. The massive blade in his hand gleamed with a chilling light beneath the surrounding flames!

Whoosh—!

Gamabunta’s massive blade slashed out with a piercing whistle!

This long-prepared strike was as fast as lightning. Many of the Konoha shinobi nearby couldn’t even follow it with their eyes before the ferocious blade had already swept out with thunderous momentum!

Yet even so—

Just like before, Satori evaded the strike without the slightest surprise.

As the two figures crossed paths, Gamabunta suddenly opened his mouth without warning.

His long, slender tongue shot out!

Under the dim light, it transformed into a blur as it lashed toward Satori.

"It’s useless! Hahahaha!"

Satori seemed to have anticipated it all along.

Its body abruptly shot upward, once again avoiding Gamabunta’s extended tongue.

But Gamabunta didn’t immediately retract it.

Instead, he stretched his tongue to its absolute limit, revealing the figures who had been concealed at its tip—

Jiraiya, already in Sage Mode...

And perched upon his shoulders were the two Great Toad Sages—

Fukasaku and Shima!

"Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan!"

Using the momentum from Gamabunta’s tongue launching him forward, Jiraiya leaped into the air. The glowing Rasengan in his hand rapidly expanded, streaking through the night sky toward Satori like a comet!

Satori flapped its wings, and its entire body shot straight into the sky, narrowly avoiding Jiraiya’s Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan.

"Still no good?"

Watching from nearby, Kagami frowned slightly.

The four-hit combination Tsunade and Jiraiya had just executed consisted entirely of killing blows. In particular, the final strike from Jiraiya, who had hidden himself on the tip of Gamabunta’s tongue, had been nothing short of ingenious.

Yet even such a vicious combination attack had failed to injure Satori in the slightest.

Looking at Satori laughing wantonly in the sky, Kagami thought, "If we can’t hit it, then no matter how powerful our techniques are, they’re completely useless!"

When dealing with Satori, one’s heart couldn’t be filled with extreme emotions such as fear or anxiety.

Nor could one harbor even the slightest malicious intent toward it.

Otherwise, Satori would sense it all before the attack could even be made.

In other words, only someone possessing the pure, innocent heart of a child—and who bore absolutely no malice toward Satori—could actually hit it.

Kagami naturally wasn’t afraid of this monster.

But even he couldn’t attack it without harboring the slightest trace of malicious intent.

Or rather—

No normal person could possibly do that.

Watching Satori wreak havoc above the village, occasionally unleashing another rain of feathers that left death and destruction in its wake, Tsunade and Jiraiya were practically beside themselves with rage.

Kagami, on the other hand, remained relatively calm.

Because he knew exactly how troublesome Satori truly was.

In the original timeline, Konoha had practically mobilized all of its elites. The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, personally led the force, while elite jonin such as Kakashi, Guy, and Yamato all took part. On top of that were the now-grown Konoha Twelve, as well as Kumogakure’s Eight-Tails jinchuriki, Killer B, who was at the peak of his strength.

A lineup like that would have been enough to conquer one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

And yet, they still couldn’t do a thing to the monster Satori.

If Naruto hadn’t eventually discovered Satori’s weakness and encouraged Mui with his words, prompting the father to expend everything he had to cast the secret forbidden technique Fire Style: Great Fire Heavenly Prison and restrain Satori, there was no telling how the battle would have ended.

And even then, Naruto was left with mortal injuries after the battle.

If Ryuzetsu hadn’t used the forbidden technique of her Kekkei Genkai, Dragon Life Reincarnation, to share her own life force with Naruto, the Sage of Six Paths might have had to personally step in and save him.

At that moment, Satori slowly descended onto the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Its tone suddenly changed.

"You can’t even begin to imagine the world inside this box.

"In that endless darkness, my will was crushed little by little. My emotions were manipulated however it pleased...

"Until I killed my own father with my own hands.

"Only then was I finally freed.

"Nothing can bind me anymore.

"Ah... what a wonderful feeling!"

Hovering in the air, Kagami’s gaze sharpened.

"Just as I thought.

"It has a weakness!"

...

On the cliff where Kusagakure had opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Caw... caw...

Accompanied by several cries, a glossy black crow descended from the sky and landed on Mui, who was lying in a pool of blood.

Not long afterward, a mass of black Iron Sand swept toward the cliff like a dense swarm of bees.

It landed upon the cliffside and gradually transformed into the appearance of Kagami’s Type-A Wind Release clone.

"You really made me search for a long time. So this is where you were!"

This Iron Sand Clone was precisely the contingency Kagami had prepared beforehand.

The moment he realized that the monster attacking the village was Satori, he had secretly created an Iron Sand Clone and sent it out to search for Mui—

The man who had opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

The reason Kagami was so certain that the one who had opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss was Mui was mainly because Kusagakure didn’t have many elite jonin to begin with.

Among the radical faction, there were only a handful of people qualified to preside over the opening of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Furthermore, the Third Hokage had learned in advance about Akatsuki’s plan to attack Konoha.

That meant there had to be a traitor among Kusagakure’s radical faction.

And when it came to someone who was both qualified to preside over the opening of the Box of Ultimate Bliss and had a reason to betray Kusagakure’s radicals...

There was only one person—

Mui, who deeply regretted sacrificing his own son...