When that golden tide gushed forth from underground, Sasuke's first reaction was not fear, but absurdity.
This was Konoha's Training Ground No. 44, deep in the forest, a place known as the Forest of Death.
Within the training ground, spanning twenty kilometers in circumference, were towering ancient trees that had grown for over a century. Beyond the training ground was an endless expanse of forest as well.
Underneath the soil lay a tangled mass of roots, and the bedrock was at most three meters below the surface in the shallowest areas.
Sand?
Where could this much sand possibly come from?
Rumble—
A deep, thunderous roar came from beneath their feet. The earth trembled.
The layer of fallen leaves under Sasuke's feet instantly collapsed, replaced by surging, rolling, hot golden sand grains.
Those sand grains seemed to possess life, devouring everything around them like a hungry pack of beasts.
"Dodge!"
Sasuke leaped with all his might to the left, planting his feet twice on a tree trunk, his body shooting like an arrow toward the canopy further away.
His Sharingan spun rapidly as he dashed, frantically capturing every detail in his field of vision: the speed of the sand wave's advance, its coverage area, possible safe points.
Sai and Shigaraki, both Root's members, also reacted quickly.
Sai rolled to the right. As he rolled, he unfurled his scroll, splashing ink. An ink eagle with a two-meter wingspan instantly took shape, carrying him skyward.
Shigaraki chose to go downward. He formed hand seals and slapped the ground: "Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage!"
His body sank into the soil layer not yet covered by sand, swimming outward like a fish in water.
But the speed of the sand wave exceeded everyone's expectations.
The trees touched by the sand wave… thick trunks that would require over a dozen people to wrap their arms around… began to dry out and crack within just three seconds. Their bark peeled away, visibly disintegrating and crumbling, adding more fine sand to the tide.
The bluish-grey rocks exposed on the surface met the same fate. Their surfaces rapidly sandified, flaking off in layers, until they completely collapsed.
"What the hell—" Sasuke landed atop a thirty-meter-tall giant tree, gripping the branches tightly as he looked down below.
What he saw made his breath catch.
Centered on Gaara's position, within a circular area with a radius exceeding five hundred meters, the forest had vanished.
Towering trees, shrubs, vines, rocks, moss—
Everything, all of it, had transformed into a golden desert.
The outlines of trees still remained on the desert's surface, half-buried in the sand like the skeletons of giant beasts.
Further out, the edge of the desert was still slowly expanding, like ink dropped into water, bit by bit eroding the green forest.
The entire battlefield, nearly a kilometer in circumference, had become a glaring golden scar in the midst of the dense sea of trees.
Sasuke's pupils trembled.
'How much Chakra did this require?'
'This level of Nature Transformation, range control, sustained output… multiple abilities all reaching an almost incomprehensible level. Even a Jonin couldn't do this, right?!'
"Separate them."
Gaara's voice came from the center of the desert.
Kankuro and Temari at his side quickly moved out.
In the air, Sai sat atop his ink eagle, hovering about twenty meters above the ground, looking down at the sudden desert below.
He then looked at the boy in the distance, standing on a sand dune with purple markings painted on his face, who was looking up at him.
"In the air, you're a sitting duck," Kankuro said softly, raising his right hand, index and middle fingers together, making a 'hooking' motion.
A whistling sound came from Sai's left.
He spun his head sharply, his pupils contracting.
On the ground, a humanoid puppet about 1.6 meters tall was raising its right arm, a round hole in the center of its palm aimed at Sai.
"Chakra Laser."
Kankuro's voice and the attack arrived simultaneously.
Humm!
A thumb-thick golden beam shot from the puppet's palm. It was so fast it left only an afterimage in the air.
Sai didn't even have time to maneuver his ink eagle to dodge... he could only sharply lean his body to the right.
Ssst!
The beam grazed past his left shoulder. The high temperature instantly burned through the lining of his flak jacket, and his skin felt a burning pain.
The ink eagle's left wing was also caught in the blast. The ink feathers were vaporized, leaving a gap, and its balance instantly spiraled out of control.
"Dammit!" Sai gritted his teeth.
The puppet's second wave of attack had already arrived.
Five launch ports popped out of its left wrist, each containing a thumb-sized metal warhead.
Kankuro's fingers tapped the air five times.
"Swarm Missile Salvo!"
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish…
Five warheads, trailing white exhaust, covered all of Sai's possible escape routes in a fan-shaped formation.
'No escape.'
Sai's eyes sharpened.
He abandoned the idea of dodging. His paintbrush drew a wild, bold arc across the scroll: "Ink Clone Technique!"
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The five missiles hit almost simultaneously.
The explosion's flames consumed Sai, and the shockwave spread out in a visible ripple in the air.
Shattered ink droplets rained down like rain, mixed with the smell of gunpowder smoke.
"Got him?" Kankuro raised an eyebrow.
But the next second…
Roar!
An ink lion, three meters long with bared fangs, charged out of the explosion's smoke screen.
And on the lion's back, Sai knelt on one knee, his right hand having already drawn his Ninja Sword from his back.
The lion was extremely fast, almost instantly pouncing in front of the puppet.
It opened its massive jaws and bit down hard on the puppet's right shoulder.
Crack!
The puppet's shoulder armor was pierced through, and the sound of mechanical structures breaking came from inside.
But the puppet's counterattack came simultaneously. Its head spun around to face the lion behind it, its mouth opening wide, a dazzling golden light glowing deep in its throat.
Chakra Beam Cannon!
Boom!
A ten-centimeter-diameter golden light column shot from the puppet's mouth, point-blank into the ink lion's head.
The lion's head instantly vaporized, then its neck, then its upper body—
The ink evaporated directly into black mist under the high temperature.
But Sai was no longer on the lion's back.
He had jumped off the moment before the lion was hit.
His body flipped in the air, his Ninja Sword arcing a silver line as he slashed at the puppet's back.
He aimed for the Chakra Threads connecting the puppet.
Puppetry requires Chakra Threads for control… this was basic knowledge of puppetry, and also an unavoidable weakness for all puppeteers.
Sunagakure had been able to establish its reputation through puppetry during the Third Great Ninja War not because the technique had no weaknesses, but because skilled puppeteers could compensate for those weaknesses with skill and quantity.
But Sai's sword cut through nothing.
The blade passed through the air, only stirring up a gust of wind.
No feeling of threads snapping, no fluctuation of Chakra dissipating… nothing at all.
Sai landed, kneeling on one knee on the sandy ground, looking up at the puppet's back.
Then he looked at Kankuro fifty meters away. The other's ten fingers were indeed moving, making manipulating motions, but no Chakra Threads extended from his fingertips.
"That's impossible—" Sai muttered in confusion.
Kankuro smiled.
"Nothing's impossible," Kankuro said with pride. "This is the latest achievement from the Land of Stars' Science Academy: [Chakra Wireless Transmission Technology]. It uses Chakra Waves at specific frequencies for remote control, unlike the old Sunagakure puppetry, which was interfered with by terrain, obstacles, and even distance. And—"
He suddenly clenched his right hand into a fist.
The humanoid puppet's movements instantly became several times more agile. Ignoring the damage to its right shoulder, its left arm ejected two high-speed rotating serrated blades, spinning like a top as it lunged at Sai.
"The reaction speed is more than three times faster than traditional puppetry!"
Sai gritted his teeth, his Ninja Sword meeting the attack.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Sparks flew from the collisions between blade and serrated blades.
With each clash, Sai felt his arm go numb. The puppet's strength was astonishing, as if it had an inexhaustible supply of power.
And, without Chakra Threads, there was no way to paralyze the puppet by cutting them.
He had to defeat this steel-bodied puppet head-on, or defeat the puppeteer himself.
Sai's eyes turned cold.
…
On the other side of the battlefield, Shigaraki's situation was even worse.
The principle of [Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage] was to assimilate the body with the soil, moving like a fish in water.
But when the soil was transformed into sand, the assimilation state was instantly disrupted.
He felt like he had been thrown into a scorching hot sandblaster.
"Cough!" Shigaraki was forcibly ejected from the sand, his body covered in tiny cuts caused by the sand grains spinning at high speed during the transformation process.
He stumbled to the ground, his vision going dark.
Then, he heard the wind.
Not natural wind.
It was the wind from Ninjutsu.
"Wind Release: Kamaitachi!"
Temari's voice came from thirty meters away.
She stood atop a sand dune, her right hand gripping that giant three-star fan, only the first star unfolded.
The fan swung.
Invisible vacuum blades tore through the air, forming three intersecting slashing trajectories that covered a ten-meter radius around Shigaraki.
Where the blades passed, the sandy ground was plowed with furrows half a meter deep.
Shigaraki rolled to the left, simultaneously forming hand seals: "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The sand rose, forming a two-meter-high sand wall.
But the vacuum blades easily cut through the sand wall. Broken chunks of sand struck Shigaraki, and he grunted, rolling again. The second and third blades grazed past his back and the side of his leg.
His clothes were torn, and blood streaks appeared on his skin.
"On sand, your Earth Release is at least half as effective," Temari's voice carried mockery. "And do you really understand the properties of sand?"
She unfolded the fan's second star.
"Wind Release: Great Kamaitachi!"
This time, it wasn't three blades.
It was thirty.
The vacuum blades formed a dense grid, like a net for catching birds, descending toward Shigaraki.
The range was huge, the speed fast… there was nowhere to run.
Shigaraki gritted his teeth and slapped the ground with both hands: "Earth Release: Earth Dragon Spears!"
Over a dozen sharp earth spears thrust out from the sand, trying to intercept the vacuum blades.
But it was useless.
The earth spears were sliced apart the moment they touched the blades, turning back into loose sand.
The blade net continued to fall.
Shigaraki had no choice but to use Subterranean Voyage again, sinking his body into the sand.
"Foolish," Temari sneered, fully unfolding her fan, all three stars lighting up: "Wind Release: Sky-Splitting Slash!"
She raised the fan above her head, then savagely chopped it forward.
Boom—!
A five-meter-wide, visible giant wind blade shot from the fan. It flew close to the sand, and wherever it passed, sand waves were thrown up, and the ground was cut with a massive crack two meters deep.
Shigaraki, submerged beneath the sand, felt like he had been hit by a train.
"Pff!" He spat out a mouthful of blood. His body was forcibly 'blasted' out of the sand by the wind pressure, tumbling through the air for seven or eight rotations before slamming heavily onto the sand twenty meters away.
Every bone in his body groaned.
His ears were ringing, his vision blurred.