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Chapter 72: Sasuke: Is That All?
"A remnant of the old era. You should have died along with the Akatsuki's leader!"
The cold-eyed Sasuke swung his Kusanagi Sword down from the air.
Konan's right hand made a grasping motion, and a white paper blade instantly formed, swinging upward to meet the attack.
Clang!
The two blades collided. Sparks flew, and the sound of the impact was deafening. Sasuke's charge was instantly halted, leaving him suspended in mid-air. The powerful gust of wind from the clash sent Konan's purple hair flying, her wide Akatsuki robe flapping loudly.
"A blade made of paper?" Killing intent surged in Sasuke's eyes. "Chidori Blade!"
Violent lightning chakra covered the Kusanagi Sword. Blue sparks crackled along the length of the blade. The two were face to face, their features illuminated in a blue-white light. Under the enhancement of the lightning, the paper blade in Konan's hand clearly became unstable and began to crack. The white paper looked as if it was about to peel off, making it difficult to maintain the blade's shape.
Konan's expression was impassive. She lightly tapped the ground with her right foot and quickly retreated. At the same time, she waved her hand. A large number of white paper sheets spun at high speed, cutting toward Sasuke like sharp iron plates. They collided head-on with a massive fireball hurtling toward them.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
But it was useless.
Konan's paper sheets were not afraid of this ordinary flame. They plunged into the fireball, their surfaces merely stained with trails of fire. Not only did this Great Fireball fail to burn the incoming paper as Sasuke had expected. It even aided the enemy, adding a fire attack to the paper.
"Hmph... paper that isn't afraid of fire..."
Sasuke activated his three-tomoe Sharingan. Every piece of paper seemed to move in slow motion, their movement and trajectories perfectly clear. He could even see the flow of chakra on each individual sheet. This was his first time fighting the White Tiger. The beginning of the battle was for probing and gathering intelligence.
"Lightning Release: Chidori Senbon!"
Sasuke suddenly swung his Kusanagi Sword horizontally. The lightning dancing on the blade instantly solidified, shooting out as countless blue senbon. Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Every single Chidori Senbon accurately struck a piece of paper. They then exploded, turning into arcs of lightning that enveloped the paper.
The incoming paper immediately stopped spinning, crumpled, and slowly fell from the air. It seemed the violent lightning chakra had a significant impact on Konan's paper creations. Although this batch of paper wasn't destroyed, it was temporarily uncontrollable.
But this was just a drop in the bucket. Konan wasn't concerned in the slightest.
She activated her Dance of the Shikigami, and her entire body turned to paper. Her body's surface was covered in dense cracks.
Alex, nestled in her chest, controlled a piece of paper to float in front of Konan's eyes.
[Konan, you continue the attack. I'll control the paper to assist you.]
This was equivalent to one mind performing two tasks. While she used other ninjutsu or taijutsu to attack, Alex could simultaneously launch an attack using Paper Release.
Konan blinked, indicating she understood.
[Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword is enhanced with lightning. A pure paper blade is at a severe disadvantage. I'll make you a harder weapon.]
With a thought from Alex, a large amount of paper swirled around Konan, obscuring her from view. A pale bone blade quickly emerged from his paper body. Simultaneously, sheets of paper immediately adhered to it. By the time the bone blade was fully formed, it was wrapped in an outer layer of paper camouflage, making it look identical to the paper blade from before. Worried that it would be affected by lightning during impacts and fall off, Alex specifically wrapped it in several layers. Even if a layer fell off, he could instantly replenish it, ensuring the Shikotsumyaku would not be exposed.
Konan grabbed the bone blade floating in front of her and leaped to the side, dodging the lightning that was spreading across the ground.
Lightning Release: Earth Crawl!
Sasuke pulled his sparking Kusanagi Sword from the ground where he had plunged it. After a simple probe, he discovered that Fire Release was not very effective. The rest of the battle would be dominated by Lightning Release. As lightning chakra was poured into it, the Kusanagi Sword erupted with an extremely dazzling light. Arcs of electricity danced across Sasuke's body at the same time. He was enveloped in blue-white light, resembling a thunder god.
Swoosh!
Accompanied by the sound of a thousand birds chirping, his entire body transformed into a brilliant streak of electricity. He rushed toward Konan at an incredible, breakneck speed.
Konan was in mid-air, not yet having landed, when the blinding blue-white light was already in front of her. She held the bone blade with both hands, using the body of the blade to steadily block the blindingly bright tip of the Kusanagi Sword. The extremely high temperature of the lightning instantly burned a small black spot at the point of contact, and it was continuing to burn deeper.
Before Sasuke could press the attack, his red pupils darted left and right. He then retracted his sword and flashed backward.
Shu! Shu! Shu!
In the next instant, a dense volley of white kunai descended from the sky, plunging into the ground where Sasuke had just been standing. This was, of course, Alex's control. Sasuke, his cells fully activated by lightning chakra, was extremely fast. Konan had only just managed to block the Kusanagi Sword. She couldn't react further, so it was the perfect time for him to step in.
The burned paper on the bone blade detached, and a new sheet of paper wrapped around it.
Konan, seeing Sasuke appearing to charge again, flapped the wings on her back and flew into the sky. With a wave of her hand, she scattered a large number of exploding tags. Alex simultaneously shot down a large number of kunai and swords, conducting a carpet-bombing. They would use their aerial advantage to see if they could achieve any results. He just didn't have high hopes.
Sasuke had, after all, defeated Deidara, who also had an aerial advantage. If they were just trying to kite and entangle him, it might be possible. But if they wanted to injure, or even capture him, it would be extremely difficult. The opponent had the Sharingan and Lightning Release. His speed and reflexes were incredibly fast. If he was solely focused on dodging, relying on long-range bombing alone might not even be enough to injure him. This was all based on the premise that the opponent was extremely arrogant and wouldn't actively flee.
Sasuke stopped in his tracks and looked up coldly at Konan. "A similar tactic to Deidara's? But the power of your exploding tags is far too different from that guy's explosive clay!"
His entire body flickered with electrical arcs as he weaved left and right in the forest, easily dodging the sky-full of exploding tags and various weapons raining down. Even when Konan and Alex sealed off Sasuke's escape routes, he merely threw a large number of Chidori Senbon forward, causing the exploding tags to detonate at a distance, posing no threat to him at all.
Explosions rumbled one after another in the forest. One tree after another was blasted into pieces. Thick smoke billowed, and fires ignited. Below, Sasuke was like an incredibly agile electric mouse. They couldn't touch him at all. The idea of taking down the opponent with long-range bombing from the sky was a failure. They still had to land on the ground and have a real, blades-drawn fight with Sasuke.
Konan stopped the useless effort and landed back on the ground.
Seeing the explosions stop, Sasuke made several consecutive leaps and landed on a rock twenty meters opposite her. He sneered, "Finally realize how ridiculous your exploding tags are as an attack? Deidara's explosive clay could at least cause me some trouble. Your exploding tags are nothing but a joke."
Alex was speechless. The poser was posturing again. He talked so big. Deidara only caused him some trouble? If that guy hadn't shrunk into Manda's stomach, he would have been blown to smithereens by Deidara's self-destruction... It was true. The sky cleared, the rain stopped, and the poser felt he was on top of the world again. He really needed a beating, right now!
Konan's gaze turned cold, and chakra exploded from under her feet. She leaped into the air, her bone blade viciously slashing toward Sasuke's oncoming Kusanagi Sword. Sparks flew, and the clang of metal rang out incessantly.
Konan and Sasuke transformed into two black blurs, clashing in mid-air and separating in an instant. Before their afterimages in the air could fade, the two appeared on the ground again, each swinging their blade at the other's vital points. Blades flashed, and thunder roared. Both of them moved extremely fast. Everywhere they passed, trees were severed, and rocks were shattered. The ground was left with long, black lightning scars. From the very beginning, the battle had entered a white-hot stage.