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Chapter 73: You Use a Clone? I'll Use a Clone Too
"Ahhh! Sasuke is so cool!!"
Karin, still wrapped up like a golden dumpling, watched with infatuation.
"His attack movements, power, angle, his swordsmanship... it's all perfect! Sasuke in battle is just too handsome!! Ah, I can't take it!!"
Beside her, Honoka's eyes widened, stunned by her kinsman's behavior. Her cheeks were flushed, she was breathing heavily, and she was even letting out vaguely suggestive moans. She was no different from a pervert...
"Karin... are you okay..."
Karin paid no attention to Honoka's call, just kept staring at the battlefield, her eyes only for Sasuke. She just felt that no matter what movement Sasuke made, it was incredibly cool and handsome, making her heart tremble and leaving her unable to control herself.
In the middle of the battlefield, the small forest had been completely destroyed. All the large trees were severed into pieces, lying on the ground, and lush green branches filled the ground. Two black blurs darted swiftly across the branches, shattering the already broken limbs even further. Swoosh! A beam of blue lightning shot down from mid-air, pierced through the broken trees, stabbed into the ground, and then dissipated, leaving behind a dark, round hole. The extreme heat instantly carbonized the tree tissue inside the hole. At almost the same time, a large number of ignited exploding tags rained down, exploding boom, boom, boom amidst the dense, broken branches. Thick smoke billowed, firelight shot into the sky, and a large number of trees were ignited.
Konan held her bone blade, moving at high speed, her purple hair streaming behind her, her face expressionless. The bone blade in her hand moved incredibly fast, leaving afterimages in the air as it accurately clashed with Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword. Sparks flew, electricity flashed, and the sound of clashing was continuous. The white paper wrapped around the bone blade had already been replaced dozens of times. Alex, meanwhile, was assisting with Paper Release, creating kunai and short swords to attack Sasuke from all directions. Sasuke's eyeballs darted up, down, left, and right extremely quickly. Relying on the Sharingan's super-strong insight, he saw the trajectories of all incoming attacks and was able to counter them one by one, handling them with ease.
"Hmph!" Sasuke's face was cold. "Are these paper toys all you rely on? They're nothing but playthings!"
Clang!
The two suddenly stopped. He gripped his Kusanagi Sword with both hands and pressed down from the air. Behind, above, and to his left and right, a large number of white paper weapons were about to rain down.
"Die!!" Sasuke gave a cold shout, full of killing intent: "Lightning Release: Chidori Current!!"
Crackle!
In an instant, a dense web of blue lightning erupted from his body. With Sasuke at the center, it poured out in all directions. The incoming kunai and short swords were immediately struck by the lightning, unable to maintain their weapon shapes, and flattened out, reverting to simple sheets of paper. As for Konan, she was the primary target of Sasuke's attack. Almost half of the Chidori Current was directed at her. Her entire body was enveloped in blue-white light, with large arcs of electricity dancing across her surface.
Sasuke felt the force from the paper blade lessen and sneered, "The taste of the Chidori Current isn't pleasant, is it."
His lightning was equivalent to several times the power of high-voltage electricity. A normal human body could never withstand it.
"It's time for the remnant of the old era to fall!!"
Zzzap!
Sasuke released an even more torrential wave of lightning, bombarding Konan below. Both of them were simultaneously enveloped in the blue-white light, which was incredibly blinding. The oxygen in the air was ionized into ozone, filling the air with a strong, grassy smell.
"Lady Konan!!"
Far away, Honoka's expression turned to panic. Her eyes were fixed anxiously on that ball of light. It was too dazzling, like a blue sun that had fallen to earth. She couldn't see the figures inside at all. But she still squinted, trying her best to see inside the light, not caring even as the strong light stimulated her eyes, causing tears to flow.
"Hahaha!" Karin laughed very happily. "That's Sasuke's Lightning Release! No one can survive being enveloped in an enhanced Chidori Current!"
"That woman actually dared to come looking for a fight, not knowing that Sasuke is already beyond her ability to handle. Even the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki was no match for Sasuke. What does she have? Those toy-like pieces of paper?"
Karin was also dazzled by the strong light, tears welling at the corners of her eyes. She turned her head to look at the anxious Honoka. "Hehe, still not going to let me go? Seeing as you're my kinsman and can even activate the Adamantine Sealing Chains, I'll invite you to join our Taka. I believe Sasuke will agree. After all, your Adamantine Sealing Chains are quite useful."
"Lady Konan will absolutely be fine!!"
Honoka said firmly, without turning her head. She had witnessed Lady Konan's power. She would never be defeated so easily.
Karin pouted. "Tch, so brainless. Looks like I'll have to properly teach..."
Crack!
Just then, something strange happened within the ball of light. Konan's body, which had been paralyzed by the lightning, began to show cracks on its surface. The cracks grew larger and more numerous, and her skin simultaneously turned brown. She became a brown figure made of mud. Then, with a hiss, she collapsed into a pile of mud.
"An Earth Substitution?!" Sasuke's expression turned cold. "When?"
Before he could retract his Chidori Current, he suddenly heard a poof sound from behind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tree branch lying on the ground suddenly transform into Konan's figure. Her hands had completed the seals, and she spat out a translucent orb. It was the size of a ping-pong ball, and a strong wind-attribute chakra fluctuation emanated from within. Sasuke instantly recognized the incoming ninjutsu: Wind Release: Pressure Damage! It was a powerful Wind Release ninjutsu.
The change had come too suddenly. He had no time to dodge. His body was still rigid in mid-air. He could only watch helplessly as the translucent orb slammed into his right shoulder. Boom! In an instant, a wild wind raged, and wind blades swirled everywhere. The translucent orb exploded, transforming into a massive vortex of wind that drowned Sasuke and dozens of meters of flat ground around him. Intense wind pressure poured outward, instantly flipping over all the fallen branches and giant trees in the vicinity. Even a layer of soil was peeled away, revealing the darker earth beneath.
"Sasuke!!!"
Karin screamed. Now it was her turn to worry. Through the violent wind, she could vaguely see a figure at the center enduring the sharp wind-blade attack. She knew that was Sasuke.
"Let me go!! I have to save..."
Before she could finish, the figure at the center of the wind suddenly exploded, turning into streaks of lightning that filled every corner of the wind vortex. It was a Lightning Clone! In an instant, under the effect of the violent lightning chakra, the wind vortex became even more terrifying and intense. It immediately swelled to twice its size, turning into a wind-and-lightning tornado that swept through the surrounding hundred meters. Konan quickly leaped away to avoid being caught in the abruptly changed wind-and-lightning tornado.
A second later, the tornado dissipated, leaving behind a scene of utter destruction and smoke. The ground looked as if it had been plowed three layers deep. Earth and stone were shattered, and steam was rising. Sasuke, having appeared from somewhere, stood on a hillside. Seeing this, Karin's anxious heart settled, and she let out a sigh of relief. Because her chakra was restricted by the Adamantine Sealing Chains, she couldn't use her Mind's Eye of Kagura to sense Sasuke's main body or his clone.
Crack!
A bolt of lightning crossed the entire sky. A "BOOM" of thunder followed immediately after. Without anyone noticing, the sky had already filled with roiling dark clouds, flashing with lightning. Raindrops the size of beans began to fall. Pat, pat, pat. Summer weather was just this fickle. A thunderstorm could arrive at any moment. Alex, looking at the lightning in the sky, suddenly had a bad premonition...