Chapter 96: The Power of Annihilation
At the Col.
Cautiously, a group of Konoha defenders peered over the lip of their trench.
Below, the man moved like a sliver of lightning, his form flickering in and out of existence. The eye could not track him—only the aftermath. Where the yellow flash vanished, Iwagakure ninja fell. The enemy's organized advance disintegrated into chaos, their lines wavering, then breaking as panic set in. A full retreat began to take shape.
The bearded jōnin grinned, a fierce pride in his eyes. "See that? That's Konoha's Yellow Flash!"
"The Yellow Flash?" the chūnin beside him gasped, finally connecting the legend to the man. "That was him?!"
...
A short time later, a Hyūga clansman assigned to reconnaissance crouched beside Minato, the veins around his eyes bulging as he pushed his Byakugan to its limit. "Minato-sensei! A significant enemy force is moving covertly to the northwest!"
"Northwest…" Minato muttered, his eyes scanning the tactical map spread before him.
"Should we pursue? They're trying to flank us, bypass the col entirely!" the bearded jōnin urged, having seen the same tactical threat.
Minato's expression was strained. "We… can't leave this position."
The reason was stark. His arrival and devastating counter-attack had identified him. In the shinobi world, the order "Retreat on sight of the Yellow Flash" was a well-known survival tactic. The Iwa forces here had stopped their head-on assault, but they hadn't vanished. They were holding back, pinning Minato and the depleted defenders in place with their presence. A small, mobile detachment was attempting the flank. If Minato left to intercept them, the main Iwa force would surge forward and overrun the col, achieving the same breakthrough from a different angle.
They were using his own reputation as a weapon against him.
BOOM!
BOOM-BOOM!
A chain of deep, rolling explosions echoed from the northwest, muffled by distance and terrain.
The Hyūga ninja focused. "There's combat in that sector! Someone… someone on the high ground is ambushing the flanking unit!"
"What?" Minato's head snapped up. The only other Konoha force in the area was… Team 7. With Liumu.
He felt a flicker of hope.
"Wait… they're just kids!" the Hyūga ninja reported, his voice tinged with disbelief. "But… the chakra signatures of two of them are… are…"
Suddenly, the Hyūga ninja grunted in pain, his hands flying to his temples. His Byakugan faded, and he slumped forward, unconscious.
Minato: "?!"
Bearded Jōnin: "Σ(°△°|||)︴"
Chūnin: "(⊙ˍ⊙)!"
...
At the Mountain Pass.
"Lin was really smart to tag every rock with an explosive note," Obito panted, shoving another prepared boulder to the ledge's edge.
Liumu, however, was distracted. He stared curiously at the faint, three-colored glow that had spontaneously ignited across his skin—the visual manifestation of the Taotie's Gluttony ability. It pulsed gently, as if hungry.
Why's it activating on its own? he wondered, perplexed. He dismissed it for now, focusing on the task. With a casual step, he stabilized a one-ton stone about to teeter.
"Doton: Doryūheki!" (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)
A low, rumbling chant rose from the narrow gorge below. The mountain itself seemed to shudder. With grinding sounds, massive stone walls erupted from the cliff faces and the gorge floor, interlocking to form a layered barricade that completely blocked the path of their prepared rockfall trap.
Lin's explosive tags could shatter the walls, but there were too many layers, and the Iwa ninja below were now moving quickly, using the walls as cover as they scrambled forward.
"What do we do? They're going to get through!" Obito cried, his Sharingan clearly tracking the enemy's progress through the newly formed stone maze.
"I want them to get through," Liumu replied, his voice calm. He gestured for them to keep pushing rocks. "Keep the pressure on. Make them run."
Though confused, the three members of Team 7 trusted Liumu's instincts. He never acted without a plan.
Sure enough, at the far end of the gorge—the exit—the Iwagakure ninja saw the bright gap of daylight widening. Their hurried steps turned into a sprint, faces etched with contempt for the failed ambush. They were almost free.
Then, the world above them darkened.
CRRRUUUNCH!
A spherical boulder, over ten meters in diameter, slammed down from the heavens, perfectly plugging the gorge's exit. It landed with a finality that shook the ground.
"Captain! Above us!"
On top of the colossal sphere, standing with insolent ease, was a lanky youth. He lazily plucked a blade of sage grass from his mouth, a sly, unnerving smile on his face.
"This guy… why does he look familiar?" the Iwa jōnin commander squinted, a thread of doubt weaving through his mind.
It had to be a Konoha shinobi. Who else would be here? The last time he'd faced a Konoha ninja of notable, bizarre reputation… it was during the Chunin Exams in Kumo, the reports of a bald genin who…
Wait.
The jōnin's blood ran cold. The figure was backlit by the sun, a halo of light framing his head.
"By the Sage… it's the bald one!!"
The memory surfaced with horrifying clarity: the intelligence reports, the whispered tales of a single punch that had vaporized a section of Kannabi Bridge's supporting mountains during the Kumo exam. The ghost-like, unstoppable power.
And now, the same mountains, the same nations clashing… could it be…?
On the boulder, Liumu slowly rose to his feet. He crouched slightly, discarding the grass blade. He brought his right arm back, coiling it loosely at his side. His voice, when it came, was a soft, almost casual murmur.
"Template Switch. Standard Mode."
"Normal Punch."
He didn't thrust. He didn't lunge. He simply unfolded his arm in a straight, impossibly fast line towards the plugged exit of the gorge and the massed enemy beyond.
BOOOOOOM——!!!
The world fractured.
The very mountains convulsed. The spherical boulder, the layered earth walls, the gorge itself—everything in the path of that simple motion disintegrated. Not merely shattered, but was erased in a cone of pure force that tore through the landscape. A cataclysmic shockwave ripped outward, flattening rock and pulverizing stone. A colossal cloud of dust and debris mushroomed into the sky, visible for miles. The sound was not an explosion, but the deep, groaning protest of the earth itself being rearranged.
From the distant col, Minato and the defenders watched, stunned, as a entire section of the northwestern mountain range seemed to collapse in on itself, replaced by a rising plume of destruction.
Minato's breath caught. The scale… it was exactly like the power he'd witnessed in Kumo. Liumu.
"Minato-sensei, should we…?" the bearded jōnin began, his voice faint.
Minato didn't take his eyes off the dissipating cloud. A small, relieved smile touched his lips. "It seems," he said, turning his gaze back to the now-strangely quiet Iwagakure lines across the col, "the battle on that flank is concluded."
He did wonder, briefly, about the Shadow Clone Liumu had sent with him. It had vanished midway, as if chasing some specific target. Having the real Liumu—with his Light Release capabilities—here on the front line would have made things simpler. But it seemed his student had other priorities… and other problems to solve with overwhelming force.
...
Back at the Pass.
"Lin! Are you okay?" Obito scrambled up, shaking dust from his hair, and rushed to Rin's side.
"I'm fine! Where's Kakashi?" She brushed debris from her clothes, eyes frantically searching.
"Over here!"
Kakashi's voice came from the new edge of the world. He stood at what was now the rim of a staggering chasm, staring downward, utterly motionless.
Obito and Rin rushed to his side. Their words died before they were born.
The mountain was gone. The gorge was gone. In its place was a smooth, bowl-shaped crater hundreds of meters across, its walls glassy and sheer as if cut by a god's blade. Of the dozens of Iwagakure ninja who had been pushing through the pass, there was no sign. No debris, no remnants. Just… nothing.
"Kakashi…" Obito finally whispered, horror and awe warring in his voice. "What… is this?"
Kakashi didn't look away from the vista of annihilation. His single eye was wide, reflecting the scale of the emptiness.
"This," he said, his voice barely audible over the settling dust, "is Liumu's power. The power of absolute erasure."
(End of Chapter)
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