Chapter 30: The Hastily Concluded Konoha Crush Operation — A Huge Harvest!
Inside the competition grounds, the moment Gaara fell, the tide of battle reversed in an instant.
On the invaders' side…
With their strongest force, Orochimaru, "dead," the Kazekage vanished, and Gaara defeated,
their morale instantly plummeted to rock bottom.
Many shinobi had already lost the will to fight—some even started fleeing outright.
Meanwhile, on Konoha's side…
Hinata's overwhelming display of power, combined with the sudden descent of that earth-shattering Buddha Palm,
had their momentum surging like a tidal wave.
In the blink of an eye, the invaders were being pushed back relentlessly by the Konoha shinobi.
...
"The situation's completely flipped, huh~"
Kakashi drawled lazily.
Then he glanced toward Hinata again.
Right now, she was energetically fighting off invaders left and right,
showing absolutely no sign of having expended a massive amount of chakra.
If Kakashi hadn't personally witnessed her unleashing "Roar of the Thunder-Flame Dragon" just moments ago,
he absolutely wouldn't have believed the girl in front of him had just released such a terrifying technique.
"I really didn't expect this…
Her chakra reserves are actually this enormous."
Kakashi felt something very strange about the situation.
There was no way Hinata could naturally possess such terrifying chakra volume.
Yet she had casually unleashed a technique of that caliber without even breaking a sweat.
That was… extremely thought-provoking.
Rapid strength growth? Sure, that could be explained by excellent training methods.
Fast mastery of techniques? Fine, she could just be a natural genius.
But a sudden, explosive increase in chakra reserves?
That was impossible to explain away.
"Could it be…
Byakuya has some kind of secret method to massively increase chakra volume?"
The moment that possibility occurred to him,
Kakashi instantly became restless.
His own greatest weakness had always been his pitifully small chakra pool.
If he could somehow fix that flaw…
"Looks like… I really need to have a little chat with Byakuya…"
...
Quite a few Konoha shinobi had also noticed Hinata's absurd chakra volume.
But strangely enough,
they all tacitly chose to say absolutely nothing about it.
After all… secrets regarding one's personal cultivation were just that—personal.
If you could beat her, maybe you could consider kidnapping or threatening her for the method.
But if you couldn't even win…
then the only choice was to silently give up.
...
The way people looked at Hinata had clearly changed.
Byakuya had noticed this long ago.
But he didn't care in the slightest.
So far, everything Hinata had revealed was only her surface-level strength.
She hadn't even used "Pikachu Mode," let alone fully manifesting a complete Pikachu form.
Moreover…
her true ultimate killing move wasn't "Tailed Beast Transformation" at all.
It was actually the seemingly trash-tier skill: Thunderbolt.
At first,
even Byakuya had thought Thunderbolt was an utterly useless, gimmicky technique.
After all, in that certain anime, Pikachu's Thunderbolt was always hit-or-miss—sometimes useful, sometimes completely pointless.
So he had subconsciously dismissed it as garbage.
But after conducting experiments…
he discovered that this world's version of Thunderbolt was actually an insanely powerful ultimate move!
The strength of an electric attack doesn't depend on voltage alone,
nor simply on current.
It depends on the amount of current that passes through the human body.
And that, in turn, is determined by three factors: the total power of the electric attack, the body's resistance, and the voltage of the electric attack.
"Thunderbolt" specifically referred to the voltage of the electric attack.
Total power could be controlled by adjusting chakra consumption.
Human body resistance, meanwhile, was affected by the electric attack's voltage and the target's own defenses.
The higher the electric attack voltage, the lower the body's effective resistance became.
In short——
as long as you poured in enough chakra,
the power of this technique was absolutely horrifying.
Even though it was "only" 100,000 volts,
it could instantly fry a person to death!
Of course…
when used against truly top-tier powerhouses, it wouldn't kill them outright.
But that was where its second ability came into play:
Guaranteed hit!
Once released, the target simply couldn't dodge it.
Even if it didn't kill, the paralysis effect was devastating.
Once an enemy's body was paralyzed…
they were nothing more than fish on a chopping board.
So…
Byakuya wasn't worried about Hinata in the slightest.
And as for himself?
Even less so.
As his own strength continued to grow…
so did his audacity.
Right now, the only thing he cared about was how quickly Hinata's strength was rising.
"Hinata-chan's progress really is pretty fast.
She actually mastered Blaze Release this quickly."
Blaze Release was the kekkei genkai born from fusing Lightning and Fire chakra natures.
The name had been chosen by Byakuya himself.
He had noticed that, in this world, no one seemed to have ever successfully fused Lightning and Fire chakra before.
Or perhaps someone had once…
but the knowledge was long lost.
So he named it "Blaze", after the ancient fire-starting tools of old.
Since lightning could give birth to fire…
the name felt perfect.
"All things considered…
this wave was a massive profit~"
Byakuya suddenly thought about the gains he had reaped this time.
With this series of actions, he had directly earned two million plot points.
It was an absolute jackpot.
In a great mood, Byakuya
casually kept swatting away invaders while
simultaneously opening the lottery.
[Congratulations! You have drawn Charmander (Bronze) Card!]
[Congratulations! You have drawn Squirtle (Bronze) Card!]
...
[Congratulations! You have drawn Kekkei Genkai (Wood Release)!]
...
[Congratulations! You have drawn Groudon (Diamond) Card!]
...
"Huh?"
While drawing, Byakuya suddenly froze.
He seemed to have just seen a diamond card flash by.
He hurriedly opened his system inventory to check.
[Groudon (Diamond): Upon use, gain Groudon Spirit and become Groudon's Jinchūriki.
Special Effect: Power of the Earth (While standing on the ground, you are the God of the Earth).
Skills: Temperature Regulation (Can freely control the temperature of any target).
Amplification: Massively increases total chakra volume, massively increases chakra control, massively increases physical strength.
Nearby Compatible Hosts: None]
"Whoa…
God of the Earth, huh…"
Byakuya couldn't help but mutter under his breath.
He really, really liked this card.
But… he still forcibly held back the urge to use it immediately.
"I'll keep it for now.
I'm still waiting for my good old Rayquaza…"
...
The battle in Konoha Village soon came to an end while Byakuya was happily drawing cards.
This great war had been an enormous boon for Konoha.
Not only had they successfully "slain" Orochimaru,
they had also captured the One-Tail Jinchūriki Gaara, along with a huge number of Sunagakure shinobi.
At the same time, they had once again demonstrated Konoha's overwhelming might to the entire shinobi world.
After this battle,
the reputation of Konoha's terrifying strength would shake the entire ninja world once more!
And their own losses?
Practically negligible.
Even better——
a brand-new hero had emerged: Hyūga Hinata!
With her own power, she had single-handedly defeated the fully transformed One-Tail Jinchūriki.
Such overwhelming strength, combined with her prestigious clan background,
suddenly made her one of the hottest candidates for the position of Fifth Hokage.
Of course…
there were also some who vehemently opposed the idea…
"I absolutely refuse to let Hyūga Hinata become the Fifth Hokage!"
Inside the office,
Danzo Shimura slammed his fist on the table with furious force and shot to his feet.