As they stared at the frozen Sunagakure fleet,entire warships and shinobi alike sealed in ice by a single move,and at the ocean itself, transformed into a vast frozen wasteland stretching for dozens of kilometers…
Behind Chiba, Ringo Ameyuri, Pakura, and Momochi Zabuza stood frozen in disbelief. Their eyes were wide, their minds utterly blank, as if reason itself had failed them.
The shinobi of Kirigakure were no better.
Mouths hung open. Eyes bulged. Not a single word could be spoken.
And then,
the silence shattered.
A thunderous roar of cheers erupted, shaking the frozen sea itself.
"The Mizukage is invincible!!!"
"Long live the Mizukage!!!"
"Kirigakure will reign supreme!!!"
The shouts were fervent, blood-boiling, deafening,so powerful that the ice beneath their feet seemed to tremble as if it, too, were roaring in triumph.
Pakura covered her mouth with a trembling hand, unable to stop herself.
"T-this… this is the Mizukage's power…?" she whispered.
"One move… freezing the entire sea for tens of kilometers…?"
Zabuza had seen Chiba's strength before. His own rebellion had ended the same way,crushed in a single overwhelming strike.
But this…
This power was on an entirely different level.
Compared to the past, Chiba had grown unimaginably stronger. His presence felt deeper, heavier,like an abyss with no visible bottom.
A monster, Zabuza thought grimly. He's become something even more terrifying.
Ringo Ameyuri, on the other hand, gazed at Chiba's back with undisguised admiration. Knowing that this man,this overwhelming existence,was hers filled her heart with both pride and sweetness.
At the same time,
among the Sunagakure forces, the few shinobi who had not been completely frozen were gripped by sheer terror.
Among them stood the Kazekage himself.
Protected by his Jiton (Magnet Release) Gold Dust, Rasa had narrowly escaped instant annihilation,but even he stood stunned, his face pale, his body trembling.
"Y-you… you…"
The man who had been so arrogant moments ago now stuttered helplessly, unable to form a coherent sentence.
Worse still, the gold dust shield meant to protect him had been frozen solid by the Ice Age technique. No matter how hard he tried to control it, it would not move.
"What… what kind of Ice Release is this?!" Rasa roared, panic bleeding into his voice.
"How can anyone possess chakra this monstrous?! This scale… this destructive power… it's impossible!!!"
Chiba smiled faintly, mockery flickering in his eyes.
"My apologies, Kazekage-sama," he said lightly.
"Did this little brat… scare you?"
Rasa let out a furious roar as his chakra exploded outward. With a violent surge, he finally shattered the frozen gold dust around him.
At the same time, a handful of surviving jōnin and shinobi,those who had barely avoided being completely sealed,stared at the frozen ships and their immobilized comrades in horror.
"Fuuton: Shinkuugyoku (Wind Blade)!!!"
Maki reacted instantly, releasing sharp Wind Release chakra from his fingertips, slicing apart the ice binding himself and those nearby.
But the vast majority of Sunagakure's forces were already finished.
Some were frozen all the way to their heads, unable to breathe,dying silently within the ice.
In mere moments, over half of Sunagakure's shinobi were dead or incapacitated. Those who remained could barely move.
Chiba raised his hand.
"Kill."
The order was simple.
The response was explosive.
Kirigakure's shinobi roared as one, morale surging to its peak. They leapt from their ships, sprinting across the frozen sea itself, charging toward the immobilized Sunagakure fleet.
Ringo Ameyuri, Zabuza, and Pakura took the lead.
BOOM!!!
Ringo struck first, Raiton: Ikazuchi no Utage (Lightning Release: Lightning Strike)! Thunder tore through the sky, obliterating a frozen Sunagakure jōnin in an instant, reducing him to shattered fragments of ice and flesh.
Zabuza followed, swinging the Executioner's Blade in a brutal arc, cleaving a frozen enemy clean in half. The body split silently,no blood spilled, frozen solid by the extreme cold.
Pakura showed no mercy.
"Shakuton: Kajousatsu (Scorch Release: Excessive Steam Kill!!!)"
Her Kekkei Genkai,combining Wind and Fire,activated in full. In an instant, the moisture within her enemies' bodies evaporated completely.
They died like mummified husks, shriveled and dry, their deaths horrific beyond words.
Gentle as she appeared, her power was nothing short of terrifying.
Fireballs of Scorch Release rained down, large and small, reducing frozen Sunagakure shinobi to lifeless corpses. The ice around them melted instantly, leaving only puddles of water behind.
Maki, Yura, Centipede, and the few remaining fighters struggled desperately to counterattack.
But against Kirigakure's full assault, with barely one or two out of ten Sunagakure shinobi still capable of fighting, resistance was nothing more than a futile struggle.
They were crushed.
Slaughtered.
Completely overwhelmed.
Rasa watched the scene unfold,an unprecedented massacre,and his mind reeled with shock and fury.
"Chiba!!!" he roared, veins bulging.
"I'll kill you!!!"
In a burst of rage, he unleashed his full power, Jiton (Magnet Release) chakra erupting violently.
"Jiton (Magnet Release): Gold Dust Great Wave!!!"
Instantly, countless torrents of gold dust surged into the air, forming a massive, crushing tide that descended from above,bearing down on Chiba with overwhelming force.
It was the Jiton (Magnet Release) technique inherited from the Sandaime Kazekage.
And the battlefield braced itself for the next collision.
Chiba smiled faintly, utterly calm.
He swung his right arm.
In an instant, the raging cold erupted outward. The frigid air condensed into a violent, roaring gale, a storm of frozen wind that surged forward like a living beast and slammed straight into the oncoming golden tide.
BOOOOOOM,!!!
The impact shook heaven and sea alike.
Rasa's Gold Dust Great Wave was torn apart on contact, scattered violently in all directions. The gold dust that bore the brunt of the collision was seized by the extreme cold, freezing solid in midair before crashing down onto the ice-covered ocean with sharp, metallic clatters.
The frozen sea rang with the sound of falling gold.
Rasa's expression darkened. His brows knitted tightly as he immediately seized control of the dispersed particles, forcing the scattered gold dust to converge once more.
"Jiton: Sakin Daiburokku (Magnet Release Gold Dust Cube)!!!"
In a heartbeat, the countless fragments compressed at terrifying speed. The swirling gold collapsed inward, forming a massive, gleaming cube,dense, heavy, and oppressive. Like a falling fortress, it descended from the sky, bearing down on Chiba with crushing force.
Chiba did not retreat.
He simply lifted his hand again.
"Hyōton: Fenikkusu no Kuchibashi (Ice Release: Violent Pheasant Beak)!!!"
The frozen sea answered his call.
Ice surged upward and reshaped itself in an instant, forming a colossal azure bird. It let out a clear, piercing cry as its body expanded violently, wings spreading wide like a divine roc descending from the heavens.
Then,
BOOOOOOM!!!
The massive ice bird slammed head-on into the golden cube.
The collision sent a shockwave ripping across the battlefield. The supposedly indestructible cube was blasted away, hurled backward through the air as if struck by a god.
This was not a clash of materials.
It was a clash of power,and Chiba's was overwhelming.
At that moment, Rasa's pupils shrank.
He felt it.
The cold beneath his feet surged once more, creeping upward like invisible fangs ready to devour him.
Without hesitation, he activated his technique. Gold dust surged beneath him, forming a floating platform that lifted his body sharply upward, tearing him free from the frozen deck and sea below.
Only then did Chiba laugh softly.
"Sharp instincts," he said lightly.
"As expected of the Kazekage."
Rasa snorted coldly, fury flashing through his eyes. From above, he swung his arm downward with force.
"Jiton Sakin yari (Magnet Release Gold Dust Spear)!!!"
The gold dust compressed again,this time into an impossibly dense, razor-sharp spear. Gleaming with lethal brilliance, it shot downward like a golden comet, tearing through the air straight toward Chiba.
High above the battlefield, Rasa believed he had found safety, convinced he had escaped the reach of Chiba's freezing domain.
But in the next instant,
Chiba formed an ice blade in his hand and slashed.
CLANG!!!
The golden spear was struck aside effortlessly, spinning away uselessly across the frozen expanse.
Before Rasa could even react, Chiba crossed his arms. His chakra surged violently, the temperature plunging once again as the air itself screamed under the pressure of his power.
"Hyōton: Sōsakugeki (Ice Release: Twin Halberd Spears)!!!"
The frozen battlefield trembled.
And the next wave of annihilation was already on its way.