In an instant, waves of invisible spatial force condensed into layer upon layer of unseen spatial slabs, locking Yura and her three students firmly in place. No matter how desperately they struggled, none of them could break free from the bindings of space itself!
"D–Damn it… what is this thing…?!"
Yura was completely restrained by the Six Rods Light Prison, unable to move even a single finger.
"So this is the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan… As expected of the Mangekyō Sharingan."
Sensing how utterly immobilized her body was, Yura let out a bitter smile. It seemed that today, she was destined to suffer a crushing defeat…
Her students were just as unwilling to accept it. To think that they would be so easily, so thoroughly controlled by the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan—it was humiliating beyond words.
This was one of the many applications of Takamagahara, the Mangekyō Sharingan ability of Uchiha Ran. By restructuring spatial power itself, it could be given a wide range of effects—cutting, isolating, and now… binding.
"Have you finally realized the gap between us?"
Looking down at the four figures pinned helplessly to the ground by spatial force, Ran spoke in a calm yet overwhelmingly superior tone.
"…Ran, then what should we do next?"With this battlefield seeing such a decisive breakthrough, Tsunade couldn't hide her joy. If things continued at this pace, the war between Konoha and Sunagakure wouldn't last much longer.
"Take these four prisoners back to Konoha," Ran said decisively. "They've lost a Jinchūriki, an elite jōnin, and an entire elite squad in one blow. The advantage is completely in our hands now."
Hearing Ran's words, Tsunade smiled as well.
Killing a Jinchūriki and capturing four enemy shinobi alive—one of them being the famous Sunagakure elite Yura—was an ideal outcome. At the very least, it would greatly reduce Konoha's casualties going forward.
"Ran, what about after this? Should we go support the other teams?"
"Of course, Tsunade-nee," Ran replied without hesitation. "Right now, the most important thing is reinforcing our comrades. In terms of manpower, Konoha is at a severe disadvantage. The more teams we support, the more the scales of victory tilt in our favor."
Soon, Ran placed another layer of Sharingan control over the four captives and handed them over to the logistics unit.
But when Ran and Tsunade returned to the battlefield, they realized something grim—
Konoha's losses were far greater than expected.
It felt as though Konoha's forces were barely holding on.
However, despite suffering heavier casualties, Konoha's shinobi were still superior in overall strength compared to Sunagakure's. As a result, even though Konoha bled heavily, Sunagakure's losses were even worse.
At this moment, Tsunade once again became the bold, heroic kunoichi of legend.
"Ran, go help your teacher Orochimaru," she said quickly. "I'll use Shōyu's support to heal the wounded here!"
"Got it. I'll head to Orochimaru-sensei right now!"
Before Ran left, Tsunade specifically warned him to use the Mangekyō Sharingan as little as possible—and above all, not to lose himself to that overwhelming power.
Ran merely nodded in response. In the next instant, he vanished from where he stood, leaving Tsunade alone.
"That brat… he's really impatient, isn't he?" she muttered with a helpless smile.
Meanwhile, the battle between Orochimaru and Rasa had reached a fever pitch.
A clash between two Kage-level powerhouses caused drastic changes to the surrounding terrain. The places they had fought through looked as though they had been bombarded by missiles—craters and devastation everywhere.
In the midst of their fierce exchange, Uchiha Ran suddenly appeared on the battlefield, causing both Orochimaru and Rasa to stop in shock.
Neither of them had expected Ran to appear here.
Rasa's expression instantly grew uneasy. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand how the monk Bunpuku, the One-Tail's Jinchūriki, could have been defeated so easily by Ran.
"Uchiha brat… you're here? Then what about Monk Bunpuku? Where is he?"Rasa's voice was filled with disbelief.
"You mean that old Jinchūriki?" Ran replied calmly. "He was already far too old. And honestly… the One-Tail is pathetically weak. I know it's hard to believe, but I'll say it anyway—I won far too easily."
Ran glanced at Rasa and continued,"But out of respect for him, he died without pain. As for the One-Tail… it'll probably disappear for a while."
With Ran's explanation, Rasa found it even harder to accept reality.
"Then next," Ran said, his tone sharp, "my teacher and I will work together and quickly eliminate you—the biggest remaining threat."
As he spoke, the three-tomoe Sharingan in Ran's eyes rapidly transformed into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Six Rods Light Prison!"
With Ran's manipulation of space, invisible spatial force surged forward, instantly attempting to bind Rasa—
No. It failed.
Rasa truly lived up to his reputation as a seasoned Kage-level shinobi. The moment he saw Ran's eyes shift from the three tomoe into that strange, unfamiliar pattern, he sensed danger and immediately protected himself with Gold Dust and Magnet Release.
"Hmph! That won't work on me," Rasa sneered. "So those are the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan? Looks like they're nothing special after all!"
Though he didn't fully understand what had just happened, Rasa seized the chance to mock Ran and launched a counterattack—Gold Dust Spears—aimed at both Ran and Orochimaru!
"Is that so? Danku."
This time, it was Rasa's golden spears that were stopped—blocked by an invisible wall of force.
Watching the exchange from the side, Orochimaru finally spoke, his voice thick with interest.
"To think you awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan on your own, Ran-kun… Judging by this power, it seems to be a form of space-time manipulation. Ran-kun… what exactly happened to you, to grant you such strength?"
There was unmistakable envy in Orochimaru's eyes.
He never imagined that Ran would evolve his three-tomoe Sharingan into the Mangekyō purely through his own efforts.
By Ran's own admission in the past, his personality should have made awakening this legendary power impossible. And yet—here it was.
Orochimaru suspected the truth lay in Ran's earlier battle with the One-Tail's Jinchūriki.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Great World Law!"
In an instant, countless bamboo-shoot-like golden spikes erupted from the ground, stabbing toward Ran and Orochimaru!
Sensing the danger, the two reacted immediately.
"Orochimaru-style Substitution Technique!"
Orochimaru didn't dodge. His body was pierced straight through by the gold dust—but the moment it happened, his body transformed into a snake. The next second, Orochimaru emerged unharmed from the snake's mouth.
Disgusting or not, the technique was undeniably powerful. It could be activated even after being struck.
The sight of Orochimaru crawling out of a snake's mouth nearly made Rasa lose his composure. This man was absurdly hard to kill.
But what truly broke Rasa's composure—and what made Orochimaru's eyes narrow in fascination—
Was that every single golden spike passed straight through Uchiha Ran's body, dealing him not the slightest bit of damage.