Thunder! A flash! Before the roar even had a chance to erupt...
In the next instant, the five ninja directly ahead collapsed, unable to rise.
Sarada, Boruto, and Mitsuki stared at the scene before them, utterly frozen in place.
Boruto: "Such speed with the blade!"
Mitsuki: "Terrifying lightning!"
Sarada: "Is this... the Breath of Thunder?"
She tightly gripped the small knife Sasuke had given her. She watched as the five ninja slowly crumpled to the ground, each silenced by a single, fatal strike to the throat.
The terrifying combat potential of the Breath of Thunder was now perfectly clear.
Sasuke's speed just now had been utterly terrifying. As his blade swept through the air, lightning seemed to erupt and rage of its own accord. It was as though he didn't even need to control his chakra simply by using that breathing technique, the lightning unleashed its most fundamental, pure power.
Faced with such power, it seemed there was nothing that couldn't be sundered by a single slash.
Sasuke slowly slid his blade back into its sheath.
He turned his head, his gaze falling upon the few ninja to the left who had suddenly frozen in their tracks. Sasuke's attack just now had clearly terrified them.
In a single moment, five of their comrades had fallen.
They hadn't even had a fraction of a second to react!
What kind of monster was this?!
How could a single strike be so devastating? The kunai even slipped from the trembling hands of several ninja, clattering to the forest floor.
Seeing the cold sweat beading on their foreheads... Sasuke offered a slight smile. But he remained silent. The next second!
Lightning exploded around Sasuke's body.
At that moment, Sasuke glanced towards Mitsuki from the corner of his eye.
'Mitsuki! Watch closely!'
'This is my other technique!'
'Lightning Release: Godspeed!'
Crackle!
The effect this time was different as well. Although both techniques involved lightning bursting forth from his body, the commotion generated by Lightning Release: Godspeed was far more intense. Furthermore, as the electricity surged, flickers of black lightning danced around him, seemingly cloaking Sasuke's figure in darkness.
The next second, the very instant the roar of thunder and lightning erupted...
...an even more incredible speed emerged, faster than lightning itself.
'Gale Swift Thunder!'
Sasuke had directly activated the Gale Swift Thunder mode. In this state, Sasuke didn't need to consciously think at all; his body would instinctively react to the enemy's movements, executing attacks automatically. Thought was entirely unnecessary.
A flash of black lightning streaked through the air.
Accompanied by a fierce roar.
An even greater velocity exploded outwards. In that instant, Mitsuki broke out into a cold sweat, completely stunned.
'Fast!'
'So fast!'
'Unbelievably fast!'
'This speed... It's impossible to say how many times faster it is than just moments ago!'
Crack! Snap!
Suddenly, the sickening sound of shattering bone or perhaps necks being twisted and snapped echoed from the remaining ninja.
And yet, like a phantom streak of black light that had zipped around the clearing and returned in an instant, Sasuke stood motionless in his original spot once more. The black lightning still flickered around him, making his hair stand on end as if transformed into pure electrical energy.
Lightning Release: Godspeed!
Thump, thump, thump!
One after another, the ninjas crumpled to the ground, their life force extinguished.
Of the first group of over ten ninja who had rushed in, only a single Jonin now remained standing, staring blankly, dazedly at Sasuke. His eyes looked as though they had seen a ghost. His body trembled uncontrollably.
"Demon!"
"You're a demon! You're not human!"
"A demon!"
He screamed aloud, but the next instant, as he instinctively tried to turn, Sasuke was already standing directly before him. Staring at Sasuke, now mere inches away, the electrified shape of his hair seemed to shift subtly. Sasuke raised a hand, seizing the man by the throat.
Looking at the terrified man before him, Sasuke spoke, but his words were clearly directed towards Mitsuki.
"Speed itself is power!"
"When speed reaches a certain threshold, the resulting force is equally terrifying!"
CRACK-BOOM!
A fist crackling with lightning slammed into the man's chest. Instantly, the Mist ninja shot backward like a cannonball fired from a muzzle, hurtling dozens of meters through the air. He smashed through more than a dozen trees in the forest before finally coming to a stop, undoubtedly mangled beyond recognition.
The lightning around Sasuke dissipated.
Sasuke turned to look towards Mitsuki, Boruto, and Sarada.
"That is my other technique, Lightning Release: Godspeed."
"You saw the two modes I just demonstrated, didn't you? Gale Swift Thunder, and Thunder Breathing."
Mitsuki had certainly seen it seen it all too clearly. But when Sasuke had been moving, his astounding speed was simply blinding, making it utterly impossible to follow his movements. A speed so fast, the eyes couldn't even keep up. The sense of shock filling Mitsuki was almost overwhelming.
Just then, the second wave of ninja arrived, cautiously taking positions. They advanced with extreme caution, likely having heard the screams of their comrades moments earlier. Something about a demon!
But however cautious they were, it mattered little to Sasuke. He raised a hand, revealing a string of shuriken.
Sasuke spoke slowly, "Now, I'll demonstrate the use of the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"A technique developed by the Second Hokage: the Flying Thunder God!"
"It was perfected and made famous by the Fourth Hokage a technique whose name echoes throughout the entire shinobi world!"
"Master this technique, and its power alone can grant you combat strength on par with a Kage."
As he spoke, Sasuke slowly raised the shuriken in his hand. Even as he spoke, Sasuke was carving the Flying Thunder God seals onto the shuriken. The next second, with an incredibly peculiar throwing technique, Sasuke launched the shuriken from his hand.
Under the watchful eyes of Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki, the moment the shuriken left his hand, they began to ricochet off each other in mid-air. Striking back and forth, they somehow still managed to shoot forward at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, they even maneuvered around large trees obstructing their flight path, hurtling towards the arriving Mist ninja.
The advancing Mist ninja heard the distinct clink-clank sound and raised their heads, peering intently forward. The next second, a large volley of shuriken burst into view, flying directly towards them.
"Enemy attack! Evade!"
By the time the shuriken reached them, their velocity wasn't overwhelmingly fast. Dodging them seemed relatively easy.
However, the very next second...
As the first shuriken whistled past the first ninja's shoulder... a large, dark shadow suddenly materialized right above his head. A blade radiating a purple glow swept across his throat. A spray of blood erupted, tracing a crimson arc through the air.
Then the second man, the third, the fourth.
One after another.
These ninja evaded the shuriken attacks, but they couldn't escape Sasuke, who moved like a phantom, instantly teleporting between the marked projectiles. The Kusanagi sword in Sasuke's hand moved like the Grim Reaper's scythe. In the same instant they registered the whoosh of a shuriken passing their ear, the sound of his blade slicing towards them was completely masked. So much so that in the brief moment they felt the barest cool touch against their necks, their lives were already extinguished.
His figure flickered incessantly. Though the speed of these teleports was immense, it was a fundamentally different kind of swiftness than the raw velocity of Lightning Release: Godspeed.
Boruto watched, mesmerized, as Sasuke, moving with an almost effortless, fluid grace, instantly eliminated the dozen or so ninja who had arrived as reinforcements.
And in the exact moment Sasuke reappeared in his original position, the shuriken he'd thrown moments before finally came to rest, embedding themselves deep into the surrounding tree trunks. Accompanying this were the dull thuds of bodies falling from the branches above, crashing heavily onto the forest floor.
Blood dripped down the blade of Sasuke's Kusanagi sword. He gave his wrist a casual flick, slinging the blood from the blade. Then, he slid the sword back into its sheath.
Sasuke turned his head to look at the three young ninja.
"Breath of Thunder, Lightning Release: Godspeed, and the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"What did you think of the power of those techniques?"
Hearing his question, only a single word echoed in the minds of the three young shinobi.
Overwhelming!!!
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