Chapter 140: The Secret Technique Acquired
Suien, Kazuma, and the others paled as they watched Tatsuya bear down on them.
Kazuma instantly produced a four-bladed tekko-kagi, coating it completely in pale blue chakra as he braced for close combat.
Fudo, one of Kazuma's men, slammed his hands into the earth, ripped out a massive boulder, and hurled it straight at Tatsuya.
Suien, meanwhile, drew several kunai and flung them directly at Tatsuya's vitals.
Nearby, the three remaining members of the Lightning Release Four crackled with electricity, poised to strike Tatsuya the moment he came within range.
Faced with the simultaneous assault, Tatsuya paused mid-stride, a cold smirk touching his lips.
His hands blurred through seals in the air before pressing down firmly onto the ground.
Instantly, the earth beneath Tatsuya surged upwards, lifting him high on a newly formed pillar.
BOOM!
As Tatsuya rose, the attacks from Suien, Fudo, and the others missed entirely.
The massive boulder Fudo had thrown slammed violently against the earthen pillar, sending tremors through it.
Atop the shaking pillar, Tatsuya released his hands from the ground and began forming new seals.
Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!
A torrent of earth-natured chakra flowed from Tatsuya's hands into the ground below. Across the battlefield, countless hardened spikes of rock erupted violently upwards.
The range of this Earth Style ninjutsu was vast, instantly encompassing Suien, Kazuma, and all their remaining allies within its deadly reach.
Seeing the sheer scale of Tatsuya's Earth Flow Spears, the expressions on their faces changed again. The scope and power were staggering, far beyond what an ordinary ninja could produce.
Kazuma reacted instantly, leaping backward just in time to evade the impaling spikes.
The three remaining members of the Lightning Release Four—Kitako, Nango, and Seito—were slightly further away and managed to dodge with agile leaps.
Among them, Suien and Fudo fared the worst.
Fudo, with his larger build, had no time to evade. Hardened rock spears shot up, piercing him brutally. Fortunately, at the last second, Fudo managed to activate the Earth Style Hardening Technique, making the lower half of his body harder than stone. This saved him from being instantly disemboweled, though the impact was still severe.
Suien, having just thrown his kunai, had barely landed when the wave of earth spears forced him into a desperate dance of evasion. Several times, he narrowly avoided being skewered. Even so, his right foot and left arm suffered grievous wounds.
Swish!
Just as Suien managed to escape the wide-area attack, a shadow flickered. Tatsuya appeared directly in front of him, almost close enough to touch.
Seeing Tatsuya's face, sheer terror gripped Suien. He tried to lash out with the kunai still in his hand, forcing Tatsuya back.
Unfortunately, his body couldn't keep up with the speed of his thoughts.
Stab!
Tatsuya's kunai plunged directly into Suien's heart.
With a swift kick, Tatsuya sent Suien's body flying backward. Blood sprayed from the hilt of the embedded kunai as he soared through the air, crashing through several lingering rock pillars before finally hitting the ground.
By the time he landed, Suien was already dead, his face frozen in an expression of utter terror and profound regret.
Witnessing Suien's swift execution at Tatsuya's hands, Kazuma, Fudo, and the others were horrified.
"Retreat!"
Spitting out the single word, Kazuma turned and fled without hesitation.
Their plan was a complete failure.
Seeing this, Fudo quickly followed suit, retreating rapidly despite his injuries.
"We're leaving too!"
Kitako, Nango, and Seito exchanged glances. Nango swiftly scooped up the still-incapacitated Tou'u, and the four of them vanished.
Tatsuya watched them go, making no move to pursue.
He had noticed Kitako and Seito preparing some kind of jutsu as they departed. Since his objective was already achieved, Tatsuya saw no reason to waste further energy. Dealing with powerful Lightning Release users always carried the risk of unexpected complications, even for him. Better not to push his luck.
"Is... is it over?"
After the group had departed, Shota, the leader of Takigakure, stared at Suien's lifeless body, his face etched with disbelief. Just moments ago, he had been steeling himself to drink the Hero Water and sacrifice his life for the village.
Yet, the battle had concluded in an astonishingly short time.
And ironically, the one who had saved Takigakure was the very enemy Shota had initially intended to scheme against. The fight had unfolded entirely differently from how he had imagined.
Looking at Tatsuya and the nearby Jizo, Shota's eyes filled with a mixture of profound shock and deep wariness. Compared to the traitor Suien and his allies, the man before him posed an even greater threat.
"No need to worry, Leader Shota. I merely wish to make a deal with your village," Tatsuya said, noticing the caution and defensiveness in Shota's gaze. He offered a disarming smile.
"And... what kind of transaction did you have in mind, Lord Tatsuya?" Shota asked, a bitter smile gracing his lips.
"This isn't the best place for a discussion," Tatsuya said, glancing around the debris-strewn area. He shrugged towards Shota. "Why don't you invite me in?"
"Please," Shota said, turning slightly and gesturing for Tatsuya and Jizo to follow him into the village proper.
One day later, outside the massive waterfall concealing Takigakure.
Two figures flickered into existence – Tatsuya and Jizo.
Tatsuya cast a final glance back at the waterfall before turning away with Jizo, departing swiftly.
His trip to Takigakure had been remarkably successful.
Inside the village, during their conversation, Tatsuya had learned from Shota the primary reason for Takigakure's planned attack on Ansei Hall: they desperately wanted the formula for the Six-Flavor Rehmannia Pill.
For Takigakure, solving the problem of replenishing life force after battle was crucial. It offered a way to mitigate the deadly cost of using the Hero Water, which consumed the user's life force. With the pills, their ninja might survive using the water, preserving at least one life. This would grant Takigakure another source of reliable, formidable power beyond their Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.
Hearing Shota's explanation, Tatsuya had readily offered a long-term trade agreement: a steady supply of Six-Flavor Rehmannia Pills in exchange for certain considerations.
Shota, naturally, had eagerly accepted.
With this positive start, Tatsuya soon obtained what he truly desired – the secret technique of Earth Grudge Fear. As a bonus, he even managed to trade some upgraded Six-Flavor Rehmannia Pills for a small quantity of Hero Water. It wasn't much, but enough for perhaps one or two uses in combat.
Faced with the undeniable strength displayed by Tatsuya and Jizo, Shota had remained cooperative and pragmatic throughout the negotiations.
Despite the smooth success, however, Tatsuya wasn't entirely pleased.
After using the bio-chip to thoroughly store and analyze Takigakure's Earth Grudge Fear technique, the conclusion was disheartening. To create the kind of fully autonomous clone Tatsuya envisioned, capable of independent thought and action comparable to the original, would require a cultivation period of at least eighteen months.
The Earth Grudge Fear technique had effectively become a lost art in Takigakure ever since Kakuzu stole it. This wasn't because the method itself was lost, but because mastering it was incredibly difficult.
While Takigakure's version of Earth Grudge Fear theoretically allowed the user to achieve a form of immortality by continuously stealing hearts, the number of shinobi in the village's history who had actually succeeded was vanishingly small.
The fundamental reason lay in a critical requirement: to successfully master Earth Grudge Fear, the practitioner's first stolen heart must belong to a sacrificial individual who had also cultivated the same technique.
When Kakuzu defected from Takigakure decades ago, the first heart he took was that of the village leader of that era – one of the few who possessed the technique.
Without a suitable sacrifice available, Earth Grudge Fear had subsequently died out in Takigakure.
According to the bio-chip's projections, for Tatsuya to cultivate a suitable "sacrificial" clone body using his current methods would take a minimum of one to two years. And that estimation didn't even factor in the potential failure rate of the cloning process itself.
Such a "lengthy" timeline didn't quite align with Tatsuya's plans.