Chapter 153 – Chibaku Tensei! Wood Style Returns!

A thunderous rumble echoed from beneath them.

The overwhelming surge of terrifying chakra made the three figures standing a thousand meters in the air flinch instinctively.

They all looked down toward the source of the noise.

Below them, across a giant fissure dozens of meters wide, a figure wrapped in pitch-black light was closing in fast, shrieking through the air like a falling star.

Although Yamanaka Shinno's hair color and chakra signature had changed significantly—and he now radiated an unpleasant Sage aura—the entity that had hijacked Yagura Karatachi's consciousness, Black Zetsu, still recognized him instantly.

"His sensory range is even larger than the intel suggested!"

Still disguised as an Iwagakure shinobi using Yagura's appearance, Black Zetsu quickly realized something was off.

According to the intel he'd gathered, Shinno's sensory radius should only extend five kilometers. Based on the distance from the earlier battle with Rasa and Pakura, there was no way he should have been able to detect them.

What's more, Shinno had exposed his true strength earlier to minimize Konoha casualties, even in front of both Rasa and Pakura. So logically, once that battle ended, he should've immediately teleported back to the main battlefield using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Even if he had sensed their presence afterward, he wouldn't have left the frontline just to chase them down. Not unless he believed their threat outweighed the combined forces of Iwagakure and Sunagakure below. That earlier display of power—what if it wasn't about saving those thousand Konoha shinobi at all? What if it was simply meant to buy enough time until reinforcements arrived?

Damn it!

He should've seen this coming!

This guy had the power to kill an aging Madara Uchiha. Someone like that, now within the depths of the Root—how could he possibly be taking orders from Danzo Shimura?

For all he knew, Danzo might already be this guy's puppet.

That list of "bait" shinobi used in the diversion? Shinno probably helped compile it. Anyone added to that list clearly wasn't deemed that important.

"Guys like him, the ones good at hiding… they always show just enough to fool you—never the whole hand," Onoki muttered like a man speaking from experience.

He glanced sideways at the Konoha encampment, then sneered inwardly.

A few days ago, he'd learned from Yagura that those thousand Konoha shinobi were nothing more than bait.

He'd agreed to let Sunagakure strike the Konoha camp, pretending he knew nothing, because he was confident they could devour the bait whole without taking much damage.

Even if reinforcements from Konoha showed up, unless they had overwhelming numbers, the worst that would happen was a drawn-out tug-of-war.

Dead shinobi didn't come back to life.

But now, this unexpected enemy hadn't even gone to support the battlefield. He'd come straight for them—alone.

That meant they had a shot. With the Mizukage here too, maybe they could take him out while the odds were still on their side.

Even if they failed, it'd give them a chance to measure his true strength.

Onoki's body floated in midair, hands extended a half-meter in front of him. Between his palms, chakra surged and condensed into a translucent, glowing cube of pale white light.

He locked onto Shinno's approaching figure.

"Mizukage, do you have anything that can restrict his movement? Against an enemy like this, the best option is to go all-out from the start—aim to kill with the first strike."

"...Leave that to us."

Yagura, still under Black Zetsu's control, nodded slightly and signaled toward the blindfolded Obito beside him.

Obito floated downward beneath the two.

He formed hand signs, and chakra smoke surged upward.

In the haze, a bizarre Mist shinobi appeared—eyes blindfolded like Obito's, body studded with black rods.

No words were exchanged.

The summoned Mist shinobi immediately extended both arms downward.

Banshō Ten'in.

A terrifying force exploded from him.

Shinno, already moving at incredible speed, suddenly accelerated even more—dragged forward at an unnatural rate.

Then, after a brief buildup, Obito thrust both hands downward.

Chakra condensed into a pitch-black sphere, then hurtled toward Shinno, now only a hundred meters away.

Chibaku Tensei!

The black sphere erupted with gravitational force.

Shinno, now caught in a howling gale, slammed his palms together. A violent surge of Sage chakra burst out.

From the smoke and chakra rising around him, countless roots and branches erupted from his body in every direction.

Even midair, away from the earth, the boosted power of Sage Mode let him use Wood Style with just a few cells as seeds.

A forest exploded outward, growing at a frightening pace.

The pull of Chibaku Tensei began drawing in the rapidly expanding roots and branches.

In the blink of an eye, the core of the technique transformed into a massive wooden sphere dozens of meters wide!

Wood Style: Wood Clone!

Shinno slammed his hands together again.

Multiple clones—each enhanced by Sage Mode—materialized across the surface of the massive wooden sphere.

They all moved in unison, pressing their palms together and pouring even more power into the jutsu.

In an instant, the wooden sphere expanded several times over.

One of the wood clones, now standing atop the massive sphere, was less than ten meters from Onoki and Yagura!

"Wood Style?!" Onoki gasped in horror.

He'd been wary of the Mist shinobi who had summoned that strange black sphere—but the moment he saw Wood Style, all that caution was replaced by sheer terror.

He had seen firsthand the terrifying power wielded by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha in their prime. He knew exactly what Wood Style meant.

It was the power to dominate an entire era.

"Now!" Black Zetsu shouted urgently.

He slapped his right hand on a storage seal on his left arm. Chakra smoke erupted—and when it cleared, he held a staff adorned with green floral patterns.

Chakra surged through his body. He shifted slightly, half-hiding behind Obito, his eyes locked on the monstrous wooden sphere and the clone standing atop it, beaming with joy.

"!!!!"

Onoki snapped out of his daze.

Without another thought, he hurled the white cube he had been charging this whole time straight at the sphere.

Dust Style: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!

Hummmm—

The glowing cube tore through the air.

In a blink, it closed the distance between them and the wooden sphere—now just meters away.

With a dreadful, space-rending hum, the Dust Style technique expanded into a massive cube, dozens of meters across.

Everything caught inside—matter, chakra, wood—was disintegrated into atoms.

But the wooden sphere was enormous.

Even with the cube's reach, parts of the Wood Style creation—especially near the edges—remained intact.

Two Wood Clones, still smiling brightly, survived outside the cube's range.

Obito quickly formed hand signs.

From the chakra smoke rose five puppets—identical to the Mist shinobi he had summoned earlier.

Behind him, Black Zetsu, using Yagura's body, activated the Three-Tails' chakra—his form glowing crimson in a partial Tailed Beast transformation.

Whoosh—whoosh—

Two Sage Chakra-infused Wood Clones shot forward like arrows, reaching the six puppet defenders in an instant.

They each launched a massive Sage Art: Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan toward the enemy line!

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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