NOVEL WEB Chapter 69: CHAPTER 69
"Now!"
Ranmaru's eyes flashed open as he crossed his twin blades. "Lightning Release: Falling Thunder!"
Dark clouds instantly gathered overhead, and a blinding streak of lightning split the sky. The bolt crashed down with explosive force—straight toward Jiga.
"Lightning Release?!"
Jiga's eyes widened. He knew this was his greatest weakness.
His Magnet-style abilities weren't a true kekkei genkai like the Third Kazekage's. Rather, they were the result of extensive conditioning—his body saturated with iron filings and metallic implants. That internal conductivity made lightning his natural bane.
He hastily gathered iron sand, forming a thick magnetic shield before him.
But Ranmaru wasn't finished. He forced his hands together, chakra surging.
"Lightning Release: Sky-Rending Thunder Serpent!"
An advanced jutsu learned from Raiga Kurosuki—the strongest lightning attack Ranmaru had mastered.
Multiple serpentine bolts of lightning crackled to life, arcing down in rapid succession. Jiga was engulfed by the storm.
Ranmaru, drained, collapsed.
Hanabi rushed to support him. "You did it, Ranmaru!"
From the other side, Suigetsu swung Kubikiribōchō onto his shoulder with a smirk.
"Ranmaru's faster than me? Tch, guess I'll just break the next guy's arms and legs instead."
He turned toward Ruiga, who was slumped in a crater, barely conscious.
"W-Wait! You're a monster! Water Release shouldn't be like this!"
Suigetsu scoffed. "Yours is all gimmicks—Water Prison, Summoning. Mine? I am water."
Ruiga's Water Prison from above had been clever, but meaningless to someone who could turn into liquid. Unless it was Tobirama-level Water Release, Suigetsu wasn't impressed.
He dragged the broken Ruiga back toward the ship.
"Yo, Guren! Wrap it up! I gotta tag in with Kimimaro."
"Almost done!" Guren called back.
Shards of crystal glimmered in the air. This time, she had carefully altered the refractive angles, creating mirror-like surfaces.
Renga's Solar Lens technique had initially overwhelmed her with focused light beams. But now, every beam was reflected back.
"Damn it! My jutsu's being deflected!" Renga's voice trembled.
The mirrored crystals shattered with each impact, but Guren instantly regenerated them. With each cycle, her control improved—reflections narrowing toward Renga.
But precision was hard. She still hadn't landed a direct hit.
Realizing both his brothers were down, Renga turned to flee.
"I have to escape—!"
Shunk! Crystal spikes erupted from the sea, forming a jagged cage around him.
"Keep him alive," Guren ordered.
"I got it."
Suigetsu tossed Ruiga's unconscious body onto the deck. "Jugo, hold him. I've got cleanup duty."
He dashed toward Kimimaro.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
Kimimaro, who had just removed his bone armor, shook his head.
"Not long. I was just about to start."
Suigetsu grinned. "Let's tag-team these losers."
Despite seeing his allies fall, Yukikawa Himi remained calm.
"Renga was never my equal. He relied too much on borrowed tricks."
Though the Snow Ninja's pseudo–Ice Release lost some potency away from their homeland, they had the ocean for Water Release.
Only Kimimaro's unmatched taijutsu—and their reliance on chakra armor over close-quarters combat—had kept them at bay.
"Your friend is exhausted, and I'm not interested in playing with children." Himi stepped forward. "Ice Release: Myriad Ice Spears!"
The ocean surface froze, and countless spears of ice emerged, aiming straight at Kimimaro and Suigetsu.
"Your Ice Release is good, but we're in open water," Suigetsu smirked. "Water's endless here."
Kimimaro nodded. The two grasped forearms.
"Water Release: Giant Body Technique!"
The spears struck—but passed harmlessly through them. Suigetsu's Hydrification Technique made him immune to piercing.
Then, seawater surged upward, enveloping them both.
A massive humanoid figure formed from water—like a towering suit of armor.
They had theorized this fusion before: what if Suigetsu's Hydrification and Kimimaro's bone manipulation could cooperate? They weren't Senju Hashirama, but by blending their chakra and bodily control, they could mimic something monstrous:
A Water Giant.
Though difficult to control alone, with both of them syncing, it worked—clumsily, but devastatingly.
The Snow Ninja tried to retreat, but one by one, the giant's hands crushed them, their armor shattered in crimson bursts.
"No! Ice Release: Arctic Tempest!"
Himi exhaled a storm of freezing wind, icing over the giant's limbs. Its movement slowed.
Taking advantage, Himi retreated into the blizzard.
Kimimaro and Suigetsu returned to the deck.
"Aren't you going to chase after him?" Karin asked. "If you let him go back, won't he cause trouble for Koyuki Kazahana?"
Kimimaro shook his head calmly. "There's no need to worry. Lady Koyuki isn't someone so easily harmed. Not every Snow shinobi is loyal to Yukikawa Himi. After losing this many subordinates, he won't have the courage to act recklessly once he returns."
He turned his gaze to the vast ocean stained by battle. "Besides, our current mission is to escort Princess Haruna safely back to the Land of Vegetables. That takes priority."
With that, Kimimaro moved silently among the floating corpses. Drawing on the forbidden techniques Orochimaru had once exposed him to, he carefully extracted the life essence and harvested the bones from each body, leaving the decaying flesh to the sea. Over thirty shinobi had perished—most from the Snow Country, a few from the Land of Vegetables. Yet among them, only a handful were jōnin.
The Snow shinobi had a stronger force overall, mainly composed of chūnin. The Land of Vegetables, on the other hand, was sorely lacking in talent—apart from the so-called "Three Evil Ninjas," the rest were barely genin level.
From the entire battlefield, he managed to gather only around 7,000 units of life energy—disappointingly low, but with the steady accumulation of skeletal material, he could sense he was nearing the threshold to manifest the White Bone Giant.
His work done, Kimimaro returned to the deck and cast a silent glance at the two prisoners, Renga and Ruiga. Both had been taken alive, though barely. Ruiga was half-dead from his injuries—Suigetsu had not held back. Renga was in better shape; Guren had subdued him with restraint.
Jiga, on the other hand, had been reduced to a charred corpse, struck down by Ranmaru's lightning technique. There was nothing left to salvage from him.
Kimimaro said nothing as he placed his hand on Renga's chest. Slowly, the man's life force was drained, his chakra and vitality dissolving into Kimimaro's body. Ruiga followed next. When he finished, Kimimaro's internal reserves had surged—Current Life Energy: 32,000.
He pulled a new test tube from his supply pouch, freshly restocked since his last visit to Orochimaru's lab over a month ago. The experiment would continue—soon, the White Bone Giant would be ready.
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