Chapter 481: 446. Extermination Scale
"Now then… it's time I complete my task."
Kakuzu cracks his neck and shoulders and turns to Sasuke.
"I don't like being controlled by others, especially if there is no money in it. But I will do Akatsuki a favor this time since I was a former member of it."
HAAH…
Kakuzu claps his hands.
"Also, I wanted to try this jutsu out. It would be impossible for me to try it out when I was still alive since the sheer force of chakra in this jutsu will explode every cell in my body. However, as I am already dead now, it doesn't matter anymore."
SHOOM…
A large amount of chakra gathers in front of various masks around Kakuzu's face. The sheer density of the chakra distorts the surrounding space. It creates a chaotic surge of chakra that runs rampant.
Back at the Akatsuki headquarter,
"Huh?!"
Kabuto turns his attention to one of the shogi pieces on the ground.
"What's going on?"
The white shogi piece turns black. Kabuto picks up the Shogi piece.
"That's Kakuzu's piece. What's he doing? Why do I have lost control over him? Hmm…"
Kabuto makes a series of hand signs and picks up another Shogi piece representing Hidan. He controls Hidan's body and shares his senses with Hidan to observe the battlefield.
On the battlefield, the pupil in Hidan's eye suddenly turns white before returning to normal. Kabuto observes the battle between Sasuke and Kakuzu.
"That's… that's Sasuke Uchiha. One of the prodigies of the Uchiha clan and a student of the Izuna Uchiha. Hmm…"
He notices the slightly different Mangekyo pattern in Sasuke's eyes.
"His Mangekyo Sharingan looks different from usual. Is it the legendary Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?"
Kabuto observes Sasuke with curiosity.
Sasuke sense the danger from Kakuzu's jutsu.
'I can't avoid this attack.' He grimaces.
Sasuke claps his hands and transforms his Susanoo to its next form.
"Since that's the case, then I might as well as go out…"
An exoskeleton armor covers his humanoid Susanoo. It transforms into Complete Body Susanoo with a tengu head and a pair of wings on its back. Heavy purple armor covers Sasuke's Susanoo.
Kakuzu also completes his preparation as four compressed chakra orbs of water, fire, earth, and wind appear in front of the various masks.
Rumble… rumble…
The ground around Kakuzu trembles as he attempts to fuse the four chakra orbs into one.
"Heaven Grudge Fear: Quadruple Fusion,"
Multiple cracks appear on the grudge masks as the four chakra orbs slowly move toward each other.
SHOOM…
The ground beneath him caves in as a result of the sheer weight of those orbs.
BZZT…
The chakra orb repels each other and refuses to fuse into one. Kabuto's eyes widen in shock as he figures out Kakuzu's intention.
"He is forcefully fusing four different elements to create a jutsu beyond the Kekkai Tota. The dust release of the second Tsuchikage and Third Tsuchikage is the pinnacle of elemental manipulation that a human can achieve. The destructive potential and the difficulty of mastery of dust release are well-known to the shinobi world. It's part of the reason why the third Tsuchikage is so stubborn about his position as the Tsuchikage. No person among his students has learned the secrets of the dust release. But now…"
Kabuto stares at Kakuzu with an incredulous gaze.
'Perhaps only that person has surpassed the boundaries of humans and touched the heights of GOD.' A frantic expression appears on Kabuto's face as he remembers Izuna's final battle against the Abyss demon.
The repulsion force from the four orbs slowly erodes Kakuzu's Edo body and even the regeneration of Edo Tensei is unable to keep up with it.
CRACK… CRACK… CRACK…
One by one, the three fear masks around Kakuzu's face shatter.
HAAAAHH…
Kakuzu clasps his hand and yells as his body slowly starts to disintegrate from the repulsive force of the four elemental orbs.
Finally, when almost half of his body has disintegrated, the four orbs fuse into one.
"Obliterate!"
Kakuzu fires the orb in Sasuke's direction with the last vestiges of his will. His Edo body disintegrates into countless light fragments.
"He succeeded!"
Kabuto's eyes narrow and turn into slits as he stares at the rapidly approaching orb of destruction.
Kabuto activates an incomplete version of Sage's eyes to analyze the jutsu.
"Hmm… I can still some traces of four elements in the jutsu. Those orbs merged partially, but so it's more like a pseudo-fusion. However, its power is much, much higher than Tsuchikage's dust release."
Kabuto recalls his recent battle with the Third Tsuchikage. Although he didn't manage to complete his objective of capturing the Jinchuriki of eight and nine-tails. He did manage to snag a spoil of the war.
Kabuto glances at an unconscious Yamato by his side. Kabuto's white snake is constantly injecting venom into Yamato's body to prevent his recovery. This venom is one of his creations from the study of the Hashirama cells. It effectively suppresses the recovery of the Hashirama cells.
"He is like a living clone of the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, with independent thoughts. I can control him and fuse him with a Zetsu to create a pseudo-body of Hashirama Senju. Though not good as the original, this will still be a considerable battle force."
Kabuto shakes his head and produces a serum from his pocket.
"This serum is extracted from the blood of one of the test subjects of Lord Orochimaru; Chinoike clan was it! Even though that fellow survived the procedure of the Heaven Curse Seal, he lost his sanity in the process and mutated. However, this mutation came with a benefit of its own. The mutation drastically improved the prowess of his bloodline to induce genjutsu. I extracted this serum from his blood to create a potent genjutsu-inducing drug."
Kabuto injects the drug into Yamato's blood vessels.
ARGH…
Yamato's expression turns hideous as Kabuto releases him from his suppression.
"Now then…"
Kabuto clasps his hand, and a shell of Zetsu's hollow body envelops Yamato.
Shoom…
A new brand of curse marks appears on Yamato's body as Kabuto controls his movement.
"Hmm… the performance of this improved Heaven Earth Seal is not too shabby. According to Lord Orochimaru's records, the Heaven and Earth Seals are incomplete. Only the perfect combination of both heaven and earth seals can be considered complete. I did manage to fuse both seals, but the merge rate is very low at five percent fusion."
Kabuto sighs and makes a few more hand signs to complete the seal.
"Even though it's not complete, this should be enough to overwrite his will for a few days. And the drug will further suppress his free will."
Kabuto waves his hand and dispatches the Zetsu Yamato on the battlefield.
Back on the battlefield,
Inside the Allied Shinobi forces headquarter,
RUMBLE… RUMBLE…
Multiple ripples spread across the sensing water sphere of the Intelligence and Sensor department.
"What… what's going on?"
The intense fluctuation of the water sphere shocks the shinobis in the headquarter.
"Lord Inoichi?! This…"
"There is a powerful flow of turbulent chakra on the battlefield. Someone used an extremely powerful, forbidden jutsu. The magnitude of this jutsu is 5.5 on the 'Extermination Scale'."
"A magnitude of 5.5 on the 'Extermination scale'." Everyone in headquarters gulps their saliva in fear.
It has been a few hours since the war began and yet such a powerful, forbidden jutsu already made its presence.
'Extermination Scale' is a destruction magnitude scale coined by Minato after observing Izuna's powerful mass destruction jutsus.
According to this scale, most A-rank jutsu and below end at around 3 in destruction. S-Rank jutsu ranks around 3.5 or 4. Only the most powerful S-Rank jutsu reaches a scale of 4.5.
Above the S-rank jutsus are forbidden jutsus with tactical or strategic values. Each of these jutsus are capable of mass destruction and can easily wipe out a hidden village with all of its citizens.
To give a precise value, Naruto's normal Rasenshuriken value, and Onoki's Dust release are set at a value of 4.5, the lowest value for a forbidden jutsu. A fully charged tailed beast bomb, Pain's full power Shinra Tensei, Naruto's tailed beast rasenshuriken, and fury the most powerful, forbidden jutsu of En no Gyōja are set at a value of 5 on the Extermination Scale. These jutsus are capable of annihilating an entire village with almost no survivors.
Most jutsu above this rank are inaccessible to an individual and are a part of tactical or strategic weapons. Almost all of them are cooperation ninjutsu that requires a huge amount of preparation and thus requires time to deploy on the battlefield. The maximum destruction these jutsu can achieve is a magnitude of 5.9 on the 'Extermination Scale.' And this power is enough to wipe out a small nation or one of the five great villages with their subsidiary villages.
However, there are still a few powerful jutsu possessed by some individuals that are not accounted for on this list, or rather Minato didn't choose to add them.
One such example is the Chibaku Tensei of Pain with a rating of 5.5 and Mugen Tens Shin: Chibaku Tensei with a value of 5.9. The ultimate weapon of the flying fortress of the Land of Sky also had a rating of 5.9, though they never got an opportunity to use it.
According to all these standards, the maximum value the shinobis of the Five Great Nations could ever achieve was 5.9. However, this list didn't include one individual.
-------------------------
A/N:- My new Naruto fan-fic, 'The Rogue Demon of the Shinobi World' is out.
Also, check out my pat reon www.pa treon.com/ForgottenLife to support my work and get a sneak peak at the latest chapters of both series in advance. Read upto 80+ chapters from both series combined in advance.
Chapter 482: 447. End of the Day One Battle
Yes, you guessed it right! The Extermination Scale doesn't include Izuna's jutsus. However, the extermination scale is based on his combat prowess.
Every rise in level is an exponential increment in the destructive prowess of a jutsu, and every level is a barrier that is incredibly difficult to overcome.
If every jutsu in the range of 5 to 5.9 has the potential to wipe out an entire nation, then the jutsu from 6 to 6.9 possess enough destructive prowess to annihilate entire continents or multiple nations with a single jutsu when used with destruction in mind.
Izuna's Kekkei Shi falls into the category. There were only a few moments when Izuna used this jutsu. Even at those moments, Izuna redirected almost all the energy of the jutsu toward the sky and contained the blast radius within a certain range. These jutsus are double-edged swords.
This earth-shattering, sea-sundering, and heaven-rending jutsus are just the tip of the iceberg. Minato thought this might be Izuna's limit. Since too much power in the hands of a single person will corrupt their mind. However, the existence of higher beings, the otherworldly gods, who can traverse across dimensions and consider the lower being like them as livestock, widened Minato's horizon to a new world.
It was at this moment that he thought about a power much greater than the world itself. A power strong enough to destroy an entire world. Perhaps this was the power of those so-called GODS in legend.
So, at this moment, Minato added a new tier to the Extermination Scale, 'The power to destroy the world'. He thought that he wouldn't come to witness such power, however, he was proven wrong when the seal on Ama no Hoko was released. It unleashed a greater evil on the world that wanted nothing more than the destruction of their world. That evil possessed a power strong enough to wipe out the entire world in a blink of an eye.
"Perhaps to beings like them, our existence is similar to that of an insect, unworthy of their attention." Minato shakes his head and focuses his attention on the battlefield.
The report of a jutsu of 5.5 intensity boggled his mind since such powerful jutsus will usually appear at the end of the battle and will become the deciding factor.
'Looks like even after so much consideration and preparation, we might have undermined the gravity of this war. A situation which might be unplausible in normal circumstances had already made its appearance.'
He was the one who sent Sasuke to fight against the reanimated members of the Akatsuki. However, even in his wild dreams, he expected such a situation to occur.
'I hope Sasuke can escape on time.'
Minato isn't worried about Sasuke's safety since Sasuke has multiple life-saving trump cards and even possesses a teleportation seal to escape the danger.
"Sigh… we might suffer heavy casualty in that sector."
A jutsu with a 5.5 extermination rating has enough radius to cover entire villages. Given the speed of the allied shinobi force, it's impossible to escape unscathed from that sector despite the early evacuation order.
Back on the battlefield,
Sasuke has a grim expression on his face as he confronts Kakuzu's most powerful attack deployed at the cost of his life. He tightly clutches the teleportation fuinjutsu scroll in his hand and calmly calculates various possibilities and their outcomes.
'The most obvious and reasonable outcome for me is to use the teleportation scroll and escape from this jutsu. The current me is incapable of dealing with an attack of such caliber. So, this choice is the most logical.
However, the cost of this choice is the loss of every shinobi in this sector. Almost two to three thousand shinobis will instantly lose their life.' Sasuke weighs the situation.
'Sacrificing a few thousand to save one life might seem unreasonable, but it's based on the premise that I possess the power to stop this attack. It's not a matter of choice, but a matter of fact.'
Sasuke takes out another scroll from his pocket. He hesitates for a while as he recalls the importance of this scroll.
"This scroll is one of the gifts Izuna Nii-san gave me on my thirteenth birthday. He said that this is one of his most valuable possessions and I must only use it during a life-death situation."
Sasuke bites his thumb and drips a drop of blood on the scroll.
"Nii-san, I will put my trust in you. I don't want my comrades to unnecessarily sacrifice their life in this war."
FWOOSH…
Kakuzu's attack closes up on him and explodes in an earth-shattering explosion. A gigantic sphere of volatile energy encases the battlefield and rapidly expands outward.
Since Kakuzu used this jutsu at the cost of his life, he didn't have control over this jutsu. As a result, the flow of chakra followed the natural path of least resistance and expanded outwards.
The ground, the trees, the clouds — everything rapidly disintegrates into nothingness.
RUMBLE… RUMBLE…
Powerful tremors ran across the ground as the shockwaves from the explosion shift the tectonic plates underneath the earth and an earthquake erupt from the heart of the earth with the site of the explosion as the center.
The temperature of the surroundings rapidly rises by several thousand. Sasuke, who is the first to bear the brunt of the explosion, feels it the most.
Even before the blast from the explosion could reach him, the powerful shockwaves and the high temperature cracked and melted his full body Susanoo. The blinding light from the explosion strained his eyes and Sasuke to force to close them off to prevent damaging them.
It was at this moment when Sasuke thought he made a mistake by staying at the battlefield and was about to crush the teleportation seal to escape, the scroll in his hand shone with a brilliant blue light.
A pillar of cyan light erupts from the scroll with Sasuke at the center. The cyan pillar of light shrouds his failing Susanoo with a thin barrier. This thin film of barrier instantly blocks the heat and radiation from the blast.
Next, a colossal towering shield drops in front of his Susanoo.
Vrmm…
A powerful hum echo through the battlefield as the eyes of the Yaksha on the shield glow brightly with a green hue. Numerous inscriptions representing Fire, water, wind, Earth, and lightning becomes visible on the shield.
'This is Izuna Nii-san's ultimate defense.' Sasuke's eyes widen in shock.
He instinctively grabs the shield with his Susanoo. The powerful burst of nature energy from the shield stabilizes his Susanoo and rapidly repairs the damage. A four-layered barrier appears in front of his Susanoo and blocks the explosion from traveling further.
"This shield can store nature energy." Amazement flickers across Sasuke's eyes as he holds the shield.
The stored nature energy in the shield rapidly depletes as Sasuke understands the shield's usage.
'This shield slowly absorbs the nature energy from surroundings on its own and the wielder of this shield can use that stored nature energy as he pleases. When activated, this shield will deploy a powerful five-layered barrier. However, I am not strong to deploy all barriers and even these four layered barriers are the result of stored Nature energy over a long period. However, I have signed a contract with this shield and from now onwards I can use it freely.'
HAAH…
Sasuke infuses his remaining chakra in the Yata No Kagami shield.
"CONFINE!"
He yells in frenzy. The shape of the barrier around the shield shifts and it slowly confines the blast of the powerful explosion to a very small radius.
Sasuke's chakra drains rapidly. Beads of sweat perspire from his head as he opens his mouth and gulps multiple chakra recovery pills. A blue-layered barrier slowly surrounds the sphere of explosion and redirects it toward the sky.
"SUPPRESS!"
The confined explosion turns into a cylindrical pillar of energy and pierces the skies. After a few seconds, the burst of energy dissipates into the surroundings. However, the aftermath of the explosion is still visible to the eyes.
Black clouds appear in the sky. Bolts of lightning crackle across the clouds and strike down the ground. Ripples spread across Sasuke's Susanoo as a few bolts strike his Susanoo.
A heavy downpour rains down from the sky as this battle marks the end of today's day battle. The sun slowly sets on the horizon; however, Sasuke is still silently standing at the previous site of the battle.
His gaze lingers on the bottomless hole present in front of him.
Sigh…
Sasuke sighs and shakes his head.
He gently caresses the colossal towering shield and places it on the rear of his Susanoo.
'This shield is a huge boost to my combat strength.'
The Susanoo flaps its wings and takes off to the sky, disappearing from the visions of shinobis who were frantically watching the battle from a distance with reverence.
"He must be one of the tactical deployments from the headquarters." A few shinobis profusely discuss among themselves.
"Everyone, let's return to the camp!" The Captain issues the command as he takes a last glance at the vanishing figure of Sasuke's Susanoo.
-------------------------
A/N:- My new Naruto fan-fic, 'The Rogue Demon of the Shinobi World' is out.
Also, check out my pat reon www.pa treon.com/ForgottenLife to support my work and get a sneak peak at the latest chapters of both series in advance. Read upto 80+ chapters from both series combined in advance.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment