Chương 96

"You are either unbelievably confident... or unbelievably stupid." His voice carried no mockery, only genuine concern. From his perspective this was nothing more than a young boy challenging someone who could casually tear apart boulders once the Curse Mark took over. The others might have been defeated easily by him, but he was leagues above them. Tayuya had indeed warned him that this masked man was terrifying, but warnings and witnessing something with his own eyes were two completely different matters.

Besides, he and Kimimaro had already spoken before leaving. The moment an opportunity appeared they would regroup. He didn't have any intention of serving another master, especially now when he saw that Rei was younger than themselves.

"Fine." Jugo finally nodded.

"If defeating you means I can return, then I'll fight." The moment the words fell, the atmosphere around him shifted. Vein-like markings slowly crawled across one side of his body as only a small portion of the Curse Mark activated. It was enough to enhance his physical abilities without letting his murderous impulses completely consume him. He lowered his stance and in the next heartbeat disappeared from where he stood. BOOM!

His fist crashed directly toward Rei's chest with enough force to crack the ground beneath their feet. Rei answered with a punch of his own. The two fists collided head-on and a violent shockwave erupted throughout the clearing, flattening the surrounding grass and sending birds fleeing from every nearby tree. Rei's body wasn't just enhanced by Thor's physique, one just couldn't look down on the body of an authentic Uzumaki and other shinobis joined in together.

Every single physique he had had bolstered his body into a new height. Jugo's eyes widened ever so slightly. Instead of watching the boy get blown away, he found himself taking half a step backwards. Rei hadn't budged an inch.

"Impossible..." Jugo muttered before immediately throwing another punch followed by a knee strike and spinning elbow. Rei met every single attack with one of his own. Their fists collided repeatedly, each impact sounding like two massive steel hammers smashing together. Trees shook from the pressure alone while the ground beneath them fractured more with every exchange.

Jugo had fought countless people before, even the snake sanin himself, yet never had someone matched him physically without relying on some monstrous transformation of their own. Rei simply stood there and answered strength with strength. Realizing that holding back was accomplishing nothing, Jugo allowed more natural energy to flood his body. The black markings spread farther across his skin while muscles swelled noticeably beneath his clothes.

His next kick carried far greater force, splitting the earth where Rei had been standing only a moment earlier. Rei ducked beneath a follow-up swing and answered with a hook that struck Jugo square across the jaw, sending the larger man skidding several meters before digging both feet into the ground to stop himself. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips. He wiped it away silently before charging again. This time the two abandoned any notion of defense. Every punch was answered by another.

Every kick collided midair. Rei's Thor-enhanced physique refused to yield while Jugo's Sage Transformation continued pushing his body beyond ordinary human limits. The clearing quickly became unrecognizable as shattered rocks, uprooted trees and deep craters spread across the battlefield.

"You..." Jugo growled while breathing heavily.

"... what are you?" He couldn't understand it. Every increase in Sage chakra should have widened the gap between them, yet the young man before him simply continued matching him blow for blow as though his strength had no visible ceiling. Rei merely smiled before driving his shoulder into Jugo's chest, launching him backwards through another cluster of trees. Jugo flipped midair, landed on all fours and finally abandoned restraint completely. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Jugo's body swelled as Sage Transformation completely consumed him. Thick muscles expanded across his frame while his skin darkened and monstrous cannons of flesh formed over both of his shoulders. Dense natural energy poured from his body in waves powerful enough to make the surrounding trees groan beneath the pressure.

"I didn't want this..." Jugo admitted quietly.

"... but now I have no choice." He suddenly raised one of the massive cannons toward Rei. BOOM! A compressed blast of chakra exploded from the barrel with deafening force, carving a straight path through everything before it. Trees were torn apart like paper while the earth itself was ripped open. Rei vanished. The beam continued for several hundred meters before finally fading, leaving behind nothing but destruction.

"Hahahaha..." Jugo laughed manically seeing Rei had survived which meant he could play more.

"You'll have to do better than that." The voice came from above, high up in the branch of a tree. Jugo instinctively fired again, while maintaining the laugh and the derangement. BOOM! Another blast erupted skyward. The explosion swallowed the treetop entirely, only for Rei to disappear again at the very last instant. The projectile crossed the sky and detonated against a distant mountainside, sending countless boulders crashing downward.

"Tch." Jugo rotated his shoulder and fired repeatedly. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! One blast chased another through the forest as Rei continued weaving between them with frightening precision. Sometimes he simply sidestepped by the smallest margin possible. Thanks to Sharingan. Other times he used Shunshin to disappear completely before reappearing somewhere else entirely. Every beam left behind another scar upon the landscape while Rei himself remained untouched.

"You aren't even aiming at me anymore." Rei remarked casually while standing atop a shattered tree trunk.

"Oh! You mean you want more. I can give you more.. hahahaha..." Jugo answered with another barrage. The cannons roared continuously, turning the entire clearing into a sea of explosions and flying debris, yet no matter how many blasts he fired, the boy always seemed to be one step ahead, moving through the battlefield almost effortlessly as though he had already seen every attack before it was launched.

Since he saw that Rei wasn't coming down with blasts alone he decided to incorporate both bodily strength and blasts. Jugo fired himself while pointing his cannons at Rei. Rei ducked the cannon shot and produced an upper cut. Jugo twisted his body in midair with monstrous agility and crossed both forearms before the uppercut could properly connect, the impact still launching him several meters upward.

Instead of retreating he laughed even louder, the manic sound echoing across the devastated forest as both shoulder cannons roared once more. Two compressed chakra blasts shot downward almost point-blank. Rei immediately slammed both palms against the ground.

"Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!" A massive stone wall erupted from the earth just as the beams struck. BOOOOOOM! The entire wall exploded into thousands of fragments, dust swallowing everything in sight. Jugo burst through the smoke without slowing down, both fists swinging wildly as though he had completely abandoned reason. Rei calmly met every strike with his own. Their fists collided repeatedly before Rei suddenly disappeared.

"What..." A yellow flash appeared behind Jugo. Rei's heel crashed into the back of Jugo's neck, driving him face-first into the earth before dozens of razor-sharp ice spears erupted from beneath the ground.

"Ice Release: Frozen Spears!" Jugo roared as several spears tore across his arms and shoulders. Rather than retreating he ripped them apart through sheer brute force and answered with another barrage of cannon blasts, laughing all the while as explosions swallowed the battlefield. Rei vanished from one marked kunai to another, each yellow flash followed by another strike. Sometimes a kick. Sometimes a sword slash.

Sometimes an earth wall forcing Jugo into an unfavorable position before another volley of ice spikes burst upward beneath his feet.

"HAHAHAHA! YES! MORE!" Jugo screamed while blindly firing blasts in every direction.

"FIGHT ME!" Jugo gathered every ounce of natural energy into both cannons before unleashing the largest blast yet. The enormous beam consumed everything ahead, vaporizing trees and leaving behind a trench hundreds of meters long. Only for Rei to vanish once more. A yellow flash appeared directly in front of Jugo. A swirling sphere of violently rotating chakra had already formed in Rei's palm.

"Rasengan." BOOOOOOOOM! The sphere slammed into Jugo's chest and exploded with terrifying force. His massive transformed body was launched across the forest like a broken cannonball, smashing through tree after tree before finally crashing into a rocky cliff face hard enough to shatter it. His Sage Transformation flickered. Before he could even regain his bearings, his instincts screamed. A familiar yellow flash appeared beside him. The Hiraishin mark Rei had secretly placed on Jugo earlier activated.

Rei's hand was already crackling with blinding blue lightning. CHIIIIIIIIIIII! The piercing cry of a thousand birds filled the forest.

"Chidori." The lightning-covered hand struck Jugo point-blank in the chest, the current surging through every muscle and nerve instead of piercing straight through him. Jugo's entire body convulsed violently as arcs of electricity danced across his transformed frame.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"