Shikibu was intrigued. When two of Uehara’s clones appeared on the island to bring her and Sakura to watch the "training session" as the clones had so called it, she certainly didn’t expect to see her benefactor decimate entire squadrons of shinobi and martial artists with one technique.

"[Underworld Swamp]" was the name of the technique she had heard him utter from his lips. While to some, it may appear somewhat subpar to what Uehara did, only she truly understood just how absurd his actions were. Accurately tracking hundreds of energy signatures moving at high speed is one thing. Accurately spawning hundreds of hands that were able to capture them is another thing entirely. She was even more impressed that he could do all that while having his chakra output limited.

Further observing the fight, she was glad to see him quickly initiate plans to destroy the morale of the army. She had viewed it as an ingenious tactic. Those senbon needles launched at the soldiers would deter any of them from trying to interrupt his upcoming fight against the eight powers of the Minamoto clan.

Then there was the shadow clone. The seamless switch that escaped even her eyes greatly impressed her. To be able to form a shadow clone and sink hundreds of metres underground in less than a blink spoke volumes of his skill alone. Although she was initially unsure why he had made the clone, her questions were answered when she saw how he fought the patriarch. Just a single tap allowed Uehara to apply seal after seal all over Hozuki’s body. A…tap. She knew a couple of seal masters who would be frothing at the mouth if she even told them that such a method of applying seals existed. Talismans or sealing tags are the usual mediums that are used. Not fingers. She was no master at all in seals, only knowing the bare bones of the art. But even she could tell that what Uehara did was nothing short of amazing. To flawlessly code his chakra to script a particular seal upon contact was amazing. And what a flawless seal it was. In simple terms, it was a modified chakra absorption seal that, instead of forcefully taking in a target's chakra and transferring it into the atmosphere or a specified source, the seal would do the opposite and (wirelessly) absorb chakra from the source or the atmosphere and transfer it directly into the target.

With Uehara’s chakra being more potent than a human’s ki, it would only be a matter of time before the patriarch would suffer from chakra poisoning. But that process was sped up when Uehara suddenly bombarded him with volcanic ash. The man had to use his own ki to destroy the particles that had entered his lungs, which were quite numerous and poisonous. Unfortunately for Hozuki, this resulted in Uehara’s chakra poisoning his ki pathways much faster, getting him stunned enough for Uehara to bind him with lightning-ice chains. Again, he used more ki to stave off the effects of the frigid cold and electricity threatening to course through his veins, which allowed more of Uehara’s chakra to infiltrate his body and weaken him even further.

With all these factors in place, it was quite easy for Uehara to subdue him long enough to eliminate him. And eliminate him he would. With a simple sword slash to the neck, he managed to kill the Wolf of the Minamoto Clan.

But as soon as his blade had reached the end of its arc, Shikibu was surprised to see Chizuki vanish. Tracing her movements, she was, to put it in one word, horrified at what she witnessed. Chizuki had appeared next to Uehara and deflected a chakra-powered kunai that was aimed straight for his head.

She immediately turned towards two of Uehara’s clones that were gazing impassively at the battlefield. Before she could ask why they didn’t do anything, Sakura beat her to it.

“W-why are you standing here?!”

Shikibu also wanted to know as well. Her body still shivers at the possible outcome had the kunai struck.

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Immediately, both clones directed their glares towards Sakura, their black concentric rings rotating in synchronization. There was no need for words. The message was enough for Sakura to understand.

“S-sorry for shouting…”

The clones looked at her for a second longer before returning their gaze towards the now erected dome. While one kept quiet, the other spoke. “Eldest brother wouldn’t have died from such a flimsy technique. You felt it too, right, Lady Murasaki? The way elder brother’s chakra restriction seal broke within that moment.”

Shikibu returned her gaze to the dome and muttered quietly, still reeling from the near miss.

“Yes...I even felt his chakra circulate faster than before.”

“Correct. Now listen, Sakura. Eldest brother can survive a blast strong enough to destroy a city. His bones alone would’ve been able to ensure that at best, that kunai would’ve knocked him out. Adding to the fact that my brothers had slowed down the kunai and that eldest brother’s unrestricted chakra would’ve acted as a shield, the only real danger would be him being rendered unconscious at best. And that would only be for a few minutes at the most.”

Sakura absorbed the given information while Shikibu looked down at the scene below quietly. The dome was still up and the efforts of the seven Minamoto were proving fruitless. The warriors of the Minamoto clan on the walls of Kamakura were quiet, their expressions solemn. Keiza, the younger brother in all but name of Hozuki, was currently the definition of distraught. He was on his knees, tears escaping his eyes uncontrollably while three men in similar steel-plate armor were showing him their support. Across the entire wall, similar scenes could be witnessed as several soldiers mourned the loss of their patriarch, his decapitated head hidden inside Uehara’s dome.

At the battlefield, there was a temporary silence for quite a while. No techniques were being executed at the moment. Everyone, including the seven powers of the Minamoto clan, just idled by, everyone’s attention on the damaged dome with parts of the obsidian layer showing. The strong winds caused by the hundreds of energy fluctuations chipped off loose pieces of the earth layer of the dome, carrying the particles throughout the field which has now become a wasteland. The continuous release of high-level techniques, especially the tsunami, has destroyed all the greenery to the point that not even the roots remained. There were also quite a few boulder chunks from the massive earth wall that the white-robed elders had erected to combat Uehara’s tsunami. Even the forests surrounding the city weren’t spared. Although the corpses of the martial artists and shinobi that were sent to surround Uehara were buried, some of their weapons still remained either hooked on tree branches or strewn amongst the forest litter. The places where twelve of Uehara’s clones combated the black-robed elders had several parts of the forest floor exposed to the sun due to several of the trees having been cut down. A piece of cloth here and there and the occasional burnt bark were a common sight. The whole region itself seemed dark, the clouds blocking the sun. The aura of despair seemed to have been enhanced when coupled with the barrenness of the location.

Shikibu, Sakura, the spies Chizuki rescued, as well as Uehara’s two clones were roughly a kilometer away from everything. Situated on the mountain, they had a great viewpoint of everything happening in front of them. It was then that Chizuki appeared with another of Uehara’s clones in a dark swirl. She practically radiated happiness, something both Sakura and Shikibu instantly took notice of. Both watched as she sat down between them, taking care not to tear her robe as she leaned against the tree.

“This is such a wonderful day~”

““?!””

Forget Sakura. Even Shikibu was wide-eyed at this statement. Both of them could feel the negative emotions in the air released by the Minamoto. Even one of the clones was noticeably trying to suppress laughter at that statement. It was only by a slight prod of the elbow from its brother that the clone regained its serious demeanor and attention to the scene below. It was just in time too since almost immediately, everyone was subjected to the intense pressure of Uehara’s unrestricted sage chakra.

FUUUUUUSHHH

Even the civilians behind the walls weren’t spared from the pressure. Despite having hidden within the safety of their own homes and bunkers, the pressure of Uehara’s chakra was felt within a large radius. Even the weather itself began to shift, dark clouds forming in the skies. The winds grew stronger, ruffling the hairs and clothes of everyone with barely concealed vigor. But no one cared about the wind. Right now, thousands of eyes were focusing on a single location - the obsidian dome.

BOOM