Chapter 237: Heavenly Thunder and Earthly Fire

"Where did the enemy go? How did they suddenly disappear?"

Within the Allied Shinobi Forces, many who witnessed Dan vanish into thin air expressed faces of perplexity.

The next second.

"He's here!" A startled cry identified the enemy, who had mysteriously appeared amidst them.

He was a man, standing two meters tall with a robust physique, his eyes revealing a pair of crimson Mangekyō Sharingan, emanating an oppressive force that suffocated those around him.

Seeing Dan's Mangekyō Sharingan, those around instinctively felt fear and retreated. Some thought the man looked familiar but couldn't recall immediately.

Dan's sudden appearance caused a stir among the crowd, but the Allied Shinobi Forces quickly responded.

"What's there to fear? The Mangekyō Sharingan isn't invincible!"

"Right, he may be powerful, but he's alone, and we are a hundred thousand strong. Even if each of us spat at him, he'd drown."

"Let's go, everyone! Take him down!"

The Allied Shinobi Forces, like a dense swarm of ants, charged at Dan from all directions.

Snap.

Dan, with a calm demeanor, brought his hands together in a seal.

He absorbed natural energy at a frenzied pace, reaching a critical point at this moment.

Practicing Senjutsu (Sage Techniques) has its side effects. If a practitioner absorbs too much natural energy, unable to maintain balance with their internal chakra, catastrophic consequences can ensue.

Such as petrification, transformation into a frog, or mental derangement.

And Dan, he was struck by lightning.

Because the natural energy he absorbed was simply too much.

If others were thieves, stealthily stealing energy from nature, Dan was a brazen robber, blatantly and aggressively seizing it.

Thus, even the natural world could not tolerate his egregious actions and sought to punish him severely.

Crack.

Accompanied by a strong, blinding white light, a jagged, robust lightning bolt, like a silver serpent, emerged from the clouds.

It didn't zigzag through the sky like ordinary lightning but aimed straight at Dan on the ground, like a sword thrusting downward!

Under the horrified gazes of countless onlookers.

Boom!

The lightning, laden with destructive energy, descended from the heavens, engulfing Dan's figure.

Also enveloped by the lightning were hundreds of Allied Shinobi Forces around him.

The intense light made it impossible to keep eyes open, only the thunderous crash of the lightning striking the ground and the faint, interspersed, agonizing screams could be heard.

When everything settled.

A patch of scorched earth remained at the center of the battlefield, with lingering sparks and wafting white smoke.

Hundreds of Allied Shinobi lay haphazardly on the ground, nearly all of them charred black, with flesh torn, some still able to wail, while others lay motionless.

Only Dan stood, unmoved, in his original position.

The terrifying lightning, though aimed at him, left no mark upon him.

This scene instilled fear in all spectators.

"I remember now, he is... Uchiha Dan! The Uchiha Dan who should have been dead long ago!"

Finally, someone recognized Dan's identity, crying out in terror.

"What? Uchiha Dan is still alive, how is that possible?!"

The crowd erupted into chaos.

Some of them, during the previous siege of Konoha by the four major ninja villages, had witnessed the earth-shattering battle between Uchiha Dan and the Six Paths of Pain.

Dan and Pain, both were super-powerful beings, capable of facing thousands alone.

At this moment, many finally recalled the notorious reputation of Dan and his terrifying power.

Whoosh.

In an instant, the crowd retreated like a tidal wave.

Looking down from mid-air, a massive circular vacuum area quickly formed around Dan as the center. No one dared to approach within a hundred meters of him.

However, when the Allied Shinobi Forces began to retreat, it was already too late.

For Dan, his attack had just begun.

Whoosh.

Dan moved, charging into the crowd at lightning speed.

Crack! Crack!

One after another, lightning bolts, accompanied by rolling thunder, continuously fell from the clouds, striking the battlefield.

Dan seemed like a human lightning summoner. Wherever he appeared, lightning struck, each time causing dozens to hundreds of casualties.

During this process.

Dan's tranquility and composure seemed to thoroughly infuriate the will of the heavens and earth, prompting the world to unleash an even more terrifying divine punishment upon him in its furious state.

Boom!

At a certain moment, a hundred lightning bolts simultaneously burst from the clouds, like electric serpents with fangs bared, lunging towards the battlefield.

The entire sky and earth were illuminated by electric light, leaving only a pure white color in everyone's eyes.

Rumble.

Under the bombardment of hundreds of lightning bolts, the earth trembled violently, as if it would be split in two.

"Help!" "What in the world is happening, ah!"

"..."

Countless Allied Shinobi Forces screamed in horror, clutching their heads and scurrying away, yet they could not escape the fate of being brutally torn and devoured by the power of the lightning.

How could a mere mortal resist the mighty power of nature?

Even Tsuchikage, Danzo, and the Fourth Raikage, among others, displayed horrified expressions, having to exert themselves to dodge the electrified areas and employ ninjutsu for self-protection.

From afar,

"What kind of jutsu is this? Such terrifying power..."

Naruto murmured, his eyes filled with disbelief, as he gazed at the battlefield enveloped in lightning.

Beside him, Konan's expression was solemn.

Although she had full confidence in Naruto's future, believing that he would eventually surpass Nagato and eliminate all obstacles for the Akatsuki, witnessing the power displayed by Uchiha Dan at this moment still made her involuntarily gasp.

Dan was undoubtedly the greatest enemy of the Akatsuki.

Kakuzu's eyes flickered, gazing at Dan's figure on the battlefield, silently admiring:

Worthy of Uchiha Dan, confronting the Allied Shinobi Forces single-handedly.

No wonder both Pain and Deidara perished at his hands.

And he, Kakuzu, was someone who could calmly retreat and survive after clashing with Dan.

Thinking of this, a hint of pride surfaced on Kakuzu's face.

On a hill on the other side of the battlefield,

"At this rate, the one hundred thousand Allied Shinobi Forces... they can't possibly be defeated by a single person, Uchiha Dan, can they?"

Kisame was dumbfounded, though his dead fish eyes, even at their widest, still resembled soybeans.

Orochimaru also sighed,

"It seems that perhaps resurrecting Uchiha Madara is the only way to deal with Dan."

"Don't rush."

Black Zetsu's eyes flashed, signaling to wait a bit longer, after all, this battle had just begun.

In contrast,

The most shocked spectator was Jiraiya.

"Is this some kind of joke..."

He never imagined that Dan would actually use the method of excessively absorbing natural energy to attract lightning to strike himself, while also using this force of nature to attack the enemy.

All that could be said was... this was a bold move by a highly skilled individual.

What shocked Jiraiya even more was yet to come.

Perhaps it was because Dan absorbed too much natural energy, making the heavens feel that merely striking him with lightning was not enough.

Boom.

With a tremor of the earth, the ground bulged and cracked widely, as if something was surging out from beneath the earth.

It was magma.

Whoosh.

Dark red magma spewed out from the ground in waves, mixed with rolling smoke and scorching heat, accompanied by the suffocating sound of air burning.

In an instant, the battlefield turned into a sea of fire.

"Ah!"

Many Allied Shinobi Forces, who had just barely escaped the attack of the heavenly lightning, were swallowed by the earth fire in the blink of an eye, buried in the sea of fire.

No trace left behind.

At this moment, the entire battlefield seemed to have turned into a purgatory on earth.

And Uchiha Dan was right in the center of hell.

Crack!

The thunder from above, one bolt after another, continuously struck him, intending to shatter him to pieces;

Whoosh!

The magma below was omnipresent, creeping up Dan's legs, intending to burn him to ashes.

His practice of Sage Jutsu was like a sage crossing a catastrophe, with both heavenly thunder and earthly fire trying to annihilate him.

However, Dan was too lonely by himself, so he chose to let the one hundred thousand troops of the Shinobi world accompany him through this catastrophe, incidentally helping him share some of the pressure.

"Hahahaha!"

Dan's unrestrained laughter echoed in the sky above the battlefield, like the devil's manic laughter.

With every step he took, spanning hundreds of meters, he descended upon the densest part of the crowd, bringing the Allied Shinobi Forces both heavenly thunder and earthly fire.

At this moment, Dan was like a walking Grim Reaper.

Lives were like wild grass by the roadside, being casually harvested by the Reaper as he passed by, using the scythe in his hand interwoven with lightning and fire.

"Don't come over here!"

Numerous Allied Shinobi Forces, faces filled with terror, fled in panic, praying they would not be targeted by Dan.

Dan, utilizing the power of nature to launch a dimension-reducing strike, was something that human power could not resist, it could be said to be a nearly unsolvable jutsu.

The only weakness of this jutsu was that Dan might play with fire and get burnt himself, after all, compared to the enemy, the power of the heavenly thunder and earthly fire he himself bore was the most terrifying.

So, would Dan be finished?

Sizzle.

Lightning enveloped Dan's body, frenziedly tearing his muscles, causing excruciating pain. Zap! Zap! Zap!

The ground fire scorched Dan's body, turning his skin a reddish hue. His temperature soared rapidly, making it seem like he would transform into a "Fire Man" at any moment.

However, Dan continued to laugh heartily, appearing completely unhinged, as if all the pain was nonexistent.

As his muscles were destroyed by the forces, they quickly healed with the continuous absorption of natural energy, rejuvenating him through an overcompensation of recovery.

Thunder from the sky and fire from the earth, refining his being.

That was Dan's true intention.

...

Finally, after a chaotic series of events that left the entire battlefield in disarray, the calamity that affected everyone finally subsided.

In the sky, the dark clouds no longer flashed with lightning, and the thunder quieted down. Eventually, the clouds dispersed, and daylight once again graced the land.

On the ground, the once-rampant ground fire reluctantly retreated back into the earth, leaving behind scorched earth and a few remaining embers as evidence of its presence.

From start to finish, it took less than ten minutes.

The number of casualties among the Allied Shinobi Forces exceeded ten thousand due to the ravages of the thunder and ground fire.

It was a staggering number.

Remember, the Third Raikage, hailed as the strongest in history, battled ten thousand Iwagakure shinobi for three days and nights, ultimately dying from exhaustion.

In those three days, the Third Raikage only managed to kill two to three thousand of the Iwagakure shinobi.

Now, in just a few minutes, Dan, with the terrifying power of nature, achieved a kill count in the tens of thousands.

The Allied Shinobi Forces lost a tenth of their strength right from the start, dealing a massive blow to their morale.

The surviving shinobi, still in shock, turned their gaze towards the center of the battlefield.

There stood Dan, motionless. His clothes had long been burned to ashes, and his entire body was covered in charred skin, emitting wisps of white smoke.

"Is he... dead?" many wondered, their faces lighting up with hope.

However, their brief moment of joy was quickly shattered.

Crack.

A piece of charred skin on Dan's face cracked and fell off, revealing the skin underneath.

Pristine and radiant.

Just like a tree that, after being struck by lightning or burned by fire, would sprout fresh green leaves the following spring, Dan seemed to have undergone a similar transformation.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes, revealing an even more intense and crimson Mangekyō Sharingan.

Following that, Dan shook off the remaining charred skin, revealing a nearly flawless physique.

Golden proportions, bulging muscles, and smooth, fair skin.

Men and women alike couldn't help but feel inferior when comparing their own bodies to his perfect form.

Thump, thump.

Dan's heartbeat echoed like a drum, pumping blood throughout his body, creating a roaring sound reminiscent of a raging river.

Simultaneously, black markings appeared around his eyes, resembling a subtle smoky makeup.

This was the mark of Sage Mode — the Sage's face paint.

Compared to Jiraiya's flashy and frog-like Sage face paint, Dan's was simple, even rudimentary.

However, the simpler the markings, the more perfect the Sage transformation.

Dan now exuded a different aura.

If before he was a demon from the abyss, now he was the blazing sun at high noon, radiating boundless light and heat, too dazzling to look directly at.

Crack.

Dan slowly clenched his fist, feeling the flow of the Sage chakra within him.

He had finally succeeded.

In Sage Mode, he felt an unprecedented power, filled with surging and violent energy, making him eager to unleash it.

However, at that moment...

Whoo.

A gentle breeze swept across the battlefield, making Dan, who was completely exposed, feel a slight chill.

He then realized he was being watched by nearly a hundred thousand pairs of eyes.

Running naked in front of ninety thousand people, Dan could be considered the first in the shinobi world to do so.

Whoosh.

He reached out and summoned a blue Uchiha robe from his Kamui dimension, draping it over himself.

And now...

The warm-up was over; it was time for the main event.