After the battle, Sora found a wide-open area to rest.
After using his left eye's Mangekyō Sharingan twice, Sora felt a sharp, unbearable pain in his left eye.
Sora's left eye Mangekyō Sharingan technique, "Ten Thousand Rejections," could automatically reject any jutsu except his own, but it had its limitations.
For one, it couldn't reject Taijutsu attacks, and like Uchiha Obito's Kamui, it had a time limit.
The duration of "Ten Thousand Rejections" was only three minutes.
As for the technique housed in Sora's right eye, Mangekyō Sharingan, it was called "Accumulation"
The ability of the "Accumulation" technique allowed him to record jutsu targeted at him. After reaching a certain threshold, he could release all the recorded jutsu together.
It was similar to the Dark Style Bloodline Limit, which absorbed and returned attacks.
However, "Accumulation" couldn't absorb attacks—it could only record them, much like copying down someone else's writing.
But "Accumulation" could be used in conjunction with the left eye's "Ten Thousand Rejections."
"Ten Thousand Rejections" would negate the magical attack, while "Accumulation" would record the attack for later use.
Sora hadn't used "Accumulation" against those twenty Cloud shinobi earlier.
Even if he had recorded the power of the Cloud shinobi's jutsu, it wouldn't have reached the upper threshold required to release the recorded techniques.
Only when the recording reached its upper limit could the recorded jutsu be released all at once.
This was the first time Sora had unleashed his Mangekyō Sharingan techniques. Needless to say, it felt incredibly satisfying to completely ignore his opponents' ninjutsu.
The battle hadn't been stressful at all for Sora. After resting for a night, he continued hunting Cloud shinobi wherever he could find them.
Sora's relentless hunting put all Cloud shinobi in a state of constant danger.
Though the chance of encountering Sora wasn't particularly high, the question remained: what if they did?
Twenty Cloud shinobi, including eight jōnin, had been easily eliminated by Sora. If any mission team encountered him, they would certainly perish.
Unable to assemble a large enough force to hunt down Sora and knowing regular ninja teams were no match for him, the leader of the Cloud shinobi in the Land of Hot Water was forced to issue a new order.
All Cloud shinobi were required to learn the Lightning Style: Thunder Traction jutsu. If they encountered Sora, they were to immediately use this technique to momentarily hold him, then retreat as quickly as possible.
The Rock shinobi of the Land of Grass had already issued orders to retreat immediately upon seeing Sora.
Now, the Cloud shinobi of the Land of Hot Water had issued similar orders.
Sora's reputation as the "Blood-Eyed Shura" suddenly became well-known throughout the ninja world.
Sora's goal of becoming famous in the ninja world was nearly complete.
After all, there were very few named ninjas in history.
Konoha's White Fang Hatake Sakumo, the Legendary Sannin of Konoha, Hanzō of the Salamander... and the future legends like Konoha's Copy Ninja Kakashi, Konoha's Blue Beast Might Guy, and others.
A ninja with a name was a symbol of strength.
Now, Sora was only missing the final step before he could truly make a name for himself in the ninja world.
That step was to actually defeat an Elite Jōnin.
Like Namikaze Minato, who earned the name "Yellow Flash" only after defeating the Blue Lightning A and Killer Bee, making his name resound throughout the ninja world.
Sora was famous now only because both Rock and Cloud shinobi had issued orders to retreat immediately when encountering him.
However, the Cloud shinobi's Lightning Style: Thunder Traction jutsu had surprised Sora.
This ninjutsu was obviously developed specifically to counter his Thunder Breath technique.
It used the attractive force of lightning to pull on its own lightning chakra, reducing its speed.
Sora summoned his system interface and checked the system store.
He still had 22,000 witness points, just enough to see what abilities he could strengthen.
Based on his condition, Sora's first choice was Wood Style.
But when he saw the witness points required to awaken Wood Style, Sora's eyes widened in shock.
"System, I have the blood of the Senju clan. Why does awakening Wood Style cost 50,000 witness points?!"
[Wood Style Ninjutsu is a technique that uses the caster's own chakra as a source of life.
Senju Hashirama was able to use Wood Style because he possessed a sage body.
Currently, only two of the Host's chakra points have activated the Sharingan state.
Kakashi's total chakra amount is insufficient to support the Host's awakening of Wood Style.]
Sora asked in confusion, "Then why was Yamato... never mind, I know. He was able to use Wood Style after transplanting Senju Hashirama's cells, but it was only a limited version of Wood Style.
In that case, these 50,000 witness points are for giving me a Sage Body and then awakening Wood Style, right?"
Sora thought about it for a moment. If the points would allow him to possess a Sage Body and then awaken Wood Style, the 50,000 witness points didn't seem too expensive after all.
[Possessing a Sage Body to redeem the awakened Wood Style Bloodline Limit requires 20,000 witness points. The remaining 30,000 witness points are used to increase the Host's total chakra to reach the threshold required for awakening the Wood Style Bloodline Limit.]
Sora took a deep breath.
The amount of chakra that could be increased with 30,000 witness points would reach the threshold needed to awaken the Wood Style bloodline limit.
Quite outrageous.
Sora's eyelids twitched. If that were the case, wouldn't a Sage Body be even more expensive?
Sora asked, "So how many witness points are needed for a Sage Body?"
[Redeeming a Sage Body requires 500,000 witness points.]
Sora's head was buzzing. "500,000 witness points? Are you sure that's not a mistake?"
[The Sage Body originated with Ashura, the second son of Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, who inherited the sage's body. Senju Hashirama possessed Ashura's chakra and thus awakened the Sage Body.
The Host does not possess Ashura's chakra, so you lack the natural conditions to awaken the Sage Body. Therefore, the required witness points are increased fivefold, resulting in 500,000 witness points.]
Sora's mouth twitched.
Even if he had Ashura's chakra, it would still require 100,000 witness points.
This Sage Body was truly expensive.
Sora temporarily abandoned the idea of acquiring the Wood Style Bloodline Limit and turned to other abilities.
There were abilities that required fewer witness points, but Sora wasn't interested in those.
His current points weren't enough for the abilities he truly wanted.
Sora felt overwhelmed looking through the system store.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.
If he couldn't afford a Sage Body, what about Sage Mode?
Sora checked the store and found that, since he was a contractor with Ryūchi Cave, learning their senjutsu required 20,000 witness points.
However, learning the senjutsu of Mount Myōboku or Shikkotsu Forest would cost five times more—100,000 witness points—since Sora didn't have contracts with those locations.
Sage Mode was comparable to the regular Mangekyō Sharingan and might even be slightly stronger.
This was because Senjutsu Chakra could greatly enhance the power of one's ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.
From Sora's current perspective, this seemed like one of the most effective ways to significantly increase his strength.
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