"Is it really that sturdy?" Shima used her Wind Release - Drilling Air Bullet, condensing and compressing Wind Release chakra to the extreme before launching it. Even a huge summon like Gamabunta would be in great pain if struck, but when this wind sphere fell on the Eternal Abyss, it was silently devoured as if swallowed by the sea.
"What exactly is this? Such a terrifying corrosion, devouring ability, it's like a black hole," Fukasaku marveled as he looked at the spot where the practice bomb was devoured just now. Truly, he was the first person in a thousand years to possess various bloodline limits, and he had merged them all to create such a fearsome ability. Even the revived Six Paths of Pain might not be his match.
"Let's try combined jutsu. Konoha should have them," Shima looked at Jiraiya, who awkwardly shook his head, disappointing Fukasaku. She didn't expect Konoha, once so powerful, to become so weak. They didn't even have combined jutsu, which required all ninjas to cooperate.
In fact, it wasn't that there were no combined jutsu, and it wasn't that Konoha was inferior to Kumogakure. On the contrary, Konoha surpassed Kumogakure by a large margin. It was just that in recent years, Konoha had been internally divided, either framing one person or another, resulting in the loss of many techniques. Those who could use combined jutsu well were either old or died in battle, or were framed and killed.
In these years, Konoha had not prioritized enhancing combat capabilities. Even learning a few decent ninjutsu was a luxury for many geniuses unless they demonstrated enough utility and followed some of Konoha's high-ranking family elders. Many geniuses were not even learning combined jutsu, let alone several decent ninjutsu.
Otherwise, many people outside wouldn't say that Konoha was stingy in teaching ninjutsu to its ninjas. They didn't have any high-level ninjutsu, and they worried that teaching too much would make it difficult to control the lower-level ninjas. Even if they knew combined jutsu, they wouldn't teach other ninjas. Konoha was no longer committed to developing military power like before. On the other hand, Kumogakure had always emphasized military development, even though they were not as strong as Konoha.
As long as it enhanced combat power, the village would prioritize it. But Konoha did not prioritize enhancing combat power. Instead, it was focused on infighting, framing one another, and causing internal conflicts, causing many ninjutsu experts to either die of old age or in battle, or be framed and killed.
In recent years, Konoha hadn't put enhancing combat power as a priority. Moreover, it didn't demand that all ninjas who were good at Lightning Release learn the Lightning Formation to enhance the overall combat power of the village like Kumogakure did. If it enhanced combat power, the village would prioritize it, but Jiraiya was short on time and opportunity to do so at the moment. That's why the current situation arose.
Konoha had accumulated so many hidden injuries over the years that it was impossible to clear them all within such a short time by Jiraiya alone. It wasn't something that a single person could completely fix in just a few years, regardless of the tremendous effort Jiraiya put in.
Unless Jiraiya now had the same level of strength as Ryoha, Tsunade, and others, only then could he completely clear everything with absolute strength. Alternatively, if he had gathered a large number of strong allies like Ryoha did, many of whom were also at the Kage level and not ordinary Kage level, but the cream of the crop among Kage level.
If that were the case, they could definitely suppress the cunning and power-hungry high-ranking elders in Konoha and elevate the overall combat power of the village, all while clearing the deficiencies that they had acquired in the past. But now, Jiraiya alone had already miraculously pushed Konoha to develop to this extent in such a short time. He had done his best and was deserving of pride. He had done the best he could and was not ashamed of it. He was not unworthy of the position of Hokage that he held.
"No, there's still hope," Kakashi suddenly spoke up.
"What hope? Ah, your eye technique?" Jiraiya immediately remembered Kakashi's eye technique, Kamui, which should be able to create a large hole.
"Jiraiya-sama, if it were possible, I would have done it already. See for yourself," Kakashi opened his Mangekyo Sharingan. Sometimes actions spoke louder than words, especially in times like these when they wouldn't give up without trying in front of many people from Konoha.
He immediately activated Kamui, and the area he was focusing on got distorted. Almost everyone was looking at that spot with hopeful eyes. However, what left the others in disbelief was that no matter how that area distorted, it remained pitch black, showing no change.
"Phew, I already used it once earlier. Unfortunately, it was useless. I transferred the darkness from one spot to another dimension, but the darkness in this area replenished itself before I could transfer it completely. Even if I drain myself to death, it won't make a difference," Kakashi said.
Kakashi retracted his Mangekyo Sharingan, understanding that a fierce battle might unfold shortly, and he needed to conserve his strength.
"To think that even distorting the space and devouring it didn't work. Indeed, the dark power is terrifying and omnipresent. Even space distortion couldn't devour it," Yamato exclaimed. He had witnessed Deidara's powerful C3 No. 18's explosion being devoured by the spatial distortion created by Kamui. But now, the darkness couldn't be devoured.
To be precise, the infinite darkness overwhelmed Kakashi's Kamui, and it couldn't fully consume it. In fact, only one percent of the darkness was devoured by Kamui, and the remaining ninety-nine percent of the darkness kept replenishing what was lost. How could Kakashi's Kamui transfer the darkness to another dimension in such a situation?