At that moment, the "chakra mines," their positions and detonation times all precisely calculated, were completely ignited by Tsunade, using her last dregs of mental strength and the insignificant amount of chakra in her left hand as the fuse.

The sky was falling. The real sky was falling.

The rock formations beneath their feet cracked and arched like fragile biscuits, then erupted violently upward as if from an exploded volcano. Countless massive rock plates, each weighing tens of tons, were thrown into the air by the terrifying force. A huge, spider-web-like crack, with the explosion's epicenter at its center, spread and climbed wildly toward the cliffs on both sides of the canyon like a bolt of lightning. The already shaky rocks on the cliff face peeled off and collapsed under the violent shaking. The entire structure of the canyon groaned in despair.

The color instantly drained from Kisame's face, his small eyes widening to their absolute limit for the first time. The overwhelming boulders and the collapsing rock walls, like a vision of the apocalypse, were reflected in his pupils. The colossal roar of the explosion drowned out all other sounds, and the world was left with nothing but the symphony of destruction.

This is terrifying!

"A… trap?!!" A horrifying thought flashed through his mind like lightning. He suddenly wanted to pull back Samehada and escape from the epicenter of the destruction, but Samehada, still greedily sucking the last bits of chakra, was a moment too slow to react. At that same instant, the rock under his feet suddenly shattered and sank, and a disorienting feeling of weightlessness washed over him.

"Damn it!" Kisame let out a roar of shock and fury. His huge body dodged and leaped awkwardly among the collapsing rocks, no longer caring about Tsunade, who was still being drained by Samehada.

"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!" Kisame hurriedly formed a series of hand seals, and a turbid wall of water barely managed to rise above his head.

BOOM!

A boulder slammed into the water wall, causing a massive splash and instantly crumbling the barrier like a fragile eggshell. Although it partially offset the impact, the remaining force of the boulder still slammed into the Samehada blade that Kisame had hurriedly thrown up to block.

"Pfft!" Kisame felt as if he'd been hit by a heavy hammer, and a mouthful of blood spurted from his lips. His body was thrown back by the tremendous force, crashing into the collapsing rock wall on the side. He held on tightly to the now-restless Samehada. The nerve pain from where he'd been grazed by Tsunade's chakra scalpel flared up again as he scraped violently against the rock wall, causing his movements to stutter once more.

"You bastard!" Kisame was filled with a mixture of shock and incandescent rage. Only now did he fully understand that from the moment he had stepped into this canyon, he had fallen into a trap, meticulously designed by his opponent. With every step she took, with every clash of their power, the woman had been silently burying her deadly chakra deep underground like a seed, waiting for the moment when he was at his most greedy and his guard was at its lowest to detonate it.

This wasn't a contest of strength at all; it was a complete and utter calculation.

He twisted his body forcefully in mid-air and kicked hard against the collapsing rock wall, trying to use the momentum to escape from the center of the destructive storm. Kisame's eyes subconsciously swept toward the core of the explosion, toward the woman who should have been sucked dry by Samehada and shattered into pieces in the collapse.

However, there was only a field of rubble and mud, overturned by a terrifying force and erupting upward like a volcano. Apart from that, there was nothing.

Tsunade's figure had vanished at some point.

"How is that possible?!" Kisame's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpricks. How could she possibly have escaped from the very heart of the explosion, with her chakra instantly drained and her foothold completely destroyed?

Could it be… a substitution technique?

No! The feeling of having one's chakra sucked away, and the body's reaction to it, cannot be faked by a substitute!