They finally understood.
Kenpachi's Zanpakutō—his soul-bound blade—wasn't just cleaving flesh.
It was cutting souls.
That's why the Impure World Reincarnation couldn't regenerate.Why the bodies didn't come back together.Because there was nothing left to bring back.
Kenpachi's strikes were severing the very essence of life.Even more devastating than Yin–Yang Release, which neutralized jutsu—This simply erased you.
"Too slow. Way too slow."
Kenpachi growled as he brushed dust off his shoulder, stepping through the smoke of ruined corpses.
"You even announce your attacks before you use them. What a joke."
"In my day, you'd be dead before you even finished your hand seals."
He looked down at the bodies.
The so-called "strongest" shinobi of the modern era?
"Feh. These aren't even appetizers."
Across the field, chaos reigned.
"What the hell?!"
"He should be attacking us!"
"Wasn't he killed by the First Hokage? Why is he killing his own side?!"
"He's… he's not even on anyone's side, is he?"
Even the shinobi of Konoha—those who expected vengeance—stood frozen.
None of this made sense.
Kenpachi had every reason to hate them.He should have lashed out at the village that had once taken his life.
But the one most shaken…
Was Yakushi Kabuto.
"This isn't happening…"
He clenched his teeth, forming seals with desperate speed.
"You're supposed to be mine! I brought you back—I gave you this body!"
"You should hate Konoha! You should want revenge!"
All around the battlefield, Kabuto's remaining Impure World Reincarnations responded, surging toward Kenpachi in unison.
Dozens of elite undead shinobi, each using their deadliest techniques:
"Scorch Style: Superheated Steam!"
"Explosion Release: Thunder Fist!"
"Wind Style: Sky Rend Tornado!"
The sky lit up with cataclysmic chakra storms.
But in the middle of it all—Kenpachi laughed.
"Hahaha! Now this is more like it!"
"Finally! A decent warm-up!"
He wasn't angry.He wasn't afraid.
He was thrilled.
Battle was the only truth he knew.Good and evil? Justice? Sides? Orders?
"All meaningless."
He stepped forward, his Zanpakutō dragging behind him like a reaper's scythe.
And then—
"DRINK!"
With a single swing—
A blast of Reiatsu-infused sword pressure erupted.
Not a jutsu. Not a technique. Not even chakra manipulation.Just a swing—
And the world cracked open.
The barrage of bloodline-limit attacks was swallowed whole.An entire wave of elite undead—erased in one golden arc.
BOOOOOM!
The explosion shook the land.Ninja from all sides fell backward, shielding their faces.The shockwave blinded them.
It was as if a god had descended.
When the dust cleared…
Silence.
The battlefield was a graveyard.
Dozens of elite Impure World Reincarnations—destroyed.And not just defeated.Their souls were unraveling.
One after another, their bodies disintegrated into ash.
Not even Impure World Reincarnation could bring them back.
"T-That can't be…"
"Did he really just... wipe out dozens of them by himself?!"
"We… we're not even in the same dimension as this guy!"
Temari stood frozen, drenched in cold sweat.All around her, seasoned shinobi collapsed to their knees—not from wounds, but from fear.
One sword strike.
Just one.
And then came the question everyone was thinking.
"Why didn't he attack us…?"
"Aren't we his real enemies…?"
Even Kabuto couldn't understand.
"WHY?!" he screamed.
His last few reanimated shinobi shouted in desperation:
"It was the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara who killed you!"
"We brought you back to destroy them! Why are you fighting us?!"
Kenpachi paused.
He scratched the back of his head, confused.
"Eh?"
"What the hell are you babbling about?"
He looked genuinely lost.
"Enemies? Revenge?"
He laughed.
"The fight I had with Senju and that Madara guy… that was fun."
"I didn't hate them. We clashed to the death because we were strong—that's all."
"Strong fight strong. Life or death. That's the point."
He slammed the blade on his shoulder, cracking a grin wider than the battlefield itself.
"Revenge? Don't kid yourself."
"That fight wasn't over… it just got interrupted."
"And now?"
"Round two starts today, you bastard."