As the battles across the Pure Land drew to a close, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo stood within a massive blue rhomboid crystal,
Controlling a nearly 1,000-meter-tall Complete Body Susanoo
As he clashed fiercely against a towering figure composed entirely of magma and flame—
Roughly 100 meters tall, with three heads and six arms,
Each hand wielding a blade wreathed in ghostly green fire.
Their battlefield was an area filled with black currents and dense white fog—
It was the area near the River Styx that ran through the Pure Land.
And that enormous black hole that opened the passage to the Pure Land—
Hung directly above the heads of King of the Dead and Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
Through the black hole, one could even faintly glimpse the Shinobi Sect below, engulfed in war and chaos.
This clash between two monarchs of the underworld
Was destined to drag on for an extended, grueling war of attrition.
In the past few days—
Though the King of the Dead had appeared slightly more battered than Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo,
Continuing like this—
Even Hagoromo couldn't guarantee he'd come out victorious in the end.
The pressure the King of the Dead exerted on him was immense.
If it weren't for the Sword of Nunoboko and the divine Tengu Armor that wrapped around his Susanoo,
He would already be firmly on the losing side.
Deep within his heart, Hagoromo muttered: "If it truly comes to that… I may have to ask him for help."
As that thought crossed his mind—
Hagoromo's Rinnegan suddenly gleamed.
In the next moment, several pitch-black orbs began to form in his palm.
They looked like miniaturized black holes—twelve of them in total.
"Hm?"
The King of the Dead jerked his head up.
And immediately noticed the black spheres flying toward the sky above, generating a tremendous gravitational force.
It wasn't just affecting him— even the waters of the River Styx below were being pulled upward.
If he were to be trapped by a massive volume of Styx Water—
Even someone like him would pay a hefty price to escape.
...
The Land of Bears.
At this point it was absolute chaos.
Even the hundreds of thousands of civilians living near the capital could hear the constant thunder of explosions rumbling from the horizon.
Everyone knew by now that a terrifying war was unfolding there.
Rumor had it that one side wasn't even human—but made up of the undead from the Land of Demons!
Seen from above, the land bordering the Land of Demons and the Land of Bears was overrun—
A massive black army surged forth like a torrential flood, sweeping southward from the north.
Every step they took resounded with thunderous force.
For their bodies, armor, and weapons were all forged from high-density stone.
[Whoosh!!!]
The next instant, a dark black cloud rose from the rear of the Ghost Army.
When it reached its peak—
It curved downward in a perfect arc, accompanied by countless howling gusts—
And descended like a black curtain over the frontlines of the Land of Bears.
Those 'black clouds'—
Were in fact tens of thousands of black stone arrows, each a meter long!
What was most terrifying was their sheer number—easily in the tens of thousands!
"Earth Release: Thousand-Mile Mud Wall!!"
At that moment—
In response to the overwhelming barrage of arrows,
Over a thousand shinobi wearing the headbands of Sunagakure and Iwagakure knelt in formation and activated the same jutsu in unison.
[RUMBLE—]
In an instant, the ground shook. Earth walls nearly 30 meters tall and over 10 meters thick rose from the ground, blocking the rain of arrows as they fell from the sky.
Behind them—
Another line of shinobi, also from Sunagakure and Iwagakure, formed a second formation.
Their hands moved swiftly in front of their bodies to weave identical hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!!"
Whirlwinds erupted from their mouths, one after another.
Within seconds, the spiraling winds merged in the sky to form a storm of monstrous proportions.
It blew back the remaining arrows—
And at the same time, obliterated the front ranks of the stone soldiers.
Witnessing this—
Rasa and Kitsuchi, commanding from the rear, exchanged an instinctive glance.
Neither had expected that, just a few days ago, they had been locked in battle as enemies—
Yet now, they stood side by side as comrades-in-arms.
Initially, they had only obeyed Crocodile's command out of obligation.
But once they learned what Mōryō truly was—and witnessed firsthand how this Army of Stone Statues swept through everything in its path without emotion—
Destroying every village and town in the Land of Demons, shooting every living person in sight, crushing even large beasts into bloody pulp beneath their feet—
Any hesitation they might've had disappeared completely.
Because they realized—
These creatures were enemies of all living things.
They absolutely could not be allowed to continue their rampage across the Shinobi World!
"They're coming again! Another volley of arrows!"
Cries of alarm suddenly rang out from the frontlines.
Rasa and Kitsuchi looked up—
Sure enough, another 'black cloud' was rising into the sky.
Although the Ghost Army's long-range attacks were relatively simple—
This ceaseless wave of sky-darkening arrow storms—
Was beginning to wear them down, both physically and mentally.
"Commander Kitsuchi! We need to find a way to destroy them!"
As he shouted, Rasa stepped forward, riding a cloud of golden sand to intercept the next volley of arrows in midair.
"Alright. I'll lead the close-combat ninjas and demolition units to engage them directly!"
At the same time—
As the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa manipulated a glimmering wave of golden sand, sweeping through the sky and pulling down every stone arrow that fell.
Then, the cascading wave of sand surged forth like molten lava erupting from a volcano.
[Boom! Boom! Boom!]
With each sonic blast—
Columns of golden sand, charged with immense force, blasted into the rear ranks of the Ghost Army, launching the two-meter-tall statues into the air one after another.
[BOOM!!!]
Just as Rasa calmly watched his golden sand erupt in waves—
A massive wall of fire suddenly rose from behind the Ghost Army, sweeping through the sky like a crimson curtain ablaze.
As soon as the golden sand entered the inferno—
It lost all control under Rasa's Magnet Release.
Reduced to glowing hot, inert grains of sand, they scattered powerlessly across the stone statues—
"What?!"
Hovering in midair, Rasa was visibly stunned by the sight.
Since when did the shinobi world have Fire Release users this strong?
Rasa's expression grew grave without him even realizing it.
Only when the inferno began to recede did he finally catch sight of the person responsible.
"...That's—"
Standing atop the head of a stone statue—
There was a man with a black mask covering half his face, and beside a pair of ghostly green eyes—burned dark red sclera.
"A missing-nin from Takigakure?"
Rasa's sharp gaze quickly locked onto the emblem on the man's forehead protector.
But his attention was soon drawn to something else—
Standing nearby on top of another statue's head were two eerie black figures in white masks.
"Who are you?"
"Why are you helping these undead monsters?!"
Rasa couldn't recall any recent defectors from Takigakure.
All he could do now was scowl and shout in accusation.
But the man offered no response.
Instead, in a hoarse, gravelly voice, he murmured to himself—
"So it's true... if Fire Release is strong enough, it really can suppress Magnet Release."
"Still, your Magnet Release—this golden sand of yours—makes me terribly envious. I wonder if I could learn it myself?"
"Oh, right. Maybe if I rip out your heart... that just might work."
"You bastard! I asked who you are—answer me, now!"
Rasa shouted in fury, hearing the other man spout such arrogant words.
"Hmm, now I remember. Your bounty used to be forty million."
"But now that you've become a Kage, it must've gone up quite a bit. Going by what the other Kage are worth, you're probably sitting at fifty million now."
But Kakuzu clearly didn't take Rasa seriously.
His pale green eyes kept sizing Rasa up, as if he were a piece of merchandise—or prey.
"But you staying up there in the sky like that won't do."
The next instant—
Two grotesque masked monsters, standing on either side of Kakuzu and composed entirely of black tendrils, suddenly opened the mouths carved into their masks.
"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!"
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
In a split second, a surging inferno and a violent whirlwind erupted forth.
[BOOM!!]
A gigantic, spiraling pillar of fire barreling toward Rasa with violent force.
"Don't underestimate the Kazekage!"
With a cold snort and a flash of intensity in his eyes, Rasa clapped his hands forcefully before him and shouted: "Magnet Release: Gold Dust Spear!"
A vast quantity of gold sand surged forward, rapidly compressing into a golden spear shaped like a massive drill—at least ten meters long.
[WHIRR!]
The next moment, the spear began to spin rapidly in midair.
[BOOM!]
In an instant, Kakuzu's fire-wind dual attack collided with Rasa's golden spear in midair.
"Hmm?"
This time, it was Kakuzu's turn to be surprised.
He saw his massive firestorm being pierced straight through the center—by that equally spiraling spear of gold dust.
At the same time—
The earth all around began to erupt with thunderous booms, as wave after wave of gold sand burst from the ground like crashing waves.
Countless stone soldier puppets were launched into the air like toys.
Yet those geysers of gold sand, like fountains, coalesced midair into smaller—but equally fast-spinning—golden spears, all shaped like drills, and came hurtling toward Kakuzu from every direction.
Kakuzu was no pushover either.
A mere flashy display like this wouldn't shake him.
He immediately released the remaining Lightning and Water masked beasts from within his body, placing them before and behind him.
Then—
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
"Water Release: Water Curtain Dome!"
Blinding lightning and dense, high-pressure water spheres exploded into being, blasting the oncoming golden spears from the air one after another.
"But the gold dust you've unearthed… you should try taking some with you. It should sell for quite a bit," Kakuzu remarked blandly.
Rasa's face turned ice-cold as he shouted, "That depends on whether you survive long enough to take it!"
At the same time—
While Kakuzu and Rasa clashed fiercely on the border of the Land of Demons—
Kitsuchi had already led over 2,000 Sunagakure and Iwagakure shinobi into battle on the border of the Land of Bears, fighting the army of 'stone statue soldiers'.
The air was filled with the deafening roars of combat and bloodcurdling shouts.
But the ones causing the greatest destruction were Iwagakure's demolition units.
With their mastery of Explosion Release and the liberal use of explosive tags, a single member could clear out swathes of the stone army.
However, perhaps the noise they made was too great—
Because some blood-red eyes had now turned their attention toward each and every demolition unit member.
"What the hell's going on?"
As captain of the demolition unit, Gari was the first to notice something strange.
Several squadmates nearby had suddenly frozen mid-movement—only to be slashed or stabbed to death by the stone soldiers with shocking ease.
Even more bizarre—none of them screamed.
Their faces twisted with horror, anger, disbelief—as though they'd seen something terrifying.
"Genjutsu?!"
Gari instantly realized what was happening. He backed away quickly while scanning the battlefield with heightened vigilance.
In the corner of his eye, he caught glimpses of shadows darting through the ranks of the stone army.
"Red eyes…?"
The figure moved so fast he couldn't get a clear look—but the glimpse alone was enough to plant doubt in his heart.
"Could it be the Uchiha from Konoha?!"
But the next moment immediately shattered that thought.
[Swish swish swish—]
With a flurry of sharp tearing sounds, serpents formed entirely of crimson liquid lunged from between the gaps in the stone army, mouths agape.
"Is that… blood?!"
Gari flared his nostrils.
He could smell the thick, suffocating scent of blood heavy in the air.
At the same time—
He channeled chakra into his right fist and slammed it forward, striking one of the largest blood serpents head-on.
"Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!"
[BOOM!!]
A thunderous blast erupted.
The serpents that had been lunging forward instantly exploded into clouds of blood mist—only to be engulfed in roaring flames.
Dense black smoke filled the air, severely reducing visibility.
Elsewhere—
Kitsuchi stood atop a mound of shattered stone statue remnants.
His eyes narrowed in caution as he observed three hooded, black-robed figures—each wielding a long-handled black scythe.
Kitsuchi watched grimly as one of the black-robed figures groaned in pain while pulling a thick earthen spike out of his abdomen.
"Ahhh, it hurts! Damn it—it's bleeding so much!"
The man howled like a lunatic.
"But that's fine… the more pain we feel, the happier Lord Evil God becomes… yes, yes, this is good…"
In the distance—
Other black-robed figures were locked in combat with shinobi.
But they didn't seem particularly powerful—
A kunai to a vital spot could still kill them.
It was just that their taijutsu was impressive—and they fought with insane, fearless ferocity.
If they got close, they'd try to bite off a piece of flesh, even with their teeth.
The worst part?
They were strapped with explosive tags—
And every time, they would burst into hysterical laughter, shout something about the 'Evil God', and then detonate themselves—
[BOOM!]
[BOOM!]
[BOOM!]
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