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15 Advanced Chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
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Twenty kilometers away, deep in the Land of Hot water, the motes reformed with a sharp rush of displaced air.
Ay hit the ground on his feet, armor still crackling, completely unscathed.
B wasn't as lucky. Two of his tails, the outermost ones, were gone, burned away by the incredible strain of the Tensō transfer. The other six sizzled and smoked, the heat so intense it left deep scorch marks in the dirt beneath him. Gyūki's low growl rumbled through the air, a sound only B could hear.
"That's on you," the bijū's voice echoed in his head, half-pain, half-scolding. "You didn't keep your chakra flow steady during the jump. I told you balance it, or parts of me get stripped away mid-transfer."
B winced but didn't argue. The tails were already regenerating. That was a drain he didn't need this early in the mission.
--
B's first instinct was to move. "Straight to their base, break through, flatten 'em, then we—"
"No." Ay's voice was flat. "We don't know what's waiting. We watch first."
It wasn't just caution, it was a quiet admission. The boy's earlier suggestion about avoiding predictable movements had stuck in his mind. Pride didn't erase the fact that rushing headlong was a risk.
They began moving at a steady pace, keeping low. At their full speed, they could have crossed the distance in minutes. But they advanced slowly, pausing to study the terrain. The Land of Frost was quiet this far north snow still clung to the shaded slopes, the air carrying that sharp, brittle cold that made breath steam in the open.
At the five-kilometer mark, Ay froze. His eyes had caught movement three figures ahead, half-hidden by the ridgeline. Not Konoha troops proper these were forward scouts.
The kind that relayed enemy approach long before the main force could see them.
Ay's body blurred once by the time B caught up, the three scouts were lying motionless in the snow, no sound escaping them.
"Fast," B murmured. "Too fast for 'em to scream."
--
They continued forward, now with Gyūki's senses on full alert. It was the tailed beast who spoke first.
Gyūki said in B's head. "There is a dense chakra concentration in this area."
B relayed it to Ay. Both men shifted course.
What they found was not what either expected.
The camp wasn't just a temporary outpost it was built over an active mining site. From the rocky floor, pale, faintly glowing fragments were being pried loose by a team of Konoha shinobi and sealed into storage crates.
"Chakra ore," Ay murmured, eyes narrowing. "Refined, boxed, ready to move. At least a hundred containers."
It wasn't rare enough to be legendary, but chakra ore wasn't something you stumbled on by accident either. It could be used to forge weapons that amplified jutsu, to create armor resistant to certain elements, even to fuel barrier seals for months without restocking.
Ay's mind was already calculating. Mining this much meant Konoha had invested time, labor, and secrecy here. Losing it would hurt them and handing it to Kumo would tip the balance.
--
They didn't rush in roaring. The first kills were silent, two guards cut down before they saw a shadow.
But once the first body hit the ground, chaos bloomed.
Ay stayed on the perimeter, cutting down anyone who tried to flee. His Lightning Armor made him untouchable kunai bounced, fire jutsu glanced off, even wind release barely slowed him. Each strike he threw left bone-deep wounds, sometimes crushing through rib and spine with a single hit.
B waded into the thick of it, six tails smashing in wide arcs. Each blow was enough to throw men like ragdolls. Gyūki's chakra cloaked him, protecting against kunai and most elemental attacks. The few that broke through barely scratched him.
But they were careful too much chakra in one attack could destabilize the mine. A wide-area blast could collapse tunnels, burying the ore and themselves. That meant no Tailed Beast Bombs, no full-strength Lariat from Ay. Every kill had to be precise.
The enemy wasn't weak. Among the miners were squads of battle-ready elite jōnins stationed here both to protect the site and to respond to emergencies. They fought hard, and they fought smart. Earth walls cut off sightlines. Water techniques tried to douse Ay's lightning. Wind blades aimed for the thinner joints of B's tails.
That was when the hours began to stretch.
--
Fighting for hours wasn't like a short duel. Even without using their most devastating moves, Ay and B's chakra levels dropped steadily.
The Lightning Release Armor required constant output, Ay's speed and strength were paid for with a slow, continuous leak of chakra. Every dodge, every strike burned more.
B's partial transformation was worse. Holding Gyūki's chakra in that stable form required active control. Every tail strike, every blocked hit, every regeneration of lost flesh took more. The lost two tails from the Tensō had already been regrown, but that alone had cost as much chakra as a large-scale jutsu.
There was also mental fatigue. Keeping senses sharp, tracking enemies in three dimensions, predicting their moves it all took concentration. Hours of that, layered over constant physical movement, burned through stamina faster than most people realized.