There were plenty of standouts with exceptional strength among the Allied Shinobi Forces. Did the Chimera Ant army not have any? Quite the opposite.
The number of elites in the Chimera Ant army was even greater.
"As the supreme leaders of your Five Great Villages, the Five Kage are all gone. What qualifications do you have to fight our Chimera Ant army?" In the midst of battle, a squadron-leader-class high-ranking Chimera Ant sneered at a Kage-level powerhouse among the Allied shinobi.
"What, you're pinning your hopes on those two? Here's the truth: even together, those two can only fight our King's clone to a draw. When our King returns, it will be the day you all die. If you surrender now, there's still time."
"Enough talk! Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
"Stubborn fools!"
Scenes like this abounded during the fighting. Members of the Chimera Ant army kept trying to shake the Allied shinobi with taunts in combat—piling on pressure and disrupting their performance. If they ran into people of firm mind, it was fine. If the Ants caught a single opening, the enemy would be drowned under overwhelming attacks—killed on the spot or taken alive.
"Kakashi! This might be our last time fighting back-to-back," Guy said after flattening a Chimera Ant soldier with overwhelming taijutsu, standing back-to-back with Kakashi.
"Yeah. Never thought things would go this far. The entire Allied Force got played," Kakashi said, his Lightning Cutter reaping the lives of lower-grade Chimera Ants one after another.
The two of them were already among the very top in the Allied Forces, aside from Asura and Indra. Even so, facing a Chimera Ant army this vast, with top-tier fighters constantly pouring in, they felt deep powerlessness.
"If that's how it is, Kakashi, then let's have one last contest—see who takes down more!" Guy said, fired up. This might really be their last battle together. Surviving this war would be incredibly hard.
"Gate of Opening, Gate of Rest, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View—open!" Guy opened six of the Eight Gates at once, tangible chakra wrapping his body like the power-up aura of a Dragon Ball fighter.
With his strength surging, Guy instantly wiped out swaths of ordinary Chimera Ant soldiers. A punch dropped ten; a kick dropped ten more.
"This guy… Looks like I'll have to go all out too!" Kakashi's left-eye Mangekyō Sharingan spun furiously.
"Kamui!" Space–time power tore apart dozens of Chimera Ant soldiers in an instant. In raw visible destruction, Kakashi's might not match Guy's Eight Gates,
but against Chimera Ants, whose bodies were inherently tough, plain physical force was less effective than space–time jutsu.
Ants with spatial abilities were rare. Most relied on physical prowess.
"Rotation!" ×2. It wasn't just Kakashi and Guy who were putting up astonishing performances; the great clans of each village had no choice but to unleash their signature arts.
Especially Konoha's Hyuga clan. Eight Trigrams, Gentle Fist, Rotation, and chakra point strikes—techniques that damage an enemy from within—were brutally effective against ordinary Chimera Ant soldiers.
There were also many genjutsu specialists. Illusions might not work well on powerful Chimera Ants, but they were deadly on the weaker soldiers—one catch, one victim. The soldiers simply couldn't resist genjutsu.
But don't get too optimistic. While the Alliance was reaping Ant lives, the Chimera Ant army was doing the same.
Powerful Ants mowed down ordinary shinobi in no time. Their speed, strength, recovery, and vitality outclassed ordinary ninja by far; add in bizarre Nen abilities—and some Ants even used ninjutsu—and the Allied casualties didn't bear mentioning.
What could be confirmed was that the Ants they killed didn't outnumber the shinobi who died. The stronger Chimera Ants began focusing on the more active shinobi on the battlefield.
For example, with six gates open, Guy was being targeted by three squadron-leader-class Ants at once—and they specialized in taijutsu. Kakashi faced much the same: three enemies, two of them with some spatial ability.
If Kakashi's Kamui and Sharingan were sealed, his strength would plummet to an unthinkable level.
"Gate of Wonder—open!" Guy opened the seventh of the Eight Gates.
"Morning Peacock!" "Daytime Tiger!" Guy unleashed two immensely powerful techniques in rapid succession. So strong were the blows that they left one of the three squadron-leader-class Ants facing him dead and another wounded.
Effective as it was, the toll on Guy's body was heavy. Opening six gates might leave him sore after the fight, at worst.
But the seventh gate was far worse than mere soreness. Even with Guy's constitution, the damage would take weeks of rest to mend.
If Guy opened the eighth Gate of Death mid-battle, it would be far beyond mere rest. Though the ultimate gate could grant unimaginable power, the price was the user's life.
Once that life burned to its limit, his body would turn to ash, just as in the original—if not for Naruto extending his life, Guy's end would surely have been ashes.
"That one over there—his strength looks unusually great. But it seems he's using some secret technique. Capture him alive—obtain that technique!" Many high-ranking leaders in the Chimera Ant army had already fixed on Guy.
He'd slain two squadron-leader-class enemies with one move. Even if they were caught off guard, these weren't grunts or nobodies. The Chimera Ants' research division was already trying to analyze why the target suddenly grew stronger.
Meanwhile, more squadron-leader-class Ants joined the hunt for Guy.
"Heh-heh. Kid, not bad—you even made me feel a twinge of pain!" Elsewhere, Youpi, hovering in the sky, pointed at Asura, son of the Six Paths. "Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!" A mighty cyclone erupted across the battlefield—far stronger than any ordinary tornado, clearly under someone's control.
Wherever it passed, shinobi and Ants alike were torn to shreds.
"Didn't think things would be so lively down here. No wonder you two went so far as to contact me. These are the ones? Truly a pack of monsters." A man seven or eight parts similar to Kaguya appeared in the air above the battlefield.
Gray-white hair, skin pale like albinism, black-and-white garments, and a string of tomoe around his neck—one glance told you he was a member of the Otsutsuki.
Otsutsuki Toneri.
As descendants of Hagoromo Otsutsuki, Asura and Indra, and as a descendant of Hamura Otsutsuki, Toneri—strictly speaking, Toneri could even be called kin to Asura and Indra.
To say they'd never been in contact—you wouldn't believe it.
"You're here. Help us kill them," Indra said. His face remained cadaverous, but there was a faint note of joy in his voice.
"I still don't like either of you. But I'll help. Same as we agreed before: afterward, you'll hand over the Hyuga clan's young lady to me," Toneri said with a frown.
So-called Naruto was nothing more than a family feud among the Sage of Six Paths' household. It wasn't wrong in the least.
Asura, Indra, Hamura, Hagoromo, Kaguya, Black Zetsu, Toneri—strictly speaking, all one family. The nine tailed beasts the shinobi fought over were the Otsutsuki's pets. The God Tree was their food and their cultivated plant. With that in mind, ninja life in the Naruto world looked like pure suffering.
"Deal!" Indra agreed without hesitation.
At the mention of the Hyuga clan's young lady, a flicker of something different flashed in Asura's eyes—struggle—but then vanished.
Musashi, in the distance, caught it all. It seemed Asura and Indra still couldn't perfectly control Naruto and Sasuke. Or rather, the boys' true feelings still existed. Careless—Musashi never expected Asura and Indra to be able to seize control of Sasuke and Naruto.
In the original, the two merely influenced them; or perhaps Meruem hadn't realized their souls still retained will—and would act on their own. He had thought controlling Naruto and Sasuke would be enough. That was the mistake—he had underestimated the Child of Destiny's influence.
"Summoning Technique!" Toneri summoned a gigantic statue the size of a tailed beast, which rampaged freely across the battlefield between the Allied Forces and the Chimera Ant army.
"Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!" "Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!" Standing atop the statue, Toneri unleashed Tenseigan-exclusive techniques.
He wiped out a huge number of Chimera Ants—but many shinobi were caught by friendly fire or killed by mistake.
Faced with an opponent of Toneri's caliber, no one in the Chimera Ant army could stand in his way.
(End of Chapter)
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