Chapter 120: A Serpent's Strike in the Clouds
Disguised as the medic-nin, Kagenori waited with the patience of a predator. Soon, the opportunity arrived. A knock echoed in the quiet infirmary before the door opened to reveal Killer B.
"I'm here for my medication," B said, his voice carrying its usual, subdued tone.
Kagenori nodded, scribbling meaningless notes on a piece of paper to maintain the charade. He then retrieved the vial of Orochimaru's special paralysis pills and handed it over. "Here you are. Please take this."
B examined the unfamiliar bottle. "This is different from last time."
"It's a new formula," Kagenori explained smoothly, his voice a perfect mimicry of professional calm. "It will help you achieve a more restful sleep."
A flicker of hope, so faint it was almost imperceptible, crossed B's tired features. "Really? Thank you." He took the vial and left, clutching the poison meant to be his undoing.
Late that night, when the village was at its quietest, Kagenori slipped into B's quarters. The man was asleep, the illusory peace of the drug upon him. "Let me fill that emptiness in your heart," Kagenori whispered into the darkness.
The sound stirred B. His eyes fluttered open, widening in alarm. In an instant, Kagenori's hand was clamped over his mouth, stifling any cry. B tried to struggle, but his limbs were leaden, his chakra unresponsive. The paralysis pill had done its work perfectly.
"Struggling is useless," Kagenori stated, his voice cold and devoid of empathy. He let his disguise melt away, revealing his true face. "The life of a Jinchuriki must be agony. You sacrificed yourself for this village, and in return, you receive nothing but fear and isolation. Is that fair? This world holds no worth for a tool like you. I will free you from its pain. Find your guidance in the world of the dead."
With clinical efficiency, he tore open B's shirt, exposing the intricate iron armor seal on his chest. Chakra, dark and potent, coalesced around Kagenori's right hand.
"Five Elements Unsealing!"
He slammed his palm onto the seal. The complex markings glowed red-hot before shattering.
"Now," Kagenori murmured, his eyes already shifting to the crimson spiral of the Mangekyō. "It's your turn, Eight-Tails. Perform for me."
A cataclysmic roar tore through the night as the Eight-Tails' immense chakra exploded outwards, vaporizing the building around them. The colossal form of the ox-octopus demon materialized in the heart of Kumogakure, a waking nightmare.
Kagenori landed gracefully on a nearby rooftop, his Mangekyō Sharingan fixed on the beast. "Fall under the Sharingan!"
An invisible wave of ocular power slammed into the Eight-Tails' consciousness. For a moment, the beast's huge eyes reflected the scythe-bladed pattern of Kagenori's Mangekyō before the image faded, its will now subsumed. Under Kagenori's mental command, the Eight-Tails began its rampage, a force of nature unleashed upon its own home.
Kagenori retreated to a distant hillside, a cold spectator to the chaos he had engineered. The Eight-Tails was a walking disaster. Buildings were flattened, fires erupted, and the screams of the unprepared villagers and shinobi were swallowed by the beast's roars. A concentrated assault from the Cloud-nin did nothing; their ninjutsu splashed harmlessly against its hide.
The Third Raikage, A, arrived with an elite guard, his body instantly sheathed in the crackling Lightning Release Chakra Mode. He became a blue-white bolt of vengeance, using Lightning Flash to appear above the beast and drive it to the ground with a titanic punch.
But the Eight-Tails was already preparing its ultimate attack. A swirling sphere of black and red chakra—a Tailed Beast Ball—began to form in its mouth. The release of such a weapon inside the village would be catastrophic.
"Strongest Lightning Armor!" The Third Raikage's power surged, his hair standing on end as his speed and strength reached their absolute peak. He launched himself, the ground fracturing under the force of his leap, and delivered an uppercut to the beast's jaw with enough force to disrupt the chakra formation. The Tailed Beast Ball fizzled out.
"Restrain it!" he bellowed.
Elite ninjas hurled chakra-conductive chains, wrapping the beast. But the Eight-Tails' raw power was too great. It shattered the bonds with a contemptuous flex of its limbs, its tails whipping out to crush the shinobi who dared bind it. One of its horns impaled another elite right before the Raikage's eyes.
Enraged by the death of his men, A's eyes burned. He charged again. "Hell Stab!" His hand, concentrated with a high-intensity current, became a blade that sliced cleanly through one of the Eight-Tails' horns.
"A, stand back! Eight-Tails!"
The Third Raikage's voice thundered as he produced a strange, red pot-like gourd. As he called the beast's name, the lid flew open. A tremendous suction force erupted, and despite its struggles, the Eight-Tails was pulled, roaring and shrinking, into the confines of the pot—the Amber Purifying Pot, a relic of the Sage of Six Paths.
The crisis was over as quickly as it began, but the damage was done. Kagenori watched from his perch, his expression grim. The Raikage's speed in his enhanced state was terrifying, likely surpassing his own Thunderclap and Flash. He was reminded that there were still monsters in this world he could not afford to underestimate.
With his mission accomplished, Kagenori vanished from the hillside, a ghost leaving behind a village in smoldering ruins.
The news of Kagenori's success reached Orochimaru, who immediately launched a full-scale counter-offensive. The Cloud-nin at the Hot Springs front, their morale shattered by the catastrophe at home, broke under the Konoha assault. The front lines, once a desperate defense for Konoha, were now pushed back to the Cloud's borders.
And Killer B, his body unable to survive the extraction of the Tailed Beast, was dead.
Forced by strategic necessity to maintain their military power, Kumogakure had no choice. The Third Raikage and A made a grim decision. The Eight-Tails was sealed into a new vessel: the young, promising shinobi who would become known as Killer Bee.
With Sunagakure leaderless and searching, Kirigakure collapsing into internal strife, and Kumogakure licking its wounds, the momentum of the war shifted. Iwagakure, seeing the tide turn, began to disengage in the Land of Grass, avoiding major confrontations.
An eerie, fragile peace settled over the ninja world. It was the calm after a storm, and the tense silence before the next one.
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