"Heh, so in the end, we still have to use violence to solve the problem?"
Allen couldn't help but shake his head with a smile. He followed suit, opening the Eight Inner Gates and surging forward to meet the challenge.
Since they were old acquaintances, both sides skipped the probing phase and went straight into a brutal, "flesh-on-flesh" exchange of pure Taijutsu. Within a few short seconds, they had traded dozens of blows, their movements so fast that even their afterimages were a blur. The only direct evidence of the combat's intensity was the series of exaggeratedly large craters blooming across the ground.
At the start, Might Guy managed to take a slight advantage through his preemptive strikes. However, as time progressed, Allen, relying on his superior "counter-attack" style, gradually turned the tide.
After all, compared to Guy, who was limited to using Chakra, Allen's muscular structure and innate physical constitution far surpassed his opponent's. Coupled with the augmentation of Nen, every strike generated a terrifying power where one plus one was far greater than two.
BOOM!
With a thunderous crash, Guy's defense was finally shattered. He was sent flying like a cannonball, crashing from mid-air into the ground and creating a massive pit. He couldn't help but cough up a spray of bright, vivid blood.
On the other side, Sasuke had just used his potent Nintaijutsu, the Lightning Release Armor, to ground Naruto, Tenten, Rock Lee, and Sakura. Had it not been for the sake of their past as classmates, he would have killed them without hesitation.
"Cough! Cough, cough, cough...!!!"
After a violent fit of coughing, Might Guy crawled out of the crater. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and spoke with a tone full of mixed emotions: "I never would have thought you'd use the Eight Inner Gates even better than I do. It seems Jiraiya-sama was right, you are a total, unmitigated monster."
"No, Guy-sensei. The power I have obtained was entirely earned through grueling training and research," Allen responded meaningfully.
Had obtaining these things truly been easy for him? The answer was a definitive "no."
While others were eating, sleeping, or enjoying themselves, Allen was often immersed in the tedious grind of Dungeon instances, utilizing the ten-fold time difference to study and conduct endless experiments. In the beginning, he was frequently injured by all sorts of accidents. As the saying goes, only diligent effort can exchange for a bountiful harvest. To dismiss a person's hard work with the single word "genius" was the height of absurdity. Even a genius, if they do not work hard, will slowly become mediocre and eventually be discarded by the era.
"Now that you've finished extracting the Six-Tails, what do you plan to do with the Jinchuriki?"
Guy clearly didn't want to dwell on the previous topic and threw out the question he cared about most. If they couldn't take Utakata back, then even if they returned Hotaru to the ancestral castle of the Tsuchigumo clan, she would eventually run away again. The mission couldn't be considered truly complete otherwise.
"I will release him, just as I have released the other Jinchuriki after extracting their Tailed Beasts. You might find this hard to believe, but I am actually someone who respects life," Allen replied with a smile.
"Then... I suppose you won't mind if I wait here for a while?" Guy continued to probe.
Normally, extracting or sealing a Tailed Beast was an extremely dangerous affair. Even the Great Nations, when performing such a feat, would raise their village's alert level to the maximum, deploy their strongest Barrier Team, and have the Kage personally oversee the process. Forget about observing, any stranger approaching would trigger an immediate and violent chain reaction. Letting an enemy watch from close range was a hundred percent impossible.
Yet, Allen defied convention, nodding with a smile. "Of course, no problem. However, I suggest you keep a tight leash on Naruto. If that Nine-Tails Jinchuriki rushes up again for some nonsensical reason, don't blame me for being impolite."
It had to be said that Allen truly could not bring himself to like the protagonist's personality. Impulsive. Childish. Stubborn. And obsessed with forcing his own views onto others. Almost every trait Allen despised was concentrated in this one boy. If Asura had been like this in the past, Allen could perfectly understand why Indra was so dissatisfied with the Sage of the Six Paths passing the Ninshu to the younger brother instead of himself.
"Yeah... I get it. I'll watch him," Guy promised without hesitation.
"Bastard! Sooner or later, I'm going to take you down!" Naruto clenched his fists, letting out a roar of impotent rage.
"Take me down? I'm sorry, but that will be impossible in this life, the next life, or the one after that. It is impossible for all eternity. For now, cherish the days you have left with the Nine-Tails. Before long, I will personally extract it from your body."
Having said his piece, Allen ignored the brat and walked over to the seething Sasuke, asking with a laugh, "You seem quite angry?"
"Of course! I didn't notice it as much before, but now I find this Naruto Uzumaki guy increasingly annoying," the second young master said, a flash of killing intent flickering in his eyes.
"That's only natural. No one likes someone who is constantly trying to force their own values and will onto them. In any human interaction, the most important things are mutual understanding and respect, not 'if you don't understand me, I will forcibly change you.' Unfortunately, Naruto Uzumaki is heading right down that path. Sometimes I truly don't understand how someone like him can have friends, or how he can change the initially hostile attitudes of those around him. Perhaps... this is what they call 'Protagonist Halo,'" Allen said playfully.
"Protagonist Halo?" Sasuke frowned instinctively.
"Heh, don't mind it. Just a joke," Allen shrugged.
As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. Perhaps Allen had previously disliked Sasuke's arrogance, but compared to Naruto, Sasuke didn't seem so bad; at least the motivations behind all his actions were authentic.
And Naruto? He was like a princess stepped straight out of a fairy tale, untainted by the grime of the world. The most absurd part was that despite being bullied, insulted, and discriminated against by the villagers since childhood, he hadn't developed even a shred of resentment. Was that a reaction a normal person should have? The answer was a clear "no."
No matter how powerful the Third Hokage's brainwashing abilities were, it was impossible to strip such emotions from the human heart. Humans are social creatures. When an individual is rejected by the majority of society and finds that no matter how hard they try, they cannot be accepted, the most likely outcome is for their heart to become extremely distorted, eventually leading them to lash out at that society.
Combined with a personality that forced others to accept his own values, encountering such a person in reality would make it a miracle to actually like them. At the very least, Allen himself would choose to keep a respectful distance. No matter what such a person said, he would simply nod with a smile and never express a single viewpoint of his own.