At the edge of the forest, a tense standoff permeated the air.
Kankuro grimly watched the suddenly appearing Shino Aburame. The puppet, Karasu, on his back had already quietly unfolded, with several hidden launchers aimed at Sasuke and Shikamaru nearby. In his opinion, this guy wearing sunglasses and lacking any presence was merely overestimating his own strength.
"Move aside, I don't want to waste time with you," Kankuro's voice was impatient, his Chakra threads already taut.
"My comrades are right there," Shino Aburame adjusted his sunglasses, his tone calm. "I cannot let you pass."
"Then die!" Kankuro stopped wasting words, sharply pulling his Chakra threads.
The abdomen mechanism of the puppet Karasu sprang open, and a stream of purplish-black poisonous mist instantly gushed out, rapidly spreading towards Shino. This was one of his most prized mechanisms.
However, Shino stood still, unmoving. He merely spoke calmly, his voice clearly cutting through the hissing sound of the spreading mist: "Analysis initiated. The average diffusion speed of the poisonous mist is three meters per second, and my parasitic insects can complete your encirclement before the mist completely covers this area."
Before he finished speaking, Kankuro felt something was wrong.
Karasu, which was spraying poisonous mist, suddenly went silent, as if the deadly mist was blocked at its source. He looked down in astonishment, only to see countless black insects, at some unknown point, densely covering Karasu's entire body. They precisely drilled into every mechanism nozzle, every movable joint, and even completely clogged the internal mechanisms of the puppet.
And that wasn't all.
More insects had silently circled behind him, forming a wriggling black barrier, cutting off his retreat.
Kankuro's expression changed drastically, and he tried to immediately retract the Chakra threads controlling the puppet. But when he exerted force, a strange sensation came from his fingertips. He was horrified to find that those tiny insects had already densely crawled along the almost invisible Chakra threads, covering both of his hands.
A cold, gnawing sensation spread along the meridians of his fingers.
"You…" Kankuro's pupils contracted to the extreme. He could clearly feel his Chakra being rapidly siphoned away, and waves of weakness spread through his limbs.
Shino pushed up his sunglasses, the lenses reflecting the faint light in the forest. "Therefore, you have been captured."
"Clang!"
As Kankuro powerlessly knelt to the ground, the puppet Karasu, deprived of Chakra support, also fell apart, becoming a pile of useless parts. Shino did not deliver a fatal blow; he merely neutralized his combat capability. He then turned, redirecting his attention to the increasingly violent Chakra source deep within the forest.
At the same time, in the center of the battlefield, the Ichibi Shukaku's roar was deafening.
It was incredibly enraged that its Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet had been easily blocked, and the primal, destructive urge of a Tailed Beast completely took over. It abandoned long-range attacks, its massive sand body suddenly tilted forward, swinging its recently regenerated giant arm, imbued with a gale strong enough to tear steel, and slammed it down hard on the nearest Naruto Shadow Clone. It wanted to crush these annoying insects into powder with the purest, most brutal force.
Facing this world-destroying blow, the three Shadow Clones did not retreat.
Their actions demonstrated extraordinary synergy. The moment the giant arm slammed down, the three instantly scattered in a triangular formation. The clone directly in front, instead of retreating, advanced, its Chainsword emitting a piercing roar, precisely stabbing into the inner side of the giant arm's elbow, which was a relatively weaker joint connection in the sand structure.
The dislodging of the joint slowed Shukaku's movement for a moment.
It was this instant that the other two Shadow Clones had already leaped high, like circling falcons, their Chainswords cutting fiercely into the side of the giant arm from two tricky angles.
Precise, efficient, as if three people were performing surgery.
"Roar—!"
Shukaku let out an even more painful roar, but this pain completely ignited its last shred of sanity. It suddenly threw its head back, no longer heeding its wounds, and opened its massive mouth.
The surrounding air seemed to be sucked out in an instant, and the gale abruptly ceased. A Chakra far more terrifying than the previous Drilling Air Bullet, thousands of times over, began to gather madly in its mouth. Black and purple high-density energy intertwined and compressed, forming a sphere radiating destructive power.
The winds and clouds in the sky changed color, and a pressure capable of making one's soul tremble enveloped the entire forest.
Tailed Beast Ball.
In the safe zone a hundred meters away, Sasuke had just stabilized himself with Shikamaru's help when he felt that suffocating energy fluctuation. His pupils suddenly contracted to pinpricks, the tomoe in his Sharingan as dark as ink, yet he couldn't analyze the power before him.
That was pure, absolute destruction. It was a realm that his current Chidori, Great Fireball Jutsu, or even any Ninjutsu he could imagine, could not reach.
"That kind of thing… how could it possibly be stopped…" He subconsciously murmured, his voice carrying a tremor he hadn't even noticed himself.
Just as the Tailed Beast Ball was about to form, within Shukaku's encirclement, the leading Shadow Clone captain, calm as ever, immediately issued the next command.
"Target energy signature has exceeded conventional threshold. Activate Nine-Tailed Chakra, corrective protocol initiated. Primary objective: interrupt its Jutsu charging. Secondary objective: strip it of all mobility."
As soon as the words fell.
"Boom—!"
Ten Naruto Shadow Clones simultaneously erupted with boiling, lava-like viscous red Chakra.
This Chakra did not surge outwards in a wild, uncontrolled manner, but rather condensed and shaped itself on their bodies with extreme precision. A layer of oppressive energy armor covered their entire bodies, and behind them, three fox tails, made of pure energy, swayed slightly.
Furthermore, their eyes remained that icy blue, without the slightest trace of being contaminated by violent emotions. This power, which once represented destruction and calamity, now, on them, was like a perfectly mastered uniform armor, filled with an icy sense of discipline and absolute oppressive force.
Sasuke felt his throat incredibly dry, and a question that had lingered in his mind for a long time resurfaced, becoming clearer than ever before.
"Tsk…" Shikamaru beside him clicked his tongue, his face, which always wore an expression of "what a drag," was now filled with an unprecedented seriousness. He turned his head, looking at the pale-faced Uchiha prodigy beside him, and asked in a peculiar tone: "Hey, Important Asset, what do you think?"
Sasuke's lips moved a few times, his gaze fixed on the ten figures enveloped in red Chakra in the distance.
After a long pause, he finally squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, his voice hoarse and bewildered.
"How… can I defeat him."
At the same time.
Within the Four Violet Flames Formation barrier hovering above the arena, the violent Tailed Beast Chakra fluctuations also penetrated, causing ripples on the barrier wall.
Orochimaru licked his lips, casting an interested glance towards the forest, and let out a hoarse laugh.
"Hehehe… Sarutobi-sensei, do you like this grand stage play I've prepared for you?" He turned back, his golden snake eyes full of mockery and cruelty, looking at the panting Third Hokage before him. "The betrayal of the Sand Shinobi, the rampage of the Tailed Beast… these are merely appetizers."
"You, are the true protagonist I've reserved for tonight."
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