"Step back, Karin."
Kimimaro blocked Jugo's violent attack, his back to the red-haired girl, and ordered in a calm tone.
"This is no longer a domain where you can intervene."
Having narrowly escaped death, Karin gritted her teeth, finally nodded, and retreated in a disheveled state.
Kimimaro looked at Jugo before him, his gaze narrowing slightly.
"It seems... it seems I have no choice but to knock you out."
In the next second, the two who were previously deadlocked vanished from their spots simultaneously.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Inside the cramped underground training ground, two figures began a frenzied collision.
Every impact produced a muffled, thunderous explosion, and shockwaves of compressed air blasted outward.
Neither of them used flashy ninjutsu, choosing instead the most primitive and savage physical combat.
"Roar!!!"
Jugo was in a state of complete berserk rage; high-pressure chakra sprayed from the jet ports behind his fists, giving his blows immense power.
Facing a strike capable of shattering rock, Kimimaro's eyes were cold and sharp.
"Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Larch!"
Thorns bloomed across his chest as several sharp bone spikes erupted, forcefully withstanding Jugo's heavy fist.
Boom!
The ground beneath them shattered simultaneously, collapsing into a huge crater.
"So fast — I can't even see his movements clearly."
In the distance, Suigetsu lay weakly on the ground, watching the two non-human figures in the arena; he swallowed hard, cold sweat streaming down his face.
"It's one thing for Jugo to be a monster, but that guy Kimimaro — to think he could actually trade blows with Jugo like that?"
In the arena, the two clashed and separated in an instant.
Jugo's arm was pierced by bone spikes, dripping with blood, but under the influence of the Cursed Seal and Sage Transformation, the wounds writhed and healed in the blink of an eye.
And Kimimaro's broken ribs were also rapidly recovering.
Both were unkillable cockroaches, representing the pinnacle of current physical strength and speed.
For a time, they were locked in an inseparable struggle.
"Must we continue this entanglement —"
Kimimaro leaped backward and glanced at Naruto, who was sitting high up without saying a word.
That calm gaze made him feel as if he were being pricked by needles.
"Lord Naruto is watching."
Kimimaro took a deep breath, his eyes instantly becoming sharp.
"I cannot look too pathetic."
Hoo —
Kimimaro adjusted his breathing; the frequency of his heartbeat changed instantly, and a deeper, more violent power was squeezed out from the depths of every cell.
"Gene Lock Second Stage: Activate."
"Urgh ah —"
Kimimaro let out a low roar.
Subsequently, amidst everyone's horrified gazes, his body underwent a bizarre transformation.
Puchi, puchi!
Countless bones pierced through his skin.
But this time, they did not form chaotic bone spikes; instead, they spread and fused rapidly as if they had a life of their own.
Pale white bone covered his entire body, forming streamlined bone armor that perfectly fit his muscle contours.
Sharp bone spikes grew from his joints, his exposed spine turned into a hard, dragon-like bone, and red Cursed Seals covered his entire body.
Even his face was covered by a layer of bone mask similar to a Hollow mask, revealing only a pair of emotionless eyes.
At this moment, Kimimaro was no longer human, but a skeletal monster born for slaughter.
The oppressive force radiating from him made the temperature of the entire training ground seem to drop by several degrees.
"Roar! Die!"
A beast's intuition made Jugo feel a fatal threat.
He let out an uneasy roar, his chakra jet ports fully opened, and he charged at Kimimaro again like a cannonball.
"Too slow."
A dull and indifferent voice came from beneath the bone mask.
Kimimaro raised his right arm.
Ka-ka-ka-ka —
The bones on his right arm proliferated, compressed, and fused crazily —
In the blink of an eye, his right arm transformed into a huge, heavy, and barbed bone warhammer.
Facing the charging Jugo, Kimimaro just leaned slightly to the side, then swung that bone warhammer fiercely.
Boom!!
A loud noise that caused ringing in the ears echoed out.
The bone hammer smashed into Jugo's chest with extreme precision.
Jugo's violent momentum was instantly and forcibly terminated; the stratum corneum and ribs on his chest were completely shattered in an instant, and his chest caved in.
"Pfft!"
Jugo spat out a mouthful of blood, his entire body like a baseball hit by a home run, smashing heavily into the ground.
It created a crater several meters in diameter on the ground.
The immense impact caused his eyes to roll back instantly, and he lost consciousness.
But it wasn't over.
To prevent this monster with abnormal recovery from going berserk again, Kimimaro pressed his left hand onto the ground.
"Seal."
Countless sharp bone spikes erupted from the ground.
A dense web of bone spikes intertwined to form an indestructible bone cage, precisely piercing and locking Jugo's limb joints, pinning him firmly to the ground, and completely cutting off any possibility of him resisting.
Instant kill.
A pure, crushing-level instant kill.
The battle ended.
Crack —
The bone armor on Kimimaro's body slowly decomposed, shattered, and fell off, retracting back into his body.
He straightened his disheveled clothes, brushed off the dust, then turned to face Naruto and knelt on one knee.
"I have successfully fulfilled the mission, Lord Naruto."
The whole place was silent.
Tsunade's slightly hurried breathing sounded exceptionally clear.
She stared fixedly at Kimimaro.
As a taijutsu expert, she knew better than anyone how terrifying the physical strength Kimimaro had just unleashed in an instant was.
Speed, strength, defense—a comprehensive crushing.
Even she, without using the Strength of a Hundred Seal, had no confidence in being able to defeat Kimimaro.
That is — Second Stage?
Suigetsu Hozuki looked at the chaotic forest of bones, then at the broken ninja sword in his hand, and suddenly felt that the sword in his hand was no longer appealing.
Compared to that kind of monster, his own smugness from just a moment ago was simply like a joke.
And the one with the strongest reaction was Zabuza.
He stared fixedly at Kimimaro, the shock in his eyes gradually fading.
It was replaced by a greed and ambition that was almost tangible.
That power — that power to crush Jugo like a bug — if I could also possess it —
"Points —"
Zabuza clenched his fists, then looked fiercely at the list in his hand.
"No matter what it takes —"
Zabuza roared in his heart.
"That Second Stage serum — I will definitely have it!!"
At this moment, the pie Naruto had painted before was no longer a vague temptation, but a tangible reality.
Naruto sat high above, taking in everyone's expressions.
Looking at the flames burning in Zabuza's eyes, looking at the awe and longing in the eyes of the Sound Four.
He pushed up his glasses, a satisfied curve hooking at the corner of his mouth.
Display power, establish hierarchy, stimulate desire.
His monster legion finally had some semblance of form.
"Kimimaro, take Jugo down for treatment."
Naruto stood up, his trench coat swaying slightly, his voice echoing in the empty training ground.
"Did you see that? This power, do you think this is the end of evolution?"
"No, this is just the beginning."
Naruto's gaze swept over everyone present, his tone filled with seduction.
"As long as you can demonstrate enough value, Second Stage, or even power surpassing the Second Stage — is waiting there for you."
"I have opened a door for you; how far you can go depends entirely on yourselves."
After speaking, he turned and left, leaving only a silhouette behind.
"Rest for a day."
"The day after tomorrow, the target is the Land of Snow."