In just a few short minutes of chaotic combat, the Grass Village ninjas suffered devastating losses.
The Nine Masked Beasts, with their overwhelming power, cleared a massive radius around the hospital, leaving nothing but broken stone and fallen bodies.
Under the leadership of Ryuzetsu, the Grass Anbu fought desperately to shield their leader, Koji Kusanagi. They wove a web of defensive ninjutsu, barely managing to hold back the combined assault of the Black Tortoise and the Vermilion Bird.
Meanwhile, the brothers Mui and Mujō relied on their ancestral Fire Style to hold their ground, retreating step by calculated step.
"Fire Style: Ghost Lantern!" Mujō shouted. He dodged a sweeping strike from the Azure Dragon and leaped backward, his fingers blurring through hand seals.
Instantly, dozens of fiery, translucent red faces manifested around him, letting out ear-piercing shrieks before swarming toward the dragon.
"Fire Style: Celestial Prison Fire Sword!" Mui gathered fire-natured chakra in his right hand, condensing it into a blazing blade of light, and lunged at the approaching White Tiger.
The Azure Dragon simply tanked the Ghost Lanterns, its scales sizzling as it gathered lightning-natured chakra in its maw. A concentrated orb of electricity erupted from its jaws!
"What!" Mujō's pupils shrank. These strange summons weren't just massive and durable; they could use high-level elemental ninjutsu.
On the other side, just as Mui's fire sword was about to strike the masked tiger, the beast flickered like a mirage.
"Damn it!" Mui instinctively pivoted, swinging his blade to his left to parry a ghost-like movement. The fire sword grazed the top of the tiger's head, but the White Tiger was already inside his guard.
A massive paw slammed into Mui's chest.
Thwack!
Mui was sent flying like a broken kite, a trail of crimson painting the air.
"Brother!" Mujō's face paled. He abandoned his fight with the dragon and flickered to his wounded brother's side.
Simultaneously, the Soutu and Beitu Immortals finalized their sealing array against Koji Kusanagi and his remaining Anbu.
A purple geometric formation erupted beneath their feet, locking them in place. Koji felt his body turn to lead; his chakra felt like it was being pulled through thick mud.
"Curse you! What is this?!" Koji roared, struggling against the invisible weight as the Black Tortoise charged again.
The massive, iron-clad beast hit Koji like a hundred-ton juggernaut. He was sent soaring into the sky, only to be met mid-air by a Fire Style: Great Fireball from the Vermilion Bird.
The smell of scorched flesh filled the air.
"Lord Koji!" Ryuzetsu cried out in despair, forced to watch as her leader was pulverized.
Shuu—!
Several wind blades whistled through the smoke. The immobilized Anbu fell one by one as the line of defense utterly collapsed.
Within moments, the area surrounding the Grass Hospital was a graveyard. With their leader and elite captains incapacitated or dead, the remaining Grass ninjas—lacking direction—began to flee toward the village outskirts. The village descended into total anarchy.
"Is this all you have?"
Menma stood holding Vanilla, his hands still clean. He hadn't even needed to lift a finger himself; the Masked Beasts were systematically dismantling the village.
Mui and Mujō, true to their future reputations as masters of the Blood Prison, managed to rally a small fraction of survivors to make a final stand after the fall of Koji and Ryuzetsu. But as the field cleared, the five primary Masked Beasts—Dragon, Tiger, Bird, Tortoise, and Snake—converged on the remaining brothers.
"Brother! We have to use that!" Mujō gritted his teeth, preparing a forbidden sealing technique he hadn't yet mastered.
"Cough... let me do it!" Mui, his chest heaving and ribs shattered, struggled to stand. He coughed up a spray of blood and collapsed back to his knees.
"Brother!" Mujō didn't hesitate any longer. He formed a seal and gathered every drop of his fire chakra into his right palm.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Celestial Prison!"
Heat radiated from his hand as the chakra manifested into five molten chains, lashing out at the five beasts. This was a technique few in the Mui clan ever mastered—a seal rumored to be strong enough to bind Tailed Beasts.
The fire chains wrapped around the five summons, marking their bodies with red-hot seals and halting their movements.
"We did it!"
"As expected of Master Mujō!"
The remaining Grass ninjas cheered, preparing to launch a counter-attack.
However, in the next instant, the bodies of the five "captured" beasts rippled like water on a lake and vanished into thin air.
"What!" Mujō felt the connection to his seal snap.
When he looked toward the center of the battlefield, the mysterious masked man was gone.
"When did he—?!" Mujō's skin crawled with cold sweat. He hadn't even sensed the enemy's departure.
Mui, supported by his subordinates, slowly stood and looked toward Koji's charred remains. Looking at the ruins of his home, he whispered bitterly: "Lord Koji... we should never have taken in the Uzumaki and their curse..."
The Ruins of Uzushiogakure.
The former pirate hideout was now Menma's temporary base. He gently laid the unconscious Vanilla onto a makeshift bed.
"Mama..." Karin knelt by the bed, clutching her mother's hand as tears streamed down her face.
Vanilla, weak beyond measure, managed a frail smile for her daughter. She looked up at the masked man standing over them and whispered a plea: "My lord... please, take this child... she can do anything... just let her live..."
She knew her life was fading. She knew that if she died, the Grass would simply turn Karin into their next "battery," draining her until she was a husk.
"Who gave you permission to die?" The voice behind the fox mask was cold and authoritative.
Menma hadn't mastered Yin-Yang Release yet, so he couldn't directly gift her life force. But he was a member of the same clan.
Menma unwrapped the red bandages from his wrist and extended it toward Vanilla's mouth.
"Bite." The command left no room for argument.