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Cracks started spreading through Roshi's defenses. Sweat poured down his face, his skin turning pale. Hayato's foot slammed down over and over again, pounding against Roshi's guard with bone-shaking thuds.
"Damn it, Roshi, don't worry about me! Get out of here, now! You can't hold on like this!" Ōnoki's eyes were bloodshot, nearly bursting from rage and fear. He was already regretting it—regretting ever crossing paths with Hayato. If he hadn't, Iwagakure wouldn't have suffered such devastating losses. So many elite jōnin had been killed, the sealing squad wiped out, and now even their Jinchūriki and the Tsuchikage himself were at risk.
"You bastard! Stop!"
The Four-Tails, Son Gokū, couldn't help roaring at Hayato. But the moment Hayato whipped his head around and glared, the great beast immediately shrank back. It still remembered that crushing punch all too clearly—two of its tusks had been shattered. Even if a tailed beast couldn't be killed by brute force, the pain was more than enough to make it think twice.
Seeing the Four-Tails cower, Hayato let out a thunderous roar of his own and lifted his foot again, stomping hard toward Roshi and Ōnoki.
Boom!
Roshi coughed up a mouthful of blood, his body trembling on the edge of collapse. He couldn't keep this up—his strength was gone.
"Roshi! Damn it! Hayato, you win! You win! If you want to kill me, then kill me—but spare him!" Ōnoki forced himself upright and shouted hoarsely.
But Hayato wasn't listening. His mind was long gone, drowned in bloodlust. His foot rose again, ready to crush.
"Ōnoki," Roshi said with a ghost of a smile on his pale, blood-smeared face, "I may hate your guts, but you're the Tsuchikage. You can't die here."
"What—Roshi? No… what are you planning?!" A terrible premonition clawed at Ōnoki's chest.
"Earth Style: Moving Core!"
Boom!
Hayato's foot smashed through Roshi's defense, flesh and blood splattering as the Four-Tails' host was crushed to death in an instant. But beneath Hayato's heel, only a pool of blood remained. Just before the killing blow landed, Roshi had unleashed his final jutsu, opening a pit beneath Ōnoki's feet. The Tsuchikage dropped deep underground, vanishing from Hayato's reach.
It was Roshi's last desperate act, a technique pushed to its limit that sent Ōnoki plunging hundreds of meters down. Roshi was dead, stomped into nothing, but Ōnoki escaped once more.
Not that Hayato noticed. Lost to madness, all he knew was that the man underfoot had been killed. With another feral roar, he snapped his head toward Son Gokū.
The massive beast was trying to sneak away, tiptoeing despite its hulking frame. But no matter how carefully it moved, something that size couldn't avoid making noise.
When Son Gokū saw Hayato's gaze lock on him, his whole body froze. Then, with an awkward grin, he tried to bare his teeth in something like a smile. Unfortunately, his monstrous face turned it into a twisted snarl.
"Raaagh!"
Hayato bellowed, springing off the ground like a cannon shot, slamming straight into the Four-Tails. His fists came down in a relentless storm of blows.
"Ahh! I give up, I give up!" Son Gokū yelped.
"I surrender! Don't hit me, don't hit me anymore!"
"Please! I'll call you boss!"
"Oww, quit it! If you keep hitting me, I'm gonna fight back! Ow!"
"Come on, I already gave up! Why are you still hitting me?!"
Son Goku, the Four-Tails, curled up on the ground with his hands over his head, looking like he was about to cry. No matter how much Hayato pummeled him with punches and kicks, he just couldn't escape.
For as long as he could remember, Goku had never run into anyone this insane. Sure, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were powerful—easily on par with this guy—but at least they weren't completely crazy. Those two never beat him down after he surrendered. But Hayato? Even when he'd clearly admitted defeat, this lunatic kept swinging like he was enjoying it.
Hayato hammered away with all the brute force of a man punching a sandbag, until finally his anger burned out. Only then did his massive beastly form shrink back into a human shape. But this time… his human body had grown again—over twenty meters tall now. And the second he reverted, he collapsed flat on the ground, completely unconscious.
The towering, intimidating presence from earlier was gone, leaving only a passed-out giant sprawled there.
Son Goku bared his teeth, thinking about biting him—only to realize two of his fangs had been knocked loose in the beating. He froze, not daring to move. Then it hit him: Hayato had probably done that on purpose.
Goku opened his mouth again, but in the end didn't dare take a bite. The memory of that insane assault was still too vivid. Worse, the moment he thought about attacking, an overwhelming sense of danger welled up from deep inside, warning him off.
"Hmph. Fine, I'll let you off this time," Son Goku muttered, turning as if to leave. But after two steps, he spun back around.
"Hah, I get it now. This is a test, isn't it? If I really walked away, you'd wake up and beat the crap out of me again, wouldn't you?" Goku grumbled, then plopped down beside the unconscious giant, glaring at him.
"Still, for a human… you're a hell of a size," he added, eyeing Hayato's huge, completely bare body sprawled on the ground. He muttered to himself, "Not bad at all, for a puny human."
When Hayato finally stirred and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a massive, snarling face staring right at him. He yelped in shock and instinctively swung a fist straight into it.
"Ow! You hit me again! At least this time it wasn't as hard," Son Goku groaned, rubbing his cheek.
"Huh? You? The Four-Tails, Son Goku?" Hayato blinked, pupils narrowing at the sight of the towering beast.
"Yep, that's me!" Goku said quickly. "You see, while you were out cold, I stayed here the whole time, making sure no little critters came along to bother you. So you really can't hit me anymore, got it?"
He blinked his big eyes at Hayato, clearly worried about taking another punch.
"....."