"Looks like someone's come to save you."
As soon as those words were spoken, a massive explosion roared from the northwest side of the village!
"Crash—!!"
The shockwave from the blast shattered glass for hundreds of meters all around!
...
Next, the Anbu who had gone to report suddenly appeared beside Shinju, delivering the message about what had just happened:
"Hokage-sama, Kara's large number of modified people have invaded Konoha. The ninja are currently engaged in battle with them…"
Shinju looked up and asked, "How many Inner members are here?"
The Anbu replied truthfully, "Two identities have been confirmed. One is Delta, the other is called Boro… According to the information Kakashi sent back from the front line, Boro is the founder of the Ōtsutsuki cult."
Shinju asked, "When was that report sent back? How did I not know?"
The Anbu bowed his head. "Just now."
Shinju stood up. "Alright, I understand everything you said. You stay here with my clone and keep a close watch on Jigen…"
With that, Shinju's body vanished on the spot.
...
Konoha, northwest wall.
In the deep crater created by the explosion, dozens of corpses lay scattered everywhere!
Some ninja, even if not yet dead, had their bodies torn apart under Delta's eye-lasers, beyond any hope of rescue!
After crushing so many ninja with her own power alone, Delta was more arrogant than ever!
"I told you Konoha's ninja are just lame! You can't even take a single laser from me! ( ˝ᗢ̈˝ )"
At this moment, Neji, Tenten, and the other guarding ninja had completely surrounded Delta, yet none of them dared to act rashly.
Delta not only possessed terrifying regeneration, flight, and laser firing, but also the ability to absorb chakra—far beyond an ordinary ninja's understanding! She was extremely hard to deal with!
"Captain Neji, what do we do?" a ninja in a green flak jacket asked anxiously, looking toward Neji.
Though Neji was still young, he had long become a jonin, a genius of the Hyuga main family, and a war hero with distinguished achievements in the Fourth War!
"She can absorb jutsu created from chakra. We can only fight her up close. The key problem is that she can fly, so she can easily escape!"
"Here's the plan: you block her movement with long-range thrown weapons, create an opening for me to engage her in close combat, then I'll pin her down, and you use sealing techniques when the opportunity appears…"
"Enough. Now's not the time to hesitate—move!"
Having said that, Neji, feeling the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, clenched his teeth and accelerated toward Delta!
...
A few minutes later!
Through the tireless efforts of Neji and the others, Delta was trapped in place by sealing techniques, still shouting nonstop:
"Let me go! You cowards who only use sneaky tricks! Ninja are all cowards! (ꐦ°᷄д°᷅)"
Neji had always respected girls, but he really couldn't stand Delta's yelling!
"Rip—"
Neji smoothly tore off a scrap of cloth from the uniform of a nearby chunin!
That male chunin hurriedly covered his chest.
"Neji-sama, there are too many people here, maybe… another day… (´つヮ⊂︎)"
Neji's face darkened. He stuffed the cloth straight into Delta's mouth, then said to the ninja beside him,
"What are you even imagining?"
"Mmmph—mmmph—" With her mouth stuffed, Delta glared furiously, still struggling nonstop!
"Relax. We're about to send you somewhere more appropriate."
Neji swiftly took the hemp rope handed over by other ninja, ready to tie Delta up and transfer her to Konoha's prison to make her behave for a while!
However, just as Neji's thick rope had finished binding Delta's hands, a huge shadow suddenly appeared in the sky!
Then the shadow dropped!
"Bang!!"
The massive object slammed straight down onto Delta!
Neji, who had been very close to Delta just a moment ago, dodged in time and narrowly avoided this fatal strike!
He looked up, wanting to see clearly what in the world had suddenly appeared…
(≖╻≖;)
This is… a toad?!
Neji was a little doubtful, because this toad looked way too ridiculous!
Its head was dark orange and blue, still somewhat normal—but all four of its limbs had become mechanical, and there were jet ports on its back, with steam bursting from them from time to time!
This wasn't a toad at all—it was a steel giant beast!
After examining the toad, Neji looked down toward its feet to see whether Delta, crushed beneath it, was dead or not…
With just one glance, he realized something was wrong.
The sealing script originally engraved on the ground to restrict Delta's movement had vanished!
Sensing danger, Neji turned his head and saw that the ninja maintaining the sealing formation on both sides had lost their rhythm due to the mechanical toad's sudden descent, interrupting the seal!!
"Not good!" Realizing something was wrong, Neji shouted!
The next moment—
"Buzz!"
A purple laser burst from underground, shooting straight toward Neji's forehead!
Neji tilted his head just in time; the laser skimmed past the right side of his scalp, burning a patch of his hair clean off!
"Kid, your reflexes are pretty good. You actually dodged my laser again…"
Delta's muffled voice rumbled from beneath the ground!
"Hey, could you get your stupid toad off my head? I can even smell its stinky feet!"
On top of the steam toad's head, Koji Kashin folded his arms.
"Idiot woman, if I hadn't arrived in time, I'd already be complaining from inside Konoha's prison right now…"
Soon, Delta struggled out from the ground, glancing at Koji, and retorted stiffly,
"As if. Even if you hadn't come, I still would've crushed every last one of them! It was only a matter of time!"
"You coming here is completely pointless!"
Koji had no desire to talk more with this foolish woman. Riding the toad, he leapt away, tossing back one last line: "Next time, I'll watch you die."
Delta looked toward Neji and the others ahead and spread her hands.
"I'm invincible!"
Neji's head was starting to throb!
After exhausting every last effort to restrain the mechanical woman within the seal, everything had been ruined by a single mechanical toad from the sky…
Now, with barely any chakra left in his body, if they fought again, he would definitely lose!
"Be good and surrender. Knock your head on the ground a few times, and I might consider letting you die a bit quicker."
"I already said it—there isn't a single one of you in Konoha who can actually fight, except the Hokage."
...
Just as she finished speaking, Shinju, wearing the Hokage cloak, appeared behind Neji!
Shinju's not-so-large hand rested lightly on Neji's shoulder, and Neji felt an unprecedented sense of safety!
"I went back to the Hokage's office to change clothes. I'm a bit late," Shinju said.
Neji nodded. "Then I'll leave this to you!"
With that, Neji led the remaining combat-capable ninja away to support elsewhere...
Across from them, Delta looked a little embarrassed. Σ( ° △ °|||)︴
Had she just been shouting too loudly… and accidentally attracted the Sixth Hokage?
Shinju said, "I don't know how you survived after I defeated you last time… but I promise you won't get another chance to revive."
"Any last words? (๑ت๑)"
----------------
Fanfic is finished on Patreon (488 chapters in total.)
Patreon(.)com/Jixo (for only $4.50, read this entire fanfic)