Within Sakura's body, cells flickered like fireflies rising and falling. But when thousands of fireflies gathered, they radiated a violent brilliance surpassing that of the sun.
"Sakura is... glowing?" Naruto, caught off guard, was dazzled by the shining brilliance.
Then he and Sasuke simultaneously noticed that the Natural Energy around them was being plundered at a terrifying speed, and their own physical strength was also rapidly draining away.
"Not good, this should be Shikkotsu Forest's Senjutsu. Quickly enter Sage Mode to resist it!" Sasuke turned his head to warn Naruto.
Then he formed hand seals to release a clone, while he himself sat cross-legged, capturing his own share from the vast and mighty surge of Natural Energy around him.
Naruto also imitated his movements, sitting cross-legged. Orange eye shadow gradually appeared on his face. The power of Sakura's unconsciously released Senjutsu Evolution Technique - Decay was neutralized by the two using Senjutsu Chakra.
However, the mutants attracted from the surroundings were not so lucky. Senjutsu penetrated their cells. Amidst the endless bloodshed, a touch of iron-gray that stung the eyes suddenly appeared.
Many mutants who could already use Ninjutsu were in agony, spewing flames and floods, unleashing lightning, manipulating the earth, attacking Sakura with various Ninjutsu.
"Sage Art: White Rage Technique!" Sasuke opened his eyes, his sharp claws scraping across his cherry-pink scales.
Then dozens of mutants suddenly stiffened. The explosion caused by their failed Ninjutsu swallowed them up.
"Sage Art: Phosphorus Release: Phosphorus Erosion World!" Naruto opened his pure, deep blue eyes. The surrounding earth was transformed by the power of Senjutsu into white phosphorus mixed with Natural Energy.
A dense net of white phosphorus interwove and stabbed forth. Pure white flames burned atop it, ferociously and grotesquely covering the mutants, burning them to ashes.
Seeing the fate of the mutants that had severely injured Naruto with Senjutsu, the other mutants fearfully retreated a few steps, no longer charging recklessly but instead surrounding them without attacking.
"Phew, until my Chakra runs out, these things won't be able to get in!"
Naruto gasped a few times, turned his head, and beckoned to Sasuke, signaling him to come over and sit down to rest, to conserve stamina and Chakra.
"Next comes a war of attrition. I wonder how much longer Sakura will need."
Sasuke, in his half-dragon form, took a deep breath to calm his heartbeat, his worried gaze looking at the mutants continuously gathering outside.
Having fused with multiple Ninjas and residents of the Land of Earth, these mutant chimeras themselves possessed very large Chakra Reserves, roughly equivalent to Jonin.
Some gifted mutant chimeras could even rival those Ninjas worthy of bearing the name of Kage.
Even if Sasuke and Naruto considered themselves strong, facing the encirclement of hundreds of Jonin plus a dozen Kage-level opponents still carried a high risk of defeat.
Fortunately, these monsters did not have particularly high intelligence, nor had they reached the deep level of Jonin and Kage in their application of techniques and Chakra.
After a few more hours, Naruto increasingly felt his Chakra depleting, and his heartbeat no longer as powerful as before.
"Sasuke, listen to me. If I can't hold on, you take..." Naruto pursed his lips and grabbed Sasuke's arm.
"Shut up. Do you want to tarnish my Uchiha honor and make me bear the reputation of abandoning my comrades?" Sasuke interrupted Naruto without a second thought.
Before they set out, they had promised to bring Naruto back intact to Hinata. Right now, both he and Sakura would choose to never give up on anyone!
"Exactly. Saying such discouraging words at a time like this… where would that put the reputation of me, the one who brought you out here?" A clear, young girl's voice sounded behind the two, with a hint of playfulness even amidst fatigue.
"Sakura!" / "You succeeded?"
Naruto and Sasuke's faces lit up with joy, simultaneously turning their heads to look at the girl inside the cave.
Sure enough, she had already opened her eyes and was smiling at them. The ferocious wrinkles and veins on her face and body had disappeared. In her raised hand flowed a pool of gray liquid.
"I lived up to the mission. And thank you both!"
She stood up, walked forward, and reached out to grab Naruto and Sasuke's arms. The two, working in sync with Sakura, simultaneously released their Senjutsu.
Then, countless mutant chimeras began to riot, rushing toward them from the sky, from the ground, from every corner of their line of sight.
But the illusory light of space-time flickered repeatedly. The extreme heat erupted, creating a turbulent plasma in place.
The next moment... Boom!!!
The figures of the three vanished. A valley within the Land of Earth was swallowed by blazing light, everything turning into a dead land of pale stillness.
As Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura rapidly extracted themselves from the Land of Earth using the Flying Thunder God Technique, on the other side of the ocean, in the Land of Lightning, excited researchers raised their test tubes, hugging their colleagues and spinning around.
"We've succeeded! We've partially deleted the virus's RNA sequence, reducing its violent fusibility!"
Studying forbidden techniques and Ninjutsu, plundering Kekkei Genkai to strengthen themselves… this was the foundation upon which the Land of Lightning's Yotsuki Clan had continuously grown and endured.
Of course, perhaps due to severe interbreeding, this also led to the clan's members being universally dark-skinned and burly.
But today, they had once again tamed a terrifying power created by their old rival, Konoha.
In time, after they, Kumogakure, unified the entire Ninja World with their powerful strength, the immortal monument of their majestic deeds would surely engrave the words 'Konoha' at the very top.
The news was transmitted from the laboratory to the Raikage building in Kumogakure. B, who had been forcing himself to stay and process documents there, stood up hesitantly upon hearing the Anbu's message.
"This power is too dangerous. Still need, to wait for, Big Brother, to make the decision!" He spoke in his off-key rap style, but in reality, he was already expressing his dissatisfaction with the entire Kumogakure's leadership through his own will.
After all, he, the temporarily appointed acting Raikage, had too shallow a foundation to properly control the massive war machine of Kumogakure.
And it is well known that power never allows itself to remain in a vacuum state.
"Please rest assured, acting Raikage-sama. Considering the practicality of the technology's implementation, we initially adopted live experiments to ensure that the resulting data is 100% compatible with our human bodies."
The other leaders in the meeting room narrowed their eyes, their small, long, narrow eye sockets shimmering with greedy colors.
Completely immersed in the bright prospects brought by power and Chimera cells, they had already forgotten the most basic reverence that should be maintained for unknown things.
Having fallen into a state of constant anxiety after losing the Fourth Raikage, the Kumogakure's leadership now clung desperately to this discovery like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline.
After all, B was only acting. His single decision could not outweigh the desires of so many Kumogakure's leaders.
In the end, a plan named herd immunity was implemented. The preparations produced and mass-produced from the Kumogakure's research institute also entered the field of vision of thousands of households.
Thus, the scarlet of the Chimera Virus merged with the blood of Kumogakure's Yotsuki Clan... becoming one.