Half a day later, when Hatake Sakumo and the White Fang Squad infiltrated Kumogakure's position, they witnessed a scene so terrifying it was hard to look at.
He didn't know what had happened—but he wasn't about to let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away.
With a single flare fired into the sky, the entire Konoha camp launched a full-scale assault.
Hatake Sakumo moved like a vengeful spirit. White arcs of blade-light linked into thin lines—looping around an enemy's throat—then vanished.
The victim could still stagger forward a few steps, seemingly unaware anything was wrong…
…and then, in the next instant, their head dropped to the ground.
"It's Konoha's White Fang—where's the commander?! Only he can hold him back!"
"The commander… died earlier!"
…
More and more Konoha forces poured in. Kumogakure had just suffered a devastating attack, lost its commander, and fallen into chaos—there was no way they could withstand the pressure.
"Someone used a decapitation strike on Kumogakure…" Sakumo fought while his eyes kept drifting toward the blasted zone, thinking nonstop. "An attack on that level… only a handful of people in the world could pull it off."
"Hanzō of the Salamander—no… that's not right."
Hanzō's name had been thundering across the shinobi world lately. That kind of destruction was something he'd pulled off not long ago—and it had been used against Konoha.
But Sakumo dismissed it almost immediately. Intelligence from the past few days said Hanzō was cutting through the Land of Earth with relish—he had neither the time nor the reason to be here.
After thinking for a long time, Sakumo still shook his head and simply increased the speed of his blade.
"Whatever. First we drive Kumogakure back. As long as the situation benefits Konoha, that's enough."
"Hatake Blade Art: Frenzied Fangs."
…
A bloody slaughter bloomed across the Kumo lines.
It wasn't like a Tailed Beast Ball—one blast wiping out an entire area, turning even corpses to dust. The clash between Kumo and Konoha—including Sakumo himself—was carved out with kunai and steel, cut after cut, with only the occasional crack of an explosive tag in the background.
Chunks of flesh and bodies dropped to the ground amid shrill screams. The soil—already loosened by the earlier detonation—quickly drank in blood until it turned dark red.
A nauseating stench of gore thickened in the air. In the sky, flocks of crows circled and settled into the nearby woods, waiting to feed…
…
"Run!"
No one knew how much time passed. Kumogakure was finally completely suppressed—shinobi breaking and fleeing in panic.
"Chase them down. Drive them out of the Land of Hot Water," Sakumo ordered, leading Konoha's pursuit.
…
---
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"
A mask emerged on Kakuzu's shoulder. It opened its mouth and spewed a tongue of flame, forcing the three shinobi in front of him to retreat.
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
Two beams of Particle Style shot toward him—one cylindrical, one conical.
That suffocating sense of impending death crawled over Kakuzu again.
"Wind Style: Air Current Dance!"
Unable to maneuver in midair, Kakuzu applied Wind Release to himself, gaining brief flight.
"I remember you. Never thought that brat from back then would become this."
An old man with gray hair and matching attire walked over from behind at an unhurried pace. The moment Kakuzu recognized him clearly, his face went pale.
I remember you too… First Tsuchikage—Ishikawa.
Mū… and Ōnoki. All three Tsuchikage… revived?!
"So I was right to worry," Ōnoki said in a long-suffering, lecturing tone. "The moment I die, Iwagakure falls into chaos like this. Leaving the village to someone else—how could I ever feel at ease?"
"To think a rogue ninja actually made it all the way to our doorstep. That's a disgrace to the title of Tsuchikage."
"Surround him!"
A mass of Iwa shinobi rushed in, enclosing Kakuzu at the center. Ōnoki and Mū formed their hands and condensed the prisms of Particle Style again.
The First Tsuchikage said, "Mū, Ōnoki—be careful. The one in front of you is from my era."
"What?!" Not just Mū and Ōnoki—even the Iwa shinobi below were stunned.
"Someone can live that long?!"
"If I remember right, I saw you during the Five Kage Summit—you were the one following behind Takigakure's leader."
"Later I heard someone from Taki attacked the First Hokage, killed a number of Takigakure's high-ranking figures, and stole their secret treasure."
"That was you, wasn't it? And that stolen treasure… should be the Earth Grudge Fear on your body."
"Didn't expect your memory to be that sharp. You still remember all that." Kakuzu said.
"I'll give you one chance. Surrender now. Otherwise, I will bear witness on what Takigakure's Earth Grudge Fear really is."
"You think I'm afraid?" Kakuzu's voice sank into a cold, heavy tone. "I don't believe you came back with much of your power intact."
"Including the Second and Third Tsuchikage—yes, that's real Particle Style… but the speed and destructive force are nowhere near what the legends said. Even if you were one of the Five Kage who ended an age of chaos… how much power do you have left?"
"What a shame…" From within the First Tsuchikage's clothes, dense swarms of wasps suddenly poured out, blotting the sky like a dark cloud.
"Others might suffer from that limitation. But I'm different."
"I'm still an insect user. My strength is tied to my insects. Chakra is nothing more than food that keeps them fed. As long as I have eggs and chakra, it won't take even half a day for me to return to my peak."
Staring at the overwhelming swarm, several Kamizuru Clan shinobi in the Iwa ranks looked feverish with excitement.
'This deal isn't worth it. Hanzō's intel was wrong—who would've thought Iwagakure still had a trump card like this…' Kakuzu's instincts screamed danger.
'No. If I stay, I really will die here. Retreat.'
Ōnoki, Mū, and the First Tsuchikage Ishikawa weren't worth dying for—they didn't even have bounties on them now.
Kakuzu stopped stalling and cut his way toward the Iwa shinobi behind him.
"Move!"
"Fire Style: Fire Stream!"
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"
Two masks on his shoulders spat out a combined Fire and Wind technique, tearing a gap in the encirclement by force.
"Running?! Second, Third—stay back! Don't get dragged in!"
"Thousand Stingers Jutsu!"
From within the black swarm-cloud, countless razor-fine stingers poured down like a storm, blanketing the entire battlefield—so wide even many Iwa shinobi fell within the attack range.
"Damn old man—he doesn't even spare his own people?!" Kakuzu hadn't expected that.
"Earth Style: Petrifying Jutsu!"
Flowing chakra rapidly hardened his skin into a defensive state. Needle-thin stingers struck him with a constant clinking barrage.
'Damn it…'
Kakuzu hadn't expected it. Even Hanzō's Water Style at that level hadn't done him much—but now, plenty of stingers still pierced into his body.
Still, compared to the Iwa shinobi around him—already riddled and unrecognizable—his condition was far better.
"These are bees raised through the Kamizuru Clan's secret techniques. The piercing power of their stingers isn't something ordinary ninjutsu can compare to," the First Tsuchikage said. "And you can still defend against it—so you're no simple opponent."
"Then… I'll get serious next."
"What?!" Kakuzu's eyes widened in horror.
"Bee Bomb Jutsu!"
The swarm-cloud pressed downward. Even more bees poured from Ishikawa's sleeves and collar, joining the mass. The swarm hugged the ground, closing around Kakuzu like an upturned bowl.
Bad—!
"Lightning Style: Lightning Heavenly Prison!"
Blue-lit currents burst from Kakuzu's body, sizzling so violently they scorched the air around him black.
Countless bees were reduced to ash by the lightning—and the moment they died, tiny sparks snapped into being.
That would've seemed insignificant… but Kakuzu, trapped inside the swarm-wall, was utterly horrified.
On the "bee wall" surrounding him, hundreds of bees clumped together into a ball and lunged at him. The instant that bee-ball touched his lightning, it detonated with force comparable to an explosive tag.
And there weren't just a few.
There were hundreds, then thousands—still multiplying, still increasing.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!
Explosions roared without end. Thousands of explosive-tag-level blasts chained together, the expanding shockwaves hurling Mū and Ōnoki back through the air for a long distance.
On the ground, Iwa shinobi flattened themselves, letting the howling airwaves scream over their heads.
The bombardment lasted a full ten minutes—and during it, bees still kept pouring off the First Tsuchikage's body.
When the storm finally settled, a crater six to seven meters long had been torn into the earth. A mangled body lay within it.
Ōnoki stepped forward to inspect it. The corpse was packed with black tendrils like veins; many had been shredded by the blasts. The right arm was gone entirely. The only relatively intact part was the face. Four masks of different shapes on the back had all split apart.
After checking carefully, Ōnoki said, "Looks like he's dead."
"Mm." The First Tsuchikage nodded. "Then this crisis is resolved. I'll return to the Pure Land."
"The rest is up to you. I'm already dead—there's no need for me to cling to the living world."
"Why, Master?!" Mū asked, confused.
But before he could finish, the First Tsuchikage cut him off.
"There is no such thing as a perfectly flawless jutsu. This reincarnation jutsu limits my chakra and my abilities… yet I can still use my insect control perfectly and display peak strength."
"But you should've noticed: what keeps our souls in this world is chakra. And the amount of chakra bound to these reincarnated bodies is fixed—it can't be replenished."
Mū said, "Master… you mean just now…"
"That's right." The First Tsuchikage nodded. "My bee swarm feeds on my chakra. Their reproduction, division, and control all rely on my chakra as the foundation."
"Thankfully, the sacrifice used for this body was high quality—its chakra reserves were decent. That's the only reason I could fight this long."
As soon as he finished speaking, the First Tsuchikage's body began to fade in color.
"Ah—looks like time's up. You two still have plenty of chakra, so keep looking after Iwagakure. I'll be going now."
White light spilled from his body. His soul gradually separated from the flesh, drawn upward by the glow.
"Wait, Lord First!"
A shinobi ran over and dropped to one knee.
"I'm a shinobi of the Kamizuru Clan. The insect techniques you used just now look very similar to our clan's. Do you know anything about the secret technique scroll our clan lost?"
"The Kamizuru Clan?" Suspended in midair, the First Tsuchikage's soul seemed to recall something.
"Ah—yes. Back then I did take quite a lot. If I remember correctly, I left it in the Tsuchikage Building's archive library. If you want it, you can go find it yourselves."
"Yes. Thank you, Lord First."
Ōnoki said, "Good. Then the issue is settled. Bring Kakuzu's body back for research—see if we can extract information about Earth Grudge Fear. If we can replicate it, Iwagakure will stand invincible."
"Later, send people to clean up this battlefield."
After Ōnoki and the Iwa shinobi left…
The ground suddenly cracked open into a hole. A dirt-yellow arm crawled out, connected to black tendrils. On those tendrils, something like a beating heart thumped—thump, thump, thump.
The arm quickly reached a better-preserved Iwa corpse. Black tendrils stabbed straight into the corpse's heart.
Soon, all the tendrils burrowed into the body—and the dirt-yellow arm collapsed on the ground like a deflated balloon.
The corpse—previously dead—began to breathe again. Its heart restarted. Black tendrils emerged, stitching every wound closed.
After a while, the "corpse" suddenly stood up… and quickly left the area.
-----------------------------///
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