Kushina's self-introduction caused the battlefield to fall into a strange, suffocating silence.
This was a warzone.
Not some self-introduction meeting.
Who cared about your name?
The only things that mattered were...
Are you strong?"
And if you are—are you stronger than the man standing behind you?
The Sand shinobi looked at her with bare, undisguised contempt.
To them, this was nothing but arrogance—placing herself and her companion above everyone else as if the battlefield revolved around them.
"Ahem—Kushina, easy… easy…"
Yagami tugged lightly at the corner of her clothes from behind.
"You're the one I'm protecting right now," he reminded her quietly.
"Being this provocative is a good way to draw unnecessary hatred."
The Sand shinobi took a deep breath.
Their eyes instinctively drifted toward the massive trench gouged into the ground earlier.
Then they exchanged glances and silently regrouped.
Yagami's strength terrified them. That much was undeniable.
But they couldn't retreat.
They were the vanguard of Sunagakure—the advance force.
If they fell back now, it would deal a devastating blow to the morale of every unit behind them.
That was a consequence they could not afford.
So even if it meant dying on this battlefield—
They would not retreat.
[System Notification]
Mission Triggered: Defeat the Sand Shinobi advance troops
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Reward: Prestige +5000
Seeing the mission appear, Yagami's lips curved upward slightly.
His blood surged, excitement rising instead of fear.
"Disperse—break their formation!"
The Sand commander's expression hardened as he shouted the order.
The Sand shinobi squad immediately began to spread out.
They had already witnessed the horror of Yagami's slash firsthand...there was no way they would allow themselves to stay packed together again.
The shift in their resolve was instantly felt.
Every one of them now carried the aura of someone prepared to die.
"Good," Yagami muttered.
"Ready," he said calmly.
"This is where the real bloodshed begins."
He twisted the bracelet on his wrist, then stepped forward with his blade in hand, moving to Kushina's side.
"If I didn't need to watch your back," he added,
"I'd already be carving through them."
"I'm ready!"
Kushina felt the same murderous shift in the Sand shinobi's presence.
As she answered, her hands snapped together in front of her chest.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
BOOM!
A blinding light erupted behind her.
The sharp clang of chains colliding echoed endlessly through the battlefield.
Chakra surged violently, accompanied by an overwhelming roar that seized everyone's attention.
Yagami turned his head.
Kushina's crimson hair flared wildly in the wind—
And behind her, countless chakra chains burst forth, lashing and dancing through the air like living beasts.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains…" Yagami murmured with interest.
In the original records, Kushina had used this technique while gravely wounded—
even at death's door—to suppress the Nine-Tails and buy Minato time to complete the seal.
It wasn't just a weapon.
It could attack, restrain, erect barriers—
Even suppress tailed beasts.
An absurdly powerful and versatile technique.
Do I have the Uzumaki constitution now…?
Could I learn this too?
The thought made Yagami curious.
He decided he'd ask her properly when there was time.
BOOM!
Kushina stomped the ground.
The earth cracked inward under her foot as her body shot forward like a cannonball, charging straight at the Sand shinobi.
"…Violent," Yagami muttered.
Still, he followed without hesitation.
"Attack!!!"
The Sand commander roared.
Hand seals flew.
"Whoosh—!"
The chains behind Kushina whipped forward.
In an instant, several Sand shinobi who were still forming seals were skewered mid-motion.
"Pff—!"
"AHHHH!!"
"Cough—cough—!"
Blood sprayed.
Screams rang out.
In seconds, several chūnin fell.
"Spread out! Spread out!!"
The commander shouted hoarsely, eyes red.
He never expected the woman he'd barely registered earlier to wield something so terrifying.
—SHING!
Yagami swung his blade.
A massive slash—over ten meters tall—howled toward the command position.
—RUMBLE!!
The ground split open once more, torn into an abyssal trench.
"Scatter!!"
Sand shinobi screamed in terror.
Those who failed to escape in time were swallowed whole.
The commander barely survived—leaping away the instant Yagami moved, having never once taken his eyes off him.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Completed jutsu erupted simultaneously.
A torrent of ninjutsu surged toward Yagami and Kushina.
Just as Yagami was about to pull Kushina aside—
A chain suddenly wrapped around his body.
He was yanked backward.
The next moment—
Countless chains converged.
In the blink of an eye, they formed a sealed sphere, enclosing both of them inside.
—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Ninjutsu rained down relentlessly.
Fire, wind, pressure—everything slammed into the Adamantine Chains.
Yet the sphere didn't even tremble.
"…You can use it like this?" Yagami's voice echoed from inside, strained.
The moment the chains wrapped around him, his chakra flow became heavy—
as if it were being suppressed.
"Of course," Kushina replied smugly in the darkness.
"My own technique won't suppress me."
Outside, the bombardment continued without pause.
Inside the sealed sphere, the two had no choice but to endure.
If Kushina hadn't dragged him in, this would have been the perfect moment for Yagami to slaughter the Sand shinobi freely.
"Kushina…" he muttered.
"…I can't breathe."
The chains were tight.
Too tight.
And they were wrapped far closer than necessary.
In the darkness, Kushina's cheeks heated up.
But the attacks outside still hadn't stopped.
So the two could only remain...
Waiting together inside the sphere of Adamantine Sealing Chains.
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