"I…"
Kisame genuinely wanted to spit blood.
What was going on?
When had he become a shinobi worthy of Guy's admiration?
If he had known this would happen, he would rather have jumped into a river.
It was frustrating.
Truly frustrating.
After joining Konoha, Kisame had tried to build a decent relationship with its shinobi.
So he had sparred with Might Guy once.
As a result, this thick-browed man had latched onto him.
"Fine. Do whatever you want."
Kisame's voice was filled with resignation.
"But this time, if we spar, I won't hold back."
"Youth burns with passion! I won't hold back either!"
Guy threw his head back and laughed.
"I'll show you what true taijutsu is! I'll show you the hymn of youth!"
Kisame's mouth twitched.
He turned his head away and stopped speaking.
There was nothing else to say.
He was completely speechless toward Guy.
He had never expected Konoha to have such a reckless maniac.
All he could say was that the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Ren, was impressive.
Even his subordinates were this strange.
"Kisame really met his match…"
"Who would've thought? After surrendering to Konoha, our days actually became this comfortable."
"Compared to this, life in the Akatsuki really was miserable."
Watching Kisame and Guy act like a pair of fools, Deidara and Sasori, who had also submitted to Konoha, could not help sighing.
Back then, after they surrendered to Konoha, they had expected harsh treatment.
Instead, the Fifth Hokage had been surprisingly open-minded.
Not only did he support their artistic beliefs, he even allowed them to research explosives and puppets, letting them contribute greatly to Konoha's development.
Because of that, both Sasori and Deidara had secretly sworn not to disappoint Uchiha Ren's expectations.
And they had lived up to it.
Deidara had already developed many different kinds of explosive shells.
Sasori, meanwhile, had created many puppets for both daily use and combat.
"I wonder what Lord Fifth is planning."
Not far away, Kakashi lazily glanced at Sasuke and Sakura before speaking meaningfully.
"After Naruto's full tailed beast transformation this time, he'll definitely grow stronger. He may even learn to freely enter his Tailed Beast state."
"What?"
The worried Sasuke and Sakura both cried out in shock.
They had not expected Kakashi to say such a thing at a time like this.
Naruto would become stronger?
He would be able to enter Tailed Beast mode freely without being affected by the Nine-Tails?
That was shocking.
Absolutely shocking.
Sakura was only surprised.
But Sasuke felt a little bitter.
He knew how terrifying Naruto was when he transformed.
If Naruto could freely control that state, just thinking about it made Sasuke's scalp tingle.
No.
He had to become stronger too.
Only by becoming stronger could he kill that man.
The next moment, Sasuke took a deep breath and looked toward the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Ren.
He knew very well that if he wanted to become stronger, he would have to rely on Ren.
Especially after hearing that Hinata and Hanabi's Byakugan had evolved into the Tenseigan, Sasuke could not help looking forward to his own Sharingan.
If the Fifth Hokage was willing to help him, perhaps his Sharingan could evolve into the legendary Rinnegan.
Thinking of that, Sasuke's heart began to burn.
"Roar!"
At that moment, the Nine-Tails seemed to recover.
It glared violently at Ren, baring its fangs and roaring as if it was about to erupt again.
"Nine-Tails, let me show you something."
Looking at the foolish fox, Ren smiled calmly and pointed at the giant screen in the sky.
"Hm?"
The Nine-Tails looked confused.
Its gaze naturally fell on the giant screen above.
The screen, which had been blank, suddenly lit up.
The scene that appeared was from the era of Hashirama and Madara.
In the image, the Nine-Tails was easily captured by Uchiha Madara.
Then the scene changed.
Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage, shouted that the Nine-Tails was too powerful.
But in the next moment, a gigantic wooden figure grabbed the Nine-Tails in one hand.
Finally, Hashirama added fuel to the fire with one last sentence.
"This thing can hurt people?"
The moment those two famous scenes appeared, all of Konoha—
no, the entire shinobi world—
fell dumbstruck.
No one had expected the giant screen in the sky to show such scenes.
And the people in the images were familiar to everyone.
One was Uchiha Madara.
The other was the legendary Hashirama Senju.
More importantly, the arrogant and mighty Nine-Tails looked like a little cat in front of them.
In an instant, the way countless Konoha shinobi looked at the Nine-Tails changed.
So even the mighty Nine-Tails had moments where it was crushed.
Who would have thought?
Especially when they saw Hashirama grab the Nine-Tails like a kitten, many people could not help laughing.
So the Nine-Tails had not always been invincible.
"…"
As for the Nine-Tails itself, it froze.
Its heart filled with rage and humiliation.
The moment it saw the broadcast, memories flooded back.
It remembered the fear of being dominated by Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.
Especially Hashirama.
That man had shown off in front of it far too many times.
And now, those memories had been shown to the entire shinobi world.
For the Nine-Tails, this was nothing less than a public execution.
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