Rasa stood atop a floating mass of Gold Dust and slowly lowered his arms from his chest.
Fox?
Information about Fox surfaced in Rasa's mind.
He had killed the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, Ryuuren.
He had killed Uchiha Madara.
Rasa felt the back of his collar grow damp. Without realizing it, he had broken out in a cold sweat.
Yako said, "I originally wanted to prevent the outbreak of the war in the Land of Rivers with one assassination, but I didn't expect you to collude with the Akatsuki.
I tried to give Sunagakure a dignified way out. You insisted on resisting.
Now the arrow is already on the string. You have to die."
Rasa felt deeply humiliated by Fox's words.
He was the Kazekage. Was he some random small fry others could kill just because they said so?
The entire town looked in this direction.
Many Sand ninja camped outside the city were also rushing over quickly.
"Wood Release: Four Giant Trees Formation!"
Four enormous maple trees burst out of the ground and grew toward the sky at an exaggerated speed.
Dense clusters of maple leaves covered the trunks, blocking out the sunlight.
The light around Rasa suddenly dimmed.
He was surrounded at the center of four gigantic maple trees. He hovered roughly fifty meters above the ground, but those maple trees were about to grow to three hundred meters.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Cube!"
A massive cube of Gold Dust smashed toward the southeastern giant tree trunk.
If he could break the trunk, he could fly out.
A wooden tumor grew from the trunk, then quickly transformed into a wooden hand.
The wooden hand grabbed the Gold Dust cube. A wooden dragon grew from the wrist of the wooden hand and absorbed the chakra inside the cube. The cube was crushed into Gold Dust powder by the wooden hand.
Rasa knew Konoha's Fox was strong, but only when he truly faced him did he understand just how troublesome Fox was.
The chakra-absorbing property of Wood Release alone left him unable to think of a way to counter it.
Rasa no longer dared to delay. He shot upward.
Seventy meters.
Eighty meters.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
The crowns of the four great trees were closing together three hundred meters above the ground.
Rasa pushed the sand mass beneath his feet with all his strength and finally flew out at the very last moment.
The crowns of the four towering trees closed just one fraction too slowly, ultimately leaving Rasa a gap.
A dozen maple leaves were knocked into the sky by the sand mass.
Rasa felt heat in his calf.
When he had rushed out just now, something seemed to have slapped his lower leg. It felt like a branch, or a wooden hand, or someone's hand.
The residents of Windbird City stared in terror at the four three-hundred-meter-tall trees that had appeared near the noble estate.
Was this some kind of divine miracle?
Why had such towering trees appeared here?
Yako searched the surroundings and saw the person he was looking for.
Pakura had entered the city from outside, leading people as if she intended to help their Fourth Kazekage.
When her gaze met Fox's, Pakura gave an almost imperceptible nod.
She untied the Bunpuku Tea Kettle from her waist and said to the several Jōnin beside her, "Only a Tailed Beast can deal with Wood Release that reaches the sky!"
With that, Pakura threw the Bunpuku Tea Kettle toward one of the towering trees.
At the roots of the southwestern tree, violent wind and sand erupted.
An ear-piercing creak sounded from within the storm.
The tree, more than thirty meters thick, actually snapped from its roots and slowly began to fall.
Kakashi used Body Flicker to arrive beside Uchiha Hato and Nohara Rin.
Uchiha Hato anxiously asked Kakashi in a low voice, "Kakashi, what's inside that sandstorm? It actually broke Commander Fox's Wood Release?"
Kakashi said, "It's Shukaku, Sunagakure's Tailed Beast."
His father's famous battle had been when he killed Sunagakure's genius puppeteer couple. Kakashi usually paid close attention to intelligence about Sunagakure.
"Then what do we do?" Uchiha Hato asked. "Even a Tailed Beast has come out. Can we still retreat safely?"
Kakashi thought for a moment and said, "No need to rush. Sunagakure's Shukaku hasn't appeared on the battlefield in over thirty years.
During the Second Shinobi World War, Shukaku never appeared at all.
The village lacks intelligence on Shukaku. If I had the ability, I would test Shukaku's true combat strength here."
Kakashi saw Commander Fox turn and nod slightly at him.
Nohara Rin excitedly tugged at Kakashi's sleeve. Commander Fox had acknowledged Kakashi's judgment.
Uchiha Hato coughed and wanted to say that he had thought the same thing, but when he remembered Commander Fox's reputation, he did not dare act tough and lie to him.
Kakashi's eyes changed.
The direction that great tree was falling...
The three-hundred-meter tree was falling outside the noble estate.
The trunk alone was over thirty meters thick. More importantly, its crown was enormous. If it landed fully, it would crush many residents outside the estate to death.
The towns of the Land of Wind were all built around oases, and the buildings were extremely dense. If this tree fell, it would kill at least a hundred innocent civilians.
Kakashi looked toward Commander Fox and discovered that Fox had not moved at all.
The lower part of the trunk slowly fell, but the crown was crashing toward the ground with terrifying acceleration.
The crown was too large. The people beneath it had no way to escape.
For a time, screams rose one after another.
Kakashi looked at Commander Fox again and found that Fox still remained unmoved.
Nohara Rin could not hold back and hurriedly reminded him, "Commander Fox, if too many civilians are crushed to death, won't it damage Konoha's reputation?"
"You're right. But Konoha will only lose some reputation. Sunagakure will lose much more," Yako said.
"The governor of Windbird City and his family were killed, the town was destroyed, and civilians died in a battle between ninja. They'll be the ones in a greater hurry."
The trunk smashed downward. Terrified civilians ran in panic, covered by the shadow of the great tree.
Some people fell in the chaos and looked up desperately at the tree filling their entire vision.
Yako felt a little puzzled.
What was Rasa doing?
He lifted a finger slightly, then quickly lowered it.
A large amount of Gold Dust surged from the ground, forming pillars that slammed into the great tree and held up the trunk.
Rasa descended from the sky on a sand mass.
The ground was in complete disorder. Rasa desperately analyzed the current situation.
The members of the strange cult who had killed the noble family with eerie methods were retreating out of the city. A trail of blood followed them. The wounds on their bodies were still bleeding.
Konoha's Fox was standing beneath the tree roots, putting enormous pressure on Rasa.
As expected of Konoha's Fox. His mind was truly vicious.
His own Wood Release was about to crush a large number of people, yet he remained unmoved, forcing Rasa to act and consume chakra.
And then there was Pakura. She had thrown out the Bunpuku Tea Kettle.
Shukaku's hysterical voice echoed throughout the town.
When Rasa searched for Konoha's Fox again, he discovered that Fox and Namikaze Minato's three subordinates had already disappeared.
Shukaku waved his hand and swept away the wind and sand. The first thing he saw was the three towering trees.
"Hm? Wood Release? Konoha's people?"
Before he could find the Konoha people, Shukaku first saw Rasa controlling Gold Dust to move away the three-hundred-meter giant tree. Rasa wanted to throw the Wood Release tree outside the city.
"I'm out! I'm out again!" Shukaku shouted. "Sand ninja, you'll never seal me again!"
He slapped his belly, and a Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet shot toward Rasa.
Outside Windbird City, Yako appeared with Kakashi and the other two students using Body Flicker.
He looked at Kakashi.
"Let me test you with a question, Kakashi. Why didn't I continue attacking Rasa?"