In an instant!
The chakra beast was battered beyond recognition by Kimimaro's assault.
A kekkei genkai?
Natsuhi's face tightened with grim resolve. This white-haired boy, who looked barely older than her own son, radiated an intensely dangerous aura!
It was the same feeling an ordinary person would have when standing before a ferocious beast.
She had to end this quickly and get to the Hoshikage's side.
Natsuhi kept her hands locked in the sealing formation as star chakra continued to surge through her. The tattered chakra beast recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, the chakra beast split down the middle, separating into two massive tigers that roared as they charged at Kimimaro from both flanks!
"So that is how it works — while using this jutsu, your body cannot move?"
Not a trace of panic crossed Kimimaro's face. His eyes remained fixed on Natsuhi.
From the moment the attack began, Natsuhi had not moved from her position.
A cold gleam flashed through Kimimaro's eyes. He stomped hard on the ground, and his body dissolved into a white blur!
Dancing past the charging chakra tigers with ease, he rocketed toward Natsuhi.
In the blink of an eye!
Kimimaro appeared directly before Natsuhi. A sharp bone spike protruded from the palm of his hand.
He drove it straight into her chest.
No blood spilled!
Natsuhi's body flickered and became translucent in that instant, her entire form dissolving into star chakra — clearly a clone created through star chakra.
SWOOSH!!
As she dissolved into chakra, the energy rapidly condensed in midair into ropes of chakra that bound Kimimaro tightly.
Natsuhi reappeared a short distance away. Seeing Kimimaro entangled, she let out a breath of relief.
Meanwhile, several other Hoshigakure shinobi rushed over and flanked Kimimaro from all sides.
"Don't kill him — just tie him down for now!"
Natsuhi barked the order at the approaching shinobi while forming hand seals. Star chakra poured from her back and solidified into a pair of chakra wings.
Kirigakure's strength was simply too overwhelming for Hoshigakure. Natsuhi could not risk killing a Kirigakure shinobi if she wanted to spare her village from retaliation.
"Peacock Method, is it? It is a decent jutsu system. But if that is all there is, this is about over."
Kimimaro glanced at the chakra ropes binding him, his voice cold.
SPLURT! SPLURT!
Sharp white bones erupted from Kimimaro's body, instantly shredding the chakra ropes to pieces.
The surrounding Hoshigakure shinobi paled at the sight and lunged forward to restrain him.
Shikotsumyaku — Yanagi no Mai!
Kimimaro did not slow down in the slightest. His body flowed like water, every movement precise and economical, as the bones protruding from his frame unleashed a relentless string of attacks.
The charging Hoshigakure shinobi were sent flying at even greater speed!
Blood sprayed through the air!
Kimimaro forced the bloodstained bone blades from his body and let them clatter to the ground.
"Come down from there too!"
Kimimaro looked up at Natsuhi, who was preparing to take flight. A series of bone segments, whip-like and sharp, erupted from his spine.
Shikotsumyaku — Tessenka no Mai: Tsuru!
Kimimaro reached back, grabbed the base of his spinal bones, and yanked hard. A long bone whip lashed out and sliced through the air above.
The whip's path produced sharp, piercing whistling sounds!
Before Natsuhi could react, the bone whip had already coiled around one of her ankles.
Kimimaro gave the whip a savage yank!
Suspended in midair, Natsuhi was dragged down uncontrollably and slammed into the ground with a heavy, muffled impact!
Natsuhi coughed up a mouthful of blood. She tried to rise and fight back, but the bone whip released her ankle and coiled tightly around her neck instead.
Kimimaro manipulated the whip, hoisting Natsuhi into the air. His expression remained utterly calm throughout.
"My, you are a bit slow."
Just then, Hoshigaki Kisame's teasing voice drifted over from nearby.
Kimimaro turned toward the sound. The Hoshikage was already lying on the ground, and Kisame had one foot planted on the man's head, looking thoroughly bored.
"How... is this possible?"
Natsuhi gripped the bone whip around her neck with both hands, her face flushed red from struggling to breathe. She stared in disbelief at the Hoshikage, who had been defeated so swiftly.
Hoshigakure's Peacock Method was impressive, but externalizing chakra in that manner was, in Kisame's eyes, the equivalent of laying every weakness bare before him.
Samehada was the perfect counter to the Peacock Method!
From start to finish, the battle had lasted only moments. Only now did the surrounding Hoshigakure shinobi fully process what had happened.
"Lord Hoshikage!!"
"Lady Natsuhi!!"
The Hoshigakure shinobi stared in shock at the two strongest fighters in their village, both defeated in the blink of an eye.
For a moment, every last one of them ceased their attacks, not daring to make any reckless move.
It was only now that those present truly understood the gap between a minor shinobi village and a great village like Kirigakure.
"Too bad. Too weak — he passed out before I even got to have any real fun."
Kisame looked down at the unconscious Hoshikage, his brow furrowing slightly.
With the Hoshikage unconscious, there was no way to negotiate cooperation.
"You — let our Hoshikage go! Our village will agree to your demands!"
Natsuhi, still dangling in midair, gasped out the words between struggles.
At her words.
A thought crossed Kimimaro's mind, and the bone whip around Natsuhi's neck went slack.
He was not worried about Natsuhi continuing to resist. In their current situation, any further resistance would be meaningless.
Natsuhi dropped from the air, coughing up another mouthful of blood as she hit the ground, gasping for breath.
"Can you make decisions for Hoshigakure?"
Kimimaro gazed at Natsuhi impassively, showing no trace of mercy.
Natsuhi nodded. After catching her breath, she looked at the Kirigakure shinobi with a mixture of fear and defeat in her eyes.
"My husband was the previous Hoshikage. I can represent Hoshigakure. If you release the Hoshikage, our village will agree to your demands."
Natsuhi pulled herself up from the ground, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her expression was disheveled but resolute.
When she mentioned her husband, a flicker of sorrow passed through the depths of Natsuhi's eyes, though it vanished quickly.
"If that is the case, then all the better."
Kisame's mouth curled into a grin. He hoisted the unconscious Hoshikage onto Samehada's blade with a single motion.
With that.
Kisame slung the Hoshikage across Samehada and, leading Kimimaro and the others, turned and marched out of Hoshigakure.
With their business concluded, there was no reason to stay any longer.
"You are taking the Hoshikage away?!"
Natsuhi's expression shifted to one of shock and fury at Kisame's action.
"Don't worry. Your Hoshikage won't be in any danger — as long as your village cooperates obediently."
Kisame replied without even turning around.
Under the furious and resentful gazes of Hoshigakure's shinobi, Kisame and the others slowly faded from view.
Natsuhi stared in the direction they had disappeared, her fists clenched tight. Moments later, she sank to her knees in defeat.
From the very beginning, the other side had never needed Hoshigakure's consent. Calling it "cooperation" was generous — the truth was closer to forced conscription.
And there was absolutely nothing Hoshigakure could do about it. Their will meant nothing!
This was the sorrow of the weak — and the sorrow of a small shinobi village.
If they wanted their Hoshikage to return alive, they had no choice but to serve Kirigakure!
Before long.
Kisame and the others had returned to the Kirigakure encampment.
From the departure for Hoshigakure to their return, the entire operation had taken roughly half a day — most of that time spent on the journey itself.
They tossed the Hoshikage into an improvised holding area and arranged for basic treatment of his injuries.
After all, they needed Hoshigakure to obey orders — and that meant keeping the Hoshikage alive.
As for whether Hoshigakure would resent Kirigakure for this?
Kisame and the Kirigakure shinobi could not have cared less. A weak minor village did not even qualify as a legitimate opponent.
If Kisame had wanted to, he could have wiped out the entire village single-handedly.
That was the gap in absolute power!
Upon returning to the encampment, Kimimaro immediately summoned a shinobi to ask whether anything had happened at the Konoha positions during their half-day absence.
When he received confirmation that Konoha had not made any unusual movements.
A hint of relief flickered through Kimimaro's eyes. It seemed the Konoha forces had not detected their operation.
However, as a precaution against Konoha growing suspicious.
Kisame and Kimimaro dispatched a Kirigakure squadron to launch a probing attack on Konoha's lines, just to keep the enemy's attention divided.
Naturally, after a brief exchange with Konoha's shinobi, this Kirigakure squadron withdrew back to their own positions, leaving behind a somewhat battered section of the battlefield.
Both sides sustained only minor injuries with no fatalities.
Kisame now stood at the edge of the battlefield, gazing in the direction of Konoha's positions, a cold smirk playing on his lips.
"Enjoy your last peaceful night."
He murmured the words to himself, then turned and walked back into the Kirigakure encampment.
Based on the intelligence reports that had just arrived regarding the overall war situation.
All three fronts were currently locked in a stalemate!
On the Land of Waves front, the Kirigakure forces led by Momochi Zabuza had run into stiff resistance and were unable to break through Konoha's defensive lines in the short term.
Zabuza was currently facing an elite task force drawn from the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans, led by their top jonin.
Moreover, Konoha's ally, the Land of Hot Water, had deployed its own Tsubagakure forces to directly support the Land of Waves front!
Given the Land of Waves' proximity to the Land of Fire's border, Konoha had concentrated a significant portion of its strength there.
Zabuza's forces were effectively fighting a two-front war against two different shinobi armies.
That Zabuza and Haku had managed to hold the line at all was already an achievement.
In large-scale warfare like this, individual combat prowess was diminished to the extreme. Even someone of Momochi Zabuza's caliber, a tier above the average shinobi, could not single-handedly fight dozens — let alone hundreds — of enemy ninja.
Faced with this situation, the village had dispatched another Kirigakure force to reinforce the Land of Waves, led by none other than Chojuro.
As for the third front, spanning the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfalls.
Reports indicated that the fighting there was even more intense, with dozens of shinobi already killed in action.
Iwagakure, which had not needed to split its forces, enjoyed strong reinforcement capabilities.
Were it not for the sudden appearance of the Land of Rice on the battlefield, Konoha's position on this front would have been extremely precarious.
In summary, across all three active fronts!
The Land of Bears theater was, ironically, the most relaxed.
Their forces had been on the defensive the entire time, after all.
But that equilibrium was about to be shattered!
The following morning.
Ten Hoshigakure shinobi, led by Natsuhi, arrived at the Kirigakure encampment.
Seeing that only ten people had come, Kisame frowned, a flicker of dissatisfaction in his eyes.
"Lord Hoshigaki, these ten are the finest shinobi Hoshigakure has to offer. They are also the only ones in our village who have mastered the flight jutsu."
"Based on what you described yesterday, we need to attack Konoha's positions from the air. Shinobi who cannot fly would be of little use regardless."
Natsuhi seemed to sense Kisame's displeasure and quickly offered an explanation.
Kisame grudgingly accepted her reasoning.
After briefing the Hoshigakure shinobi on what they needed to do.
Natsuhi and the others rapidly formed hand seals. Surges of star chakra erupted from their backs, solidifying into wing-like formations.
In an instant!
Natsuhi and her team had taken to the sky.
"All squads, prepare yourselves!"
Hoshigaki Kisame and Kimimaro took up positions at the edge of the battlefield, their voices stern as they addressed the Kirigakure squads behind them.
At this moment.
Natsuhi's flying unit had ascended to an altitude of roughly forty to fifty meters.
Satisfied with the height, Natsuhi pointed toward the direction of Konoha's positions. The Hoshigakure shinobi...
[
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