"Cough, cough… Inoichi, are you still alive?"
Outside the ruins of the Hokage Building, whose upper half had been completely blown away, Shikaku Nara coughed violently as he asked Inoichi Yamanaka, whom he had pulled out of the center of the explosion together with himself using the Shadow Manipulation Technique.
"Yeah. Barely managed to escape alive."
Inoichi Yamanaka touched his back, which had been charred black in the explosion, and answered with some helplessness.
"You do not exactly look fine…" Shikaku Nara struggled to bandage his thigh, which had been burned by the enemy's violent flame storm. "Damn it. That infiltrator's ability to conceal his presence is terrifying. My instincts only sensed danger when he had already finished preparing his attack… Is that how the two Hokage advisors were assassinated by him?"
"Now is not the time to say that."
Inoichi Yamanaka looked at the black masked monster poking its head out from the ruins of the Hokage Building through the billowing smoke, scanning the surroundings.
His expression turned especially grave.
"Shikaku, look at that strange black monster. Does it not look like… the forbidden technique from Takigakure mentioned in the intelligence?"
"Probably."
Shikaku Nara tightened the bandage hard and sucked in a breath from the pain.
"Earlier, we were almost hit directly by the Seven-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball at headquarters. That was originally Takigakure's Tailed Beast, right? Since even the Seven-Tails has been mobilized, then there is nothing strange about a Takigakure shinobi appearing here."
"Kumogakure. Iwagakure. Now we have to add Takigakure too…"
Inoichi Yamanaka formed the hand seal for the Telepathy Technique with somewhat distorted movements.
"The enemy lineup really makes one feel despair… Why do we not have unexpected reinforcements like this?"
"Enough, stop complaining. I am the acting Hokage who only took over for half a day and ended up running into this mess, and even I have not said anything."
Shikaku Nara formed the seal for Shadow Manipulation Technique, activating every shadow within a hundred-meter radius.
"My brat was only born not long ago. I have no intention of becoming an irresponsible father whose face he cannot even remember."
"Do not make it sound like I have already given up."
Inoichi Yamanaka stood up with the support of Shikaku Nara's shadow. His gaze locked firmly onto Kakuzu, who was now looking toward them from the ruins of the Hokage Building together with five masked monsters.
"Before the Ino-Shika-Cho formation is broken, I do not have the habit of admitting defeat and bowing my head."
"Heh. Looks like you are slightly more alert than those two old things."
Unsettling black threads continuously spewed from Kakuzu's body.
"If that sneak attack just now had been aimed at them, they absolutely would not have survived."
"So the advisors really were ambushed by you?"
Shikaku Nara took a deep breath.
A sharp light suddenly burst from his eyes.
"Then now, we have a reason why we must take your life, Takigakure bastard."
"Just the two of you? With your broken bodies as you are now?"
The Earth Grudge Fear inside Kakuzu twisted, commanding the five black masked monsters outside his body to simultaneously assume attacking postures.
"Of course… not!"
As he said that, Shikaku Nara abruptly pulled both hands downward.
The shadows activated by chakra extended several hundred meters away, throwing something that was speeding toward them in this direction.
Immediately afterward, a huge shadow, enormous enough to block out all the moonlight in the sky, appeared above Kakuzu out of nowhere.
"What—"
Kakuzu abruptly raised his head and looked toward the sky.
He saw a gigantic Human Boulder rapidly swelling and spinning in midair.
And within the enormous shadow it cast, a thin, inconspicuous black shadow rope with astonishing flexibility was tightly attached to his body, attempting to drag him down from the sky.
"Lightning Release: False—"
"Mind Body Disturbance Technique!"
Inoichi Yamanaka decisively used the Mind Body Disturbance Technique.
In an instant, he disrupted the movement logic of the five masked monsters around Kakuzu, turning them from seamless cooperation into a mode where they dragged each other down.
They failed to interfere with Choza Akimichi, who was falling from the sky, in even the slightest way.
Kakuzu himself was also affected by the Mind Body Disturbance Technique and completely lost the chance to evade with the Body Flicker Technique.
Boom!
Above the Hokage Building, which had already turned into ruins, another tall cloud of dust rose into the air.
"Cough, cough… You really helped us by arriving in time, Choza."
Inoichi Yamanaka, whose injuries were a little more severe, unconsciously let out a breath of relief after seeing Kakuzu directly struck by the Human Boulder Drop.
Through the Telepathy Technique, he said to Choza Akimichi, who had arrived to support them, "If you had come even a little later, Shikaku and I would have been crushed one-sidedly by that guy because we were missing the butterfly."
"Sorry. Because of the intelligence the advisors had the Anbu pass along, I wasted quite a bit of time confirming whether anyone had infiltrated."
Choza Akimichi's body quickly returned to its original state.
In two or three steps, he arrived beside Inoichi Yamanaka and lifted him onto his back, since he no longer had much strength to move by himself.
"Good thing I made it. Otherwise, I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life."
"Hey, Choza, do not only care about Inoichi. Come give me a hand too."
Shikaku Nara sat limply on the ground, looking bitterly at the bandage on his leg that had been dyed red again.
"I am one of the wounded too!"
"Yes, yes. Do not rush…"
Choza Akimichi adjusted his posture. After confirming that Inoichi Yamanaka could lie a little more comfortably, he stepped toward Shikaku Nara.
But before he could reach the other party, he saw Shikaku Nara's face suddenly change dramatically.
Shikaku immediately raised his hands and began forming the seal for Shadow Manipulation Technique.
The enemy is not dead?
How is that possible?
I clearly crushed his body.
Choza Akimichi was full of incomprehension. But seeing Shikaku Nara's extremely urgent movements, after having gone through life and death together with him many times, he still decisively chose to trust Shikaku Nara's judgment.
His feet suddenly exerted force, and he prepared to dodge to the side with Inoichi Yamanaka—
"Super Liberation: Sky Sever!"
Several pale blue flashes carrying astonishing chakra swept past Choza Akimichi's side, shooting straight toward the direction behind him.
Then, just as they were about to be intercepted by the opponent, those blue chakra blades instantly swelled, breaking through with a sudden explosive burst of speed and striking the target that the blade wielder had already locked onto while the enemy was caught off guard.
"Confirming your victory too early is not a good habit, Konoha uncles."
Inoichi Yamanaka, who was lying on Choza Akimichi's back, abruptly raised his head and looked toward the figure speaking to them in a voice so young it still brimmed with childishness.
Short water-blue hair.
Sharp teeth like a shark's.
A strangely shaped ninja blade split into two halves and held in both hands.
A face so young it made people feel slightly uncomfortable, carrying a proud expression.
And the incomparably clear Kirigakure symbol on his forehead protector.
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