Rōshi frowned slightly at the scene and looked toward Namikaze Minato.
"Hey, Yellow Flash, do you know that little girl?"
Minato kept a straight face and ignored him.
From Rōshi's perspective, last time just Bertholdt Hoover alone had nearly thrown them into chaos. Now another person had appeared out of nowhere—this would only make things worse. Teaming up with the Hidden Leaf Village was clearly the best option.
But in Minato's eyes, Neferpitou had already lost to him once. Even if she had become more cautious, he was still confident he could win. Judging from how the two of them had appeared, they clearly intended to fight both sides at once. In that case, each side taking one opponent was only natural—why bother with any alliance?
"By the way, you lost so badly last time. Didn't those trash from the Hidden Leaf Village take the chance to kill you?"
Bertholdt Hoover continued to provoke Han.
"Heh."
Han sneered. "This time, you won't be so lucky. I'll smash your head to pieces with my own hands!!"
"Hey, Han."
Seeing Minato remain silent, Rōshi could only lean closer and whisper,
"We can't hold back this time."
Han glanced at the two thousand Hidden Stone Village shinobi behind him. Compared to the group from a few months ago, more than half had already been replaced.
"I understand."
If they kept hesitating because of the shinobi behind them, they would never be able to defeat Bertholdt Hoover.
"That's a pity. This time, your opponent isn't me."
But suddenly, Bertholdt Hoover changed his tone. He stopped focusing on Han and turned to look at Minato instead, while Neferpitou waved casually at Han and the others.
"Yo, your opponent this time… is me."
"Huh?"
The sudden switch in matchups left both sides stunned.
Logically speaking, Bertholdt Hoover had already fought Han and the others, while Neferpitou had lost to Minato. No matter how you looked at it, they should either press their advantage or seek redemption. So why switch opponents all of a sudden?
But this decision had already been planned by Akashō halfway through.
Simply put, Neferpitou was heavily countered by Minato, while facing Han and the others suited her better. Meanwhile, Bertholdt Hoover's Colossal Titan could effectively stall Minato's movements and buy time.
In the end, though, both of them were just Akashō's shadow clones. Even if something went wrong and they were destroyed, it wouldn't matter much.
After all, this was just an experiment—not only for the "legend creation plan," but also for testing his own abilities.
Of course, if possible, Akashō would still prefer to avoid having his shadow clones destroyed. It didn't look good.
"Come to think of it, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we?"
Neferpitou suddenly spoke, stopping Bertholdt Hoover just as he was about to charge forward.
"Oh right, I got a bit excited and almost forgot."
Bertholdt Hoover stepped back and raised an eyebrow at her.
"You go ahead."
Neferpitou nodded, stepped forward, and with a sweet smile and soft, delicate voice, spoke loudly:
"Let me introduce myself first. Many of you may not know me—I am Neferpitou, a member of the Royal Guard. And beside me is Bertholdt Hoover, the God of Destruction."
"We belong to the Dark Council. The reason we are here is also because of orders from the Dark Council."
"Dark Council…"
Hearing this unfamiliar term, the already tense shinobi began whispering among themselves again.
"The Dark Council… is that the organization Kokushibo and the others belong to? Why was there no intelligence about them in the past few months, yet now they've revealed themselves?"
Minato and the other strong fighters murmured as they pondered.
"Alright, you've heard the name of our organization. Whether you have the ability to uncover any information about it… that's up to you."
There's no way you'll find anything about something I just made up.
Originally, Akashō had considered copying the name of an organization from some anime or novel—like the Phantom Troupe, Monster Association, Gotei Thirteen, or even Bomb Heaven Gang or Blue and White Society. But after thinking it over, he decided to just make one up himself.
It wasn't anything important anyway. As long as the name sounded dark enough, it worked.
Neferpitou's voice suddenly turned cold, and her smile twisted into something savage.
"Of course, that's only if you can survive this place!!"
The moment her words fell, Neferpitou turned into a blur and instantly appeared in front of Han. Before he could even react, she kicked out.
"Boom!!!"
With a dull thud and a burst of air, Han spat out blood and was sent flying like an arrow, crashing through countless Hidden Stone Village shinobi before finally slamming into the ground hundreds of meters away.
So fast. So powerful!
Rōshi's pupils shrank. His battle instincts forced him into a partial tailed beast transformation almost instantly.
But just as the dense cloak of tailed beast chakra formed around him, Neferpitou had already leapt above his head, bringing down a crushing axe kick.
"Boom!!!"
Another shockwave exploded outward. Rōshi was slammed headfirst into the ground like a hammer, shattering the earth within dozens of meters and dragging dozens of unlucky Hidden Stone Village shinobi into the destruction as rocks flew everywhere.
At the same time, this impact sent all the Flying Thunder God kunai embedded in the surrounding ground flying away, completely cutting off any possibility for Minato and the Hidden Stone side to instantly switch opponents.
The only one who managed to react and witness all of this—Minato—felt his eyelid twitch.
Even after more than half a year, seeing such speed and power still sent a chill through his heart.