Chapter 576: The Curtain Falls
It was obvious who had shouted.
Might Guy was now radiating massive amounts of blood-red steam.
Ishiro's heart leaped—no, it pounded wildly. This is bad!
Ishiro reacted faster than anyone.
He immediately used the Light-Heavy Boulder Jutsu to shoot into the sky, simultaneously lifting the small porcelain platform carrying Sakura-chan and the others at maximum speed.
Along with them, two other porcelain platforms shot upward.
The small one carried Neji-kun, who had been beating up Hiashi Hyūga.
The large one carried Sōkai's Susanoo.
Since Neji-kun and Sōkai were already standing on the giant platform Ishiro had created, all he had to do was detach the sections under their feet and launch them.
The Susanoo was huge, so that platform moved the slowest.
But Ishiro didn't dare tell Sōkai to dispel the Susanoo to gain speed. Instead, he yelled for him to reinforce it.
Sōkai had been fighting Guy earlier; he was the closest target. Once Guy stabilized the Eight Gates, Sōkai would likely be the first victim.
At the same time, Ishiro detached the section under Might Guy's feet.
He controlled that platform to launch Guy toward the nearest enemy among the four slaughtering Konoha ninja: Shinnō.
The remaining porcelain from the giant platform was quickly gathered by Ishiro to form a barrier between Guy and Sōkai.
As for Hiashi Hyūga and Shibi Aburame, who had also been on the platform... Ishiro couldn't worry about them anymore.
Ishiro saw that after opening the Gate of Death, Guy actually looked at him first.
That single glance terrified Ishiro. He immediately formed a one-handed seal: "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Over a dozen Ishiros appeared in the air.
But it was just a glance. Guy's first target should have been Ishiro, but he changed his mind.
Ishiro was right; Guy wanted to kill him the most. Even trading his life just for Ishiro's would have been worth it.
But he wasn't confident. Ishiro had too many tricks—Light Release, gravity jutsu... Guy wasn't sure he could kill him in time.
So Guy turned and charged at Shinnō.
Sōkai was the closest, but he was inside a Susanoo and behind a wall of porcelain, and Ishiro would surely support him. One hit might not be enough.
So Shinnō became the target.
Shinnō had heard Guy's shout and seen Ishiro's extreme reaction.
But he thought, It's just the Eight Gates. Without the Body Revival technique, what's there to worry about? How many hits can he land before he burns out? Can he really kill me in a few hits?
Just as he thought this, he saw Guy charging at him.
Shinnō, who had also opened the Gate of Death (in his own way), didn't believe the hype. He met the charge head-on.
But... fast! Too fast!
Shinnō couldn't even react before Guy was in front of him.
BAM!
Guy didn't waste time on Shinnō. He delivered one solid hit, then immediately charged toward Sora.
Sora and Fū were close together; it was efficient.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Two more hits.
Sora and the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki fell instantly, their Bijuu cloaks dissipating in seconds.
In the stands, Baki had also seen Guy's transformation. He knew the power of the Eight Gates. Ishiro's panicked reaction only confirmed the danger.
So, the moment Guy charged Shinnō, Baki stood up and screamed at Gaara, "Feigning Sleep Technique!"
Gaara didn't fully understand, but Baki was his teacher and Kazekage. He listened.
More importantly, the fear in Baki's voice made Gaara's heart clench.
He closed his eyes.
He didn't use a jutsu; he just fell asleep.
With his massive dark circles, he was always exhausted from fighting Shukaku. The moment he stopped resisting, he was out.
The next instant, the colossal One-Tails, Shukaku, appeared in the arena.
Its massive body crushed countless buildings and Konoha ninja.
Finally free, Shukaku let out a roar of liberation.
And then... BANG!
Guy's fourth strike hit him.
It was clear Guy was regulating his power.
His hits on Sora and Fū had been weaker; they were only partially transformed Jinchūriki. And Fū was technically a Konoha ninja (even if he was berserk), so Guy held back slightly.
But his hit on Shukaku was much harder.
The strike, far surpassing Kage-level power, instantly blasted Shukaku's massive body back into sand.
Shukaku, who had only managed one roar of freedom, was obliterated.
He didn't even know what had happened.
Inside the seal, a confused Shukaku looked around. Why am I back? And where's my chakra? I feel... lighter.
The massive pile of sand collapsed, revealing a soundly sleeping Gaara in the center.
Ishiro and the Iwa group were high in the air, but his Mind's Eye was watching.
He sensed that Guy, having taken out four targets, still wasn't at his limit.
This time, Guy didn't look at Ishiro.
He turned and charged at Orochimaru.
Aside from Ishiro, there were two other battlefields: Danzō's Edo Tensei army and Orochimaru.
The Edo Tensei were far away, and while Hiruzen was dead, Mito Uzumaki was still fighting them. More importantly, that fight was outside the village and wouldn't cause destruction.
Orochimaru, however, was using two Edo Tensei to fight Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi was considered "one of their own," so Guy decided to use his remaining life on Orochimaru.
Orochimaru saw Guy's rampage. He hadn't expected Guy to have strength left after four attacks.
He quickly recalled Fugaku Uchiha to defend him with Susanoo, while simultaneously forming seals for his strongest defense: "Rashōmon: Five-Layered Gate!"
Ishiro frowned. Orochimaru can use the Five-Layered Rashōmon now?
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Guy kicked through all five gates and shattered Fugaku's Susanoo in a single blow.
Only then did Ishiro sense Guy's aura weakening. But... he still had one hit left.
Sure enough, after breaking the Susanoo, Guy didn't stop. He charged straight at Orochimaru.
Pang!
Guy kicked Orochimaru in the stomach, sending him flying like a cannonball into the distance.
Ishiro immediately sensed Guy again. This time, his energy was gone. He was an empty shell.
The next moment, Guy's last spark of life extinguished, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.
Only then did Ishiro exhale.
There was no doubt: Guy's six attacks weren't his strongest move.
He could have combined them into one massive "Night Guy." If he had, the power wouldn't have been much less than what he used on Madara in the original story.
Ishiro thought about it. If Guy had split his power into six hits, he might have survived (with medical help).
But if he had used Night Guy... Ishiro doubted he could survive that.
Good thing I prepared so many 'gifts' for Konoha. Otherwise, Guy might have used that one-for-one trade on me.
The five people Guy attacked were all "helpers" Ishiro had found for Danzō.
Trading those five for Eight Gates Guy? Ishiro thought it was worth it.
Guy's explosion had been fast and brief. Most people didn't even know what had happened before he collapsed.
Even those like Ishiro who followed it closely were still reeling from the shock.
It wasn't until the half-dead Shinnō made a noise that Kakashi snapped out of it.
While Ishiro was still high in the air, Kakashi acted. He used Wood Release to bind Shinnō tight.
Shinnō was critically injured by Guy; he wouldn't recover anytime soon. He couldn't move, let alone fight. The Zero-Tails inside him was being drained by the Wood Release.
After securing Shinnō, Kakashi teleported to Fū.
Sora was dead, the Nine-Tails chakra gone. But Fū was alive, though badly hurt. He couldn't fight anymore.
Kakashi checked Fū's condition and had the Sealing Team completely seal the Seven-Tails. Until he figured out why Fū went berserk, he wouldn't use him again.
Kakashi didn't go to Gaara. Baki was faster.
While Guy was attacking Orochimaru, Baki had rushed to Gaara. He picked up the sleeping boy, signaled Temari and the others, and fled the village.
Kakashi didn't pursue. Gaara was a diplomatic incident he didn't have time for.
Itachi Uchiha was curled on the ground, clutching his eyes. His Susanoo was gone.
He couldn't believe he had lasted this long. Even more incredibly, he felt his eyes hadn't gone blind; they were still usable.
Jiraiya and Fugaku stood nearby, motionless. Orochimaru's control had broken.
Kakashi had Itachi and Guy's body brought to him, then looked up at Ishiro.
He was about to speak to end this chaos.
But then, a figure burst from the ground and rushed at someone.
The target, missing a leg, couldn't dodge. In an instant, he was being choked.
It was Hiashi Hyūga, who had been crippled by Neji's forty-meter sword.
His Byakugan was active, but he hadn't sensed the approach at all.
Hiashi saw his attacker's face and opened his mouth to say, "Akira Hyūga?"
But the chokehold silenced him.
It was Orochimaru, in Akira's body. He grabbed Hiashi's tongue, which was protruding from his gasping mouth.
A small snake shot from Orochimaru's sleeve and bit the tongue.
In the distance, Kakashi saw this and his eyes narrowed. He knew what Orochimaru was doing. He quickly formed the seal to activate Hiashi's Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
But, to Kakashi's dismay, Hiashi didn't die.
Orochimaru had broken the seal in an instant.
He stomped the ground, and a giant snake erupted, swallowing both him and Hiashi whole.
The snake then dispelled, taking them to Ryūchi Cave.
Orochimaru's sequence of moves was so fast that neither Ishiro nor Kakashi could react.
Suddenly, another figure burst from the ground and leaped onto a roof.
It grabbed something—a severed human leg. Hiashi's leg.
It was the White Zetsu clone who had come with Orochimaru.
It grabbed the leg and prepared to flee.
Suddenly, its vision blurred, and the scenery changed.
Genjutsu? That was the clone's last thought before capture.
It wasn't Ishiro. It was Kakashi.
Kakashi had used his Sharingan to cast a genjutsu on the clone the moment it looked around.
Ishiro saw the clone grab the leg and remembered: Orochimaru needed a complete Hiashi for the Living Corpse Reincarnation.
So, while the clone was trapped in Kakashi's genjutsu, Ishiro used Banshō Ten'in to pull the leg to himself.
Kakashi flashed to the clone, cut off its right arm, and handed the rest to the Sealing Team.
Watching the clone being sealed, Ishiro wondered: How did Orochimaru dodge Guy's final kick?
Even if Orochimaru's body allowed him to survive, he shouldn't be unharmed. Was the Snake Substitution Jutsu that broken?
Ishiro didn't know that Orochimaru had prepared before Guy attacked.
Orochimaru had used Fugaku's Mangekyō to see the future. The vision had chilled him to the bone.
So he stopped attacking Itachi and prepared a substitution. The "Orochimaru" Guy hit was a special solid clone.
He had fooled both Guy and Ishiro (whose attention was entirely on Guy). Orochimaru figured if Ishiro noticed, the Tsuchikage might have pointed Guy in the right direction.
Ishiro stopped thinking about it.
He looked around Konoha. With Guy's explosion, the Konoha Crush Plan had failed.
Ishiro coughed a few times, signaling Kanako.
Kanako formed a seal inside her sleeve.
She detonated all the explosive tags on Danzō, Shinnō, and inside the Sky Fortress.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three massive explosions shook the ground.
Konoha ninja near Danzō's body were vaporized. The blast knocked down a section of the village wall, killing dozens more.
The sealing team around Shinnō was caught in the blast, along with Shinnō and the Zero-Tails.
The final explosion was inside the Sky Fortress. Ishiro had planted these tags himself before the invasion.
The explosion crippled the fortress, sending it crashing down onto the village.
While the explosion itself killed few, the falling fortress crushed hundreds of Konoha ninja who had gathered in the area after winning the air battle. Buildings were flattened.
Kakashi, startled by the explosions, saw what happened and clapped his hands together. A Wood Dragon shot toward Ishiro.
He knew it was Ishiro. Danzō was dead, Shinnō wouldn't blow himself up, and Orochimaru was gone. Who else could it be?
And the explosions earlier... that must have been Ishiro too.
Ishiro put on an innocent face and used Light Release to destroy the dragon.
Kakashi calmed down. He stared coldly at Ishiro. "Tsuchikage, the Joint Chunin Exam is over. Please leave."
Ishiro smiled. "Very well."
"I'm pained by Konoha's misfortune. As a guest, I should help."
"This Edo Tensei is Orochimaru's doing. I'll handle it."
As he spoke, he used Porcelain Release to wrap up the immobile Fugaku Uchiha.
Kakashi's mouth twitched, but he didn't stop him. He just stared coldly.
Ishiro grinned, sealed Fugaku's soul, and led his disciples away.
Only when Ishiro was gone did Kakashi truly relax.
The chaos was finally over.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on the aftermath.
First, he turned to Kisame, who was missing an arm. "Mizukage, I apologize for earlier. It was necessary."
He held up the White Zetsu arm he had cut off. "Mizukage, Konoha possesses a limb attachment technique."
"We can graft this arm onto you."
Kisame looked at the white arm, then at Kakashi's left arm. He nodded.
He had heard rumors about Kakashi's special arm. Kiri intel suggested the Wood Release came from this white creature.
Most importantly, a one-armed Kisame was much weaker. Without Samehada, he was already diminished. If he didn't get an arm soon, he might have to resign as Mizukage.
But he had lost his arm because Kakashi abandoned him. He wouldn't be satisfied with just a replacement.
"Hokage," Kisame said, "I want the method for Edo Tensei, and all your research data on it."
Kakashi stiffened. He hesitated.
He wasn't afraid of the jutsu leaking; it was already out there.
He was worried Kiri would become too strong.
Edo Tensei was least useful to Konoha. Their Kage souls were sealed by the Reaper (except Tsunade). They could only summon non-Kage elites.
But Kiri could summon all four previous Mizukage. That would widen the gap between them.
And today, Konoha had lost Hiruzen and Guy. They were at their weakest point in history. Konoha's voice in the alliance would be even smaller.
But looking at Kisame's shark-like grin, Kakashi knew he couldn't refuse.
He nodded silently.
Kisame, satisfied, turned and followed the Konoha medics to get his new arm.
(End of Chapter)
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