Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The sounds of explosions echoed continuously.
Earlier, the battle between Kaede and Chiyo hadn't been particularly loud. With the Kusanagi Sword in his hand and the swordsmanship he had honed, Kaede's strikes against Chiyo's puppets were clean and sharp, slicing through them with ease and barely making a sound.
But now, the clash between Kaede's technique and Chiyo's ultimate secret art was like a barrage of cannon fire, rumbling across the battlefield and drawing the attention of countless shinobi.
While the Konoha shinobi were awed by Kaede's overwhelming power, many of them also looked tense. After all, compared to Kaede, Chiyo was a long-renowned ninja, a legendary figure in Sunagakure, and hailed as the strongest puppet master in the shinobi world!
Given the current situation, the outcome was still too difficult to predict.
The shinobi of Sunagakure were even more nervous.
Most of them, aside from some higher-ups, were unaware that their surprise assault unit had been annihilated. They knew almost nothing about Kaede, and had assumed Chiyo's opponent would be one of the Sannin, like Tsunade. No one expected it to be a young ninja like this!
Swish! Swish!!
More Sand ninja tried to rush in for support.
Konoha's ninja did everything in their power to stop them.
At that moment, the clash between Kaede and Chiyo had completely overshadowed the nearby battle between Jiraiya and Rasa. Even Rasa and Jiraiya were paying close attention, both realizing that the decisive moment was near.
Would Kaede, inheritor of the Will and talent of Konoha's White Fang, defeat Chiyo once more in the Third Great Ninja War?
Or would Chiyo, relying on her far greater combat experience, turn the tables on him?
Akimichi Choza was watching the battle.
Jiraiya was watching.
Tsunade was watching.
Countless eyes were focused on the roaring center of the battlefield.
Finally—
The countless fragments of metal in the air gradually broke apart and became fewer and fewer, while the flames surrounded by those fragments showed no sign of diminishing.
under the gaze of countless people, Kaede, bathed in silver light, wielded his Twin Chidori, sweeping fiery feathers of flame around himself, and suddenly soared into the sky.
Lightning crackled around his clenched fist.
He struck directly at the triangular puppet floating in the air.
Most of the nearby puppets had already been wiped out by Kaede. Chiyo could no longer stop him from destroying her puppet's core. She could only watch helplessly as his fist struck forward.
BooooM!!!
Lightning and fire exploded in a blinding blast.
With a thunderous boom, the triangular puppet, made from unknown materials, shattered completely under Kaede's punch.
Clatter!!
As the core puppet was destroyed, the metallic fragments suspended in midair froze, then lost their power and scattered to the ground.
Bathed in silver light, Kaede descended from the air and reached out to grab the Kusanagi Sword, which had been flung away by the explosion.
Even after enduring such a blast, the blade of the Kusanagi Sword showed no signs of damage, its durability clearly far surpassed that of the White Fang blade.
Crackle!
Kaede gripped the sword hilt again, lightning surging from his hand onto the blade. With a flick of his left hand, the lightning around it vanished.
Chiyo watched this scene, and without the slightest hesitation, tapped the ground with her foot and used the Body Flicker Technique to rapidly retreat.
Retreat!
The moment her ultimate technique was broken, she knew she had to escape!
She was a veteran who had weathered countless life-and-death battles and wouldn't lose her resolve from a single failure. Once she realized she had no chance of victory, she decisively chose to withdraw.
"So, you're trying to escape…"
Kaede looked in Chiyo's direction. Before the echo of his voice faded, he had already transformed into a streak of silver light, chasing after her.
Nearby Sand ninja tried to stop him, but no jutsu or taijutsu could match Kaede's speed. He ignored them completely, his eyes fixed solely on Chiyo.
Shnk!
The silver light caught up to Chiyo in an instant.
The Kusanagi Sword pierced through her chest, yet no blood spilled. Her body crumbled into sand and collapsed, it was clearly a clone.
Without pause, Kaede grabbed the hilt and slashed downward at the ground beneath him, leaping into the air in the same motion.
Whoosh!!!
A metallic spike shot upward from directly below him.
Chiyo's clone hadn't been for escape, it was bait! Her real body had hidden underground!
This was the skill of a Kage-level shinobi, tempered by countless life-or-death battles. Even with most of her techniques already lost, she still launched a deadly counterattack at the most perilous moment.
Had Kaede's reaction been even a fraction slower, Chiyo's puppet limb would have skewered him!
But Kaede had already predicted this.
With his quadruple speed, he had four times the time to think. He had foreseen Chiyo setting the deadliest trap possible. The moment he pierced the clone, he knew staying in place meant danger.
His leap into the air was both to dodge an underground strike and to evade potential attacks from other directions. The slash he delivered was a reflexive response the moment he sensed the anomaly below.
BooM!!
A blazing arc of silver light struck the earth.
Chiyo's puppet arm was instantly destroyed, and her body was blasted out from underground, blood spurting from her mouth as she flew to the side.
Silent and swift.
Kaede's figure turned into a streak of silver again. In midair, he caught up to her. Gripping the Kusanagi Sword with both hands, he stabbed downward, impaling Chiyo's body and slamming her into the ground with a heavy impact.
The ground was blasted into a crater. The Kusanagi Sword was buried into her back all the way to the hilt—like a nail pinning her to the shatteSekkotsu.
Kaede slowly stood up.
"When the enemy believes victory is in hand, they launch what seems like a simple but deadly attack… I see now, even at the very end, you were still trying to exploit my youth and lack of experience to turn the tide. It's no wonder you were feared by so many ninja…"
He paused, then looked at Chiyo, whose body was pinned to the ground and clinging to her final breaths.
"But unfortunately for you… I saw it coming."
Blood spread across the ground.
So I've failed…?
I still couldn't get my revenge in the end. It's your victory… White Fang…
Chiyo's eyes, dim and losing their light, barely shifted toward Kaede before the final spark faded away.
…
Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure… has fallen in battle.
Defeated by the White Fang in the Second Great Ninja War, she had narrowly survived. But in the end, she still couldn't escape her fate.
And with Chiyo slain amid the chaos of battle, Kaede's name spread across the shinobi world like wildfire.
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