The two Tailed Beasts that appeared in the center of the arena were like a signal flare fired into the sky.
In that instant, every person in the Hidden Leaf Village harboring ulterior motives began to move.
"Sand Shinobi, full-scale assault!" Under Maki's command, squads of Sand ninja clad in chakra armor charged at the Konoha forces without fear for their lives.
The moment the two sides clashed, Konoha's shinobi realized that the ninjutsu they had always relied on so confidently now met crushing defeat against these Sand ninja.
The formidable defensive power of the chakra armor showed its worth to the fullest in combat.
It absorbed ninjutsu, blocked taijutsu—leaving only genjutsu as a viable option. And genjutsu specialists rarely excelled on the battlefield.
Most crucial of all—this chakra armor could fly.
Not everyone is a protagonist, and not everyone carries a protagonist's plot armor.
The Sand forces quickly seized the advantage.
"War has finally erupted, and the darkness that comes with war… that is the deepest darkness of all." Shinno casually dispatched a Konoha shinobi, his gaze fixed on the two towering beasts rampaging in the distance. A strange exhilaration welled up in him. "I can feel it already… it's close. Just a little longer, and the thing I've spent my whole life searching for will appear."
Shinno smiled—then froze, his expression twisting in surprise.
"So soon… That's enough. More than enough."
A layer of black mist wrapped itself around Shinni's body as he surrendered himself to its power.
It was the manifestation of pure negative energy—Dark Chakra.
And it just so happened he was standing in the very place Naruto had been moments ago. Here, the concentration of negative emotions was several, even dozens of times stronger than elsewhere, saturated with the malice of Konoha's own villagers.
Now, that malice was being harnessed by Shinno.
"Come forth… Zero Tails."
Before him appeared a creature the size of a double-decker bus, slick and eel-like, wearing a white mask marked with the character for "Zero" .
The Zero Tails.
"Ninja Art: Dark Ninjutsu – Zero Tails Formula!"
Shinno leapt onto the monster's head.
"Forbidden Medical Jutsu: Physical Rejuvenation!"
As Dark Chakra flowed into him, his snow-white hair darkened, and his frail, aged frame returned to youthful vigor.
The Zero Tails was born from humanity's darkness and malice; the more intense the hatred and resentment, the larger it grew. Given a sufficient feast of darkness, it could, in little time, grow to rival a Tailed Beast.
"I can feel the power in my body growing," Shinno exulted. The benefits of Dark Chakra made him crave more.
And where could he find more hatred and malice than on a battlefield?
There was, in fact, one such place.
By chance, his gaze fell upon it. Like a cat catching the scent of blood, his eyes lit up.
"There lies your true feast. Let's go raise some real hell."
Shinno urged the Zero Tails into a wild charge through the village. Leaf, Sound, Sand—it didn't matter who stood in his way; they died all the same. Countless civilians were already among the dead.
His destination—the direction of Naruto's "home."
A place forever steeped in the malice of the Leaf's villagers.
The wicked had found their scourge, and Konoha's own people were tasting the fruit of their cruelty.
"You again? Why do you keep hounding me?" Mizuki snapped in irritation. The bandage-wrapped stranger before him had been dogging him endlessly, spouting bizarre nonsense.
"You looking to die?"
As Orochimaru's "third hand," Mizuki had far more urgent tasks. He was, after all, the Sound's battlefield commander—how could he waste time here?
"Heh heh… I was originally looking for Kakashi," Hidan-like laughter rattled from Hiruko as he eyed Mizuki. "Didn't expect to find a second possessor of the Sharingan here. Don't bother hiding it—I can smell the scent of a kekkei genkai on you."
"You want the eyes Orochimaru-sama gave me?" Mizuki's two-tomoe Sharingan spun wildly, his body swelling until he stood three meters tall in the form of a tiger-man.
"Then you'll have to trade your life for them."
"I'll show you the supreme masterpiece of Orochimaru-sama—me!"
"Whoa!" Deidara, perched atop a giant clay bird, pointed excitedly toward the two rampaging beasts—One-Tail and Seven-Tails. "Hey, Sasori-danna, aren't those Tailed Beasts?"
Once Sasori confirmed, Deidara grinned. "Why don't we snatch them in the chaos? The boss will praise me for sure, yeah!"
"Don't do anything unnecessary," Sasori cut him off sharply. "It's not time to collect Tailed Beasts yet. Our mission is to eliminate Konoha shinobi."
"Che, boring, yeah." Deidara fished a lump of clay from his pouch and fed it to the mouth in his palm. "Guess I'll stick with my little friends."
He flung his hand forward, scattering swarms of tiny clay spiders down onto the Leaf chūnin below.
Forming a seal with his fingers, he shouted, "Drink!"
BOOM!
The Leaf ninja were annihilated in an instant, not even ash remaining.
"Hahaha! Behold—this is my art, yeah! Art is an explosion!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Another wave of clay spiders rained down.
"Art… is an explosion!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before long, the streets below were engulfed in a sea of fire.
"Hahaha, Sasori-danna! Look at my fireworks—they're beautiful, yeah!"
If Deidara had ever seen Naruto's "Ominous Bloom," he might have proclaimed it the ultimate art.
"Idiot," Sasori muttered with disdain, though he did glance at the blasts. "Something so fleeting—what's there to admire?"
Several Konoha ninja leapt up from the rooftops, blades flashing, aiming for Deidara in midair.
Sasori's fingers twitched, and several humanoid puppets appeared around him.
"True art is eternal beauty."
The puppets not only blocked the attacks with ease, but unleashed clouds of poisoned needles, killing the shinobi instantly.
"Like my puppets."
"Sasori-danna, when you say stuff like that, I can't help but get mad," Deidara huffed. "The brilliance of a single moment—that's real art, yeah!"
BOOM!
In their sector, every Konoha shinobi was wiped out.
Elsewhere on the battlefield—
"This one's worth 100,000 ryō… This one, 300,000 ryō… and this one—heh heh—worth a million!" Kakuzu rummaged through the battlefield like an old lady at the market, stuffing loot into the large black sack on his back, a look of deep satisfaction on his face.
"This one—tch, worthless trash."
"Kakuzu, will you quit it already?" His partner barked at him, panic in his voice as Leaf shinobi closed in.
"Three million ryō. I'm warning you," Kakuzu growled, glaring with his beady eyes. "If you interrupt me again, I'll kill you first."
No one interferes with my money-making. No one.
"Oh—this one's five million ryō!"
His voice even changed with excitement.
Konoha was in utter chaos—Sand and Sound forces attacking, two Tailed Beasts, a monster rivaling the Tailed Beasts, and a cadre of fearsome shinobi in black cloaks with red clouds.
Under the assault of so many powers, the great tree that was the Hidden Leaf was beginning to splinter, piece by piece.
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