"What… what on earth is happening here?" Naruto's eyes widened, disbelief flashing across his face. This couldn't possibly be the peaceful Hidden Leaf Village he knew.
The streets that had once been filled with calm and warmth were now drowned in chaos, as if the village had been pulled into the heart of a storm. For Naruto, the sight was chilling.
"When I went to Mount Myoboku, nothing like this had happened. If I haven't guessed wrong, the Sound Village and the Sand Village must have joined forces to attack Konoha!" Jiraiya's voice was low and grim, his expression lined with suppressed fury.
"Damn it!" Naruto clenched his fists, anger surging in his chest. He couldn't understand why start a war when everyone had been living in peace? Why destroy what had been built with so much effort?
But this wasn't the time to chase answers. Right now, there was only one thing to do: drive the invaders out of Konoha.
With a thought, Naruto recalled the shadow clones he had stationed in the village. Their memories poured into his mind in a sudden rush, showing him everything that had happened in his absence.
"The Third Hokage has been taken hostage by the Fourth Kazekage on that rooftop. Gaara's Tailed Beast went berserk during the Chūnin Exams, and one of my clones managed to move the fight outside the village."
His brow furrowed. "The Sage Chakra I absorbed isn't unlimited. I don't have enough to split into too many shadow clones. I'll focus on two things: stopping the Tailed Beast and helping the Third. Jiraiya-sensei, I'll leave the rest to you."
"I see," Jiraiya replied, nodding with understanding.
Naruto quickly formed a clone. Their eyes met, a silent agreement flashing between them, and the clone vanished instantly.
Jiraiya narrowed his gaze, watching the movement. Flying Thunder God, huh…
The real Naruto headed toward the rooftop where the Third Hokage faced Orochimaru.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya turned his attention elsewhere. His eyes locked on the two colossal three-headed serpents rampaging at the village gates. He recognized them immediately they were Orochimaru's summons.
For the village, nothing was more dangerous right now than those beasts.
"Orochimaru…" Jiraiya muttered, his face darkening. "Have you really cut off all ties with this village?"
Far from the rooftop, at the battlefield where Gaara had unleashed Shukaku, Naruto's shadow clone stood alongside Hinata and Sasuke. Together, they faced the full fury of the rampaging Tailed Beast.
"My chakra's running low," the clone admitted, his voice grave. "I need to save what I have left for Flying Thunder God in case he fires another Tailed Beast Bomb. Sasuke, I'm counting on you for the fight itself."
The clone's chakra reserves, passed down from Naruto's real body, had already stretched thin after lasting for nearly a month. He didn't have the luxury to unleash large-scale ninjutsu anymore.
As for taijutsu? A shadow clone couldn't afford direct blows. One strong hit, and he would vanish.
But disappearing now wasn't an option. If Shukaku launched a Tailed Beast Bomb, the clone had to teleport it away immediately. Otherwise, the village would be obliterated. That was why he had stayed active this long, despite the risk.
He'd already diverted one Tailed Beast Bomb. If not for that, Konoha would have suffered a disaster.
Hinata fought bravely, but her gentle fist techniques weren't designed to battle monsters of this scale. Against Shukaku's massive body, her strikes barely slowed him.
That left Sasuke to carry the main burden of the fight.
Gaara hadn't hesitated in unleashing his Tailed Beast. At the very start of the exams, he had fallen into a false sleep and released Shukaku in the middle of the Leaf Village itself.
If not for Naruto's clone whisking the beast away with Flying Thunder God, the village would have faced another catastrophic rampage.
"I get it," Sasuke said, his Sharingan spinning into its full three-tomoe form. His eyes burned with determination as he stared up at the towering sand beast.
"Hehehe… annoying little brats. Die already!" Shukaku's shrill voice cut through the air. The beast slapped its enormous belly, and several condensed air bullets shot from its maw toward the trio.
The tomoe in Sasuke's Sharingan whirled rapidly, reading the deadly arcs of the projectiles in an instant. These weren't just ordinary wind jutsu. The air bullets carried terrifying slicing power, enough to tear solid rock apart like paper.
Even a casual attack from a Tailed Beast held unimaginable destruction.
"Scatter!" Sasuke barked, diving left with a burst of speed.
Naruto's clone and Hinata also darted aside, narrowly avoiding the blasts.
The air bullets struck the ground, exploding with devastating force, gouging deep craters into the earth. Stone and dust erupted skyward, pelting the battlefield in a storm of debris.
Before the dust settled, Shukaku's grating laughter echoed once more. "Hehehehe, think you can run forever? Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!"
The beast's enormous body inhaled, its swollen belly ballooning grotesquely. A crushing wave of chakra gathered in its throat. The air itself seemed to tremble.
"Not happening!" Sasuke's eyes flashed sharp as steel. His hands blurred into seals, chakra surging wildly through his body.
"Earth Style: Seismic Core Stone Coffin Prison!"
Though his natural affinities were fire and lightning, Sasuke had pursued mastery of other elements, learning how the cycle of nature linked them together. Through relentless effort, he had grasped both water and earth, extending his arsenal beyond the limits of his birthright.
The ground beneath Shukaku's gaping maw rumbled violently. From it, jagged stone pillars shot upward like fangs, slamming together to form a massive wall.
The makeshift barricade cracked instantly under the pressure of Shukaku's wind chakra, but even a moment's hesitation was enough to disrupt the beast's rhythm, breaking the flow of its technique.
"Hsshh! Damn rocks!" Shukaku snarled, thrashing its massive tail and raising a storm of sand.
Through the haze, the red glow of Sasuke's Sharingan gleamed, unblinking. The boy saw it all the wild streams of chakra coursing through Shukaku's body, and the small, fleeting gaps in its defenses.
"Now!" Sasuke roared. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
He inhaled deeply and unleashed a roaring torrent of fire shaped like a massive dragon, hurling it at Shukaku's head. Even a beast this large couldn't shrug off flames striking its vulnerable eyes.
Shukaku flinched, instinctively raising a sand-covered arm to shield itself.
But Sasuke was already chaining his assault.
"Chidori Spear!"
Lightning crackled in his hand, forming into a piercing spear of energy. With a flick, he hurled it at the joint of Shukaku's sand-arm guard.
His Sharingan-guided precision struck true. The lightning pierced the chakra-laden sand at its weakest point, scattering it with explosive force.
"Graaaaagh!" Shukaku shrieked in pain. Its massive arm crumbled, sand collapsing in heaps, leaving its side exposed.
Sasuke pressed on without hesitation. He slammed his hands onto the ground. "Water Style: Water Fang Bullet!"
From beneath Shukaku, spiraling columns of water erupted upward like drills, striking at its underbelly the least protected part of its colossal body.
The beast staggered, its footing slipping, sand sluicing away as it roared in fury.
"You wretched brat! How dare you strike me there!" Shukaku's voice cracked into a frenzied howl. "I'll crush you to dust! Wind Style: Sand Rain!"
The sky darkened as a torrent of sand bullets infused with slicing wind chakra cascaded over the battlefield like a deadly storm. Escape was impossible.
"Earth Style: Triple Earth Wall!" Sasuke slammed the ground with both palms. Three massive earthen walls rose one after another, shielding him and his allies.
The sand rain pounded the barriers, exploding in deafening bursts. Dust and fragments filled the air.
Though the defense held, the strain drained Sasuke's chakra rapidly.
Shukaku, undeterred, opened its gaping maw again. Dark-purple energy condensed within, the destructive core of a Tailed Beast Bomb. Its ominous glow lit the battlefield with dread.
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