Ended

"Smack!"

The cup fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

The lightweight furniture in the room was swaying gently, and the chandelier on the ceiling was swinging from side to side.

Was there an earthquake?

"It should be... but it feels like just a minor earthquake, nothing serious. Just stay home and relax."

Sakumo calmly held his teacup, sipping the emerald-green tea, a look of utter enjoyment on his face.

"Hey, is what you said about Kakashi true?"

The woman, wrapped in a thick sweater, sat down next to Sakumo.

Her health was poor; she almost lost her life when giving birth to Kakashi. Although Tsunade saved her, it still damaged her vital energy, making her very sensitive to the cold. Despite taking good care of herself over the years, her body has been slowly weakening as she gets older. Even in the summer these past two years, she has been wearing thick winter clothes.

"Ah?"

Sakumo was immersed in the lingering aftertaste of the tea.

"I'm asking you a question! What do you mean, 'huh'?"

The woman frowned and slammed her hand on the table, nearly knocking the teapot off. Fortunately, although Sakumo had been retired for many years, he had never stopped exercising and caught the teapot at the last second.

"Phew! Why are you arguing with me? You can just ask Kakashi when he gets back, can't you? I've used this pot for decades, and you almost broke it today..."

Sakumo muttered complaints under his breath.

"..." The woman frowned, and her intimidating gaze gave Sakumo a headache.

He placed the teapot back on the table before saying, "I don't know the specifics either. I only heard about it from Katsuki. It seems the person in question is Katsuki's apprentice."

"That's perfect. I'll cook tonight. Go and invite Katsuki and Otome over for dinner, and bring Shuyuan along too."

"Huh? That's too much trouble. It's already this late, everyone should have already cooked... Okay, but I need to ask someone first. I guess I won't be able to make it today. How about tomorrow if all else fails? You'll have more time to prepare the food then..."

Sakumo sighed repeatedly. This woman was getting old and was almost going crazy wanting to hold her grandson. Her son was busy all day and never came home. He couldn't find her even if he wanted to talk to her. All he did was make noise, and he didn't even have time to drink tea.

The minor earthquake caused little disturbance; at most, a few cups broke, prompting a string of curses from the housewives. But people went about their business as usual, each cog in the machine operating in a stable order, maintaining the peace of the village.

Northern forest.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The tremors here are extremely intense; within a radius of 500 meters, the surface rock layers are shattered, and towering trees are uprooted and toppled to the ground.

Further out, Katsuki's Shadow Clone used Earth Release to neutralize the shockwave caused by the explosion.

"... This is insane, so many Explosive Tag."

Itachi rubbed his temples with a wry smile, looking at his subordinates who were completely stunned, and let out a long sigh.

There is still a huge gap between them and true powerhouses!

He had clearly seen Sasori's previous actions with his Sharingan, but he couldn't think of any way to break the deadlock in that situation... All he could do was feel fortunate that Lord Katsuki was there; otherwise, their entire group would probably have been swept into the abyss.

Before them lay the collapsed rock walls, a super barrier over thirty meters in diameter and thickness that had been shattered by the storm unleashed by the explosion, with trickles of water flowing down its slopes.

Layer upon layer of barriers shattered under the continuous explosion of tens of thousands of Explosive Tag. The terrifying power that kept piling up and pushing to its peak even exceeded Katsuki's expectations.

"Ugh! Thank goodness I didn't try to be cool and take the hit with my bare hands, otherwise I would definitely have been beaten to a pulp."

The main body of Katsuki rode the Thunderclap Chariot, circling in the sky to ensure that there were no gaps in the triple defense line formed by the Shadow Clone.

The so-called three-layer defense.

The innermost barrier group unleashed all of the Uzumaki Clan's most powerful Barrier Ninjutsu to restrain the power of the explosion; the second line of defense was the Ninjutsu group, using Earth Release and Water Release Technique to form a second line of defense to weaken the power of the explosion; as for the third layer, it was the outermost clones, which did their best to reduce the impact of the explosion, such as the earthquake.

"It seems... it's finally under control, don't you think, Sasori of the Red Sands?"

Behind Katsuki, sixteen golden chains danced, binding Sasori of the Red Sands tightly and suspending him from the rear of the Thunderclap Chariot like a tail.

The instant the Explosive Tag was detonated, Katsuki, driving the Thunderclap Chariot, swept past Sasori with lightning speed, casually lifting the suicidal guy up with her.

"Honestly, you're really going all out. Someone like you who'll blow himself up when he gets really ruthless is the kind of enemy I hate the most. Even if you don't kill anyone, you're still disgusting... But never mind, I'll let it go since you were training my son. I'll hand you over to Itachi later. I hope... you can hold on."

Scorpion's mouth was sealed shut with chains, and Katsuki didn't want to say anything more.

It was because they were too overconfident that they caused such a huge explosion, blasting a large area of flat land out of the forest.

It's so embarrassing to have to trouble the Senju Clan to plant trees again!

"Hey, Itachi, here's a big gift for you."

The Thunderclap Chariot swooped down and arrived in front of Itachi and the others in an instant. Katsuki deactivated the Thunderclap Chariot form, jumped down, stood on the broken ruins, and used the golden chains to send Sasori to Itachi.

"Huh?"

Itachi stared in disbelief at the bound Sasori.

"Itachi, use Genjutsu to take this guy down. He's turned himself into a puppet, and I don't even know where to start to knock him out."

Katsuki continued her rambling, Itachi snapped out of his daze, met Sasori's gaze, and with a flick of his black Tomoe, pulled the already powerless Sasori into an illusion. He then ordered his recovered subordinates to help tie Sasori up.

"Tie it tight. This guy is incredibly ferocious. Get me a thicker chain."

"Suppress his Chakra with Fuinjutsu... Damn it, how am I supposed to seal Chakra in this puppet body?"

"... Anyway, let's find a way to remove this guy's limbs first. If it's just limbs, removing them shouldn't be a big problem, after all, it's just a puppet!"

Watching the busy Root ninjas, Katsuki walked over to Itachi's side.

"Itachi, is it alright to leave this place to you?"

"Don't worry, Lord Katsuki, you don't need to worry about this. I'll handle it."

Itachi nodded. If he couldn't even do something as simple as cleaning up the battlefield, he, one of the Twin Stars of the Uchiha Clan, should just buy a block of tofu and smash his head against it to avoid bringing shame to the clan.

"Good! Then I'll leave everything to you from now on. I need to go teach those two little idiots a lesson, so I'll be going now."

Katsuki gave Itachi a thumbs-up, smiled at him, then transformed into lightning and sped away at full speed. (To be continued)