The Fiery Red Giant Sphere Unfurled Nine Tails

"That's good." Hinata patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

Noticing the direction Naruto was looking, Hinata's ears suddenly turned red. As if realizing something, she slightly turned her face away, no longer daring to look at Naruto.

Naruto glanced at it, then forcibly looked away.

I almost overlooked Hinata's inherent destructive power. Now is not the time; we need to get through this predicament set up by Kabuto first.

If you're so angry, just save it all up and unleash it on Kabuto!

Damn it, it's all Kabuto!

That bastard, all for a plate of vinegar-filled dumplings. To get revenge, he hooked up with Black Zetsu and slowly plotted against him, like a hunter chasing its prey.

He's probably still feeling smug right now, knowing he's in the open while the other is in the shadows. He can still do many things; with a flick of his wrist, he can shake the Shinobi World to its core.

As Naruto thought of this, his gaze turned fierce the moment he turned his head.

~~

Sasuke drew his sword and cleaved a Jonin, the blood splashing onto the snow and sending up a cloud of steam. His Mangekyō Sharingan stared at the dozen or so Kumogakure, finally revealing the ruthless and arrogant side of the Uchiha.

The snow was thick and heavy, and the cold wind was howling.

"Come on, you're all going to die!"

For some reason, Sasuke Uchiha felt a surge of exhilaration. He had lived for over a decade, constantly surrounded by lies, enduring every single day.

After all the investigation, this rotten world and these rotten people are better off being destroyed.

Once the ninjas gained power, they began vying for authority. Establishing clans left them with no time for mundane affairs, forcing them to collude with the nobility. The two behemoths fought amongst themselves, causing widespread suffering among the people.

He no longer wanted to see the true colors of the Five Great Nations ninja villages, nor did he want to see the nobles. Sasuke had only one thought in his mind: to shatter this world and reshape a new one.

"Damn it, attack together! Kill him!" shouted a Jonin from Kumogakure, who was the first to strike.

Dazzling lightning flashed around the Kumogakure, booming and pounding, making his movements completely invisible to the Jonin. Almost with each sound, Sasuke moved one position at a time, rapidly closing in on Kumogakure Jonin a serpentine trajectory.

This is a unique Lightning Release Nintaijutsu of the Kumogakure, which compresses the Chakra within the body to unleash its infinite potential.

The Jonin moved, everyone moved, and explosions echoed one after another. The air was distorted and deformed by the electric light, making even the dozen or so figures seem to twist and sway like ghosts.

Sasuke continued to draw his sword and cut everyone down.

Ten minutes later, the scene was a mess, with severed limbs everywhere. Sasuke was covered in blood, and seemed to have calmed down as a result.

Without even glancing at it, he sheathed the blind sword at his waist, and with a click, the blade slid smoothly into its sheath.

"Let's go, the people from Kumogakure will be here soon, let's kill the next batch." Sasuke walked slowly forward, Karin following closely behind him.

The Kumogakure did manage to repel the five thousand White Zetsu who had infiltrated the village, but they couldn't stop Sasuke and his group. The Hawk Team split up, with Sasuke taking Karin and Suigetsu taking Jugo.

This is modeled after the Akatsuki Organization format; while its destructive power is limited, its advantage lies in its flexibility. Karin and Jugo each possess a unique ability to sense Chakra, making their counter-surveillance skills Kumogakure.

It's early winter now, Kumogakure Village wants to send troops to form Allied Shinobi Forces with the other Four Great Nations, while also guarding against another White Zetsu counterattack.

Even though the Fourth Raikage was incredibly decisive, he still couldn't handle the Hawk Team, who moved around like boning knives. In just a few days, the Hawk Team had already taken down seven or eight outposts throughout Kumogakure.

The Hawk Team's style of operation carried a strong Sasuke -esque ruthlessness; they practically held a knife to the Raikage's neck, as if to say, "If you dare send troops, I'll sneak into the village in the middle of the night when defenses are lax and kill you."

Karin was the one who most directly felt Sasuke's change; it seemed that Sasuke changed after he was implicated in the case of the Land of Fire Daimyo.

Becoming increasingly shameless?

He acted without restraint. She didn't know what to say, only that Sasuke seemed to be becoming more and more like a person, a very shameless person. It was as if he had been forced into a corner, becoming the kind of person Sasuke disliked.

Others might not know, but Karin was by Sasuke's side every day. She naturally knew that Sasuke's condition had been off ever since Itachi Uchiha died.

If Sasuke before was like a block of ice, or a high-pressure bomb, then after this, Sasuke seemed to have punched cotton, becoming somewhat timid and hesitant.

Itachi Uchiha's death was related to Danzo, and thus Danzo died. Sasuke, having narrowly escaped death Sasuke himself, was supposed to return to normal, but Karin noticed that Sasuke's condition was actually getting worse.

Feeling lost, without goals, unwilling to care about anything, and swayed by emotions.

For a long time, the three members of the Hawk Team could clearly sense that Sasuke had lost his leadership edge and was like a self-exiled madman.

After being framed repeatedly by that person and causing trouble everywhere in Sasuke's name, Sasuke finally lost his temper and became unusually enraged. It was from that moment that Sasuke seemed to change.

~~

"Sasuke Uchiha!" The Fourth Raikage stood up in a rage, about to smash the table.

"Raikage-sama, this is the last table," Mabui suddenly reminded him.

"Ah!!!" The Raikage, unable to vent his anger, roared to the sky, his eyes bloodshot, "Evil Uchiha! Hiding around like insects!"

"It seems we weren't wrong about him from the start! It was all a one-woman show orchestrated by Sasuke Uchiha from beginning to end. His shameless tactics are all too familiar!"

Mabui noncommittal, unsure of what to say.

She knew that it wasn't Sasuke Uchiha initially attacked Kumogakure, but now... well, he's already a traitor, so she didn't care.

Strangely enough, after initially betraying him and submitting to that shameless blond guy, I could hardly sleep at night. A mix of shame and guilt overwhelmed me, but eventually, I got used to it.

It's probably because that person also liked to let his animals roam freely. He took in a few of them, made contracts with them to work for him, but didn't use them often.

I originally thought that person was going to deal with Kumogakure, which was agreed upon at the beginning, but later it seemed like he had forgotten about it. That blond guy only said to wait for the right opportunity, and he's been dragging it out until now.

If it weren't for the contract she was bound by, Mabui have almost forgotten that she had another master. Occasionally, when she remembered, she would realize that the three of them had infiltrated the upper echelons of Kumogakure, and she would suddenly break out in a cold sweat.

"Where 'Samui? Have you heard anything about her leading the team to find those insects?" The Fourth Raikage's voice pulled Mabui back to reality, and she straightened up.

"They should still be on their way. News came back half a day ago that the outpost in the southwest was attacked." Mabui calmly reported the information he had gathered, but his thoughts drifted again.

Of the three, Yugito had already made up her mind to side with that person and had pledged her allegiance. Samui, was cold-hearted and had neither pledged her allegiance nor shown any particular attitude.

It seems this matter has had little impact on her; on the contrary, she is often restless and uneasy.

The north wind howled, and heavy snow began to fall from the sky.

"It just stopped and then it started raining again. This weather!" Karui, a female ninja with fiery red hair and dark skin, looked up at the white sky and complained.

"Perhaps the enemy has already escaped under the cover of the heavy snow, or perhaps they have laid a trap for us somewhere," said Omoi, a brown-skinned man with short white hair, looking dejected and listless.

"You bastard!"

With a bang, Karui, a dark-skinned, red-haired female ninja, punched Omoi hard and shouted to stop him.

"Can you please stop saying discouraging things all the time? It's really annoying."

The three people left messy footprints in the snow.

Samui crouched down, brushed aside the thick snow in the forest, and revealed a barely perceptible bloodstain. Her gaze immediately turned serious; the snow hadn't stopped for long, and the person hadn't gone far.

Ultimately, they are just mortals; no matter how great their abilities, the Kumogakure is not made of clay.

"Shut up!" Samui turned around and glared coldly at his two good-for-nothing disciples. "The enemy hasn't gone far. Stay on guard, or you won't even know when you're going to die."

These two ninjas aren't cool at all, she thought to herself.

The Kumogakure Realm wasn't very large; it was an isolated island built atop a mountain, becoming increasingly steep as they ventured further back into the mountain. Samui and his companions followed the trail of blood, encountering more and more corpses along the way.

~~

Chojuro turned over a frozen corpse, his expression changing. Even though he had seen many corpses, he couldn't help but gag for a while.

"What's wrong? Chojuro?" Ao, who had managed to steal one of his Byakugan, rushed over, his gaze shifting downwards to the corpse. "This is..."

The face was gone, and the head was tangled up, looking extremely terrifying.

"The enemy has changed, and they are stronger than the previous batch of White Zetsu." Mizukage Mei Terumi's voice came, her figure graceful and her steps like lotus blossoms.

"They're evolving?" Qing's expression changed, and a chill suddenly ran down his spine.

"This is not a power that ordinary people can possess; bones and flesh were pulverized together." Chojuro shuddered, his voice tinged with fear.

"Yesterday... no, the day before yesterday it was already lost?" Mei Terumi's face was expressionless as she squatted down to examine the corpses carefully.

"Mei Terumi," Chojuro called out.

"It's alright, the body is frozen solid, there's no danger." Mei Terumi said casually, and without turning her head, she ordered, "Chojuro, Ao, immediately return to the village and organize ten elite squads, I have a use for them."

"Yes," the two replied.

~~

Twenty miles outside the Valley of the End is the Sage Forest, where Konohagakure left a defensive line.

Sen He was just a veteran Chunin, and his whole family lived in the north. Counting from when he went to the battlefield, it had been about forty years.

It is truly a miracle that he has survived the Third Shinobi World War to this day.

The Land of Fire had been at peace for too long, nearly twenty years, to the point that people had even forgotten what war was like. He spent almost ten years on the frontier, dozing off all day long.

But the war came so quickly that a single transfer order from the village moved him from the northern front lines of Konohagakure to the west. Many people around him had the same experience, being transferred from the southwest or even further south.

He couldn't understand the strategy, but after years of being stationed on the border, Sen He vaguely sensed that this mission might be somewhat dangerous. The enemy was exceptionally fierce, forcing Konohagakure to withdraw troops and retreat to their defensive lines.

This was something that had never happened before; even when the village was facing a life-or-death crisis, no troops had been called in from the border. When he first arrived, he was a little nervous, seeing everything as an enemy.

His companions from the north liked to tease him, whistling at him and saying he was like a woman and was terrified. Sen He didn't care, shrugging and joking that if he were a woman, he'd let his brothers have some fun.

For four or five days in a row, the defense line remained normal.

He was no longer worried, and at the same time, he discovered that there was a small village of thirty-four households not far from the defensive line.

There was a clever little girl who looked about ten years old who always dared to come to the edge of the camp to sell alcohol.

Sen He had bought the little girl a few times before, and when he saw her again near the campsite, he couldn't help but chuckle. He thought to himself that his own daughter was about the same age, but not as clever; she was always so dull and would hide from people.

He bought some alcohol and pre-ordered his share for tomorrow with the little girl. The camp wasn't strictly managed; a little drink after duty was fine. The girl smiled sweetly and nodded firmly.

"I'll come again tomorrow!"

"Come on, come on, hehe." Sen He smiled.

As night fell, screams echoed from the west side of the defensive line. By the time Sen He realized something was wrong, it was too late. The Kakkō turned the sky above the western forest red, and the heat melted the snow along the defensive line.

The ninjas rushed over, and a large number of White Zetsu emerged from the icy river and attacked the village beside it. The entire village descended into chaos, and a sea of fire engulfed the corpses.

When Sen He arrived, he saw that the villager's chest had been ripped apart by the White Zetsu, and half of his body was already destroyed. Blood mist drifted in the Kakkō, and the howling wind drowned out the screams.

He roared, drew his knife, and charged forward, his heart filled with both fear and anger.

He himself did not know why he was angry. Perhaps it was because of the villagers' tragic deaths, or perhaps it was because he knew he would die that night.

He often boasted about his experience of surviving the battlefield, and sometimes even believed that he was destined to be extraordinary and that his survival was due to the protection of immortals.

He felt a chill in his lower abdomen, and before he could look down, adrenaline shielded him for a few seconds. Before the pain reached his brain, he slashed the White Zetsu in front of him to death.

Before he could turn around, he felt a thud as half his head was struck, and he fell to the ground with a thud. He opened one eye, and half his head was gone.

He wanted to take one last look, one last glimpse of this world. War is never reasonable, he knew that, but he was unwilling to accept it, until he saw the girl who sold alcohol push open a door from a pile of ruins and run wildly toward him.

Two ferocious White Zetsu followed behind her; those things could no longer be called monsters. He tried to move but realized he was about to die. So all he could do was silently shout, "Run!"

The flame of life that was almost extinguished seemed to last a few more seconds. He had only one thought in his mind: run.

Just as White Zetsu was about to catch up with the girl, a sudden, buzzing roar resounded. A massive, fiery red sphere descended, shaking the heavens and earth like the sun.

A final glimmer of light appeared in his slowly withering eyes; his eye sockets widened, his gaze fixed intently on the giant sphere, which unfurled its nine tails.