Ghost Lantern Extinguishment

Ghost Lantern Extinguishment

Beast Soldier Guard's fingers loosened around the hilt.

The vicious blade that had once obeyed him like an extension of his own body now fell limply to the ground, striking with a dull metallic clang that sounded especially harsh in the deathly silent courtyard.

He staggered several steps back, putting some distance between himself and Shuji.

His gaze swept over the courtyard, which resembled a battlefield—Corpse Erosion's lifeless body lay stiffly in a pool of blood. Not far away, the Uchiha brat knelt on one knee with his head lowered, his body trembling uncontrollably. Every breath came with tearing difficulty.

"Corpse Erosion is dead," Beast Soldier Guard said hoarsely. "He actually died at the hands of a child."

The sounds of explosions continued from the rear courtyard.

"Looks like Water Erosion can't be counted on either."

The biting killing intent around him suddenly peeled away. Beast Soldier Guard's straight shoulders seemed to sag slightly before quickly tensing again.

He stared at Shuji, his deep-set eyes beneath the shadows of his brow like two pools of blood about to run dry.

"Illusion Erosion reported that you were at the Sea Breeze Pavilion. Yet now you're standing here... Illusion Erosion is dead too?" Though phrased as a question, it was an absolute statement.

Without waiting for Shuji's reply, he pressed on. "What about First Erosion?"

"The one whose arms and neck could stretch at will?" Shuji's tone remained calm and flat. "Dead. I killed him."

Dead.

An indescribable emptiness, mingling absurdity and bone-deep cold, flooded his body. The muscles in Beast Soldier Guard's face twitched nervously, twisting into a strange expression that was neither smile nor grimace.

How...? How had they done it?

The thought flashed through his mind for only an instant before being swallowed by deeper exhaustion and coldness.

It no longer mattered.

This Konoha squad, which had looked like a hastily assembled team and even included an eight-year-old child, had destroyed his Black Erosion Corps.

Illusion Erosion and Corpse Erosion possessed tremendous killing power against enemies who did not understand their abilities.

First Erosion had been the strongest fighter besides himself.

Without those three, what could he accomplish even if he exhausted everything he had to kill the ninja before him and crush the two remaining Konoha ninja in the courtyard?

The grand plan to build a village, into which he had poured his heart and gambled everything—the blueprint he had repeatedly worked through over countless sleepless nights—now seemed as absurd and laughable as snow beneath the blazing sun.

What had he done wrong?

He had weighed every step over and over.

Before Konoha and Kumogakure could finalize their peace talks, he would establish the framework of the village and secure the Land of Tea's official endorsement.

Once that banner stood firm, any move by Konoha would become an open invasion against the legitimate armed forces of a sovereign nation.

Then he would extend olive branches to Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure, offering them benefits and using their mutual restraints to make Konoha wary of acting rashly.

As long as they could endure the first few most dangerous waves of assassinations and probes, they would have a chance to sit at the negotiating table. They could cede part of their mission commission share to Konoha in exchange for peace, then seek opportunities to grow stronger afterward.

Where, exactly, had it gone wrong?

Should he not have been so uncertain of the Feudal Lord's choice and so readily sent First Erosion to intercept the messenger?

Or should he not have hesitated for so long before acting against the Konoha ninja?

Or had he allowed that old bastard Wasabi Jirocho to live for too long, giving him the chance to connect the evidence and deliver a fatal blow?

Chaotic thoughts churned and collided in his mind, finally turning into a cold, deathly silence.

Beast Soldier Guard suddenly hooked his toe beneath a long sword lying on the ground, flipping it into the air before catching it firmly in his hand. The hilt's icy touch felt like the only thing he had left to rely on.

"Konoha ninja," Beast Soldier Guard said in a low voice, carrying a strange calmness, "state your name."

"Shuji."

"Shuji..." Beast Soldier Guard slowly savored the name, as though tasting a bitter aftertaste.

"Beast Soldier Guard, leader of the Tea Mountain Gang." He gave his first identity, then paused. A deeper, more tragic aura spread from his body. "Nether Erosion, leader of the Black Erosion Corps."

The instant his words fell—

Dense, spiderweb-like dark-blue veins abruptly emerged across Beast Soldier Guard's exposed skin, as though some living thing were crawling and burning beneath it!

The air around him violently warped and heated up as a scorching, savage aura erupted from him!

A dense series of teeth-grinding cracks burst from deep within his bones, as though an invisible force were forcibly expanding and reshaping his body.

His already burly frame seemed to swell another size. Knotted muscles bulged beneath his clothes, while his skin took on an eerie dark-red hue from the immense energy surging within him.

Secret Technique: Ghost Lantern Extinguishment!

It opened three hidden acupoints beside the heart, stimulating the body's potential.

The young ninja before him was absolutely not an enemy his current physical capabilities could handle.

"Miss Shizune," Shuji's voice rang out amid Beast Soldier Guard's terrifyingly rising pressure, still as steady as ever. "Can you still move?"

Shizune's face was pale, but she nodded through gritted teeth. "Yes! Sorry... I was careless."

"Please look after Itachi." Shuji's gaze passed over the black-haired boy kneeling in the distance. His breathing was now so faint it was nearly imperceptible. "He's in bad shape."

"Understood!" Without hesitation, Shizune pressed her left hand against the small Slug on her shoulder and staggered yet resolutely toward Itachi.

"Anko." Shuji turned his gaze toward his purple-haired companion. "Jirocho needs support in the rear courtyard."

"Got it—" Anko's tense nerves relaxed somewhat with her captain's return. "You come back and immediately start ordering people around! I'll leave this guy to you, Captain!"

She spun around sharply, lightly kicked off the ground, and was about to dash toward the rear courtyard, where explosions continued to roar.

"Wait!" Beast Soldier Guard's hoarse voice suddenly rang out like rusted iron scraping together.

Anko's body froze. She whirled around, flames of vigilance and confusion instantly rising in her eyes as she stared hard at the samurai who resembled a burning beast.

"That little girl," Beast Soldier Guard said. His eyes, burned crimson by violent energy, locked onto Anko through the steaming, distorted air. "What are you to Orochimaru?"

Orochimaru?!

Her pupils suddenly contracted. The blood throughout her body seemed to freeze in an instant, only to rush wildly to her head the next moment! Her clenched knuckles cracked from the excessive force, her nails digging deeply into her palms.

"You... what did you say?" Her voice trembled faintly, each word squeezed through clenched teeth.

"Snake ninjutsu... I wouldn't mistake that cold, slimy scent."

Beast Soldier Guard's voice held a near-somnambulistic indifference, as though he were merely stating a fact that had nothing to do with him.

"Orochimaru... that man once meddled with our Black Erosion Corps and left behind a few 'mementos'..."

Regret colored his words. "What a pity. I should've snapped your neck first. You're his disciple, aren't you?"

"You—!" The extreme fury nearly made Anko lose all reason and pounce on him. A metallic sweetness rose in her throat.

She bit down hard on her lower lip until she tasted rust.

Betrayal, pain, and self-doubt battered her nerves...

But the next instant, her captain's calm back, Senior Shizune's bloodstained arm, and Itachi's faint breaths came like a cold tide, forcibly suppressing her surging rage and killing intent.

"I..." Anko took a deep breath, her chest heaving violently. When she spoke again, her voice had been forcibly smoothed out. "Sooner or later, I'll kill him with my own hands!"

Without sparing Beast Soldier Guard another glance, she spun around and shot toward the battlefield in the rear courtyard, where firelight and explosions intertwined. The hem of her dark-purple coat cut a sharp arc through the raging currents of air.

Only two people remained in the center of the courtyard.

On one side stood a savage beast wreathed in dark-blue flames, as though it had stepped from a furnace in hell.

On the other stood a Konoha jonin, upright as a solitary peak and as deep and still as an abyss.

End of Chapter