Giving White Fang a Slap at the Start

Turning to look, they saw Nara Shikaku pressing the index and middle fingers of both hands together. He let out a sigh of relief and said:

"Shadow Imitation Technique, successful."

"Damn it! The Nara Clan?!"

A cursed through gritted teeth.

He had really been careless.

Nearby, Akimichi Choza hurried over and caught the blood-soaked Hizashi Hyuga.

Suddenly, A jerked violently, startling Akimichi Choza, who was trying to save the wounded.

Nara Shikaku grimaced in pain. "Such incredible strength. He's trying to break free of my Shadow Imitation Technique through brute force."

Hurry up, Inoichi! Nara Shikaku screamed inwardly.

"Humanoid Tailed Beast Transformation, huh?"

Seeing Killer B enveloped in dark crimson Chakra, transformed into a half-man, half-beast monster, Genetsu remained as calm as ever.

"ROAR!!!!"

Tailed Beast-transformed Killer B unleashed an enraged roar at Genetsu.

The shockwave produced by the sound alone was enough to make the vast majority of shinobi lose their will to fight.

The surrounding Cloud Ninja did not dare approach.

They knew perfectly well how dangerous Killer B was in this state.

"But it seems you still can't control it perfectly."

With a single glance, Genetsu saw through the fact that Killer B's control over the Eight-Tails' power was nowhere near as perfect as it would be in the future.

"But it's enough for me to give this a try. Let me show you the monster within me."

Genetsu held the Zanpakuto in his hand horizontally before his chest.

Just as the two sides were about to clash.

A jonin wearing a Leaf Village Forehead Protector landed behind Genetsu and shouted in desperate urgency:

"L-Lord Genetsu, please, please cover the Leaf Shinobi Army's retreat! We've suffered terrible casualties!"

Genetsu glanced sideways.

It was Yamanaka Inoichi.

Genetsu then looked in the direction the main force was retreating.

Damn!

As far as the eye could see, there were Leaf Ninja corpses everywhere. And because the Cloud Ninja were generally skilled with blades.

Most of the bodies had been hacked into pieces.

There were some Cloud Ninja corpses among them.

But their numbers were pitifully small.

About five to one, perhaps with Leaf Village's share even higher.

"Just a few minutes out of sight, and this many died?"

Genetsu raised an eyebrow.

"ROAR!"

Tailed Beast-transformed Killer B roared again and lunged at Genetsu.

With a twist of his wrist, Genetsu raised his blade before the incoming claws and said calmly:

"Don't be in such a hurry. I'm not even ready yet."

"Lord Genetsu, there's no time to get tangled up with him. Please, hurry—"

Yamanaka Inoichi was practically on the verge of tears.

He did not think his bromance's Shadow Imitation Technique could restrain A for long.

"Tch, no helping it."

The instant those words fell.

Centered on Genetsu himself.

The atmosphere across the entire battlefield abruptly changed. Everyone felt the scene before them growing increasingly blurry.

The weaker shinobi even dropped to their knees or fainted on the spot.

Even Killer B in Tailed Beast Transformation froze in place.

Though he had lost his reason, fearing a power stronger than his own was a creature's instinct.

T-This was the true strength of Konoha's Black Blade?!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

The next instant, an ominous Black Flame ignited across the blade of Genetsu's sword.

It felt different from before, when he had merely coated the sword in Amaterasu's flames.

If one looked closely, they would discover that the flames had ignited from within the blade itself.

Genetsu shifted his gaze, then raised the Zanpakuto and locked onto the boundary between the pursuing Cloud Village forces and the fleeing Leaf Village forces.

That flame feels a little different from before... Big Loli Nohara Rin thought to herself.

"Whoosh—BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!"

The raised black-flamed Zanpakuto fell from above alongside pitch-black sword qi.

Everything ahead turned into an infernal battlefield, destroyed with the fragility of tofu.

"Shikaku, release the Shadow Imitation Technique!"

Seeing the roaring sword qi speeding toward them, Akimichi Hachihachi Sanchoza shouted in panic.

Nara Shikaku wore the same expression as he hurriedly released the shadow connecting himself and A.

The instant it was released, one moved forward and the other backward, each dodging in a different direction.

Almost at the exact moment the Shadow Imitation Technique was released and the two retreated to evade.

The Raging Wave Sword Qi howled through the gap between them like a passing chariot.

Had they been one second slower, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Aaaaargh!"

Clearly, not everyone possessed A and Nara Shikaku's strength and luck.

Many Cloud Ninja, busy hunting down the fleeing Leaf Village forces and too late to notice the danger from a third party.

Were either torn into bloody chunks by the sword qi or swept into the sea of flames, desperately flailing their hands in an attempt to extinguish the fire on their bodies.

Yet the Black Flame only burned more fiercely, even spreading to others, growing more intense as it burned!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!!!

A ravine over a thousand meters long, along with a wall of Black Flame nearly ten meters high, completely separated Leaf Village and Cloud Village.

"Those who cross the line die."

Genetsu's voice carried no deliberate menace.

Yet it rang with incomparable clarity in the ears of the Cloud Village army, faintly carrying an unquestionable intimidation.

None of them dared step even half a pace beyond the wall of flames.

"Bastard!"

A gritted his teeth.

With his taijutsu prowess, crossing it would not have been difficult.

But aside from him, ninety-nine percent of the Cloud Ninja could do nothing about it.

It was obvious that they could not continue the pursuit.

"This time, we won!"

A turned around, unwilling to miss the chance to raise morale. He lifted his right arm and shouted at the many Cloud Ninja behind him.

Though they had failed to push into the borders of the Land of Fire, they had beaten Leaf Village's commander-in-chief half to death in the first battle.

Moreover, Cloud Village's losses in this battle were only around one-fifth of Leaf Village's. It was undeniably a great victory.

"Ooooh!!!"

The many Cloud Ninja, who had been left stunned and terrified by Genetsu's godlike slash, heard A's cry.

The fear in their hearts turned into the wild joy of victory. They raised their blades and shouted passionately.

The first battle had ended.

The first direct battlefield clash between Leaf Village and Cloud Village ended in Leaf Village's crushing defeat.

Of the thousand shinobi deployed, nearly seven hundred had died.

When Hyuga Hiashi and the others remaining in the outpost town saw Danzo return with one arm severed, and the blood-soaked comrades who returned numbering only thirty percent of those who had departed hours earlier.

They all stood frozen in place.

Only after several seconds of stunned silence did they snap out of it and rush forward to send the wounded to the medical ward.

Yet there were actually not many wounded.

Anyone who had been injured had basically failed to escape the Cloud Ninja's pursuit.

The wounded who had survived did so entirely because Genetsu's final slash had separated Cloud Village and Leaf Village.

The most notable example was Hizashi Hyuga, who had been beaten half to death by A.

Hyuga Hiashi stood outside the Medical Department's tent, anxiously awaiting the result of the surgery.

Beside him, Akimichi Choza had his shirt open as a nurse bandaged the torn flesh and mangled wounds inflicted by A's Lightning Release.

Perhaps because he had so much fat, it had formed a natural barrier and prevented damage to his internal organs.

Had it been a skinny man, half a lung would probably have been gone.

Nara Shikaku was relatively lucky. He had only suffered a few blade wounds, and after getting a few stitches, he merely needed an IV drip.

"Deputy Commander Shikaku, the casualty report from this battle is out..."

Since Danzo was still undergoing surgery, the Logistics Ninja responsible for tallying casualties could only report to Nara Shikaku.

Nara Shikaku gestured for him to continue.

"Six hundred and fifty-seven died on the battlefield. Of those, four hundred and eighty-two were civilians, forty-eight were from the Hyuga Clan, thirty-one from the Nara Clan, and the Yamanaka Clan... There are currently nineteen critically wounded people undergoing surgery, and we cannot yet confirm whether they will survive."

After the Logistics Ninja finished reporting those horrifying figures, Nara Shikaku could no longer suppress the anger in his heart and slammed his palm heavily onto the nearby table.