Ninja Tiger King

Initially, the Tiger King had discovered that the little ones of its pack were merely paralyzed and unconscious.

Therefore, it had followed at the rear without any sense of urgency.

Because of this, it had gone unnoticed by Kimura Takuya until after his barrage of long-range spheres.

It immediately felt by instinct that the power of those explosions would surely be lethal to its subordinates!

"ROAR!"

With a startled cry, it lunged forward, only to see its subordinates lying on the ground, their skin torn and flesh mangled.

Although Kimura Takuya had avoided the giant tiger itself, the explosive power of the Big Ball Rasengan had still wounded all these Ninja Tigers.

While their regenerative abilities meant it wasn't a fatal issue, concern breeds chaos, and the Tiger King was clearly enraged.

"Sugoi!"

"Forget about 'sugoi,' move! Something even nastier is coming!"

Kimura Takuya shoved Shizune aside; she had been terrified by his ultimate move just moments ago and was still in a state of shock!

The Tiger King was incredibly fast, reaching the pair in the blink of an eye and crashing into the tree beneath their feet with a pounce.

Fortunately, Kimura Takuya had dodged in advance, but the Tiger King was, after all, the Tiger King; it had actually mastered some techniques of ninja taijutsu.

Seeing the two dodge early as it lunged at the tree, it couldn't stop its momentum and slammed directly into it, then used the rebound force to pursue them.

What followed was a series of rapid-fire pursuits!

Kimura Takuya and Shizune had no choice but to split up and dodge.

The Tiger King was clever; seeing them separate, it chose to chase only one. Ignoring Kimura Takuya right beside it, it insisted on hunting down Shizune.

It seemed intent on eliminating the weaker one first before dealing with Kimura Takuya.

Shizune was forced to exhaust every trick in her arsenal while being chased by the Tiger King—Mouth Needles, Poison Senbon, even throwing her last Poison Kunai—but she couldn't even break the Tiger King's defenses!

Kimura Takuya caught his breath; he had used the dual-handed long-range rapid-fire version of the Big Ball Rasengan to quickly wipe out the pack of Ninja Tigers.

He had fired over a dozen Big Ball Rasengans in a row, all while controlling them for remote, pinpoint explosions.

Each sphere possessed power exceeding A-rank; while they hadn't reached S-rank, firing over a dozen super-A-rank ninjutsu in succession was enough to shock anyone.

The amount of chakra consumed was easily over the capacity of one Kakashi.

He was currently at his weakest.

Empty, drained, he had shot his entire load!

Thus, seeing Shizune in such precarious danger while being chased by the Tiger King, Kimura Takuya could only fire a few kunai from behind, but they had absolutely no effect.

"No choice, I have to open the Gate. Opening the Gate while at zero chakra will severely drain my body's functions. I'll likely be in a weakened state for a long time afterward."

This was unavoidable at this stage; after all, even Might Guy and Lee would suffer from a period of weakness after opening the Gate at full chakra.

For Kimura Takuya to open the Gate while his chakra was empty was equivalent to pushing his physical and mental strength to the absolute limit.

Although his Immortality might provide some relief, Kimura Takuya estimated that the recovery period would be no less than an hour.

"Gate of Pain, open!"

A surge of chakra erupted from Kimura Takuya's body. He felt every cell in his body twitch, and a tearing sensation ripped through his mind.

This was the feeling of forcibly squeezing out chakra; if it were an ordinary person, they would likely have collapsed on the spot from this alone.

However, Kimura Takuya had cut off his pain receptors in advance, ignoring the physical agony, and used his powerful soul to endure the mental trauma.

Whoosh!

With the Gate of Pain open, Kimura Takuya charged straight at the Tiger King.

The Tiger King was enjoying its pursuit of Shizune when it suddenly felt a burst of chakra behind it, heading straight for its hindquarters.

It couldn't help but tighten its rear.

One couldn't blame Kimura Takuya for being lewd; one could only blame the Tiger King for being in such a perfect position!

If he didn't hit it with the Konoha-style taijutsu secret technique: Thousand Years of Death, he would be doing a disservice to the heavens for arranging such a stance!

"Thousand Years of Death!"

The Tiger King stood over five meters tall on all fours, and over ten meters tall when standing on its hind legs—nearly as high as a five-story building!

Its size was only a little smaller than the toads of Mount Myōboku.

Therefore, Kimura Takuya used a branch he had just hacked off a broken tree nearby for this Thousand Years of Death.

Though it was called a branch, it was thicker than Kimura Takuya himself.

The entire branch was as long as a standard tree trunk the thickness of a small water bucket!

At a glance, it had to be at least ten meters long.

Squelch!

More than half of the branch slid right in.

"Awoooo!"

The Tiger King let out a howl of agony from the strike, its rear end tucking in as it sprang away, tail clamped between its legs as it fled.

"Ha, consider yourself lucky you ran fast! But I've already left a trace of soul energy on you; I'll come back to finish you off when I have the time!"

Kimura Takuya stood with his hands on his hips, posing for a moment before finding a suitable spot to sit down and deactivate the Eight Inner Gates Formation.

He leaned back against a large tree and lay down.

"Takuya, well done! That thrust of yours was truly incredible!"

"It's nothing, I've been completely drained. I'm going to pass out for a bit."

"Takuya, Takuya, what's wrong?"

Kimura Takuya passed out the moment he said he would, giving Shizune no time to react.

He simply collapsed.

Fortunately, he had already chosen his spot beforehand, avoiding any unnecessary injuries from a fall.

Shizune looked at Kimura Takuya, who was suffering from chakra exhaustion, and shook her head helplessly.

She came to his side and used medical ninjutsu to alleviate the burden on his body.

After a long while, Kimura Takuya slowly stirred awake.

"I woke up a bit faster than expected. Did Sister Shizune help me recover?"

He sat up and looked around, but could not find Shizune.

The sun was already setting behind the mountains, and in this Giant Tree Forest, which felt like a prehistoric jungle, night fell much faster than anywhere else.

"Sister Shizune!"

"Sister Shizune!"

"Ta-Takuya, are you awake? Wait a moment, I'll be out shortly. Just stay right there and don't go looking around!"

From the woods not far behind him came the sound of trickling water, which was particularly distinct in the darkness of the night.

Kimura Takuya immediately understood what was happening and obediently waited in place for a while.

Before long, Shizune emerged from the woods behind him, her expression calm as she asked with concern.

"Takuya, are you alright now? How are you feeling?"

"Ah, I can walk, but my chakra hasn't recovered yet. Opening the Eight Inner Gates Formation earlier was a forced overdraft of my body; I've recovered a little bit now, but I probably won't be able to use chakra for the rest of the day."

Kimura Takuya felt a splitting headache; he had just deactivated his pain suppression, and cutting off his pain receptors for such a long time was bad for the body.

He rubbed his head, grimacing as he responded to Shizune's concern.

Seeing this, Shizune couldn't help but lecture him, though it was unclear if she was putting on airs as his senior or for some other reason.

She felt that her composure was truly crumbling in front of this kid; she clearly had a very good temper, yet how many times had she lost it just today because of him?

"Honestly, you are just too reckless. Forcing an overdraft of your chakra like that causes massive damage to your body!

This isn't just a simple matter of not being able to use chakra for the day; you're a medical ninja yourself, don't you realize that the trauma to your body is permanent?"

"What else could I do? I couldn't just watch you get eaten by that tiger, Sister Shizune."

"Er, well, even so, you shouldn't be so reckless. I had ways to get away."

"How was I supposed to know? If you hadn't managed to escape, I would have lost another person close to me."

Shizune fell silent.

That's right, this child had long since lost all his other relatives.

So, as his senior, have I already become the person closest to him?

Shizune's eyes reddened with emotion. She walked over to Kimura Takuya and made him lie on her lap, intending to use medical ninjutsu to soothe his headache.

It was the kind of offer that couldn't be refused.

Kimura Takuya was stunned, bewildered by the sudden lap pillow.

He had just been too lazy to argue with Shizune and had made up a random excuse.

Did she actually take it seriously?

Well, if she took it seriously, then so be it; there was no harm in it.

Mmm, it really did smell nice.

Enjoying the lap pillow, Kimura Takuya had nothing to do and couldn't move around easily, so he began to observe the Tiger King in his mind.

"Hmm? Where is it? Why does it look like it's inside a base?"