"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
Crimson lava churned as frenzied roars shook the village barrier.
BOOM—
Steam billowed as the Five-Tails Kokuō, at the other end of Iwagakure, smashed through a huge section of the stone wall.
"Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!!"
The shrill emergency alarm rang out.
In their stone houses, Iwagakure Ninja jolted awake one after another.
"The Tailed Beasts are rampaging! Quick! Everyone, assemble immediately!"
"The Four-Tails Son Goku and Five-Tails Kokuō have both gone berserk! How is this possible? Who's behind this?"
"Notify Lord Tsuchikage and Lord Kitsuchi and have them come suppress the beasts. Mobilize the troops stationed outside the village as soon as possible, and have them combine their Ninjutsu to minimize the damage..."
There was chaos, but it was orderly.
After all, Iwagakure had weathered emergencies before, with Tailed Beast Chakra leaking out and Jinchuriki losing control. As long as a powerful fighter arrived in time, before the Tailed Beasts reached their complete forms, and swiftly brought the situation under control, the casualties and damage would be tolerable.
But tonight...
The Jonin who approached with confidence were horrified to discover that the Four-Tails and Five-Tails weren't merely in a localized frenzy. The two colossal beasts had completely broken free of their restraints and entered their full rampaging forms.
"So this is a Tailed Beast at full power? Things split off from the God Tree at its peak... Their bodies are as massive as mountains..."
In a corner, Uchiha Xiu murmured to himself.
Traveling across infinite worlds, he needed super batteries like these to keep his chakra topped up!
"Roar! Blood for the Blood God..."
Under his control, the Four-Tails continued to bellow Khorne's battle cry in the manner of a fanatical believer, a slogan that had no place in this world. The words lent the beast an air of mystery.
"Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
RUMBLE! A river of Lava Release burst into existence.
Scorching molten rock rampaged through the heartland of the Land of Earth. Wall after wall collapsed, and countless ninja and civilians were swallowed up.
Whoosh~
A little farther away.
Superheated steam surged for miles, punctuated by the sounds of buildings exploding as the other beast answered from across the village.
Tonight, familiar faces were bound to be everywhere in Iwagakure.
"..." Jiraiya fell silent.
What an ominous battle cry.
The two Toad Sages felt an instinctive shiver of fear.
Those definitely weren't words anyone wanted to hear!
"If we don't kill them today, then once they finish mustering their forces, it'll be our Konoha Ninja who die."
"Jiraiya, don't be softhearted."
"Remember, no large-scale Senjutsu yet. Use Taijutsu and Genjutsu to reap them!"
At that, Uchiha Xiu, clad in black lacquered armor, charged ahead of everyone toward a cluster of Iwa Ninja.
His blade flashed.
A string of heads soared through the air.
What difference was there between a Jonin and a Chunin when an expert at Kage Level who specialized in Taijutsu got up close? It was like a tiger leaping into a flock of sheep!
"Kill."
Elsewhere, Shisui, having completed his mission, wiped away his blood tears and drew the short blade from his back!
In the chaos, with a Byakugan user at his side providing real-time intelligence, a flawless silent assassination unfolded.
As they rushed around a corner, Hyuga Tokuma, who had seen it coming, collided with a burly Iwa Ninja. Chakra poured out of him as his palms struck repeatedly in the confined space.
Flesh, meridians, organs, nerves... Under the force of his gentle blows, they all shattered.
A moment later, the elite squad regrouped!
The four of them and the two toads charged through the area once, leaving nearly a hundred corpses in their wake.
Not one of them was a Genin.
The weakest had been Chunin.
They'd met no resistance at all.
"Lord Hokage, should we prepare to withdraw?" Tokuma asked gravely.
Tonight had been a thrill.
They'd plucked Lord Tsuchikage Ōnoki's whiskers and set fire to the backyard of a great power!
"No rush. Since I said everyone would get out safely, then... I won't go back on my word." Uchiha Xiu chuckled. "Heh. Everyone, think of a good exit line. The flashier, the better."
"Wouldn't want you to miss the highlight of your life."
"Yes, sir."
Hyuga Tokuma, the least composed of them all, nodded and surveyed the entire village from every angle.
The White Eye revealed everything: the shinobi army's deployment, the Anbu's hiding spots, the ninja reinforcements' routes. No hidden arrangement could escape his gaze.
Everything was under control!
As long as the Lord Hokage, who had a habit of making wild promises and speaking without much restraint, could be trusted to lead them to safety... becoming legendary ninja was just around the corner.
"The Tsuchikage hasn't reached the main battlefield yet. For now, no one can stop the two Tailed Beasts from rampaging."
"Then let's clear out the outer sentries and the Anbu. Move!"
The four of them formed up and went fishing for bigger prey.
They slaughtered their way through the enemy ranks.
Every head they severed meant one fewer enemy combatant.
Above them...
The two Tailed Beasts, both trapped in Genjutsu, opened their jaws in unison. Clusters of black-and-red chakra particles rapidly coalesced and grew larger.
BOOM!
BOOOOOOM~
After charging up only briefly, they detonated.
Two clusters of Iwa Ninja went flying!
—Back on the Night of the Nine-Tails, countless Konoha Ninja had thrown their lives away just to stop the Tailed Beast from launching one of these massive fireworks.
"Tch. Not enough, still not enough!" Uchiha Xiu, watching the bloodbath like an enthusiastic spectator, casually chopped off another head and lamented inwardly.
That was the one downside of a Tailed Beast Ball.
The shorter the cooldown, the weaker the blast.
But if you waited too long to unleash a big one, you risked getting interrupted.
"Roar—"
And so Roshi's eyes turned bloodred. Lava-charged chakra surged wildly around him as the Four-Tails Son Goku, its body as huge as a mountain, rampaged through its home.
Han was no less destructive.
You could call it a different kind of revenge against the fools who'd bullied the Jinchuriki, couldn't you?
"Gather the rice, carry it upstairs. Feel the pain!"
Just then, a short figure flew through the air.
"You two beasts! Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
A deep voice rang across the sky.
The Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki could no longer sit by and watch. He had appeared to steady the villagers.
A transparent cubic barrier took shape in his palm!
"Let this knock some sense into you!"
In an instant, the cube expanded and became a white beam of light that shot forth.
It engulfed the rampaging Four-Tails!
The very forms of all matter were forcibly rewritten.
Kekkei Tōta, which surpassed Kekkei Genkai, erupted. Rock, magma, Son Goku's tough hide and muscles—sturdy enough to withstand countless Ninjutsu—and even the raging Lava Release chakra itself began to break apart and separate at the molecular level.
"Blood for the Blood God..."
But that lingering roar rang out once more.
Tailed Beasts were living manifestations of chakra, strange beings caught between energy and flesh.
Chakra currents surged from the Four-Tails' arm as it was disintegrated by Dust Release, and the limb grew back.
"Hmph! Fool, wake up already!"
Having wounded the Four-Tails with a single strike and temporarily curbed its rampage, Ōnoki turned toward the Five-Tails Kokuō and quickly fired off another Detachment of the Primitive World, restraining its movements.
The Land of Earth's finances were already in dire straits. They couldn't afford to make things any worse.
The Land of Earth was too poor to weather this!
"Earth Release: Earth Mountain Jutsu!"
At the same time, the Jonin Commander and Tsuchikage's son, Kitsuchi, sprang into action. Seizing the opportunity, he joined forces with the Iwa Ninja forces hastily assembled nearby to create four small mountains.
They paired them up, trying to trap the two giant beasts.
The situation seemed to be under control.
Ōnoki took a moment to steady his somewhat labored breathing, then hovered as he surveyed the area.
What Blood God?
What Skull Throne?
The unnatural Sharingan were clearly visible in the eyes of both Tailed Beasts.
"Uchiha Xiu! Fifth Hokage!!"
The tiny man's furious roar echoed across the land. "You've destroyed Iwagakure's very foundations! I swear I'll kill you! Come out!!!"
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence."
At the unremarkable edge of the battlefield, Uchiha Xiu released a corpse and calmly unlocked the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
He brought his hands together. Countless massive trees and vines burst from the earth and coiled skyward.
"Wood Dragon."
At the head of the dragon, Ōnoki froze.
"..."
His scalp prickled, and he instinctively shuddered.
He remembered the humiliating days of his youth, when Madara had treated him like a stray dog by the roadside.
The god of the Ninja World, the Asura of the Ninja World—two miraculous powers had actually merged within a single person!
This wasn't merely information on paper, supplied by a spy.
The miracle itself now stood before him.
"Weren't you calling for me? What's wrong? Now that I've shown up, you don't seem too happy." Uchiha Xiu, a master of handling internal conflict, had never been a pushover against outsiders, either.
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