The battlefield was choked with smoke and dust, and the roar of slaughter shook the sky.
The Kumogakure Ninja had suffered a heavy blow, but unlike during the first wave of attacks, they weren't shocked or panicked. Instead, it stirred the brutality in their hearts.
Every Kumogakure Ninja had grown up amid bloodshed and violence. They were even more bloodthirsty and cruel than the Kirigakure Ninja.
The Third Raikage and Fourth Raikage were both skilled schemers. They not only pretended to be muscle-bound brutes themselves, but also went to great lengths to package Kumogakure's ninja as battle-hardened men who loved fighting and feared nothing.
The only flaw was their quick tempers and somewhat brutal methods.
The father and son had succeeded beyond measure. Not only did outsiders believe it, but the Kumogakure Ninja themselves were convinced they were tough guys.
But under Yamanaka Chujiu's command, the Konoha Ninja had inflicted heavy casualties on them while suffering almost no losses themselves. The Kumogakure Ninja, who prided themselves on being warriors, began to reveal their true nature.
Though they still thought of themselves as brave and fearless, Yamanaka Chujiu could clearly distinguish the madness, brutality, and bloodlust through his Heart Severing Realm.
The Kumogakure Ninja didn't want victory. They wanted their enemies' blood. They simply wanted to kill!
Yet they firmly believed this was the nature of warriors, the pride of fearless berserkers!
Yamanaka Chujiu couldn't help laughing. "Heh, that's incredible."
"I always wondered how a village that produced traitorous ninja like Kinkaku and Ginkaku—who led half the village's ninja in an attempt to kill their own Raikage—could never produce another traitor."
"So they've all been fooled into becoming real warriors. Now that's the strongest genjutsu in the Shinobi World!"
If bloodthirsty madmen believed they were ironclad warriors and kept believing it right up until death, then they truly were ironclad warriors.
Compared with the two Raikage's masterful cons, the Sharingan was nothing. Kotoamatsukami and Kotoamatsukuchi were child's play, while the Will of Fire was just an immature little brat.
But a fearless spirit alone couldn't change the outcome of a battle.
The Boxer Rebellion had been fearless too. Its fighters could charge into volleys of gunfire, but that didn't make them the strongest light infantry on earth.
As Yamanaka Chujiu marveled at the Kumogakure Ninja's bravery, he coolly issued commands, directing the Konoha Ninja to suppress and slaughter them.
Then a surge of violent chakra shot into the sky.
Yamanaka Chujiu stepped out of the tent and looked north, toward the source of the chakra.
The Eight-Tails Gyuki's chakra erupted skyward like boiling black water. Though nearly two thousand meters away, its suffocating pressure was still palpable.
Yamanaka Chujiu could even feel the earth trembling. Dust billowed and hovered in the shaking air.
The ground where the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki stood must already be covered in cracks, spreading outward like a spiderweb.
The Tailed Beast's power was terrifying, yet Yamanaka Chujiu couldn't distinguish the emotions of the Kumogakure Ninja from those of the Eight-Tails Gyuki through his Heart Severing Realm.
It was as though the monster was no different from a human on a spiritual level.
Yamanaka Chujiu didn't dwell on it. Instead, he calmly ordered, "Retreat! Everyone, fall back!"
"Follow the plan I just laid out. Fall back forty kilometers, then establish a new defensive line!"
With no time to relay orders, the Konoha Ninja launched a series of specific ninjutsu in a set sequence. They burst in the sky into clouds of smoke in different colors.
When the Konoha Ninja saw the smoke arranged in a particular pattern, they could decipher the retreat order and carry it out immediately.
Even when the Kumogakure Ninja clung to them, the Konoha Ninja were determined to retreat quickly, even at considerable cost.
Because it was Lord Orochimaru's order!
Over the past hour, Orochimaru had led them to what seemed like a miraculous victory.
How could they not trust Lord Orochimaru?
Black Tailed Beast Chakra flowed over Killer B's body, forming a translucent Tailed Beast Cloak. Fierce black markings appeared across his face, his eyes turned black, and his pupils gleamed gold.
A savage, violent aura burst from within him. His body abruptly swelled, his muscles bulging like a small mountain, as eight thick, slick, foul-smelling tentacles grew from his back.
The enormous tentacles writhed without purpose, each slam against the ground booming like thunder.
After gathering strength for a moment, the Tailed Beast's chakra erupted again, forming a black pillar that shot into the sky. The chakra spilling from it rumbled like thunder.
The black chakra spread into a sea of dark mist. A deafening roar rang out from within, and the Eight-Tails Gyuki's form emerged.
Its curving horns gleamed with a cold metallic sheen. Its body towered dozens of meters high, and its massive tentacle tails thrashed through the air as its blood-red eyes swept across the battlefield.
The immense pressure radiating from the living being made of Tailed Beast Chakra left the Kumogakure Ninja nearby with churning blood and made it hard for them to breathe.
But inside that terrifying Tailed Beast's body, Killer B was communicating with the Eight-Tails Gyuki.
"Come on, Gyuki! Let's raise some hell!"
"Killer B, move! Move!!"
"Tailed Beast Ball!!"
The Eight-Tails Gyuki gathered its surging Tailed Beast Chakra in its mouth, blending Yin-Yang Release in a two-to-eight ratio. A black-purple Tailed Beast Ball took shape.
The Eight-Tails Gyuki's terrifying pressure intensified. A gale swept across the battlefield, and every ninja felt death looming.
Boom—
The Tailed Beast Ball shot out. The blast of wind it unleashed was tremendous, snapping trees and pulverizing rocks in its path.
Shattered wood and dust spread to either side along the Tailed Beast Ball's trajectory, like the wake of a ship cutting through the sea.
The Tailed Beast Ball hurtled across the battlefield and struck the Konoha Ninja's defensive line, exploding with a thunderous boom.
Blinding flames shot into the sky, and the explosion's roar shook the heavens.
Konoha's defensive line was no more.
Fortunately, the Konoha Ninja had followed Yamanaka Chujiu's order without hesitation and retreated just in time to avoid the Tailed Beast Ball's blast.
Many unlucky ones who'd been held up by the Kumogakure Ninja hadn't gotten far enough. The blast sent them flying, and they landed in a daze.
It had been a close call. The Konoha Ninja could have suffered heavy casualties, instead of just a dozen or so unlucky ones taking a tumble.
As they retreated, the Konoha Ninja looked back at the mushroom cloud rising into the sky and exclaimed in awe.
"So that's a Tailed Beast Ball. Terrifying!"
"If not for Lord Orochimaru, a hundred of us would've died just now."
"Heh, how could it have been only a hundred?"
"Right. Last time in the Land of Rain, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki from Iwagakure used a Tailed Beast Ball. More than four hundred of our comrades were wiped out on the spot."
"Thank goodness for Lord Orochimaru!"
"We're grateful, my lord!"
Standing beside the tent, Yamanaka Chujiu confirmed that there were no serious casualties and gave the order: "Move out. Take whatever you can carry. Leave behind anything you can't."
"Oh ho ho ho, the Eight-Tails must be furious that it missed everyone. It'll send a Tailed Beast Ball this way any moment."
The Konoha Ninja were in high spirits and answered loudly:
"Yes! Lord Orochimaru!!"
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