Rise, City of the Sky!

Still not ready to wake up and end this farce?

Then I'll tear away your disguise myself.

At Arata's command, his scarlet Mangekyō stopped spinning, and the enormous Susanoo dispersed from the world.

He immediately stepped toward the ambitious schemer hiding deep in these mountains.

Just then, however, the strange figures that had retreated returned under cover of night.

Only now, with the bright moon having shifted almost directly above the village, could their appearances be discerned.

They wore purple shinobi uniforms that covered their entire bodies, with black masks concealing even their mouths and noses.

Their attire closely resembled that of Otogakure's shinobi, who left almost nothing but their eyes exposed. Yet the forehead protectors they wore clearly announced that they were not shinobi from Otogakure.

The distinctive emblem engraved in the center of their forehead protectors looked somewhat like a wing with half of it missing. The same emblem was embroidered on their uniforms.

The strange triangular objects seen earlier could also be roughly distinguished under the white moonlight spilling from the sky. They were artificial wings with dark yellow bodies—or perhaps flying devices would be a more fitting description.

The instant they revealed themselves, these shinobi from the Land of Sky lowered the devices mounted on their upper arms without exchanging a word, exposing rows of dark, almost square openings.

Judging by their appearance, those devices bore a striking resemblance to firearms from his previous life. Without question, the dark openings were launch ports for some kind of concealed weapon or ninja tool.

And those firearm-like devices were aimed not only at Arata, but also at Hotaru and Amaru, who were in the same area. It seemed that the Zero-Tails' host had become expendable once the monster had been successfully awakened.

Click.

With the synchronized clicking of