Sarutobi Shinnosuke

"Hahahahaha!"

Sugiyama Kenji laughed maniacally,

his body having taken a relentless barrage of Taijutsu attacks from Might Guy.

By now, he had completely transformed into a half-mud, half-human monster.

After Yatsuhashi's genjutsu and Might Guy's Taijutsu worked in tandem just moments ago,

Sugiyama Kenji's desire to fight had now been fully awakened.

"Let me show you what true despair looks like!"

He suddenly poured a massive amount of chakra into the ground,

and formed Hand Seals as he roared, "Mud Release: Mud Swamp Domain!"

"Watch the ground!"

Although Yatsuhashi shouted a warning,

Sugiyama Kenji's jutsu had already taken effect.

In an instant, the ground within a hundred meters of Sugiyama Kenji

began to churn as if it were boiling.

The once-solid earth started turning into a viscous, bottomless black swamp.

Kakashi and Might Guy,

Asuma and Ao, who were fighting each other,

and even Uchiha Itachi, who was some distance away, were all swallowed by the swamp in an instant.

Half of Uchiha Itachi's body sank into the swamp in the blink of an eye,

and the black sludge seemed alive,

clinging tightly to his legs.

Every movement was incredibly difficult, dragging him deeper and deeper.

"It's not over yet!"

"Mud Release: Mud Binding Eternal Burial!"

At Sugiyama Kenji's furious shout,

countless muddy hands shot out of the swamp,

snaking toward everyone trapped in it like venomous snakes

and desperately dragging them into its depths.

A feverish look appeared on Sugiyama Kenji's face.

"Inside my jutsu, you're all just lambs waiting to be slaughtered!"

"Itachi!"

Seeing the muddy hands about to drag Uchiha Itachi into the depths, Yatsuhashi's gaze sharpened.

He dodged the attacks of the muddy hands,

while grabbing the wooden staff Chiriku had dropped earlier.

Since the sticky hands couldn't be smashed apart with Taijutsu, he swept the staff across them.

"Smack! Smack! Smack!"

The staff struck down every muddy hand reaching for Itachi with precision.

"Thank you."

Uchiha Itachi was shielded behind Yatsuhashi,

and felt even more favorably toward the Anbu wearing the Eagle Mask.

But the muddy hands were endless. There was no way to beat them all back.

Nearby, Kakashi and Might Guy were also tightly bound by muddy hands.

"Wind Release: Wind Blade!"

Kakashi shouted, forming an invisible blade of wind in his hand

and slicing through every muddy hand restraining him and Guy.

But in the very next moment, even more muddy hands surged up from the swamp.

"Damn it! I can't move at all!"

Might Guy had tremendous strength,

but the muddy hands were so sticky that they severely hampered his Taijutsu.

"Hahahahaha! It's useless!"

Sugiyama Kenji laughed wildly from within the swamp, his laughter unbearably arrogant and grating.

"Hurry up and become nutrients for the swamp! Become one with it!"

Just as the four were struggling to fend off the attacks,

Ao, the Anbu captain who had been fighting Asuma Sarutobi,

slapped his hands together. "Hah!"

A heavy, earthy-yellow chakra burst forth.

"Earth Release: Earth Moving Core!"

"Rumble!"

From the bottomless swamp,

a massive rock suddenly thrust up from the ground.

The solid rock broke through the black mire,

forming a broad, stable platform in the middle of the swamp.

Ao's jutsu lifted Yatsuhashi and the others to safety.

"Phew..."

Kakashi let out a breath of relief as he looked at the towering rock beneath his feet,

his heart filled with shock.

"Is this the terrifying strength of Ao, the Anbu captain?

Changing the terrain so effortlessly with Earth Release must take an unimaginable amount of chakra."

Ao, the Anbu captain,

truly lived up to his reputation as "the man who cannot be defeated as long as he stands upon the earth."

However, the swamp hadn't disappeared.

It continued to spread beneath the rock,

and countless muddy hands kept climbing upward,

trying to swallow it whole.

Taking advantage of the brief reprieve, Asuma Sarutobi

gritted his teeth and pulled the gravely wounded, unconscious Chiriku out of the swamp.

But the muddy hands were everywhere, clinging to them like burrs and wrapping around friend and foe alike.

"Damn it! Sugiyama Kenji! What are you doing?!"

Asuma roared. He swung his Chakra Blade wildly,

but against the endless stream of muddy hands,

his efforts seemed futile.

In moments, the hands had tightly bound him and Chiriku,

and were slowly dragging them toward the depths of the swamp.

Sugiyama Kenji's upper body emerged from the swamp, a cruel, smug smile on his face.

"Asuma Sarutobi, as a Guardian Shinobi, you should have been ready to give everything for the Daimyo.

But you couldn't even stop these Konoha brats,

so use your life to shatter the Third's resolve!"

That was the order Kazuma had given.

As soon as Asuma died,

the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, would surely be thrown into chaos!

"Die!!"

The muddy hands suddenly yanked the two downward. The mire had already reached Chiriku's chest.

At that critical moment—

"Hah!"

Ao formed Hand Seals once more. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Rampart!"

At the sound of his cool, stern voice,

a small rocky outcrop erupted beneath Asuma's feet,

lifting Asuma and Chiriku out of the deadly swamp like an island.

Standing atop the rock,

Ao's voice came low and solemn from beneath his Monkey Mask.

"Asuma, it's not too late to turn back.

Don't let the fanatical Guardian Shinobi keep blinding you."

Asuma Sarutobi froze.

He looked at the churning swamp beneath him, then at the man wearing the Monkey Mask in the distance.

For the first time, Asuma Sarutobi felt his convictions waver.

Those muddy hands had constantly tried to drag him into the swamp,

and couldn't help but make Asuma Sarutobi wonder:

Was the "king" he protected truly the right one?

"Damn it! Damn it all!!"

Sugiyama Kenji was enraged. Ao had repeatedly countered his Mud Release, humiliating him.

"Can't you just let my swamp swallow you without putting up a fight?!"

He suddenly clasped his hands together,

pouring almost all of his chakra into the swamp.

"Mud Release: Mud Dragon Technique!"

The mire in the surrounding swamp surged together,

and, with Sugiyama Kenji forming its head, fused into a massive, writhing dragon made entirely of mud.

The Mud Dragon rolled forward with the force to devour everything, charging straight at Ao on the rocky ledge!

Yet Ao calmly formed Hand Seals once more.

"Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique."

Two enormous, hemispherical boulders suddenly rose on either side of the Mud Dragon.

Like two mountains, they slammed together with a deafening rumble.

"Squish—"

Mud and water splattered everywhere.

The Mud Dragon formed by Sugiyama Kenji was trapped between the two enormous boulders,

leaving him no room to struggle.

Standing on a nearby rock,

Yatsuhashi watched, inwardly alarmed.

"Is this the terrifying strength of Ao, the Anbu captain?"

Fortunately, Yatsuhashi had kept his strength in reserve all along,

and hadn't revealed that he possessed a Mangekyō Sharingan.

Otherwise, Konoha was full of powerful shinobi.

Apart from Danzo,

who knew who else might take an interest in his eyes?

Nearby,

Asuma Sarutobi, who had been holding his own against Ao until now,

looked utterly shaken.

"Sarutobi Shinnosuke... Had he been holding back when he fought me earlier?"

Asuma Sarutobi finally realized

that their earlier fight had been meaningless.

He hadn't even glimpsed the tip of the iceberg of Ao's strength.

Looking at Sugiyama Kenji, who had been subdued, then at Chiriku, who was barely clinging to life in his arms,

Asuma Sarutobi didn't hesitate any longer.

While Sugiyama Kenji had merged the surrounding swamp into the Mud Dragon,

he turned and carried Chiriku away in a few leaps.

Asuma Sarutobi planned to head to Fire Temple.

It seemed that was the only place that might be able to save Chiriku, whose life was now hanging by a thread.

Ao's purpose in coming here wasn't just to prevent the tragedy of a father and son turning against each other,

but also to avert the outcome of two brothers fighting to the death.

That was why Ao had never used his full strength against Asuma Sarutobi.

At that moment, he finally revealed his true strength,

and completely dispelled the doubts in Asuma Sarutobi's heart.

Seeing that the battle here had already ended,

and that nearly everyone who had come this time was an elite member of Konoha's Anbu,

the fight against the Guardian Shinobi was also overwhelmingly one-sided.

With Hiruzen Sarutobi and Kazuma fighting as well, Ao had no reason to worry.

After all, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the strongest Hokage in history.

He watched Asuma's retreating figure,

then turned to Kakashi and said,

"Kakashi, I'll leave things here to you. I'm going to bring Asuma back to Konoha."

This, too, was his duty as Sarutobi Shinnosuke—and as Sarutobi Asuma's older brother.