Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Adamantine Staff clashed violently with the Four-Bladed Iron Claw, sending dazzling sparks flying.
"It's over, Kazuma."
Hiruzen Sarutobi said in a deep voice, "Your Guardian Shinobi have suffered heavy casualties."
The staff in his hands moved so quickly that it formed an impenetrable defense,
deflecting each of Kazuma's frenzied attacks.
"It's over?"
A cruel smile played across Kazuma's face,
and there was no fear in his eyes. "Do you know how long I've been preparing for this day?"
"Heavy casualties? Hahahaha! That's exactly what I want!"
He abruptly leaped out of the fray and frantically formed Hand Seals.
"Earth Release: Reincarnation Technique!"
The earth churned violently, and the bodies of the Guardian Shinobi who had died earlier
were completely swallowed by the surrounding soil.
Yet before long, they emerged from the earth once more.
Might Guy's thick eyebrows drew tightly together
as he watched the gray-skinned corpses return to life. "W-what are those things?!"
Uchiha Itachi swiftly dispatched several reanimated Guardian Shinobi with the Kunai in his hand.
But the next second, they staggered back to their feet,
"Kazuma! How dare you desecrate the dead!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi roared with fury. "This is the greatest insult to the departed!"
"Hmph. The dead are dead. I'm just putting them to use!"
Kazuma sneered coldly.
At the same time, he ordered this army of the undead to charge the elite Anbu Ninja from Konoha.
Chaos instantly erupted outside the Daimyo Palace.
These reanimated puppets felt no pain and knew no fear,
and even when knocked down, they would get back up and attack again.
Though the Anbu members were powerful,
they were suddenly locked in a fierce struggle against these relentless monsters.
Yatsuhashi knocked down the reanimated puppets around him. "Watch out. They seem impossible to kill."
"We need to use Ninjutsu to restrict their movements!"
Taking Yatsuhashi's advice, the Anbu Ninja
quickly sprang into action.
Among them were plenty of skilled users of restraining Ninjutsu.
Though their techniques were nowhere near as effective as Sealing Techniques,
they were more than enough to deal with these reanimated puppets.
At the same time, Hiruzen Sarutobi knew he could no longer hold back.
He bit into his fingertip,
then smeared the blood across the Adamantine Staff.
He shouted, "Enma: Falling Immortal Stone!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi hurled the Adamantine Staff with all his might.
The staff spun through the air. It looked like a simple throwing attack, but there was more to it.
Kazuma disdainfully raised his claw to block it again.
"Clang!"
The instant the claw touched the staff,
a huge, furry ape's arm suddenly shot out from inside it,
and clamped down hard on Kazuma's wrist.
The Adamantine Staff then instantly transformed into the giant old ape Enma,
pinning Kazuma firmly in place.
Kazuma was stunned. "W-what is this?!"
The Adamantine Staff was no ordinary Ninja Tool.
It was a transformation of Hiruzen Sarutobi's Summoning Beast, the old ape Enma.
Thus, the weapon
was actually the old ape Enma in transformed form.
Seeing that Enma had Kazuma firmly restrained,
Hiruzen Sarutobi rapidly formed Hand Seals.
He roared, "Combined Technique: Earth Dragon Flame Flow!"
Then he slammed his palm against the ground, and a massive earth dragon roared forth,
coiling tightly around Kazuma in Enma's place.
Immediately afterward, Hiruzen Sarutobi sprang to his feet,
took a deep breath, and spewed a wave of scorching flames ahead.
"Boom!!!"
A violent explosion instantly engulfed Kazuma, who was bound by the earth dragon.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared,
Kazuma was badly wounded,
but he had somehow used the Substitution Technique at the critical moment to escape disaster.
He now knelt on the ground in a sorry state.
"Cough, cough..."
Kazuma spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva,
then looked up at the sky, which had suddenly turned dark.
"Hahaha... But it's not over yet! This is only the beginning!"
Kazuma laughed maniacally. "Let this place become a graveyard for you Konoha Ninja!"
Hiruzen felt a jolt of alarm and looked up.
The sky, which had been clear moments ago, was now covered in thick thunderclouds.
And at the four corners around the Daimyo Palace,
an enormous, unnerving amount of Lightning Release chakra was gathering.
"That's..."
"Kakashi!"
Kakashi, who had been fighting the reanimated puppets, responded at once
and instantly arrived beside Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Third!"
"Take some people and scout out that Lightning Release Ninjutsu!"
Hiruzen ordered urgently. "You have to stop it!"
"Yes, sir!"
Kakashi turned and shouted across the battlefield, "Might Guy, Uchiha Itachi, come with me!"
Might Guy's green figure flashed to Kakashi's side.
"Kakashi, what exactly is that thing in the sky? It feels dangerous!"
"I don't know, but that's definitely no ordinary Lightning Release Ninjutsu."
Kakashi stared at the huge thundercloud overhead,
his brows knitted tightly. "The way that chakra is gathering... It's like it's drawing in lightning."
Uchiha Itachi followed calmly,
clearing away the reanimated puppets along the way for the three of them.
As a member of Kakashi's Anbu Team 6,
Yatsuhashi naturally went with Kakashi as well.
He silently glanced at the churning thundercloud,
and immediately understood what was happening.
This was the combined Ninjutsu of the Lightning Style Four-Man Squad among the Twelve Guardian Ninja: Lightning Style: Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning.
If they didn't destroy it quickly, things could get bad!
"Kakashi, we only need to destroy one of the four formation points, and the Lightning Release will naturally stop!"
Hearing this, Kakashi immediately followed Yatsuhashi's suggestion and changed the team's course,
racing toward the formation point nearest the Daimyo Palace.
However, after charging for so long, Lightning Style: Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning
was already poised to show Konoha its devastating power.
"Rumble!"
At all four formation points, dazzling arcs of lightning erupted at once
and surged toward the sky,
coalescing in an instant into a gigantic orb of lightning that made everyone tremble!
"Crackle!"
The orb spun wildly, and countless bolts of lightning poured down like a storm.
The Anbu members struck by them
were charred black before they could even scream, and clearly wouldn't survive.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Kazuma laughed maniacally. "Die, Hiruzen Sarutobi!"
Then he pointed both hands sharply.
The enormous orb of lightning seemed to understand his command,
and in an instant split off a terrifying lightning bolt several meters across,
which shot straight toward the Third in the middle of the battlefield.
"Boom!!!"
Blinding white light swallowed everything.
When the smoke cleared, a huge crater had appeared in the ground,
and the rocks along its edge still crackled incessantly.
The elite Anbu Ninja nearby couldn't help shouting, "Lord Third!!"
Kazuma looked at the crater and laughed arrogantly. "Hahahaha! This is the power of the Daimyo!"
"This is the might of the Guardian Shinobi!!"
He spread his arms and began directing the orb of lightning to attack the remaining Anbu members.
"Hahahaha! In the end, we Guardian Shinobi will still win!"
The situation on the battlefield instantly became perilous.
Fortunately, by then,
Yatsuhashi and the others had broken through the Guardian Shinobi's outer defenses
and reached one of the formation points for Lightning Style: Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning.
However, Kazuma had anticipated this long ago.
He had already set up Lightning Release: Lightning Binding at all four formation points.
Eight ropes made of pure lightning
enclosed the entire area around each formation point in layers,
forming a high-voltage net that kept Yatsuhashi and the others firmly at bay.
Kitane, who was releasing Lightning Release in the center of the formation point,
also noticed the four approaching Yatsuhashi and his companions.
He snorted coldly. He didn't even need to form Hand Seals again; he only had to think.
"Rumble!"
The orb of lightning overhead split off another streak of lightning,
but it wasn't aimed elsewhere.
Instead, it precisely targeted Uchiha Itachi, the youngest of the four.
It all happened too fast!
The streak of lightning moved faster than the eye could follow,
carrying the aura of utter destruction.
In an instant, it was right in front of Itachi.
"Itachi!"
Kakashi and Guy didn't even have time to save him.
At that life-or-death moment.
"Bang!"
A muffled thud rang out.
A palm slammed hard into Itachi's chest.
Yatsuhashi sent Itachi flying like a cannonball, his face utterly expressionless!
"BOOM—!!!"
Lightning struck the spot where Yatsuhashi had been standing.
The ground instantly vaporized,
leaving behind nothing but a bottomless crater.
Beyond the billowing dust, Uchiha Itachi, whom Yatsuhashi had saved, knelt some distance away.
As he stared at the crater, his normally calm eyes turned crimson in an instant.
A strange chakra unlike any he had ever felt began to form inside his mind,
and a relentless pain stabbed at his eyes.
"AAAAAAH—!"
Itachi roared in agony, his hands gripping the ground with all their strength.
The next second, he jerked his head up.
In his eyes, which had been pitch-black,
crimson began to spread wildly,
and at the same time, a pair of eerie tomoe appeared in his blood-red eyes.
Two-Tomoe Sharingan, awaken!
Uchiha Itachi's Two-Tomoe Sharingan locked onto the crater in the smoke,
and the killing intent in his eyes was as piercing as the bitter cold of midwinter.
"I'll kill you all, no matter what!"
Before you continue