"I'd been saving that big move for months, and now it was gone just like that."
The enormous expenditure made Mizuki wince.
"Quality's lacking, so I'll make up for it with quantity. I can try this approach once in a while, but it's completely impractical for everyday use. That one shot used up months of savings. What a waste."
Mizuki glanced at the battered clone.
"The Pseudo-Jinchuriki still can't replenish its own chakra, so it needs to be topped up every so often. That severely limits its ability to operate independently. Ordinary chakra clones still don't cut it, and then there are the problems with lifespan and vitality."
Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
"And after making such a huge commotion this time, I have no idea how the village will react."
Outside the Forest of Death, chief examiner Mitaraishi Anko's once-fine mood had been utterly ruined. Everything had been going well. She'd been comfortably passing the time with dango while the examinees fought to the death, occasionally hearing a scream or two.
But the clashes, which she'd expected to remain relatively tame, seemed to be escalating. The violent chakra fluctuations astonished her even from outside the Forest of Death. The successive explosions had long since surpassed the level of power an ordinary Genin could muster.
"This doesn't look good. Did some dangerous person sneak into the exam?" While Anko was hesitating over whether to go check, a Chunin came to report an abnormal situation. She had no choice but to set aside her concerns and look into the other incident first.
Anko stared grimly at the Grass Ninja trio, now dead. Their identification documents confirmed who they were, but their faces had vanished as if they'd melted away.
"Vanishing Facial Copy Technique? Have you come back?" Anko immediately thought of that terrifying figure, and the Cursed Seal on her neck flared with pain.
"You there, report to Lord Third right away and request a squad—no, two squads of Anbu for backup."
Then Anko hurried toward the Forest of Death.
"As a Konoha rogue ninja, what have you come back for at a time like this?"
Inside the Forest of Death, Gaara had just slaughtered three Rain Ninja, but he still wasn't satisfied. The sounds of fighting in the distance caught his attention, and he instinctively turned in that direction. Kankuro and Temari kept urging him to get away from the danger.
Meanwhile, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sakura Haruno were much more fortunate. Not long after they'd left, the signs of a battle growing in intensity behind them made them pick up the pace.
When the crimson formation rose a hundred meters into the sky, its terrifying aura caught the attention of every examinee in the Forest of Death. Karin, who was relatively nearby, had already run far away. Seeing what was happening, she plunged into a river and didn't dare resurface. As for her two teammates, they'd have to fend for themselves.
The three members of Sasuke's team, who were closest, couldn't help turning pale.
"Find somewhere to hide, now!" Sasuke shouted.
"How could someone this powerful show up during the Chunin Exams?"
Even Naruto, usually so carefree and thick-headed, felt the terror of it. He didn't hesitate to follow the other two into hiding.
Anko was racing toward the Forest of Death when she saw a dazzling pillar of light crash down in the distance.
"Damn it! I'm too late!"
The tremendous force made the ground tremble even where Anko stood, far away. Looking toward the pillar of light, she saw a ring of rolling, terrifying plasma around it. It seemed impossible that anyone could survive inside.
The later clash between the final strike of the ball lightning and Summoning: Rashomon, followed by the small mushroom cloud, pushed most people's understanding of the upper limit of ninja power to a whole new level.
As the dust settled, Sasuke Uchiha gazed enviously toward the distant battlefield.
"Can ninja really do something like that? If I had that kind of power, I could probably kill Itachi Uchiha."
Clueless about the Shinobi World's highest levels of power, Sasuke continued to indulge in unrealistic fantasies. Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki came over to him.
"Sasuke-kun, are you all right?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah." Sasuke gave a distracted reply.
"Sasuke, something huge just happened over there. Should we go take a look? We might be able to take advantage of the situation," Naruto suggested.
"Maybe we shouldn't." Sakura was strongly against returning to the danger they'd only just escaped. "Besides, this is just the Chunin Exams. Someone that powerful couldn't possibly be an examinee. Something's seriously wrong; a dangerous person may have snuck in. It's better to leave that to the village."
"Let's get out of here and find a weaker team to steal a scroll from." Sasuke made the decision.
Everyone outside is stronger than the last. All I can do is pick on trash nearby who aren't even Chunin. At this rate, when will I ever get revenge?
Sasuke's desire for power had already eclipsed everything else. He'd long since grown impatient with playing the game of ninja all loving one another like family.
Kabuto Yakushi's Genin team watched the distant scene in silence.
"Kabuto, it looks like Lord Orochimaru has run into a powerful enemy. Should we go help?" Akado Yoroi suggested.
"Probably not. From the scale of that battle, even Lord Orochimaru is having trouble with this opponent. I don't think we'd be much help~" Misumi Tsurugi disagreed.
Kabuto didn't answer. After thinking for a moment, he said, "You two go ahead. I have something to take care of. I'll catch up with you later." Then he walked off on his own.
"What a rude guy. Just because Lord Orochimaru has been paying attention to him lately, he thinks he can ignore his seniors." Akado Yoroi and Misumi Tsurugi were furious. "Just you wait, you arrogant bastard. Once we finish this mission, we'll see whose contribution Lord Orochimaru thinks was greater~"
In the Hokage Office in Konoha, the Third Hokage looked at the report and request for reinforcements in his hands, then set them aside. "I don't need to read this to know things are bad."
The violent chakra fluctuations could be felt throughout Konoha by any ninja with even a little skill.
"Send out the Anbu. Their top priority is to find Orochimaru, discover his objective, and stop him."
"Next, investigate the identity of the ninja fighting Orochimaru. If they can't be captured, kill them on the spot. Move out!"
"Yes~" The Anbu moved swiftly.
Inside the Forest of Death, every ninja with even a little sense had instinctively moved away from the area where Mizuki and Orochimaru were fighting. But there were always a few crazed people who couldn't be reasoned with.
By the time Gaara reached the battlefield, all that remained was a huge crater slowly filling with water and a scene of utter devastation.
His urge to kill had been stirred up, but he still hadn't been satisfied. Gaara was already on the verge of a mental breakdown, while Temari and Kankuro could only watch him trembling silently from the sidelines.
"What do we do? Gaara looks like he's about to lose control," Temari said anxiously. "If this goes on, the plan will be ruined."
"Who could've expected a battle this intense during a mere Chunin Exam to provoke Gaara?" Kankuro said uneasily. "That's not what we should be worrying about right now. If Gaara doesn't calm down soon, our lives are what we should be concerned about."
"Let's hope nothing else happens to set him off. Once he calms down, we'll head straight for the Central Tower. I can't take any more scares like this."
There were noticeably more ninja on Konoha's streets. The tremors had been faint, but the whole village could feel them. Ordinary people, not knowing what was going on, even thought there'd been an earthquake.
After making sure everything at home was taken care of, Mizuki was about to head out and check on things when the door opened.
"Tsubaki, what are you doing here? Why are you in such a hurry?"
"It was you, wasn't it, Mizuki?" Tsubaki asked anxiously. "That attack—was it the Celestial Phenomenon Attack you told me about?"
Other people might not have known, but Tsubaki had been able to guess quite a lot.
Mizuki had first let his fiancée in on some of his ideas when he asked her to help gather chakra for him. He'd started collecting a vast amount of chakra as a reserve long ago. The idea of combining Summoning Technique with Sealing Jutsu to create a long-range sniping attack had come to him only after returning from the mission in the Land of Waves. It had gradually taken shape after he received a large amount of information on Sealing Jutsu and Summoning Technique from the Third Hokage.
The enormous store of chakra served as the initial energy source, opening a distant spatial node. As it opened, his massive supply of energy carried the force of the space being torn apart, inflicting the first wave of damage through sheer brute force.
In the physical world, a formation barrier guided the energy's dispersal, producing vast amounts of dust that rubbed against the air and created plasma. This kept the attack's power from spreading and inflicted the second, sustained wave of damage.
Finally, energy from the rift in space combined with chakra and free-floating plasma to form a ball of lightning, the final, third wave meant to kill. It also provided the best cover for retreat.
The temporary spatial passage, drained of energy, combined with the Summoning Technique to become a lifesaving measure until direct spatial transportation of the body became possible. On its first use, he'd greatly underestimated the dangers of Space-Time Ninjutsu. In the brief time it spent inside the spatial passage, the clone had nearly been twisted into a lump of meat.
"His frail body and poor chakra quality have become the biggest obstacles to further progress."
It wasn't that Mizuki didn't want to solve the problem quickly. The trouble was that he'd fallen into a vicious cycle. Without a powerful body, he couldn't produce the enormous amount of chakra needed to balance Natural Energy and practice Sage Mode. Without Senjutsu Chakra, he couldn't fundamentally improve his physical condition.
Even with Hashirama Cells now at his disposal, Mizuki didn't dare transplant them without thorough experimentation. Relying on the Cursed Seal was even more like gambling with his life—drinking poison to quench his thirst. Until his research made progress, he absolutely wouldn't risk his life by trying it.
"That's right, it was me." Mizuki answered his fiancée directly. "I only meant to sneak into the Forest of Death and take a look. I ran into Orochimaru and had no choice but to fight. I only made it back by using my last resort." He couldn't very well tell Tsubaki he'd gone looking for trouble to kidnap a little girl.
As he spoke, Mizuki showed Tsubaki the battered Pseudo-Jinchuriki.
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