Unexpected

Raven furrowed his brows. His keen combat instincts warned him that he must not be struck, or something uncontrollable would happen.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!!

The chain of the Blood Scythe had wrapped around Raven's abdomen at some point!

"When? How?" Raven's pupils constricted. He had clearly dodged the previous few strikes; how had he suddenly been restrained?

Smiley, who had been watching from the sidelines, instantly entered the fray. Seeing that something was wrong, he cursed under his breath, "Damn it!"

"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"

A deep blue line of water and a wind bullet arrived in front of Raven simultaneously!

Boom!!!!

Two wind bullets struck Raven's abdominal wound with precision, while the remaining bullets were completely blocked by the Water Formation Wall.

"Hey, Smiley-mask, watch some fireworks—though I prefer to call it a balloon popping," Uchiha Chiba controlled the blood from the Blood Scythe that had remained in Raven's abdomen, forcing his wound to seal shut!

In an instant—

"Wh... what?" Raven's body suddenly swelled another size, and then, he felt a wave of intense, throbbing pain throughout his entire frame!

Rip...

Rip...

What was that sound?

Raven felt as if he heard something tearing, followed by a massive explosion. Afterward, he could no longer feel that throbbing pain. Just as he tried to raise his fist to attack Uchiha Chiba, he realized he could no longer perceive the existence of his own body!

Before them—

Centered on Raven, a five-meter radius was filled with blood, bone fragments, and bits of skin and organ tissue!

"What?! How could this be!" Smiley's comical voice sounded exceptionally strange now, his hands trembling involuntarily.

As it turned out, Uchiha Chiba had noticed a problem: the expansion. This old guy had transformed from a thin, skeletal frame into this towering figure. No matter how terrifying a Bloodline Limit was, it couldn't simply abandon the original body. Through a probe using one-tenth of his blood power, Chiba discovered that no blood flowed from the wound.

This meant that this so-called "expansion" Bloodline Limit was merely a way to accelerate blood flow and change internal pressure. In reality, the bones and organs hadn't changed at all. A fully inflated balloon wouldn't leak in a high-pressure environment because it was inherently the low-pressure side, but what if the pressure continued to increase until it exceeded the limit?

The answer was:

It would explode.

At this moment, Uchiha Chiba didn't dare waste a second. He immediately arrived in front of Smiley, raised the Blood Scythe, and slashed down fiercely!

Bang!!!!

Before Smiley could even react, his head was severed by Uchiha Chiba.

Feeling a surge of fresh power flowing into his blood—

"Damn, killing these two brings my chakra levels straight to the half-step Kage Level, and even my perception has become much clearer. Right, Katsuzuki!" Uchiha Chiba immediately rushed out of the house.

He saw that the area outside was empty.

There was only blood covering the ground.

"Not good!" Uchiha Chiba immediately sprinted toward the edge of the cliff.

Meanwhile, at the cliff's edge—

Konan was hung from a buried wooden stake. A bug was perched on the rope, gnawing at it at regular intervals. This terrified the young Konan; she wasn't afraid of death, only of never seeing Chiba again.

Konan's gaze fell upon the distant forest.

"Chiba, I miss you."

Suddenly—

Bang!!!!

A figure familiar to Konan flew backward, crashing heavily into a tree.

The person coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"This is? Sister Katsuzuki?!" Konan's exclamation drew the attention of the person on the ground.

It was indeed Katsuzuki.

However, her condition was far from optimistic.

Her right arm was gone, her legs were blackened and purple, and her hair was matted with blood. Those beautiful eyes were filled with fury.

Then, a large man and a long-haired woman stepped through the bushes and appeared in the clearing.

"I've already torn off your arm, and Weeper has crippled your legs with her poison needles. You are irrelevant to our goal. You are the daughter of Hanzo the Salamander; if you surrender now, we will spare your life." The newcomers were none other than Blank and Weeper.

Katsuzuki of the Salamander spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Don't dream, this young lady has never admitted defeat. Little Chiba is my younger brother; there is no reason for a sister not to help her brother when he is in trouble. You big lug, if it weren't for the poison needle from that slut behind you, you would never have been able to grab my arm." Katsuzuki of the Salamander let out a cold snort. Her breathing had become unstable; the excessive blood loss made it difficult for her to stand.

"As long as the mission is completed, some underhanded methods are merely necessities. Since you won't beg for mercy, then die. After all, only Uchiha Chiba needs to be alive." Blank swung his massive fist.

"Wait! Blank, a chakra approaching Kage Level is coming!" Weeper suddenly looked behind her.

"Is it our reinforcements?" Blank said indifferently.

The next second.

BOOM!!!!

Dust flew into the air.

"Who is your reinforcement! To beat my sister Katsuzuki into such a state! Go to hell!" Uchiha Chiba appeared instantly above Blank's head, wielding a Kusarigama, and brought it down with a heavy strike.

HUM!!!!

Having absorbed a certain percentage of chakra from two Kage Level powerhouses, this strike was no longer something Blank could block at will.

CRACK!

With effortless ease.

Blank's arm tendons were severed by the sickle, and blood immediately erupted from his arm in the form of thorns! One terrifying Blood Thorn after another broke through his skin. Blank looked foolish, but he was actually quite sharp; he quickly tore off his own left arm and threw it aside to prevent the thorns from spreading to the rest of his body.

"You... so you are the type of guy who breaks through during battle? Truly troublesome. Now, I finally understand the thoughts of Lord Danzo..." Blank dared not underestimate Chiba any longer, and he threw a punch with all his might!

BANG!!!!

A mist of blood filled the air.

Only a pool of blood remained on the spot!

"Blood Clone."

Uchiha Chiba appeared behind Blank like a ghost, and then, a voice like that of a Yama demon drifted over: "You tore off my sister's right arm, so I must certainly tear off your right arm."

As the words fell.

Uchiha Chiba violently grabbed the joint of Blank's right arm and gave it a fierce yank! RIP!!!! Blood gushed out, and the life force drained away along with the blood.

This guy would be dead soon.

"Hey! Hand over the map, or both of them die." Weeper's voice made Uchiha Chiba turn his head.

He saw that at some point.

Weeper had grabbed Konan, who was on a pillar, with one hand, and grabbed Katsuzuki of the Salamander by the hair with the other. The two of them were only two steps away from the edge of the cliff!

Damn it!

I forgot about her.

"Don't worry about me, kill her... that slut... Chiba, she uses poison, be careful." Katsuzuki of the Salamander said weakly. Although she was the daughter of Hanzo the Salamander, her resistance to toxins was only slightly higher than average; she was not like Chiba, who could accept and dilute most poisons.