Sharp wooden spears tore through the damp air with piercing whistles.
The moment those spears touched the paper net, the sheets cracked apart.
Yet the deeper the wood pierced, the more white paper fell.
White sheets cascaded down the tree trunks like waterfalls.
Vast stretches of forest were blanketed in paper in an instant.
"Nagato, go! Don't look at me! Go!"
Konan dug her nails into the white paper, her fingertips turning blue.
She bit her lower lip, her cheeks smeared with sticky white paper pulp.
I brushed the scraps of paper off my coat collar and snorted.
"Go? My giant forest spears are already at your doorstep, and you still think you can leave?"
"You put me through this shit first thing in the morning. I'm fucking pissed."
I pressed my palms together, and the origin chakra inside me surged again.
The Wood Dragon's enormous claws dug through the ground, sending earth and stones flying.
"Dance of the Shikigami: Sea of Explosive Tags!"
Konan shouted, and two trails of tears finally fell into the muddy water.
The ground shook even more violently than it had during Shinra Tensei.
The ground beneath the entire dark forest began splitting apart at tremendous speed.
No soil showed in the cracks, only masses of white paper marked with red symbols.
Stack upon stack, like enormous unopened ledgers.
"Shit! Sen, get back! The ground's packed with explosive tags!"
Behind me, Jiraiya leaned on his crutch, his aged face drained of color.
His white hair whipped wildly in the gale, painfully stark.
"Get back, my ass! You go lie down in the hospital, old man."
Without looking back, I spat a mouthful of sandy saliva behind me.
"If all this paper blows up, my villa's fucked too."
"Konan, stop! Do you want to die?"
Inside