The Black Orb Containing Terrifying Energy

Kakuzu didn't say anything when he saw what had happened. Their employer had run off, and he'd finished the job, so there was no reason for him to stick around. He was there to make money, not risk his life.

So Kakuzu turned and left with Hozuki Reigetsu.

Hibari stared after them, fury flashing in his eyes. Sparks crackled around the hand gripping his sword.

Sarutobi Sasuke watched them saunter off, and he was furious too. But a ninja had to put the mission first.

Their mission had never been to hunt down the Kirigakure ninja. They were supposed to keep a close watch on the Seven-Tails Chomei until Senju Hashirama, the Hokage, arrived.

With that in mind, Sarutobi Sasuke barked, "Let them go! Everyone, get ready to hold off the Seven-Tails. We absolutely cannot let it escape Insect King Valley!"

Before his words had even faded, he turned and charged toward the Seven-Tails.

Hibari frowned. "Hiruzen, what if those two bastards double back and attack us?"

"Hozuki Reigetsu's identity has been exposed. He won't dare try anything," Sarutobi Hiruzen said confidently. "As long as even one of the three of us makes it back alive, Kirigakure won't escape blame for breaking the peace!"

Earlier, Hozuki Reigetsu had been able to get away with anything because he hadn't shown his face. But if he kept causing trouble now, it would be an open violation of the agreement. If Konoha and Kirigakure ended up at war, he'd be in trouble too.

Still, he'd certainly dared to provoke the Seven-Tails. After all, he hadn't forced the Konoha ninja to go stop it, had he?

At worst, it would count as a minor dispute over "accidentally interfering with Konoha's operations while carrying out a classified mission." The two villages could argue about it, then let it blow over.

Of course, if the Konoha ninja and the Seven-Tails ended up badly injured after fighting each other... he'd be overjoyed. It would serve his goal of "using the beast to kill people" perfectly.

Hibari heard him out, tamped down his anger, and gritted his teeth. "Fine. Just wait and see! If I ever get the chance, I'll kill that bastard!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing."

Then his expression turned serious. "For now, we'd better figure out how to hold off this rampaging Seven-Tails... I just hope Lord Hokage gets here soon."

Hibari glanced at the giant insect charging around, then gauged how much chakra he had left. He pulled a handful of soldier pills from his ninja pouch and shoved them all into his mouth.

Chewing, he mumbled, "Hiruzen, I'm going to recover some chakra first.

"Cover me later and buy me some time. I have a technique that might be able to hold the Seven-Tails back and give Grandpa Sarutobi a good opening!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen grinned when he heard that. "Sure. The stage is yours, then. Don't mess up your performance!"

"Hahaha, just watch!" Hibari said with a laugh, thumping his chest.

Meanwhile, after walking some distance, Hozuki Reigetsu suddenly turned to Kakuzu beside him. "I've got another job. I wonder if you'd be interested..."

Kakuzu snorted and shot him a sidelong glance. "If the price is right, we can talk."

The Seven-Tails Chomei looked like a rhinoceros beetle fused with a giant dragonfly. It could fly through the air and charge across the ground. When Sarutobi Sasuke arrived, he happened to see it bring one insect leg down,

crushing Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear clone into a pulp. Well, that was another heart Kakuzu had lost.

Sarutobi Sasuke's eyelid twitched. He was no weakling, but fighting a Tailed Beast was still difficult. Yet he couldn't back down now. Konoha's ninja had to step up, no matter what.

Besides, he was at least half responsible for the mission going this badly. If it failed, he'd have to take the full blame!

"This is a real pain..." Sarutobi Sasuke muttered, his hands already moving through seals.

"Fire Style: Four-Corner Fire Wall!"

As chakra surged, four walls of flame roared up, completely surrounding the Seven-Tails Chomei.

Insects were naturally afraid of fire. Even if the flames couldn't hurt the Seven-Tails, instinct still drove it to beat its wings and fly upward, trying to escape over the top of the fire wall.

But Sarutobi Sasuke wasn't about to leave an opening like that. As soon as the wall went up, he changed the seals in his hands.

The Seven-Tails had just poked its head above the fire wall when he formed his final seal.

"Earth Style: Falling Clay!"

The sky seemed to tear open, and sticky clods of earth rained down, smacking the Seven-Tails right in the face and forcing it back inside the fire wall. The clay had been soaked in oil, and the moment it touched the flames, it burst into fire.

In the blink of an eye, the flames surged high. Wrapped in burning clay, the Seven-Tails was engulfed in fire. Its shrill cries of pain made everyone's heads ache.

It looked as though Sarutobi Sasuke had subdued the Seven-Tails with just two moves, but there wasn't a hint of relief on his face. If anything, his expression grew even more tense. He wasn't like that reckless kid, Hibari. He knew Tailed Beasts—

he'd fought them before alongside Second Grandpa Tobirama and Lord Hokage, and he knew all too well that they couldn't be dealt with that easily.

Sure enough, before he could even catch his breath, a terrifying surge of chakra erupted from inside the fire wall.

A massive purple-black orb burst through the flames. It pulverized the mountain forest in its path before slamming into the cliffs of Insect King Valley and exploding with earth-shattering force.

"A Tailed Beast Bomb... Still as terrifying as ever," Sarutobi Sasuke said with a smack of his lips.

At that moment, the charred Seven-Tails suddenly thrashed violently. Before long, it shed a layer of its shell, then shook itself as if nothing had happened. Its hideous compound eyes locked on Sarutobi Sasuke.

"Oh dear, this is getting troublesome..." Sarutobi Sasuke muttered, his hands already forming more seals.

Once the Seven-Tails had locked onto him, its temper flared. It beat its massive wings and charged, clearly intent on crushing him beneath its bulk.

Facing that overwhelming charge, Sarutobi Sasuke didn't even try to dodge. Instead, the seals he formed grew more and more complicated.

Just as the Seven-Tails Chomei was about to reach Sarutobi Sasuke's face and crush him into a pulp, the corner of his mouth curled up. Then another voice rang out.

"Earth Style: Earth Mountain Technique!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen had appeared atop a tall tree. His hands had just finished forming the seal.

Before the words had faded, the ground rumbled twice. Two enormous boulders, each like a small mountain, thrust out of the earth on either side. Like the pieces of a sandwich, they slammed together and trapped the charging Seven-Tails between them!

The Earth Mountain Technique wasn't an ordinary Earth Style jutsu. It was one of the highest-level techniques for immobilizing a target, and it could even pin down a Tailed Beast once it took shape. The catch was that it required a constant supply of chakra to maintain.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was in his prime, with chakra to spare. Otherwise, he couldn't have used jutsu of all five nature types. With him casting it, the technique managed to hold the Seven-Tails Chomei in place, at least for the moment.

While his son had the situation under control, the old man wasn't idle either. Sarutobi Sasuke finally completed the incredibly complicated string of hand seals.

"Secret Technique: Yellow Springs Oil Swamp!"

He gave a low shout, and chakra surged. The earth beneath the Seven-Tails turned into a sticky swamp with a wet splatter. That wasn't all—the swamp bubbled with slick oil,

which both dragged the Seven-Tails down and seeped into the gaps in its shell. It was so corrosive that it even dissolved much of the rock pinning it in place.

Seeing that, Sarutobi Hiruzen immediately released his jutsu. In just that brief time, his face had gone pale, and he swayed.

It might have been just one jutsu, but it had nearly drained him dry. Holding a Tailed Beast in place was no joke.

Still, he had reserves left. His chakra hadn't run out completely, and as soon as he released the technique, he formed the Tiger hand seal, opened his mouth, and spewed a pillar of fire at the oil swamp!

The moment the flames touched the oil swamp, it exploded into a sea of fire! Trapped in the blaze, the Seven-Tails let out an ear-piercing insect cry that echoed through the valley.

Watching the spectacle while recovering his chakra, Hibari couldn't help clicking his tongue.

"I'd heard Grandpa Sarutobi was amazing, and that big brother Hiruzen was a powerhouse too, but I never thought they'd be this brutal when they got serious. They've been beating a Tailed Beast down for this long..." he murmured. "I've still got a long way to go."

Then again, even the wildest Tailed Beasts mostly acted on instinct. That kid Deidara had taken down the Three-Tails with just one bomb, hadn't he?

The Seven-Tails had four more tails, so it might be harder to deal with. But with the father and son from the Sarutobi Clan working together, they should be able to keep it suppressed for a while... right?

But hopes and reality were two different things. The Seven-Tails had four more tails than the Three-Tails, and its strength reflected that.

More importantly, the two of them didn't have a technique that could forcibly seal away a Tailed Beast. So the crisis wasn't over yet!

Just as Hibari wondered if the Seven-Tails was going to burn to death, a violent struggle suddenly erupted from the sea of fire.

In the next instant, the Seven-Tails Chomei burst free from the sticky, oily swamp, flames still clinging to its body, and soared back into the sky.

It shook its head, and purple-black chakra began gathering madly in front of it. In the blink of an eye, it had formed another medium-sized Tailed Beast Bomb.

This time, the black orb was unmistakably aimed at Sarutobi Sasuke below.

Sarutobi Sasuke's heart lurched. He wouldn't dare take that thing head-on.

The instant the Tailed Beast Bomb began to form, he vanished with the Body Flicker Technique. But the Seven-Tails seemed to keep its eyes fixed on him. It turned its head, and the Tailed Beast Bomb's aim shifted along with it.

Then the black orb containing terrifying energy shot from the Seven-Tails' mouth, hurtling straight toward Sarutobi Sasuke!

Watching from afar, Hibari's heart leaped into his throat.

Fortunately, Sarutobi Sasuke was an experienced ninja. At the very last moment before the Tailed Beast Bomb could hit him, he pressed his hands together and sank into the earth with a quick shloop.

Almost simultaneously, the Tailed Beast Bomb roared past the spot where he'd been. Like a giant plow, it overturned the entire stretch of ground, sending dirt and rocks flying.

Hibari's eyelid twitched as he watched. Old man, please hold on. Don't let things go wrong at a time like this...

While Hibari was thinking that, Sarutobi Sasuke's head suddenly popped out of the earth beside Sarutobi Hiruzen.

His voice was grave. "This thing won't stop rampaging. Insect King Valley may not survive... Hiruzen, find a way to hold it off a little longer. I'll prepare a powerful sealing jutsu and see if I can put it to sleep."

Sarutobi Hiruzen quickly caught on. "Dad, are you going to use the Nightmare Sealing Style?"

Sarutobi Sasuke didn't answer. He only nodded, then ducked back underground.

The Nightmare Sealing Style was a secret technique passed down through the Sarutobi Clan. It was designed to deal with huge opponents and could drag a target into a nightmare and force it to fall asleep. It was usually quite useful for capturing summoning beasts or forming contracts with them.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen was nearly out of chakra. The Earth Mountain Technique was out of the question, and he had no other way to hold the Seven-Tails Chomei down.

He thought for a couple of seconds, remembered Hibari, then stomped his foot and vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.

Meanwhile, Hibari could feel his chakra rapidly replenishing. His human form had a major drawback: he couldn't even train his Water Style chakra,

and Wood Release was out of the question. But his chakra recovery was ridiculously fast, and combined with the handful of soldier pills he'd just swallowed, he was almost back to full strength.

"At least this cheat ability hasn't been a waste..." Hibari clicked his tongue and muttered to himself.