Nine-Tails Chakra rampaged through the forest, the violent wind it stirred whipping the Root and ANBU uniforms with loud flapping cracks.
The squad captain's head buzzed. Damn it, the Nine-Tails had gone berserk.
A mission from several years ago, when they had tried to capture Naruto, flashed through his mind. An entire Root squad had been wiped out then, leaving only him alive.
That time, Naruto had only been in the Two-Tails State, yet hardly anyone had escaped that fox's jaws.
The Shadow Clone grinned and shouted, "Giving him back to you!"
He hurled Naruto into the Root and ANBU operatives.
He had already been clutching a smoke bomb. He smashed it to the ground, and as the smoke erupted, he dismissed the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Only the enraged Nine-Tails Naruto and that group of ninja remained in the forest.
Naruto raised a hand, grabbed the kunai handle protruding from his eye socket, and yanked it out.
Blood immediately streamed from the hollow socket and ran down his face.
His left eyeball had already turned into the red vertical slit pupil of a beast, locking tightly onto everyone present.
He's in your hands now, Kurama.
Naruto tossed that sentence to the Nine-Tails in his mind, then his body went limp and he lost consciousness.
Fuck, that hurt.
That was the last thought to flash through Naruto's mind before everything went black.
No matter how tough the kid was, no matter how thoroughly he had planned things out, having his eye pierced through by a kunai had nearly made him pass out on the spot.
Before transmigrating, Naruto had basically been a failed webnovel author. Even if he was mentally tougher than most, he still could not withstand pain strong enough to kill someone alive.
Gritting his teeth, he handed his body over to Kurama, but he could not hold on any longer and passed out from the pain.
The Nine-Tails took control of the body.
Tch, he really can be ruthless to himself.
The Nine-Tails assessed the injuries on his body and clicked his tongue for Naruto.
He had seen it clearly. Naruto had forced his own eyelid open to take that blow.
Then, before the kunai could pierce his nerves, he had stopped himself mid-motion.
According to Naruto himself, a scar on the eyelid would look too ugly, like some bandit.
The Nine-Tails raised his head, swept his gaze over the Root and ANBU operatives, licked his lips, and suddenly burst forward.
"Retreat!"
The squad captain's face turned green.
Naruto in the One-Tail State could fight Three-Tomoe Sharingan Sasuke in his Curse Mark State to a draw. At Four-Tails, even Jiraiya had suffered. At Eight-Tails, Deva Path Pain had been pinned to the ground and beaten.
Naruto in the current Three-Tails State was far beyond what this group of Root and ANBU operatives could handle.
There was no need for any ninjutsu at all.
The Chakra cloak wrapped around him, combined with the speed and force granted by Chakra, was more than enough.
With a boom, a figure exploded through the forest. Naruto moved so fast that only an afterimage remained, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing before a Root operative.
"Not good!"
The Root operative's expression changed instantly. He had barely raised an arm before his chest when his entire body was sent flying.
That force smashed in both his arm and chest.
The squad captain's face darkened like the bottom of a pot. This level of strength was terrifying.
"Use sealing jutsu!"
Three Root operatives flashed into view, their hands forming seals so quickly they seemed to cut through the air. "Three-Way Seal!"
A green, translucent pyramid-shaped barrier enclosed Naruto.
Konohamaru had used this technique in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, trapping Zouma for a while.
The squad captain looked at Naruto, locked within the barrier, and had just breathed a sigh of relief when he prepared to check where the black shadow that had stolen the Sharingan had gone.
Inside the barrier, the Nine-Tails curled Naruto's lips into a mocking smile. The Chakra on the three tails behind him suddenly swelled.
With a wet rip, the barrier was pierced like a rag by the tails.
The elongated Chakra tails were like three iron spears, plunging straight into the chests of the three Root operatives maintaining the technique.
By now, what was there for the squad captain not to understand? His team was not even enough to fill the teeth of the berserk Nine-Tails before him.
He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Retreat, now!"
But it was already too late. Those Root members at Elite Chunin level were pierced clean through by the Nine-Tails' tails in an instant.
Of the eight Root operatives who had pursued them, only the squad captain, a Jonin, was still breathing.
The two ANBU agents tasked with monitoring Naruto had gone pale. They could not help at all, and did not even dare move, afraid that the Nine-Tails would turn its attention toward them.
The Nine-Tails made a teasing expression with Naruto's face, then lunged at the Root squad captain again on all fours.
The squad captain's eyes were full of despair. The Nine-Tails' rampage could no longer be contained.
The longer this dragged on, the more tails there would be.
At that moment, Shikamaru and the others flashed out from the forest.
Seeing Naruto's transformed appearance, they were too frightened to speak.
This was the demon fox the villagers always talked about.
"How did Naruto lose an eye?"
The squad captain was just about to fire a signal flare to alert Konoha's higher-ups.
Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!
A terrifying fireball slammed in from the side, blasting Naruto away.
The ANBU agents and the squad captain froze, then turned toward the source of the ninjutsu.
Beneath the ANBU mask was a pair of blood-red Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
It was none other than Itachi Uchiha, sent to monitor the Uchiha Clan gathering.
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