Bitter Regret

Across the battlefield, Kazan's "sunny, hearty" laughter rang out from time to time.

Compared to Matatabi, he was in an entirely different weight class.

Yet strangely enough, Kazan seemed to be the more dominant of the two, radiating even greater pressure.

"Why? Back during the Chunin Ninja Exams, he clearly..."

Some of the Cloud Shinobi who had taken part in the Chunin Ninja Exams could not believe what they were seeing.

During the Chunin Ninja Exams a few months earlier, Kazan had not been anywhere near this strong.

Now, he was pummeling one of the Nine Tailed Beasts.

"You can't beat me, Kazan!"

Yugito Nii and Matatabi joined forces.

Their body was formed entirely from chakra. As long as their chakra did not run dry, it would never disappear.

"Then I'll beat you into a dried-up corpse."

Kazan grinned as he pursued them, leaping a hundred meters into the air.

He clenched his fist and hurtled down like a meteorite, the haki around him turning into a red rain of light that crashed down alongside him.

Haki!

The Shinobi World was no longer unfamiliar with this special "kekkei genkai." It was considered a talent Kazan had been born with.

Its power, however, was truly unfathomable.

Matatabi threw back her head and roared, meeting him with an enormous foreleg.

With a boom, Kazan's fist stopped before Matatabi's paw, striking the air.

They had not even made contact, yet Matatabi felt as though she had been struck squarely over the head. Her entire body trembled.

That strange haki battered her body relentlessly.

Then she was driven back, staggering.

With no time to be shocked, Matatabi hurriedly leaped away.

Almost simultaneously, Kazan's fist came down again, its terrifying destructive force reducing the area to rubble.

"He moves too fast. He's no slower than