"I'm done here. How are things on your end?"
Asuma knocked out the last guard and looked up at Kakashi.
Kakashi was dropping one electrically stunned "expert" after another from the ceiling. Among them were two more people Asuma recognized—the remaining former members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, Saito and Tōu.
"They've all been brought back to life. Who on earth did this?"
Asuma frowned.
"Didn't the village tell us about the one we sent back earlier? They found no traces of ninjutsu. It wasn't Impure World Reincarnation or some strange new technique."
Kakashi flipped down through the hole in the ceiling, moving nimbly. Though he had sustained a few injuries, none of his wounds were serious.
"One woman escaped. Sorry, I let her get away. She caught me off guard. Her actual body was nothing but hair; the body itself was formed with Earth Release."
Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector to cover his Sharingan and shrugged.
"Oh? That's quite a trick. Here I thought you'd let the girl go because you couldn't bear to hurt a pretty woman."
Asuma made an offhand joke, but his expression soon turned serious. "All right, now that we've dealt with everyone here, let's go help Naruto..."
Boom!
A tremendous crash immediately drew their attention. The wall burst apart, and an enormous body flew out.
"Whoa!"
The guards near the wall hurried out of the way. The nearly three-meter-tall body slammed down beside them, frightening the bound men into hastily scooting backward.
The earlier earthquake, coupled with the unexpectedly tremendous power the ninja had unleashed, had already robbed those guards of any will to resist.
Of course, some of the guards were skilled fighters. Those were the opponents who had given Asuma and Shikamaru trouble earlier, but there weren't many of them. Since