"What...?"
Baki stared at the ninja before him, whose appearance had changed almost entirely. For the first time, utter terror appeared on the face hidden behind his mask.
What was this thing before him?
What was this energy all around him?
He had no idea.
In his decades as a ninja, there was only one thing that could rival the energy he felt now.
The power of a Tailed Beast.
But... could this person unleash a Tailed Beast's power without restraint...?
How could Konoha have another one besides the Nine-Tails...
"Oh?"
"Finally scared?"
Hayashi looked at Baki before him and, as though dissatisfied with having to look up at him, commanded the mighty forces of nature and rose into the air.
"Too late... to be scared now."
As his words fell, tremors began spreading through the earth, and the moisture in the air was stripped away inch by inch.
Between the vast heavens and earth, one person had already been sentenced to death.
The crimson child of humanity, powerful enough to shake the earth, used Inorganic Reincarnation and issued a decree to his surroundings:
"Annihilate."
In an instant, cracks tore through the ground. The stripped moisture condensed into raindrops in midair, and those drops became sharp swords like ice spikes, savagely striking at Baki ahead!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The earth split open, and Baki could no longer keep his footing!
The rain of swords from the sky mercilessly pierced straight through his entire body!
No... I can't die here.
The red-haired ninja before Baki's eyes seemed to have left the realm of humanity behind entirely.
On that pale, beautiful face, only the area beneath the eyes bore icy-blue patterns of light.
In the evening air, they shifted as he turned his face.
He hurriedly drove the chakra within his body,