The wind howled, and yellow sand filled the sky.
Chiya plummeted from high above, his black robes snapping behind him. Like a black meteor, he hurtled straight toward the perilous heart of the desert.
Close behind him came Sasuke, riding his purple Susanoo.
"Lord Chiya, watch out!"
Sasuke's Sharingan spun wildly. In his vision, the once-calm sea of sand below had erupted into turmoil. That was no sand-it was a dense, endless mass of white creatures, swarming out of the ground like maggots.
BOOM!!!
The instant Chiya landed, the terrifying force of his impact blasted a crater a hundred meters across into the center of the desert.
Yellow sand shot skyward, forming a massive wall.
Before the dust could settle, however, chilling snarls rose from every direction.
"Kill him..."
"Kill him..."
Countless pale humanoids with revolting plantlike faces surged forward, bone spikes in hand. Like a white tide, they instantly filled every inch of space around Chiya.
White Zetsu.
Not hundreds or thousands of them, either, but a white ocean stretching beyond sight.
"So this is your welcome ceremony?"
Chiya stood in the center of the crater, in no hurry to draw his sword.
With one hand in his pocket, he swept an indifferent gaze over the snarling White Zetsu army before fixing his eyes on a towering dune ahead.
Four figures in black robes patterned with red clouds stood there.
There were only four of them, yet the aura they exuded felt even heavier and more oppressive than the 100,000 White Zetsu blanketing the landscape.
At their center stood a man wearing an orange spiral mask.
His right arm looked slightly out of place, evidently a newly attached White Zetsu prosthetic. Beneath his mask, a single eye burned with bitter hatred as he stared down at Chiya in the