Chapter 47

The hotheaded A gave him no chance to catch his breath. He raised his right foot high, about to give Danzo a demonstration of skull crushing.

"Liger Bomb!"

Xuan Zhe casually blocked Killer B's continuous Eight-Sword Style attacks, glancing out of the corner of his eye at A and Danzo.

Did I stumble into a stroke of dumb luck today? he muttered inwardly.

I haven't even made a move, and someone's volunteering to deal with Danzo for me?

"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!"

"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!"

"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!"

But life never went smoothly all the way.

Just as A's heel was about to crush Danzo's head like a watermelon-

A dozen or so Shimura Clan ninja suddenly rushed forward, spitting Wind Blades at A from both sides.

Had their father, the Third Raikage, been there, he would have had nothing to fear from Wind Release like this.

It did not even have half the power of Naruto's Rasen Shuriken.

Unfortunately, A's Lightning Release Chakra Armor fell far short of his father's.

His eyes darted back and forth, tracking the approaching Wind Blades.

In the end, he chose not to tank them. He pulled back his attack and shot backward, dodging them.

"Lord Danzo!"

A Shimura Clan Jonin rushed to Danzo's side, grabbed his remaining left arm, and hauled him up.

"Re... retreat!"

The searing pain from his severed arm made cold sweat seep from every wrinkle on Danzo's face as he forced the words through clenched teeth.

The Shimura Jonin immediately shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Retreat! Lord Danzo has ordered a retreat! Everyone, fall back now!"

"Retreat? Hey, didn't we just start fighting?"

Chōza Akimichi had just come out of his Human Bullet Tank form and stood some distance away, his face full of disbelief.

With his Byakugan active, Hizashi Hyuga could clearly see the fighting for several kilometers around. He explained:

"Lord Danzo's arm was cut off. With the commander down, morale is bound to collapse. We really should pull out now."

"His arm was cut off? How long have we even been fighting?"

Chōza Akimichi wore a look that said, "You've got to be kidding me."

The other Konoha Ninja around them looked as though they had seen a ghost.

What exactly had this commander come here to do?

"This is the guy Konoha sent to lead them?"

After dodging a dozen or so Wind Release attacks, A watched the Shimura Jonin help Danzo up. Even he found it absurd.

Wasn't this going a little too smoothly?

The greatest village in the Shinobi World? Wasn't that overselling it?

But he reacted fast, roaring in less than half a second:

"Don't let them get away! Hit them with everything you've got! Kill as many as you can!"

Their Vanguard Army had brought only eight hundred men this time, intending to test the strength of Konoha's reinforcements.

Who could have imagined Konoha would deliver such a generous gift right into their hands?

In that case, they would seize the opportunity and push forward all at once.

With a little luck, they might even fight their way straight into the Land of Fire!

"OHHHH!!!"

News that their commander had cut off the Konoha commander's arm instantly spread through the entire Kumogakure Vanguard Army.

Everyone went wild, their morale soaring to its peak.

Like a pack of starving wolves, they chased down Konoha's forces and hacked away at them.

Meanwhile, morale on Konoha's side plummeted to rock bottom.

Many Konoha Ninja who turned to flee had their heads cut off by the pursuing Kumogakure ninja before they could even react.

Screams and roars erupted throughout the valley.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Watching several of his clansmen have their organs pierced and their heads cut off by Kumogakure ninja, even the usually composed Shikaku Nara could no longer hold back and burst into curses.

If not for that bastard Danzo, could the battle have gone this badly?

"An incompetent general brings ruin to the entire army"-those words found their most direct proof right there.

"Well, well. Even I didn't expect things to turn out like this."

Xuan Zhe watched the Konoha Ninja's flesh and blood fly with such an indifferent expression that he seemed to be inspecting livestock on a butcher's block rather than people.

"Lord Xuan Zhe, look out!!"

The tall girl, Rin Nohara, shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Acrobat!!"

Killer B suddenly dove down from above, spinning rapidly with eight long blades around his body, turning himself into a whirling wheel of steel.

"Whew-"

Xuan Zhe drew a light breath, gripped his sword with both hands, and pointed its tip straight ahead, assuming a standard Kenjutsu stance.

"Mr. Xuan Zhe!?"

As Killer B was about to crash down on Xuan Zhe's head, Rin Nohara's cry grew even more urgent.

"Got you, yo!!!"

Killer B's face shone with excitement.

Inside the Sealing Space, the Eight-Tails' expression changed abruptly. He shot to his feet and roared:

"You idiot! Dodge!"

At that very moment, Xuan Zhe's pupils suddenly contracted. In the final instant before Killer B's attack struck him, B's movements seemed to slow countless times over.

"Kenjutsu: Two-Parting."

In an instant too fast for anyone else to see-

Xuan Zhe abruptly stepped forward, while the blade of the Zanpakutō in his hands remained in its original position.

In truth, however, he had already raised his blade and completed his Slash.

It was simply that no one could see it.

Thud!

After Xuan Zhe took that step and struck, Killer B landed on the ground in less than the blink of an eye.

Splurt!

About two seconds later, an incredibly clean, straight wound split open down the left side of Killer B's body, running from his shoulder all the way to his knee. Blood spurted out like a fountain.

"Lord B!?"

The surrounding Kumogakure ninja were all dumbstruck.

What was going on?

What exactly had just happened?

"Was my cut off target? That's impossible, isn't it?"

That strike was the sword intent he had just comprehended.

As far as Xuan Zhe knew, even among Kage Level fighters, only the very best, such as Hatake Sakumo and the Third Raikage, could dodge that move.

Killer B at this age was still nowhere close.

Xuan Zhe turned to look behind him.

A layer of translucent, blood-red bubbles appeared over Killer B's body, condensing on his skin into a blood-colored cloak with horns and tails.

"That's-"

Seeing this thing for the first time, Rin Nohara's eyes went wide.

"So it was the Eight-Tails."

Xuan Zhe understood at once.

Looking again at the nearly meter-and-a-half-long wound down the left side of Killer B's body, he saw that most of the bleeding had already stopped. He could not help smiling:

"Tailed Beasts really are rather interesting."

Hatake Sakumo and Minato Namikaze had both come from ordinary families, without the slightest trace of a kekkei genkai. Being able to reach the peak of Kage Level was already a gift from heaven.

But obtaining a Tailed Beast and becoming a jinchūriki was another matter. That immediately qualified someone to step across the threshold into super Kage.

Minato Namikaze had been dead, yet he could still master Nine-Tails Mode in the Netherworld. That was just fucking cheating.

But Xuan Zhe had no interest in that. The thought of some beast lying nearby and watching while he and Tsunade got down to business was enough to make his skin crawl.

Speaking of which, when Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki, or Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, were doing it, how exactly had that Nine-Tails felt?

Thanks, Eight-O.

Killer B murmured those words inwardly.

If the Eight-Tails had not noticed that strike early and seized control of his body to dodge, he would already have been stone-cold dead.

"Be more careful. Without me, you'd have died eight times over."

The Eight-Tails cursed in reply. Even he felt a lingering fear when he recalled that sword strike.

He had only seized control of B's body at the very last instant, then hurriedly put on the Tailed Beast Cloak and pushed his defenses to the limit. Only then had he barely managed to save the foolish boy's life.

But that blade... he absolutely could not let it strike a second time.

"Against an opponent of this caliber, we have to use that move, B!"

The Eight-Tails gave him another warning.

"Got it! Yo-ho-ho-ho!"

Killer B suddenly raised his right hand and pointed at the sky, letting the sword in his hand fall straight to the ground.

Tails began sprouting one after another from the back of the Chakra Cloak covering him.

By the time all eight tails had emerged, Killer B's own skin had begun peeling off.

"Hmm?!"