Chiyo was the only one present who had yet to grow stronger, and everyone knew why: the Kazekage had protected her too well.
That was why she still had not made any breakthrough.
The Kazekage steeled himself and said, "Chiyo, go fight them too!"
Chiyo nodded firmly, and with a slight twitch of her ten fingers, ten puppets appeared before her.
With determination in her eyes, Chiyo walked toward the beasts.
She swung both hands forward, sending the ten puppets charging ahead at full speed. Before long, all ten had fallen apart.
Watching from a distance, the others could not help shaking their heads.
The Raikage said, "Kazekage, what were you thinking? I'll admit she has some skill, but she clearly hasn't reached Kage Level yet! I remember that kid who uses iron sand having potential."
The Kazekage sighed at that. "Ah... I only wanted to leave the Sand shinobi something to fall back on, but I ended up shooting myself in the foot."
The Raikage fell silent and lowered his head. In truth, the Cloud Ninja also had several Kage Level fighters, but he had hesitated too.
The Mizukage had thought the same way.
Now they all regretted it terribly.
The other three looked enviously at the Tsuchikage and Ōnoki.
The Tsuchikage thought smugly, A bunch of brainless fools. The Hokage even brought his future successors along. How dangerous could it be?
"Well then, everyone, my student and I will go take on the other Demon Beast Kings," the Tsuchikage said. With that, the two flew into the distance.
The others glanced over, then each headed elsewhere to consolidate their newly acquired strength.
Only the Kazekage remained there on guard. He did not want his village's elite fighting force to suffer any harm.
Elsewhere in the Forest of Despair,