Deep into the night, inside the luxurious manor in the Uchiha Clan Compound, the confrontation between the two sides had only just begun.
Yet Kushina Uzumaki, standing beneath the veranda, was a little distracted, her mind wandering to something else.
Could a mere Two-Tails Jinchūriki even force this bastard to use a tenth of his strength?
She muttered inwardly.
To be honest, Kushina was genuinely quite curious about the upper limit of Xuanye's strength.
Unfortunately, no one in Konoha was qualified to make Xuanye fight seriously, leaving her without a single chance to watch him in action over the past three years.
In the center of the courtyard, Yugito Nii's face was ashen, and her entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Even she had no idea why her body would not obey her.
But at that very moment, Matatabi, the Two-Tails sealed inside her, was screaming warnings at the top of her lungs!
"Run! Run now! Get as far away as you can!"
Borrow tailed beast chakra?
Or even enter Complete Tailed Beast Transformation and fight him head-on?
Dream on!
As beings made of chakra, tailed beasts possessed the most direct animal instincts toward mortal danger.
The instant Xuanye unleashed his killing intent, Matatabi felt as though she had fallen into a bottomless abyss. The only impulse left in her mind was to lie on the ground and wag her tails, begging for mercy!
What kind of monster was this human before her?!
Why could the slightest trace of his aura alone scare a tailed beast out of her wits?!
That terrifying power, long beyond mortal limits, left Matatabi unable to muster even the slightest thought of resistance.
In fact, the very first instant his aura erupted, Matatabi's first reaction had actually been to urge her host to hurry up and kowtow for mercy!
That was right. The reason Yugito Nii's legs were shaking like leaves was entirely because she was gritting her teeth and desperately holding on, forcing her knees not to buckle and send her kneeling on the spot!
Absolute suppression on the level of life itself was enough to crush anyone's will to resist!
"Quit putting on this act!"
Unfortunately, an ordinary ninja's perception was worlds apart from a tailed beast's.
Unable to stand the oppressive atmosphere, an elite Kumogakure jonin standing to Yugito Nii's left roared. He pushed off hard, closing in on Xuanye with a Body Flicker Technique and slashing his kunai viciously toward Xuanye's throat!
It was not that this jonin could not use Lightning Release Ninjutsu.
Rather, even at the moment he attacked, he still firmly remembered the stealth assassination rules laid down by the Fourth Raikage.
Tonight's operation was a covert raid. If they used powerful Lightning Release Ninjutsu and made enough noise to draw all the nearby Uchiha Clan patrols, getting away unscathed would become difficult.
Besides, this jonin who dared to attack first was a well-regarded taijutsu expert even in Kumogakure. He idolized the Fourth Raikage's Nintaijutsu and trained his body every day.
He had absolute confidence in his explosive speed and the killing power of his taijutsu!
Watching the sharp kunai come within an inch of Xuanye's neck, the Kumogakure jonin could not help curling his lips into a cruel smile.
What fucking commander of the Konoha Military Police Force?
You're still going to die by my blade!
Bang!
Boom!
His expectations were wonderful, but reality was utterly brutal.
With a deafening crack of air, the Kumogakure jonin felt as though a mountain moving at high speed had slammed squarely into his chest. Agonizing pain instantly spread through his body, and his eyes rolled upward.
To everyone's horror, the entire chest of this Kumogakure jonin, who prided himself on his powerful physique, caved in. Xuanye's right foot was planted firmly against his breastbone.
Ferocious force exploded upward from the kick, launching the Kumogakure jonin's entire body off the ground. He became a meteor hurtling backward into the night sky, shooting a hundred meters into the air in the blink of an eye before disappearing into the vast darkness.
There was no question about it. He was thoroughly dead.
The moment Xuanye raised his leg, that fellow's death warrant had already been signed.
Standing behind them, Kushina craned her neck to watch the dark figure shoot straight into the sky, a rather peculiar look in her eyes.
Why on earth did you have to go and provoke this god of slaughter?
Never mind a mere Kumogakure jonin like you-even the Nine-Tails would have to lie obediently before this man like a big cat.
You Kumogakure ninja certainly know a thing or two about training your bodies, but however sturdy you are, can you be sturdier than the Nine-Tails?
If you really piss this man off, even something as enormous as the Nine-Tails could still get kicked into the sky to look at the moon.
"Warm-up's over. Now it's your turn."
As though he had just loosened up, Xuanye comfortably twisted his waist.
Whoosh!
Before his words had faded, he shot forward like an arrow released from its bow.
Bang!
Bang!
A straight punch, followed by a sweeping roundhouse kick!
The moves were as simple and direct as could be, yet in the blink of an eye, they blasted two Kumogakure jonin's bodies apart on the spot!
A cloud of bloody mist burst across the courtyard with a pungent stench. Before the remaining six Kumogakure jonin could draw their blades, Xuanye shattered all their skulls with a few casual slaps.
In an instant, all nine of her elite subordinates were dead. Yugito Nii finally snapped out of her terror!
I can't beat him!
There's absolutely no way I can beat him!
To think Konoha was hiding such an unparalleled savage beast in human skin!
I have to take this information back to Kumogakure immediately and report to Lord Raikage in person!
Run! Retreat now!
Having fully recognized reality, Yugito Nii gritted her teeth. Disregarding her comrades' corpses strewn across the ground, she turned to sprint over the courtyard wall.
But she had barely taken half a step when several golden chakra chains suddenly shot through the air, binding her limbs and waist tight with a clatter!
"Huh? Now that I don't have to divide my attention to suppress the Nine-Tails, my Adamantine Sealing Chains seem a lot stronger."
"Wait, that's not right. The chains weren't this thick when I used this before..."
With surprise all over her face, Kushina tugged at the golden chains in her hand and raised her free left hand to rub her chin.
Her strength had actually surged without her noticing!
Not only had the Uzumaki Clan's secret Adamantine Sealing Chains become indestructible, but even her original physical abilities and total chakra reserves had undergone earth-shattering changes.
She had spent the past three years at home working as a maid and had never fought anyone. She had only vaguely felt that her body was much lighter and more agile than before. Only after binding Yugito Nii just now had she finally confirmed that she had grown stronger.
"No need to make such a fuss."
In less than ten seconds, the Kumogakure squad that had climbed over the wall had been wiped out, leaving only the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, bound up like a parcel.
Xuanye pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and turned to smile at Kushina.
"Think of the attribute feedback you get from staying up late to exercise with me as your exclusive perk. Take your time figuring it out."
Was it all because of this man?
Kushina stood frozen, silent for a long while.
But thinking about it carefully, her most intimate contact with Xuanye always took place on that large round bed every night...
In an instant, a scene from several months ago flashed through her mind.
One night, utterly exhausted from his attentions, she had lain limply in Xuanye's arms and rolled her eyes, asking weakly:
"Bastard, with you being this insatiable every day, aren't you afraid you'll get me pregnant?"
What had Xuanye said back then?
"Pregnant? Your current constitution is nowhere near ready. Let's talk when you've absorbed enough of my energy."
Recalling that conversation, Kushina's entire face instantly flushed red to the tips of her ears. She was so embarrassed that she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
"I still have some official business to handle outside. I'll leave this woman from Kumogakure in your custody."
Xuanye casually tossed away the dirty handkerchief, not bothering to explain further.
The flies in his own courtyard had been swatted dead.
Next, he still had to pay a personal visit to the Hyuga Clan Compound.
Konoha was destined to have no peace tonight. The Hyuga Clan Compound was where the real main event would take place.
This directly concerned the final rating of tonight's overtime task from the system. He could not afford the slightest carelessness.
From the moment he had issued the lockdown order until now, no system notification announcing the reward settlement had sounded in his mind. That alone was enough to show that Uchiha Shanyang had not fully brought the situation under control after taking his team there.
Of course, Xuanye had never expected Shanyang to settle an international dispute alone.
Put plainly, tonight's affair involved the Konoha Military Police Force forcibly overstepping its authority to intervene in a diplomatic incident.
But so what? Maintaining law and order in Konoha was the Konoha Military Police Force's duty in the first place!
Whoosh-
Bang!
The very second Xuanye used the Body Flicker Technique to leave through the courtyard gate, the corpse of the Kumogakure jonin he had kicked a hundred meters into the air finally fell freely from the sky, smashing heavily into the courtyard's stone paving...
Meanwhile, at the Hyuga Clan Compound in central Konoha.
Though it was already late at night, the entire Hyuga residence remained brightly lit with torches, as bright as day.
Today had originally been a joyous day for the Hyuga Clan.
To celebrate the third birthday of Hinata Hyuga, the Main Family's eldest daughter, the entire clan had been busy all day and had only dispersed to rest at midnight.
But to the fury of Hyuga Hiashi, the Hyuga Clan Head, shortly after lying down, he discovered that his precious daughter had been stolen from her room!
Enraged, Hyuga Hiashi activated his Byakugan on the spot and gave chase at full speed, soon intercepting the masked assassin fleeing with Hinata in his arms.
The moment they met, Hyuga Hiashi shattered the assassin's heart meridians with a single palm strike, killing him on the spot.
Everything seemed perfectly natural.
However, when Atsui, the deputy envoy of Kumogakure's negotiating delegation, arrived with Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and a large group of Anbu to demand an explanation, Hyuga Hiashi was utterly dumbfounded.
This was a trap through and through!
It was a vicious scheme targeting the Hyuga Clan!
In just a few seconds, Hyuga Hiashi had worked out the whole chain of events.
As someone who had secured his position as the head of a prestigious clan, he was certainly no fool.
Over the years, the Hyuga Clan had always followed the principle of keeping a low profile to protect itself in Konoha. It never took part in the leadership's power struggles, thus preserving its detached status as the foremost prestigious clan.
But even though he had been so cautious, the hungry wolves of another village had still set their sights on his ancestral Byakugan!
Recalling how Hyuga clansmen had used the Byakugan's scouting abilities to inflict heavy losses on Kumogakure forces during the recent border clashes, then looking at Atsui's arrogant, unreasonable expression, even a fool could guess what Kumogakure was planning.
At that moment, in the front courtyard of the Hyuga residence.
Hyuga Hiashi and his Hyuga guards, the Third Hokage and his accompanying Anbu, and the Kumogakure delegation members led by Atsui formed three groups locked in a stalemate in the courtyard.
Under immense pressure, Hyuga Hiashi turned his head and looked toward Hiruzen Sarutobi with hope in his eyes.
As the head of Konoha's family, Lord Hokage would surely stand up for his own people, wouldn't he?
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