The instant the two Tailed Beast Bombs collided at such close range, a blinding white flash erupted in the night.

Radiance burst outward in every direction, sweeping away the darkness and turning the deep night into a stark, merciless daylight.

"This—!?"

As that sudden white light exploded across the battlefield, along with the suffocating force that came with it, every Mist shinobi present froze in shock.

The lowest-ranked among those gathered here were still elite chūnin. None of them were fools who knew nothing.

And after clashing directly with hikaru earlier, they all understood just how terrifying this golden figure truly was.

In truth, even when the Fourth Mizukage had stepped in, they hadn’t had much confidence.

Otherwise, they would never have stayed behind to assist him against hikaru.

It wasn’t that they didn’t know they might become a burden.

They simply hadn’t had any better choice.

Actually, from the moment hikaru had leapt clear of the crowd and summoned that fox head to gather the black sphere of energy, many of them had already begun to suspect what it was.

But suspicion was one thing.

Certainty was another.

Even if Kirigakure and Konoha were sworn enemies, it was still hard to believe Konoha had a monster like this.

But now—

there was no room for doubt anymore.

The moment the Fourth Mizukage began condensing his own Tailed Beast Bomb, they finally understood.

What they were facing was truly a Nine-Tails jinchūriki.

"Then why... why is this jinchūriki’s state completely different from the Fourth Mizukage’s?"

That question echoed in the minds of all the Mist shinobi.

But now was not the time to dwell on it.

At this moment, they had only one thought left—

Run.

If they stayed, the shockwave from this collision alone would blast them to pieces.

This was not a level of power they could face.

Not a level they could resist.

BOOM—!!!

A deafening explosion thundered through the battlefield as the ground began to quake violently.

The white light reached its peak.

The shockwaves spreading from the point of collision tore through the battlefield like invisible blades, swallowing every Mist shinobi who was too slow to escape.

Some of the quicker ones immediately used ninjutsu to defend themselves.

But many never even understood what had happened before they were reduced to dust.

Others seemed unharmed on the outside after being struck by the shockwave, only to collapse silently and never rise again.

Their internal organs had already been pulverized.

There was no hope of survival.

That apocalyptic scene unfolded everywhere across the battlefield.

And the destruction did not remain limited to that small war zone.

The entire village of Kirigakure could feel it.

Countless civilians stopped what they were doing in terror.

Countless shinobi halted their missions and turned toward the source of the disturbance.

No one knew what had happened.

But in a village as unstable as this one, no one found it strange that something terrible had happened again.

The civilians shut their doors and windows in panic.

The Mist shinobi, on the other hand, rushed toward the battlefield as fast as they could.

The white radiance slowly faded.

What remained behind was utter devastation.

The Kaguya Clan’s homes had all collapsed.

The trees nearby had been stripped bare, their leaves blown away, leaving only blackened trunks and flickering flames.

Even the small lake in the distance had been completely dried out.

This apocalyptic scene battered the minds of the newly arrived Mist shinobi—and shattered whatever courage remained in the survivors.

Everything before them had exceeded imagination.

It had gone beyond the limits of what they could comprehend.

"What... what kind of monster is that?"

"So this is the power of a Tailed Beast? The power of a jinchūriki?"

"Is this really something a shinobi can do...?"

"Damn it! Why is there something like that in this world?!"

After witnessing a Tailed Beast Bomb collision from that close a distance, countless surviving Mist shinobi were already on the verge of collapse.

Strictly speaking, the shinobi of Konoha had also been terrified by the Nine-Tails’ Tailed Beast Bomb back then.

But Konoha had hikaru.

And it had Minato Namikaze.

One blocked it head-on with Wood Release.

The other teleported it away.

Because of that, Konoha’s shinobi had not personally experienced this kind of catastrophic destruction, and their spirits had not truly broken.

But here and now, the clash between hikaru and Yagura had happened right in front of these Mist shinobi.

Even though the Tailed Beast Bombs they used weren’t particularly large, a Tailed Beast Bomb was still a Tailed Beast Bomb.

At that distance, the destructive force was beyond imagination.

This was a direct, brutal display.

And the devastation it caused was unthinkable.

As the dust slowly dispersed, hikaru stood there silently.

Golden chakra still flowed from his body in dense, overwhelming streams.

But this time, the chakra around him was even more massive than before.

A huge fox head formed from chakra enveloped him, shielding him completely.

He had not suffered so much as a scratch.

By comparison, Yagura’s state was miserable.

He had been blasted dozens of meters away by the impact.

Dark red chakra still cloaked his body, but his aura had become pathetically weak.

Though his body remained covered, making his injuries difficult to judge, the weakness in his chakra made one thing obvious:

His condition was terrible.

In that direct clash against hikaru, he had been utterly suppressed.

And for the Mist shinobi watching, that miserable sight was one more reason their hearts were collapsing.

"Only this much?"

hikaru slowly withdrew part of the Nine-Tails’ power and spoke in an arrogant tone.

"How disappointing.

"So even you are this insignificant.

"It seems you’re not suited for the power of a Tailed Beast at all.

"In that case..."

As he spoke, he slowly began walking forward.

His pace was slow, but every step carried a crushing pressure that felt almost tangible.

More and more Mist shinobi poured into the battlefield, but not one of them dared to make the first move.

They could only watch as the golden monster advanced toward their Kage.

Buzz—!

At that moment, a kunai suddenly shot through the air and embedded itself directly in front of hikaru.

A rare trace of surprise crossed his eyes.

He hadn’t expected anyone to still have the courage to throw a kunai at him.

He lifted his gaze slightly.

An old bald man had stepped out from the crowd.

He held a staff tightly in one hand, his expression cold and stern as he stared directly at hikaru.

"Damn that bastard!"

Not far from the battlefield, in a patch of scorched earth, Obito cursed viciously.

There had been too many unexpected turns in this battle.

And because he was controlling Yagura remotely, he had never been able to fully utilize either his own strength or Yagura’s.

That was why he had chosen to use Tailed Beast transformation.

He had intended to follow Black Zetsu’s plan—test the waters first, then release the Three-Tails more completely.

But hikaru’s control over Tailed Beast power had far exceeded his imagination.

At first, he had assumed hikaru’s golden state was merely a form of Tailed Beast chakra cloak.

Powerful, yes—but only to a certain extent.

But the moment he saw hikaru form and control a Tailed Beast Bomb as effortlessly as though it were no more difficult than breathing—

and a far more refined one at that—

Obito realized how utterly wrong he had been.

A Tailed Beast Bomb the size of a Rasengan, yet with power no weaker than Yagura’s—and in fact even greater.

That had completely overturned everything Obito thought he knew.

For a split second, he even began to suspect that this was what a true jinchūriki combat style was supposed to look like—

not simply releasing the beast and controlling it from afar.

But whatever the truth, hikaru’s reckless, near-suicidal point-blank Tailed Beast Bomb had genuinely stunned him.

Obito’s original plan had been simple:

Launch Yagura’s Tailed Beast Bomb, then immediately force a fuller Three-Tails transformation and let the beast itself deal with hikaru.

But now, Yagura—already badly injured—had begun resisting the control.

And on top of that, the Three-Tails had also started frantically rebelling.

That damned beast clearly had no intention of remaining obedient.

As a result, Obito had to pour in far more ocular power and concentration just to suppress both of them.

If not for his modified body and the power of Hashirama’s cells within him, he might have already collapsed.

And the one responsible for all of this showed no concern at all for the result of his attack.

He was still advancing.

Still pressing forward.

Still closing the distance.

That alone had driven Obito into a true corner.

Fortunately, the one person he found both troublesome and utterly detestable—Genji—had arrived.

The appearance of that old bastard finally gave Obito a sliver of breathing room.

At least he would not collapse under the combined strain of the Three-Tails, Yagura, and hikaru all at once.

"That bastard’s threat level is even higher than we imagined," Black Zetsu muttered with a sigh.

"And I never expected that after all these years, there would still be someone capable of using a Tailed Beast’s power to this degree."

"What do you mean?"

Obito asked through gritted teeth, his voice strained.

At that moment, he truly hated hikaru down to the marrow.

"Have you seen someone like him before?"

"A long time ago," Black Zetsu said slowly, "there was someone who could do this."

Then he immediately realized what he had implied.

But he quickly smoothed it over.

"These are memories inherited from Madara. Once this is over, I’ll explain in detail. For now, focus on dealing with the enemy in front of you."

Obito stared at him for a moment before nodding.

Black Zetsu secretly let out a breath of relief.

After seeing that mysterious man, he had grown more and more convinced of one thing—

perhaps there really was another existence in this world comparable to Mother.

At the very least, those people had already reached something very close to the upper limits of shinobi power.

Because the last time Black Zetsu had seen anyone manipulate a Tailed Beast this perfectly...

it had only ever been Asura, and the descendants who directly inherited his line.

Still, Black Zetsu did not think this man was Senju.

Nor did he think he was one of Asura’s descendants.

Because he could not sense the slightest trace of yang power mixed into him.

"Who are you? What exactly is your purpose in coming to Kirigakure?"

Genji’s voice was cold and indifferent.

And with his appearance, all the Mist shinobi seemed to instantly find their backbone again.

They all knew who Genji was.

He was the Great Elder, a man with authority equal to that of the Mizukage.

At that moment, whether they were newly arrived reinforcements or wounded survivors, all of them unconsciously drew closer to him.

Especially those who had only just arrived—they were already poised for battle, ready to strike at any moment.

"Me?"

hikaru glanced briefly at Yagura, whose chakra was gathering more and more violently, mentally calculating what the man was about to do.

Only then did he look toward Genji.

"I’m merely a nobody," he said with a light smile. "Really, I never expected Kirigakure to mobilize such force just to deal with me."

"If you are a nobody," Genji replied calmly, "then what would that make the rest of us?"

He shook his head lightly before continuing in a frosty voice,

"The power you are using seems to be Konoha’s Nine-Tails.

"So should I take it that you are a Konoha shinobi?

"And since your target is our Kage, does that mean you intend to start the Fourth Great Ninja War?"

Genji was not speaking nonsense.

If Kirigakure truly declared war on Konoha, then Konoha’s defenses would inevitably shift eastward.

That would expose gaps elsewhere.

And once those gaps appeared, the other nations—already resentful and covetous of the Land of Fire’s territory—would naturally be tempted.

Hatred mixed with greed.

And what followed from that would be the Fourth Great Ninja War.

But hikaru showed no concern whatsoever.

He knew perfectly well that this was a probe.

And with this identity, he had never been stingy about speaking hard truths with a false face.

"Is that so? Then I suppose I really am a Konoha shinobi."

hikaru suddenly laughed.

Then he nodded seriously.

"In that case, please—declare war on Konoha as soon as possible.

"We’ve all been waiting."

"Then it seems your purpose is even more complicated than I first imagined."

Genji let out a small sigh.

That question had only ever been a test.

Because in truth, he had already reached a much more concrete conclusion in his own mind.

Using the Nine-Tails’ chakra might make one resemble Konoha.

But did Genji not know Konoha’s current condition?

Even with the poor state of Water Country’s intelligence network due to national isolation, he still knew this much—

Konoha desperately needed peace after the devastation of the Third Great Ninja War.

Which meant one thing:

Konoha would never send a monster like this here on purpose.

In other words, either Konoha had somehow lost control of the Nine-Tails...

or this man had acquired some form of Tailed Beast power from somewhere else entirely.

And in any case, his target was obvious.

The Three-Tails.

Their Mizukage.

"No matter what your purpose is..."

Genji’s thoughts had already raced through countless possibilities, yet his face remained stern and icy.

He suddenly raised his staff high and shouted,

"Shinobi of the Mist—do you still remember the oath you swore when you became ninja?"

"We do!"

Almost every Mist shinobi shouted at once.

The very first oath of any shinobi, in any village, was to protect their village with everything they had.

"Do you still remember what kind of resolve a Mist shinobi must carry when facing an enemy?"

"We do!"

Their voices were even louder this time.

"Do you still remember our pride?"

"We do!"

"Do you still remember what we must do to our enemies?"

"We do! We do! We do!"

Just a few questions.

Genji’s tone had not been especially stirring.

He had not shouted in some thunderous, fiery manner.

And yet the morale of every Mist shinobi present transformed completely.

Bloodlust.

Rage.

A willingness to die.

All of it had been reignited.

Watching that scene, hikaru shook his head slightly.

This was exactly why he had been so cautious before.

Once you drew the attention of an entire village onto yourself, the consequences were obvious.

Unless one stood at the level of Uchiha Madara or Senju Hashirama, barging into a shinobi village alone was simply looking for trouble.

"Kill him!"

No one could even tell who shouted first.

But in the next instant, the Mist forces exploded into motion.

Every shinobi present roared and charged at hikaru.

And most importantly—

this time, they had cast aside all restraint.

Perhaps they believed that in his current state, the Fourth Mizukage could withstand the collateral damage of their ninjutsu.

So now, countless jutsu began pouring toward hikaru.

For a moment, chakra saturated the battlefield from every direction.

Seeing that, hikaru couldn’t help frowning.

Now things were becoming genuinely unfriendly for him.

He had discovered long ago that his talent for provoking entire armies was absurdly strong. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Back in Sunagakure, he had attracted wave after wave of pursuit.

Now, using a different identity in Kirigakure, the scale of the trouble had only grown worse.

Of course, he was well aware that the shinobi before him did not number even a thousand.

After all, Water Country was an island nation.

They had to guard their coastlines and stay alert against enemy landings.

On top of that, Obito’s isolation policy had stationed many shinobi across the country on patrol, leaving fewer permanently inside the village itself.

Still—

that was no small number.

And unlike Madara, he did not have a Susanoo.

Nor could he use Wood Release under this identity.

"Did you forget about me?"

At that moment, the Little Nine-Tails’ voice echoed in his mind.

"You do realize I’m actually very good at dealing with large groups, right?"

"That may be true," hikaru replied after slipping past another wave of attacks, "but I still don’t think letting you out directly is a good idea."

"If I do that, the target becomes too obvious. And I won’t be able to maintain my current state.

"More importantly, if you face that damned Uchiha Obito directly, there’s a real chance he could control you."

"Who said anything about coming out directly?"

The Little Nine-Tails sounded openly disdainful.

Then he asked seriously,

"Do you really think I’ve made no progress at all?"

"...You mean..."

hikaru’s eyes lit up slightly.

"The second stage of Chakra Mode?"

"Exactly. The second stage," the Little Nine-Tails said without hesitation, already beginning to guide the chakra himself.

"But it won’t last long.

"By my estimate, maybe ten minutes at most.

"And really, you should finish it within five.

"You’ll be manifesting me outwardly, which means the chakra consumption will be much higher.

"If you end things earlier, I can preserve enough chakra for you to maintain your current state afterward."

"I see."

hikaru dodged another Mist shinobi’s attack, casually drove a kunai into the man’s back, then said,

"Then let’s do it.

"I’d like to see what the second stage of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode really looks like."

As he spoke, hikaru leapt upward.

His hands came together.

A tremendous amount of chakra condensed instantly.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Ramparts!"

Under his control, a massive earthen wall carved with the face of a fox rose up from the ground.

It became a towering barrier directly in front of him.

The moment the Mist shinobi saw this, their eyes lit up.

In their minds, this meant only one thing—

their enemy was finally beginning to falter.

"Everyone, hit it harder! Smash that damned wall!"

A Mist jōnin shouted loudly, his hands flying through seals.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"

"Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"

"—!"

Countless Mist shinobi unleashed ninjutsu at the wall.

But unlike them, Genji did not feel optimistic in the slightest.

Though his strength had faded somewhat with age, his judgment had not.

He could tell that the man wrapped in Nine-Tails chakra was not running out of steam.

If anything, the chakra within him was becoming even more dangerous.

That realization immediately made Genji understand—

the man behind that wall was not merely defending.

He was preparing something far more terrifying.

Genji opened his mouth to warn the others.

But before he could speak—

the earthen wall exploded apart.

And standing behind it, the mysterious young man was still cloaked in golden chakra...

Yet something about him had changed.

"This feeling... really is incredible..."

hikaru slowly clenched his fist, sensing the change in his own chakra, and couldn’t help murmuring to himself.

Entering the second stage of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode had subtly changed his outward appearance as well.

Golden chakra still wrapped his body.

But now that chakra had formed something more refined around him—more streamlined, more elegant, more complete.

And most interestingly—

the fox mask on his face remained.

If anything, that only made him appear even more mysterious.

Most importantly, this second stage of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode truly corresponded to the level of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

There was no need to elaborate on how powerful the Eternal Mangekyō was.

hikaru’s previous level had already been formidable.

But if one translated it into Uchiha terms, it sat somewhere between the Mangekyō and the Eternal Mangekyō.

His power didn’t carry the self-blinding drawback of an ordinary Mangekyō.

Yet it also hadn’t truly reached the level of the Eternal Mangekyō either.

Now, however, things were different.

The moment he stepped into the second stage, he could feel a monstrous increase in speed, strength, and overall performance.

His sensory ability also became sharper than ever.

He could almost effortlessly perceive malice and goodwill in others.

But the most important difference was this—

he could now fully draw upon the complete power of the Nine-Tails.

Which meant he could manifest that chakra outwardly.

He could control a massive Nine-Tails construct just like Susanoo.

"What a fated kind of power," hikaru thought with a faint smile.

"Uchiha Madara had Susanoo. Senju Hashirama had Wood Release: Wood Golem.

"Uchiha Sasuke had Susanoo. Uzumaki Naruto had Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.

"And now..."

He looked at the incoming torrent of Mist ninjutsu and chuckled softly.

"In a sense, I have all of them."

The next second, the golden chakra around him erupted violently.

A gigantic Nine-Tails head roared into existence in front of him.

BOOM!

Countless ninjutsu slammed into that massive fox head, yet none of them managed to harm hikaru in the slightest.

And as he continued to draw out more chakra, the construct only grew larger and larger.

"ROOOAAAR—!"

With a thunderous roar, a giant upright fox with nine tails fully appeared before the Mist shinobi.

"This... what is this?!"

"Damn it, is that the Nine-Tails?"

"Why is this fox standing upright? What kind of thing is this?"

"What the hell kind of monster is that?!"

Staring at the golden fox construct over ten meters tall, the Mist shinobi once again fell into panic.

Of course, when facing a jinchūriki, they had all expected some form of beast transformation.

That much was normal.

But hikaru’s earlier state had already been completely different from any jinchūriki transformation they knew.

That alone had made them cling to a tiny bit of hope.

They simply did not want to believe that a true Nine-Tails-level monster had appeared inside their village.

Now that illusion had been utterly shattered.

This enemy could indeed manifest a beast form.

"Don’t panic! This Nine-Tails seems a little small!"

"Maybe it’s not as terrifying as it looks! Stay calm!"

"Don’t let it intimidate you! Don’t forget what stands behind us! Pull yourselves together!"

Still, the Mist shinobi recovered faster than expected.

After all, this was Kirigakure.

Their home was behind them.

If they broke now, then everything behind them would be lost.

In the distance, even Obito went still for a moment.

He was nearly done preparing.

But hikaru’s transformation truly caught him off guard.

This still counted as a Tailed Beast?

This still counted as Tailed Beast transformation?

To Obito, it looked disturbingly similar to Susanoo.

He himself could not use Susanoo, because he didn’t possess a complete pair of Sharingan.

But that didn’t mean he was ignorant of it.

It was the ultimate power of the Uchiha.

And now, seeing someone use Nine-Tails chakra to mimic something so close to it...

how could he not feel shocked?

As for Black Zetsu, he had gone completely silent.

He no longer even wanted to speak.

Bringing the Nine-Tails’ power to this degree—

wasn’t that something only Asura’s descendants had ever done?

At this point, he was completely certain.

There had to be other Tailed Beasts in this world.

And the people controlling them must be carrying some secret too great to be revealed.

A secret that likely involved Mother’s clan.

"What do we do now?" Obito finally asked. "Continue attacking as planned?"

"Try it," Black Zetsu said with a helpless sigh, his gaze dark and sinister. "That man’s goal may be the Three-Tails. If it comes down to it, make Yagura self-destruct."

"But if we do that—"

"Stop thinking about revenge on Kirigakure for now," Black Zetsu interrupted coldly. "Before anything else, we need to make sure the Three-Tails doesn’t end up in his hands."

Obito stared at him for a long moment.

Then finally, he clenched his jaw and nodded.

There would still be time to take revenge on Kirigakure later.

But if the Three-Tails fell into the hands of that mysterious man, they might never get it back again.

Thinking of that, Obito began gathering chakra at full speed for one final gamble.

At the same time, hikaru controlled the ten-meter-tall golden fox and began rampaging through the Mist forces.

The height of the construct was deliberate.

He could feel that, using the Nine-Tails’ chakra, he could easily manifest something dozens or even hundreds of meters tall.

But that would consume too much chakra.

And for the first true use of this power, keeping everything within a reasonable range was best.

With one sweep of its tails, a giant crater formed in the earth.

With one strike of its paw, deep fissures split the battlefield apart.

Under the silver moon and thick mist, the Nine-Tails’ roar rang again and again through Kirigakure.

Every movement of that giant fox took lives.

The Mist shinobi were dying at an astonishing rate.

They tried to retaliate.

They tried ninjutsu.

They tried taijutsu.

But whether their attacks landed on the fox’s body or not, none of them accomplished anything.

They couldn’t even stir a ripple.

The Mist shinobi truly were not cowards.

Especially now, when the thought of protecting their village burned in their hearts.

But every person had limits.

Even if a shinobi’s limit lay far beyond that of an ordinary civilian—

it still existed.

◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.

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