"Now that is valuable. It doesn't matter if the boost to jōnin is limited—this would be perfect for chūnin and genin. And if this kind of defensive ninja gear could really be mass-produced reliably, then in wartime it would absolutely be capable of playing a major role!"
Hidden Cloud Village, Raikage's office.
The Fourth Raikage looked from the fierce battle playing across the light screen to the stream of comments flashing past it, and his eyes lit up at once. He immediately turned to his secretary, Mabui, and issued a new order:
"Make arrangements. Didn't I already send a squad to the Land of Snow to investigate that statue?"
"Have them take care of one more thing while they're there—go meet with the ruler of the Land of Snow and find a way to obtain the manufacturing process for that Chakra Armor from them!"
At that, the Fourth Raikage paused briefly before adding in an even harsher tone:
"And if negotiations fail, then snatch one back by force if you have to. I refuse to believe that with the level of research in Hidden Cloud, we wouldn't be able to reproduce Chakra Armor once we got our hands on a set!"
"Yes, sir!"
Faced with the Fourth Raikage's command, Mabui did not hesitate in the slightest, nor did she raise any objection.
Having followed him for years, she was already thoroughly accustomed to this blunt, decisive style of doing things.
So after acknowledging the order, she turned and left the office at once, intending to coordinate with the squad as quickly as possible and implement the mission concerning the Chakra Armor.
And this sort of thing was not happening in Hidden Cloud alone. The hidden villages of the other great nations had also begun moving one after another.
Some openly assigned personnel, while others made their arrangements in secret, but all of them gave orders for ninja from their villages to set out for the Land of Snow. They intended to investigate personally and uncover the truth behind both the Chakra Armor and the power of the Phantom Demon Emperor.
And against the backdrop of every major hidden village turning its eyes toward the Land of Snow—
the battle on the light screen continued to heat up, inch by inch, until it reached its most tense and violent stage yet.
[With his final words spoken, Nadare Rōga's chakra began circulating at high speed, and his hands flew rapidly through a sequence of seals.
"Ice Release: Dragon-Shattering Fierce Tiger!!"
Before the roar had even fully faded, Kakashi had already responded in kind, mobilizing his own chakra just as swiftly and completing his hand signs.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!!"
In an instant, the glacier behind them exploded apart. A gigantic ice tiger dozens of feet long burst forth, throwing back its head with a thunderous roar that sent wave after wave of pressure crashing outward.
At the same time, the sea not far away suddenly surged, and a water dragon of nearly equal size rose violently into the air. Faced with the ice tiger's roar, it answered with a dragon's howl that shook heaven and earth.
In that moment, the sculpted tiger of ice and the towering dragon of water hung poised against one another in midair—two utterly different, yet equally powerful ninjutsu locked in a standoff so tense it felt as though a sword might be drawn at any second.
But Nadare Rōga's Chakra Armor greatly enhanced the power of his ninjutsu. Combined with ice's natural advantage over water, the balance of that contest tilted almost immediately.
The water dragon formed by Kakashi's Water Dragon Bullet had only just collided with the ice tiger when it was frozen by the latter's chilling aura, then shattered apart under the impact. Carrying the remnants of that freezing force, the ice tiger rushed straight toward Kakashi and Naruto.
Fortunately, after smashing through the water dragon, the ice tiger had lost most of its momentum and was far less fierce than before. Kakashi and Naruto instantly sprang aside in opposite directions, easily avoiding the weakened attack in a single motion.
Meanwhile, the situation on the other side of the battlefield was also changing.
Seeing that Kakashi and Naruto were being completely tied down by his teammate, Doto Fuyumaguma immediately shifted his line of movement.
At the same time, the device on his arm activated in an instant, and several strands of white webbing shot out, all aimed directly at the mission target—Kazahana Koyuki.
Sakura, guarding Koyuki at her side, reacted just as quickly. Drawing the kunai at her waist, she flicked her wrist and sliced through the white webbing, then rushed forward and firmly planted herself in front of Fuyumaguma.
"Get out of my way, you little brat!!"
The target was right before him. After ten years of waiting, the Snow ninja's long-cherished wish was finally on the verge of bearing fruit. How could Doto Fuyumaguma possibly allow Sakura to interfere? He bellowed in fury and threw a full-power punch that howled through the air with savage force.
Had that punch landed squarely on Sakura, then with Fuyumaguma's monstrous physical strength—augmented by the Chakra Armor—the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Fortunately, Naruto noticed the danger in time. With Kakashi's coordination, he forcibly broke free of his own opponent's entanglement and slammed headlong into Fuyumaguma, knocking him aside and allowing Sakura to narrowly escape disaster.
"Hmph! Since you little brat insist on throwing your life away, I'll kill you first!"
Stopped twice in a row, Doto Fuyumaguma's patience finally snapped. He immediately pushed his Chakra Armor into overload mode, gathering even more violent power than before and driving another punch straight forward.
Yet that overwhelming blow was casually caught by Naruto with a single outstretched hand. Naruto did not even sway from the impact.
Doto Fuyumaguma's pupils contracted sharply. Refusing to accept it, he swung his other arm and unleashed another punch—only for Naruto to catch that one just as easily, as though his full-powered attacks posed no threat at all.
"Impossible! He's just a brat—how could he possibly block my overload-powered strikes?!"
Shock crashed through Doto Fuyumaguma's heart like a tidal wave.
After all, aside from the divine power granted by the Phantom Demon Emperor—which he had not yet used—he had already brought all of his strength to bear.
Even against an ordinary jōnin, a punch of that power should have been enough to deal devastating damage in a single blow. And yet now, a mere kid had blocked it so lightly, so effortlessly, that it completely overturned everything he thought he knew.
And just as that thought flashed through his mind, Doto Fuyumaguma suddenly noticed something else.
The eyes of Uzumaki Naruto, who was straining against him in raw strength, had at some point turned blood-red.
His normal pupils were slowly stretching and narrowing—
until they became vertical slits, like the eyes of a beast.]**
—"That ominous chakra... I see now. So this brat is that one from Konoha."
—"What do you mean, 'that one'? Don't stop halfway—explain it properly!"
—"Allow this old man to enlighten you. That boy is Konoha's jinchūriki of this generation. No wonder Konoha kept an Uzumaki descendant around—so this was the reason."
—"Uh... what exactly is a jinchūriki? I've never heard the term before, so I have no idea what it means."
—"You don't need a full understanding to get the gist of it. Just remember this: he and that monster from Hidden Sand are fundamentally the same kind of existence."
—"Oh, if you put it that way, then I get it. So in the end, Naruto's the same kind of being as that monster from Hidden Sand."
Inside Sunagakure, Gaara stared at the comments on the light screen.
The words comparing Naruto to him—claiming they were the same kind of existence—not only failed to stir even the slightest sense of kinship in him, they instead made the anger in his heart burn even hotter.
He and Naruto were nothing alike!
That guy had a teacher he could trust with his back. He had companions who genuinely cared about him. He laughed every day as if he had never been shunned or isolated by others, never been loathed by his own family, never been hunted down with killing intent by his own blood relatives!
How could someone like that possibly be his kind? How did he deserve to be called the same sort of existence?!
Why?
They were both jinchūriki, yet Naruto could smile so brightly, surrounded by dependable companions, freely mingling among crowds to watch a movie.
While he himself...
could only ever remain utterly, eternally alone?!
As his emotions spiraled out of control, the sand around him began to surge violently. Grains of sand howled through the air in swirling currents, both warning the surrounding crowd to stay away and venting the grievance and fury raging inside him.
Temari, who had only just helped calm Gaara down not long ago, saw that he had once again fallen under the sway of murderous intent—and that this killing intent was even more violent than before. For a moment, she no longer dared approach rashly. She could only stand at a distance and let out a helpless sigh.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
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