In the 37th year of Konoha, the times were turbulent, and smoke of war filled the air.
For various reasons, the Sand and Stone ninja, who had been fiercely battling in the Land of Rain, tacitly ceased their conflict and instead turned their lethal attacks against Konoha, showing no mercy even to the Rain ninja.
This was different from the small-scale skirmishes of the early stages; both sides deployed elite forces, signifying a full-scale war.
The flames of war spread boundlessly, intensifying rapidly.
In May of the same year, Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure, could no longer tolerate his country being wantonly ravaged by the Sand and Stone ninja like a plaything. Under the authorization of the Daimyo of the Land of Rain, he simultaneously declared war on the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. Forming an alliance with Konoha, united in their hatred for the common enemy, the four-way war officially began.
As the smoke of war spread, the Second Great Ninja War officially broke out!
Unlike the burning Land of Rain, the Land of Iron, located east of the continent, remained a neutral country, enjoying peace and prosperity, completely unaffected by the war.
Snow fell, and tranquility remained.
To be precise, there was still some impact. Due to the wars in various countries, Tantōsai, the Land of Iron's premier weaponry guild, had seen a rapid increase in its revenue over the past six months. As batches of swords were exported abroad, the guild's treasury swelled, causing Kakuzu to shed tears of envy.
At this moment, in the northern part of the Land of Iron, outside a hidden snow-capped mountain range.
Hiruko stood within a testing ground, rubbing his hands, not from the cold, but from excitement. His breathing was heavy, exhaling thick clouds of hot air into the falling snow.
Even Orochimaru and Uchiha Nian, standing beside him, could hear his pounding heart.
"Have you truly circumvented all risks? Have all experimental samples met the fusion standards?" Orochimaru glanced at him, asking in a raspy voice.
"What do you think I've been busy with all these years? While you were training with Master, I was also making progress..." Hiruko didn't directly answer his question, his gaze unfocused, his voice trembling with barely contained excitement. "My ninjutsu... is complete!"
Nian shrugged. "Be precise, both of you. Even I, a science layman, know that it's only truly complete if the next experiment succeeds, right?"
In the open space before the three of them, two gigantic ninja beasts lay neatly. They breathed steadily, their massive eyes reflecting the fleeting image of a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, as quiet as cats.
On the left was a large bird, entirely dark green, with vibrant feathers and a beak sharp as iron. However, its entire head was covered by a thick, plate-like mask, making it quite bizarre, clearly not a naturally conceived creature.
Compared to it, the creature on the right was a chimera, impossible to define with a single species. It possessed features of a turtle, a wild boar, and a lion simultaneously. Its massive turtle shell was imprinted with special runes, densely inscribed with the character "Explosion."
Clearly, these two were specially modified fusion creatures created by Hiruko.
Orochimaru, who had already mastered Sage Mode, possessed extremely keen senses. He instantly entered Sage Mode, and as the purple eyeshadow around his eyes elongated, he immediately identified the unique aura emanating from both creatures.
The bird's aura was sometimes light and sometimes heavy, clearly a mixture of wind and earth natured chakra, while the chimera's aura was rich, violent, and scorching, representing water, lightning, and fire natured chakra, respectively.
What Hiruko intended to do next was to fuse these two composite beasts together again.
"How much Oniyara Solution did you inject into them?" Orochimaru asked, frowning.
"Your question should be, how much 'Perfect Version Oniyara Specimen Fusion Serum' did you inject into them?" Hiruko chuckled softly. "Who would remember such details? I only know that I'm about to succeed."
Nian pursed his lips, not speaking. He was more curious about how many ninja beasts these two monsters had been fused from.
After a moment of silence.
"Brothers, witness this moment!"
Hiruko slowly raised his hands, looking up at the falling snow. The cold wind ruffled his white hair, but his gaze was fervent, much like a devout pilgrim.
With a "clap," his hands came together, followed by a bewildering sequence of over a dozen hand signs.
"Fuse! Oniyara Fusion Technique!!"
Suddenly, concentric circles of ink-black術式 (jutsu-shiki, ritual formula) appeared on the bird's back, enveloping its entire body like a spiderweb. Following this, a viscous, paint-like black liquid seeped out, slowly flowing along its feathers, quickly engulfing the entire bird.
"Enveloping" might not be the most accurate word; Nian felt that "devouring" would be more fitting.
Soon, the liquid mass writhed incessantly, like a coiling, pitch-black giant python, but without eyes, only a slowly opening maw, as if it had been hungry for a long time, eager to satisfy its gluttonous desires.
Under Hiruko's control, "it" instantly sought out its prey, which was the chimera beside it.
"It" didn't hesitate. Its large maw crashed down, and with a "gurgling" sound, it completely swallowed the chimera's entire body in just a few breaths.
Only a large, continuously writhing mass of black liquid remained before the three of them.
"Hiss..."
Bubbles continuously rose from the liquid, eventually steaming up a large amount of white mist.
"Do you have confidence—" Nian opened his mouth, wanting to ask about the progress, but saw Orochimaru shake his head at him.
He immediately realized that during an experiment, one needed to maintain complete concentration, without a moment's distraction. Any tiny detail could amplify errors infinitely, ultimately leading to experimental failure.
"It's fine," Hiruko suddenly said, a confident smile on his lips. "I've performed this operation thousands of times. I could do it in my sleep."
Orochimaru looked at him deeply. Perhaps only he, as a fellow researcher, could understand that this confidence was not built on a vague belief but accumulated from countless lonely, tedious, and complex experimental results.
It seemed that while he was painstakingly training in Ryūchi Cave, Hiruko hadn't paused his experimental progress but had continued to toil alone in his isolated laboratory.
"Gurgle..."
Soon, the dark liquid stopped bubbling and began to rapidly shrink.
Ten seconds later, Hiruko announced, "It's done."
Nian focused his gaze and saw the liquid gradually dissipate, retracting inch by inch into the fused beast until all liquid droplets disappeared, revealing a brand new ninja beast before them.
Its body had shrunk several times its original size, but it retained its massive wings. Its entire body was covered in hardened bone armor resembling a tortoiseshell, its beak replaced by tusks, and two slender tail feathers floated behind it.
"ROAR!!!!"
It roared to the sky, its eyes glinting fiercely, and the five elemental chakras within it surged so violently that they directly broke through Nian's genjutsu blockade.
The next moment, it suddenly launched itself into the air, its wings sweeping back, rushing straight towards Hiruko with an ear-splitting sonic boom! Its target was precisely Hiruko, who was in the very center!
In this critical moment, Nian and Orochimaru acted simultaneously. Their sleeves billowed, and they simultaneously shot out thick vipers and resilient wooden vines, binding the monstrous bird's wings at the last possible second.
Even so, they were dragged several meters by the fierce force.
"Whoosh!!!"
The monstrous bird abruptly halted before Hiruko, its facial plate just a step away from his nose.
A whirlwind swept past, carrying snowflakes dancing in its wake.
Hiruko's hair flew wildly, a sickly flush on his face. His eyes were excited. Until now, he had shown no intention of dodging.
If Orochimaru and Nian hadn't intervened in time, he would have been smashed into a bloody pulp, staining the pristine white snow.
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