"Scorch Release: Overboiling Murder!"
Pakura's figure flashed like a gust of wind, appearing in front of Yagura in an instant. The six orange fireballs floating behind her merged together in a single moment.
Whoosh...
A massive orange fire ring, over ten meters in diameter, suddenly expanded outward, aiming to engulf Yagura entirely.
Roar!
A beast-like growl erupted.
The fire ring was instantly "scattered" apart. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that Yagura had unknowingly entered his Partial Tailed Beast Transformation state.
Behind him, six tails elongated and swelled, thrashing violently within the fire ring before retracting back behind him.
Pakura showed no signs of discouragement at her failed attack. With a quick hand sign, she waved her hand, and six new fireballs materialized again.
But this time, Yagura, now in his transformed state, gave her no chance to strike further.
"Hiruma!"
Yagura's body suddenly became slender, and his red Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak began to shift into a ghostly blue hue.
Whoosh!
Yagura's speed surged dramatically. Both he and Pakura transformed into a blur of afterimages as they chased and clashed across the battlefield.
Pakura's orange fireballs struck Yagura repeatedly, but they had little effect. His red Tailed Beast Cloak served as an impenetrable shield.
Suddenly!
Yagura's blue-tinged form stretched out like a rubber band, coiling around Pakura before snapping tightly.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
A highly corrosive liquid began seeping from Yagura's body, and Pakura's form started to melt on the spot, like a candle being burned by intense flames.
Yet, instead of fear at the approach of death, a mysterious smile appeared on Pakura's face.
"Inner Four Symbols Sealing Technique!"
As her clothing dissolved under the acidic liquid, a series of simplified seal patterns emerged on Pakura's chest.
The moment the seals appeared, Pakura's blood sprayed outward like a sprinkler. However, instead of crimson, the liquid was pitch black, resembling ink.
This black liquid shot out in all directions from Pakura, covering a radius of several hundred meters.
What?!
"Is she trying to take me down with her!?"
"Retreat immediately!" Yagura shouted in alarm, his heart sinking. He quickly yelled to his Mist ninja troops, warning them to fall back. The level of this sealing technique was undoubtedly high.
Yagura swiftly unwrapped himself from Pakura and leapt away to safety.
Despite her body being mostly melted and her appearance gruesome, Pakura waved her arms, seemingly attempting to drag Yagura into the abyss with her.
But unfortunately, with her legs—both lower and upper—already missing, Pakura could no longer use her Swift Release. She could only watch helplessly as Yagura "bounced" across the ground, escaping her desperate final attack.
The area covered in black liquid abruptly condensed into a dark, ominous sphere, which then contracted violently inward. Everything within the sphere—living beings, soil, and all—was sealed into Pakura's body.
"Hmm?"
"That figure..."
After Pakura's body collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, Yagura began to sense something was off.
But in the next instant, what happened made Yagura's pupils contract sharply.
With the sound of mechanisms grinding, the ground outside Sunagakure began to shift and flip like a series of hidden passageways being revealed.
Dozens of Sand ninja, all in their "Cursed Seal Level 2" forms, emerged from the ground in an orderly fashion. Their numbers were not insignificant, totaling over a hundred.
From an aerial view, it became apparent that the thousands of Mist ninja were now subtly surrounded by these cursed seal monsters.
The creatures, their expressions unnervingly calm and composed, stood in specific positions. Once in place, they all performed synchronized hand signs.
"Ninja Art: Super Multiple Purple Flame Formation!"
A massive rectangular barrier enveloped the entire Mist ninja force.
"What?!"
"But... wasn't Sunagakure already at its wits' end?"
"Even Rasa himself admitted as much!"
"Where did these troops come from?!"
Yagura's shock and anger surged. Throughout the campaign, they had killed over ten thousand Sand ninja—figures meticulously recorded after each battle. There was no way such numbers could be wrong!
Even within the Five Great Shinobi Nations, such a high death toll should have shattered morale long ago.
Moreover, Sunagakure's elite forces had been decimated. If that weren't the case, why else would the Third Kazekage lead a drug-enhanced suicide squad to fight them?
Now, with the Third Kazekage dead and traitors from Sunagakure providing them with all the intelligence, what was the point of these hidden forces appearing only now?
A flood of thoughts raced through Yagura's mind.
But soon, a familiar figure rising from the ground answered his questions.
"That's..."
"The Kazekage?!"
"Impossible!!!"
Through the barrier, Yagura quickly recognized the signature iron sand wings.
The Third Kazekage, flapping his iron wings in midair, fully unleashed the power of the cursed seal.
His body suddenly swelled several times over, layers of gray-black armor covering him entirely. Triangular keratin structures jutted out from his shoulders and wrists.
His hair turned a grayish-blue and grew wildly, cascading down to his chest. His eye sockets were completely blackened, revealing two ghostly yellow pupils. A terrifyingly powerful aura radiated from him.
This was the Third Kazekage in his prime!
The Kazekage offered no explanation. He simply raised his hands high, and the hundreds of troops previously led by Pakura suddenly reverted with a series of pops to their original puppet forms.
It turned out that this entire unit had been human puppets disguised with transformation techniques!
The ground beneath them flipped open once more, revealing the puppet masters hidden below who had been controlling them.
It seemed the Kazekage had long since constructed an underground network of mechanisms outside Sunagakure.
In fact, the Third Kazekage had long considered the possibility of something happening to Sōmi or Sasori.
This "underground world" was the result of countless experiments and designs by the Third Kazekage and Sasori.
Creak, creak...
The sound of countless bones grinding together filled the air, accompanied by the occasional spark of ignition.
The human puppets marched through a specially opened passageway into the Purple Flame Barrier.
Boom!
Boom!!
Boom!!!
Deafening explosions echoed across the sky!
The puppets had been packed with explosive tags inside their bodies!
The explosions erupted sequentially from four directions around Sunagakure, massive clouds of dust and debris rising into the air.
By now, Yagura could no longer deny it—this was clearly a trap, a ploy to feign weakness and lure them in.
But what he couldn't understand was how the supposedly dead Third Kazekage could be so perfectly replicated, down to his appearance and Kekkei Genkai.
Yagura, of course, was unaware of the existence of the Shape-Shifting Technique, a secret ninjutsu. As for the appearance, the Kazekage had deliberately selected someone with a similar physique and had them "cosmetically altered."
Unless one were as intimately familiar with the Kazekage as a close companion, it would be impossible to discern the difference.
As for the Pakura who had just used the Inner Four Symbols Sealing Technique, the same principle applied.
When Sōmi acquired the Shape-Shifting Technique, he proposed the idea of using "flesh-and-blood human puppets" to perform self-sacrificial sealing techniques as the most effective strategy.
After all, no one in the shinobi world would be foolish enough to engrave such a forbidden technique onto their true body…
Given the high chakra and sealing skill requirements of this forbidden technique, only a select few—Sōmi, Sasori, Pakura, and Granny Chiyo—could execute it.
On the other three fronts where Yagura wasn't personally present, numerous Jōnin had already fallen victim to this strategy.
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