Chapter 151
2-in-1-chapter
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Hyūga Hiashi leaned against the trunk of a tree. Without someone to support him, he could not even stand, so he could only sit propped against it, keeping his gaze fixed on the battle unfolding before him between Might Guy and Darui—or more precisely, between Guy and Darui together with over a dozen elite Kumogakure shinobi.
Not all of those Cloud-nin were Jōnin.
If they had been placed in minor villages such as Yukigakure or Takigakure, their level would have been more than enough to earn them the title of Jōnin. But within Kumogakure, they were not quite Jōnin and not quite Chūnin, stuck in between as Tokubetsu Jōnin.
In the beginning, the shinobi hierarchy had only three ranks: Genin, Chūnin, and Jōnin. Even the Hokage was, in essence, still a Jōnin—albeit one with the added status of village leader. The category of Tokubetsu Jōnin had not existed at first. It was created later.
And who was it that created it?
The origin of such an innovative concept could belong to no one other than the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. Just as he had founded the ANBU and the Academy, the other Great Villages shamelessly copied him, adopting Tokubetsu Jōnin as they had with ANBU, until the structure spread everywhere.
Tokubetsu Jōnin referred to those whose strength lay between Chūnin and Jōnin. They were significantly stronger than ordinary Chūnin, yet fell short of true Jōnin, though in certain specialties they could match a Jōnin's standard.
These Cloud-nin had polished their preferred jutsu to the level of Jōnin proficiency.
Under Darui's command, they did manage to create some trouble for Guy—but only a little. Guy's strength far exceeded Darui's expectations, and even Hyūga Hiashi was astonished. Might Duy had once taken on the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist alone, crippling them, but he had achieved that feat only through decades of training and at the cost of his life.
Guy, during the Third Shinobi World War just five years earlier, had still been only a Genin. For Hiashi, it seemed impossible that Guy could reach his father's level without another ten or twenty years. Yet the reality before him made him begin to doubt his assumption.
"Eight Gates Release: Sixth Gate, Gate of View—Open!"
With instincts surpassing those of any beast, Guy sensed an attack from behind and made a decision no one expected.
He opened the Sixth Gate.
The Fifth Gate had not given him enough speed. Darui was too fast; simply relying on the movement speed from the Fifth Gate could not suppress him.
So Guy chose the Sixth.
The shockwave from merely opening the gate was enough to delay Darui's thrust at Guy's back, and a sense of foreboding immediately filled Darui's heart. As he pressed forward, the kunai in his hand struck only empty air—Guy's figure had vanished from his sight.
"Even faster!"
Darui's expression grew grave.
His strike missed, and he instantly retreated. At the very moment he moved, a fierce wind swept across his back. Even the glancing contact of Guy's straight punch burned like fire, and if Darui had been even a fraction slower, his spine might have been shattered.
Darui managed to evade Guy's counterattack, but his subordinates could not.
"Konoha Great Rock Smash!"
Guy's elbow struck a Cloud-nin with a force great enough to shatter stone. The sound of breaking bones crackled like dry branches snapping. The victim's body was flung away like a torn sack, blood spraying through the air before he even hit the ground, lifeless.
"One."
Guy counted softly.
Then he charged his next target. In the state of the Sixth Gate, his entire body radiated visible green energy, and the force of his movements alone whipped up shockwaves that tore the ground apart. At such speed and with such destructive power, these Tokubetsu Jōnin stood no chance.
In only five or six seconds, Guy had already reached "four."
Darui tracked him with all his might, but could only just keep pace with Guy's speed. He had no ability to stop Guy's strikes against his subordinates, forced instead to watch as one after another fell. Even Darui's naturally easygoing temperament burned with fury, killing intent boiling inside him like molten lava.
At not yet seventeen, he could not remain indifferent to the deaths of his men, sacrificing them merely to wear down an enemy's stamina and chakra never even accrued to him as a viable strategy.
He was still young, and youth carried with it that untempered impulse.
"You're not the only one with a weakness. I want to see what you'll do now."
Abandoning his pursuit of Guy, Darui's eyes glinted with murderous intent as he fixed his gaze on Hyūga Hiashi, still propped weakly against the tree.
He raised both hands, suppressing the pain as he formed seals at high speed.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
The name of the technique might have been awkward, but its power was anything but. A circular ring of white light formed in Darui's hands, and from it countless beams of concentrated energy shot forth at blinding speed, all aimed directly at the immobilized Hyūga Hiashi.
Hyūga Hiashi shut his eyes as the blinding beam of light filled his vision.
If death was coming, then so be it.
Yet no pain came. Instead, he felt himself lifted from the ground. When he opened his eyes, he realized he was being carried on Might Guy's back, racing at full speed through the forest. Just as he was about to speak, Guy skidded to an abrupt halt, the sudden brake jarring his body.
From above, the beam curved in an unnatural arc and pierced through a tree branch, leaving behind a perfectly round, charred hole.
Hiashi's face twitched as he looked at it.
If Guy had been even a moment slower, that hole would have been burned straight through the two of them.
"Storm Release lasers can bend and change direction a second time," Hiashi explained, answering the confusion written on Guy's face. "Guy, put me down. Storm Release attacks have a wide range and incredible speed. Carrying me like this, you won't last long. Even with the Eight Gates, you cannot possibly endure…"
But just then, the ground itself began to tremble.
Even while clinging to Guy's back, Hiashi could feel the shaking, and he also sensed the massive chakra presence—so immense it stood out like the moon against the night sky. His gaze locked onto the source: in the distance stood the Two-Tails, its entire body wreathed in blazing blue flames.
"The Two-Tails!" Hiashi cried out.
And before despair could sink in, another colossal form rose up to meet it. A towering, emerald-green Susanoo took shape within the forest, clad in the armor of a crow tengu, a massive spiral sword gripped in its hand. It stood face to face with the tailed beast.
"That… that is… Susanoo?" Hiashi's eyes went wide, his mind swimming in dizziness as bewilderment overwhelmed him.
........
...
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At the moment when Hyūga Hiashi was saved by Might Guy, Aburame Shibi, who had been entangled with the Two-Tails jinchūriki, was also reaching his limit. Yet unlike Hiashi's dire straits, the Aburame clan's secret techniques were particularly effective for survival. He had not been driven to the desperate point of self-destruction to preserve his secrets.
That was only relative, however.
In truth, his insects could not devour chakra from the Two-Tails jinchūriki to replenish themselves. Every swarm was being sustained entirely by Shibi's own chakra. In this, he was no different from Hiashi. Even soldier pills could no longer draw out more energy from his dried-up pathways.
"So irritating! I hate bugs and rats."
Half-transformed into the beast, Nii Yugito finally roared in anger. Again and again Shibi had slipped free from her killing strikes, as slippery as an oiled loach, and all the while he harassed her movements.
Then, driven to her breaking point, she screamed, "Die!"
She chose complete tailed-beast transformation. The full form of the Two-Tails erupted into being, blue flames wrapping around the crimson cloak of chakra, its massive, mountain-sized body taking shape. The cat demon lashed its two tails and unleashed an enormous fireball from its jaws.
Trees were incinerated to ash, the soil lost all moisture, and stones shattered under the blaze. The attack's sheer range and force were more than enough to bury Shibi within it.
"Senior Shibi, my apologies. I came late. I ran into quite a number of Cloud shinobi on the way, and it took some effort to clear them."
The sincere voice reached his ears. It was vaguely familiar. More importantly, the owner of that voice moved with such speed that Shibi had no time to even raise a guard before a lightning-fast figure streaked past him.
In the next moment, the tomoe in Uchiha Shisui's scarlet eyes merged together.
The pattern of a four-bladed pinwheel appeared, and the red glow of his Mangekyō Sharingan seemed to blaze brighter.
At the same instant, a green Susanoo manifested, leaping instantly to its fourth stage. Armored in the form of a crow tengu and wielding a spiral blade, Susanoo stood before Shibi like an immovable fortress. It blocked the onrushing flames completely. Not even a gust of heated wind reached Shibi's side.
Even for the Aburame clan head, who rarely showed emotion, the sight drew forth a flash of astonishment.
Another Susanoo.
"Clan Head, can you still move?"
Someone else approached from behind, but Shibi did not raise his guard, as it was only Aburame Shikuro.
"Shikuro, what is going on? That… that was Uchiha Shisui?"
"Indeed, it was Shisui."
Shikuro came up beside him.
"A second Susanoo has appeared within the Uchiha clan, in addition to the clan head's?" Shibi murmured. The Uchiha's strength was truly daunting. Looking back, supporting the decision to depose the Third Hokage seemed not to have been a mistake at all. If the Uchiha clan ever truly launched a coup within the village, it was impossible to imagine what would become of Konoha.
Perhaps the village itself would cease to exist.
Shibi pressed a hand to his forehead, dismissing such useless thoughts. He answered Shikuro's earlier question. "I don't have much chakra left, but as long as I don't fight again, traveling won't be an issue. Let's pull back to a safer distance."
He looked at the clash of the Two-Tails and Susanoo.
Beings of such scale, once locked in battle, could unleash aftershocks powerful enough to resemble natural disasters. If they strayed too close and were caught in it, nine lives would not be enough to escape death.