Earth Release: Mud Wall.
Kageyama Kokugetsu clapped his hands to finish the signs. The ground shivered and a gray-black wall surged up.
Boom—the shockwave slammed into the wall with a roar. Gravel and dust billowed, but the wall held.
"Here it comes—underground!" Kageyama Kokugetsu warned as he dodged.
The sensor Yamanaka Inoichi called it out almost in the same breath, pushing the message into his comrades' minds with a secret art. They moved almost in unison.
Two dark red arms burst from the earth and grasped at air. Killer B shot out like a pellet from a slingshot, and the wall shattered to pieces on impact.
Seeing he couldn't get clear in time, Akimichi Chōza gritted his teeth and packed every spare ounce of chakra into his right arm, then drove a punch forward.
His arm swelled dozens of times in an instant, like Luffy's Third Gear. The massive fist met the undersized half-transformed Eight Tails head-on.
A thunderclap.
The little Eight Tails was hurled away, skidding far across the ground. Shinobi from both sides unlucky enough to be in the path died where they stood.
Killer B rose, shaking his head as if dizzy.
Chōza frowned. Two horn-shaped holes gaped in his huge fist, scarlet blood running from them.
"Chōza, you alright?" Nara Shikaku asked, worried.
"I'm fine. Just a scratch. But be careful—one touch from him is at least a serious injury," Chōza said with a sheepish grin that faded to a hard look.
"We have to restrain him or we'll stay on the back foot," Inoichi said flatly.
"I have ideas, but against a monster like this the odds aren't great," Shikaku said, pained.
Speed, always speed. The three were either too slow or lacked a clean window to cast.
"I'll try. Move on my cue. He's coming."
Earth Release: Swamp of the Netherworld.
Kageyama Kokugetsu finished his signs and slammed both palms to the ground. The turf around the galloping Killer B turned, within a tight circle, into a gray-black mire that yanked him downward.
"Fast casting speed. High mastery of Earth Release.
"He shrank the area, but making the swamp bite almost instantly is still impressive.
"What a little monster—peerless in stealth and assassination, and his bodywork and ninjutsu are just as strong," Shikaku thought, hands flashing as his pale shadow snaked out.
"Kokugetsu, borrowing your shadow."
The Nara shadow linked to Kokugetsu's and thinned to a fine line, latching on the instant before B hauled free of the mire.
The Nara shadow arts can be used without sunlight. Otherwise their clan would have perished in the Warring States. If enemies struck on rainy days they wouldn't just fold their hands. The Sarutobi, Yamanaka, and Akimichi couldn't cover every time.
Still, on sunless days the technique is weaker in every way.
"Good opening."
Inoichi fired the Mind Body Switch Technique and nailed Killer B.
Chōza moved at once, launching the Super Expansion Technique. His body ballooned up like a small mountain and his clenched fists came down like hammers.
"Aaagh."
Inoichi screamed. Blood ran from his nose and mouth and he staggered.
Killer B was not yet a perfect jinchūriki, but the Eight Tails was no slouch. It moved at once to break the Yamanaka secret art.
A bellow ripped from Killer B and chakra exploded from him. He brute-forced his way out of the shadow bind and blasted into the sky like a shell.
Normally the shadow bind is hard to break, but in rain and cloud its grip weakens, and piggybacking on Kokugetsu's shadow made it weaker still.
Killer B crashed back into the mire at even higher speed, throwing up a geyser of mud and a storm of clods.
Chōza had it worse. Two more holes opened under his fist, and this time the bone took damage. He bared his teeth against the pain.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
Kageyama Kokugetsu vaulted high as he finished the signs, chest swelling and flattening as three streams of searing flame fused midair into a dragonish surge that hammered the swamp.
Steam shrieked up as the water boiled away. The mud dried and hardened, then baked red-hot under the steady flame, roasting the half-transformed beast below.
Crammed and cooked, Killer B strained and burst, eight tails lashing long like blades to split the earth. He braced all four limbs and tore free by brute force.
Whipcrack.
Kageyama Kokugetsu timed it and snapped a flying kick into his waist, booting the little Eight Tails far across the field.
This time he hit no one. Shinobi on both sides, by tacit agreement, widened the gap even more.
Kageyama Kokugetsu hadn't even kicked with full power, but a normal strike was plenty to make B see stars.
"Freak.
"Kid's not that big and he doesn't even look that built, but that kick felt close to Big Bro's power," Killer B griped to the Eight Tails inside the seal.
"Use that move," Gyūki rumbled.
"If it doesn't finish him, consider withdrawal. Without full transformation this is pointless," the Eight Tails advised.
B paused. "Hey, how strong is the Nine Tails?"
"Thinking of going full form?"
"Yeah. Feeling the itch. If I don't take Kageyama Kokugetsu today, he'll be trouble later."
"The Nine Tails is the outlier of us all.
"One through Seven are one tier. There's a spread, but not large.
"I'm at least half a step above them. All out, I can fight two at once for a while without falling behind, and I can push three.
"The Nine Tails is a tier of its own. Not counting me, it can go one-versus-five or even one-versus-six for a time and not lose ground.
"One on one, I can't beat it."
"What? How?"
B shouted, eyes popping.
Same tailed beasts—why are you so exceptional, Nine Tails?
In the fourth war, half a Nine Tails with Naruto could fight five. A complete Nine Tails could likely go six for a stretch, maybe even test seven.
"Maybe the Sage liked it best," the Eight Tails mused after a moment. "More than me."
B's head throbbed. If they pushed Konoha too far and Konoha stopped caring about limits…
Forget it. Don't go overboard.
And enemies aren't fools. If he went full form, they'd run into the crowd and tie his hands.
Mind to mind felt long; outside, only moments passed.
B climbed up, chin lifting as black-red yin chakra and deep-blue yang chakra surged and gathered.
"Not good—that one," Shikaku said, face changing.
Chōza and Inoichi blanched. A direct hit would leave not even bones.
"Don't panic. Chōza and I will take this one. You two back off," Kageyama Kokugetsu said, calm as still water.
The Ino–Shika–Chō trio shared a look and chose to trust him.
There was no other choice.
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