Under Danzo's summoning technique, the three chameleons reappeared and began spitting out corpses one after another.
Even Orochimaru was staring closely at some of the bodies. Anything Brook did not want would most likely end up becoming his future research material.
"There really are Akimichi and Nara shinobi among them. Looks like an Ino Shika Cho chunin squad got wiped out."
Brook was not picky. His plan was simple: claim the bloodline first, then steal the jutsu later. In his eyes, every clan's secret technique was like a Devil Fruit ability, and that thought alone was enough to keep him endlessly motivated.
More importantly, unlike Devil Fruits, these abilities did not come with the restriction of blocking the absorption of others.
All of that was thanks to the Death God sealing power left behind by Western Underworld God Jin. This clone possessed terrifying devouring ability, even greater than the fusion powers of the Otsutsuki clan.
Jin had clearly poured tremendous effort into this avatar in order to devour the power of Northern Underworld God Hirasaka.
"The Hyuga branch corpses are useless. The Uchiha corpses are no longer necessary. And two tomoe Sharingan are basically trash."
Brook casually sorted through the bodies, devouring and merging with the ones he wanted while tossing the rest to Orochimaru, who sealed them into storage scrolls without complaint.
Taking advantage of the rare lull, Brook summoned the Gedo Mazo again and pulled Han, the Five Tails jinchuriki, out of the Kamui dimension.
[Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seal!]
Without hesitation, Brook allowed the husk of the Ten Tails to extract Kokuo from Han's body.
Han died on the spot, and Brook harvested his soul immediately.
As the slightly altered Gedo Mazo vanished, Brook released two White Zetsu bodies and used them to revive the souls of Third Tsuchikage Onoki and Han.
Onoki's memories stopped at the moment of his death.
Han's memories stopped the instant he was seized by the Rinnegan.
This is annoying. Do I have to dig out Shisui's Kotoamatsukami again? Or should I just let them keep those memories and shove them back anyway?
Brook did not awaken the two resurrected shinobi right away. Though they were under his control, changing their memories was not something he could casually do at the moment.
"Forget it. I'll deal with that later."
He shoved the two unconscious resurrected men back into the Kamui dimension, planning to erase or tamper with their memories when he found the time. At worst, he could simply treat them as dead and force Iwagakure to accept the outcome. They would not dare resist anyway.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
Orochimaru knew several forbidden techniques that dealt with memory tampering. He had even used one on Mitarashi Anko in the past.
Brook immediately began questioning him about memory related forbidden arts.
As expected, there was never any end to learning. A man had to know a little of everything.
Before dawn, Brook returned to Konoha's temporary war base with Orochimaru and Danzo of the Animal Path.
··
At the same time, inside Kumogakure's temporary base, the atmosphere was equally tense.
The Fourth Raikage A was never a patient man. He was waiting for news from Iwagakure's invasion, and he refused to believe Konoha would really keep its full main force on this battlefield.
Once Konoha split its troops, that would be the moment for his counterattack.
Reinforcements from Kumogakure were already on the way.
But the thought that that old bastard Onoki might already be rampaging through the fertile heartland of the Land of Fire and looting everything in sight made the Fourth Raikage even more irritated.
If Konoha had really sent most of its forces to stop Iwagakure, then Kumogakure should have been the one freely plundering the Land of Fire.
So why had Konoha chosen to focus on Kumogakure instead?
Was Konoha looking down on them?
Could it be that Konoha planned to crush Kumogakure first, then turn around and deal with Iwagakure after?
That was an insult the Fourth Raikage could not swallow.
There was no way Kumogakure would be defeated by Konoha that quickly.
Even so, he forced himself to stay patient for now.
Even if that old bastard Onoki got the meat, Kumogakure had to get at least a bowl of soup.
Otherwise, the hundreds of Cloud shinobi they had already lost on the first day would mean nothing.
This war had to produce enough profit. Otherwise, what was the point?
If both Iwagakure and Kumogakure still could not defeat Konoha after the disappearance of the Nine Tails jinchuriki, then they might as well bury their heads in their own territory and never start trouble again.
At that very moment, Killer B, the Eight Tails jinchuriki, and Yugito, the Two Tails jinchuriki, both suddenly turned their heads toward Konoha's position.
The tailed beasts inside them had stirred.
Gyuki and Matatabi had both sensed a terrifying fluctuation just now. It disappeared almost immediately, but the unease remained.
They both warned their jinchuriki that tomorrow's battle might be even worse.
Even now, in the dead of night, dozens of recon squads from both villages were still clashing all across the Land of Rice Fields. Scouting, counter scouting, hunting, and being hunted. That was the meaning of shinobi warfare.
Konoha, however, had the Byakugan.
So in the invisible war of reconnaissance, Konoha held the clear advantage.
By dawn, dozens more shinobi had died.
Inside Konoha's war room, Brook had already taken the main seat.
Even Orochimaru, the official commander, was seated to one side.
All the clan heads and jonin present sat upright and silent, waiting for him to speak.
He had really crossed from the Rain battlefield to the Rice Fields battlefield that quickly.
Even the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique, could not casually move like that. After all, Flying Thunder God consumed a tremendous amount of chakra. It was not a convenient tool for long distance travel.
"My only targets are the two tailed beasts," Brook said calmly, his Rinnegan hidden once more. "I do not care about anything else."
After promising the Sage of Six Paths that he would no longer slaughter shinobi indiscriminately, Brook had already decided to stop involving himself in the broader war. His focus now was solely on obtaining what he wanted.
Silence filled the room.
The clan heads exchanged looks, but none of them dared speak first. Most of them had hoped Brook would simply repeat what he did against Iwagakure and crush Kumogakure in one sweep.
"Lord Brook, are you not going to display your divine power again?" one Uchiha jonin asked carefully.
He truly wanted Brook to act. If Brook only handled the two tailed beasts, then the war among the middle and lower ranks would still be brutal, and the casualties would remain horrific.
"There's no helping it," Brook said with a shrug. "The Sage of Six Paths warned me already. I'm not allowed to butcher shinobi anymore. If you die, your souls go to his territory, the Pure Land. Maybe you'll even meet your ancestors there."
At those words, everyone lowered their heads.
No one dared let their expressions show.
"Sigh. None of you believe me anyway," Brook continued. "Fine. I'll only deal with the two tailed beasts. The rest is up to you."
Then he ignored them entirely and vanished from his seat.
He still planned to intercept a few souls on the battlefield, especially those from powerful clans, so he could learn their secret arts.
Even if he had promised not to devour them, he still intended to split the profits with the Sage of Six Paths.
Twenty for Hagoromo. Eighty for himself.
He did not believe the Sage of Six Paths could keep watching him every second.
-----------
After Brook left, the clan leaders had no choice but to reconsider their battle plan.
Things were no longer as simple as the crushing victory they had expected yesterday.
Still, with Brook personally handling Kumogakure's two tailed beasts, Konoha could free up two Kage level fighters and use them to suppress the Cloud ninja head on.
"Jiraiya, Fugaku, you two will handle the Fourth Raikage."
As commander in chief, Orochimaru immediately assigned the toughest opponent to someone else, while keeping the task of hunting Kumogakure's bloodline users for himself.
"Understood." x2
Jiraiya and Fugaku exchanged a glance before answering in unison. With a capable partner beside him, Jiraiya felt there should not be too much danger.
Of course, if Orochimaru had ordered Fugaku to face the Fourth Raikage alone, Fugaku would most likely have refused on the spot. He might even have suspected Orochimaru was trying to get him killed.
With the threat of Kumogakure's two tailed beasts removed, Konoha's forces no longer had to worry about being struck at any moment by devastating Tailed Beast Balls.
Once the meeting ended, the morale of Konoha's entire army rose sharply.
Because now they all knew something.
Today, they were going to win.
The Konoha army advanced in full force into the Land of Rice Fields and headed straight for Kumogakure's base.
Their strategy for the day remained the same as yesterday: a full frontal assault, not scattered skirmishes across the small country.
Meanwhile, Brook had already moved to the battlefield ahead of them and inscribed a number of Flying Thunder God formulas in secret.
Then he teleported back to the place where the Gedo Mazo had devoured Kokuo the night before. He summoned the husk of the Ten Tails in advance and left Danzo of the Animal Path there as well.
"First, I'll use Flying Thunder God to bring the Two Tails jinchuriki here. After that, I'll go back and drag the Eight Tails jinchuriki over by force."
Brook had prepared for this a long time ago. With his current chakra reserves and mastery of Flying Thunder God, even if a jinchuriki fully transformed into a tailed beast, he could still shift the battlefield itself along with them.
Today, he intended to fight far away from the main battlefield and use his full strength to deal with both tailed beasts as quickly as possible.
That way, he could avoid being dragged into that dark space by the Sage of Six Paths again and lectured for massacring shinobi.
Once the two tailed beasts were secured, he could return to the battlefield and quietly harvest whatever useful souls he wanted.
After making all the arrangements, Brook returned to the main battlefield, just in time to see Konoha's main force charging forward in overwhelming formation.
On the opposite side, the Fourth Raikage, A, never expected Konoha to launch such a huge offensive. Yesterday's casualties had already been severe. By all logic, Konoha should have started preserving its strength.
Instead, they were charging again.
Was Konoha really willing to keep fighting this desperately, even if it meant benefiting that old bastard Onoki?
The Fourth Raikage simply could not understand it.
In truth, he had already begun to regret not withdrawing a little farther the night before. He should have pulled back deeper into the Land of Rice Fields, or even retreated to the Land of Lightning, then worn Konoha down while waiting for news of Iwagakure's victory.
But now that Konoha had already launched its offensive, he could only grit his teeth and order the entire army to meet them head on.
He had already decided that tomorrow he would retreat toward the Land of Lightning. Once Konoha turned its attention back toward Iwagakure, Kumogakure would launch another invasion and recover all the losses of these two days.
There was no way he would swallow this humiliation quietly.
Why was Konoha choosing to crush Kumogakure first, while leaving Iwagakure alone?
The Fourth Raikage, together with Kumogakure's two jinchuriki, surged forward with astonishing momentum, and the fierce battle between the two armies erupted again.
Yugito, the Two Tails jinchuriki, had just moved to confront the opponent she had faced the day before, Fugaku Uchiha, when a blindfolded man suddenly appeared beside her and lightly rested a hand on her shoulder.
The moment that happened, Matatabi inside her exploded with fury.
The blue flaming cat felt an overwhelming sense of danger. It even smelled the aura of the Nine Tails.
Yugito's pupils shrank violently, and tailed beast chakra instantly burst from her body, trying to envelop the intruder.
"Little girl, come with me. I'll take you to meet the big boys."
Brook smiled faintly, then directly took the chakra cloaked Yugito with him and vanished.
"Yugito!"
Both the Fourth Raikage and Killer B roared in anger, immediately trying to track the missing Two Tails jinchuriki.
But Jiraiya and Fugaku had already joined forces to block the Fourth Raikage. Meanwhile, Killer B was forced to keep searching for Yugito's position while also wondering why no one from Konoha was trying to stop him.
At the same time, Brook appeared before the Gedo Mazo and Danzo of the Animal Path with Yugito in tow.
"Have fun, little girl."
Brook let out a soft chuckle, dropped Yugito in place, and immediately returned to the battlefield, where he set his sights on Killer B.
Back at the hidden extraction site, Yugito saw the enormous, withered monster before her, and so did the Two Tails inside her.
The moment Matatabi sensed the aura of Kokuo and recognized the shell of the Ten Tails, terror exploded inside it.
"Yugito, run! That thing is the Ten Tails!"
Matatabi roared frantically, flooding Yugito with chakra so violently that she nearly entered full tailed beast transformation on the spot.
Feeling Matatabi's fear and urgency, Yugito instantly realized the danger and turned to flee.
But it was already too late.
The Ten Tails' chakra chains had lashed out and completely sealed off her escape route.
Now that the husk had already absorbed part of the Five Tails' chakra, the outer shell of the Ten Tails had recovered a little of its former might.
Just as Yugito tried to break out, a masked man in black robes smashed a fist into her abdomen, giving her no chance to escape the encirclement of the Ten Tails' chains.
At the same time, a giant summoned bird with Rinnegan eyes circled high in the sky, while several transparent chameleons watched from hidden angles.
"It's the Rinnegan!"
When Matatabi saw the purple eyes in the chameleons' sockets, panic consumed it even more.
In that moment of distraction, the chains of the Ten Tails bound it tightly, preventing it from escaping. All it could do was roar and spit out blazing fireballs at the husk while rapidly gathering chakra for a Tailed Beast Ball.
But before it could finish, the chakra dragon from the Ten Tails plunged into Matatabi's body and began draining its chakra.
At the same time, Danzo of the Animal Path unleashed a massive wind blade, completely interrupting Matatabi's attempt to form the Tailed Beast Ball.
The giant bird swooped down and clawed at Matatabi's head, while the alien chameleons lashed out with their tongues and bound its catlike limbs.
The Two Tails could only struggle helplessly under the combined assault, while the shell of the Ten Tails drained its chakra like a bottomless pump.
If this continued, Matatabi would soon be forced back into Yugito's seal, and Yugito herself would collapse into unconsciousness, completely at their mercy.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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