The sky battleship slowly opened its lower hangar.
A fierce wind rushed in, blowing Sasuke's hair into disarray.
He casually brushed it back behind his head and looked down at the royal castle of the Land of Snow. Behind him stood ten soldiers of the Anhilation Army.
All of them were clad in pitch-black armor, each holding their helmets under their arms, staring down at the city together with Sasuke.
In fact, when Ryosuke saw Nagano's grandson's corpse, he had been a little surprised,
That was too much of a coincidence.
How could he just happen to run into a dead body?
But from their high vantage point in the sky, everything was perfectly clear.
This wasn't coincidence at all.
The entire nation was steeped in despair, no matter which direction one walked, they'd eventually stumble upon one heartbreaking tragedy after another.
"We've got the message."
Kambara Hayato walked over from behind. He was a bit afraid of heights, so he stopped a few meters away from the open hatch and said, "Ryosuke sent the signal. We can begin the operation. Take the Land of Snow within one hour."
Sasuke was surprised. "One hour?"
"Not enough time?"
"No, too much."
Sasuke grinned. "Brother Ryosuke really underestimates us. He underestimates this armor."
After training in Ripple and eating a constant diet of meat, eggs, and milk, eleven-year-old Sasuke already stood a little over 1.7 meters tall. With the heavy armor on, he looked even taller and more imposing.
He picked up his helmet and put it on, hiding his youthful, handsome face. Two crimson lights lit up where his eyes were.
"Deploy."
Sasuke leapt out of the sky battleship and free-fell from a height of a thousand meters.
The remaining ten soldiers of the Anhilation Army followed right after him.
Kambara Hayato ran to the edge of the hatch, watching the eleven of them fall, and sighed, "No wonder he's Ryosuke's protégé all the way, such a show-off. But…"
"…he's so damn cool!"
At the same moment Sasuke and the others jumped, the sky battleship began broadcasting across the entire city, "The Anhilation Army declares war on the Land of Snow."
For a moment, everyone in the Land of Snow froze.
They looked up at the sky and could only see vast white clouds. No one... wait, they did see something.
Eleven tiny black dots were falling from above.
Kazahana Dotō stared blankly at the eleven falling enemies, as the broadcast voice continued from the sky, "All unrelated personnel, cover your heads and crouch down. All who resist, "
"Will be executed without mercy."
BOOM!
The eleven black-armored warriors slammed straight into the ground before the royal castle. The earth cracked beneath the impact, and a massive wave of dust mixed with snowflakes burst into the air, blotting out the view.
Kazahana Dotō's eyes locked on the cloud of dust.
A pitch-black, terrifying hand ripped through it.
Sasuke stepped forward first. From behind his back, he drew a long blade. Ripple energy surged through it, and the originally blunt weapon extended into a razor-sharp edge. From under his armor came a cold, muffled voice, "Begin the cleansing operation."
They charged toward the royal castle.
"Intruders! Kill the intruders!"
Hundreds of Snow Ninjas leapt from the castle, kunai in hand, attacking Sasuke's group.
Sasuke reached out and grabbed a Snow Ninja by the neck. With a light squeeze, crack, he snapped his throat.
He then used the corpse as a shield, blocking dozens of incoming shuriken.
When the body was riddled like a pincushion, he hurled it with one hand, the corpse shot forward like a cannonball, slamming into three or four Snow Ninjas.
As they tried to shove aside their dead comrade, Sasuke stepped forward, slashing with his blade, cutting both the corpse and the men behind it clean in half.
Blood... flesh... and entrails flew everywhere.
"Watch out!"
One of the Anhilation Army soldiers shouted.
A massive tiger made of snow lunged at Sasuke from the front lines.
At that range, there was no time to dodge.
The tiger bit down on him.
Hidden in the shadows, the Snow Country jonin, Haichi Fuyukuma, shouted, "Die, intruder!"
However...
Clang!
The tiger's bite hit Sasuke's shoulder with a metallic crash.
The sharp fangs of snow shattered, one snapping clean off and flying into the air, landing at Fuyukuma's feet.
"What?!"
He couldn't believe his eyes.
Sasuke had already activated Steel Release the moment the battle began.
Ssshhh!
His armguard vented hot steam mixed with blood mist. A spent Hidan Flesh Core ejected out.
Sasuke casually caught it, stowed it in his backpack, then took out a new one and reloaded it into his armor.
Not only Sasuke, the other five members of the Anhilation Army began swapping out their flesh cores as well, while the remaining five stood guard.
Throughout it all, Sasuke never took his eyes off the enemy. His crimson gaze was cold and unblinking, and the faint scent of blood drifting through the air froze everyone in place.
No Snow Ninja dared to charge forward.
What kind of enemy was this?
They barely used ninjutsu, lightning of multiple colors flickered around their bodies, they moved faster than lightning itself, struck with ruthless precision, and could still unleash strange, unknown techniques.
And what was this thick, almost suffocating mist of blood in the air?
Inside those suits of armor… were they really human?
Kazahana Dotō's eyelids twitched. He saw it with his own eyes, his elite ninjas, trained for over ten years, collapsing like mountains, completely crushed.
"This won't do!"
He turned to the guard beside him, Wolf Fang, and ordered, "Deploy the rail war train!"
"Yes, sir!"
Wolf Fang hurried off to give the command.
Sasuke and his men fought like demons. The Snow Ninjas were scattered, broken armor everywhere, the ground soaked in blood and littered with corpses.
In just a few minutes, most of the ninjas Kazahana Dotō had raised with the nation's resources were dead or dying.
Then, the sound of a train whistle echoed from within the castle. The gates swung open, and a train burst out from underground, screeching to a halt in front of Sasuke.
Clack!
The train's carriages opened, revealing rows upon rows of densely packed kunai launchers.
"Fire!"
Tens of thousands of kunai shot out in unison, flooding the area in a saturation bombardment, friend or foe, it didn't matter.
Kazahana Dotō threw his head back and laughed in triumph. "This is the power of technology, huh?!"
Before he could finish laughing, a blinding beam of light dropped straight from the sky, blasting his precious rail war train into pieces.
Vmmmm!
The Explorer's cloaking mist dissipated as the massive ship descended, stopping about a hundred meters above ground.
Its shadow loomed over everything below. Rows of chakra cannons rotated, locking onto every possible threat.
Kazahana Dotō's teeth chattered, whether from rage or fear, even he couldn't tell.
He clenched his fists, ripped off his robe, revealing a chakra armor suit underneath, and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Ice Release, Twin Dragon Blizzard!"
The eleven on the ground were indeed powerful, but in the end, they could still be killed by sheer numbers. The real threat was the battleship above.
Kazahana Dotō would bring that cursed sky fortress down.
Two black dragons of snow surged from his palms, spiraling upward with all his fury, roaring toward the sky battleship.
Vmmm!
The ship's defensive barrier activated. The dragons struck the barrier and couldn't push forward any further.
Then, suddenly, a small crack appeared between two shield segments. One of the black dragons squeezed through and smashed against the battleship.
A section of its metal plating broke off.
Kazahana Dotō's heart leapt with joy, he thought he'd found a weakness. He drove the dragon inward again, only for it to crash into an even tougher, thicker layer of "metal."
"No… not metal…"
His chakra was running dry, the dragon dispersed, and Kazahana Dotō finally saw what was underneath the fallen plating,
It wasn't metal at all. It was flesh.
Flesh infused with Steel Release.
This was the sky battleship's triple-layer defense system.
A defensive barrier.
Alloy armor plating.
And a wall of Hidan's Steel Release flesh.
Blood trickled down the steel surfaces.
From the flesh beneath, eyes and mouths occasionally emerged, empty, lifeless eyes that stared straight at Kazahana Dotō from a hundred meters away.
His heart pounded in terror.
"This… this isn't a sky battleship. It's a giant monster!"
"This is the Anhilation Army!"
"They're not human at all, they're demons born to wipe out humanity!"
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