It was no wonder Yakushi Kabuto was panicking and afraid.
After all, even Lord Orochimaru had been swatted dead with a single palm strike from Yuto, let alone him.
As for fleeing, Yakushi Kabuto did not dare gamble with his own life.
Orochimaru could use the Cursed Seal to revive himself, but Kabuto had no such ability.
Once he died, he would stay dead.
Not daring to harbor any hidden thoughts, Yakushi Kabuto pulled out a scroll sealed with the Four-Tails' chakra to show his sincerity.
"It seems you know what I need."
A trace of amusement flashed through Yuto's eyes as he looked at Yakushi Kabuto before him.
Even as he spoke.
An Adamantine Sealing Chain shot out from Yuto's body, hurtling toward Yakushi Kabuto in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, Yakushi Kabuto's pupils contracted sharply, and he reflexively wanted to flee backward.
But he forced himself to stay rooted in place.
Yakushi Kabuto did not sense any killing intent from Yuto.
Most importantly, if Yuto truly wanted to kill him, he would not be able to escape anyway.
Sure enough.
Under Yakushi Kabuto's watchful gaze, the chakra chain wrapped around the scroll in his hand and snapped back.
Yakushi Kabuto let out a heavy sigh of relief inwardly, and with a respectful expression, he spoke honestly:
"Though the entire Shinobi World is spreading the word that you, Lord Yuto, and Uchiha Madara are both gathering the Tailed Beasts..."
"I noticed that your needs, Lord Yuto, are different."
"Rather than gathering Tailed Beasts, you are gathering their chakra."
"Otherwise, you would not have let Gaara, the One-Tail Jinchuriki of Sunagakure, go back then."
"Of course, this was only a guess, so I made preparations in advance."
Yakushi Kabuto pushed up his slipping glasses, his forehead already covered in a layer of dense sweat.
"Interesting."
A smile crept onto Yuto's lips.
Yuto was clearly a little surprised that Yakushi Kabuto had guessed his true purpose for gathering the Tailed Beasts.
But it was only a little surprise.
As for silencing him by killing him, there was no need at all.
So what if he had guessed his purpose?
Besides, Yuto had never insisted on hiding this matter anyway.
Just as the entire Shinobi World knew Uchiha Madara was hunting Tailed Beasts, but who could stop him?
Uchiha Madara should already know about this matter.
Back then, Yuto had asked Uchiha Madara for a piece of the Gedo Mazo's torso.
Even if Uchiha Madara had not understood why at the time, after so long, even someone as slow as him would have figured it out.
Perhaps Uchiha Madara had some suspicions from the very beginning, but he simply did not care.
In Uchiha Madara's view, relying on just a piece of the Gedo Mazo's torso and the chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts to gain Six Paths-level power was impossible.
If so, why should Uchiha Madara care?
"Release the Edo Tensei jutsu?"
Yuto held the scroll and spoke flatly.
"No problem."
Yakushi Kabuto nodded hastily, without the slightest hesitation.
Fighting back the pain radiating through his body, Yakushi Kabuto raised both hands and quickly formed hand seals.
Edo Tensei: Release!
"You are very clever."
"You did not unleash the Edo Tensei army."
"Otherwise, you would never have had the chance to speak. You would have died back in the base below."
Seeing that Yakushi Kabuto had released the jutsu, Yuto chuckled and spoke.
Hearing Yuto say the word "die" so casually, as if discussing some trivial matter.
This sent a chill and a wave of lingering fear through Yakushi Kabuto's heart.
Sure enough, he had bet correctly.
Yakushi Kabuto had not bet on Senju Tobirama and the other Edo Tensei resurrected shinobi winning.
He had simply bet that Yuto would be able to find him.
So beyond reviving Senju Tobirama and the others, Yakushi Kabuto had not, as originally planned, resurrected the prepared Edo Tensei army in advance.
Yakushi Kabuto raised his arm and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"If you are interested, you can join Kirigakure."
Yuto looked at Yakushi Kabuto and suddenly spoke with a smile.
As soon as the words left his mouth.
Yuto shifted his feet, turned into an afterimage, and vanished from the spot.
Yakushi Kabuto blinked.
Seeing that Yuto had truly left, he exhaled heavily and slumped down into the ruins.
Although Yuto had never released any killing intent from start to finish, Yakushi Kabuto had felt an overwhelmingly heavy pressure the entire time.
"It looks like Konoha's chances of victory have dropped to the absolute minimum."
"Konoha's only chance to turn the tables is probably Senju Hashirama now."
"Join Kirigakure? That is indeed quite a good choice."
Yakushi Kabuto's eyes flickered slightly as he murmured to himself.
At this moment.
The departed Yuto had not returned directly to the battlefield.
Instead, he appeared in a forest several kilometers away.
Yuto did not intend to personally intervene in the battlefield affairs from here on.
Konoha's top combatant, Senju Hashirama, had already been tied down by Uchiha Madara.
And the Edo Tensei powerhouses, along with Jiraiya and Tsunade, had already been personally dealt with by Wang Fan.
Both major threats had been eliminated.
In addition, Iwagakure and Kirigakure were sharing nearly half the pressure on Konoha.
Under these circumstances, if Kirigakure's people still could not handle Konoha's forces, they might as well obediently roll back to the Land of Water.
Yuto sat cross-legged on a thick tree trunk and took out the scroll in his hand.
Yuto had already gathered eight types of the nine Tailed Beasts' chakra.
This was the final batch.
As for Rōshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Yuto did not particularly care.
From Yakushi Kabuto's words, Yuto could guess that Kabuto had secretly hidden a portion of the Four-Tails' chakra, and Orochimaru likely did not know.
As for where the Four-Tails Jinchuriki actually was, only Orochimaru himself probably knew.
After all, this was a very significant bargaining chip!
All the Tailed Beasts in the entire Shinobi World were almost entirely concentrated in the hands of Yuto and Uchiha Madara.
Knowing that both Yuto and Uchiha Madara needed the Tailed Beasts, Orochimaru would naturally use the Four-Tails Jinchuriki as a chip to trade with them.
Unfortunately.
Because Yakushi Kabuto had hidden one away, Orochimaru was now short one option.
This was just an ordinary sealing scroll.
After Yuto formed a few simple hand seals, the seal on the scroll was released.
Chakra unique to the Four-Tails instantly flew out from the scroll.
Yuto reached out and grasped the chakra, absorbing it into his body in an instant.
The chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts had been gathered!
A sharp gleam flashed through Yuto's eyes.
He closed his eyes and slowly began to circulate the chakra within his body.
The massive chakra within Yuto's body began to rapidly transform under his will.
One-Tail chakra, Two-Tails chakra, Three-Tails chakra... Nine-Tails chakra!
The nine types of chakra from the nine Tailed Beasts all appeared within Yuto's body simultaneously.
A terrifying, brutal, and powerful aura surged out from Yuto and rapidly spread in all directions.
In an instant!
The forest where Yuto sat instantly fell into a deathly silence.
All the animals in the forest within about a kilometer of Yuto were knocked unconscious by the terrifying aura.
Yuto's attention was now fully concentrated within his body.
He planned to rely on his powerful control over chakra to attempt to fuse the nine Tailed Beast chakras.
On the other side.
On the battlefield.
Earth-shaking battle cries constantly rang through the air, mixed with a large amount of roaring and explosions.
A sound of tearing air rang out from behind a Kiri shinobi.
The moment he heard the sound, the Kiri shinobi did not hesitate.
He quickly twisted his body and raised his arm, thrusting the kunai in his hand toward the direction the sound had come from.
But to his surprise, not only did his strike hit nothing, there was no one behind him at all.
"What's going on?"
The Kiri shinobi's expression changed slightly.
Though he did not know what was happening, he still quickly leapt up and left the spot.
Just as the Kiri shinobi left the spot, a black afterimage suddenly burst from underground and charged toward him.
In midair with no point to push off from, the Kiri shinobi naturally could not dodge in time.
He could only watch helplessly as the black shadow rushed toward him.
Only then did the Kiri shinobi clearly see what the black shadow was.
Not a shinobi!
It was a wolf-like ninjutsu of massive size.
Kuromaru bit down on the Kiri shinobi's neck.
With blood splattering everywhere, the shinobi lost his life without even a scream.
Kuromaru tossed the corpse aside and continued racing through the battlefield.
Before long, two more Kiri shinobi died beneath Kuromaru's fangs.
A spirited figure arrived beside Kuromaru in a few leaps.
"Good work, Kuromaru!"
"But you still lost. I took down four people just now, and you only killed three."
Inuzuka Tsume let out a hearty laugh and looked at Kuromaru, her entire body radiating a bloody aura.
Kuromaru glanced sideways at Inuzuka Tsume and bared his teeth slightly.
"In that case, let's keep going!"
Inuzuka Tsume seemed to notice Kuromaru's dissatisfaction.
She gave a cheeky grin and spoke again, full of energy.
Kuromaru lifted his head, signaling agreement.
Just as Inuzuka Tsume and Kuromaru were about to continue looking for isolated Kiri shinobi to attack.
A surge of intense killing intent suddenly appeared and instantly locked onto the two of them.
Inuzuka Tsume's brow furrowed slightly.
She immediately turned to look in the direction the killing intent came from.
A figure with reddish-brown hair and covered in blood appeared ahead, blocking Inuzuka Tsume's path.
"Ringo Ameyuri!"
A trace of gravity flashed through Inuzuka Tsume's eyes, and her body could not help but tense slightly.
"Tsume, this one's aura is different from last time. She's clearly much stronger. Be careful!"
Kuromaru let out a low growl, immediately noticing the difference in Ringo Ameyuri, who was in Sage Mode.
Kuromaru was one of the few combat ninken of the Inuzuka clan capable of speaking, which was quite rare.
"Tch. She's the one who should be careful."
"Last time, the valley's defense line was broken and we let them go. Since she's come to throw her life away this time, let her stay on this battlefield for good."
Inuzuka Tsume's voice was full of disdain, but her eyes grew more solemn.
Clearly, after hearing Kuromaru's warning, Inuzuka Tsume now regarded Ringo Ameyuri as a major threat.
Ringo Ameyuri had already raised the Lightning swords in her hands.
Massive lightning power coiled around her entire body.
Beast Mimicry Ninja Art!
Inuzuka Tsume's aura shifted.
She crouched on the ground like a beast and, together with Kuromaru, charged at Ringo Ameyuri.
Clearly, neither side intended to waste words!
As Inuzuka Tsume and Kuromaru moved rapidly, they constantly swapped positions.
Beast Human Clone!
In the blink of an eye, two Inuzuka Tsumes appeared on the battlefield.
One of them was obviously Kuromaru transformed!
But through their constant swapping, the human and ninken had long made it impossible for the enemy to tell which was the real Inuzuka Tsume.
Ringo Ameyuri narrowed her eyes, crouched slightly, and quickly scanned the two Inuzuka Tsumes charging at her.
When the two Inuzuka Tsumes were less than fifty meters from Ringo Ameyuri.
The two Inuzuka Tsumes split apart, rushing in opposite directions.
Then they twisted their bodies and pincer-attacked Ringo Ameyuri from left and right simultaneously.
Gatsuga!
The two Inuzuka Tsumes leapt into the air, their bodies spinning rapidly like terrifying drills with unstoppable force.
Seeing this.
Ringo Ameyuri stood her ground and raised the Lightning swords in her hands horizontally in front of her chest.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Fang!"
Ringo Ameyuri gave a low shout.
The moment the two Lightning swords crossed, terrifying lightning power erupted and spread in all directions.
In an instant, the area around Ringo Ameyuri turned into a sea of lightning!
Inuzuka Tsume's Gatsuga slammed straight into the sea of lightning, where fierce currents relentlessly battered her spinning body.
"Charge!"
Enduring the stinging pain of the electricity coursing through her, Inuzuka Tsume let out a loud roar.
The already-fast spinning Gatsuga suddenly accelerated once more!
"Now!"
Seeing Inuzuka Tsume about to strike her, a sharp gleam flashed in Ringo Ameyuri's eyes.
The two Lightning swords in her hands, previously crossed, swiftly twisted their angle.
As the Lightning swords shifted, the massive lightning also underwent a strange change.
The two Gatsugas that had been pincer-attacking Ringo Ameyuri suddenly tilted at an angle.
By a hair's breadth, the two Gatsugas passed on either side of Ringo Ameyuri, front and back.
Lightning flared wildly around Ringo Ameyuri.
She struck at this moment.
Sage Art: Lightning Release: Lightning Armor!
Terrifying lightning power rapidly covered Ringo Ameyuri's entire body, completely enveloping her.
A destructive aura erupted from Ringo Ameyuri.
Protected by the armor of lightning, Ringo Ameyuri let out a furious shout.
She raised the Lightning swords in her hands and slashed at the rapidly spinning Gatsuga in front of her!
[
Dear Readers,
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