The young Kaguya fought more and more frantically, and bloodshot eyes kept appearing in his sclera.
He could sense that the other ninja's chakra was dwindling rapidly and that he wouldn't be able to keep fighting for much longer.
Moreover, judging by the quality of his weapon and equipment, the enemy likely held a high position in the Hidden Cloud Village. Killing him here would make for a satisfying death offering.
This was indeed the case—Tamura Hao's chakra levels remained pitifully low.
Even after being strengthened with the Yeyue clan's medicinal bath, which enhanced his body's vitality and marginally boosted his chakra reserves, his chakra-producing potential remained fundamentally limited. The increase was far from transformative.
"Die!"
The Kaguya heir howled as he used his Shikotsumyaku to knock aside Hao's Miao Dao, then charged in with wild laughter, bone blade outstretched to kill.
But Tamura Hao leapt back with precision, weaving chakra threads to slip a scroll of high-grade explosive tags into the attacker's sleeve from a blind angle.
"No!"
Realizing too late that something had entered his clothing, the young Kaguya roared in frustration and clawed at his arm to tear it open, but the activation was already complete.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the Kaguya youth was engulfed in fire. When the flames cleared, his corpse lay split in two, charred and motionless.
"Who told you my strongest technique was kenjutsu?"
Steadying himself, Tamura Hao sneered at the mangled remains and stepped forward to confirm the kill.
His greatest weapon was not his sword, but his wealth. He'd brought thousands of explosive tags to the battlefield—more than enough to compensate for his chakra limits.
Seeing Hao resort to exploding tags to win, Yeyue Ai and Fukai exchanged glances and chuckled wordlessly.
Every shinobi had their own limits; it wasn't something to be ashamed of.
They had watched the whole duel and were well aware that, without the chakra handicap, Hao would have dominated the young Kaguya head-on.
"Samehada!"
After extracting the last remnants of chakra from the fallen enemy with a sealing technique, Tamura Hao looked up, gaze drawn to the last few remaining Mist-nin still fighting. One figure stood out—a heavyset man with a monstrous sword unlike any other.
That was Samehada, the living blade, first among the Seven Ninja Swords of the Hidden Mist. And it was the one weapon Tamura Hao most desired at this stage.
"Is that the Watermelon Mountain Pufferfish?"
Turning his eyes toward the bulky swordsman dueling with a long-haired Kumogakure jonin, Tamura Hao recognized him as Mangetsu Hōzuki's predecessor among the future Seven Ninja Swordsmen—the Watermelon Mountain Pufferfish Man.
At this point in history, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen hadn't been formally organized. That would only happen later, during the buildup to the Third Great Ninja War.
"Sensei, I want that sword. I'll trade you mine for it," Tamura Hao said, making his way to Fukai, who was nearby collecting bodies for recovery and intel.
"That one?" Fukai squinted at the massive sword and the odd chakra fluctuations coming from it. "It looks… alive?"
"It's a sentient blade that feeds on chakra," Hao replied seriously. "It can absorb ninjutsu. That makes it ideal for me."
Yeyue Ai flickered in beside them, curious. Watching the Mist ninja absorb a Fire Release jutsu into the sword, he raised a brow.
"That sword's devouring jutsu. And the wielder's chakra isn't decreasing—it's rising."
Fukai nodded in understanding. "A sword like that suits someone with low chakra but high intelligence. Very well."
"Let's go take him down."
With lightning crackling around him, Yeyue Ai rolled his neck, then blurred forward toward the pufferfish-like swordsman.
"Watch our flank!"
Fukai scanned the battlefield, left a Lightning Clone to cover Hao's position, then drew his own blade and vanished with a Lightning Body Flicker, heading into the fray.
Tamura Hao stayed alert, not daring to let his guard down. He popped a soldier pill to stabilize his chakra and activated his Good-and-Evil Perception technique, vigilant for ambushes. With only a tenth of his chakra remaining, he could no longer take any chances.
He had no intention of dying in some muddy field like Senju Nawaki. His life still had too much value—and too many plans.
Despite the Watermelon Mountain Pufferfish Man's bizarre power and his bond with Samehada, he couldn't withstand the combined assault from Yeyue Ai and Fukai.
In under a minute, his arms were severed and he was knocked unconscious. Fukai, curiously, was fascinated by the fat man's hair-manipulation technique.
"I have long hair too… I bet I could master that ninjutsu."
The sudden counterattack from the Uzumaki and the Hidden Cloud Villages shocked every force on the battlefield. No one had expected the besieged Uzumaki to go on the offensive—let alone in cooperation with Kumogakure.
The biggest shock came when the Third Raikage himself appeared, joining the battle. That meant massacre for the Hidden Mist.
Even if they'd fielded elite warriors from clans like the Kaguya, Kizuki, and Mizunotsuki, not even they could stand against the Third Raikage, who was a one-man army. His Lightning Armor allowed him to bulldoze through formations, and his elemental advantage made him especially lethal against Water Release users like the Kizuki.
With no terrain or numbers advantage, nearly a thousand Hidden Mist shinobi were annihilated in ten minutes.
Other great villages had their own ninja units stationed nearby. When Kumogakure and Uzushiogakure's coalition made its move, word spread quickly.
The Sand siblings, Chiyo and Ebizō, who led Sunagakure's army, and Nishita, who commanded Iwagakure's forces, immediately closed ranks and began coordinating.
They understood the threat clearly: unless they united to oppose the Cloud-Uzushio coalition, they'd be crushed one by one.
The Third Raikage's presence alone made him a catastrophic threat. No current Kage-tier combatant in their forces could face him alone.
In the shadows of the forest, Shimura Danzo observed all of this with a deeply furrowed brow. The unfolding situation was far worse than anything he'd predicted.
"The Uzumaki aligned with the Hidden Cloud? And even mobilized the Third Raikage? What could they possibly have offered? Or… did they submit outright?"
Danzo muttered, calculating frantically.
Regardless of the answer, neither scenario benefited Konoha. The Uzumaki still possessed secrets—both human and technical—that he would never allow to fall into Kumogakure's hands.
"There aren't many among the Uzumaki who could personally negotiate with the Raikage. This may be Kushina's doing…"
"Uncle Danzo, what now?" asked Sarutobi Shinnosuke, visibly rattled by the unexpected turn.
He held the same opinion as Danzo—Uzumaki knowledge had to be suppressed, even exterminated, for the Leaf to remain dominant.
But now they faced the possibility of that legacy empowering their enemies, with the Third Raikage as enforcer.
"He's too dangerous. Ding Yi—go to the Iwa and Suna encampments. Tell their commanders I intend to surround and kill the Third Raikage. If they interfere, they'll be treated as hostiles."
A Root agent bowed and vanished with a Body Flicker, heading to deliver the ultimatum.
"Jia San, begin the operation," Danzo added.
Jia San nodded. He had already planted a devastating biological weapon inside Uzushio when he and Shinnosuke visited earlier. Now was the time to release it.
"Yes, Lord Danzo!"
He vanished toward Uzushio, ready to activate the poisonous insects hidden there.
Danzo drew his own blade, eyes fixed on the battlefield.
"Let's go. It's time I tested the so-called strongest Raikage in history."
If the Third Raikage were fresh, Danzo wouldn't dare. But after heavy combat, his stamina might be low. And with Danzo's Wind Release countering Lightning, there was a slim—but real—chance at victory. Or even assassination.