The sky slowly darkened.
After night fully fell, Shanks and Hatake Sakumo quietly approached a temple located some distance away from Sunagakure.
Near the temple, one jōnin and several chūnin were patrolling.
Sakumo made a throat-cutting gesture toward Shanks.
Shanks slowly drew Withered Wood.
A night raid was not suitable for ninjutsu.
Ninjutsu caused chakra fluctuations.
If there were shinobi nearby, they might sense it.
“One-Sword Style: Randomly Cut Them Down!”
Shanks released more than ten arcs of sword energy, then charged straight toward the jōnin.
“Enemy attack!
Careful!”
The jōnin felt a wave of killing intent and saw the sword energy flying toward them.
He immediately shouted a warning.
Unfortunately, the chūnin did not have his reaction speed.
Two of them were cut down by the sword energy, while three others were heavily wounded.
Swish, swish, swish!
The three wounded chūnin lost their heads, perfectly displaying Hatake Sakumo’s talent as a professional head collector.
“Not good.
Konoha’s supernovas.
Red-Haired Shanks and White Fang.”
The jōnin recognized them and panicked.
Shanks had no interest in wasting words on a background character.
He lifted Withered Wood and began his rampage.
“One-Sword Style: Three Thousand Worlds, Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Source, Cut Your Uncle Down!”
Swish, swish, swish!
Dozens of sword-energy arcs slashed toward the jōnin.
“Earth Release: Rock Wall Technique!”
A stone wall suddenly rose from the ground in front of the jōnin, blocking Shanks’s sword energy.
Rumble!
After taking more than a dozen slashes, the stone wall collapsed.
The remaining arcs of sword energy cut into the jōnin’s body.
“Ah!”
“White Fang Flash!”
The moment the jōnin was wounded, a streak of white light flashed past.
Hatake Sakumo’s short blade pierced the jōnin’s heart.
After killing the patrol, the two quietly entered the temple and found Bunpuku in one of the rooms.
“Hey, stinky monk.
Two ninja are here for you.”
The fat cat inside Bunpuku’s stomach spoke with obvious schadenfreude.
“Blessing or misfortune, what comes cannot be avoided.”
Bunpuku’s voice was calm.
“When the time comes, I only hope you won’t kill too many people, Shukaku.”
From the moment he chose to become a jinchūriki, Bunpuku had known his fate.
As an ordinary person, he had no power to resist it.
“Hahaha!
Don’t worry.
One of those two brats outside tricked me last time.
Once I get out, I’ll kill him first.”
Outside the room, Shanks nodded at Hatake Sakumo.
Sakumo disappeared into the night, preparing to cause chaos at the Kazekage building.
“Hello!
Bunpuku?
Fat cat?
How are you?”
Shanks walked into Bunpuku’s room.
“Konoha’s supernova, Red-Haired Shanks, correct?” Bunpuku said calmly.
“That damned brat!
He actually dares call me fat cat!
I’ll kill him!”
Shukaku inside Bunpuku immediately exploded with rage.
In his entire life, the thing he hated most was being called a fat cat.
The first one to call him that had been Kurama, and Shukaku had remembered it for a thousand years.
“Oh?
So I’m that famous?”
Shanks grinned.
“I’ve seen you once before, though you were asleep at the time.
To be honest, we really do have fate.
Both of my S-rank missions have been related to you.”
Shanks chatted with Bunpuku as if they were old friends.
He actually had a good impression of Bunpuku.
Bunpuku was the first person who truly touched the heart of a tailed beast.
“Ah.
Tailed beasts should not be tools of human war,” Bunpuku sighed.
“They have thoughts, just like humans.
They can live peacefully with people.
As long as humans believe in them and stop fearing them.”
“You can discuss that topic with Brother Jesus.”
“Brother Jesus?
Is he from Konoha?” Bunpuku asked.
“No.
He’s a man who could get nailed to a cross and still not die.”
Shanks did not give Bunpuku time to react.
He knocked him unconscious directly.
“Fat cat, come out and catch the mouse!”
“You damned brat!
I’ll kill you!”
Shukaku roared from inside Bunpuku.
Wind and sand surged violently.
The entire room was blown apart, and Shanks quickly retreated far away.
Bunpuku’s lower body became wrapped in layers of sand.
The sand gathered and expanded, growing larger and larger.
The temple was torn apart by the violent wind and sand.
After the storm passed, a huge fat cat covered in strange markings appeared.
“Wow.
I didn’t expect you to be that fat.
I thought Kurama was lying to me!”
Shanks shouted loudly, afraid Shukaku would not hear.
“Ah!
You damned brat!
I’m going to kill you and crush your corpse!”
“Vacuum Bullet!”
Shukaku spat out a wind sphere that smashed toward Shanks.
Shanks sensed the trajectory with Observation Haki and had already run far away.
Boom!
The wind sphere struck the sand and left behind a huge crater.
“Hahaha!
Kurama was right.
You really are just a fat cat who only knows how to run his mouth.
You can’t fight at all.
I’m standing here letting you bully me, and you still can’t hit me.
You couldn’t even catch a mouse!”
Shanks’s mockery became more and more vicious.
“Ah!
You bastard!
Don’t mention that damned Nine-Tails in front of me!
Both of you are bastards!
I’ll kill you!”
Shukaku was so furious he almost exploded.
“Tailed Beast Ball!”
“Damn!”
When Shanks saw the black Tailed Beast Ball forming, he knew he had overdone it.
He immediately ran.
“You stupid fat cat!
You can’t even catch me.
What’s the point of only running your mouth?
Come, come, come.
Let’s race and see who’s faster.”
Shanks made a face at Shukaku, then sprinted toward Sunagakure.
“You bastard!
Don’t run!”
Shukaku chased after him with a speed completely unsuited to his huge, fat body.
At the same time, inside the Kazekage building in Sunagakure, Shamon had just been preparing to leave work and go home.
Recently, the number of casualties on the front line had kept increasing.
The village elders had been pestering him until his head hurt, and some of them had even begun to question whether he was a qualified Kazekage.
Every day, the Wind Daimyō also sent people to ask when the war would be won.
Shamon really wanted to turn all those people into puppets.
Especially the Wind Daimyō.
How had such a brainless person lived until today?
A Sunagakure shinobi rushed in to report.
“Lord Kazekage, the guards at the village entrance were killed.
Someone may have infiltrated the village!”
The moment Shamon heard it, two brats appeared in his mind.
Impossible.
The One-Tail had already been sealed properly.
They would not know how to break the seal.
Looks like those idiots have annoyed me so much lately that my head is clouded.
Shamon immediately gave the order.
“Have the security team investigate.
Anyone who dares infiltrate the village won’t be someone ordinary chūnin can handle.”
“Yes, Lord Kazekage!”
The Sunagakure shinobi vanished with a Body Flicker.
“Lord Kazekage!”
Not long after that shinobi left, another ninja rushed in with a panicked expression.
“A huge chakra fluctuation came from the village entrance.
It seems… it seems to be the One-Tail!”
“What?
Impossible!
The One-Tail was fully sealed!”
Shamon immediately became tense.
If the village was ravaged by the One-Tail again, whether he could remain Kazekage was secondary.
Most of the village’s combat strength was currently on the front line.
The shinobi left in the village might not be able to stop the One-Tail.
If that happened, he would become Sunagakure’s sinner.
“Lord Kazekage, it really is the One-Tail!
It’s already reached the village entrance!”
Even without that shinobi saying it, Shamon had already sensed the enormous chakra.
It was the One-Tail.
No mistake.
“Damn it!
Hurry!
Notify the sealing team.
Everyone else, evacuate the civilians!”
“Yes!”
“Lord Kazekage!”
The previous shinobi had not even left before another Sunagakure shinobi rushed in.
“What now?”
Shamon felt blood rushing to his head.
“The archive room guards were killed, and the archive room has been looted!”
“What?”
Shamon felt as if this was the darkest day of his life.
“Go to the archive room immediately!”
He made his decision at once.
The information in the archive room was far more important than the One-Tail rampaging through the village.
It contained all of the village’s personnel records since its founding, spy intelligence, and research related to ninjutsu, puppets, and poisons.
When Shamon arrived, the archive room had been turned upside down.
Fortunately, some important files had seals on them, and the intruder had been unable to open them.
What had been taken was mostly spy intelligence.
“Lord Kazekage!
We found the intruder.
He’s in your office.
The security team is holding him back!”
The Sunagakure shinobi from the security team found him and reported quickly.
“Ah!
I’ll kill him!”
Shamon was furious.
His office contained the attack strategy he had just drafted.
By the time Shamon’s group arrived at the office entrance, the sound of clashing metal rang out from inside.
Clang, clang, clang!
“Konoha’s supernova, Little White Fang.
You don’t need to return to Konoha.
Stay in Sunagakure.”
Shamon roared, then took out a sealing scroll.
“Come out, Heaven’s Gift!”
A strangely shaped puppet appeared before Hatake Sakumo.
Chakra threads shot from Shamon’s hands and connected to each joint of the puppet.
Shamon’s hands moved rapidly.
The puppet swung a tachi with a green glow along its blade and slashed toward Sakumo.
The puppet’s speed grew faster and faster.
Sakumo occasionally managed to cut the puppet once or twice, but he had no idea what material it was made from.
His attacks could not damage it at all.
After only a few minutes, Sakumo’s body was already soaked with sweat.
He had to admit, fighting a puppet master was exhausting.
Every part of a puppet master’s puppet was coated with poison.
If he was touched even once, he would be poisoned.
Because of that, he had to maintain extreme focus at every moment.
At this point, Hatake Sakumo would rather fight Shanks for ten days and ten nights than fight a puppet technique again.
“Damn it, Shanks.
If you don’t come soon, I’m going to die here.”
Sakumo’s vision was already beginning to blur.
His original plan had been clear.
A surprise attack on the village gate and the archive room should delay the Kazekage for at least five minutes.
Then he would hold the Kazekage for another five minutes.
By then, Shanks should have lured the One-Tail over.
Now, Sakumo realized he had underestimated a Kage.
Only a little over three minutes had passed, and he was already close to running out of strength.
In truth, Sakumo simply lacked experience fighting puppets.
A puppet master’s strongest tool was the puppet.
As long as he cut the chakra threads controlling the puppet, it would be enough.
But Sakumo had been desperately attacking the puppet’s body, which was completely useless.
“Hahaha!
As expected of Konoha’s super genius.
Your skill is impressive.”
Shamon’s voice turned cold.
“But you still die here.”
He was just about to move.
Then, an endlessly arrogant voice rang across all of Sunagakure.
“Shamon, my son!
Your father has arrived!
Come out and kneel!”
Sakumo exhaled in relief.
Then he jumped out the window.
When Shamon heard that voice, flames practically burned in his eyes.