Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Just when everyone thought the inevitable was upon them, an earth-shattering beastly roar suddenly erupted from the crowd in Kumogakure.

The sound was brimming with wild ferocity. Coming from the back of the crowd, it acted like an invisible shockwave, causing the surrounding air to tremble slightly.

Everyone was stunned by the roar. Some turned their heads to look in the direction of the sound, and their eyes immediately widened in shock.

A colossal behemoth swelled up from beyond the crowd.

Its body rose from the ground, looking as if it had sprouted from beneath the earth itself.

At first, it was just a mass of blue flames. Then, the flames rapidly condensed and expanded, taking shape in the blink of an eye to become a massive beast.

Its size was slightly smaller than the Eight-Tails Gyuki, but it was still enormous. Standing on the ground, it resembled a moving hill.

It was the Two-Tails Matatabi.

Its body was covered in blue-black fur, with ghostly blue flames dancing across it.

These were no ordinary flames, but special fire condensed from Tailed Beast chakra, burning at an incredibly high temperature.

Its eyes were heterochromatic—one gold, one green—with slitted pupils that reflected the golden giant and the purplish-black sphere in the sky.

Behind it, two long tails whipped through the air, each wreathed in the same blue flames. Its limbs were thick and powerful, armed with razor-sharp claws that dug deep into the ground, carving deep trenches into the solid rock.

Matatabi crouched slightly, bending its hind legs as its muscles pulled taut.

Then, it pushed off the ground with explosive force. The earth caved in beneath its feet, forming a massive crater webbed with cracks as rubble and dirt flew in all directions.

Its body launched like a blue cannonball, hurtling straight toward the purplish-black sphere in the sky.

Its speed was astonishing.

Standing within the chest of the Susanoo giant, Uchiha Taiga looked down at the blue beast charging toward the Tailed Beast Bomb, raising an eyebrow slightly.

The Two-Tails Matatabi flipped in midair, spreading its limbs wide and stretching its body like a cat pouncing on its prey.

The blue flames on its belly and limbs suddenly flared up, shifting from a ghostly blue to a brilliant azure, more than doubling in brightness.

The next moment, the Two-Tails Matatabi met the falling purplish-black sphere head-on.

The expected explosion did not occur. The instant Matatabi's body made contact with the Tailed Beast Bomb, the layer of blue flames acted like a soft net, completely enveloping the sphere.

Matatabi pulled its limbs in, hugging the Tailed Beast Bomb to its chest like a cat playing with a ball of yarn. Its body continued to tumble through the air, using the momentum of its leap and flip to carry the massive Tailed Beast Bomb far away from the airspace above the village.

Uchiha Taiga's eyes narrowed slightly.

In his vision, the flow of the blue flames on Matatabi's body was clearly visible. Those flames were not just Tailed Beast chakra; they were mixed with a special sealing power.

That power temporarily froze the flow of chakra on the surface of the Tailed Beast Bomb, stabilizing the highly volatile sphere so it wouldn't detonate immediately upon impact.

'Interesting.'

But he could also see that this sealing power was not limitless.

The energy inside the Super Rasen Tailed Beast Bomb was simply too massive. The blue flames could only suppress it temporarily; they couldn't seal it completely.

An explosion was inevitable. It was only a matter of time.

The Two-Tails Matatabi flew out of Kumogakure's perimeter with the Tailed Beast Bomb in its grasp, traveling two or three kilometers before plummeting toward the ground.

Its body crashed into the earth along with the Tailed Beast Bomb.

A blinding white light erupted.

The moment the purplish-black sphere, over fifty meters in diameter, touched the ground, it finally lost its last shred of stability.

White light burst from within the sphere, brighter and more piercing than the sun, turning the entire sky a blinding white.

Then came the fire. Searing blue-white flames spewed from the epicenter of the explosion, spreading outward like a tidal wave.

A shockwave followed close behind, sweeping in all directions and carrying with it dirt, rubble, and splintered trees.

The ground caved in from the blast, forming a massive crater over a kilometer in diameter.

Dirt and rock were vaporized in the white light, leaving not even ashes behind.

The flames ignited everything in the vicinity. Forests, grassy plains, and hills were all reduced to a sea of fire. The shockwave uprooted trees further away, tossing them into the air before they were swallowed by the inferno.

A mushroom cloud rose from the ground, billowing into the sky and reaching a height of over a kilometer.

Smoke, dust, and firelight blotted out half the sky, eclipsing the sun.

The deafening roar of the explosion took several seconds to reach Kumogakure, hurting eardrums, rattling windows, and causing the ground to tremble slightly.

The Two-Tails Matatabi vanished in the blast, but Uchiha Taiga saw it clearly: at the moment of detonation, Matatabi's body burst into a puff of white smoke, dissipating into the fire and dust.

Matatabi hadn't died, nor had it been blown to pieces. It was a special Clone Technique!

The Two-Tails Matatabi that charged at the Tailed Beast Bomb was never the main body to begin with; it was a clone formed from chakra and flames. That clone had dissipated in the explosion, but its true body should still be perfectly intact somewhere within the village.

"A cat with nine lives, huh? Interesting."

The corners of Uchiha Taiga's mouth curled up slightly.

Below, the aftermath of the explosion was incredibly intense.

The shockwave, carrying waves of scorching air, swept toward Kumogakure.

The heat of the airwave was staggering. Wherever it passed, the air distorted from the sheer temperature, reaching the outskirts of the village in the blink of an eye.

Just then, barriers of light rose around the outer walls of Kumogakure.

These light barriers ascended from the tops of the stone walls in various colors, looking like giant shields rising from the earth.

Complex incantations flowed across the surface of the barriers. They were the intricate, overlapping patterns of Sealing Jutsu and barrier ninjutsu. The barriers linked together, forming a massive hemispherical shield around the village's perimeter.

These barriers were clearly defensive fortifications Kumogakure had accumulated over the years, capable of withstanding large-scale ninjutsu attacks at the very least.

But this time, the impact was simply too strong.

The shockwave slammed into the barrier, causing it to shudder violently as fine cracks appeared on its surface.

The cracks spread outward from the point of impact, webbing across the entire barrier like a spider's web. The barrier flickered a few times, its light wavering before shattering completely. Like a broken mirror, its fragments scattered into the air and dissolved into motes of light.

The shockwave broke through the barrier and crashed into the village's outer walls.

Faced with the shockwave, the stone walls collapsed instantly, like toppled building blocks.

Rubble and bricks were swept up by the blast and hurled into the village, smashing into houses further away with deafening crashes.

The ninjas standing on the stone walls were blown away by the shockwave. Some were tossed into the air like kites with broken strings, some slammed into the buildings behind them, and others were struck by flying debris, screaming as they fell to the ground.

Blood, dust, rubble, and wood splinters intertwined in the air, creating a scene of absolute chaos.

After breaching the outer walls, the shockwave continued to spread into the village.

It destroyed several rows of houses near the walls. The wooden structures were as fragile as paper against the blast, torn to shreds in an instant.

Roof tiles, wooden beams, and paper doors were all swept up. Stone slabs on the streets were ripped away, and trees were uprooted.

The shockwave spread all the way to the middle of the village before it gradually weakened and finally dissipated.

Nearly half of Kumogakure was affected.

The buildings constructed at the foot of the mountains, the streets near the outer walls, and the civilians living in the lower areas all suffered varying degrees of damage.

People were buried under the rubble, crying out in the streets, or holding their injured loved ones in despair.

Smoke and dust permeated the air above the village, blocking out the sun and shrouding the entire settlement in a gloomy gray haze.

Uchiha Taiga watched all of this with his usual expression.

His arms remained crossed over his chest, his eyes still fixed on the scene below, his face completely unchanged.

Pity or guilt did not exist within him. There was no excitement, nor was there any satisfaction.

There was only a calm composure.

Nothing more.

Right at that moment, two more beastly roars echoed from within Kumogakure.

One was deep and powerful, like a tremor rumbling from beneath the earth.

The other was sharp and high-pitched, like lightning tearing through the night sky.

The two roars rang out one after the other, intertwining to form a bizarre resonance.

Two colossal behemoths appeared outside the village.

One was the blue giant beast, the Two-Tails Matatabi.

Its true body stepped out from the edge of the village with heavy footsteps, leaving a deep footprint with every stride. Blue flames danced across its body, its two tails whipping behind it as its slitted pupils locked onto Uchiha Taiga in midair.

The other was the dark-colored giant beast, the Eight-Tails Gyuki.

Its eight tentacles thrashed in the air, each one dozens of meters long.

It bore multiple scars on its body from the previous battle, but they had mostly healed, and its aura remained as imposing as ever.

Raikage A flipped and leaped onto the top of the Eight-Tails Gyuki's head. His clothes were covered in dirt and dust, and his hair was disheveled, but his gaze remained as sharp as a blade.

He looked up at the golden giant in the sky, fixing his eyes on Uchiha Taiga standing within its chest. Taking a deep breath, he spoke in a deep voice.

"Brat, leave now. Otherwise, we will make you pay the price."

Uchiha Taiga looked down at him and scoffed.

"Really? Then I'm looking forward to it."

Raikage A's cheek twitched slightly as he clenched his jaw.