After a brief and eerie silence.
In the end, it was Long Zhe who cautiously took the first step forward.
One step. Two steps. Three steps…
"Ha! What lunatics! Even crazier than me!"
Seeing that the two truly had no intention of stopping him, even he could not help laughing out loud.
Afraid they might suddenly change their minds, he hurriedly fled at once.
The others quickly followed behind him.
As they passed the corpse of the Hannya Group leader, they could not help casting pitying looks toward him.
There was no helping it.
The oppressive pressure from "Shadow" and Nagato standing there was simply too overwhelming.
Anyone would have assumed they were blocking the way.
Who would have thought they had no such intention at all?
So…
Were they waiting for someone?
Waiting for who?
Almost everyone simultaneously thought of Kakuzu, who still had not emerged yet.
And they could not help feeling a trace of pity for that guy.
Only after everyone had completely left did Shadow finally look toward Nagato beside him and ask:
"That was the Two-Tails jinchuriki. You're not making a move?"
"..."
Perhaps because he had become somewhat uncertain about his original plan to gather the tailed beasts,
Nagato remained silent for a moment before calmly shaking his head.
"It's not time yet."
Acting now would only alert the enemy and make the other villages wary.
At that moment, heavy footsteps echoed out.
A figure finally emerged from the doorway.
It was obviously Kakuzu, struggling somewhat as he carried the "Ame-no-MuraArata Sword."
"..."
And the moment he saw Nagato and Shadow, Kakuzu's already exhausted body completely gave out.
BOOM!
The heavy one-handed axe smashed onto the ground with a loud crash.
Kakuzu himself nearly numbly sat down in the pool of blood.
"Let's skip the fighting part."
His tone carried no emotion whatsoever as he asked: "Just tell me directly. What do you want?"
He was truly exhausted.
Today had simply been the unluckiest day of his life.
Just thinking about this thing named "Ame-no-MuraArata Sword",
Which was actually an "axe", a ridiculously heavy one-handed axe, no less,
What kind of sick bastard came up with something like this?
Forget the tens of millions in final payment.
He wasn't even sure whether giving this thing to Ōnoki would cause the old man to immediately turn hostile.
This time he had really suffered a massive loss.
All Kakuzu wanted now was to hurry back, find his personal money vault, and relax while lying on piles of cash.
"..."
Seeing him look as though he had been bullied, even Nagato's expression became somewhat strange.
Still, he calmly said: "We're inviting you to become a member of the Akatsuki."
"Akatsuki?"
Kakuzu asked doubtfully.
"It's an organization created to achieve true peace."
Shadow said jokingly.
"No…"
The moment he heard it, Kakuzu instinctively wanted to refuse such a boring-sounding organization.
But before he could finish, Arata interrupted him.
"The heads over there."
Shadow pointed toward the mountain of corpses nearby and smiled.
"Consider them a welcome gift."
"..."
Kakuzu subconsciously looked toward the corpse mountain.
After seeing those familiar faces, he fell silent.
Because in his eyes, that was not a mountain of corpses.
It was a mountain of gold.
"Heh."
After a moment, he sneered softly and said:
"For a monster like you to willingly join this organization…"
"I imagine there'll be plenty of opportunities to fight bounty targets in the future."
"Fine."
"I'll treat it as a temporary place to stay."
As he spoke, Kakuzu stood up once more and pointed toward the one-handed axe behind him.
"Of course, that's only if you help me carry this damned thing out first."
...
Meanwhile, on the rock walls of the abyss.
Everyone had simultaneously pushed their speed to the absolute limit.
Their bodies became streaking afterimages as they desperately rushed toward the faint light above.
Toward the massive crack leading back to the surface!
After surviving the bloody battle within the underground palace and witnessing the slaughter outside.
Everyone now resembled cornered beasts driven to desperation, unleashing savage strength.
Although suspicion and vigilance still remained between them.
Escaping this cursed place was the only shared consensus.
However, just before reaching the opening, Arata, who had been rapidly ascending, suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Kakashi Hatake, who was dangling from Arata's grasp with dead-fish eyes and an expression of utter resignation, froze for a moment.
"Arata, what's wrong?"
He asked.
Arata said nothing.
He merely looked downward beneath himself.
The next instant, Long Zhe's figure flashed past them without hesitation and burst straight out of the crack.
"Hahahaha! I'm finally out!"
The scenery before his eyes shifted from darkness to brightness as his vision adjusted.
But, at the very instant his feet touched the level ground,
A violent figure wrapped in blinding lightning tore across the distance like a bolt of thunder.
Long Zhe could not even clearly see the person's face.
All his peripheral vision caught was a flash of blue light.
"Lariat!!"
The Fourth Raikage's furious roar exploded like thunder.
A savage elbow strike infused with violent Lightning Release chakra carried overwhelming force and absolute speed.
The crazed, fanatical grin on Long Zhe's face froze solid in that instant.
BOOOOM!!
It was not the sound of flesh being struck.
Instead, it sounded like a mountain collapsing.
The clothing, flesh, and bones around Long Zhe's waist and abdomen erupted with unbelievably dense cracking explosions the moment they came into contact with the Fourth Raikage.
Beneath the skin, the hard skeleton was crushed like stone beneath a giant boulder.
It instantly collapsed and shattered into countless fragments.
Like a leather sack smashed flat by an invisible hammer!
"PUAH!"
Long Zhe's body instantly caved inward before being blasted away.
A massive spray of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs burst from his laughing mouth, staining the sky red!
BOOM!!
The hard mountain rock exploded into a crater covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
Long Zhe's limbs twisted at horrifying angles as they embedded deep into the stone.
Broken bone fragments and collapsed flesh were clearly visible.
"Urgh… cough… cough…"
Long Zhe resembled a boneless dead fish, left with only faint twitching and coughing blood.
Blood poured endlessly from all seven orifices like floodwaters bursting through a dam.
One move!
Just one move!
The infamous cult leader of the Jashin from the black market had been crushed to the brink of death like an insect!
This, was the strength of the Fourth Raikage.
"Now tell me."
The Fourth Raikage halted in place and looked toward Long Zhe.
"What happened down there?"
But the next moment,
A streak of white light shot out from the crack behind him.
The piercing sound instinctively made him turn his head.
There, Arata hovered in midair with wings spread wide, looking down upon him.
"Those wings…"
The Fourth Raikage's pupils slightly contracted.
The suspicion in his heart had instantly been confirmed.
As expected, Yugito and the others had definitely entered the underground palace.
And there truly had been treasures inside.
"Brat, you should know who I am."
He coldly stared at Arata above, as well as Kakashi and the other Konoha ninja in his grasp.
"Get down here yourself."
"So it's the Fourth Raikage."
Arata looked deeply at him and calmly said:
"Then why don't you guess whether you can stop me with my speed?"
"And guess this too."
"If you fail to stop me…"
"What do you think I'll do to your Cloud Village encampment?"
The moment those words were spoken,
Kakashi abruptly raised his head toward Arata.
As though realizing what he intended to do, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"You're courting death!!"
The Fourth Raikage's expression darkened slightly.
With an explosive roar, he crouched slightly, gathering strength in both legs.
With his power and speed,
As long as he touched Arata even once, he could swat him from the sky like a mosquito.
However, Arata clearly had no intention of giving him that opportunity.
The wings behind him flapped once more, firing feather blades outward.
SWISH! SWISH SWISH!!
The sound of wind swept across the air like torrential rain, sending ripples through the atmosphere!
The Fourth Raikage had not taken Arata's actions seriously.
With the physical durability granted by his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, most Wind Release techniques could not even break his defense.
But just as he finished gathering power and prepared to pounce,
RIP! RIP!!
Those feathers struck his body.
Then came countless sharp stings.
They had actually managed to leave dense cuts across his skin.
"How is that possible?"
The Fourth Raikage's expression stiffened slightly.
"That thing can actually reach this level…"
At that moment, the others also rushed out from the crack.
Aside from Yugito and the Cloud ninja,
The moment the others saw the Fourth Raikage, their pupils instantly shrank.
"RUN!!"
Someone roared.
In an instant, everyone scattered in different directions and fled.
"Stop right there!"
The Fourth Raikage was just about to pursue them.
When he realized it was not over yet.
The shattered winds swirling around him suddenly transformed into countless wind blades.
The howling winds around him turned shrill.
Sharp wind blades slashed toward his chest, throat, and the back of his head as though trying to cut him into a thousand pieces!
"Annoying brat!!"
It was meaningless damage,
Yet it still filled the Fourth Raikage with irritation.
Veins bulged across his dark forehead as a nearly tangible murderous aura exploded from his body.
BOOM!!
The countless tiny wind blades surrounding him were violently shattered apart.
But when he looked up again, Arata's figure was already gone.
The others were gone as well.
Even the heavily wounded Long Zhe had disappeared…
"Huff! Huff!"
The violent Lightning Release chakra surrounding the Fourth Raikage emitted a deep humming sound.
His heavy breathing resembled a blazing furnace, announcing the boundless fury of the Raikage.
However, he soon calmed down.
Realizing that he had been provoked into losing composure by that brat, his heart grew solemn.
"Yugito!"
He abruptly turned toward Yugito and the remaining Cloud ninja.
"Send people after those who obtained the treasures!"
"And relay orders to the Moon Country encampment!"
"Tell them to prepare defenses against aerial attacks!"
'That brat…'
'That Hyuga brat…'
'What exactly was he planning to do next?!'