Malphegor
patreon
HSU: Ch. 66
🕑 Added 2024-12-12 15:37:00 +0000 UTCThe coastal area of the Land of Frost had been formed by the southward shift of the sea, but because most domesticated species lived in the mountains, the early inhabitants of the Land of Frost paid little attention to the coastline.
The indigenous people also lacked a sufficiently strong organization to support the development of the coastal region.
Its development was credited to the Warring States Period. The desire for territorial expansion by various countries integrated previously fragmented areas.
The location of the Land of Frost happened to separate the Land of Lightning from the mainland plains. Whether forces from the mainland wanted to expand northeastward or the Land of Lightning wanted access to the mainland plains, they had to pass through this area.
"Notice how the mountains funnel everything through here?" Masashi gestured at the natural formations.
Pakura nodded, her eyes following his indication. "Like a natural chokepoint."
"Exactly. Perfect for bleeding an army dry... if you know what you're doing." And I've seen it done before, from both sides.
This coastal passage was the most direct route. If the Land of Lightning were to march through the mountainous passages instead, its supply lines would stretch too far, creating logistical issues for its army.
By advancing through the coastal passage, the Land of Lightning could traverse the area in the shortest time, enter the mainland, avoid overstretching its battle lines, and directly threaten the mainland plains nations.
However, the Land of Frost was mostly mountainous, making it difficult to construct a passage here easily.
During the Warring States Period, ninjas were the dominant force on the battlefield. Faced with these human-shaped artillery that could walk without turning, the fortification techniques of various countries developed rapidly.
To develop this shortcut linking the mainland, the Land of Lightning invested resources to support the construction of a village in the Land of Frost. By settling the population, this narrow passage developed at rocket speed, supported by a large populace.
At the end of the Warring States Period, under the immense pressure of the alliance between the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan, the Land of Lightning once again provided funding to assist the Land of Frost in constructing three fortified villages at both ends and the middle of the passage as military strongholds.
These villages were integrated into the surrounding mountains and bays, effectively sealing off the passage.
Although the Senju and the Uchiha did not launch a joint assault afterward, these three strongholds transformed the coastal passage into a comprehensive military defense system. This remained the case until the outbreak of the First Great Ninja War, when the Konoha ninja army became the first force to directly attack this defense system.
His plan at the time was to use 381 tireless, endlessly regenerating reanimated bodies as the vanguard to break through the defenses, destroy key passes, and render the coastal region useless for transportation.
However, he was surrounded beneath the southern stronghold by a massive contingent of Kumo's jonin after summoning only 69 reanimated bodies.
Confronted with the Lightning Release Chakra Mode pioneered by the Second Raikage, he, unable to escape, chose a desperate fight. Before dying, he commanded the 69 reanimated bodies to head north, kill any Kumo ninja they encountered, and burn any fortresses they came across.
Two and a half of the three strongholds collapsed, and the coastal passage was engulfed in flames. Over 40 Kumo jonin perished in this battle, with none of the Raikage's direct subordinates surviving.
The rebuilt southern stronghold was identical to the one in Masashi's memories.
The southern stronghold was ablaze with lights. Its towering walls stretched from mountain to sea, forming an integrated defensive structure.
These walls were designed to resist explosive tags, the primary destructive tools used by genin and chunin. Though the tags varied in explosive power, typically ranging from one to three meters in diameter depending on quality, they were limited in effectiveness.
Thus, the stronghold was meant to block genin and chunin.
Stopping jonin, however, was a different matter. The designers of the stronghold never had that hope.
Even the same explosive tags, when used in the Second Hokage's Tandem Paper Bombs, became devastating.
Such an attack was impossible to defend against.
Stopping jonin was a task only jonin could handle—a universal truth.
Under the night's cover, a group of "people" reached the woods west of the stronghold.
Masashi and Pakura walked at the front.
"What a majestic fortress," Pakura remarked, admiring it.
In the Land of Wind, such a mountain-and-sea-based military fortress was unthinkable due to the environment.
"Majestic? Where? It's all for show and useless in practice," Masashi said dismissively. "As a jonin, I have every right to say so."
Pakura was speechless.
Sure, you're a jonin, but you're practically on the level of a Kage. What country could build a fortress you couldn't breach?
After his retort, Masashi's Sharingan fixated on the distant fortress, stirring old memories.
He wondered how those 69 reanimated bodies performed in the end. After his reincarnation, he couldn't find any relevant information.
But after that incident, Kumo and Konoha entered peace talks.
Both the Raikage and the daimyō of the Land of Lightning died during those negotiations, and Hiruzen subsequently ruled Konoha as Hokage for decades.
"Who's going first?" He turned to the 312 reanimated jonin behind him.
"I will." A white-haired burly man stepped forward with an eager grin. "I've always been controlled in the past. Let me fight freely for once."
Masashi stepped aside and gestured. "Go ahead and put on your show."
The white-haired man glanced at the Uchiha and strode forward.
This time, Masashi imposed no mobility restrictions on them. Their only limitation was that they must not, in any way, link him to the identity of Muzo.
Everyone shared the same thought about this rule: This guy hadn't changed at all—he was definitely planning to screw over the Uchiha clan.
Aside from Kai, no one cared. If he wanted to mess with the Uchiha, they were fine with it.
Every ninja clan had been beaten by either the Uchiha or Senju at some point. The only difference was whether it was because they sided with the Senju and got beaten by the Uchiha, or vice versa.
Now that the two were fighting each other, if not for the situation, they would've clapped in celebration.
"Watch closely. This is how you break a 'perfect' defense."
The white-haired man left the forest, his pace quickening as he charged toward the stronghold.
As a reanimated body, his strength wasn't what it used to be, but the gap wasn't massive. In fact, his physical prowess had even improved.
As he approached the walls, the Kumo ninja stationed there noticed him.
Shouts rang out from the walls, but the white-haired man ignored them, maintaining his speed.
The air whistled as kunai with explosive tags attached rained down from the walls.
His vision was sharper than in life. He spotted the tag designs at a glance and grinned.
Such a simple design—low-quality goods.
With a tearing sound, bone spikes emerged from his body. He pulled a bone blade from his shoulder, casually deflecting several kunai to the ground before leaping.
Boom!
The explosion's shockwave propelled him like a cannonball toward the top of the wall.
In the forest, Masashi, seeing the white-haired man begin his assault, formed a series of hand seals.
The reanimated bodies behind him began to vanish one by one.
---
As the first line of defense for the coastal passage, the Kumo ninjas retained significant forces in the stronghold despite needing their main troops to move south. Though predominantly staffed with new recruits, it still housed over a thousand ninjas, including more than thirty special jonin and five full-fledged jonin.
Among these five jonin, one was particularly notable.
Originally, after the death of the Third Raikage, the newly appointed Fourth Raikage issued a strict order forbidding Killer B, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, from leaving the village without his explicit permission.
Having already lost a close family member, he couldn't bear another loss.
However, this opportunity was too rare to pass up, and Killer B himself persistently lobbied to join. Weighing his options, the Fourth Raikage reluctantly allowed his brother to accompany him on the mission.
Still, given that Konoha's commander was none other than Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Fourth Raikage exercised caution. He stationed Killer B in the southern border as a garrison commander rather than taking him into the main battlefield in the Land of Hot Water.
And so, Killer B grew bored.
Though labeled as a "commander," his role was largely symbolic. This wasn't because he'd been sidelined but because he lacked the skills for actual command.
"Commander B, the patrol reports are ready," a guard called from outside his door.
"Yeah yeah, just leave them there, yo! Can't you see I'm about to flow?" B waved dismissively, focused on his notebook.
As a perfectly trained jinchūriki, his education focused on one thing: being a spearhead alongside the Fourth Raikage, using the power of the Eight-Tails to break through enemy defenses and clear paths for the main army.
On this particular day, he was, as usual, practicing his rapping.
Then he heard the sound of explosion tags going off.
Since the village stored large quantities of supplies for the frontline, Killer B's first thought was that someone had accidentally triggered an explosion tag.
It never crossed his mind that they were under attack.
After all, Kumo had the numerical advantage, allowing them to deploy more scout teams. A small elite squad might infiltrate the southern village, but an entire army making it here unnoticed?
Impossible.
As for a small group—who would dare mount a frontal assault?
Annoyed that his rap session was interrupted, he decided to find the unlucky fool responsible for the disturbance.
But when he opened the door, he was greeted by flames erupting in the south.
The 20-year-old Killer B froze.
A series of explosions quickly snapped him back to reality.
"Idiots! Fools!" Without stopping to think why the village was under attack, he rushed back to his room to grab his weapons and bolted out the door.
Bounding over rooftops toward the southern wall, hesaw a horrifying scene.
"They're everywhere! How did they get past our scouts?" a Kumo ninja screamed before a blade cut him down.
"These chakra signatures... they're not normal!" another squad leader shouted, trying to rally his men before being engulfed in flames.
These aren't ordinary enemies, the Eight-Tails rumbled in his mind.
Hundreds of agile, highly coordinated enemies were slaughtering every Kumo shinobi in sight with terrifying efficiency.
A white-haired man clad in a bone-like armor was laughing maniacally as he dove into a group of shinobi. The moment he landed, the bone armor shattered into razor-sharp blades, cutting down dozens of shinobi as if they were grass.
Blood sprayed in arcs as limbs and bodies fell like rain, the bone-clad warrior moving through the carnage like a dance of death.
And he was just one of many.
Killer B saw over a dozen enemies using elemental jutsu of all five natures, cutting down wave after wave of Kumo defenders.
More attackers ignored the resistance altogether, setting fires throughout the village.
Massive plumes of smoke billowed from the southern warehouses, and the flames grew fiercer with each gust of wind. Explosions echoed as the stored explosion tags detonated, blowing roofs sky-high.
Killer B was both furious and alarmed. As a perfect jinchūriki, he immediately called upon the Eight-Tails.
He suspected he might be under a genjutsu—these attackers all seemed to be at least jonin-level! Though they appeared to be only at the lower end of that spectrum...
A quick glance revealed there were at least 200 of them. Emptying out all of Kumo wouldn't even come close to matching this force.
At least there weren't any elites.
"Little brat from the Yotsuki clan?" A voice suddenly called out from his side.
A dazzling blade sliced toward Killer B's neck with impeccable timing and precision. No one in his memory had ever executed a slash like this.
A veteran. An elite jonin.
With a clang, his blade sprang from its sheath, parrying the strike.
In the reflection of his blade, he saw a pair of blood-red eyes.
Not good!
The thought had barely formed before he was pulled into a genjutsu. But in an instant, the Eight-Tails broke him free.
Without hesitation, Killer B infused his blade with lightning chakra, severing the enemy's weapon and countering with a strike that bisected his foe.
But it was only an illusion.
"Not bad," the enemy said, inspecting his broken blade. "To wield lightning like that—impressive."
"Uchiha…" Killer B's eyes narrowed.
This wasn't a living person.
The cracked, ash-gray skin and hollow black eyes left no doubt in his mind.
Edo Tensei…
In this world, no village remembered Edo Tensei as vividly as Kumo.
Everything about it was classified at the highest level. Only a select few top officials and elite shinobi knew of its horrors.
As well as the name that could not be spoken.
Kumo still sealed away 69 Edo Tensei bodies.
Not even Konoha, which had agreed to peace talks, knew the extent of Kumo's losses.
A deafening roar shook the ground.
His gaze shifted beyond the enemy shinobi. The southern wall collapsed, crumbling like soft tofu before scattering into rubble.
The tremors quickly spread, toppling buildings and burying screaming Kumo shinobi beneath the debris.
He saw another Kumo jonin embraced by a dead man, triggering a chain of explosions that engulfed entire blocks. The flames spread rapidly, turning the southern district into an inferno.
All the attackers were reanimated corpses.
Konoha had deployed Edo Tensei once again.
"This village won't hold much longer," the Uchiha revenant remarked. "And your comrades will all die. Fleeing alone—that wouldn't sit well with you, right?"
"Who summoned you?" Killer B demanded.
"Can't say," the Uchiha sneered. "That bastard placed a restriction on us. Besides, I hate the Yotsuki clan. My name is Kai. Perhaps you'll become his puppet as well."
Killer B avoided his gaze.
Stay alert, B, the Eight-Tails warned.
Though his opponent was a corpse, his genjutsu was formidable. Even the Eight-Tails warned him to avoid eye contact.
Killer B wasn't yet the powerhouse he'd become years later, capable of defeating Mangekyō Sharingan users like Sasuke with raw taijutsu.
His skills in both taijutsu and ninjutsu were still far from that level.
The technique he was developing, the Acrobat, was incomplete.
"Yo, dead gramps trying to act tough, fool, ya fool!" Killer B declared as his chakra flared, red chakra swirling around him. "Got things to do, ain't dying to no corpse, that's my rule!"
A giant octopus tentacle shot out from him, lunging toward Kai with devastating force, crushing everything in its path.
"So, you're a jinchūriki," Kai remarked, sidestepping the attack and countering in one fluid motion.
The tentacle's severed end hit the ground, leaving a crater in the stone.
In life, Kai had mastered fire and wind.
"I take back what I just said. You won't become a puppet; you'll just die."
