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252 Getting Killed Makes Me Stronger
🕑 Added 2026-01-09 06:09:01 +0000 UTCShinnosuke shouted loudly, "Moku Kairen, look around you—who is still following you? You're just like Madara Uchiha back then, a stray guy with nowhere to go!"
Kairen swept his gaze around himself. Indeed, there was no one there.
On the opposite side, behind Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shinnosuke stood Konoha's massive ninja army.
The feeling was like Obito of the Six Paths facing Naruto.
Kairen chuckled. "If we're comparing numbers, you're still far behind!"
Kairen roared, "Where is the Kairen Legion?!"
In an instant, the entire world seemed to fall silent.
"Boom boom boom…"
Deafening mechanical noises surged like violent gusts of wind, as if thousands upon thousands of troops were swarming in like crazed hornets.
Within Konoha's battle formation, many ninjas turned to look behind them.
The Chunin Exams spectator arena had long since been blasted apart by raging flames and flying rubble.
Broken walls and collapsed ruins—an utterly desolate sight.
Through the gaps outside, one could clearly see machines flying through the sky.
"What is that?!"
"Puppets from Sunagakure?!"
"Maybe?"
Many people began guessing what those suddenly appearing black giant birds actually were.
Before they could take another look, even more black giant birds circled in the sky.
On the ground, over a hundred wheeled machines slowly rolled forward, accompanied by a force armed to the teeth.
"Ura!"
"Ura!"
"Ura!"
Before seeing a single soldier, the shouts of "Ura" arrived first.
"Form ranks to the west—Mechanical Legion, heed my command!"
As if soldiers awaiting an emperor's inspection, the entire army came to a halt, every cannon barrel aimed straight at Konoha's forces.
The commotion brought by the Mechanical Legion did not end there.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's pupils grew grave. He understood these puppets of Kairen's—they possessed extremely powerful explosive capabilities.
Back then, with just twenty tanks, Kairen had wiped out the Shimura clan.
"Where is the Skeleton Legion?"
The Skeleton Legion was the skeletal army Kairen had synthesized last night after playing around with Tsunade until she collapsed from exhaustion and he had nothing better to do.
Now, at Kairen's command, the undead legion buried beneath the earth moved like soldiers of hell.
"Rumble rumble rumble…"
The entire ground trembled, as if something were about to burst out of the soil.
A bony arm thrust out from the dirt, gripping a bone weapon. Immediately after, a skeleton crawled up from underground.
More and more skeletons broke through the earth, sprouting up like newly born shoots.
And it wasn't only humanoid skeletons!
"Roar—"
A massive dragon's roar resounded as a bone dragon tore up from the ground like a monster, flinging mud dozens of meters into the air.
And it wasn't just the bone dragon.
Bone saber-toothed tigers, mammoth elephants, tyrannosaurs, pangolins…
The bone dragon was the commander of the Skeleton Legion. It lowered its head toward Kairen, its voice hoarse.
"Form ranks to the east—Skeleton Legion, heed my command!"
Another force of several thousand troops—and unless every single bone was smashed, they couldn't be completely destroyed.
Sarutobi Hiruzen thought to himself.
But in the end, their mobility was inferior to humans; their advantage wasn't decisive.
"Form ranks to the north—Revolutionary Army, heed my command!"
"There's more?!"
Hearing the sound of people gathering, Sarutobi Hiruzen's pupils contracted slightly.
The newcomers were a group of humans.
People from the village!
They wore black short coats, with a fan-shaped clan crest on their backs.
The Uchiha clan.
There was also a group wearing white short coats bearing the Senju clan crest—supporters of Tsunade.
Senju and Uchiha joined forces to form the Revolutionary Army.
Their numbers were considerable, with many civilian ninjas among them—people who had long been fed up with the village's discrimination by the ninja clans and had joined the revolution.
Barely counted as a guerrilla force.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared coldly at the leader, Fugaku.
"Uchiha, are you planning to betray the village?"
Fugaku sneered. "Third Hokage, your era is about to end—buried by the eyes of the Mangekyō."
Sarutobi Hiruzen turned to look at Kairen. "The Uchiha actually defected to you?!"
Kairen opened his Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Because they know just how powerful these eyes are!"
"Sarutobi, the western, eastern, and northern legions have all arrived. Tell me—what else can come from the south?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't answer, only glancing slightly toward the south.
There were no signs of troops gathering, nor the sound of iron hooves striking the ground.
Kairen said calmly, "For now there are only three legions—but the final guest can stand as an army all on their own!"
"Come out! Nine-Tails!"
"Nine-Tails?!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen voiced his confusion. Had he heard wrong?
The Nine-Tails was clearly still sealed inside Kushina's womb—why would Kairen call out the Nine-Tails' name?
Before he could even finish being stunned—
An orange-yellow colossus suddenly blotted out the sky. Its nine tails writhed like a frenzy of dragons, reflected in everyone's eyes.
"Roar—"
The Nine-Tails let out a berserk roar, and the gale it unleashed completely blew apart the entire finals arena.
"Nine-Tails!!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes widened. He wondered if he was dreaming.
This kind of natural disaster… had actually been released!
As if venting years of rage, the Nine-Tails' violent aura surged like a storm, making many people feel suffocated.
Kairen suddenly leapt onto the Nine-Tails' head, and this proud fox showed no reaction at all, as if it had truly submitted to Kairen.
"Sarutobi, now do you still dare talk about a numbers advantage?!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's face darkened, as if his wife had been screwed by Kairen.
"Nine-Tails!!"
Toadzo looked as if he'd been soaked in alcohol, his face flushed red with anger.
"Never thought this fox would be so soft with the strong and bully the weak."
The Nine-Tails' massive body was extremely conspicuous within the village, and many people saw this gigantic beast that had been active since the Warring States era.
Within the Revolutionary Army.
Fugaku's face was full of excitement.
"It's the Nine-Tails! I never imagined Kairen-kun would actually subdue it! This is rock solid now!"
Watching the battle from the sidelines, the two Hyuga brothers were utterly shocked, eyes widened until the whites showed.
"What are we waiting for? The Third Hokage no longer has any advantage—we need to pick a side quickly!"
Hizashi urged Hiashi to act.
The last train of the power transition had arrived; if they didn't get on now, they wouldn't even make the line.
Hyuga Hiashi was a bit nervous, but still steadied himself.
"Hold on, Hizashi. Let's observe a bit longer—the village's foundations aren't that simple!"
...
In the northeast of Konoha Village.
A gigantic purple snake rampaged through the air—it was Orochimaru's Manda.
With a sweep of its tail, dozens of buildings were instantly flung into the air.
Kairen's group of shadow clones hurriedly evacuated the surrounding civilians, clearing space for Orochimaru and Tsunade to fight.
Against Tsunade, Orochimaru had originally thought victory was assured.
But the moment he engaged her, he underestimated her.
After spending about a month with Kairen, Tsunade was no longer the Tsunade of the past.
Her power greatly increased.
More precisely, it was the combination of Curse Mark Transformation and Creation Rebirth.
Creation Rebirth granted Tsunade terrifying regenerative abilities, while Curse Mark Transformation gave her even greater strength.
At this moment, golden patterns spread across Tsunade's entire body, and an extremely powerful aura erupted from her, forcing Orochimaru to retreat again and again.
"Huff…"
Orochimaru gasped twice, his chest rising and falling incessantly.
His gloomy, snake-like eyes reflected Tsunade's heroic and valiant figure.
