Inside the Uzushiogakure (Hidden Vilge of the Whirlpools), chaos reigned. Screams pierced the air in a relentless cascade, while terrified civilians scattered in every direction, their footsteps pounding against the earth.

  Perched atop the towering Seven-Tails, Qin Yi surveyed the destruction he’d wrought. Moments earlier, he’d obliterated the vilge’s sacred altar with a devastating Bijūdama(Tailed Beast Ball) an attack of raw, untamed energy.

  Now, he held back from further bloodshed, instead directing the Seven-Tails to smash through the surrounding structures with ease, its massive limbs reducing homes and walls to rubble.

  His sharp eyes suddenly narrowed, catching movement in the distance.

  Figures darted toward him, their silhouettes lining the rooftops and fnking the streets ahead. Crimson hair gleamed under the dim light, and the swirling vortex insignia embzoned on their garb marked them unmistakably.

  “The Uzumaki Cn… so they’ve finally arrived,” Qin Yi murmured with a dark smirk tugging at his lips. His hands snapped together, fingers weaving seals with practiced precision.

  “Roar!”

  The Seven-Tails bellowed, its cry shaking the heavens. Above its head, motes of energy flickered into existence, swiftly coalescing. In mere moments a bck orb, three inches wide, pulsed with menacing power.

  “Whoosh!”

  With a thunderous exhale, the Seven-Tails unleashed the Bijūdama. It tore through the air, a streak of destruction hurtling toward the oncoming Uzumaki warriors.

  “Dodge it!”

  “It’s the Seven-Tails’ Bijūdama!”

  The cn members’ faces bnched as they shouted warnings, their voices tinged with dread. Though their archives held only fragmented tales of the Bijū — the Tailed Beasts— they knew enough to fear this attack.

  But time had run out.

  “Boom!”

  Fmes erupted skyward, soaring dozens of meters high. The Bijūdama detonated, its bst swallowing hundreds of square meters of area in an inferno. Buildings and trees crumpled like fragile parchment, reduced to dust and cinders in an instant. A shockwave rippled outward, a visible wave of force tearing through the vilge.

  “Whoosh!”

  A fierce wind howled in its wake, stripping Uzushiogakure of its former tranquility and leaving only devastation behind.

  “Deploy a team to seal the Seven-Tails!” A commanding voice rang out. “You— follow me. We strike QinKage directly. He’s the one controlling it!”

  The Uzukage emerged, his bamboo hat casting shadows over a face etched with resolve. With a leap, he surged forward, barking orders as his cn rallied behind him. In an instant, they split into two forces— one charging toward the Seven-Tails, the other aiming for Qin Yi.

  “The Uzumaki Cn, huh?” Qin Yi mused, his smile widening. “Let’s see what they’re made of.”

  As he spoke, another bck Bijūdama materialized above the Seven-Tails’ head, sending a fresh wave of panic through the Uzumaki ranks. Then, Qin Yi parted his lips, spitting out a dark speck of his own.

  “Bijūdama,” He intoned. “And… Pseudo Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ).”

  He paused, his voice steady and deliberate. “Behold the might of the Nation of Qin.”

  With a slow breath, he propelled the twin orbs forward. The Bijūdama and the eerie, pitch-bck Pseudo Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ) rocketed toward their targets.

  “Whoosh!”

  The Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ) reached its mark first, smming into five Uzumaki warriors mid-charge. Their faces twisted in horror as it erupted, the explosion swallowing them whole. Another deafening bst shook the ground, the Bijūdama ciming its victims without mercy.

  Simultaneously, another Pseudo Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ) streaked toward the Uzukage, closing the gap in a heartbeat.

  “What—?!” The Uzukage faltered, eyes widening at the bck dot swelling before him.

  They stood a mere twenty to thirty meters apart now—dangerously close.

  “Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!”

  Qin Yi’s voice cut through the chaos as he cpped his hands together atop the Seven-Tails. The Uzukage’s heart lurched. Before he could react, the bck speck ignited, bursting into a blinding cascade of fmes. Fanned by the wind, the fire swelled to a hundred meters wide in an instant, a roaring wall of heat and light.

  “Uzukage-sama, get back!” his cnsmen cried, leaping forward to shield him. Their shouts mingled with the crackle of the bze as they threw themselves into its path.

  The Uzukage’s form flickered, trembling beneath the onsught. In a desperate fsh, he vanished, retreating from the inferno’s grasp.

  The hundred-meter-wide inferno roared through the vilge like a tempest, swallowing streets whole before its fury finally ebbed.

  At the sidelines, the Uzukage stood rigid, fists clenched tight, his heart pounding with disbelief and dread.

  “What 'is' that bck dot? How can it unleash Ninjutsu?” He muttered, his voice barely a whisper.

  Before he could process it, another dark speck shot forth from the chaos, streaking toward a cluster of Uzumaki Cn shinobi in an instant.

  His eyes widened, a twitch of panic seizing him. “Dodge it!” he bellowed.

  But the warning came too te.

  “Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)!”

  The bck dot pulsed with energy, and from it erupted a colossal torrent— a cascading waterfall that smmed into the shinobi, hurling them to the ground and burying them beneath its relentless surge.

  High above, astride the Seven-Tails, Qin Yi’s gaze sharpened with cold precision.

  “This is the true power of the Pseudo Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ),” He decred. “No hand seals, just the free release of all five elemental Ninjutsu!”

  Though its might paled beside the legendary Truth-Seeking Balls of old, its unpredictability and speed made it a terror on the battlefield— deadlier, in its own way, than raw power alone.

  “Raiton: Chidori Eisō (Lightning Release: Chidori Sharp Spear)!”

  “Doton: Doryūdan (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet)!”

  “Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!”

  The Pseudo Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Ball ) darted forward, swift as lightning, reaching its targets in the blink of an eye. One after another, Ninjutsu burst forth in a relentless barrage. The onsught unfolded in mere breaths, yet its devastation was bone-chilling.

  The Uzukage barely had time to react before the shinobi at his side fell, overwhelmed by the bck dot’s merciless assault.

  That sheer, unstoppable force sent tremors through his body, his resolve wavering under the weight of it all.

  “Roar!”

  A sudden gust tore toward him, thick with an oppressive energy that made his pupils shrink to pinpricks.

  “You’re the Uzukage, I presume?” Qin Yi’s voice cut through the wind, icy and commanding as he gazed down from atop the Seven-Tails.

  “QinKage Sama,” The Uzukage rasped with his teeth gritted as his tone strained with defiance. “What is the meaning of this?”

  The combined might of QinKage and the Seven-Tails sent a chill racing down his spine. The Nation of the Whirlpools prided itself on its peerless Fūinjutsu— sealing techniques honed over generations— but against that eerie bck dot, they were powerless.

  His cnsmen were being cut down, struck by sudden, inexplicable Ninjutsu they couldn’t hope to counter. The attacks came too fast, their timing too erratic to predict.

  “‘The meaning of this’?” Qin Yi echoed mockingly, his eyes glinting with menace. “You attacked our envoy shinobi, spurned my offer of peace, and now you have the gall to question 'me'? Don’t you find that absurd, Uzukage?”

  The words hung heavy in the air, and the Uzukage stiffened, at a loss for a reply.

  When the Nation of Qin’s envoy had arrived in Uzushiogakure, it wasn’t he who had greeted them. That duty had fallen to Uzumaki Ichimi, the red-haired cnsman who’d handled the talks.

  But Ichimi now y somewhere in the wreckage, felled by Qin Yi’s Ninjutsu, his fate uncertain. Confronted with Qin Yi’s accusation, the Uzukage found himself grasping for words.

  “We… we can compensate you for your losses,” He said at st, drawing a deep breath to steady himself. “You’ve brought the Seven-Tails into our nds, and caused havoc— our people have suffered too.”

  “Compensate for the losses?” Qin Yi’s eyes flickered, a low ugh escaping him.

  “Well, Uzukage Sama, you’re more reasonable than I expected,” He said, his tone dripping with amusement. “How about this, then? Starting today, the Nation of the Whirlpools joins the Nation of Qin. What do you say?”

  The Uzukage’s face contorted, a surge of fury breaking through his restraint. “Impossible!” he roared.

  ---

  '(End of Chapter)'

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