Similar reports came back, making Tsunade so furious that she smashed three desks in her office.

But soon after, even worse news arrived—Four-Tails' Jinchūriki, Rōshi, had been captured by Akatsuki!

This time, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, Ōnoki, didn't dare act arrogant anymore. Realizing the situation had spiraled far beyond his expectations, he immediately placed Five-Tails' Jinchūriki, Han, under tight protection, while also calling for an alliance between the villages to jointly strike down Akatsuki.

Yet Kumogakure remained just as conceited, scoffing that Iwagakure was nothing impressive after all. Instead of joining forces, they chose to go at it alone, planning to rescue Yugito by themselves and annihilate Akatsuki.

When Tsunade received the report, she sneered coldly. Since Kumogakure insisted on being stubborn, let them try then. If they could wipe out Akatsuki, that would be for the best—but the odds of them hitting a wall were far greater.

Sure enough, only a few days later another message came—Kumogakure's assault-and-rescue squad had run into Yakushi Kabuto. They were then crushed by his Edo Tensei (Reanimation Jutsu) summons: Second Tsuchikage, Mū, and Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu. The team suffered devastating casualties!

"As expected… that Kabuto really is exploiting Edo Tensei. What a damn nuisance!"

Tsunade didn't feel the least bit of schadenfreude over Kumogakure's losses. Instead, her expression was deeply grave.

Her suspicions were confirmed: Kabuto had reanimated not only Mū and Gengetsu, but would surely raise even more formidable dead shinobi if he could unearth their corpses. All those legendary predecessors had been frightening enough in life—now as immortal Edo Tensei, impervious to destruction and wielding near-infinite chakra, they could only be dealt with using sealing techniques. Otherwise, nothing worked. After all, the Third Hokage himself had been forced to sacrifice his life against Orochimaru when confronted by the First and Second Hokage under Edo Tensei. That technique was disgusting and terrifying.

"I hope Natsuki succeeds… otherwise, this will be hell to counter."

Tsunade rubbed at her temples, weary.

Realizing it wasn't good to brood alone, she immediately ordered someone to summon Jiraiya.

These days, Jiraiya had indeed been staying in the village—but his attitude seemed to have shifted. Every day he either lounged about "gathering material" at the women's baths, sat at home writing, or occasionally dropped by to watch Naruto's training. Living leisurely and carefree.

Tsunade, of course, couldn't stand watching someone else relax, so she planned to use this bad news to knock him down a notch. She also wanted an update on Naruto's training progress.

Time waits for no one. The Jinchūriki needed to grow stronger quickly, so that in the chaos to come they wouldn't be taken down so easily.

At the training grounds—

Fū was mimicking Gaara, carrying a massive gourd on her back. But unlike Gaara's, this one wasn't filled with sand. Inside was a full-blown insect colony chamber.

This was something from the Aburame clan, gifted to her personally by Shino.

Clapping her hands together, Fū opened the gourd mouth wide and shouted:

"Chūton: Mushikōrō Kōrin! (Insect Style: Swarm's Descent!)"

BZZZZZZT!

A deafening droning filled the air as dense swarms of insects burst forth. Simultaneously, the chakra of the Seven-Tails surged from her body, enveloping the swarm. One by one, the bugs began to swell monstrously.

Tiny ant-sized insects ballooned to the size of fists in the blink of an eye.

The sky blackened with the massive swarm, their humming so loud it stabbed at the ears. Just looking at the spectacle was enough to make one's scalp tingle and goosebumps rise.

As the swarm tore through the forest, an entire stretch of woodland was devoured clean.

"Hahaha! This move is incredible! As expected of Shino—he really is the shinobi who understands insects best!"

Fū's face glowed with delight.

This had been her result after long discussions with Shino.

Since the Seven-Tails was essentially the ultimate insect queen, its chakra was a supreme nourishment for bugs. By infusing them with that chakra while controlling them, their power could erupt at levels beyond imagination.

Even though Fū wasn't of the Aburame clan, she could still command the swarm through the Seven-Tails' might, rivaling or even surpassing a true Aburame.

Thus, this became her ultimate jutsu!

Of course, Shino benefited as well. Fū agreed to share a bit of the Seven-Tails' chakra with him to help strengthen his own bugs.

Originally, Shino's dream of breeding "super bugs"—immune to all five chakra natures, resistant to Kekkei Genkai, impervious to physical strikes, and able to break through nearly any defense—had progressed at a crawl. Two years of painstaking effort had yielded barely any results.

But with the Seven-Tails' chakra, his research leapt forward dramatically.

It was a true win–win.

On the other side, Gaara faced the forest, rapidly weaving hand seals before spitting out an enormous wind sphere:

"Fūton: Renkūdan! (Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!)"

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The colossal wind sphere rampaged forward, reducing the woods to ruin.

After long training, Gaara's mastery of Renkūdan had improved greatly. While still far from matching the destructive power of a Bijūdama (Tailed Beast Ball)—his ideal benchmark—its sheer force was already formidable enough to serve as a reliable finishing move.

But Gaara wasn't satisfied. He didn't want Renkūdan to be just his "big move." He wanted it to become his standard attack.

Only those who could wield what should be a trump card as their basic strike were true powerhouses!

If Gaara succeeded, his strength would rank not only among the Kage-class, but even beyond—into the realm of super-Kage.

Yet the chakra drain was staggering. Even with Konoha's chakra batteries, he couldn't unleash it more than a few times in succession.

After finishing with Renkūdan, Gaara turned to another attempt: developing Kienzan (Energy Disc Cutter).

But it was far harder than expected.

Condensing chakra into a spinning disc shape wasn't too difficult—but making it wide, thin, and stable at high rotation speed was nearly impossible. Adding the unstable Wind nature on top made it even worse.

By contrast, Natsuki had developed his Water Disc Cutter so quickly precisely because water chakra was naturally more stable. For Wind, it was a nightmare.

After several failed attempts, Gaara shelved it for now and moved on to spar with Lee.

He highly respected Lee's taijutsu—after all, during the Chūnin Exams, Lee had been the very first to break through his sand defense.

Though Gaara had trained under Shira for a time, his physical conditioning still needed work. His combat experience in pure taijutsu also had much room for growth.

But there was always the same problem—his sand instinctively shielded him. Even when he tried to punch a wooden stake, the sand would slide between his fist and the target, sparing his hand from any damage.

It was frustrating!

Meanwhile, Naruto was also training like a madman.

Yamato had prepared a massive waterfall cascading down a cliff, then crafted a wooden platform with Mokuton for Naruto and his countless clones to stand on. Their task: slice the waterfall apart using Wind chakra nature transformation. Only after succeeding could Naruto attempt fusing nature and form transformation.

The scene was hectic, lively, and chaotic.

But Yamato had no choice—he had to stay on full alert the entire time. The moment Naruto lost control of the Nine-Tails' power, Yamato had to suppress it.

Kakashi, on the other hand, sat idly nearby reading his Icha Icha novels, which only deepened Yamato's invisible stress.

Brother, could you maybe help instead of reading about Liu Bei at home? Don't you see how busy I am here?!

(End of Chapter)

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