The Tailed Beast's arm flew off uhe force of iia, and Shukaku's golden eyes showed a flicker of shock.

  It wasn’t the pain of being attacked; rather, when the bde made tact, the chakra-formed exterior instantly lost all sensation.

  "Tap!"

  Link nded lightly, g the unscious Rock Lee, and then looked up at the partially transformed Gaara. Without hesitation, he pushed off the ground and charged forward.

  The destructive power of a tailed beast transformation was too great. An unscious rade like Rock Lee couldn't survive in the radius of any rge-scale attack. The simplest solution was to take out the core directly.

  "So fast!"

  The thought fshed through Gaara's mind as he instinctively tried to trol his body to evade. But he was a step too slow—Link had already reached him.

  "Whoosh!"

  Gaara swiped at him with a cwed hand, but with a fsh of the bde, he lost another arm.

  "This isn't w... he's to. I have to—"

  Gaara’s thoughts were cut short as the head of his partially transformed Tailed Beast form lit open. The attack was as effortless as slig through a melon.

  The chakra struct, supposedly of immense density and durability, seemed ent before that bde.

  Gaara's true body gazed up at Link, who desded from above. His hands moved to form seals, preparing to unleash his Feigning Sleep Teique.

  "Boom!"

  Before he could react, Link delivered a crushing kick, sending him flying backward into the ground, creating a massive crater.

  "Ctter!"

  The protective sand shield shattered ao the ground. Embedded i, Gaara's sand armor fked off piece by piece as he stared at the t and imposing figure of Link. His voice carried an endless fusion.

  "Why—?"

  "Rustle~"

  As Gaara’s sciousness wavered from the heavy blow, the tailed beast transformation dissolved into a pile of sand.

  Gaara plummeted toward the ground, unresponsive, but before he could crash, Link grabbed him mid-air. The sand instinctively gathering to protect Gaara dissipated silently.

  "Why—?" Gaara asked in a hollow voice, his eyes empty.

  There were too many things he couldn’t uand. Ever since graduating earlier this year, events had tinuously unfolded in ways that founded him. His mind could no longer process it all.

  He had believed that killing those he couldn’t uand, resolving everything through hatred and violence, would end his iurmoil.

  But when brute force failed, it felt as if everything had hit a dead end.

  Why were they fighting? What was causing him so much pain?

  "Let go of Gaara!" Temari and Kankuro arrived, the tension in the air esg.

  "Both of you, e at me," Link said, casting a g Rock Lee. His dition was worsening; his breathing was faint. He couldn’t let it get to the point where he’d o summon Guy-seo collect his unscious student.

  "I’m in a hurry."

  Kankuro’s face twisted in anger. "You bastard! How dare you look down on me!" He waved his hand, sending the puppet Crow forward.

  They had no choice. Both khat if Link got close, it would be over. Even someone like Orochimaru had been overpowered by this guy.

  And as puppet users, they had no other options.

  "Swish!"

  "He disappeared!"

  Temari unfolded her fan, keeping a wary eye for a potential cle attack. She also kept alert for her own shadow and any sudden le strikes.

  "This guy has too mahods... he's too dangerous. Where is—?!"

  "Checkmate."

  Link stood behind them, holding Gaara in one hand and Rock Lee iher. His shadow e, imbued with the power of Sethan, had successfully captured them.

  "Ctter~"

  With its chakra threads severed, Kankuro’s puppet, Karasu, colpsed in pieces.

  "What is this?!"

  The moment Temari and Kankuro’s shadows were touched by Link’s, their bodies regressed, shrinking to the size of two-year-olds. Their itive abilities dulled, memories faded, and they could no longer fun.

  The power of Sethan's shadow ability was absurd. Once his shadow ected with an enemy’s, it bypassed all ditions, causing regression in its target. Even against chakra-based structs, it ed only minimal chakra ter.

  If only this ability could be stored long-term... Link thought with a hint ret as he gently id Rock Lee ft and used chakra to examine his dition.

  The prognosis was grim.

  Rock Lee's body was severely overexerted, with multiple fractures and muscle damage. His dition was critical.

  Link first stabilized Lee’s faili and lungs with a burst of healing chakra, then trated a signifit amount of chakra to perform Delicate Illness Extra Teique. Even when used with raw, brute chakra, it still achieved miraculous results.

  "The shadow e still has a few seds left. Third Hokage, I hope you’ve ed things up by now—"

  "Thwack!"

  The sound of the Third Hokage’s staff breaking through a sand gold barrier echoed. The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, wore a slightly dazed expression.

  The rejuvehird Hokage had taken only forty seds to deal with the reanimated Hokage summoned by Orochimaru. Using advaninjutsu suppression, cle bat, and near-inprehensible sealing teiques, he had removed the talismans trolling their heads. Once freed, the sacrifices fell lifelessly to the ground.

  It was likely that Orochimaru had dispelled the teique himself at that point.

  The problem was that the Third Hokage had aplished all this while fending off Rasa’s tinuous attacks.

  "What even is this Konoha Crush Pn I agreed to join?"

  Rasa felt utterly lost. It was as if, despite all of them being Kage, the Third Hokage could effortlessly defeat three others while ign his own attacks.

  "Maybe dying here wouldn’t be so bad..."

  For Rasa, being the Kazekage was a burden far heavier than it was an honor. His deing vilge, propped up by his personal sacrifices and eic strategies, faced distrust from daimyo and nobles alike.

  Despite giving everything for his vilge, he couldn’t stop its dest into ruin.

  He was tired. The weight of carrying everyone forward had brought him nothing but pain. So when Orochimaru proposed the Konoha Crush, he should have, as a Kage, opposed such a desperate gamble.

  But in the end, he did nothing.

  Orochimaru’s defeat at the hands of Konoha’s young ninja had awakened him to reality. Before departing, he had resolved to shoulder the responsibility of being Kazekage o time. Death, he felt, was his best escape.

  So, as the staff came toward him with overwhelming force, Rasa did not resist or evade. He simply closed his eyes quietly.

  "If I die here, everything will end, right?"

  …

  "What are you waiting for?"

  A familiar, somewhat weary voice broke the silence.

  Rasa slowly opened his eyes to see the once-agaihird Hokage standing before him. The staff ressed against his chest, but it had stopped short of striking.

  "Why... why didn’t you kill me?”

  Bleam