Chapter 23: Kumogakure’s Heavy Casualties
Cloud-Thunder Gorge, this training ground specifically for Jinchūriki, can no longer be called a ‘gorge’ now.
The double explosion of the Tailed Beast Bomb and Small Spiraling Ring had a stacking effect that was far from just 1+1=
Several mountain peaks within a few kilometers around Cloud-Thunder Gorge were leveled flat, and a giant pit with a diameter of over a thousand meters and depth of over a hundred meters suddenly appeared in the center of Cloud-Thunder Gorge.
The river cut off at the waist surged in carrying gravel.
Inside the pit, the exposed rock layers presented a glass-like crystalline state under the high-temperature scorching.
The mutilated body of the Eight-Tails Gyūki struggled to rise from the ruins, and the crystalline soil blocks around it cracked and collapsed.
“Cough… Big bro~ You okay~ ” A mouthful of blood sprayed from Killer Bee’s mouth, yet he still didn’t forget to use his RAP singing tone.
Tailed Beast Transformed Killer Bee had used his body to protect Raiden, but his own back was blasted into a bloody mess by the terrifying explosive power, with bones visible in the wounds.
“Bee!” Raiden hurriedly supported the Killer Bee who had lost his Tailed Beast Transformation.
If it weren’t for the Tailed Beast Transformed Killer Bee protecting him just now, the one lying heavily injured on the ground right now would probably be the Fourth Raiden!
Raiden carried Killer Bee on his back and quickly dashed toward the Cloud Village.
The explosion from earlier still flashed in his mind with lingering fear.
The village…
When Raiden arrived at the outskirts of the Cloud Village, standing on a mountain peak, he saw that the Cloud Village center was like it had been erased by an eraser, and the Raiden Building had completely disappeared.
Several mountain peaks including the Raiden Building had been blasted off at the waist.
Cloud Village Ninjas suffered heavy casualties, with thick smoke rolling everywhere in the entire village, and medical ninjas shuttling through the thick smoke, busy saving people everywhere.
The incessant wails pierced through the gunpowder smoke, filling this Fourth Raiden with deep self-blame.
“Lord Raiden!” Two figures landed beside Raiden.
He looked closely; it was Yugito Nii and Dōtai.
“Killer Bee!” When she saw the heavily injured Killer Bee, Yugito Nii’s pupils trembled slightly.
As a fellow Jinchūriki, Yugito Nii was very clear about Killer Bee’s strength.
Without the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki making a move, Killer Bee, as the strongest Jinchūriki of the current era, had actually been beaten into this state by the enemy!
“Bee protected me…” Raiden clenched his fists.
He had once feared that his brother Killer Bee would suffer a similar siege like their father the Third Raiden’s death, so he prohibited Killer Bee from leaving the village.
But today, after being attacked at the door by mysterious enemies, it was this brother who blocked that terrifying explosion for him!
“What was the explosion in the village? Where are those two enemies?” After handing the heavily injured Killer Bee to the arriving medical ninjas, Raiden questioned Dōtai.
This elite jonin deeply trusted by the Third Raiden said with a heavy expression: “By the time I arrived, the battle was already over.”
“Where are Darui and the others!” Raiden shouted hoarsely.
“Darui, Hi, and Samui only suffered some minor injuries, but Mabui was too close to the explosion center and couldn’t evacuate in time; she’s still being rescued…” Dōtai’s single eye reflected the ruins at the village center.
“Among the other participating ninjas, two jonin are confirmed dead, two jonin and three special jonin are seriously injured, seven chunin are confirmed dead, and sixteen chunin had their chakra drained with unknown life or death.”
“Additionally, this explosion destroyed the Cloud Village center, with estimated casualties not less than two hundred people.”
The Cloud Village was built on the mountaintops, unlike Konoha built on the plains, so the explosion’s power and shockwave were offset by the mountains, and as a ninja military base, the Cloud Village had almost all villagers as chakra-possessing ninjas, who were also counted in the war losses.
Thus, the tragic loss of seven jonin and special jonin, over twenty chunin, and over two hundred genin villagers was enough to rival a major battle defeat!
If not for the Cloud Village’s main ninja forces fighting against Konoha ninja forces in the Land of Moon and Land of Hot Water, the casualties this time might have been even more.
Moreover, the Cloud Village’s ‘strategic nuclear weapon,’ the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki Killer Bee, was also seriously injured!
Bang!
Fourth Raiden punched the nearby mountain peak, blasting out a two-meter-wide deep pit!
“Have those two enemies been caught!” Raiden gnashed his teeth, wishing he could immediately tear them to shreds.
But Dōtai shook his head with a grim face.
He then voiced a speculation: “Based on Darui and Hi’s descriptions, those two levitating enemies disappeared just as the explosion started; they… probably aren’t human… they’re summoned beasts!”
“What!” Hearing that the two mysterious enemies who had held off dozens of Cloud Village elite ninjas were actually summoned beasts, Raiden was so furious his eyes bulged.
“How did they enter the village?” Raiden’s knuckles turned white, growing angrier the more he thought.
Dōtai said: “I sent people to question today’s village entrance guards, the ninjas who encountered that mysterious person with Killer Bee, and interrogated today’s entering merchant caravans.”
“Preliminarily learned that the enemies used illusion techniques to control the merchant caravan leader and entered the village under the name ‘Danzō’; this is his sketch portrait.” Dōtai handed over the collected intelligence and a sketch portrait to Raiden.
For Dōtai to preliminarily organize the intelligence in such a short time was already quite impressive.
Looking at the sunny and cheerful young boy in the portrait, Raiden grew even more furious.
“Immediately activate all Cloud Village intelligence networks! We must find this guy!” Raiden crumpled the sketch portrait into a ball and said through gritted teeth: “Issue a bounty at the bounty exchange! Seventy million ryō! If anyone provides intelligence leads, Cloud Village will reward them with ten million ryō upon verification!”
A seventy million ryō bounty was already higher than the bounties of many Tailed Beast Jinchūriki.
The Six-Tails Jinchūriki Utakata’s bounty was only fifty million ryō.
Of course, Raiden didn’t expect to kill this mysterious enemy through the bounty; the main purpose of issuing the bounty order was to spread the information, draw other villages’ attention to this mysterious person, and give him some trouble.
The Cloud Village had spies in other villages; if this mysterious person clashed with them or anything, Cloud Village could obtain intelligence leads.
“Yes!” Dōtai immediately ordered a trusted ninja to handle this.
“Additionally…” Raiden looked at the large empty area in the distant village and said unwillingly: “Cease war with Konoha.”
Rumble!
The clouds scattered by the earlier explosion gathered again over the Cloud Village, and the falling raindrops seemed to carry the irritating smell of gunpowder smoke, washing over Cloud Village’s wounds.
The pain of war enveloped the entire Cloud Village.
In the 54th year of Konoha, news of the Cloud Village being attacked by mysterious ninjas spread like wildfire.
Various ninja villages sent spies to investigate the Cloud Village’s losses.
Not long after, the Cloud Village agreed to Konohagakure’s ceasefire conditions, and the final battles of the Third Great Ninja War finally ended, with the ninja world about to usher in a brief peace.
At the same time, a mysterious ninja named ‘Danzō’ with codename ‘Shura’ was listed on the underground black market with a whopping seventy million ryō bounty!
Even just providing useful information could earn ten million ryō in reward!
————
Meanwhile, in the Root Base far away in Konoha.
Looking at the updated bounty list from the bounty exchange brought by his subordinate, with that ‘Danzō”s bounty, Shimura Danzō flew into a rage and tore the brand new bounty order to shreds.
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