Chapter 89 - The Final Battle (Part 1)
Killer B let out a low chuckle. His smirk was slight but sharp—like a blade before the strike.
Then, with a sudden burst of power, an eruption of chakra engulfed him. That thick, orange-yellow cloak—charged with the raw essence of the Eight-Tails—flared around his body, sparking with power and danger. His body expanded with the transformation, the menacing form of a half-transformed Jinchūriki emerging beneath the boiling chakra.
A shockwave radiated outward from his position, and the Cloud shinobi instinctively leapt back, clearing space. They knew all too well the devastation that followed such a transformation.
Without a word, Killer B opened his jaws.
A dense sphere of chakra—compressed and blackened—began to form in his mouth. It pulsed with destructive energy, vibrating like a miniature sun of chaos.
He wasn't playing around. He was going to open the battle with the Eight-Tails' signature technique.
From across the field, the Leaf shinobi immediately noticed the anomaly.
The temperature shifted. The air itself seemed to twist and warp as the chakra mass grew.
"Wait... no—! That's... that's a Tailed Beast Bomb!!"
One of the Shinobi, stationed near the front, shouted in alarm. His voice cut through the panic like a blade, but it came too late.
Killer B released it.
The Tailed Beast Bomb rocketed across the battlefield, a streak of doom blackening the sky, leaving behind a trail of scorched wind.
Leaf shinobi scattered.
Some froze. Others screamed.
And then—
Kazane moved.
With a single step, he was in front of the blast.
He didn't shout. He didn't hesitate.
His right hand reached for the sword at his waist—Wado Ichimonji.
"One-Sword Style—Shishi Sonson!"
In that moment, time seemed to stall.
Black lightning flickered along the edge of his blade as Haki surged across it, darkening the steel. Then came the draw—a blur of motion so fast it couldn't be followed by the naked eye.
The slash tore forward.
A searing arc of sword energy exploded outward—pure and precise.
It collided with the Tailed Beast Bomb mid-air.
BOOM—
There was no explosion.
Instead, the monstrous chakra sphere split clean down the center. Half of it detonated harmlessly in the distance, while the other half vaporized beneath the force of Kazane's slash.
But that wasn't all.
The same slash continued its trajectory—cutting through the Kumo front line.
Dozens of enemy shinobi fell in an instant, bodies and weapons sliced cleanly through before they even realized what had hit them.
Silence.
Even the wind paused, as if stunned.
Then came the murmurs. Gasps. Disbelief.
"Did he just... cut a Tailed Beast Bomb...?"
"He deflected it... like it was nothing..."
The Konoha forces stood frozen, their minds struggling to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Kazane sheathed his sword with a calm click.
And smiled.
"What's wrong? You were looking lively earlier. Don't tell me that was your opening move?"
His words weren't a boast.
They were a challenge.
Across the field, the Third Raikage's eyes burned with excitement.
It had been years—no, decades—since he had felt anticipation like this.
"So... he's the one."
"This is going to be fun."
The Cloud forces shifted nervously. Even Killer B, standing beside his brother, seemed momentarily stunned.
But Raikage A?
He laughed.
"Kazane Hatake! You've got guts—and power to match! Good!! Let's go, brat!"
His laughter echoed like thunder. Then, in a flash, he surged forward.
A blur of lightning and muscle.
The ground cracked beneath his steps.
At the same time, Kazane drew all three of his blades. His grip firm. His eyes razor-focused.
A roar of killing intent erupted from him like a tidal wave—Conqueror's Haki.
It crashed into the Kumo ranks.
Low-level shinobi collapsed on the spot, clutching their heads, unconscious before they hit the ground. Even seasoned jonin staggered, sweat beading on their brows as they fought to stay upright.
The air was crushed under the weight of his pressure.
In that instant, all doubt vanished from the Leaf shinobi.
They weren't fighting alone.
They had a demon on their side.
Morale surged. Shinobi who had moments ago feared death now clenched their fists with renewed determination.
Because Kazane was more than a commander.
He was a one-man army.
The Third Raikage couldn't restrain himself any longer. With a thunderous bellow, his immense frame exploded forward, raw power radiating from every step like an earthquake in motion. Lightning coiled around his body, crackling like a beast hungry for battle.
Across the field, Kazane met that primal charge head-on.
A wild grin tugged at the corners of his lips. His three blades gleamed with suppressed bloodlust, coated in jet-black Haki and glinting beneath the broken sky.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The battlefield trembled beneath the fury of their first exchange.
Kazane's blades—blades that had sliced through Tailed Beast Bombs and shattered Mist ninjutsu like paper—met not steel, not chakra, but flesh.
Flesh harder than steel.
The Raikage was using his bare hands to block them.
Every time Kazane swung, the elder shinobi met him head-on, forearms wreathed in blinding arcs of lightning. And every time they clashed, shockwaves exploded outward, hurling rubble, dirt, and unlucky shinobi in all directions.
Until now, Kazane had never encountered someone who dared meet his slashes without a weapon.
But here was this man—this mountain of muscle and chakra—doing just that.
It infuriated him.
And it thrilled him.
The Raikage was laughing, even as sparks flew from his fingertips.
"You're quick, boy. But I don't need a blade to cut you down!"
Kazane's teeth bared.
"Then I'll bury you with mine!"
The two were blasted apart from a titanic impact, skidding backward across the cratered earth.
Their battle was no longer a duel—it was a storm made flesh.
"Two-Sword Style—Second Slash: Towering Sandstorm!"
Kazane hurled himself forward, spinning both blades overhead before slamming them downward with cataclysmic force. Twin arcs of sword energy howled through the air, parting wind and stone alike.
"Hell Stab—Four-Fold Spear Strike!!"
The Raikage countered instantly, surging lightning into all four fingers. He leapt high, body flipping in midair, then crashed down like a living thunderbolt, his leg executing a devastating axe kick.
The techniques collided mid-air.
Steel met lightning.
BOOM!
A blinding detonation erupted between them, the ground beneath their feet crumbling into a vast canyon. Dirt, rock, and blood scattered across the field.
Both figures were sent flying—neither gaining the upper hand.
They rose at the same time. Each was bleeding, bruised—but grinning.
A draw.
For Kazane, it was a first.
No one had ever blocked his slashes—let alone with bare hands.
To him, it wasn't just resistance.
It was disrespect.
And worse—
It was exhilarating.
"Then I'll show you something else," Kazane muttered.
His aura exploded.
Veins bulged across his body as the Eight Gates flared open—at least four at once.
His muscles surged, blood pumping with violent rhythm. Blue lightning arced across his form as Lightning Chakra Mode overlaid his already monstrous physique.
Haki layered over chakra, chakra wrapped around muscle. His entire being became a glowing inferno of destruction—a demon cloaked in fire, steel, and darkness.
Across from him, the Raikage roared in response.
His long hair, usually flowing down his back, lifted skyward under the sheer intensity of his lightning chakra. His figure seemed to double in size. He exuded so much power the very ground trembled beneath his boots.
They moved at once.
"Three-Sword Style Ultimate: Tiger Hunt!!"
"Hell Stab—Four-Fold Spear!!"
Two divine strikes.
One born of blade mastery in a form of a tiger, the other of raw physical force.
As they collided once more, everything around them died.
The battlefield became a dead zone—no grass, no shinobi, no chakra could survive near them. The air itself seemed to recoil.
Konoha and Kumo forces alike stopped fighting near them. All eyes turned to the clash of titans at the heart of the field.
Yet, while they waged their private war, chaos was brewing elsewhere.
Root's forces, having taken heavy losses earlier, had reverted to their fallback strategy: sealing tactics and suicide squads. They didn't fight to win—they fought to delay.
And for a while, it worked.
Killer B, encircled by exploding tags, smoke bombs, and relentless sealing tags, found himself caught inside a newly reformed Four Violet Flames Formation.
From within the barrier, his vision blurred. The pressure mounted.
He was being contained—and he hated it.
Across the battlefield, Konoha's younger generation—Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and a dozen other elite jonin—had pinned down Kumo's vanguard.
Even the famed AB combo—two of the Raikage's most promising heirs—were outmaneuvered, cornered in a double-pronged trap.
Momentum had shifted.
Victory, once a distant dream, now glimmered on the horizon for Konoha.
But war is never simple.
And victory is never easy.
Inside the barrier, Killer B clenched his fists. He didn't want to do it. He knew the risks.
But he also knew—
If he didn't act now, they'd lose.
And so—
He roared.
A guttural, primal cry that shook the core of every shinobi on the field.
His body glowed, bulged, then shattered into raw chakra.
The seal cracked.
The Eight-Tails had been released.
A monstrous roar tore through the battlefield as the full form of the Hachibi burst forth, massive and terrifying, its tails whipping like scythes.
One head.
Two horns.
Eight tails of destruction.
He wasn't fully berserk, but Killer B didn't have full control, still, he had just enough control to steer its attack straight toward Konoha's main force.
Massive Tailed Beast Bombs began to gather again, drawn like storm clouds on the edge of the horizon.
Shikaku's eyes widened.
Victory, once nearly certain, now hung in the balance once more.
TN/ I'll upload the rest of the promise ten chapters tomorrow because I can't upload it now due to internet complications. But the Complete version of Naruto: System of Zoro is out on my P@treon(Zynos)