Aftermath

The moment he finished speaking, Yota made his move. Black mist surged from his hand.

Though Yugito was still young, she was no weak Jinchuriki. While she had yet to become a perfect Jinchuriki, she could already roughly control the tailed beast’s power within her. No wonder she had dared to step forward when every Kumogakure Ninja had been defeated.

However, monsters like Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, whose strength lay purely in their immense Chakra reserves, were the easiest for Yota to deal with now. Whether it was Wood Release, the Dark-Dark Fruit’s power, or the Rinnegan, any one of them could easily teach her a lesson.

Seeing the black mist spread, Yugito’s eyes narrowed. She had long known the power of this Black Shadow Ninja’s Dark Release. Her body suddenly moved like an agile cat, and with a flash, she leaped away from Yota’s attack.

As she dodged, she unleashed a nimble blue Fire Release. Fireballs darted like mice, deftly winding around Yota’s black mist as they bombarded his actual body.

Yota frowned slightly, then pushed off with his feet and vanished in an instant. In terms of taijutsu, he was the strongest in the entire ninja world.

"So fast!" Yugito shuddered in alarm. Yota had already torn through the air, one hand instantly pressing against her face.

Feeling the Chakra within her drain away like floodwater from a broken dam, Yugito formed claws with both hands. Tailed Beast Chakra coiled around them into feline claws as she frantically raked at Yota. Yota neither dodged nor blocked; the Armament Haki covering his body effortlessly stopped Yugito’s dying struggle.

As a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, Yugito possessed exceptionally high Chakra in terms of intensity, quality, and quantity. Even if Yota pushed the Dark-Dark Fruit’s power to its limits, he could not drain her dry in an instant. But likewise, under these circumstances, it was even harder for Yugito to break free from his grasp. She could only endure the pain of feeling her Chakra vanish bit by bit.

"Damn it, cough, cough!" Terrifying blue flames erupted from Yugito’s body. Yota smiled faintly. "Trying to break free through Tailed Beast Transformation? You’re thinking too highly of yourself!"

As soon as he spoke, rolling black mist spread down from Yota’s hand and directly drew Yugito into the Dark Space.

"The Two-Tails Jinchuriki… Perfect. After I absorb the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, I can use her to synthesize the God Tree!"

Of course, before that, he had to deal with Black Zetsu first. Otherwise, Yota had no idea whether using the Munch-Munch Fruit to absorb the God Tree would result in Kaguya possessing him as well.

After taking down the strongest ninja currently stationed in Kumogakure, the remaining people were no longer an obstacle to Yota and the others. Before long, he swaggered out of Kumogakure with the group.

No idea how many people we killed on this trip… Whatever. When it’s time to demand money from Konoha, I’ll count it on the high side. Yeah, I’ll have Kakuzu collect the money. That guy definitely won’t let us take a loss!

Muttering to himself, Yota led everyone away from Kumogakure, then turned back to look at the unfortunate experimental subjects.

"Alright, Kumogakure is too busy to worry about anything else now. Everyone should go back to wherever you came from."

The experimental subjects exchanged looks, their faces full of confusion. Most of them had had their entire families wiped out and bore blood-deep hatred toward Kumogakure. A smaller number had been directly betrayed by their own villages or clans and handed over to Kumogakure.

The former had long since lost their homes, while the latter could not return even if they had one. Only a very few still had somewhere to go.

Those few were basically from the major ninja villages. Among them was even a Magnet Release ninja from Sunagakure. No wonder Kumogakure had later developed Magnet Release—it turned out they had stolen it. But there were even more ninjas from Iwagakure. The two sides were bitter enemies, after all. Kumogakure capturing Iwagakure Ninja for experiments was completely open and undisguised. Of course, Iwagakure was probably no different.

There were also some lone-wolf ninjas, such as certain rogue ninjas or wandering ninjas, and even people who had accidentally awakened a Bloodline Limit and then stepped into the ninja world.

Among the group, only those ninjas from major villages or those who traveled alone bowed to Yota before leaving directly. The others, who had nowhere to go, ultimately decided to follow Yota.

After counting them, around half still remained. Yota did not care much and simply decided to take them to the Sound Ninja Village.

Though Orochimaru was no good person either, and his human experiments were probably no fewer than Kumogakure’s, with Yota keeping him in check, he definitely would not dare go too far.

Moreover, with Yota’s Munch-Munch Fruit, Orochimaru was no longer interested in many low-level human experiments. He had shifted more toward theoretical research and design.

Of course, the most important thing was that these experimental subjects were genuinely talented. Otherwise, Kumogakure would never have chosen them. With proper training, nearly all of them could reach roughly the combat strength of a Special Jonin. Together, they were already no weaker than the upper-level combat power of some smaller ninja villages.

With this group of subordinates, Yota would find it more convenient to handle various matters. After all, every Akatsuki member was proud and arrogant, and Yota would not trouble them with ordinary tasks.

Of course, things with Kumogakure were far from over. Yota had Sara lead the group away first. He planned to return alone to Kumogakure’s camp and retrieve Hinata’s Byakugan.

Boom!

"Those despicable Konoha ninjas! And that damned Black Shadow Ninja! They actually dared to ambush Kumogakure! They caused such enormous casualties and even abducted our Jinchuriki!"

The burly Fourth Raikage smashed the table in the temporary meeting room with one punch, his face filled with fury.

The other Kumogakure Ninja around the table wore equally dreadful expressions.

Information traveled quickly in the ninja world, after all, thanks to Summoning Beasts. Thus, not long after Yota attacked Kumogakure, news had reached them.

Honestly, when the Fourth Raikage first received the intelligence, he thought the intelligence officers had made a mistake. Only after repeated confirmation did he finally accept that the report was accurate, and he nearly exploded with rage.

It was no wonder the Fourth Raikage was so furious. This time, Yota had not held back as he had in Konoha. The number of Kumogakure Ninja he had killed was already in the several thousands, accounting for half of the forces left behind in Kumogakure at the time and ninety percent of its jonin.

These losses were almost worse than those of a Ninja World War. The cannon fodder losses might not have been great, but at the jonin level, Kumogakure had practically been wiped out in a single stroke.

If not for the fact that the Fourth Raikage had taken roughly one-third of their jonin with him on this campaign, then after this disaster, Kumogakure’s number of high-ranking jonin might not even have surpassed that of the weakest Sunagakure.