Elsewhere in the desert.
Margaret looked down at Arthur with a smirk.
"You once said I had no idea what you had been through," she called out. "Well, now the whole world knows exactly what you did. And you couldn't have picked the wrong path."
She didn't wait for a response as she skyrocketed down to intercept him. The moment she reached striking distance, Arthur's body dissolved into smoke. He then instantly reformed right behind her, reached out, grabbed her by the ankle, and slammed her back into the sand.
The impact kicked up a crater.
Before she could recover, he dropped his weight, pinned her to the ground, and began choking her as saliva pooled in her mouth.
But as he looked down into her eyes, he noticed something wrong: her cheeks flushed red and an amorous smile stretched across her face.
His eyes narrowed in mild disgust because she was looking at him with infatuation.
Before he could snap her neck to end that bizarre display, his eyes flashed upon sensing a clatter of wooden joints descending from above. So he let go and quickly leapt backwards as a half-dozen blade-wielding puppets crashed in the area.
Margaret was unharmed, and the rest of the allied cavalry arrived to secure the perimeter.
"You alright?" Jada asked, dropping to one knee.
Margaret slowly pushed herself up and wiped the drool from her lips. Her face was still blushing, and she continued to grin in Arthur's direction, completely ignoring her teammate.
Jada eyed her with a peculiar look. Why was she looking at an enemy like that?
"I thought I told you stay back," Margaret pressed in a raspy voice from the strangulation.
But before she could make her next move, Kakashi and William landed besides them. The veteran Jōnin immediately urged her to hold her ground and not make any rash decisions. They needed a coordinated formation to fight a monster of Arthur's calibre.
"Bite me, Kakashi-sensei!" she snapped. Kakashi was shocked by the insubordination. "I'm the only one who's strong enough to take him on!"
"I'll show you!" William yelled, his pride bruised.
He also ignored the tactical layout and charged directly at Arthur.
"Idiot!" Margaret scowled, taking flight after him.
"Wait!" Kakashi tried to order them back.
But they wouldn't listen. Even Jada was forced to follow the two with her Totsuka Blade now unsheathed.
Standing on the periphery, Chiyo watched the trio. She was amazed at the level of speed they were moving at.
William arrived first, throwing a chakra-laced punch. Arthur moved left to dodge. Then Margaret swooped in from above. Arthur leapt clean over her. Then Jada swung her weapon thrice. Arthur ducked under the first, swayed past the second, and waited for the third.
Cling!
A kick disarmed her while causing her to retreat.
Chiyo and Kankuro were not going to sit idly by and watch the vanguard get dismantled. They waved their arms and their fingers danced as they unleashed their puppets.
Before Arthur knew it, he was surrounded by a dozen wooden constructs.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three of the puppets shattered from his punches that blasted their torsos into splinters.
As he pivoted, one of Kakashi's ninja hounds erupted from the ground. Arthur raised his leg, letting the dog bite empty air. Then he kicked it away.
Behind him, William lunged with a Rasengan. Arthur shifted right, letting him crash.
The moment William leapt away, Jada arrived at Arthur's side with a Lightning Blade. Arthur spun, making her miss. She tried using the momentum to deliver a back kick, but he caught her heel and threw her at an incoming Margaret.
The two girls crashed into each other in mid-air before tumbling back into the sand.
"You're messing up my fight!" Margaret yelled, shoving Jada off her after they landed.
"Why are you acting this way?!" Jada countered, thoroughly frustrated.
She honestly didn't understand what Margaret's bizarre obsession over fighting Arthur solo was about. Anyone who knew him would have also known that a one-on-one was tactical suicide.
The next to attack Arthur was Sakura; she was dropping from the sky with her fist pulled back.
Boom!
A cascade of sand poured out that created a shockwave, and when the dust cleared, her fist had hit nothing but the earth.
Arthur stood right next to her. Before she could pull her arm from the crater, he grabbed her by both cheeks and brought her face close to his.
"Are you that depressed that I killed your parents?" he whispered. Her breath hitched. "Or what about after I took your little boyfriend from you?"
'Chakra dissection blade…'
His free hand swiped at her neck. Swoosh.
He missed!
A fraction of a second before the technique connected, Chiyo had pulled the girl backwards via a chakra string attached to her back.
"You okay?" the old ninja asked.
She coughed, enraged that he had actually said that to her. "Yeah… I'm fine."
The two then watched as William charged in from Arthur's flank.
"Pick on someone your own size!" William shouted.
Arthur turned, dropping the chakra blade, and engaged him in a rapid bout of close-quarters taijutsu.
A kick for a kick and a punch for a punch.
"You've barely changed, William… How are you any bigger than Sakura?"
"I'm not gonna let you get in my head!"
William fought with an aggressive style he had trained for months by pushing his physical limits to match the warlord. Yet Arthur coldly deflected his every attempt.
During the exchange, Arthur deliberately closed his eyes for a quick second, creating a false opening. William took the bait and stepped into the sand for a jab. But when Arthur opened his eyes again, they were glowing a blood red.
'Crimson gaze…'
He slowly moved into the incoming jab and drove his own hand straight into William's chest.
Poof!
The body dissolved into white smoke, leaving Arthur standing with his arm outstretched.
Such a lethal act done so casually startled Alice, who watched from a distance. Arthur was being dead serious; he wasn't playing with them anymore. If they dared give him even a fraction of a chance, he would kill one of them.
Right then and there, he watched as Jada fell back towards the defensive line where Sakura and Chiyo were stationed.
"Come on, Marge!" she yelled.
But her friend ignored the retreat order and kept her eager smile fixed entirely on Arthur.
"Come and get some," he challenged her in a flat tone.
"Ya don't have to tell me twice!"
In a moment's notice, the two were sliding across the dunes and flying through the air, darting left and right, up and down while trying to overpower the other in a brutal display of physical combat.
"We have to do something," Kankuro said, marvelling at Arthur's fluid movements.
The rumours about the man were exactly as terrifying as he expected, especially after Kankuro had personally fought Arthur as Kaito in the past. That fight, however, was entirely different than the one he was experiencing now.
"No," Kakashi ordered as his eyes tracked the fight.
They all looked at him. Only Alice understood what he was thinking.
"Let her fight him until we can find a better opening," she said.
"That's right," Kakashi replied, keeping his voice low.
He soon explained to them what that last round was about. Although their squad was exceptionally skilled in their own rights, Arthur had dismantled their offense as if they were nothing.
This was also Kakashi's first time fighting the warlord. And just like he recalled from everyone's testimonies, it was like fighting a ghost, a ghost that simply knew all of their moves before they could make them.
No wonder Team 7 had so much trouble with him in the Land of Tea.
On top of that was what he said to Sakura.
"Don't let his words get to you," Kakashi announced to her.
"I know; I won't!"
Yet the group had a difficult time believing that. Because the way she was acting right now, it wasn't how she normally did during combat.
The group used this moment to form a plan without verbal commands. When they were done, Alice used her powers to take to the skies, high above the battlefield.
Arthur, still engaged in dodging and striking Margaret, paid close attention to their movements.
'Their layout changed.' He felt Alice building up energy—not chakra. Jada and Kakashi were hiding themselves deep underground as if trying to tunnel their way out of his sensing range. Meanwhile, Chiyo and Kankuro were rapidly summoning more puppets to form a barricade in front of Sakura. 'Interesting…'
Their trap was indeed well prepared. But their problem was that they were misjudging his prowess.
'Seven heavenly breaths: second activation…'
Oxygen flooded his bloodstream. Right when Margaret threw a hook and thought she was going to land a hit, he vanished from her line of sight and reappeared right behind her. He then grabbed her by the back of the neck, slammed her downward, and pinned her to the desert floor.
The moment she hit the sand, the trap was sprung. Kakashi and Jada erupted from the ground with hands already flashing with electricity.
"Double Lightning Blade!" they shouted in unison.
Swoosh!
Their techniques phased right through him because he turned into smoke. But the allied squad was expecting this exact evasion. Jada held onto Margaret's ankle as Chiyo and Kankuro retracted their chakra strings before violently yanking all three of them out of the impact zone.
When Arthur reformed himself, he looked up, only to see Alice's body glowing with blinding light. An immense amount of Gelel energy was gathered between her palms.
There was no doubt about the technique: her Cerebral Wave.
Now he understood why the puppet barricade was put up by the Sand shinobi. Alice's technique, fuelled by that much concentrated Gelel energy, could level entire terrains since it was an apocalyptic blast.
"Arthur!" she boomed. "Your crimes end here!"
A destructive beam of white-hot force crashed down from the heavens as the impact struck the desert floor, creating a shockwave that parted the dunes, melted the sand into glass, and nearly destroyed all of the defensive puppets formed!
Then, a blinding light consumed the entire sector until the roar of the explosion finally faded into the howling wind.
When the dust, smoke, and glass was still raging, Margaret sat on the ground, breathing heavily. Her natural energy was depleted, and her Sage Mode markings slowly faded from her skin.
The rest of the allied group stared at the epicentre of the blast. Before they knew, there was a sudden flash.
Then they saw it from the debris: Arthur was hovering a few feet in the air above the glass crater with his arms crossed. Massive, radiant golden wings made of pure chakra extended from his back. His dark hair had turned completely white and his clothes were ripped. But what terrified them even more was that his muscular body was completely unscathed.
Alice gawked as she slowly descended from her perch. Just how was this possible? How could someone like him even exist?
It's then she remembered this transformation from the last time they fought. This was one of his ultimate states of spiritual and physical harmony: Angelic Mode!
"I see that you people," he said, looking down at the battered squad, "never learn your lesson."