"Infinite Chaotic Dance!"
"Hah!"
Rock Lee, seeing the well-equipped tactical squad, knew they posed the greatest relative threat and launched his assault on them first.
His speed was simply too high for the Hand's operatives to process. By the time the crack of a sonic boom reached their ears, their vision had already blurred. A massive force slammed into their chests, launching them into the air before they even realized they were dead.
With a single punch, Lee sent an armored soldier flying, his chest plate caving in around a deep fist print. The body careened backward, bowling over everyone in its path.
A kick from Lee left a crater in the asphalt, sending stone fragments whistling through the air like shrapnel. One palm strike landed on a ballistic helmet; the head inside was snapped back with such force the helmet was flattened and the neck shattered.
Those wearing helmets were the "lucky" ones. For those without, the scene was as gruesome as a sledgehammer meeting a watermelon.
In just a few seconds, the thirty-man tactical platoon was all but wiped out.
As the heavy machine gun fire ceased, Sasuke, Shizune, and Iruka blurred out of the ruins to join the fray.
Alexandra and Murakami watched the carnage with a mixture of shock and fury. "Attack! Open fire!" Alexandra roared.
The remaining footmen and ninjas scrambled to obey. Gunfire erupted once more, mingled with the whistle of katanas cutting through the air.
Hayate, noticing the two elderly men barking orders, guessed they were two more "Fingers" of the Hand. He immediately shouted, "Don't kill those two old timers yet!"
He remembered that finding the Dragon Bone's exact core required the cooperation of the Hand's leaders. Finding it on his own through thousands of tons of earth would be a massive headache if he killed everyone who knew the secret.
Hearing Hayate's command, the ninjas moved with practiced coordination, weaving around the two leaders to dismantle the rest of the Hand's forces.
A thousand meters away, the sniper saw his window. He pulled the trigger, sending an armor-piercing shell screaming toward Hayate at 850 meters per second.
Recalling the previous "cannon fire" that had shredded his room, Hayate didn't bother trying to parry with a kunai. He flashed through a hand sign.
Body Replacement Technique!
The ultra-dense shell slammed into a log, turning it into splinters instantly.
Hayate tracked the trajectory back to its source, his Sharingan locking onto the sniper hidden atop the distant skyscraper. Without hesitation, he pulled a kunai, coated it in chakra, and—still under the effects of the Gate of Pain—flung it with everything he had.
Zing!
The kunai tore through the air, traveling even faster than the sniper's bullet. Before the sniper could even blink in disbelief, the kunai punched through his skull, pinning him to the roof.
With the long-range threat neutralized, Hayate scanned the street. The Hand had been thorough; every surveillance camera in the vicinity had been destroyed before the assault.
This meant they could go all out. Though against these "small fry," even using a Replacement Technique felt like showing the opponent too much respect.
Sasuke, his Sharingan spinning, was a whirlwind of steel. His shuriken-jutsu was a work of art; several blades would fly out, tethered by nearly invisible razor wire. He didn't even have to strike directly—panicked Hand members running for cover often found themselves garroted or dismembered by the wires they couldn't see.
As the battlefield fell silent, Alexandra realized the tide had turned and tried to slip away. He didn't get far before Hayate blocked his path.
"Where are you going, old man?"
Alexandra didn't answer. He swept his hand forward, sending an invisible wave of Chi toward Hayate.
Though the strike was invisible to the naked eye, it couldn't hide from Hayate's senses. He met the wave with a chakra-enhanced fist.
BOOM!
A dull thud echoed through the street. Alexandra was knocked back several steps, his face turning an ashen shade of gray.
"Which Finger are you?" Hayate mocked. "Your Chi training seems... lacking."
Alexandra's expression turned murderous. "Murakami! Together! Or neither of us leaves this place alive!"
Murakami, who had been looking for his own exit, realized the other four ninjas were tracking his every move. Escaping was impossible. He leaped to Alexandra's side. "On three," he hissed.
Hayate looked at them with pure contempt. "Two cockroaches together are still just cockroaches."
In a flash, Hayate appeared between them. He reached out with both hands, seizing each man by an arm, and wrenched them apart.
Tear!
Under the overwhelming power of the Fourth Gate, Hayate's strength was monstrous. He didn't just pull—he ripped. The sound of tearing muscle and snapping bone preceded the spray of blood.
"AAAGH!"
The two old men collapsed, clutching their mangled shoulders. The pain was so sudden and intense that their nervous systems took a second to register the loss of their limbs.
Alexandra and Murakami frantically hammered at pressure points on their shoulders with their remaining hands, using their Chi to cauterize the vessels and stem the flow of blood. Their faces, already ancient, now looked like those of corpses.
Hayate tossed the severed arms aside and watched them struggle. "Don't be in such a hurry to leave," he said softly. "Look around. Your men are already gone."
As he spoke, the last of the sporadic gunfire died out. A few Hand members who had tried to pull the pins on suicide grenades were cut down before they could even twitch a finger.
The two leaders looked around the street. Nearly a hundred of their elite warriors had been slaughtered in minutes. They finally realized they hadn't just hit a wall—they had walked into a meat grinder.
Murakami looked up at the man standing over him. He sank to one knee.
"Lord Hayate... I surrender. This attack was Alexandra's idea," Murakami gasped, his voice trembling. "Keep me alive, and I will share the secrets of the Dragon Bone with you. You've found the site in Hell's Kitchen, but you don't know how to use what's beneath it... I can show you."