_________ POV Narration _________

Saburo's clone's mask broke as he also felt his legs being swallowed up by the Samehada.

"Tsk... So you were hiding your strength?" The Strawman scowled while his eyes landed on Tosho.

"I was merely following my master's teachings. A good assassin always keeps his cards close to his chest." Tosho shook his head as the Samehada chewed on the clone's flesh with glee.

"Haha~ Too bad your master couldn't follow his own teachings. He attracted too much attention with his actions, this could have all been avoided..."

The Strawman's dismembered clone seemed to gain a bitter tone as it spoke about the leader of the Dark Brotherhood.

Tosho didn't seem to get offended when hearing the traitor badmouth Ken.

"Well, it was certainly an effective strategy in terms of forcing our true enemies to rear their heads... Like you did.

After this is done, our Brotherhood will be able to roam freely, without any worry about snakes like you lurking in the shadows."

The First Blade shook his head before swinging the Samehada down on the clone's back.

"Children, immediately undo all seals on you that are connected to the Second Blade and his clones." Tosho then turned to the children and nodded at them.

"Way ahead of you sir... I already told all of our siblings to do so when killing his first clone." Tatsukio waved at the First Blade with a smile underneath his mask.

Plenty of his siblings had gotten injured due to Saburo's explosive clones.

Tatsukio himself was safe, and he had even managed to pull away some of his siblings, but without Tosho's interference, some of them would have surely died.

But it wasn't like this was the first time Tosho saved them. He was the one to bring them all within the Brotherhood at the end of the day.

"Then it should be fine... Hunt down all of Saburo's clones that are within the barrier, and form a defensive line around the pillars of support." Tosho waved his hand around and ordered the children with a stern voice they, all nodded and blurred away, Tatsukio included.

Only a few of them remained around the Pillars.

'What a god damned mess..." The First Blade then vanished, dashing towards his master's building.

His mind was reeling, trying to understand the extent of Saburo's betrayal and the full scope of what he was truly capable of.

In his mind, he couldn't help but worry, Saburo could still interfere with the barrier they had set up even without killing the pillars.

'Thankfully the children acting as pillars are all instructed to block off their contract seals, otherwise, Saburo could've destroyed the barrier without any issue...'

Ken had made sure to take many precautions to ensure that the pillars of support for the Barrier around the brotherhood were not going to be disturbed.

He had even instructed all of them to remove any seals that would allow their siblings to draw charka from them. The pillars were essentially only supposed to draw chakra from others through seals and nothing more.

If they were to be interrupted, then the last line of defense of their Brotherhood would also fall.

Akria, the Third Blade, was surely already also helping in hunting down the other clones that were somewhat scattered within the compound.

Saburo was a skilled shinobi, but when splitting his consciousness between many clones at once his skills became dulled, which led to even the children being able to deal with the clones.

The only real problem was that they could coordinate like no other Shinobi Squad in existence and that the more of them died, the harder they became to kill.

Tosho knew that the children would handle everything within the compound, so the most difficult part would be up to him.

The Laboratory.

It was likely deserted by now, but Tosho was sure that was where the bulk of the clones were located.

'There were around 65 of them in total from what I remember... I should expect at least 20 of them down there, the original likely fled long before this happened.

I just hope Ken is not in any immediate danger.'

Fighting ensued and embroiled the entirety of the compound, Tosho felt the earth rattle as jutsu of all kinds erased the houses they had worked hard to build.

But it was nothing to worry about, a house could be built back up from its foundation. And the brotherhood's foundation was the children and Ken himself.

As long as that foundation survived, then the Brotherhood was bound to thrive once more.

Tosho passed by two other clones on his way to the laboratory, they seemed to still be idly guarding the entrance.

They weren't able to react in time, both of them getting decapitated as soon as the First Blade passed by them.

The Laboratory was about as empty as he expected it to be.

Or so it seemed, Tosho received a strange premonition before raising his Samehada above his head.

He blocked a hand that had been grabbing at his head, and a strange seal spread on the living blade.

"Crimson Seal, huh?" Tosho muttered before flinging the clone to the side of the room, smashing him into the wall before shaking the Samehada slightly.

The seal was undone rather quickly, not that it would have done anything to the Samehada, as it required the victim to have a human-like chakra network in order to work.

But the failed ambush wasn't really concerning to Tosho, what felt more concerning was that he was now completely surrounded from all sides by masked clones.

"I guess I wasn't the only one hiding things... Seems you've made more clones than reported...

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I knew your clones felt weaker than usual, maybe you're spreading yourself out too thin?" Tosho scowled while the Samehada twirled around him and bared its teeth.

"Of course I am... This is a special occasion. It was difficult enough to create this many clones away from the Red Dot's 'gaze'... I need to make use of all my resources to make sure everything goes well."

One of Saburo's clones spoke with calm as the others seemed to be preparing for a fight, making hand signs and preparing Jutsu which Tosho mostly recognized.

"Nothing will be going well for you..."

The First Blade brandished his living sword while speaking in a calm manner, not letting his frustration and worry affect his thought process.

Many of the clones around him were amongst the strongest that Saburo had, and as the weaker ones aboveground died off, the ones he was now up against were going to be both stronger and more difficult to deal with.

But that wasn't the first precarious situation that Tosho had found himself in.

Even as all of the clones around him formed a frying line of various jutsu he stood calm. It seemed that Saburo's arsenal was rather expansive, ranging from fireballs to dragon bullets to water dragons and even wind blades.

They all rushed towards Tosho, filling the room with light. The first blade only gave the Strawman a composed sigh before gripping the living blade in his hand.

Like a snake, the Samehada coiled around Tosho's body, absorbing all of the attacks with glee before spreading out once more, lashing out in a circle and slashing at all of the closest clones in the same swipe.

But Saburo was clearly prepared for that, all of the clones took a few steps back, crowding the room a bit while Tosho let go of the Samehada and did a few hand signs of his own.

"I may be outnumbered... But you've not made the smartest move in choosing to fight me in such an enclosed space..."

The First Blade spoke out as he finally finished his technique.

"Wind Release: Great Vacuum Wave!"

The First Blade took a deep breath, in an instant, Saburo's clones felt like they were suffocating, as all Oxygen in the room vanished.

Then, with a huff and a scowl, Tosho immediately started exhaling. The air came out of his mouth like a concentrated stream of pressure.

The First Blade then immediately spun around while continuing to exhale, the Samehada immediately ducked as waves of sharp air cut through the entire room.

Saburo's clones acted quickly too, some rose earth walls all the way up to the ceiling, but they were swiftly crushed by the air pressure.

Some had also tried using Fire Style Jutsu, but due to the low oxygen, they were mostly unsuccessful.

Limbs flew around in that enclosed space as the 'Vacuum Wave' washed over all of the clones.

Some were cut in two, some were simply left with an arm less.

Air quickly entered the room again as Tosho's attack also struck down the sturdy door that had closed behind him.

All in all, only around 10 clones had been lost, and more were injured and missing limbs, but at least the First Blade was successful in his task of thinning the herd.

"Tsk, and here I was hoping that you would go down easily..." One of the clones spoke out with a spiteful tone.

In an instant, the ground under Tosho's feet broke, and three pairs of hands reached out to grab at his feet.

The First Blade immediately jumped, the Samehada rushing into his hand as he swiped at the clones that had tried sneaking up on him once more.

"You'll have to try harder than that!" He shouted as he cleaved apart the clones underneath him.

Only one of them managed to substitute, not losing its 'life' in the process.

Saburo seemed to be getting even more annoyed at that point, and some of his clones immediately started preparing for a combination Jutsu.

Tosho noticed that and immediately dashed towards them, only to be stopped by 4 different clones, all brandishing different blades.

They all clashed with the Samehada together, crossing their blades and stopping the first blade in his tracks while some others tried to stab at him from behind.

But the Samehada wasn't a simple blade, it immediately expanded and twisted to block the attacks coming from behind its user.

The blade moved in an unnatural manner, immediately starting to shred apart the blades that had been stuck in between its scales.

Tosho then swiped his elongated living blade, forcing all of the clones to take a step back.

"You're right... It was a mistake to fight you here. How about we take this outside then!"

In an instant, 6 different clones tapped the ground at their feet.

"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!" 6 voices could be heard all at once as the entire room started shifting unnaturally.

Tosho scowled as he tried to brace himself as best he could. Earth-style ninjutsu of such scale in an underground setting could only really mean one thing... They were trying to make a cave-in.

But the worst part was that Tosho could see how they were first making the laboratory's insides bigger.

'Shit, don't tell me...'

Tosho immediately felt his entire body shake, as the walls, floor and ceiling around him filled with cracks.

Saburo seemed to almost read his thoughts, as he gleefully started laughing.

"Indeed! Why don't we bring the Brotherhood down a few pegs?!"

Tosho immediately dashed at the clones performing the Jutsu, but he was already far too late.

The cracks spread and expanded, and before he even made it to them, the ceiling started collapsing.

'Shit... The brotherhood is sinking!'

Outside, the effects of Saburo's actions could clearly be felt.

Tatsukio panted a bit as he took out his Tanto from the skull of the last clone he had found in the compound.

He and his siblings were hard at work, hunting down the one that had betrayed their trust.

What they didn't expect was for the ground underneath their feet to break.

In an instant, the entire brotherhood seemed to collapse.

The children acted quickly, jumping off on some buildings while doing their best to try and remain aboveground.

The one-legged assassin then looked at the sky, only to notice that it had lost its red tint...

"Shit! The barrier's fallen!"

The earthquake and sinkhole had certainly managed to disturb the pillars, causing them to lose concentration.

The Four Red Yang Formation was both powerful and complex, and the children acting as pillars were not yet at the level of mastery where they could maintain it during such chaos.

Saburo would've known that as well had he ever bothered paying attention to the children.

Had he done so, then he could have sunken the Brotherhood from the beginning, and not even sacrificed as many clones as he did...

Regardless, now things were taking a turn for the worse.

Tatsukio shouted for his siblings to prepare for the worst, but he realised that they didn't have enough time to set up another barrier.

Back at the front gate Akira slowly sat back up.

He had returned there after taking care of a few clones. And now that the barrier had fallen, he had a bigger threat to address.

"Well... Shit."

He uttered as he stood in front of two enraged tailed beasts brimming with power and bloodlust.

The monsters wasted no time at all, both pointing thier tails to the skies as two gigantic spheres of chakra gathered above their mouths.

One's chakra took the form of condensed steam, the other's took the form of pure magma.

'... I can't let that hit the brotherhood...' The Third Blade clenched his fists before turning into a blur, he dashed into the forest in front of him, his aim set.

In an instant, the two Tailed Beasts fired off.

"Tailed Beast Lava Bomb!" "Tailed Beast Steam Bomb!" The two tailed beasts repeated thier attacks from earlier, this time, there was no barrier stopping them from erasing the compound in its entirety.

But just as they pointed their mouths forward, a figure appeared in front of them.

They both immediately recognized it as the Third Blade, currently in mid-air and finishing up a Jutsu.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

In a desperate bid to stop the Tailed Beast Bombs, Akria threw himself in front of them and released a gigantic wave of water, using up a lot of chakra to spit it out of his mouth in hopes of combating the Tailed Beasts's attack in any way.

Even more steam appeared as the gigantic wave Akira spat out flooded the forest in front of him and made contact with the Pressurized Steam and Magma.

In a few seconds, the water he was spitting out was overwhelmed purely by the massive force they were up against.

And in the end, the Third Blade was forced to block those two Tailed Beast Bombs with his body.

He gritted his teeth and spread out his arms, preparing for the worst.

And just as he closed his eyes, he heard a loud shout.

"YEAHHHHHHH~!"

The Third Blade immediately opened his eyes. only to see two gigantic purple octopus tails deflecting the Tailed Beast Bombs into the sky.

"8 Tails- Hachibi Jinchuriki~ Lord Killer B is here!"

Akira sweated as he looked behind him to see a gigantic singing octopus with a set of burly arms and an ox head.

Instantly, the Third Blade's eyes lit up.

And before he could even think, a flash of black lightning appeared at the corner of his gaze, and the 5-Tailed Beast seemed to be struck to the ground, on its head landing the figure of a dark-skinned burly man with long spiky white hair.

It took a second, but Akira did recognize him eventually... The Third Raikage.

"How dare you pieces of trash try and attack our ally!" The burly man glowed with a dark aura around him as his voice thundered throughout the entire battlefield.

Akira couldn't help but smile.

'Shit! This might just be doable!'