__________ POV Narration __________

Ken and the Cloud trio descended down to the lower levels of the cave, landing with a thud and breaking the ground underneath them as the cultists parted ways around them and drew their weapons.

"We're in enemy territory... Cooperation might become difficult from here on out...." Ken said in a calm voice as his blade glowed brightly. He wasn't exactly used to fighting alongside them after all, it was fair to give them a warning at the very least.

"Hmph... Don't worry, we can take care of ourselves..." The Raikage smiled confidently as lighting covered his body.

A followed his father's movements, and also used his Lightning Release Chakra Mode from the beginning.

'We'll end this quickly, I guess...' B sighed when seeing everyone already up for battle, without any hesitation, he drew on the tailed beast's chakra, allowing a dark purplish cloak of chakra to cover his body as two tentacle-like charka tendrils rose from his back.

The chakra seemed to instantly catch Ken's attention, as he was quite curious about how powerful Killer B actually was. Thankfully, he was about to find out.

The cultists around them seemed to be fearful at their sight, but they were quickly rallied by what Ken assumed was a higher-ranking member.

"Lord Jashin calls for blood! Take out all of these dirty heathens that dare trespass on his sanctuary!"

The man wore a pointed hood beside the common cultist robe, and he wielded two sickles in his hands, which seemed to be tied to his wrist by lengthy chains that were wrapped around his arms.

From his words, the crowd that had gathered around Ken and the 3 Shinobi instantly charged with zealous screams.

"FOR LORD JASHI-" They, unfortunately, didn't even get to finish their chant, as the 4 'heathens' had already dashed in different directions, all entering the fold cultists, like wolves attacking a flock of sheep.

The Raikage and A were both human weapons, each movement of theirs split humans apart, as they passed through dozens of people in mere seconds.

Ken also dexterously danced through them, his blade cleaving through both their weapons and bodies with excessive ease, as the cultists struggled to react to his flying slashes and his extended reach, as his chakra blade seemed to stretch out more and more with each swing.

Then there was the Jinchūriki, Killer B. He was not as fast as Ken, but he wasn't that far behind.

He seemed to be blessed with unnatural strength, as he wielded two blades at once and cleaved through the enemies around him just as easily as his allies.

His chakra tails, although looking rather intangible, still seemed to act as physical constructs, just from the density of his chakra.

They acted as a shield, batting away attacks constantly and crushing whoever got too close to B's back.

The regular cultists couldn't even keep up with his speed, let alone that of Ken and the others.

In the end, the room was cleared of cultists rather quickly, not even taking a minute for hundreds of men and women to meet their end.

Surprisingly, Ken was the one to rack up the most kills. Since their opponents were weak, his flying slashes were able to cleave through them more effectively than anything else.

The Raikage was still a close second though, as he had taken care of his part of the room very quickly, weapons breaking upon touching his skin as his body reached an unprecedented level of toughness.

A came third, and B came last. Not that it was a contest.

A gulped a bit when seeing the bloody figure of Ken, his clean blade was now evenly coated in blood.

The entire room was a bloodbath. Both Ken and the Raikage seemed to be completely unbothered by the quite literal pool of blood they had created.

A also tried to hide his disgust as he felt his shoes soak in blood, he was successful, as he had already been trained for such things...

It was the same for B, who just looked at the last cultist left in the room.

It was the one that had wielded two sickles... Now he was only wielding none, as both of his arms were cut off, still wriggling on the ground somewhere.

His hood was also ripped off, revealing a rotting face, even filled with maggots.

"So this is an example of the 'defective immortals' huh..." The Raikage muttered as he walked closer to the man that was currently impaled onto the wall.

Ken had made short work of him, cutting off his limbs swiftly and sticking him to the wall by impaling him with various weapons he had taken from the cultists.

"Yep... Weaker than the one I had faced before at least..." Ken nodded as he shook his blade, flinging some more blood on the ground.

"Y-you heathens... Lord Jashin will never forgive you for what you've done..." The decomposing man spoke out with hate, causing Ken to yawn for a few seconds.

"They seem to have the same speech patterns though..." The Blind Swordsman tilted his head as he looked around and stuck another blade into the 'immortal', causing him to scream.

"Sound annoying..." Killer B muttered as he also walked a bit closer, his dark purple chakra cloak still active as his tails swayed behind him.

"It certainly was." Ken nodded as he turned his head to the side.

"We won't get much time to interrogate this one now... Cavalry's incoming." The Blind Swordsman said as he turned and faced a large stone gate.

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"More cultists? This is starting to feel like an ant's nest..." A spat on the ground as he clenched his fists, lighting buzzing all around him.

"There's 10 of them, all immortals from what I can tell..." Ken tilted his head as the Raikage smiled widely.

"You think their leader is among them? I'd love to get things over with quickly..."

"Unlikely, they all seem to be moving side by side. I'd wager a guess and say they're all of the same ranks..." Ken shook his head as he raised his blade and filled it with chakra.

He pooled more and more chakra into the blade, causing it to shine brightly once more as lighting arced all around him.

"You're going all out already?" The Raikage asked as he clenched his fists as well, preparing to tear apart a few more cultists.

"Just giving them a warning shot..." Ken then grabbed the blade with both of his hands, bringing it to his side as he stepped forward.

"Divine Separation..." Ken muttered as he named the move on a whim.

With a heavy step, the cracks spread through the ground underneath his feet as he instantly swung his blade at the stone gate.

He released a blue flying slash which was buzzing with lighting, it grew in size and seemed to cover the entire gate as it rushed forward, disintegrating the gate instantly and cleaving the walls of the cave in front of them.

The entire cave shook as the flying slash burned everything in its path, and Ken heaved some steam, before placing his blade back into the seal on his wrist.

A looked at the scene with a bit of concealed fear. He didn't wish to admit it, but he surely would have died if he tried taking it head-on during their spar...

'But did he just use up all of his Chakra in one go?'

A was worried that Ken was now going to become a liability, but his worries turned out to be unfounded...

The Cloud trio watched as Ken's entire body was now filled with scales, and a spiky tail grew out of his back and slapped the ground, sending a shockwave all around him and cracking the ground underneath him even further.

Most of his body was covered by his black coat, but the Shinobi were still able to notice the change.

'... Now that I think about it, there was something regarding a transformation in the reports of the Grass Village...' The Raikage narrowed his eyes as he watched Ken's back shifting as he seemed to gain a few more kilograms of muscle...

B seemed to be the one least surprised by the transformation, as the Tailed Beast within him had already warned him of something like this happening.

"M-monster..." The immortal man impaled on the wall still got the see the entire scene. Even his insane mind was able to register the fact that Ken was not a human.

His fear was palpable, both at the transformation and the attack that the masked swordsman had just released.

Ken didn't feel like listening to him talk anymore. So his tail shot up and instantly vaporized the cultist's head.

"Finally some silence..." The Blind Monster spoke calmly as his tail swayed once more, shaking off some of the cultist's blood.

The Raikage's eyes widened when seeing that attack...

'... That speed and power... I think I wouldn't even be able to face him without the Black Lighting Chakra Mode...'

A just sweated a bit. Ken was able to react to his speed even before the transformation, now they seemed to have almost the same speed... Which meant he had absolutely no chance of fighting Ken in that state.

"Couldn't we have squished some information out of him first..." B said as he poked the man's still-moving body.

The decomposing immortal was not dead by any means. But now that his head was in pieces, it wasn't possible to question him any more.

"We still have plenty of immortals left to capture... They're still coming our way. It seems my attack was only able to get rid of two..." Ken smiled as he took off his mask and put it on his belt.

"Heh... Quite an attack that was..." The Raikage smiled as he took one last look at the wall of the cave that Ken had cut. The lighting flying slash had turned the stone to magma, as it dripped down to the ground.

"I've not had many chances to try it out. It was a surprise even for me." Ken nodded as he then pointed his hand at the ruined stone gate.

"Here they are!" He then dashed forward, with the Raikage and A right at his side, while B followed closely behind.

________________

The 10 immortals ran down the hallways of their sanctuary with haste.

They had no idea who was brazen enough to intrude upon their temple, but they knew that they needed to deal with it, as Lord Jashin had commanded them to...

They each had tattooed on their bodies different markings, many variations of Jashin's sign.

The two further ahead of the rest were Number 1 and 2, the strongest immortals in their group.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't have a lot of luck, despite their powerful Cursed Techniques and mastery...

They were the first ones to fall.

Taken by surprise, the Large Flying Slash cleaved towards them at lightning speed.

They only noticed it in time to signal for the others to jump, but they realised none of them would have enough time to dodge the attack... So instead of trying, the two strongest decided to give the others a chance at survival.

They took out their weapons, one wielded a large halberd, while one wielded a war scythe.

They coated their weapons in Chakra, as they braced for impact. While their allies all jumped up, trying to cling to the ceiling.

The two of them managed to hold it there for only two seconds, as sparks flew all around them, and their weapons melted in their hands.

The Flying Slash then advanced forwards, burning their bodies and turning them into charcoal as they were sent flying back into the corridor they came from.

The other 8 immortals had managed to cling to the ceiling thanks to them, dodging the slash almost perfectly, with only one of them getting his legs caught up and burnt off.

Thankfully, he didn't have any pain receptors, so he just silently bore with it.

Even if they now feared the source of that attack, they still had the confidence to press forward... One of the other immortals strapped the legless one to his back, as he was still able to fight.

"Whoever that was... I doubt they can use such an attack again..." Nr.3 said, he was missing all of his skin as a result of his immortality, but that didn't make him weak or stupid.

He quickly encouraged the others to press forward. The other numbered immortals were already committed to their cause anyway.

'Serve the heathens to Lord Jashin as sacrifices or die trying...' Was the mission that was already imprinted in their minds, and they were going to see it through.

But when advancing into the room, they were only met with even more hardship.

The Raikage was the one to claim the first 'kill', stabbing through the first immortal's head, turning him into a headless chicken before using his body like a mace and crushing the limbs of another.

A took a different approach, slowly dismembering one of them, while the other seemed to be doing his best to draw some blood from him, unsuccessfully.

After finishing with one, A was able to deal with the second, first, breaking his weapon with his bare hands, then proceeding to dismember him as well.

B was dealing with the two that were strapped together. One of them was already lacking any mobility, while the other wielded large cleavers and swung them madly, trying to stop him from getting too close.

It seemed to work for all of 1 second before Killer B grew another purple octopus tail out of chakra and slapped the men he was fighting into a wall, before rushing them and hacking at their arms.

Ken also managed to deal with one immortal, slashing off his arms before piercing his chest with his tail and throwing him back where he came from.

He was then stuck dodging the attacks of the skinless number 3, who managed to land an overhead swing with his large naginata... Only for it to be blocked by Ken's tail.

Sparks rose as the blade struggled against the spikes on the Blind Assasin's tail, the clash only lasted one second, as Ken's tail quickly started moving at great speeds, almost turning into a saw as he cut through the naginata.

The 3rd immortal tried to kick Ken away, but his kick was completely shrugged off, with the Blind Monster not even flinching.

Ken grabbed his leg and started smashing him into the ground repeatedly, breaking as many bones as he could and even turning his head to mush before throwing him towards the first immortal they had encountered, who was still impaled on a wall.

The fight then died down, as all of the immortals were taken out, Ken and the rest not sustaining any injuries at all.

'Now... To look for the leader...'