The burly figure of the Third Raikage (A) suddenly appeared in the desert.
Rasa, who stood atop a golden sand cloud, was startled.
"Third Raikage? How could you be here...?"
Before he could finish, a bolt of lightning tore through the night sky!
The Third Raikage exploded forward at full speed, appearing before Rasa in an instant.
Fortunately, Rasa was no weakling. He reacted immediately—manipulating the gold sand beneath his feet into a shield to protect himself.
"Hell Stab – Three-Finger Spear!"
The Third Raikage's hand thrust forward like a long spear, piercing through the dense gold sand barrier.
The seemingly indestructible shield shattered under the force of the legendary spear.
Still, the golden sand had bought Rasa just enough time.
With a flash, he activated the Body Flicker Technique, retreating to another spot on the desert floor.
To be safe, he summoned a massive wave of gold sand to swirl protectively around him.
He had no choice—the Third Raikage's speed was monstrous, and his destructive power even more so.
If Rasa hadn't slowed him with gold sand, he might've been killed in a single clash.
"Third Raikage, why would you—?!"
Rasa was filled with confusion.
After all, Konoha and Simu were the greatest threats in the ninja world right now.
Why would the Land of Lightning suddenly—
"No... you're not the real Third Raikage."
Recalling the previous defeat of the Raikage during the assault on the Fire Daimyō's mansion, Rasa quickly realized—
This was only the Third Raikage's reanimated corpse.
"So you noticed... what a pain."
The Third Raikage replied in his original voice.
Rasa's expression darkened. Based on that earlier attack, whoever controlled this body could replicate much of the Raikage's original power.
"Even if I don't know who you are," Rasa growled, "if you think you can just take the One-Tail Jinchūriki from Sunagakure… then you are underestimating us!"
Sunagakure was, after all, one of the Five Great Nations.
At that moment, a large number of Sand Shinobi began charging out from the village.
But before they could get far, a dozen Pacifista robots bombarded the advancing troops with indiscriminate laser fire.
Rasa's expression turned grave.
If these mechanical monstrosities were allowed to continue, the morale—and the fighting strength—of the entire village would collapse!
So he acted.
Vast waves of gold sand surged from the desert, forming a tsunami of destruction that crashed toward the Pacifistas.
But then, in the next second—a forest of giant trees erupted from the earth.
The monstrous wave was completely stopped.
The ones behind this were two Wood Style users—Obito and Tian Yuji.
"Wood Style?!"
Rasa spoke the words through trembling lips.
"So Konoha really has figured out how to mass-produce Wood Style users…"
Controlling the Third Raikage's body, Simu spoke in a calm tone:
"Lord Fourth Kazekage, this current Sand Shinobi Village is no longer the one it used to be.
You've suffered three crushing defeats at the hands of Konoha.
At this point, your active shinobi force isn't even a third of its former strength.
And most of your current troops are rookies—recently promoted genin and chūnin.
They don't hold a candle to your old guard."
Rasa flinched, as if Simu's words had ripped open a deep scar.
"You Konoha bastards… DIE!!"
He roared, and the sea of gold sand surged violently again.
But once more, his assault was repelled by the Third Raikage.
After all—the strongest spear was no joke.
As for the Sand Shinobi reinforcements, they were blocked by the special squad.
If they managed to survive the Pacifista barrage, they were immediately swallowed by the sea of towering trees.
And if they somehow made it through that, they were greeted by a relentless storm of ninjutsu:
Scorch Style, Magnet Style, Gentle Fist, Ice Release—a deadly mix of bloodline limits from all over the shinobi world!
Many of the Sand Shinobi had never even seen so many different kinds of elite techniques before.
Amidst the chaos, Uzumaki Tianjing, a skilled medical ninja from the Uzumaki Clan, moved swiftly across the battlefield, healing and supporting the special squad.
As for Bunpuku, the current One-Tail Jinchūriki, he had already been evacuated deep into the desert.
Rasa felt a heavy sorrow in his heart.
But against the onslaught of the Third Raikage's monstrous power, he was helpless.
And then—
A figure appeared that plunged Rasa into even greater despair.
Hanzō of the Salamander!
"Impossible..."
It was one thing for Konoha to control the Third Raikage—the strongest Raikage in history—
But now even Hanzō, the famed Demi-God of the Shinobi World, was under their control?
It was unthinkable!
Yet, it was real.
Konoha had come to settle this war in one fell swoop—
To crush Sunagakure completely...
And to weaken the Allied Shinobi Forces before the final battle even began.
Simu immediately dispatched two clones in one go.
As for Konoha's native forces, there were Jiraiya, Tsunade, Uchiha Madara's clone, his own main body, and six tailed beasts. With such overwhelming power, it was basically impossible for anything to go wrong.
In the current ninja world, perhaps only if Konoha, Orochimaru, Jigen (Cixian), and the Fourth Raikage (A) all appeared together could they pose any threat to Simu.
Once Hanzō of the Salamander entered the battlefield, the situation became even more one-sided.
A horrifying poison gas spread wildly through the air.
Rasa could only use Wind Style techniques to disperse the deadly gas.
On one hand, he had to constantly manipulate his gold sand to block the Third Raikage's high-speed, high-intensity attacks.
At the same time, Hanzō was no slouch in speed either.
It could be said that Rasa was completely overwhelmed.
Eventually, the Third Raikage found an opening and pierced through Rasa's defense with a powerful One-Finger Hell Stab!
The golden sand barrier shattered instantly.
Rasa quickly rolled to the side in retreat.
But Hanzō had been lying in wait.
With a Body Flicker Technique, he instantly appeared before Rasa and—killed him on the spot.
After the strongest Third Kazekage, now even the Fourth Kazekage had fallen—both at the hands of Konoha!
The moment they witnessed their Kazekage fall, Sand Shinobi's morale collapsed completely.
Had it been the old Sunagakure, perhaps they would still charge forward with fury and desperation.
But times had changed.
Those old war-hardened shinobi who dared to fight to the death were almost all gone.
With Sand Shinobi routed, Kakashi quickly ordered the special operations unit to retreat.
Beneath the deep night sky, Konoha's shinobi withdrew—bringing with them Rasa's corpse and the One-Tail Jinchūriki.
With this, Konoha now controlled eight tailed beasts—a terrifying number.
This was the strongest Konoha had been since the days of Hashirama Senju, who had once distributed the nine beasts to maintain balance among the villages.
Now, only the Eight Tails remained uncaptured.
But Simu wasn't in a rush.
He didn't believe that Kumogakure would easily give up the Eight Tails without a fierce fight in the final war.
The news of Sand Shinobi Village's defeat, the capture of the One-Tail Jinchūriki, and the assassination of the Fourth Kazekage spread throughout the entire ninja world in an instant.
Ōnoki and Blue B were completely stunned.
Iwagakure and Sunagakure were still technically allies.
Yet before they could even begin their joint counterattack... Rasa was already gone?
If Rasa was gone, fine—appoint a new Kazekage, and move forward.
But the real problem was—
Sunagakure had no qualified successors left!
Nearly all the notable shinobi had perished in the past few wars.
If not for the aged Chiyo barely holding the line, Sunagakure might have already surrendered.
In the end, with no other options, Chiyo reluctantly pushed her young grandson—Sasori—into the spotlight as the new Kazekage.
But both Ōnoki and Fourth Raikage A had doubts about Sasori's combat capabilities and temperament.
At this point, Ōnoki was physically and mentally exhausted.
With Konoha's current strength, it was nearly impossible to win with just the combined forces of the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning.
"Lord Tsuchikage, the envoy from the Land of Lightning seeks an audience."
"Let them in," Ōnoki said tiredly.
Soon, the envoys entered the office.
They wasted no time and spoke bluntly:
"Lord Tsuchikage, our Raikage asks that you mobilize your forces to the border near Landmine Valley. Lord Raikage has found a new ally."
"In addition, he requests your immediate presence in Kumogakure for a war council."
Ōnoki frowned. "New ally?"
At a time when the entire shinobi world was on the verge of being unified by Konoha, what powerful ally could they possibly find?
"Lord Tsuchikage," one of the envoys asked, "do you remember the 2.6 Incident, when Konoha was besieged by a horde of white creatures?"
Ōnoki's eyes narrowed. He remembered.
"You're saying... the people behind that attack want to join forces with us to fight Konoha?"
"That's correct."
"Then I will go immediately," Ōnoki declared.
If they didn't act fast, the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning would soon be swallowed up by the Fire Nation.
"Tsuchikage-sama, to save time, we will use the Sky Transmission Technique to bring you there."
Ōnoki hesitated—but ultimately agreed.
The news of Rasa's assassination still haunted him.
If he traveled slowly to Kumogakure, there was always a chance of being ambushed.
That brat Simu's abilities were too strange and unpredictable.
But these three envoys had already proven their identities—they were indeed from Kumogakure.
At this crucial moment, Ōnoki didn't believe Fourth Raikage A would betray them to target Iwagakure.
The three shinobi surrounded Ōnoki, and together they activated the Sky Transmission Technique.
In the blink of an eye, the four of them vanished.
When Ōnoki opened his eyes again, he was already inside the Raikage's office in Kumogakure.
Aside from the Fourth Raikage, two others were already waiting for him.
One was Orochimaru—
And the other... Jigen.
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