With a loud bang, in an instant, aside from Hiruzen Sarutobi and his ten ANBU, ten more figures appeared on the scene.
They were ten summoned beasts.
All of them were white-furred monkeys, their chakra fluctuations extraordinary. Each one possessed at least elite jōnin–level strength.
And what Sarutobi Hayato had summoned was none other than the Monkey Clan's Monkey King—firmly Kage-level in power.
The moment the ten monkeys appeared, they immediately went on guard.
Only the Monkey King turned to glance at Hiruzen and said coldly,
"You'd better give me an explanation about the Monkey Sage."
However, the Monkey King clearly knew this wasn't the time for internal disputes. After saying that, it stopped pressing the matter and instead focused on scanning the surroundings.
Hiruzen was Kage-level, but the Monkey King was also a rising star of the Monkey Clan—solidly mid-Kage in strength.
At that moment, it too sensed a faint but deadly killing intent locking onto Hiruzen from behind.
Suddenly, the Monkey King's eyes flashed. Its right hand transformed into a staff and it swung at an empty spot.
The weapon cut through the air with a piercing whistle, the sound of air bursting echoing out.
White chakra wrapped around the staff, and before it even struck the ground, the earth below began to crack. The force behind the blow was no joke—likely something even peak Kage-level fighters wouldn't dare take head-on.
Though it looked like it struck thin air, ripples spread across that section of space. At the center, a black singular point appeared.
The Monkey King had struck directly at a spatial distortion.
Seeing how precise the Monkey King's judgment was, Hiruzen finally relaxed slightly and didn't immediately flee using Reverse Summoning.
Still, he was baffled. Who exactly was attacking him—and using such profound space-time ninjutsu?
If not for the Monkey King's senjutsu chakra greatly enhancing its perception, this kind of hidden space-time ambush would be nearly impossible to defend against.
Even Hiruzen would've had no choice but to run.
He had sensed danger earlier, but he hadn't known where the attack would come from.
The Monkey King had struck directly behind him. If it hadn't acted in time, Hiruzen might not even have had the chance to activate Reverse Summoning.
This strange space-time ninjutsu was something Hiruzen had never heard of. Even the Land of Fire—home to the most advanced space-time techniques—had no records of it.
After all, Tobirama Senju had created the Flying Thunder God, one of the greatest space-time jutsu in history. Yet even with that legacy, there was no documentation of this technique.
Then Hiruzen's eyes widened as a memory surfaced.
At Konoha's gate, someone had once used a similar jutsu—swirling spatial distortions followed by black void-like space.
That jutsu had clearly been space-time ninjutsu and could transport many living people.
And the person who used it was the one Hiruzen feared most right now.
He never expected that after letting his guard down slightly, he would encounter that person at the Land of Fire's border.
The one ambushing him now…
…was Arata.
His Kamui had always been well concealed. Even though Hiruzen had seen it once, he hadn't recognized it immediately.
And even if he had, it wouldn't matter.
Arata had come with killing intent.
Whether recognized or not, he intended to kill Hiruzen outright. Hiding his identity was irrelevant.
Still, the Monkey King surprised Arata. It could actually sense his Kamui before he even appeared and launched an attack first.
This showed that even if its combat power was only mid-Kage, its perception—boosted by natural energy—was absolutely at a Super-Kage level.
Thinking of how Naruto in Sage Mode could locate Nagato's real body from kilometers away using a chakra signal rod, Arata grew even more curious about Sage Mode.
Its sensory boost alone was terrifying.
Unfortunately, though the Monkey King predicted where Arata would appear, it couldn't actually hit him.
That strike smashed into the ground, creating a crater over ten meters deep and affecting a radius of several hundred meters.
Everyone nearby had to leap back to avoid the shockwave.
Arata simply stopped manifesting there and reappeared over ten meters away, slowly revealing himself.
The Monkey King had just finished attacking and hadn't turned around yet, so it couldn't stop him this time.
Its reactions were sharp, but its speed disadvantage meant it could block Arata once—maybe twice—but not repeatedly.
Now all eleven people and ten monkeys present locked their eyes onto Arata.
A faint smile rested on his handsome face, brimming with confidence in his strength. The pressure he radiated was something they had never felt before.
The aura of a Super-Kage peak expert swept outward.
In just an instant, the jōnin-level ANBU froze in place.
The Monkey King had never met Arata before, but by now it had already heard from Hiruzen about this newly risen monster.
This was the man who had crushed the Sarutobi clan's dominance over the Land of Fire. The Sarutobi could no longer wield overwhelming influence in Konoha. The only thing left in their grasp was a civilian daimyo connection.
Arata's strength shocked the Monkey King. It never imagined a human could reach this level.
Even in the world of summoned beasts, only the Three Great Sage Regions could produce monsters of this caliber.
The Monkey Clan might appear mighty, but compared to the Three Great Sage Lands, they were still inferior. The Monkey Sage might rival the sages in seniority, but in strength he was clearly a tier below.
Yet even so, the Monkey Sage had once been considered nearly invincible in the shinobi world.
From the perspective of these summons, human talent—aside from a rare few geniuses—was usually insignificant.
And now another human had reached Super-Kage peak.
That hadn't happened in decades.
Thinking of the Monkey Sage's death, the Monkey King immediately spoke:
"Sarutobi! Is this brat the one who killed the Monkey Sage?!"