"Die!"
Before the Third Raikage could even speak, a squad of jōnin hidden in the shadows rushed in.
They knew exactly who stood in front of them—Kazuki, the man said to have killed the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and the Third Mizukage, the rising monster of Konoha.
In their eyes, it was simple:
Kill him, and they'd become legends.
Even if the gap was real, they believed Kazuki couldn't possibly kill them all—there were thousands behind them. Even if they had to bury him under bodies, they'd do it.
They erased their presence, then appeared around Kazuki in an instant. The kunai in their hands exploded with violent lightning.
"Lightning Release: Super Sonic Thunder Blade!"
Lightning chakra flooded into the blade, sharpening it to a terrifying edge. High-frequency vibrations gave it penetration beyond Wind Release—an assassination staple for Kumogakure's shadow units.
Kazuki smiled at the six men closing in, then his body flickered—
six attacks landed at nearly the same moment…
…and cut nothing.
The Third Raikage's eyes narrowed.
That speed…
The thought flashed—and his expression shifted hard.
"Back off!" he roared.
"Huh?"
The six jōnin froze for half a beat, confused.
Instinctively, they glanced at the ground—Kazuki was supposed to be a Wood Release user, Hashirama's successor. If anything, it should've been roots and trees.
Instead—
Kazuki raised both hands like pistols.
"Water Release: Water Bullet Barrage."
A reinforced version of the Water Gun technique—not one shot, but a dense, high-speed spray.
Swish—swish—swish—!
In a blink, all six jōnin were punched full of holes like paper targets.
They collapsed, blood spreading fast.
The Third Raikage's face darkened.
"Bastard…!"
Black lightning exploded across his body. His killing intent surged.
He leapt high, his leg wrapped in violent lightning, and brought it down like an executioner's axe.
"Righteous Thunder: Thunder Axe!"
Boom—!
The strike smashed down—
—and hit a afterimage.
Kazuki had already moved.
Faster than the Third Raikage.
He slipped past the Thunder Axe and charged straight into the thousand-man Cloud formation.
"Stop him!"
To the Cloud shinobi, the first feeling was disbelief.
What was he doing?
Charging into a thousand people?
Was he suicidal?
Then the first wave hit.
Ten—twenty—thirty shinobi went flying, bodies snapping back like they'd been kicked by a giant.
"Refreshing," Kazuki muttered.
He wasn't even using Wood Release.
Just raw physical skill and clean technique.
A punch that looked ordinary sent people tumbling like rag dolls.
A kick that looked casual shattered formation lines.
The Third Raikage stared, stunned.
He watched Kazuki tear through their ranks like a tiger in a flock of sheep.
No one could stop him.
Not genin.
Not chūnin.
Not jōnin.
"Move!" the Third Raikage bellowed. "All of you—get out of the way!"
The formation broke apart into scattered clusters.
But retreating only made it worse.
Kazuki chased them down.
They couldn't outrun him.
He crashed into one cluster—fists and feet landing like hammers—then vaulted into the next.
Bang!Bang!Bang!
One man against a thousand—pure taijutsu dominance.
A chūnin backed up with wide eyes, too scared to breathe, watching Kazuki fill his entire vision—
Kazuki punched.
The chūnin dropped.
Kazuki stepped off his head and launched into the next group like it was a springboard.
Kazuki was warming up.
He dropped from above into another retreating pocket.
One kick slammed into the ground—shock rippling outward—and three shinobi nearby folded, legs buckling, unable to stand.
"Die!"
A jōnin lunged with a long blade crackling with lightning.
Kazuki tilted aside, let the blade pass, raised his hand—
pistol pose.
The jōnin's mouth opened—
and a water shot punched straight through his chest.
"Gah—!"
He fell backward, dead before he hit the dirt.
"Damn it!"
The Eight-Tails jinchūriki—Killer B—snapped.
In one minute, Kazuki had dropped at least a hundred.
If this continued, Kumogakure wouldn't even reach Konoha—they'd be wiped out here.
One man versus a thousand.
Kage-level strength, no question.
And yet—
Kazuki still hadn't used Wood Release.
Between his taijutsu and Water Release, both B and the Third Raikage started to suspect the same thing:
Konoha lied.
This didn't feel like Hashirama's lineage.
This felt like a Tobirama-style monster—speed, water, precision.
Without hesitation, Killer B surged into a half–tailed beast state, chakra flaring, charging Kazuki.
At the same time, the Third Raikage blasted forward from the opposite direction.
Both raised their right arms.
This was their classic finishing combo—Raikage + jinchūriki.
"Double Lariat!"
They came in like twin lightning strikes, pinching Kazuki between them.
Kazuki glanced over—
then finally used it.
"Wood Release: Wooden Golem Jutsu!"
A wooden giant erupted from the ground, lifting Kazuki onto its head.
The Double Lariat smashed into the golem instead of him.
Boom!!
The wooden golem shattered instantly—proof of how terrifying that combo really was.
But Kazuki was already moving.
He ducked under B's follow-up, slipped into B's guard—
and drove his right hand forward, five-element chakra flaring at the fingertips.
"Sealing Technique: Five Elements Unseal."
His hand pushed through the chakra cloak like forcing a blade through mud, driving deep—
straight onto the seal.
Kazuki knew exactly where it was.
This was the kind of experience you only had if you'd spent your life subduing tailed beasts.
He pressed down.
The seal destabilized.
B's tailed beast chakra surged violently, bursting outward.
The tailed beast cloak thickened—madly.
B's eyes went wide. His body trembled.
The Bijūdama he was forming wavered.
"Ugh—!"
He clutched his head and roared.
Even Konoha's outskirts felt the tremor.
A vast, evil chakra rose like smoke into the sky.
B's body was being swallowed by Eight-Tails chakra.
If the transformation completed, B would become the beast itself.
The Third Raikage lost it.
"Die!"
He exploded forward with black lightning roaring off him.
He struck—
and hit Kazuki's afterimage.
Smoke drifted.
A shadow clone.
Everyone's pupils shrank.
Even the Third Raikage felt cold.
All that… and it was just a shadow clone?
"B—snap out of it!" the Third Raikage roared.
But the moment he moved to restrain B—
a golden flash came down from above.
The Adamantine Staff slammed into the earth where the Third Raikage had just been.
Boom!
A crater exploded.
Dust surged.
In the smoke, B howled, unable to stop the transformation, the Eight-Tails roaring to break free.
The Third Raikage's hair stood on end—pure danger screaming through his nerves.
He looked back—
and saw Hiruzen Sarutobi behind him.
Hiruzen shoved with both hands, launching the Third Raikage into the air—
then his hands blurred through seals too fast to track.
The so-called "Professor" wasn't a nickname.
Shadow clones split off—four in a blink.
Body + four clones.
Five sets of hands sealing at once.
"Five Style Combo: Massive Bullet Barrage!"
Fire, Lightning, Water, Earth, Wind—five elements converged at the same time, detonating into a crushing explosion.
Boom!!!
The Third Raikage slammed into the ground, lightning still writhing around him, but his injuries were obvious.
Burns.
Frosted patches.
Deep cuts.
Charred flesh.
His entire body was riddled with damage.
"Retreat!"
He glared once—furious, unwilling—at Hiruzen, at Tsunade behind him, at Uzumaki Mito and the others—
then turned and fled.
He didn't even spare time to deal with the Eight-Tails going berserk.
Hiruzen tried to pursue—
but the raging Eight-Tails forced him back.
Yet the Eight-Tails didn't chase Hiruzen.
It turned and hunted the Cloud shinobi instead.
Thousands of Cloud shinobi—already battered by Kazuki's clone—collapsed into chaos.
What froze them to the bone was one fact:
That monster who dismantled them…
had only been a shadow clone.
So how terrifying was the real Kazuki?
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes as he watched the Eight-Tails chase Kumogakure's forces.
"Kazuki was right," he muttered. "They really were trying to draw us out and hit Konoha."
At that moment, an ANBU agent arrived in a panic.
"Report, Hokage-sama! Mito Homura is out of control—he broke the seal, and the Two-Tails has escaped! Konoha is in chaos!"
Hiruzen's eyes flashed with fury.
"Get back—now! Damn it!"
He cursed under his breath, turned, and left—Tsunade and Uzumaki Mito following.
The Eight-Tails mattered.
But the villagers mattered more.
First, they had to suppress Matatabi.
...
Thousands of miles away, in Yu no Kuni, where the delegations met.
A stared at Kazuki coldly.
His female aide slammed the table.
"Kazuki—what do you mean? You keep claiming Kumogakure is launching a sneak attack. Are you deliberately provoking trouble?"
"Do you want war? Can you shoulder that responsibility?!"
Kazuki looked at her.
Slowly raised his hand—
pistol shape.
Swish.
Water Release: Water Gun.
A clean shot through the heart.
She stared, eyes wide, then collapsed.
The room went dead.
Everyone stared at Kazuki like he'd lost his mind.
"Kazuki!" A's entire body erupted with lightning, blasting the negotiation table apart. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Kazuki rolled his shoulders like he was loosening up.
"What am I doing?" he said casually. "She talked too much."
Then he looked at A, calm as ever.
"Alright. I'm done wasting time with you."
"I'm going back to catch Matatabi."
"As for you?"
He smiled faintly.
"Go ahead. Try to take it."