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"As expected of the leader of the Hidden Rain—you really do have the strength to back up your title."
Floating in midair, Ōnoki looked down at Hayato as he broke through the ambush. The man was bloodied, sure, but still looked like he could keep fighting without much trouble. Ōnoki couldn't help but nod in recognition.
"Ōnoki… the Third Tsuchikage!" Hayato's eyes narrowed sharply as he spotted him.
"That's right—it's me." Ōnoki's face carried a calm, almost smug smile, as though everything unfolding here was under his control. "I didn't expect you to recognize me."
"Recognize you? Please. In this world, there's only one person that short, so who else could it be?"
"You—what did you just say, you brat?!" Ōnoki's eyes bulged. The shorter someone was, the more sensitive they were about it—and Hayato's words had stabbed him right in the heart.
"Just calling it like I see it," Hayato shot back casually. Then, without wasting another breath, he sprang off the ground and blitzed toward a nearby Iwa-nin. He wasn't here to trade insults. He came to fight, to settle things with force.
"Bastard! Stop!" Ōnoki hadn't expected Hayato to completely ignore him mid-conversation and just go straight for his men. With a sharp shout, the Tsuchikage unleashed a jutsu, hurling it toward Hayato in an attempt to cut him off.
But Hayato just gave a cold snort, his speed spiking. In the blink of an eye—boom!—his fist slammed straight into the chest of an Iwa-nin who didn't even have time to react. Blood sprayed from the man's mouth as he was sent flying, hitting the ground hard, lifeless.
Ōnoki's attack reached him right after, but Hayato simply pushed off the ground and darted toward another Iwa-nin instead.
"Damn you—go to hell already!" Ōnoki's fury boiled over. Earth Release jutsu poured out of him like second nature, each one unleashed with crushing power and flawless timing. Every strike was deadly precise, a testament to why he was called Tsuchikage.
And against that? Hayato was struggling.
Even without transforming into his Hulk-like form, his strength already surpassed that of an elite jōnin. With the Hidden Rain's resources backing him these past years, he'd practically stepped into Kage-level. But Ōnoki was on another level entirely. His seamless flow of techniques, his experience, his sheer power—Hayato was forced onto the defensive, blocking blow after blow, his movements getting more and more desperate.
This was the strongest opponent he'd ever faced outside of his transformed state. Ōnoki truly lived up to his title.
Boom!
Hayato's fist shattered a massive rock apart, but the force of the impact sent him flying backwards. Tumbling through the air, he barely managed to steady himself.
And then—
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!" Ōnoki roared.
From his hands, a blinding white light erupted, shooting straight at Hayato. In a blink, it was already upon him.
Danger. A lethal, bone-deep warning screamed through Hayato's body.
Dust Release—an advanced kekkei tōta, born from combining three chakra natures. A jutsu even more terrifying than bloodline limits. You couldn't block it. The only option was to dodge. If it hit, there was no surviving.
On the ground, Hayato would've had a chance to evade. But now? He was stuck in midair, still reeling from the recoil of his last strike, his chakra flow disrupted. Right here, right now, he had no way out. Without a trump card, he was as good as dead.
That suffocating sense of imminent death pressed harder and harder—until, in the next heartbeat, threads of green light burst across Hayato's body, wrapping him head to toe.
An instant later, the Dust Release beam swallowed him whole. Boom!
Ōnoki smirked coldly, watching the strike land. "Hmph. Dare to mock my height, will you? Let's see if you laugh when you're dead."
Then, turning to the surrounding Iwa-nin, he barked orders: "Prepare to march! With the leader of the Hidden Rain eliminated, we'll seize this chance to crush their nation once and for—wait… what?!"
Ōnoki hadn't even finished barking out his orders when a massive green giant suddenly appeared before him—easily ten meters tall. That monstrous green fist was already swinging straight at him, and Ōnoki's face twisted in shock.
"Earth Style: Fist of Rock...! Earth Style: Weighted Boulder Jutsu!"
As expected of the Tsuchikage, he reacted instantly, layering two techniques together before slamming his fist against the giant's incoming punch.
BOOM!
The impact rang out like thunder. The giant's arm was forced back, but Ōnoki was blasted away like a ragdoll, his body smashing straight through a small mountain, reducing it to rubble.
"ROAR!!!"
Only then did the green giant, Hayato, unleash his furious roar. His enormous fists swung wildly, smashing into the stunned Iwagakure shinobi all around him.
Simple. Direct. Savage. Brimming with overwhelming power. Hayato looked less like a man and more like a rampaging Tailed Beast. In mere seconds, half of the elite unit Ōnoki had brought with him was wiped out.
"You bastard—STOP! Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
Seeing his men slaughtered in the blink of an eye, blood still dripping from the corner of his mouth, Ōnoki's fury exploded. He didn't even bother wiping his face before weaving signs and unleashing his most fearsome kekkei tōta.
Hiss—!
The cube of Dust Release shot forward almost instantly, slamming into Hayato's hulking frame. Not even his monstrous body could fully withstand it—a gaping hole was blasted clean through his torso.
But instead of falling, Hayato only grew angrier. His roar shook the battlefield as his body swelled even larger. He stomped down hard, the ground shattering beneath his massive foot, then lunged straight at Ōnoki. His face twisted into a mask of fury, his colossal fist barreling down toward the Tsuchikage.
"Damn it! Earth Style: Ultra-Weighted Boulder Jutsu!"
Ōnoki's eyes went wide. The earlier clash had already fractured his wrist, and now this monster was coming at him again with an even heavier blow. Gritting his teeth, he poured everything into an even stronger technique—the Ultra-Weighted Boulder.
CRASH!
Fist met fist once again, the impact splitting the air with devastating force.
"....."