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The Fourth Raikage, already gravely wounded, stared at his father's corpse in shock.
"F–Father… Father, how is this possible…?"
In the end, it was the Third Raikage's overconfidence in his "strongest shield" that killed him.
If it had been the Fourth in his place, he absolutely would not have let Feiyu's Kusanagi thrust straight at his heart—because Raikage or not, he knew his Lightning Chakra Mode could be broken.
Feiyu exhaled slowly.
"Those who swim best drown in water…
Once the 'strongest shield' is pierced, the strongest Raikage's death was pretty much written."
He held out a hand and activated Summon & Command of Spirits.
The Third Raikage's soul took shape before him—chest marked by a small, neat wound where the blade had passed through.
Feiyu could feel it clearly: the soul was weakened by Break-Evil, its light dimmer and a bit thin. But it was still usable—just a little fragile.
Having finished off the Third Raikage, Feiyu turned his gaze to the Fourth.
A moment ago the Fourth had been drowning in grief and disbelief.
Now, feeling Feiyu's eyes on him, his entire body trembled. He roared:
"B! Take all Cloud ninja and retreat!!
I authorize you to use full Tailed-Beast Transformation!!"
The Fourth's bronzed face was completely drained of color from blood loss and soul damage—but the lightning around him only grew brighter and more violent.
Even his forged-steel body was starting to blacken in patches where the lightning burned it from the inside.
Right now, his flesh simply couldn't withstand the overload of Lightning Chakra—he was basically forcing his body toward collapse.
Out on the field, Killer B had partially transformed and was still fighting Minato when he heard his brother's shout.
He whipped his head around and saw, in the distance, the corpse of the Third Raikage, still standing.
Feiyu clicked his tongue.
"Tch, what a pain.
Orochimaru-sensei, I'll leave that heavily wounded one to you!"
He glanced at the Kusanagi still stuck in the Third Raikage's chest and silently decided:
I'm definitely carving a summoning formula onto this sword later.
But for now, he was unarmed, half his chakra gone, and facing a Raikage who'd gone into suicide overdrive.
This was not the time to play hero.
Orochimaru, looking deathly pale with blood at the corner of his mouth, snapped his gaze toward the Fourth Raikage, then at the empty air where Feiyu had been.
Because Feiyu was… quietly fading from sight.
Camouflage Hiding Technique—fully engaged.
"You little coward!
Uchiha brat, get out here and fight me like a man!
You damned chicken shit!!"
The instant Feiyu's presence disappeared, a blood-tinged bolt of lightning ripped past, the Fourth Raikage's punch annihilating empty air.
He spun wildly, looking left and right, then exploded in rage.
He'd actually used a life-burning forbidden technique—only for Feiyu to go invisible and bail!?
Feeling his life force draining away and his limbs beginning to go numb under the strain of overloaded lightning, the Fourth's eyes went bloodshot. Slowly, his gaze locked onto the next available target—Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's cheek twitched.
"…If I pick up two more students like this, it'll be my life I'm paying with."
Nine thin silver snakes slithered from his sleeve, linking together into a strange, gleaming Silver Snake Sword as he muttered helplessly.
Invisible, Feiyu slipped away at once, returning first to the Third Raikage's corpse.
He wrenched the Kusanagi back out of the dead man's chest, then looked across the chaotic battlefield, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
The Third Raikage was dead.
The Fourth was half-dead and burning his life away.
But only the shinobi near the front had actually seen this with their own eyes.
For the news to spread through the entire Cloud army would take at least ten-plus minutes.
Even once the Cloud ninja got the order to retreat, they wouldn't be able to shake off the Leaf forces entangling them immediately. With over five thousand Cloud on the field, a full withdrawal would take at least half an hour.
And that half hour…
Was Feiyu's prime hunting window.
Night fell quietly.
The field that had roared with slaughter in daylight was now nothing but a silent graveyard.
Only Leaf ninjas remained, moving among the bodies of their comrades, gathering the dead.
Orochimaru sat on a rock, directing the cleanup.
His face was ghost-white, blood still at the corner of his lips. Half his long hair had been sliced off, leaving him looking disheveled and, for once, openly exhausted.
A golden flash blinked into existence in front of him.
Orochimaru glanced at Minato.
"Well? Did you manage to keep him here?"
Minato looked nothing like the sunny golden hero everyone spoke of.
His blond hair was a tangled mess, his face slick with sweat and pale, his breathing ragged—a man who had pretty much squeezed his chakra tank dry.
"…No. The jinchūriki's defense is too strong. My attacks barely do anything."
Orochimaru didn't look particularly disappointed. His tone stayed flat.
"If you couldn't, you couldn't.
The Third Raikage and his heir are both dead.
If we'd really killed the Eight-Tails jinchūriki as well, it might not actually have been good for Konoha."
The Leaf Village sat at the center of the continent—a crossroads of four fronts.
In military strategy, this terrain was a double-edged sword:
If you were strong enough, you could swallow the world.
If you were weak, you became the fat prize targeted by every hungry wolf.
After Hashirama and Madara's internal war, Konoha lost the chance to truly unify the ninja world.
In its current state, if Konoha appeared too overwhelmingly strong, all the other villages—big or small—would eventually band together to bring it down.
Even now, Sand and Cloud had both been wrecked in this war, but Leaf hadn't exactly come out unscathed either.
Though their Kage-tier elites were intact, their rank-and-file shinobi had taken nearly 50% casualties.
Otherwise, faced with a Cloud invasion force of nearly four thousand ninja, Konoha would never have responded with fewer than three thousand troops—they simply didn't have more bodies to spare.
"Besides…" Orochimaru's snake-gold eyes narrowed.
"Feiyu still isn't back.
That brat's probably still hanging off the Cloud army's tail.
With that kid's appetite for killing…
The Cloud are in for a very, very bad night."
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