Humiliation.
Utter humiliation.
Hyakume Sōsuke froze for an instant.
Then an overwhelming fury exploded from within him alongside a torrent of violent chakra.
His eyes instantly turned blood-red.
An inhuman roar erupted from his throat as he prepared to lunge back into battle—
But the instant he moved, the young man had already anticipated it.
Isshin sidestepped smoothly while swinging the Adamantine Staff into a full arc—
Like a baseball player smashing a home run, he sent the staff crashing squarely into Sōsuke's body.
The blow launched him like a cannonball.
He tore straight through Kirigakure's battle line, crashing and rolling through the ranks as more than a dozen Kirigakure shinobi were killed on the spot.
Only when Yagura rushed forward and braced his coral staff firmly against Sōsuke's back was his out-of-control body finally brought to a stop.
"Senpai! Are you alright?!"
Yagura shouted anxiously.
"I'm fi—"
Sōsuke started to answer.
Then the words died in his throat.
In the distance—
The young man suddenly stomped the ground.
A huge crater exploded beneath his feet as his body shot skyward like a spring compressed to its absolute limit.
After reaching a certain height, violent winds erupted around him.
Layer upon layer of air currents lifted him even higher—
Faster...
And faster still.
"Fall back!"
Koharu's pupils contracted.
Realizing what was about to happen, she immediately shouted for Konoha's forces to widen the distance between themselves and Kirigakure.
By then, the young man had risen to the level of the storm clouds. Thunder churned behind him as he hovered high above the battlefield, looking like a god descended from the heavens.
"'The depths of the sea?'"
"'Its endless murmur?'"
The young man's calm voice echoed clearly across the entire battlefield.
It was as though every raindrop and every gust of wind had become a vessel carrying his words.
For a moment, Kirigakure's forces hesitated in uncertainty.
Not a single one dared step forward.
Standing amid the boundless sea of lightning, he looked down upon the ruined battlefield below—
Upon the pale-faced, rain-soaked enemies beneath him—
Then spoke calmly.
"Shinobi of Kirigakure, born of the sea and destined to die in the sea..."
"Have you ever seen a sky deeper than the ocean?"
"Have you ever heard a rumble more profound than the waves?"
As he spoke, the young man slowly raised his right hand under the watchful eyes of everyone present.
The moment his hand rose—
The already turbulent thunderclouds behind him seemed to ignite.
A deafening peal of thunder exploded across the heavens.
Its echoes rolled endlessly as the churning black clouds transformed into an endless sea of towering waves.
Countless bolts of lightning writhed and danced madly between the clouds, each rapidly taking on a brilliant golden radiance.
Against that ocean of golden thunder, the young man's figure looked like a god descending from the heavens.
At the very same time—
While everyone's attention remained completely fixed on that golden figure—
Deep within the thunderclouds behind him, Shinichi's real body was frantically weaving hand seals, piling one visual effect after another onto the clone.
Golden arcs of electricity burst continuously from his fingertips.
The thunderclouds rumbled as he manipulated them, carefully adjusting the angle and visual effect of every bolt of lightning that struck from above.
Bathed in that golden radiance, Isshin's normally expressionless face truly looked sacred and awe-inspiring—
Like a heavenly being descended into the mortal world.
That's right.
Shinichi's real body had finished preparing.
Strictly speaking, there was no longer any need for Isshin's clone to fly back into the sky and become the center of attention again.
In fact, to maximize both the attack's destructive power and its surprise, Shinichi should have unleashed it immediately and caught the enemy completely off guard.
But he had no choice.
For the sake of upgrading his Entries...
For the sake of maximizing public perception...
He had to steal the spotlight.
He had to make a grand spectacle of himself.
Or, more simply put—
He had to show off.
"Watch out! WATCH OUT!"
Yagura roared at the top of his lungs.
He still had no idea what Higashino Shinichi was about to do.
But the strongest sense of danger he had ever felt in his life was screaming from the depths of his instincts.
Beside him, however, Sōsuke's response was even more direct.
He let out an earth-shaking roar as an enormous torrent of chakra erupted from his body once more.
Bathed in crimson light, his body rapidly began to swell and transform once again.
The Three-Tails entered its complete Tailed Beast Transformation once again!
"Together with the thunder..."
High above, the young man paid no attention to the frantic measures Kirigakure was taking below.
His right hand slowly rose above his head.
A snow-white longsword silently materialized before him, floating motionlessly in midair.
Flowing Cloud Blade!
The hardest of the Kusanagi swords, and the one with the greatest chakra conductivity.
The instant it appeared—
Countless golden lightning swords burst through the clouds behind him.
Every blade pointed downward.
Their collective hum rang out like ten thousand bronze bells being struck at once.
In that instant, the heavens themselves seemed to ignite.
The once-dark storm clouds were completely dyed a radiant gold, as though the entire sky trembled in anticipation of this final strike.
"...Disappear."
The moment those words fell—
The young man slashed two fingers forward.
BOOOOOOM!!!
A peal of thunder powerful enough to shake heaven and earth exploded across the battlefield!
Deep within the thunderclouds—
The Sword of the Thunder God floating before Shinichi's true body shattered.
Its hilt—
Along with the golden chakra crystal embedded within it—
Exploded simultaneously.
Together, they transformed into an incomparably enormous bolt of brilliant golden lightning, surging like molten liquid thunder and carrying enough destructive power to annihilate the world itself.
At that same instant—
Every naturally formed lightning bolt that had been gathering within the storm clouds, together with every golden lightning sword, erupted simultaneously as though a fuse had been ignited.
When the countless bolts of lightning converged upon the Flowing Cloud Blade—
Every last one of them merged into a single beam of pure lightning.
The golden pillar of lightning that pierced heaven and earth descended upon Kirigakure.
From afar, it looked as though an invisible god had seized a colossal sword of crystal lightning and driven it down from the heavens in a single, world-shattering thrust.
Divine judgment had descended.
There was nowhere to run.
Lightning Release: Heavenly Flowing Cloud!
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Sōsuke let out an earth-shaking roar.
His arms drew inward as he arched the enormous shell on his back—large enough to shelter an entire hill from wind and rain—completely around his body, placing himself squarely in front of the Kirigakure shinobi.
Chakra erupted wildly from every part of him.
Water.
Rock.
Air.
Everything around him that could be seized and used was dragged before him in one desperate attempt at defense.
The old shinobi, who had lived for more than sixty years, squeezed out every last drop of chakra he possessed.
Every defensive technique.
Every ounce of strength he had accumulated throughout his lifetime.
Everything was poured into resisting the crystal thunder blade descending from the heavens.
Behind him—
Yagura and the Kirigakure shinobi moved as one.
Layer after layer of Water Formation Walls rose into existence.
Earth-Style Walls erupted from the shattered ground.
Walls of wind.
Secret techniques woven together into defensive nets.
Every defensive ninjutsu they could possibly unleash was cast without the slightest regard for their own limits.
Barrier after barrier piled up before Sōsuke.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A cataclysmic explosion split heaven and earth apart.
The instant the attacks collided, the golden lightning crashed head-on into Kirigakure's countless defensive techniques.
The resulting flash pierced everyone's vision.
For a single instant—
The world became pure white.
The battlefield.
The ruins.
The sky itself.
Everything was swallowed by blinding brilliance.
No one could keep their eyes open.
No one could see anything.
Only the deafening roar, as though rising from the very core of the earth, echoed endlessly through their ears.
The ground shook as though an invisible giant had stomped upon it.
A visible ring-shaped shockwave burst outward from the center of the explosion, spreading madly in every direction.
Stone was ground into dust.
Ruined walls were ripped from their foundations.
Even the rain itself was blasted sideways into streams of white mist.
At the heart of the explosion, the temperature soared to a suffocating level.
The rain evaporated before it could even touch the ground—
Only to be torn into nothingness by the expanding shockwave.
Even Konoha's forces, who had already retreated far from the battlefield, were thrown into complete disarray by the overwhelming blast.
Some of the weaker shinobi were hurled through the air outright, tumbling several times through the mud before finally coming to a stop, their bodies marked with fresh wounds.
The Tsuchigumo elder planted both feet firmly into the earth, yet was still forced backward more than a dozen meters before managing to hold his ground.
Others desperately drove kunai—or whatever weapons they had—into the ground before flattening themselves against the ruined earth, waiting for the endless storm to pass.
"What's happening?!"
Minato suddenly appeared beside Koharu.
Shielding his eyes with one hand against the raging storm and blinding light that still swept across the battlefield like tidal waves, he stared in disbelief at the golden pillar of lightning piercing heaven and earth.
He had only just arrived.
Moments earlier, he had completed the mission of destroying the Land of Waves' supply depot before using the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport from one marked kunai to the next, racing back toward the main battlefield at full speed so he could join the final offensive.
But the instant he arrived—
He had been greeted by a blinding white light and a storm of destruction powerful enough to vaporize an ordinary shinobi.
He had nearly been swept away on the spot.
Forced to teleport once more, he barely managed to reappear beside Koharu.
"Was this... Shinichi's doing?"
Minato stared at the center of the explosion, which still churned violently, thunder still rumbling as golden arcs of electricity and the lingering aftermath of countless jutsu continued erupting from within.
His expression was caught somewhere between shock and utter disbelief.
No one knew how much time passed.
Eventually, the seemingly endless thunder, explosions, and towering clouds of smoke finally began to subside.
The wind still howled.
The rain still poured.
But at last, the battlefield gradually came back into view.
The surviving Kirigakure shinobi stood unsteadily where they were, gasping for breath.
Mud and blood covered their bodies.
Every face bore the same vacant expression of those who had narrowly escaped death.
At the front stood Yagura.
His hands were empty.
The coral staff that had never left his side had evidently been reduced to nothing while resisting that strike that had seemed like heaven's own judgment.
And standing before all of them—
Hyakume Sōsuke...
Was still standing.
More accurately...
He had been nailed in place.
Beneath his feet lay an enormous crater dozens of meters deep, its scorched earth still releasing thin wisps of white smoke.
His massive body was covered from head to toe in horrific burns and cracks so deep that bone was visible.
The Three-Tails' shell, once famed for being virtually indestructible, was now riddled with spiderweb-like fractures.
Large sections of its armor had been blasted away entirely, exposing the charred flesh beneath.
Worst of all was the center of the shell protecting his chest.
A massive gash had nearly pierced straight through his entire body.
Its edges still smoked faintly, leaving behind nothing but blackened, carbonized surfaces.
"Senpai?!"
Yagura hurried forward, calling out anxiously.
But Sōsuke gave no response.
His enormous eye remained fixed on the sky.
Dim.
Empty.
As though it could no longer see anything at all.
Yagura's heart tightened.
"Senpai!"
Only then did Sōsuke seem to hear him.
That enormous eye, nearly devoid of all light, slowly and painfully shifted toward him.
The next instant—
Before the horrified eyes of every Kirigakure shinobi—
Sōsuke's mountain-sized body began rapidly falling apart.
Layer after layer of chakra peeled away from his body like the receding tide, dissolving into countless tiny motes of light that scattered into the wind.
His body shrank at an astonishing rate.
The gigantic beast rapidly reverted into a frail, emaciated old man covered in wounds.
Like a withered leaf dried by the wind, he drifted gently toward the ground.
Yagura lunged forward and caught the broken body in his arms.
"Yagura..."
Sōsuke tilted his head slightly.
His dim, clouded eyes, almost completely unfocused, looked toward him.
His voice was so faint that it resembled the final wisp of smoke from a dying candle, barely audible and broken by pauses.
"Senpai... I'm here."
The old man's lips trembled slightly before he spoke his final words.
"...Retreat..."
"...Retreat."
As the last syllable left his lips, the final glimmer of light in his eyes quietly went out, like a candle extinguished by the wind.
"Senpai?"
"Senpai?!"
"SENPAI!!!"
Yagura's anguished roar echoed across the ruined battlefield.
But no answer ever came.
...
Meanwhile, on Konoha's side—
Shinichi staggered toward the front line.
His face was deathly pale.
Rainwater mixed with sweat streamed down his forehead and temples, and every step looked as though it drained the last of his strength.
Koharu immediately rushed forward and grabbed his arm.
"Shinichi, you—?!"
"Elder... I'm fine."
Shinichi forced a weak shake of his head.
"But... the rest..."
"...I'll leave it to all of you."
Hearing that, Koharu immediately turned and shouted, "Minato! Take Shinichi to the rear immediately so he can recover!"
Shinichi opened his mouth, seemingly intending to say something more.
But Koharu gave him no chance.
"Leave at once! No delays!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Minato stepped forward and took hold of Shinichi.
The next instant—
The two vanished from sight.
Koharu watched them disappear before turning back toward the assembled Konoha shinobi.
Taking a deep breath, she swept her gaze across every face before shouting, "My comrades!"
"We cannot waste the opportunity Shinichi has created for us!"
"Now..."
"Charge!"
"YES!!!"
A thunderous roar answered her command.
Koharu charged forward at the front.
The Konoha shinobi followed close behind, surging toward Kirigakure like a flood bursting through a broken dam.
...
Meanwhile—
Deep within what had once been Rinkai City, now reduced completely to ruins—
In a corner buried beneath shattered rocks and broken wooden beams—
"...Am I..."
"...going to die?"
A young girl wearing a long blue robe lay helplessly in the cold mud.
She looked barely ten years old.
Her youthful face was smeared with mud and streaked with blood.
A collapsed stone slab pinned her lower body firmly in place, leaving her completely unable to move.
Her consciousness drifted in and out of darkness.
Cold rain seeped through every crack, repeatedly striking her face, pulling her back from the edge of unconsciousness only to let her sink toward it again.
The air around her grew colder.
Her body became increasingly numb.
Somewhere through the haze, the girl realized...
She was probably...
Really going to die.
Sob...
I haven't even fallen in love yet...
At the final, muddled moments of her life, faced with death itself...
The thought that surfaced in her mind wasn't fear.
Nor regret over losing her life.
Instead...
It was something as utterly unrelated as that.
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