"Bastard!"
The Raikage trembled with rage as an even more intense chakra erupted from his body.
Lightning wrapped around him, electric arcs flared, and his blonde hair stood entirely on end.
"Don't look down on Kumogakure!"
With a furious roar, the ruined earth shattered under his feet, leaving deep craters behind.
The Raikage shot into the sky like a cannonball.
Jokichi swept his indifferent gaze downward, preparing to blast him back down with Almighty Push again.
Unexpectedly, the roar of a panther rang out.
A pitch-black lightning panther struck later but arrived first, howling into the sky one step ahead of the Raikage.
Lightning Release: Black Panther.
This was the Third Raikage's Black Lightning, now wielded by its sole inheritor, Darui.
Jokichi's eyes bypassed the Raikage and looked downward...
The source of the black lightning was indeed in the hands of the burly young man with dark skin and thick lips.
The panther-shaped black lightning and the Raikage followed closely behind one another, separated by merely ten meters.
With their speed, the moment the former struck the enemy, the latter would instantly follow up.
"You figured out a countermeasure to Almighty Push after only seeing it twice. As expected of the future Fifth Raikage!"
Jokichi praised him, but the contempt in his eyes remained entirely unchanged.
Roar!
The black panther roared as the divine lightning descended.
Facing this majestic bolt of lightning, Jokichi gently raised his right hand.
Instantly, the black panther that was roaring fiercely just a moment ago was absorbed into his palm like flowing water.
"He absorbed the Black Lightning!"
The Raikage, along with Darui and Mabui on the ground, widened their eyes.
They never imagined the enemy had such an ability.
In the next second...
"Almighty Push!"
An unparalleled repulsive force erupted.
The Raikage plummeted at several times the speed he had ascended.
The lightning coiled around his body merged with the sparks of air friction, making him look exactly like a falling meteor.
The ninja rushing toward the Raikage Building instinctively skidded to a halt, staring dumbly at the sight.
"Find cover and get down!" Darui bellowed a warning as he grabbed Mabui and dove out of the way.
Boom!
The meteor hit the ground, and the earth violently shook.
The airwave carried dust outward in a massive ring, flattening absolutely everything in its path.
A radius of several hundred meters was completely engulfed in billowing dust clouds.
The ninja running at the forefront of the reinforcements were swept up by the shockwave.
Struck as if by heavy war hammers, they were sent flying backward like kites with snapped strings, their blood spraying across the sky.
It was unknown how long it took for the aftermath to completely dissipate.
Darui pushed away the massive boulder pinning him down and stood up while holding Mabui.
They looked at the center of the village, now reduced to ruins under a sky obscured by dust, and couldn't help but feel bewildered.
At this moment, the reinforcing ninja began to arrive one after another.
The pale-skinned, blonde-haired C; Samui, whose figure was even more impressive than Tsunade's; the mature and calm Yugito, wearing her hair in a long braid; Dodai with his eyepatch; Killer B's two disciples, Karui and Omoi; and Samui's younger brother, Atsui...
Aside from these elite ninja, there were countless others.
They formed a dense crowd, surrounding the area in multiple layers.
A rough estimate put their numbers at over a thousand.
Further away, on high cliffs and tall buildings, giant crossbows, kunai launchers, and other anti-air weapons all took aim at Jokichi.
"Darui, what happened?"
Yugito looked at the bleeding shoulder of the man supporting himself with Mabui.
This was the first time she had ever seen the Raikage's right-hand man in such a sorry state.
She wasn't the only one; the others also looked at him in shock.
Karui, in particular, was completely dumbfounded, her face full of disbelief.
Darui forced a bitter smile.
Just as he was about to answer, gasps of alarm rang out from the other side.
The crowd turned toward the sound and saw Omoi walking over, carrying the Raikage over his shoulder step by step.
Seeing C, Omoi immediately yelled, "Hurry up and heal Lord Raikage!"
C didn't dare waste a second.
He rushed over, helped lay the Raikage flat on the ground, and immediately began applying medical ninjutsu.
The Raikage's body was soaked in blood.
His robust torso was peppered with building debris.
Numerous lacerations exposed his bright red muscle fibers and bone.
Such a gruesome sight made the surrounding Kumogakure ninja turn their heads away.
"How is this possible? Even Lord Raikage was defeated," Karui watched the scene with bitter resentment, biting her lower lip hard and clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white.
"Did that guy do this?" Samui, one of the few who rarely let emotions control her, calmly assessed the situation.
However, the slight trembling of her beautiful eyes revealed that her heart wasn't as composed as her face suggested.
Just then, an uproar erupted from the rear.
They turned back to look, only to see Jokichi lightly touching down on the ground.
He ignored the surrounding crowd aiming weapons at him, their eyes filled with terror, unease, hatred, and vigilance.
He simply walked toward the Kumogakure higher-ups step by step.
That unshaken composure in the midst of thousands of enemies made the surrounding people even more deeply unnerved.
"Halt!" Yugito dashed forward, blocking Jokichi's path.
True to her word, Jokichi obediently stopped his steps.
However, his purple, ripple-patterned eyes remained utterly indifferent.
"The Rinnegan, that's the Rinnegan. How could someone in this world still possess the Rinnegan?!"
The Tailed Beast inside Yugito, Matatabi the Two-Tails, screamed in shock.
Its voice was laced with utter disbelief.
Hearing Matatabi's voice, Yugito couldn't help but gape in astonishment.
Kumogakure possessed a descendant bloodline left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, so they knew a bit about ancient secrets.
Although most people treated them as mythological stories and just listened casually.
But as a jinchuriki, Yugito had communicated with Matatabi and knew those stories weren't entirely myths.
Furthermore, she was very familiar with the physical characteristics of the Sage of Six Paths...
Eyes patterned with concentric ripples; this was a dojutsu unique to the Sage of Six Paths.
"You block my path but say nothing, your arrogance truly knows no bounds!" Jokichi said flatly.
Yugito snapped back to reality and stared intently at Jokichi, lowering her center of gravity and gripping a kunai in each hand.
"Invading our village, destroying our home, killing countless comrades, and severely wounding Lord Raikage into a coma..."
"I don't care who you are, but after doing all this, don't even think you can leave in one piece."
"That's right, prepare to die, you bastard!"
"Kill him!"
Yugito's words resonated with the crowd.
The Kumogakure ninja's morale surged as they brandished their weapons and cheered for Yugito.
Many stepped out of the crowd, entirely surrounding Jokichi in the center.
"Be careful, that guy can release a 360-degree shockwave. Don't all attack at the exact same time," Darui shouted out a loud warning.
The people surrounding Jokichi immediately shifted their formation, splitting into front, middle, and rear echelons.
This guaranteed that they could attack in staggered waves while keeping him boxed in.
Jokichi swept his gaze around and sneered, "It seems the power I displayed earlier wasn't enough!"