"Lord Raikage, you're awake!"
The moment his consciousness returned, the Raikage heard a familiar, pleasantly surprised, and deeply concerned voice.
Weakly opening his eyes, a fair face entered his vision.
"It's C."
The Raikage relaxed slightly, then noticed the ruins around him and quickly asked, "Where is the intruder?"
"He's been surrounded by the reinforcements. With Yugito leading the charge, there definitely won't be a problem."
"Oh no!"
The Raikage grabbed C's arm, trying to force himself to stand up.
But as soon as he rose, he instantly collapsed again.
C hurriedly supported him and advised, "Lord Raikage, don't be impulsive. You have several fractured bones."
"If you move around recklessly, you'll be left with incurable disabilities."
The Raikage lay on the ground, gasping heavily.
"That guy is the one from the intelligence Killer B just sent. He's here for Yugito!"
"Hurry up and take Yugito far away from him."
"What? He's here for Yugito?" C was shocked and uncertain.
While he was treating the Raikage, Mabui had already explained the situation to them.
If he was here for Yugito, why would he swagger straight into the Raikage's office?
Did he get lost?
C almost found his own thought amusing.
Just then, a tsunami of battle cries erupted from the other side.
The two looked up to see countless Kumogakure ninja launching an attack on Jokichi.
Some threw volleys of kunai rigged with explosive tags.
Some activated elemental ninjutsu.
Some hurled heavy weapons...
A staggering array of attacks flew toward Jokichi in a dizzying, staggered sequence.
"No!"
The Raikage's eyes nearly split open in rage.
He tried to ignore his severe injuries and crawl up to stop what was about to happen.
However, putting aside whether his heavily injured body could even stand up.
Even if he could, his speed would never outpace the sheer number of people and weapons, especially from this distance.
Sure enough, just as he managed to stand up by leaning on C, he heard the sound he least wanted to hear in his entire life.
"Almighty Push!"
An invisible repulsive force exploded from the inside out.
The attacks...
Whether they were ranged weapons or elemental ninjutsu, everything was reduced to dust before this wave of repulsion.
They were blasted away alongside the shockwave.
Boom!
A deafening sonic boom, wrapped in dust and weapons, blew the attackers away simultaneously.
They had heeded Darui's warning and executed staggered attacks.
But the power of Jokichi's Almighty Push defied imagination.
The attacks from the front, middle, and rear, and even the people launching them, were all caught in the blast radius.
Hundreds of elite Kumogakure ninja were swept into the air, flying toward an unknown distance alongside the rubble and trash.
"You bastard!"
From the center of the dust cloud, Yugito dashed out.
She was wreathed in deep blue, flame-like chakra.
Her hair stood on end, defying gravity, and her eyes turned completely white.
With foot-long claws extending from her hands, she looked exactly like a furious, puffed-up cat.
Her speed was incredible.
Leaving afterimages as she tore through the dust, she arrived in front of Jokichi in the blink of an eye.
Her coldly gleaming claws slashed toward him without an ounce of mercy.
However, such speed meant absolutely nothing to Jokichi.
With a gentle raise of his hand, he seized her by the throat.
It looked as if Yugito had intentionally thrown herself right into his grip.
"I was just looking for you, yet you delivered yourself right to my door."
"I'll gladly accept the chakra of Matatabi the Two-Tails."
Saying this, he prepared to activate the Preta Path's ability to absorb chakra.
Suddenly, dozens of Kumogakure ninja outside the immediate radius activated Storm Release simultaneously.
Dozens to hundreds of light beams flared up, blindingly illuminating the dust cloud.
The intense light stung Jokichi's eyes, forcing him to instinctively squeeze them shut.
Seizing the opportunity, Yugito swiped her claws at his neck.
However, hearing the wind of the strike, Jokichi tossed her away beforehand.
Yugito tumbled across the ground a few times before landing perfectly on her feet, her beastly eyes locked onto Jokichi.
"The enemy is incredibly strong."
"Go all out, don't hold back."
As she spoke, an even more terrifying chakra erupted from her body.
The deep blue flames physically took shape, transforming into a colossal phantom cat.
Roar!
The monstrous cat roared at the sky, radiating an incredibly terrifying aura.
Encouraged by this, the Kumogakure ninja's morale spiked once again as they readied their weapons and charged.
With such a powerful monster cat as an ally, what was there to fear?
Yugito led the charge, opening her mouth to spew a massive fireball at Jokichi.
The blazing heat was so intense it warped the surrounding air.
With a casual raise of his hand, Jokichi completely absorbed the fireball.
Yet the Kumogakure ninja were undeterred.
They charged fiercely, hollering like madmen, with Yugito in her phantom cat form trailing close behind.
However, she didn't just charge head-on with the crowd.
Instead, with abnormal agility, she leaped onto the adjacent cliff face, changing direction to launch a sneak attack from behind.
Jokichi didn't rush to make a move.
He merely watched the Kumogakure ninja sprinting toward him in silence.
The expression on every single person's face was clearly captured by his Rinnegan.
All of them were filled with fanaticism and excitement, lacking even a single shred of fear.
Jokichi slowly closed his eyes, listening to the war cries drawing closer and closer.
"I originally didn't want to take things this far."
"But since none of you seem to know what fear is, you've forced my hand."
The Kumogakure ninja reached him.
Jokichi snapped his eyes open and thrust his right hand toward the sky.
A pitch-black sphere flew from his palm directly into the heavens.
The Kumogakure ninja swung their weapons at Jokichi.
Yugito clung tightly to the cliff behind him, her eyes locked onto her target.
Dark purple chakra, a perfect ratio of Yin and Yang, gathered at her maw.
She was just waiting for Jokichi to use Almighty Push to deflect her comrades' attacks.
Once he did, she would fire the Tailed Beast Ball without a second thought.
However...
"Super Planetary Devastation!"
The massive repulsive force they had anticipated never materialized.
Instead, an unimaginably terrifying gravitational pull descended from the sky.
The weapons swinging toward Jokichi were snatched away mid-strike.
The intense gravity even began pulling the people up into the air.
The Kumogakure ninja frantically lowered their centers of gravity, stabbed their kunai into the earth, or hugged massive boulders to keep from being sucked away.
But the gravitational pull only grew stronger.
Those who merely lowered their stance only managed to hold on for a moment before being yanked into the sky.
Immediately after, the earth fractured, and the mountain peaks collapsed.
Houses and buildings were uprooted entirely and pulled into the air, smashing together against the black sphere's core.
The cliff Yugito was clinging to also shattered and crumbled.
She herself was inevitably dragged up into the sky.
However, the power of a Tailed Beast was titanic.
Even while being pulled into the air, she was not entirely defenseless like the others.
Maintaining her phantom cat form, she anchored herself on a massive floating boulder, faced the core, and opened her jaws wide.
The dark purple chakra sphere, a fusion of Yin and Yang, blasted fiercely from her mouth.
Caught in the core's gravitational pull, the Tailed Beast Ball smashed directly into it with unstoppable momentum.
In that instant, all sound vanished from the world.
Everyone could only witness the blinding light of the explosion and the apocalyptic flames that completely blotted out the sky.