Just as expected...
As he looked past the increasingly faint column of black smoke at the two clusters of emerald-green flames burning behind it, the Third Raikage slowly lowered his hands, his expression gradually darkening.
It was him!
At this moment, through the thin, cicada-wing-like column of black smoke, he could already see the flat ground stretching out beyond it, as well as the dark-haired boy standing before it, with two clusters of emerald-green flames burning in his eyes from behind the smoke.
The Third Raikage...
At that moment, the boy with emerald-green flames burning in his eyes narrowed them slightly as well. Deep within those burning green flames was reflected the burly man standing erect in the distance beyond the now-faint black smoke, his mere presence exuding an overwhelming sense of authority. Though his face could not be seen through the smoke, the Lightning Release Chakra Cloak crackling around him and the body standing as though it would never fall allowed the boy to recognize him at once. This was the ninja he had least wanted to provoke in this era of the Hokage—and the one he had never expected to encounter at a time like this! This is bad...
Although he had felt things were bad from the moment he first saw him, now that he was truly facing him, it still felt...
So bad!
The boy knew very clearly what the burly man before him represented. The Third Raikage, Kumogakure's third leader, possessed the "strongest shield" and the "strongest spear." Strictly speaking, he was a ninja with no significant weaknesses.
He was more troublesome than Yagura Bi, whom he had fought before, and that old Kumogakure ninja from the previous battle whose command over Lightning Release had been extraordinary... No, not more troublesome—countless times more terrifying. At