Stop

"Long time no see, Lord Raikage."

Hatake Sakumo stepped slowly out from the depths of the woods, the White Fang Short Sword in his hand flashing with a cold gleam. His expression was just as it had been when Sahara Mizu and the others first met him—calm, composed, revealing little emotion.

But Sahara Mizu, standing not far from him, could clearly feel the shuddering pressure brought by the vast Chakra constantly surging from deep within this man's body.

The person before his eyes was still plainly the same man, yet to all of Sahara Mizu's senses, Hatake Sakumo seemed at this moment to have turned into a blade.

A peerlessly sharp short sword.

Just looking at him was enough to make a faint sting rise deep in one's eyes.

And yet Hatake Sakumo's voice remained unhurried as he slowly paced around the Third Raikage. "For safety's sake, I'll ask this in advance."

"Let today's matter end here."

"What do you think, Lord Raikage?"

"."

"Ha."

The Third Raikage listened to him, then suddenly let out a laugh. His expression, however, seemed to abruptly pass beyond rage. The muscles across his whole body swelled, veins bulged on his forehead, and he roared:

"End here!?"

"Are you insulting me!?"

"Konoha's White Fang, what country's soil do you think you're standing on!?"

"Cloud Village has never had cowards like you Konoha people!"

Hatake Sakumo stopped and turned to look at him, sounding faintly regretful.

"Negotiations failed, then."

"In that case."

Almost the instant his words fell.

Their figures vanished from everyone's sight at the same time.

By their ears, there was only time to hear a belated metallic ring.

"Whoosh—"

The wind howled.

Sahara Mizu crossed his arms in front of himself, his feet tightly anchored to the ground with Chakra.

Deep in his azure eyes, their every movement was reflected.

"Six Eyes."

Though he had already witnessed the Third Raikage's extreme speed many times, when two ultra-high-speed Ninja of nearly equal velocity collided with each other, the shock of the scene was still almost impossible to describe in words.

Unbelievably fast.

That was not Sahara Mizu's thought alone.

Even the Third Raikage, who was currently clashing with Hatake Sakumo, felt the same shock in his heart.

If his own extreme speed came entirely from the ultra-high physical activation brought by a special Lightning Release, as well as the propulsion of electromagnetic force, then the man before him was Wind Release pushed to its limit.

In his eyes, Hatake Sakumo's entire body was wrapped in a mass of pure white.

That was a "protective ring" formed entirely from Wind Release.

Before him, the air not only failed to become resistance, but instead turned into the strongest driving force, constantly pulling him forward in a wild rush.

At the same time, relying on his ultimate control over this technique, he could even move with extreme agility, constantly leaping through the dense forest and repeatedly avoiding his collisions.

His straight-line speed was even a notch faster than his own.

And...

The Third Raikage was still charging forward when he suddenly halted, his figure shifting sideways to the other side.

The next moment, a pure-white blade light pierced through the rain curtain, cutting straight across dozens of meters. Countless wind blades, fine to the extreme, plowed a straight trench across the surface of the earth, passing by with only the narrowest graze against his body.

"Bzzzz—"

The Third Raikage lowered his head and looked at the lightning armor at the side of his shoulder.

On the surface of the once-intact armor, a fine mark roughly half an inch deep had been left behind, stirring up a surge of crackling thunder.

"Well, well."

Hatake Sakumo stood atop a treetop, looking down at this scene from above, seeming rather helpless.

Behind the Third Raikage were who knew how many tree stumps cut off from the roots.

"Though I'd heard of the name 'Strongest Shield' long ago, for even a full-power strike to fail to leave the slightest mark... that really is unsettling."

His voice was clearly quite serious, yet for some reason, his tone always carried a rather carefree air.

"Good thing."

"I'm not the main attacker."

As though something had occurred to him, the Third Raikage suddenly snapped his head up.

Could it be?!

Immediately after, "Sahara Mizu's" figure abruptly dropped from the air, and amid the violent howl kicked up by the "Wind Release: Body Flicker Technique," he drove a flying knee down.

Its target was his head.

"As expected!"

Those two punches from before, whose power had far exceeded the norm, had left an incredibly deep shadow in the Third Raikage's heart.

If there was anyone in the entire Ninja World, aside from that old bastard Ōnoki's Dust Release, who could kill him in a single move, it was probably only that kid.

Driven by that sense of crisis, he did not even have time to make further observations during such high-speed movement. He immediately rolled to the side, slid and leapt away, turning into a streak of flickering light.

But the instant this "Sahara Mizu" landed, he suddenly raised both hands and hooked his ten fingers back.

"Screech!"

Amid the ear-piercing sound of friction, more than a dozen extremely thin steel wires were pulled taut along the broken tree stumps near the Third Raikage's ankles, forming a looped tripwire.

Almost the instant the Third Raikage's figure swept through that spot, the steel wires colliding with his lightning armor snapped one after another.

But the slight resistance they produced still made his steps falter for the briefest instant.

That fleeting pause immediately made the battle-hardened Third Raikage realize where the problem lay.

If the one who had appeared just now really was that kid, there would have been no need to set up such a superfluous trap.

Only, what exactly were they trying to do?

Aside from his fists, what else could break through this old man's defense?

A string of questions poured into his mind in that brief instant.

Roll, drop prone, twist, prepare to charge.

The Third Raikage did not notice that the instant he lowered his body, his gaze swept across a puddle on the ground and happened to meet a pair of scarlet eyes adorned with tomoe.

"Demonic Illusion: Sharingan."

The eye technique that had been lying in ambush for so long struck into his mind through the meeting of their gazes.

For a Kage-level powerhouse with extremely rich countermeasures against all kinds of illusions, including the Sharingan, this mere two-tomoe Sharingan illusion, no matter how long it had been prepared, had an effect on him so faint it was almost laughable.

At most, one instant.

He only needed that short instant to break free of it with his formidable resistance to illusions and his mental energy.

However, in a life-and-death battle, that single instant was already enough to decide everything.

"Bzz—!"

As if he had foreseen something, a roar more violent than a mountain collapse rang beside the Third Raikage's ears.

He had already heard this sound twice.

It came exactly at the moment when he broke through the illusion and stepped forward.

Sahara Mizu's figure suddenly appeared before him.

Inertia so vast that even he himself could scarcely alter it drove him to step forward and twist his waist, transferring force continuously from beneath his feet to his shoulder with a section-by-section penetrating momentum. His fist, like the tip of a long whip after it had been lashed out and pierced the sound barrier, thrust fiercely into the abdomen of this brown-bear-like man amid an ear-piercing explosive crack.

In that process, the Third Raikage only had time to protect his head with both hands, while the lightning armor over his body grew ever more dazzling.

"Limitless Technique: Serious Punch"

"Boom!!!"

The sound of the punch was deafening.

The lightning armor blocking this punch was like foam made of ice crystals. After one breach shattered open, it collapsed backward in a continuous domino-like chain.

A deep mark was branded into the surface of his powerful abdominal muscles, tempered through long training.

Swelling blood surged continuously upward from his stomach, seeming as though it would immediately gush from his mouth like a fountain.

Yet a sliver of hope still rose in the Third Raikage's heart.

The last punch still didn't hit my head!

Only, the instant this thought emerged in his mind—

He saw that behind Sahara Mizu, a dazzling arc of pure white light was slashing out in succession.

The wind was biting.

Hatake Sakumo leapt over Sahara Mizu's figure, his blade cutting forward.

"Die—"

"You bastard!!"

Their voices rang out almost simultaneously.

The Chakra Tanto known as the White Fang cut deep into the Third Raikage's shoulder and neck, continuing down toward his collarbone, only to be blocked by the thick arms guarding both sides of his head. It embedded itself in solid muscle and bone, splashing blood.

This body, tempered through countless trials, was in truth not much weaker than the armor wrapped around it, but this was the first real wound ever cut into him since his ninjutsu had reached its peak.

The ever-rising Wind Release Chakra clashed with the rekindled Lightning Release Armor, the two types of chakra—one restraining the other—constantly canceling each other out and regenerating. The Third Raikage's chakra, more terrifying than even a tailed beast's, burned endlessly into his strength. Though he was clearly the one being countered, he had forced his way into the advantage in this contest through an even more terrifying sheer quantity.

"Haah—!"

The two figures, one burly and one lean, strained against each other amid ceaseless roars, knocking down giant trees one after another as they drove step by step farther back, their feet plowing deep furrows through the ground.

Only at the very end, when Hatake Sakumo finally felt himself nearing exhaustion, did he grit his teeth and retreat half a step in frustration, drawing his tanto and slashing forward again.

However, by the time he swung this slash, the Lightning Release Armor that had just shattered had already recovered by nearly half.

"Screech!"

Blood sprayed from the wound that cut across his chest.

This time, the Third Raikage seemed finally to have felt a personal threat, and he leaped more than ten meters back.

Facing off against the group from Konoha, all of them panted heavily without pause.

Only Sahara Mizu silently looked toward Hatake Sakumo's back.

Sure enough.

This man was far too dangerous.

It would be better to keep a few more trump cards in reserve.

Whether the Raikage died or not had little to do with him as a spy, but how to preserve his strength in the middle of a fierce battle mattered greatly.

Sahara Mizu knew very well what he had come here to do.

The three serious punches he had landed on the Raikage earlier were already enough to solidify his position and value in Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind.

"."

The silent standoff lasted nearly three minutes.

Whether it was the Raikage's side or Konoha's side, both were waiting for word from their own people.

Until finally—

"Whoosh."

A Byakugan Ninja in a Konoha uniform leaped down from the treetops and said in a low voice, "Lord Sakumo, Lord Tsunade and Mokume Jonin have already been moved."

Hearing this, Hatake Sakumo finally seemed to let out a breath of relief.

He said nothing more, merely kept his eyes fixed in the Third Raikage's direction as he slowly and cautiously retreated behind him.

Only after they had gone over a hundred meters away did he lead everyone up into the treetops together.

This time, the Third Raikage merely watched them leave in silence and said nothing.