Kage-Level Battle

Looking at the familiar scene before her, Tsunade did not know why, but tears welled up in her eyes.

The approacher was Kagura, who had been rushing this way all along.

After knocking down the Clone in front of him, he instantly realized Kinkaku's objective and charged toward the three of them at once.

Yet even Hiruzen Sarutobi could not make it there in time. How could he possibly be faster than Sarutobi?

Thus, he watched the three of them get blasted into the ground like cannonballs. Even when the three Clones rushed toward Tsunade, he could only helplessly witness it all.

Fortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi's ninjutsu saved Tsunade, and Kagura finally reached her at the very last moment.

A flicker of electric light coiled around Kinkaku's raised right hand. Clearly, he had used some kind of Lightning Style ninjutsu to strengthen his physical body.

Seeing Uchiha Kagura suddenly appear before him, the savage grin on Kinkaku's face only widened. Without hesitation, he continued swinging his fist.

His enormous fist came crashing down at the two of them like a god descending to earth, carrying crackling lightning and the sound of breaking air.

Faced with that thunderous strike, Kagura gritted his teeth and gathered all the Chakra in his body into his right hand.

With an unstoppable momentum, he threw a straight punch toward where the blow was falling.

It was the Monster Strength he had learned from Tsunade!

Strictly speaking, Tsunade's Monster Strength was not a kind of ninjutsu.

She merely combined the flow and application of her own Chakra with her naturally immense strength to produce that terrifying effect.

With the Sharingan, Kagura naturally learned the technique with ease.

Before Hiruzen Sarutobi's astonished eyes, the large and small fists finally collided.

At the moment of impact, the battlefield suddenly fell silent.

Then, tremendous energy erupted from their fists, forming an invisible shockwave that spread outward with the two of them at its center.

However, the gap in their strength was simply too great.

They held out against each other for barely a second before Kagura's expression abruptly changed. His entire being shot backward like a cannonball and slammed into Tsunade behind him.

The tremendous impact sent them crashing in a straight line through trees for dozens of meters. Only after striking a massive boulder did they finally stop.

A huge crater had been smashed into the boulder, and their figures finally appeared.

Tsunade behind him had already collapsed unconscious. Fortunately, the rise and fall of her chest showed that she was still alive.

Compared to Tsunade, Kagura's condition was far worse.

His right hand was twisted outward at an unnatural angle. It was clearly broken.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he weakly dropped to one knee.

Though he appeared utterly defeated, he had ultimately withstood Kinkaku's fatal blow.

Seeing that the Uchiha brat had actually blocked his attack once again, Kinkaku was not angered. Instead, he burst into wild laughter.

However, before he could make another move, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally rushed in front of him.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he completed a set of Hand Seals.

The ground trembled, and an Earth Dragon suddenly appeared before him, charging toward Kinkaku.

Yet it was not over. As the Earth Dragon attacked, Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed out his cheeks and exhaled a stream of fire.

The flames wrapped around the Earth Dragon, creating a fire-breathing Earth Dragon.

It was the combined ninjutsu, Earth Dragon Flame Stream.

Yet in the face of such an attack, Kinkaku merely stood still with a savage grin on his face.

The flaming Earth Dragon swallowed Kinkaku's body whole.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi showed no joy at landing the blow. Instead, his expression became even graver.

This was another Clone!

Just as that thought flashed through his mind, Kinkaku's hoarse voice came again from above and behind him.

"Kid Hiruzen, you're still not cautious enough!

Have you forgotten that anger is a ninja's greatest taboo?"

The real Kinkaku had already leaped into the air.

The veins on the right hand gripping the Basho Fan bulged as he swung it forcefully at Hiruzen Sarutobi's back!

Five clusters of energy in different colors appeared at the tip of the Basho Fan.

After briefly hovering in place, the clusters transformed into five gigantic dragons that roared toward Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Boom!"

A massive explosion erupted where Hiruzen Sarutobi had been standing.

The violent blast instantly vaporized all the trees within a hundred-meter radius. Its aftermath formed a howling gale that swept through the entire forest.

Orochimaru and the others, who had been lying on the ground, were also blown far away by the blast.

Slowly descending from the air, Kinkaku stared in the direction where Hiruzen Sarutobi had been standing.

As the dust and mist gradually dispersed, a semicircular Earth Wall wrapped in trees appeared.

However, most of the Earth Wall had already been destroyed. Through the ruins, a cage made of dozens of Ruyi Staffs could be seen inside.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was inside that cage.

Before the five attacks arrived, he had instantly used Earth Style and the Adamantine Cage formed by the summoned Monkey King, Enma, to block the wave of attacks.

Yet judging by his ragged breathing and the blood soaking the upper right side of his body, he had not been able to completely withstand all the impacts.

Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi inside the cage, Kinkaku showed no disappointment.

His eyes remained fixed on Hiruzen Sarutobi as he slowly raised the right hand holding the Basho Fan once more.

Though exhaustion from depleted strength showed on his face, he still resolutely swung the fan down again.

Watching the familiar five streams of energy approach, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not sit and wait for death.

His gaze sharpened as he swiftly dismissed the Adamantine Cage.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After rapidly forming Hand Seals, four Shadow Clones appeared beside him with four sharp sounds.

Worthy of the man known as the "Professor of Ninjutsu."

The five Hiruzen Sarutobis formed different Hand Seals, each using a different elemental ninjutsu of fire, lightning, water, earth, and wind to attack forward simultaneously.

Five Elements: Great Combined Technique

"Boom!"

Another deafening explosion rang out as an even more devastating blast erupted across the battlefield.

As though struck by a terrifying natural disaster, vast stretches of dense forest were instantly flattened into flat ground.

Several kilometers away from the battlefield, after enduring the pain to set down Jiraiya, the last person in his arms,

Kagura collapsed onto the ground as though all strength had left him.

Before him lay Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya in a neat row.

As the only one still conscious, he had swiftly carried Tsunade away from the battlefield before the first explosion.

After settling Tsunade down, he had returned to find Orochimaru and Jiraiya nearby, then brought them to a mountainside far from the battlefield.

In truth, when the system presented him with the choice between two missions, he had already inferred Kinkaku's terrifying strength from it.

After all, if killing Kinkaku had not been far too difficult, the system would never have offered him an alternative mission to choose from.

Yet only when he personally heard the continuous explosions in the distance and watched entire patches of forest get leveled did Kagura truly understand the might of a Kage-level Strong Person.

Looking at the two figures in the distance, no larger than black dots yet constantly triggering massive explosions, Kagura fell into thought.

First, Hiruzen Sarutobi could not die.

At the very least, he could not die here.

Given Konoha's current structure, if Hiruzen Sarutobi truly died, the only possible candidate for Third Hokage would be Danzo.

If Danzo became Hokage, then aside from defecting from Konoha, Kagura would likely have no other choice.

But that was not right. According to the original plot, Hiruzen Sarutobi could not possibly die at this point in time.

At the root of it all, why had Kinkaku appeared here?

Shouldn't he and Ginkaku have been defeated and killed by the Third Raikage at this time?

Could his transmigration have caused a Butterfly Effect?

Come to think of it, where had Ginkaku gone?

Suddenly, Kagura felt as though he had grasped the key point.

After carefully recalling the entire process of encountering Kinkaku, an idea emerged in his mind.

"Could it really be like this?"

Just as he muttered to himself, a sudden change occurred in the battle not far away.

A surge of Chakra that made Kagura's heart tremble appeared amid the battle.

He hurriedly looked up and vaguely saw an orange-red figure roaring, several Tails waving behind it.

"This is..."

Kagura's eyes narrowed as he already formed a guess.

Familiar with the plot, he naturally knew that this was the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Cloak state.

If Kinkaku had actually transformed directly into this state to fight, then Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was already at a disadvantage, was likely in grave danger!