Hero

Crack!

As black lightning flashed, the hill the Raikage had been buried in began to split apart, then finally crumbled completely, revealing a muscular old man with dark skin and pale yellow hair.

"What kind of Ninjutsu was that just now? It actually blasted me away while I was charging."

Guo Wang didn't answer. Instead, he raised his right hand and slowly clenched it, then relaxed his grip. A crater roughly three meters in radius had somehow appeared beneath his feet.

The other Four-Diamond Prism Tomoe in his right Mangekyo had dimmed, indicating that Shinra Sei had entered its cooldown.

"You don't have to answer. I've already figured out some of it. In my Hell Stab state, I can sense even the slightest fluctuations in Chakra. You infused a large amount of Chakra into your feet just now to anchor yourself to the ground. I was wondering why you'd done that, but now I see—it must be a side effect of the technique that blasted me away."

In a battle between Kage Level fighters, no matter how strange a Ninjutsu was, seeing it once was enough to analyze some of its secrets.

The Raikage was the most experienced fighter of them all. Though he'd never seen the Rinnegan and knew nothing about Shinra Sei, experiencing it firsthand had given him some understanding of the technique.

"Centered on yourself, you repel everything around you. But if the caster can't withstand the opponent's impact, he gets repelled too. That's why you anchored yourself to the ground with your feet and prepared in advance."

As the Raikage spoke, his Chakra Mode changed again. This time, he entered his true ultimate form. He combined the full range of enhancements—physical toughness, vitality, speed, reflexes, perception, and agility—so that he could possess all of their peak attributes at once without switching forms.

"Your technique must have other limitations, too. Otherwise, you could've used it from the start instead of waiting until Susanoo was broken to use it as a trump card against my Three-Finger Nukite."

Seeing his opponent enter "Lightning God Possession," Guo Wang's lips curled into a cold smile. The Four-Diamond Prism Tomoe in his right eye, which had dimmed, began to glow again.

The skill's cooldown was over.

"Shinra Sei is the Ninjutsu that blasted you away."

After he said this, the blond young man behind him abruptly disappeared. A blue-green sphere of light appeared in Namikaze Minato's palm, and he slammed it into the Raikage's back, right over his heart.

"It's useless. With every enhancement of Lightning Release Chakra Mode stacked together, I'm faster than you."

The instant the Rasengan formed, the Raikage had already twisted aside and dodged Namikaze Minato's sneak attack. He grabbed Minato's wrist with his right hand, while the three fingers of his left hand crackled with Black Lightning, forming a blade-like hand that swept toward the handsome face framed by flowing blond hair.

"As expected, this is trouble."

The voice came from behind Guo Wang. His attack had failed, and Namikaze Minato had already used his Mark to return to his original position.

Rumble!

On the other side, the Raikage's Three-Finger Nukite struck empty air. The Black Lightning that scattered from it struck the ground, carving a trench more than ten meters long.

"Tch. Even grabbing him didn't help. The Second's Flying Thunder God is such a pain."

If Senju Tobirama hadn't been covering his disciples' escape back then, he wouldn't have died at the hands of Kinkaku and Ginkaku.

A shinobi who had mastered Flying Thunder God would never be hit as long as he didn't want to be.

"You're no slouch, either. After you've cloaked yourself in Lightning Release, only Wind Release can hit you."

The elemental advantage of Chakra had little effect at the Kage Level, but sometimes that tiny margin was what decided whether someone lived or died.

"In this form, I could take another ten Vacuum Blades head-on and still survive. Wind Release is no different from any other attack to me."

As the Raikage spoke, he appeared between Guo Wang and Namikaze Minato. He thrust out both hands in Hell Stab. Black Lightning flashed, illuminating the sky, and the shinobi watching them couldn't help but squeeze their eyes shut.

"Damn it!"

Namikaze Minato could use Flying Thunder God to escape, but with the Three-Finger Nukite's blinding speed, he couldn't move Danzo out of its range in time.

"Shinra Sei!"

At the critical moment, with the skill's cooldown over, Guo Wang no longer held back his trump card.

He gathered Chakra and centered it on himself. An invisible force repelled everything around him.

"It's not a shock wave, but a special, omnidirectional repulsive force. It consumes a fair amount of Chakra, but not as much as I expected."

The Raikage remained remarkably calm in his ultimate Nintaijutsu form. After clashing head-on with Shinra Sei a second time and sensing the Chakra fluctuations around Danzo, he had gained a basic understanding of the technique.

"Now all that's left is to test the limits of what it can withstand and how long its cooldown lasts."

The thought flashed through his mind. The Raikage retracted one finger from his Three-Finger Nukite once more. Black Lightning surged into Thunder, and he became like a lightning drill, forcing his way through the repulsive force as he thrust two fingers toward Danzo's forehead.

"Two-Finger Nukite!"

Guo Wang, who had also used the Sharingan to see the flow of his opponent's Chakra, held nothing back. Mental Energy squeezed every last bit of physical energy out of his body as he unleashed his strongest Shinra Sei.

Rumble!

Another earth-shaking boom rang out, but this time it was Danzo who was blasted away.

The Rinnegan's Shinra Sei, a technique that could both attack and defend, was still somewhat inadequate against the strongest user of Lightning Release.

"One Tomoe in his right eye has dimmed. There's no mistake—this is one of the three techniques stored in 'Goji Chongshi.' It means he's entered his cooldown. Now we can kill him."

After entering his ultimate form, the Raikage's relentless attacks had exposed Guo Wang's biggest opening since the battle began.

The Raikage used Body Flicker and closed in again. His Two-Finger Nukite struck once more, and black lightning swallowed Danzo's rigid body in midair.

"Damn it, that Oni missed!"

A thousand meters away, Guo Wang gasped for breath. Namikaze Minato had a hand on his shoulder. At the last possible moment, Minato had used Flying Thunder God to move them and dodge the Raikage's attack.

"That was the wrong choice. You should've taken the chance to attack me, not saved me."

As he spoke, green ribs flickered faintly across his body.

Susanoo-no-Mikoto was a Dojutsu with no cooldown, but it depended on the caster's Chakra. Guo Wang wasn't confident he could take the Two-Finger Nukite without a scratch, but he didn't think it would kill him.

"Lightning God Possession is said to stack every enhancement, but when he uses most of his Chakra to attack, the defense of his Lightning Release Armor drops considerably. A Rasengan would be enough to break through his body."

"You're right to correct me, senpai, but I still believe protecting the hero of the village is more important than seriously wounding our opponent."

A hero...

Namikaze Minato's words stirred Danzo's memories deep in Guo Wang's mind.

It seemed that had been his wish.