The Dust Settles

The moment that streak of black lightning, tearing through the night sky, crashed against the blood-red blade that burned with the force of life—

RUMBLE!

The earth-shattering boom arrived a beat later, followed by a shockwave powerful enough to overturn the ground.

The earth became like dough kneaded by an invisible giant hand. Centered on the point of impact, terrifying ripples spread in wave after wave, rising and bursting apart.

Countless rocks and clouds of dust were swept high into the sky by the violent blast, forming a grayish-yellow pillar that connected heaven and earth.

Far away, inside Konoha.

The glass in the Hokage Office windows shattered with a sharp crack.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sprang to his feet, and the pipe in his hand clattered to the floor.

He appeared on the roof with a Body Flicker Technique and looked toward the red-and-black light illuminating half the sky beyond the village. For the first time, shock showed on his aged face.

"That Chakra... is it A, the Third Raikage?!

And there's another force... one I've never felt before, full of violence and destruction!

Who is it?!"

Without hesitation, he formed Hand Seals. "Summoning Technique!"

Poof!

As the smoke cleared, Enma transformed into the Adamantine Staff and landed in his hand.

"Sarutobi!" Enma's voice sounded grave.

"Something's happened." The Third Hokage's face was grim. His body became a streak of light as he shot toward the explosion.

"Notify all Jonin in the village: Level One Alert!

Tell the Barrier Team to activate the village's highest-level defensive barrier! Hurry!"

The valley was gone.

All that remained was a terrifying crater more than five hundred meters across, its bottom nowhere in sight.

The crater walls were smooth as mirrors, turned into glass by extreme heat that had melted and cooled them in an instant.

Deep in the crater, groundwater bubbled up, sending billowing white steam into the air.

At the crater's edge, Namikaze Minato knelt on one knee, straining to hold up a ninjutsu barrier that was on the verge of collapsing.

His face was as pale as paper, and a trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

Uzumaki Kushina was still unconscious in his arms, but he had protected her well.

Farther away, the three Kumogakure Jonin and seven Chunin had all been reduced to charred remains.

Scattered among the shattered mountain rubble, they silently testified to the horrific aftermath of that clash.

And in the center of the crater, two figures faced each other from a distance.

The Third Raikage, A, stood bare-chested, his body covered in fine wounds. The deepest ran diagonally from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, his flesh torn open and blood pouring out.

The tip of the index finger on his right hand was charred black and trembled slightly.

His Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite, infused with a lifetime's worth of Chakra, had failed to pierce his opponent's blade.

He stared at the man across from him, his single eye filled with unprecedented solemnity—and even disbelief.

Across from him stood Zaraki Kenpachi.

His condition was worse.

His left arm bent at a grotesque angle, clearly broken.

The wound across his chest, cut by the lightning axe, was deep enough to expose bone. He could even see his organs shifting beneath it.

He was drenched in blood, as if he had been dragged from a blood pool.

But he stood there with his back straight.

His eyepatch had flown off somewhere, revealing eyes that blazed with golden fire.

They held nothing but the utter satisfaction of a thoroughly exhilarating fight, and a lingering, frenzied hunger for battle.

Several chips had broken off the blade of the Zanpakuto in his hand.

But he gripped it tightly all the same, its tip aimed at the Raikage.

"Heh... hehehe..." Zaraki Kenpachi grinned, his teeth stained red with blood.

"That was great... damn, that was great! It's been so long since I've had a fight that satisfying!"

He drew a deep breath. His chest wheezed, but the hand gripping his sword was as steady as a rock.

"Come on! We're not done yet!!"

The Third Raikage watched him in silence, then looked toward Konoha. Several powerful Chakra signatures were rapidly approaching.

He recognized the foremost one: an old yet formidable presence.

Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Konoha's reinforcements had arrived.

And then there was the madman before him...

The Third Raikage's gaze settled on Kenpachi.

His wounds were severe, but his fighting spirit had only grown stronger.

That quality of becoming more frenzied the more he was hurt, and stronger the longer he fought, reminded him of certain ancient summoning beasts from Shikkotsu Forest recorded in Kumogakure's archives.

Impossible to kill.

At least, not in a short time.

And if he got held up here until Sarutobi Hiruzen arrived, with Namikaze Minato alongside him...

Not to mention the Uchiha brat nearby, who hadn't joined the fight but seemed even more dangerous...

Today, he wouldn't just fail to take the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and that genius. There was a chance he'd get trapped here himself.

In the blink of an eye, the Third Raikage made his decision.

He gave Kenpachi a long look, then glanced at Uchiha Ryūha on the far edge of the crater. His voice rumbled like distant thunder.

"Uchiha Ryūha... and you, madman.

I'll remember you both."

"Everyone from Kumogakure—" he roared, his voice shaking the surrounding area. "Withdraw!"

Before the words had even faded, lightning surged around him again. This time, it wasn't an attack. It became a brilliant streak of blue lightning.

He fled in an instant, heading in the opposite direction from Konoha!

He moved so fast that a trail of lightning lingered in the night sky long after he was gone.

It was the secret technique passed down through generations in Kumogakure: Lightning Release: Lightning Body Flicker!

Almost as soon as he disappeared, Zaraki Kenpachi swayed in the middle of the crater.

"Tch... he sure ran fast." He spat out a mouthful of blood, and the flames of battle in his golden eyes slowly died out.

Three minutes... were up.

He turned toward Uchiha Ryūha in the distance and grinned, his teeth stained with blood.

"Kid, this place of yours... isn't bad.

That was a good time."

"If you get another chance like this, make sure you call me again."

As his words faded, his body began to turn into specks of golden Reishi, starting at his feet. They drifted away on the wind.

His Zanpakuto clanged to the ground, then vanished as well.

Three seconds later, Zaraki Kenpachi had disappeared from this world entirely, as if he had never been there.

All that remained was the destruction around them and a bottomless crater, proof that the battle that had just taken place—one that surpassed Kage Level—had been no illusion.

An almost deathly silence settled over the area.

Only the wind moaned through the ruins, accompanied by the bubbling of groundwater.

After a long while,

"Cough... cough, cough..." Namikaze Minato let the barrier dissipate, dropped to one knee, and began coughing violently.

Holding back the aftershock had drained him badly, and the impact had shaken his internal organs.

But he didn't have time to think about himself. He immediately checked Kushina in his arms.

Thank goodness. She was only unconscious, her Chakra was stable, and the Nine-Tails seal was secure.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked up.

Uchiha Ryūha was still standing nearby, pushing his glasses up. The lenses reflected the white glow of steam rising from the crater, obscuring his eyes.

Minato braced himself against his knee and struggled to his feet. Supporting Kushina, he walked toward Ryūha one step at a time.

"Ryūha..." His voice was hoarse. He looked at the boy before him, who was nearly ten years younger, his expression complicated beyond words.

Gratitude, shock, and confusion all mingled in his eyes.

The world-shattering battle, the terrifying powerhouse who had appeared and disappeared without warning—all of it was connected to this seemingly quiet boy.

"Thank you." Minato bowed deeply. "If you and your master hadn't been here today, Kushina and I might not have made it.

I, Namikaze Minato, will never forget this debt.

If you ever need anything in the future, I'll do everything I can to help."

As if she had sensed something while unconscious, Uzumaki Kushina's eyelashes fluttered. She slowly opened her eyes.

For a moment, she looked dazed. Then memories came flooding back: the Kumogakure attack, the Raikage's assault, Minato's desperate fight.

That terrifying Third Raikage had grabbed her... Then a black-haired boy with glasses had appeared, and after that...

She shot upright and looked around.

Destruction stretched as far as the eye could see.

A bottomless crater.

The charred corpses of Kumogakure's ninja in the distance.

And Uchiha Ryūha standing in front of her, calmly pushing his glasses up.

"Ryūha!" Uzumaki Kushina suddenly leaped up and grabbed his hand, tears welling in her emerald eyes.

Her eyes were full of excitement and lingering fear.

"It was you! You saved us, didn't you? You called that suuuuper powerful guy, right? Thank you! Thank you so, so much!"

She shook Ryūha's hand vigorously, tears and snot streaming down her face without a care for appearances.

"From now on, you're my best friend, Uzumaki Kushina's best friend!

If anyone dares to pick on you, I'll be the first to beat them up! Minato will help you too! Right, Minato?"

Watching his fiancée laugh and cry at the same time, Minato nodded with helpless affection.

Then he said solemnly, "That's right.

Ryūha, from now on, anything that concerns you concerns me, Namikaze Minato."

Uchiha Ryūha looked at the two of them, their sincerity plain to see. After a brief silence, he gently withdrew his hand and pushed his glasses up.

"Minato-senpai, Kushina-senpai, you're too kind.

As fellow Konoha ninja, looking out for each other is only right."

He paused and glanced at the crater. "It's a shame the Third Raikage got away."

"Driving him off was already fortunate enough," Minato said, still shaken.

If that terrifying fighter who called himself "Zaraki Kenpachi" hadn't suddenly appeared, the outcome today would have been unthinkable.

Just then, the sound of people cutting through the air rang out.

Several figures landed at the edge of the crater.

The man at the front was old and white-haired, and carried the Adamantine Staff. It was the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Behind him came several Anbu, along with Uchiha Fugaku and Shimura Danzō, who had hurried to the scene.

The Third Hokage saw the devastation in the crater at a glance, and his pupils contracted.

When he saw Minato and Kushina unharmed, he visibly relaxed. But then his gaze landed on Uchiha Ryūha, growing unfathomably deep.

"Minato, Kushina, are you all right?" the Third Hokage asked gravely.

"Lord Hokage, we're fine.

We have Ryūha—and his master—to thank." Minato briefly recounted what had happened.

He described the Third Raikage's ambush, Zaraki Kenpachi's arrival, their battle, and the Raikage's retreat.

With every sentence, the expressions of those behind the Third Hokage changed.

Shimura Danzō stared at Ryūha with his one eye, his gaze sinister.

Uchiha Fugaku, though still shocked, had a barely restrained excitement flicker in his eyes.