About a hundred miles from Kumogakure, in a stretch of low-lying hills, a battle was drawing to a close.
On one side were Kizaru's teammates, Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo. On the other was an elite squad of ten led by the Third Raikage.
Half an hour earlier, after receiving word that the village had come under attack, the Third Raikage had ordered the elite squad to continue toward the border while he returned to the village himself.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo had been lying low in the heart of the Land of Lightning, near the route between Kumogakure and the border. When they spotted the squad and confirmed that the Third Raikage wasn't with them, they launched an ambush without hesitation.
A Kage Level powerhouse skilled in assassination, paired with an Elite Jonin of all-round ability, had struck an unsuspecting enemy. The damage their ambush inflicted was immense.
In the very first wave, two of Kumogakure's ten elite ninja were killed, one was badly wounded, and three suffered minor injuries.
In the battle that followed, Sarutobi Shinnosuke used his outstanding range of ninjutsu to hold the enemy at bay, creating openings and buying time for Hatake Sakumo, who kept circling their opponents.
With his blinding speed and sharp swordsmanship, Hatake Sakumo cut through them like wheat, taking down one opponent after another in a five-kill streak.
By the end, only two Elite Jonin from Kumogakure remained capable of fighting. Both were skilled in Nintaijutsu.
They stood back to back, warily watching Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo, who had them trapped between them.
The two Elite Jonin from Kumogakure were both members of the Third Raikage's clan. They had learned the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and lightning now cloaked their bodies.
"You Konoha ninja—are you trying to start a war?" one of the Jonin demanded sharply, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
The Land of Fire had always been the Land of Lightning's greatest enemy, and Kumogakure had devoted more resources to gathering intelligence on Konoha than on any other village.
From their brief clash, the Jonin had roughly guessed who their enemies were.
With the two ninja blocking their escape routes, Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo said nothing. They exchanged a glance, then attacked in perfect sync.
Hatake Sakumo's Body Flicker Technique was incredibly fast, among the best in Konoha. He appeared in front of the enemy almost as if he had teleported.
But someone was even faster.
A flash of golden light streaked across the sky. Just as Hatake Sakumo was about to bring his blade down on his opponent, it shot straight toward them.
Two long legs, gleaming with a black metallic sheen, appeared out of nowhere and stomped on the heads of the two Elite Jonin from Kumogakure, driving them straight into the earth.
Hatake Sakumo had leapt into the air, ready to swing his sword. When he saw Kizaru appear out of nowhere, he froze in surprise and immediately halted his attack.
"I'm not late, am I?"
Standing in the huge crater he had made, his feet planted in the dark red soil, Kizaru kept his hands in his pockets and looked up at the two teammates above him.
Hatake Sakumo silently sheathed his Ninja Sword behind his back, then immediately checked Kizaru for injuries.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke stood at the crater's edge and did the same.
Kizaru's clothes were covered in blood, but on closer inspection, there was no sign that he had been injured.
Seeing this, both men breathed a sigh of relief.
"Come on up, Kizaru!" Sarutobi Shinnosuke called.
Kizaru bent his knees, leapt out of the crater, and landed beside Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
"You're not hurt, are you?" Sarutobi Shinnosuke asked with concern as Kizaru landed beside him.
Kizaru turned his head slightly and smiled. "No."
Sarutobi Shinnosuke nodded, then looked toward Hatake Sakumo, who stood on the opposite side of the crater. He was finishing off the badly wounded Kumogakure ninja lying on the ground.
"Let's pull back!"
"Understood!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the three vanished.
The Third Raikage stood atop a field of rubble, his bare upper body wrapped in bandages around his entire abdomen and left chest. He was furious.
Damn it! I'll kill that bastard!
Veins bulged across his face. His massive fists clenched tight as rage filled his heart.
Kumogakure had suffered catastrophic losses in the attack.
Hundreds of ninja had been killed or wounded, and countless buildings and pieces of equipment had been reduced to rubble.
Of all the losses, the one that pained the Third Raikage most was the death of the village's young genius, the trusted administrator he had personally groomed: Dodai.
The Third Raikage had taken office near the end of the First Shinobi World War. Twenty years of painstaking work to govern and develop the village had been wiped out in less than an hour—more than half of it lost.
"Do you have any leads on the enemy's identity?" the Third Raikage asked, forcing down his anger as he turned to the elder beside him and the other senior officials.
The senior officials exchanged glances, then all looked to the elder.
Under their many gazes, the elder, who had lived through more than his share of major events, remained composed.
"I do have a theory about the enemy's identity."
"What is it?" the Third Raikage asked urgently.
"The enemy came from Konoha." Though he called it a theory, the elder sounded certain.
"Konoha?" Thinking of the Third Hokage's temperament, the Third Raikage wasn't entirely convinced by the elder's guess. "Would they dare?"
"The ninja who attacked the village could fly, and I've never seen the ninjutsu he used before. Those techniques were incredibly fast, devastatingly powerful, and gave off a blinding light," the elder said, recalling the battle.
"His abilities match the information we've gathered on Konoha's newest prodigy, Shimura Kizaru, almost perfectly!
"And after we tried to assassinate him twice, both he and Konoha have reason to strike back!"
"Konoha... Shimura Kizaru!" The Third Raikage replayed his clash with the enemy in his mind and compared it with the scraps of information he had on Shimura Kizaru. It really did seem to fit!
But one question still kept him from being completely sure.
According to the intelligence, Konoha's Shimura Kizaru wasn't even ten years old.
A child under ten had attacked the village alone from the air and killed more than a hundred ninja, including over a dozen Jonin and Dodai.
Then, after attacking the village, he had ambushed the Third Raikage and left him badly wounded.
How was that possible? Could the world really produce a genius so monstrous?
"That Shimura Kizaru isn't even ten years old!" the Third Raikage reminded the elder.
"But Konoha was founded by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha." The elder's voice was heavy with awe and concern.
Hashirama Senju. Madara Uchiha!
Those two names alone weighed on the Third Raikage.
They had been monsters capable of sweeping across the entire Shinobi World just decades ago!
Could Konoha really be about to produce a third monster less than thirty years after their deaths?
And this monster could fly, move at incredible speed, and use a mysterious technique—whether it was Genjutsu or a transformation into light—that made him immune to attacks.
A chill rose in his heart. At that moment, the Third Raikage desperately hoped the enemy wasn't really from Konoha.