Ōnoki's Shock, the Third Raikage Captured Alive!

A sharp glint flashed through Uchiha Jun's eyes. He knew—the time to strike had come!

Transformation Technique!

A cloud of gray smoke enveloped Uchiha Jun's body.

As the smoke dispersed, an old man appeared, his right eye wrapped in bandages and a cross-shaped scar on his chin!

—Shimura Danzō!

Uchiha Jun flexed his fingers, feeling the disguise layered over his body, and a cold smile curled across his lips.

"Children, are you ready to welcome this 'Sexy Sun Brother' descending from the heavens? No, this is the 'News Broadcast'!"

Taking a single step forward, Uchiha Jun's figure leaped down like a phantom, plunging toward the battlefield below!

"Whoosh—"

As he fell, Uchiha Jun drew in a huge breath, pushing his Thunderous Great Lungs to their limit as Wind Release chakra erupted within him!

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!!"

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

In an instant, more than a dozen air-forged wind blades, each dozens of meters long, streamed from Uchiha Jun's mouth one after another. Like enormous, sharp, invisible scythes, they slashed toward the Iwa-nin troops besieging the Third Raikage below!

Directly beneath the battlefield, Tietu was about to order the final encirclement when he suddenly sensed a powerful surge of chakra erupt overhead.

He jerked his head up, his pupils contracting sharply!

"What is that...?!"

A black-clad figure descended from the sky, the bandages over his right eye fluttering in the wind. The iconic cross-shaped scar on his chin let Ōnoki, who had sensed him from midair as well, instantly recognize the newcomer's identity!

"Shimura Danzō!!"

Ōnoki's voice was filled with astonishment and shock. "What are you doing?! Are you Konoha people planning to go to all-out war with Iwagakure?!"

Uchiha Jun did not answer Ōnoki's question. Instead, he used the recoil from Vacuum Serial Waves to land steadily.

At the same time, the dozen or so Vacuum Serial Waves carved just as many gashes through the ground, taking more than a dozen Jonin and nearly a hundred Chunin with them!

For a moment, the stunned Third Raikage was surrounded by severed limbs and mangled corpses strewn across the ground!

The instant he landed, Uchiha Jun did not pause in the slightest. A single Vacuum Blade severed the unsuspecting Third Raikage's arm tendons, preventing him from using ninjutsu. He then followed it with a Self-Exerting Curse Binding Seal, pinning him in place and stopping him from killing himself.

The Third Raikage had been captured alive in one stroke!

Uchiha Jun coldly swept his gaze over the encircling Iwa-nin before delivering the line he had prepared long ago:

"This old man merely came to retrieve a piece of 'experimental material.' I have no interest in playing house with a bunch of juniors like you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Uchiha Jun formed hand seals with both hands!

"Summoning Technique!"

Bang—!

"Roar!!!"

A massive cloud of smoke burst forth, and an enormous summoned beast the size of a small mountain—the Baku—appeared on the battlefield!

The Baku opened its enormous maw and let out a deep roar, then suddenly drew in a breath!

Whoosh—!!

A terrifying Wind Release suction force erupted from the Baku's mouth, sucking dozens of Iwa-nin, along with dust and shattered rocks, straight into its jaws!

"Ah—!!"

"Help!!"

"Retreat, quickly!!"

"Monster! It's a monster!!"

The Iwa-nin formation instantly descended into chaos!

The Baku's suction continued, sweeping more Iwa-nin into the air and scattering them, creating an unprecedented blind spot for Uchiha Jun.

At that very instant, Uchiha Jun moved, forming hand seals with both hands.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

Several violent wind blades burst from his mouth, precisely cutting open the encirclement around him!

"Quick! Don't let the Raikage get away!"

Tietu roared, slamming both hands against the ground as he prepared to use Earth Release to seal them in again.

The other two Jinchuriki also forced themselves into Tailed Beast Transformation, intending to blast Uchiha Jun to death!

But Uchiha Jun moved faster than everyone else!

With a raised hand, he released a Sealing Scroll and wrapped the Third Raikage on the ground layer upon layer, turning him into a 'dumpling'—and doing a Mahoraga cosplay while he was at it.

"Got him."

Uchiha Jun let out a cold laugh toward the Tsuchikage's position behind them. "My thanks to the three of you for saving this old man some effort. I shall gladly accept this 'spoils of war.'"

"Wishful thinking! Roar, roar, roar—Tailed Beast Ball!!"

Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki who had now completely transformed into a Tailed Beast, directly fired a Tailed Beast Ball at point-blank range.

"Quit barking, little monkey!"

"Wood Style: Cutting Technique!!"

The next instant—

"Pfft!"

A dull sound came from within Four-Tails Son Goku's mouth, followed by an eruption of savage Life Force before Roshi could react at all!

Wooden spikes carrying a fresh, tender green hue suddenly burst from the inner walls of Roshi's mouth, the mucous membranes deep in his throat, and even between the massive beast's ferocious facial bones without any warning!

Like a long-prepared beast trap, they exploded into rampant growth after a brief pause!

They brutally pierced straight into Roshi's skull, inner cheekbones, and the gaps in his cranium!

"Aaargh—!!!"

Roshi's eyes flew wide open!

The Tailed Beast Ball in his mouth, already half condensed and radiating scorching heat and destruction, instantly lost its restraint as the caster's mouth was forcibly pried open and his jaw muscles were nailed down by the wooden spikes—

"Guh... guh..."

The dark-red sphere of energy lost its stable form, trembling violently several times deep in Roshi's throat before turning into a scorching current of air and fragmented energy shards that sprayed from the corners of his forcibly opened mouth and nostrils.

Boom—!!

A small burst of out-of-control Tailed Beast energy exploded by his mouth, blasting a scorched crater several meters wide into the ground and sending the surrounding Iwa-nin flying with the shockwave.

"Roar—!!"

Roshi gave one final unwilling roar. His massive body could no longer hold itself up and crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, kicking up dust that filled the sky.

His fully transformed Tailed Beast form could no longer be sustained after that strike, coupled with his intense battle against the Third Raikage earlier.

Roshi's human form gradually separated from Four-Tails Son Goku's body. He dropped to one knee on the ground, gasping for air.

Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth, and several wounds left by the wooden spikes still marked his face and forehead. He looked utterly wretched.

The entire battlefield fell into deathly silence.

Everyone present—including Han, Tietu, and Ōnoki overseeing the battle from behind—stood frozen in place.

Their eyes were locked onto those wooden spikes, their pupils filled with incredulous terror.

"That... that is...!"

Tietu's voice trembled slightly from shock. "Wood Release...?!"

"How is that possible!!"

An Iwa-nin Jonin cried out in disbelief. "That is the First Hokage's Kekkei Genkai! How could Shimura Danzō possibly—"

"Shimura Danzō... mastered Wood Release?!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!!"

Once the first person broke the silence, panic spread through the Iwa-nin ranks like a plague.

Some unconsciously stepped back, some dropped the Kunai in their hands, while others stared wide-eyed, their lips moving without a single sound emerging.

To the veteran Jonin who had truly witnessed Senju Hashirama's Wood Release, "Wood Release" had never merely been a simple term.

It was a myth.

A legend that had ended the Warring States Era and subdued the Nine Tailed Beasts!

High above, the expression on Ōnoki's face had completely frozen.

His gaze was fixed firmly on the wooden spikes, while emotions too complicated to describe flickered deep within his pupils—shock, disbelief, and a trace of fear buried so deeply in his heart that even he refused to acknowledge it.

"...Wood Release..."

Ōnoki practically ground out those words through clenched teeth. "Shimura Danzō... you hid yourself far too well!!"

Ōnoki clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking under the force.

If Konoha had truly regained the power of Wood Release, what would that mean?

It meant that the balance of power in the Shinobi World would be completely shattered!

Back in the day, Senju Hashirama had single-handedly calmed the chaotic age and established the shinobi village system.

And this time, the one wielding that power was not that laughably naive "God of Shinobi," but—Shimura Danzō!

A man who would stop at nothing!

"Roar—"

Relying on its immortal nature, the Baku was utterly fearless. It even dared to go up and take a few sucks at the Tailed Beast-transformed Jinchuriki.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Uchiha Jun summoned a Chameleon, turned invisible, and used the Body Flicker Technique under the enhancement of Wind Release to flee at top speed.

"Hahahaha—!"

Amid a burst of hoarse, wild laughter, Uchiha Jun's figure vanished.

"Bastard!! You're even abandoning your own summoned beast? What exactly are you plotting, Shimura Danzō?!"

From capturing the Third Raikage alive to making his escape, the entire process took Uchiha Jun less than three seconds.

The speed was so absurd that Ōnoki, who had planned to go all out and fight Uchiha Jun to the death, was like a useless husband.

He watched his fruits of victory get plucked away by someone else.

He watched a great enemy calmly depart.

In a fury, Ōnoki used Dust Release to send the Baku back to the Summoning Realm.

And when Ōnoki saw that the Baku, which he had expected to cosplay Gojo Satoru, had not been split in two but instead turned into a puff of white smoke—

He instantly turned red with rage, becoming as red as a Potato.

Under the cover of the route arranged by Uchiha Hikari and Kakuzu, Uchiha Jun made several successive jumps and fled all the way back to the border of the Land of Fire.

After undoing his Shimura Danzō Transformation Technique, Uchiha Jun leaned against a large tree, panting heavily.

That snatching of food from a tiger's jaws had looked effortless and carefree, but in truth, several full-power Wind Release techniques and the Body Flicker Technique had nearly drained over half his stamina and chakra.

—Especially that move where he captured the Third Raikage alive with Vacuum Blade. To prevent the blade from getting stuck, Uchiha Jun had deliberately poured in a full twenty percent of his chakra before he managed to subdue the Raikage's dying struggle!

"That was exhilarating. Doing bad things with someone else's ID really hits different!"

"Danzo is about to become the Ninja World Sun Xiaochuan now."

"Wood Release, the Fourth Raikage's mysterious father-hunting man—how will you respond next, little brother Danzo?"

While waiting for Uchiha Hikari and Kakuzu, Uchiha Jun began taking stock of this operation's gains.