Blue lightning surged into view in an instant, a famous sword as sharp as the Kusanagi Sword pointed straight at his throat. Just as it was about to reach him, a force and edge no less formidable intercepted the Fourth Raikage's thrusting hand.
"Same speed and strength as ever. Since you've offered me your hand, I'll gladly borrow it. Summoning Jutsu!"
The Fourth Raikage's eyes were bloodshot as he watched the fingers that should have been pressed together slowly form the hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu.
"Damn you! You bastard! I won't let you escape this time. Octopus Hold!"
From Gyuki's mouth, now that he had transformed into the Eight-Tails' full form, blobs of ink took human shape and surrounded the two of them from every direction.
"Sealing Technique? Nanto Sage, Hokuto Sage—seal them!"
The barrier appeared again, its eerie purple glow trapping the ink. The Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird opened their jaws, wind and fire merging together.
"Scorch Style: Storm Dance!"
Waves of sand glimmering with golden light crashed against a sea of wind and fire. The appearance of the Nine Masked Beasts made Rasa, who had stopped to watch, furrow his brow.
"Summoning puppets? No, they're summoning beasts—extremely troublesome ones. Who is that member of the Uchiha Clan? Heat high enough to melt even Gold Dust?"
"The Uchiha Clan truly is a prestigious clan of the Shinobi World. They were hiding a trump card like this? Uchiha Fugaku, you've kept this well hidden."
Fugaku remained expressionless, neither confirming nor denying it. Yet, deep down, he couldn't help wondering whose child the one fighting the Fourth Raikage was.
"Damn Uchiha brat! You used my hand to form your seals? Just how much do you look down on me, you bastard?!"
"Then let's end this boring fight with a jutsu that requires no hand seals. Farewell. Here's a parting gift: Great Spiraling Ring!"
In an instant, the Konoha Ninja scattered across Mount Kikyo began to flicker away. Namikaze Minato, just returned from the coast, took one glance and understood what Uchiha Hanazuki was about to do.
"I see. So that's how it is. Let's go, Mr. Choza, Mr. Shikaku..."
A flash of yellow light, and every Konoha Ninja on Mount Kikyo was transported dozens of miles away. On an unremarkable black kunai, a star seemed to fall from the sky, blazing with dazzling light.
"That Uchiha brat—he's using that move again?!"
"No, the chakra in that move—Bee! Get me out there!"
An unprecedented sense of danger flooded everyone's senses. Gyuki drew his entire body inside his tentacles and spun furiously.
"Tailed Beast Eight Twists!"
Time and space froze. After a brief silence, pure white light swallowed all of Mount Kikyo.
The great sound was silent. The pure white that devoured all things quietly faded away, and sunlight shone down once more.
Mount Kikyo, which should have been there, had vanished without a trace. Only the scorching lava and the gold flowing through it bore witness to where the deep abyss had once stood.
As the shock waves dissipated, boiling lava flowed over the octopus tentacles. The Eight-Tails panted as he crawled up from deep underground and looked at the transformed landscape, his expression resigned.
"Did that jutsu completely change the terrain around us? It can rival a Tailed Beast Bomb unleashed with all our strength. Was that also a jutsu from that Uchiha brat?"
"Damn... damn Uchiha brat! He actually killed Toroi... Damn it..."
In the scorching lava, Toroi, a Magnet Release user from Kumogakure, lay submerged. He had long since stopped breathing.
"He was too far away. I couldn't protect him, even if I wanted to. That guy's jutsu has the nature transformation of Fire Style, combined with the Body Flicker Technique and chakra on par with a Tailed Beast."
"He might well be the most powerful opponent your Kumogakure will face in the future. He's clearly a member of the Uchiha Clan, with their Sharingan, yet his best-known abilities are the Body Flicker and that strange Summoning Jutsu. Even I don't know what to make of him."
The Fourth Raikage clearly had no interest in hearing Gyuki's assessment. Not far away, Rasa and Pakura of the Sand Ninja, their brief allies, had already turned back without hesitation.
Every Sand Ninja they had brought had been wiped out, and Kumogakure had lost a Kekkei Genkai user. The Battle of Kikyo Pass had ended in total defeat.
To protect their weakened Sunagakure, they couldn't afford to die here. Otherwise, their village might well be destroyed.
"Uchiha Hanazuki. I'll remember that name. Let's go, Bee. We'll return to Kumogakure before that bastard Ōnoki finds out what happened at Mount Kikyo."
"OK, Big Brother."
With a flicker, Killer B and the Fourth Raikage hurriedly retreated. The unending flames of war also subsided for the time being with Mount Kikyo's disappearance.
On the border of the Land of Fire, in a secluded forest, a group of survivors appeared out of thin air. They looked at one another, speechless.
"Are we safe now, Minato?"
Seeing the worried faces of his companions, Namikaze Minato smiled gently and nodded.
"I don't know who that child is, but we should be all right. The kunai I left on Mount Kikyo seem to have been destroyed too. What a powerful jutsu."
"Red—where's Red? Lord Fugaku, that child must be from the Uchiha Clan. He had the Uchiha fan crest on his back. Where did he go?"
With pairs of eyes fixed on him, Fugaku had no way to explain himself. He truly didn't know that child. If he'd known his clan had a genius capable of using the Flying Thunder God, he would have brought him into the Konoha Military Police Force and carefully trained him long ago.
Meanwhile, near Mount Kikyo, two figures appeared from a kunai. The Three-Eyed Demon Fox mask concealing one of their faces was slowly removed.
Kurenai, already numb from the string of shocking events, instinctively looked over. The astonishment on her face turned to surprise and then disbelief.
"Uchiha... Hanazuki? So it was you?"
"I didn't expect you to be on a mission in a battle this intense. I knew the graduates from the two classes ahead of us had already gone to the battlefield, but I never thought you'd get caught up in it too, Kurenai."
For a moment, even Yuhi Kurenai couldn't believe she had been rescued by a Genin who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and was two classes below her.
She knew Uchiha Hanazuki because Anko often dragged him to Dango Shops around Konoha to try their dumplings. His laid-back manner and good looks had also left an impression on her.
"I couldn't help it. The border of the Land of Fire was under attack, so the village had to send out more Ninja at short notice. But speaking of that... could you... put me down first?"
Her face was flushed with embarrassment. Dust-covered as she was, it couldn't hide the crimson blush spreading across her cheeks. Her watery, ruby-red eyes met his clear, dark eyes, but she didn't get the answer she wanted.
"Sorry, but you can't just tough it out with injuries like yours. That was a Tailed Beast Bomb. It'll be dangerous if you don't get checked out at the hospital."
"Are we back already? Then let's leave too."