Border of the Land of Lightning.
The Fourth Raikage, A, stood bare-chested, his muscles knotted like steel.
A blue Lightning Release Chakra cloak crackled sharply around his body.
He stared fixedly ahead.
At the end of the horizon, Konoha's dark mass of an army was slowly advancing.
"That bastard Chiba didn't come?"
A ground his teeth, a beastlike growl rumbling from his throat.
The humiliation from six years ago gnawed at his heart day and night like a venomous snake.
He had trained Lightning Release relentlessly, even at the cost of draining his life force, all for the chance to wash away that shame today.
Yet Chiba had not even considered him worth facing.
The one leading the forces here was a dead man covered in cracks.
Hashirama Senju stood at the very front of the army.
There was a trace of pity for the younger generation in his hollow Impure World Reincarnation eyes.
"Young people these days are really full of killing intent."
Hashirama Senju folded his arms, his tone carrying the casualness of someone weathered by countless years.
"You're nothing but a manipulated corpse, yet you dare run wild in the Land of Lightning!"
Veins bulged sharply across A's forehead.
He did not take Impure World Reincarnation seriously at all.
The Intelligence Department had analyzed it long ago. This technique could only bring out a tiny fraction of the deceased's original strength.
"Men of Kumogakure, crush this pile of rotten wood for me!"
A swung his thick arm forward.
More than ten thousand Kumogakure ninja formed hand seals at once.
Lightning erupted into the sky, forming a raging ocean of thunder.
Hashirama Senju sighed.
He slowly closed his eyes and abruptly pressed his hands together before his chest.
Rumble—
The earth shook violently, as though some ancient beast