Night Month Clan 3

Even so, Yotsuki Hayate was still ferocious. His long blade struck his opponent, yet barely did any damage, showing just how powerful his Lightning Style Armor was.

But Li Yi wasn't in a hurry. As long as Yotsuki Hayate stayed trapped in there with him, he would die sooner or later.

Yotsuki Hayate clearly knew how this would end, and kept trying to break out. Li Yi blocked him every time. After all, Yotsuki Hayate's punches passed harmlessly through Li Yi as he turned into fire, but every strike from Li Yi's sword was solid and real.

That made it very difficult for Yotsuki Hayate to escape. No matter which direction he tried, Li Yi kept him locked down. Gradually, Yotsuki Hayate began to lose all feeling in his legs.

Li Yi had clearly noticed his condition. He sheathed his sword and leaped aside. "You're finished. Is there anything you want me to tell the Third Raikage?"

Yotsuki Hayate drew a deep breath. Layer upon layer of black, charred, gel-like material sloughed off his face. His legs had been exposed to Li Yi's Blaze Release for so long that they had carbonized. He moved them slightly, and they crumbled apart piece by piece. Even then, Yotsuki Hayate didn't make a sound.

"Damn it, I couldn't bring your information back to the village. Who knows how much trouble you'll cause us in the future!" As soon as Yotsuki Hayate finished speaking, the flames engulfed him completely, and he fell silent.

Li Yi stood quietly amid the flames. A thick White Spirit Ribbon flew into Ryujin Jakka. Li Yi was surprised. He hadn't expected this man's White Spirit Ribbon to be so powerful—thicker than any he'd seen before. It seemed these ribbons were tied to a ninja's strength.

At the same time, Li Yi sighed. It had taken everything he had just to kill a jōnin from Kumogakure, and even then, he'd only managed to trap him until he died. If he faced the Third Raikage, he probably wouldn't have any way to stop him from leaving. As for killing the Third Raikage, that would be even harder. He couldn't even get through his defenses.

"I still need to develop the Rasengan!" Li Yi muttered before leaving. The area had already been reduced to ashes by his Blaze Release.

After restoring his chakra, a blue sphere of light appeared in Li Yi's hand. It was the Rasengan. He tried adding fire-natured chakra to it.

In an instant, the Rasengan turned red, but it quickly burst apart. Li Yi hurriedly turned into fire and narrowly avoided injury. Hurting himself out here would have been downright suicidal.

That was a good reminder: he'd have to experiment with the Rasengan while in his elemental form.

So Li Yi started shaping the ball, flames surging all over his body. But whenever he added fire-natured chakra, it immediately exploded. It gave him a headache. As expected, developing a new jutsu wasn't easy.

No wonder Minato had spent three years developing the Rasengan.

"Fire-natured chakra is too volatile, so it explodes as soon as I add it. That's just the nature of fire chakra. So what should I do?" Li Yi muttered.

Li Yi tried infusing the Rasengan with the power of the Mera Mera no Mi instead. That worked a little better, but it still exploded.

"How can I neutralize the volatility of fire?" Li Yi pondered. Eventually, he thought of how Naruto had used Lava Style: Rasenshuriken in the original story. Lava Style wasn't as volatile. But he didn't know Lava Style and had no earth-natured chakra.

All he had was Blaze Release.

But when Li Yi tried it, the Rasengan exploded even faster. He could only give up on that idea for now. That was the trouble with developing a jutsu: it wasn't easy to take a path nobody else had tried.

At that moment, in the Raikage's Office in Kumogakure, Third Raikage A frowned. "You're saying Yotsuki Hayate and the others have been missing for days?"

The Cloud ninja kneeling before him immediately replied, "Yes, Lord Raikage."

Third Raikage A waved him away. Once the Anbu operative had left, A rubbed his brow. Being out of contact usually meant they were dead. But who could have killed Yotsuki Hayate?

The Yotsuki Clan's Lightning Style: Chakra Mode was an all-purpose jutsu, and his cousin was highly skilled in it. He might not have been as strong as A, but he was still one of the village's few elite jōnin. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be easy to take him down.

Unable to figure out what had happened, Third Raikage A could only stop thinking about it. The war with Konoha had begun recently, and he'd had no choice.

Iwagakure and Kirigakure had fought each other to a standstill, and both Second Kage had died along with their opponents. Meanwhile, nothing had happened to Kumogakure or Konoha. Could that really go on? The other villages might decide the two were too powerful and choose to ally with one of them, then attack the other. That would be disastrous.

Because nobody could refuse such an offer—not even him.

If Iwagakure and Kirigakure approached Konoha now and proposed a three-on-one war against Kumogakure, would A refuse? Of course not. Likewise, if Iwagakure and Kirigakure went to Konoha and proposed attacking Kumogakure together, would Konoha refuse? No. After all, the Second Hokage had indirectly died at Kumogakure's hands. There was blood between them.

Konoha wouldn't pass up a chance like that. So Kumogakure had launched a war against Konoha while it still could. A had even gone so far as to personally kill Kagami Uchiha, a high-ranking Konoha ninja. He just hadn't expected the Uchiha's Sharingan to be so powerful. Escaping A's grasp was no small feat.

So Third Raikage A had made up his mind: if there was going to be a war, everyone should fight. That way, Iwagakure and Kirigakure wouldn't think Kumogakure and Konoha were planning to sit back and profit from the conflict.

As for Sunagakure, well, people called them one of the Five Great Nations and one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, but nobody took them seriously. They were in a remote, barren land and had no powerful ninjas. Who would bother with them? Even their Tailed Beast was just the pitiful One-Tails, weak as could be.

Of course, if Kumogakure went to war with Konoha, Sunagakure would join in too—as long as they weren't stupid. They'd take a big bite out of Konoha.

In fact, events were unfolding just as Third Raikage A had expected. At that moment, Second Kazekage Shamon had emerged from his research. Earlier, he had followed the example of Second Hokage Tobirama Senju and established the Ninja Academy and Anbu. After that, he had immersed himself in researching the Tailed Beasts, and had made many discoveries, including the Puppet Technique and jutsu for controlling sand. But things were different now. War had broken out, so he had no choice but to mobilize the ninja. Large numbers of them gathered along the Land of Rivers border, ready to enter the war at any moment.