Unstoppable!

"Lord Sora!"

A Hidden Cloud Jonin watched the figure standing with his back to them, facing an army alone. His throat tightened.

"Go! Don't let Lord Sora's sacrifice be in vain!" another Jonin roared.

Holding back their grief, they supported the barely breathing Third Raikage and fled toward the opening in White Stone Gorge.

The surviving Hidden Cloud shinobi gritted their teeth.

They poured their last strength into their legs and rushed into the narrow passage that promised survival, never looking back.

Right now, staying alive was the greatest tribute they could offer the man holding the enemy back!

"You want to play the hero? I'll oblige!" Ōnoki shouted.

"Crush him! Kill him!"

Ōnoki's hair and beard bristled as he thrust both hands down.

Driven by hatred and their orders, the Hidden Stone army surged toward the lone, defiant figure like a breached dam's muddy flood, their battle cries shaking the sky.

The rumble of Earth Release techniques sounded as if it would tear the ground open and overturn heaven and earth!

"Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"

"Earth Release: Rock Avalanche!"

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears!"

"..."

A churning torrent of mud and stone swallowed the ground where Sora stood. Countless sharp stone spikes and earthen spears formed and fell, turning it into a forest of death.

Huge rocks rained down from the sky like meteors, one after another.

Jutsu swept across the mountainside and buried Sora completely.

The Hidden Stone shinobi clearly meant to grind the arrogant bastard to dust beneath a flood of jutsu!

Deafening explosions rolled on without end. The earth cracked and collapsed with a groan.

Dust and fire billowed skyward into a massive mushroom cloud of death. Anyone might have thought Deidara had started unleashing his giant blasts back in the Third Shinobi World War.

Terrifying shock waves swept outward, pulverizing even the rocks farther away. Yet despite the scale of the assault, Ōnoki, hovering above, felt it still wasn't enough.

He clapped his hands together, and the light of Dust Release erupted once more!

"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"

Blinding white light followed close behind the barrage of jutsu. The Kekkei Tōta, capable of erasing anything, became the ultimate strike of the bombardment!

BZZZ!!

Where Dust Release passed, even the air was broken down into nothingness. Light warped, and everything was reduced to its most basic particles!

The surrounding Hidden Stone shinobi watched, their morale soaring and pride plain on every face.

For Iwagakure, the fact that this ambush had reached this point was an utter failure.

But the immense power Ōnoki displayed swept their flagging spirits away in an instant!

Look!

This is the power of our Tsuchikage!

This is Iwagakure's unbreakable Will of Stone!

"What a fool."

"That muscleheaded idiot will fall before the Third's invincible Dust Release!"

"If it weren't for the elemental matchup, how could a village full of nothing but muscle ever stand against our—"

The Hidden Stone shinobi never finished his sentence.

CRACKLE—!!!

A blood-gold pillar of Pride eclipsed the light of Dust Release almost instantly. Pride compressed to its limit erupted in full!

The Hidden Stone shinobi who had been yapping nonstop were vaporized by the beam.

Jutsu, Dust Release—everything in its path was crushed by Pride burning at its fiercest!

And that wasn't all.

The instant the fully charged Deliberate Blast Punch ended, a streak of blood-red lightning tore through the dust and fire. Like a demon god's spear thrust from hell, it shot forward.

It moved at blinding speed, straight for Ōnoki, who had yet to react in midair.

"W-what?!"

The blood-red flash gave Ōnoki just enough warning to react.

But Sora had already propelled himself forward with an eruption of chakra and strength, closing the distance between them.

"He's actually stepping on the air..."

"That move is—!"

Ōnoki's pupils contracted sharply.

Sora's right hand, wreathed in Blood Lightning, resembled an unstoppable spear.

Three of his fingers were tucked back, leaving only his index and middle fingers pressed together. Yet the fierce edge they radiated seemed sharp enough to split heaven and earth!

"Hell Stab: Two-Finger Nukite!"

"!!!"

With a peal of thunder, the devastating strike landed in an instant!

"Earth Release: Super Light-Weight Rock Technique!"

Horrified, Ōnoki pushed his control over his own weight to the limit, drifting backward like a feather.

At the same time, he crossed his arms before him. Earth Release chakra instantly formed an exceptionally dense stone shield, while he spewed a steady stream of earth and rock from his mouth, piling layer upon layer in front of himself.

"Earth Release: Super Added-Weight Rock Technique!"

The earth and rock grew exponentially denser and heavier in an instant. What had looked fragile became an impregnable barrier of armor.

Unfortunately...

CRACK... CRUNCH...

It wasn't the one-finger strike known as the Strongest Spear, but the moment spear met shield, the shrill sound of shattering rang out like breaking glass.

The Earth Release shield cast by Ōnoki himself, the Tsuchikage, was pierced and pulverized as though it were paper. Hell Stab: Two-Finger Nukite slammed into his crossed arms.

"Urgh!"

Ōnoki grunted.

Agony struck with the sharp crack of breaking bones. He flew backward like a swatted ball, unable to control his body, and spat a mouthful of blood!

There was no doubt about it: without the Super Light-Weight Rock Technique greatly reducing the impact, the blow would have done more than ruin Ōnoki's arms. Sora would have pierced straight through his body!

"Impossible!"

The sudden reversal plunged the entire battlefield into silence.

Every eye turned to the feral figure who had landed under the pull of gravity.

"Protect Lord Tsuchikage!"

"Stop him, now!"

The elite Hidden Stone shinobi who had survived the Deliberate Blast Punch finally reacted. Several Jonin skilled in defense formed Hand Seals at once.

"Earth Release: Multiple Earth Flow Wall!"

"Rock Golem Technique!"

Several thick stone walls surged from the ground to block Sora's path. At the same time, a giant stone golem roared and swung a massive fist down at Yotsuki Sora, who had just landed.

Dozens more shinobi skilled at moving underground burrowed below the surface and launched a surprise attack from every direction!

"How noisy."

Yotsuki Sora's face remained expressionless. He never even took his eyes off Ōnoki in midair.

He neither dodged nor retreated from the descending stone fist. His right leg, wrapped in Blood Lightning, swept upward like a battle-axe.

BOOM!

His blood-red lightning kick collided with the stone fist.

There was no struggle. The fist cracked apart like a fragile sandcastle and shattered in an instant.

Violent Blood Lightning raced up the golem's arm, engulfed its entire body, and blew it into fragments that filled the sky!

Then Sora brought his raised right leg down in a savage stomp.

With a deafening boom, the ground below fractured like a spiderweb.

Foul-smelling blood seeped from the cracks...