A flicker of delight crossed the Raikage's mind.
He felt that his plan was about to succeed.
Yet what they faced were three monsters created by Pero, cheats that defied all standards.
Under the combined assault of the Five Kage and the jinchūriki, Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko.
Still seemed to have room to spare.
Using only Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in, Nagato neutralized most of the attacks, toying with them in the palm of his hand.
Konan's paper became sharp blades, streaking through the air with golden flashes, occasionally turning into shields to block attacks and protect the three from behind.
Yahiko became a god of war, relying on his body modified as a Pero jinchūriki, with terrifying strength and speed.
He clashed head-on with the Raikage and Minato, two Kage-level fighters renowned for their speed, without giving an inch.
They even had time to spare to casually deal with the ninjutsu launched by the allied forces.
Their relaxed manner made it seem as though they were not on a battlefield at all.
It was more like a leisurely stroll through their own back garden.
Overwhelming strength defeated every trick.
Before the three's absolute power, every intricate tactic and coordinated maneuver seemed feeble and useless.
Seeing that not a trace of sweat had appeared on their faces after so much fighting, Ōnoki realized something was wrong.
"No! At this rate, they'll wear us all down!" He dodged a slash from Konan in midair and shouted to the other six.
"We have to use another combined ninjutsu! We'll hold them off!"
The Five Kage and the two jinchūriki exchanged looks, settled on their tactics, and made up their minds.
All seven unleashed powerful chakra at once.
They launched fierce attacks against the three, regardless of the cost.
They had only one goal: hold the three down, leave them no opening to deal with this attack, and buy enough time.
The allied shinobi immediately understood the Five Kage's decision.
They began gathering chakra again, this time with an even greater display of power than the previous attack.
This time, they would unleash an attack even larger and more unstoppable than the last.
Everyone gave it their all, and their mingled chakra dispersed the surrounding mist.
Yahiko frowned deeply at the sight before him. He wanted to use Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave again to scatter their attack.
But the Five Kage and the jinchūriki took turns keeping him occupied, leaving him unable to break away and form hand seals for the moment.
He exchanged looks with Nagato and Konan, and they nodded to one another.
Yahiko drove all seven back with a full-force blow. Then Nagato and Konan reversed their offensive, holding the Five Kage and the jinchūriki back between them.
Yahiko stood where he was, rapidly forming hand seals.
Just then.
Amid the allied forces, a figure quietly lifted his forehead protector, revealing a scarlet eye.
It was Kakashi Hatake!
The three tomoe in his eye spun rapidly, instantly connecting into a strange pattern.
Kamui.
An invisible, twisting spatial force instantly targeted Yahiko as he formed hand seals.
"Hm?!" Yahiko was startled. He felt the space around him grow sluggish, as though it were about to suck him into a black hole.
This familiar feeling?!
At that critical instant, Yahiko suddenly blazed with golden light, radiant flames erupting from him.
Golden flames surged skyward from his body.
In an instant, his entire body became a streak of golden light, forcibly escaping the range of Kakashi's visual jutsu's lock.
"Obito's visual jutsu?" Yahiko steadied himself on the water and looked toward the allied forces in surprise.
Following his instincts, he looked in that direction.
He easily spotted the silver-haired, masked figure in the crowd.
And in that instant of distraction, the allied forces finished preparing their second combined ninjutsu!
This time, its force was several times greater than before! Five-colored chakra covered the entire sky, its power gathering into a chakra sphere even larger than the last.
"There's no time!" Nagato frowned deeply at the mass of energy that had already flown before them.
The next moment, he, Yahiko, and Konan exchanged a look and made up their minds at the same time.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three pillars of golden light, so dazzling that they seemed to strip the entire world of its colors, shot skyward from their bodies at once.
They held nothing back, entering their strongest states together!
Facing the energy sphere powerful enough to destroy everything, the three formed no hand seals and used no flashy ninjutsu.
Without consulting one another, they simply swung their fists forward!
One simple punch.
There was no earth-shaking explosion, no deafening roar.
Before the stunned, terrified, breaking gazes of tens of thousands of allied shinobi, that enormous energy sphere touched the three's seemingly tiny fists.
Like a punctured soap bubble, it rapidly unraveled from the center without a sound, dissipating...
Dead silence fell over the battlefield.
The Five Kage and the jinchūriki stopped attacking, staring blankly at the miracle-like sight before them.
The lightning around the Raikage went out.
Ōnoki descended from the sky.
Yagura stared blankly at everything before him.
The allied shinobi went from confidence to shock, then to numb disbelief. Finally, an emotion called "despair" spread wildly through every heart like a virus.
The same thought arose in all their minds, making their very souls tremble.
What... what kind of monsters are we fighting?
Amid that dead silence, a disgruntled voice came from afar, breaking the suffocating stillness.
"Hey! You guys ran way too fast! At least leave a few people for me to practice on!"
Hearing that familiar voice, Kakashi froze. Slowly, he looked in the direction it had come from.
At some point, two figures had appeared on the lake, running toward its center.
The familiar face in the lead belonged to the close friend he had lost not long ago.
He had felt so ashamed then. Why couldn't he have been a little stronger? Then he could have saved Obito.
"O... Obito!" Kakashi's voice trembled.
But the next moment, his pupils abruptly contracted as far as they could, and the pattern in his eye spun rapidly!
Because he had seen the figure following behind Obito, completely unharmed, yet like a nightmare that had tormented him for months.
Rin...
One shattered dream after another flashed rapidly before his eyes like fragments of a broken mirror, before piecing themselves back together.
The scenes in his dreams suddenly became incredibly clear.
That hand that had caught his Lightning Blade, that indistinct, pixelated face...
He remembered everything!
Pero... Obito... Rin... and... Minato-sensei!
Kakashi's eyes widened, a trace of unprecedented terror in them.
Like a rusty gear, his head turned with difficulty, little by little, toward the teacher beside him whom he had always respected and trusted most.
He looked at the still-gentle expression on Minato-sensei's face, but in Kakashi's eyes, it now seemed utterly sinister and unfamiliar.
Pero's figure seemed to appear behind Minato.
Minato-sensei... actually...
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