Hearing Uchiha Genya's crude public comparison of sizes, Tsunade flew into a rage on the spot.
"You little bastard! I'll kill you!"
She swung her fist straight at him.
But the monstrous strength and Taijutsu she took such pride in were like child's play before Xuanye. She couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.
With a mischievous look plastered across his face, Xuanye strolled around the courtyard, dodging her. He was simply teasing a cat.
Nearby.
Kushina Uzumaki watched their antics with utter resignation.
Samui and Yugito Nii, trussed up in the corner, didn't even dare breathe loudly.
After a full day and night as prisoners, they had long abandoned any thought of escape.
Exchange intelligence?
Not a chance.
As captive ninja, coordinating their stories was strictly taboo.
Most importantly, after witnessing Xuanye's ruthless slaughter of Kumogakure's elite and personally experiencing the terror of spatial teleportation, they felt nothing but despair.
Watching Xuanye fool around with a woman like some idle young master, Yugito simply couldn't connect him to last night's killing god.
In battle, he treated human lives like dirt, yet in everyday life, he was lazy and relaxed, even indulging Tsunade's temper.
"If he's this strong, why was he completely unknown in the Shinobi World before?"
Yugito's voice was dry as she finally couldn't help asking.
Peeling an orange, Kushina patiently explained, "He's been on the battlefield. It's just that he killed everyone who saw him fight. With no survivors, naturally, no intelligence got out."
Yugito and Samui exchanged bitter looks. What kind of lousy explanation was that? Had they known Konoha harbored a monster like this, Kumogakure would definitely have steered clear.
"His temper's pretty decent." Kushina popped the orange into her mouth. "As long as you follow his rules, you can fool around all you like. You were arrested and brought here to suffer because you violated the Konoha Military Police Force's Public Security Regulations."
Biting her lip, Yugito stared fixedly at Kushina. "You used to be the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. How did you survive after the Tailed Beast was removed?"
Kushina gestured with her lips toward Xuanye, who was still dodging punches.
So it really was him!
Could he even reverse life and death?
An inexplicable pang of envy welled up inside Yugito.
If only a powerful, domineering man like him had been born in Kumogakure, where strength was revered.
Whoever had the strongest fists called the shots. He would have been unanimously elected Raikage. Why stay in Konoha as a mere Police Force Captain and put up with the higher-ups?
"I'm done playing."
Xuanye suddenly stopped.
Unable to pull back in time, Tsunade crashed straight into his arms, and he smoothly twisted around and pinned her to the lawn.
Their bodies were pressed together in a deeply suggestive position.
Kushina pursed her lips as she watched from the side. That was clearly one of their own favorite moves.
"Bastard! Let go!"
Tsunade's pretty face flushed crimson as she struggled desperately.
Xuanye glanced at her, his gaze instantly turning sharp and unquestionable.
Tsunade's heart trembled, and she inexplicably stopped moving.
His usual nonchalance vanished, replaced by a suffocating dominance.
"We have visitors at the village entrance."
Xuanye released her and straightened, then clenched his right fist and slammed it into the empty space before him!
Boom!
The air ahead shattered like glass as a spatial rift was forcibly torn open.
A deep-blue Chakra Cloak enveloped Xuanye, and he stepped into the void.
Outside Konoha's main gate.
The atmosphere was tense.
A burly man built like an iron tower stood in the middle of the road, his muscles knotted and lightning flashing wildly across his body. It was the Fourth Raikage, with his Lightning Release Chakra Mode fully activated!
Facing him, Uchiha Cong, captain of the Konoha Military Police Force's Third Squad, stood with his subordinates, refusing to yield an inch as they blocked the entrance.
Confronting the enraged Raikage without a trace of fear, Uchiha Cong lifted his chin and shouted.
"Cut the crap! Unless you pay the full price for that registration desk you smashed, you're not setting foot inside Konoha!"
"Surely the mighty Fourth Raikage isn't trying to skip out on paying for a single desk?"
That familiar sarcasm, paired with his arrogant expression, made the taunt as cutting as possible.
"And what if I insist on going in today?!"
With a furious roar, blinding blue lightning erupted all over the Fourth Raikage's body, making him look like a human thunderbolt!
Who knew how much hardship he had endured, eating and sleeping in the open along the way, just to reach Konoha as quickly as possible?
Yet the moment he arrived at Konoha Gate, before he had even met the Hokage, a few gatekeepers had actually stopped him!
He had merely wanted to put Konoha in its place first and casually smashed the registration desk at the village entrance with a slap.
Such a trivial matter wouldn't have caused the slightest ripple in Kumogakure!
Yet Konoha's police officers had actually come charging out with a death wish, pointing at his nose and demanding compensation?!
Who on earth had given these small fry such nerve?
"Die!"
Thoroughly enraged, the Raikage leaped into the air and raised his right leg high, bringing it down viciously toward Uchiha Cong's head, wreathed in destructive lightning chakra!
Liger Bomb!
The strike descended like lightning from the heavens, impossibly fast and unstoppable!
Even Uchiha Cong, who loved putting on airs and was accustomed to being put in his place, completely froze.
The overwhelming scent of death rushed straight at him.
The three tomoe in Uchiha Cong's eyes began spinning wildly, seemingly about to break past some critical threshold, yet he remained just that final sliver short!
Bang-!
A deafening sonic boom erupted at the village entrance!
Violent Lightning Release chakra smashed into the ground, raising a cloud of dust that instantly swallowed the entire Konoha Gate!
A few seconds later.
As the thick dust dispersed on the wind, everyone's heart leaped into their throat.
Both the Konoha ninja rushing over as reinforcements and the Kumogakure elite following the Raikage stared fixedly at the center of the dissipating dust.
The next second, every Kumogakure ninja gasped in unison, their eyes nearly popping from their sockets!
A tall, straight-backed man had appeared directly in front of Uchiha Cong at some point.
He was exceptionally handsome, like a noble young master who had stepped out of a painting.
He wore a white cloak bearing the word "Justice," which snapped in the lingering gusts.
Most chilling of all, he had extended only his right hand to firmly catch the Fourth Raikage's right ankle after that full-force downward strike!
"Captain..."
Standing behind him, Uchiha Cong's eyes instantly reddened, and a choked sound escaped his throat.
He had caused trouble for his captain yet again!
And every single time, his captain stood firmly before them like an insurmountable mountain!
A crimson tear of blood slowly slid from the corner of Uchiha Cong's eye.
The three tomoe spinning wildly in his pupils shattered, replaced by a new, intricate pattern filled with mystery!
Spurred by the brush with death and his hatred of his own powerlessness, Uchiha Cong finally awakened his own Mangekyō Sharingan!
Just then, a calm yet oppressive voice reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.
"On my turf, no one breaks the rules without paying the price."
"Not even the Five Kage."
"Those are my rules as Konoha's Police Force Captain!"
For Xuanye, making rules had never been about protecting the weak, but about making his own daily life comfortable.
As long as he clocked in on time and maintained public order in the village, no one could challenge his absolute authority as Police Force Captain!
At Konoha's entrance.
The two sides reacted differently to Xuanye's supremely arrogant words.
The Kumogakure ninja wore grave expressions, yet a measure of disdain lurked in their eyes.
They had thought someone who dared catch Lord Raikage's attack one-handed would be some peerless master hidden in Konoha. After all that, he was merely a Police Force Captain in charge of public order?
With such a huge commotion, was Konoha's Third Hokage actually too frightened to show his face?
Only the Fourth Raikage, whose right foot remained caught, now looked utterly grim!
Something was terribly wrong!
He knew better than anyone how terrifyingly destructive his Liger Bomb was.
Yet the man before him had not only caught his killing blow with one hand, but hadn't even swayed!
What was more, the ground beneath Xuanye's feet was completely intact. It was as though all the force of that earth-shaking blow had been nullified out of thin air at the instant of contact, raising nothing but a cloud of dust!
"Lightning Release Chakra Mode! Full power!"
The Raikage frantically drove the chakra inside him, and the thunder roaring around his body instantly multiplied several times over. Violent currents sprayed wildly outward as though they were tangible!
At this point, the Raikage had gone completely berserk!
"Too noisy."
Xuanye's gaze was indifferent. He let the violent lightning race across his hand, his right hand still clamped around the Raikage's ankle like iron pincers. Not a single spark could hurt him in the slightest.
Suddenly!
Xuanye abruptly tightened his right hand!
Before everyone's horrified eyes, the Raikage's ankle, as thick as a tree trunk, visibly and violently deformed!
Crack!
With a teeth-grating sound of breaking bone, the Raikage's face instantly contorted in pain. Yet he gritted his teeth without a single scream, desperately trying to wrench his leg free.
But it was all futile.
Xuanye had crushed the Fourth Raikage's leg bones with his bare hand!
"How is that possible?!"
Someone in the Kumogakure ranks finally couldn't help screaming in terror.
No one knew better than they did how absurdly formidable Lord Raikage's physical defenses were!
Once he activated his Lightning Release Armor at full power, Lord Raikage was practically a human Tailed Beast. Even ninjutsu could barely hurt him!
Yet now, this Konoha Police Force Captain had completely ignored the Lightning Release Armor's defenses and crushed Lord Raikage's bones with his bare hand?!
As the Kumogakure ninja fell into collective panic, the members of the Konoha Military Police Force quickly spread out, loosely encircling the Kumogakure Envoy Mission.
Standing behind Xuanye, Uchiha Cong's Mangekyō patterns flickered with an eerie light.
The Sharingan was, by its very nature, the eye that reflected the heart.
When one's inner longing reached its peak, it could break through the limits of the three tomoe.
Uchiha Cong no longer wanted to be a useless fool who did nothing but flatter his captain and make him clean up his mess every time!
He yearned for power, yearned for his captain's recognition!
The stimulus of nearly dying had finally pushed him beyond his limits!
"Mangekyō Eye Technique! Deity Possession!"
With Uchiha Cong's low roar, the Mangekyō in his eyes began spinning wildly!
An unseen pull through his bloodline instantly connected to Xuanye ahead of him.
Xuanye, who was marveling at the Raikage's fairly impressive pain tolerance, raised his eyebrows slightly and glanced back at Uchiha Cong.
This is the Mangekyō Eye Technique you awakened?
The corners of Xuanye's mouth twitched twice despite himself, and he rolled his eyes.
After considering it for half a second, Xuanye helplessly uttered a single word: "Granted!"
In an instant!
A power amounting to less than a few hundredths of Xuanye's own, yet still suffocatingly vast, surged into Uchiha Cong's body along the eye technique's connection!
Under the impact of that tremendous energy, every strand of Uchiha Cong's black hair stood on end, and a violent aura erupted from him as though a Super Saiyan had descended!
Before you continue