"Konan!"
Yahiko and Nagato went pale with shock. They struggled desperately to get up,
but it was already too late.
A hot current seemed to surge into Nagato's eyes, and he felt as if all the Chakra in his body were about to boil.
"You little brat!"
Kurosawa Kazuo had already swung his Ninja Blade. By the time he saw Konan in front of him, he could no longer stop.
He cursed at the money he stood to lose, but his blade continued unabated, about to cut Konan and the others down.
Whoosh!
With a tremendous rush of displaced air, a streak of lightning appeared from the south, flashing past with the thunderous boom of breaking the sound barrier.
The figure was covered in lightning, which even forced the raindrops apart!
Was that Lightning Armor? Had the Raikage come?
Kurosawa Kazuo, who had been grinning viciously, froze at the sight.
The oncoming figure really was like a bolt of lightning, faster than his nerves could react.
Before it even reached him, he felt his skin prickle from the electric arcs.
Before he could make out the newcomer, the bluish-white blur slammed straight into him and sent him flying.
Crack!
Kurosawa Kazuo's Ninja Blade shattered into three pieces, and the tremendous impact struck his body.
Kurosawa Kazuo felt as though he had been hit head-on by a giant hammer.
Before he was sent flying, blue-white electric arcs had already paralyzed his entire body, leaving him unable to move.
Never mind dodging; he could not even form Hand Seals to use the Body Flicker Technique.
"You... you... you're not the Raikage... what the hell are you..."
Kurosawa Kazuo, a distinguished former Special Jōnin of Amegakure's assassination squad,
had his tendons and bones broken by that single impact!
And the figure wreathed in lightning was not the Raikage!
He watched the figure use the recoil from sending him flying to flip over and land steadily.
He had many questions he wanted to ask, but all that poured from his mouth was blood.
Kurosawa Kazuo, a Special Jōnin skilled in assassination, infiltration, and tracking, had been killed in one blow!
Even as a Special Jōnin of Amegakure, he could not change the fact that ninja had strong offense but weak defense.
There was a precedent in the Shinobi World for such a spectacular, overwhelming charge!
The Raikage's Strongest Shield, the Lightning Release Armor!
A great name carried great weight. That fierce, terrifying impact
had completely intimidated the rogue ninja scattered all around.
Of course, it had also stunned Konan and the others, who had overused their Chakra.
Still shaken, Konan sensed the paper crane in his arms and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
She looked at the person before her in some confusion.
This figure had sent an enemy flying while covered in electric arcs, making him almost comparable to the legendary Raikage.
Was it Mukai? He seemed to be wearing a handsome suit of armor.
Mukai paid no attention to Kurosawa Kazuo, who had died with his eyes open.
Instead, he lifted his faceplate, revealing a concerned expression.
"Konan, are you all right?"
"Mukai! It really is you? How did you get here?"
Konan placed her hand in the one Mukai offered and asked happily,
"The paper crane sensed that you were still some distance away. How did you get here so fast?
How did you get taller?"
Faced with so many questions from Konan, Mukai pointed at the rogue ninja closing in around them.
"I'll explain everything later. First, let's deal with these problem ninja!"
Mukai was naturally not the Raikage. The rogue ninja who had just been intimidated
had begun moving closer when they noticed that the newcomer wore a Sunagakure Forehead Protector.
Such was Sunagakure's sorrow. Even the Third Kazekage, hailed as the strongest of his line, could hardly compare with the Raikage's formidable fighting strength.
Much less unknown small fry like Mukai and the others.
He took several deep breaths in succession, trying to ease the discomfort from the violent collision.
It was thanks to the modified Zealot Mecha he wore that Mukai had made it in time.
He had used nearly half his Chakra to propel himself with brute-force compressed air.
After all, his method of releasing Lightning Release Chakra merely used low current and high voltage to create an electrical discharge.
It looked impressive, but it was really just for show.
Apart from the mecha itself, he had none of the Lightning Release Armor's defensive capabilities.
The impact had been rough on him too. Fortunately, the reinforced lining inside the Zealot Mecha provided cushioning,
allowing him to kill the ninja who had tried to murder Konan in one hit.
Chakra was beginning to glow again inside the thrusters on his back.
The Zealot Mecha now not only used high-purity Chakra to strengthen its lining,
but could also use such high-purity Chakra Threads to lay out internal pathways.
That allowed him to feed Wind Release Chakra precisely into those critical points.
The boost to his speed was beyond imagination!
He was very strong now!
Besides, all he had to do was protect Konan and the others first,
because he had teammates now too!
"Who are you? How dare you mess with our Moon Wine Gang!
Everyone, attack together! Kill this freak!"
The rogue ninja surrounding them had originally been stationed at key points all around,
watching their boss in action while preventing the three little mice from escaping.
Who would have thought that their formidable boss would be killed in one move by this freak in a single instant?
Fortunately, the Raikage had not come in person, or they would not even have had a chance to escape.
Was this the backing those three brats had?
So he had only killed their boss with a sneak attack. There was nothing to be afraid of.
As if to hide their embarrassment at mistaking Mukai for the Raikage,
the rogue ninja grew even more arrogant.
They had strength in numbers and felt the advantage was theirs!
After all, aside from the three exhausted brats,
there was only this one bizarre-looking fellow on the scene, and he was not enough to intimidate these desperadoes.
For a moment, they did not even use Ninjutsu, instead hurling Shuriken, kunai, Senbon, and other weapons straight at Mukai.
Mukai made a small leap in front of Konan and the others and deployed the shield on his arm.
He half-crouched, doing his best to protect them behind him.
His hands rapidly formed Hand Seals.
"Wind Release-Great Breakthrough!"
Mukai drew on a third of the Chakra in his body, transforming it into a cone of highly compressed Wind Release.
The dense Wind Release he spat from his mouth swept up the incoming concealed weapons.
Although it did not knock them directly out of the air, it greatly reduced their speed.
That allowed him to calmly rely on the Zealot Mecha's own defenses to withstand the weakened weapons head-on.
As the weapons clattered to the ground, Mukai finally grinned.
"Done attacking? My turn!"
The moment he finished speaking, six violent streams of air erupted from the back of Mukai's Zealot Mecha.
Propelled by the compressed air, Mukai shot straight forward from a standstill!
His left-hand shield guarded his front, while a blade vibrating continuously at high frequency sprang from his right arm!
Twenty meters directly ahead of Mukai,
three rogue ninja had just thrown their Shuriken and other concealed weapons when Mukai charged right up to them!
As Mukai struck one man and sent him flying to the side, the blade trailing from his right arm swept across the other two men's necks!
He did not even need to swing his arm. The force of his charge sliced both their heads off!
The rogue ninja who had been sent flying was still congratulating himself that he had only been knocked away
when Mukai closed in again, propelled by an increasingly powerful stream of air.
He drew his left hand back to his waist, then twisted his body and thrust out a straight punch as he charged!
It was an utterly ordinary move from the military boxing of his previous life,
yet his opponent's face was filled with terror!
Pfft!
The half-meter-long arm blade struck him squarely in the face and pierced through the back of his head.
Red and white splattered everywhere!
This was not a personal grudge!