The first wave of Pokkle's explosive clay birds dove toward the ground—
Detonating around the Konoha ninja and throwing their ranks into chaos.
In the distance, the fully transformed Two-Tails raised its catlike head, blue flames drifting around it.
Before its mouth, a Tailed Beast Bomb over ten meters wide began to form.
The surrounding Cloud ninja had already withdrawn.
The chakra fluctuations from the Tailed Beast Bomb alone made it impossible for anyone to approach.
Even the boulders on the ground were pushed aside by its pressure.
Its presence was terrifying.
Above them in the sky, the Five-Tails Jinchūriki Han was also cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra, with four tails bursting out behind him.
A Tailed Beast Bomb formed before his face as well.
At the same time—
Gomoi, hailed as the strongest Lightning Release user in the ninja world, completed his hand seals and unleashed his most powerful Lightning Release technique.
Lightning Release: False Darkness!
Kitsuchi also formed seals and unleashed a massive Earth Release technique.
Earth Release: Flying Gravel!
Sarutobi Shinnosuke had only just dodged the explosions from the clay birds—
When he looked up and saw several terrifying attacks converging on him at once.
The black-red glow of the Tailed Beast Bombs.
The blinding blue light of Lightning Release.
The violent pressure waves kicked up by Earth Release—
He immediately formed hand seals and split off four shadow clones.
Sarutobi Hiyu, seeing how ruthlessly the two great ninja villages were targeting Shinnosuke, also urgently created four shadow clones.
Both men unleashed the same forbidden technique.
Five Elements Great Barrage!
Hiyu used his to intercept the Two-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb flying low across the ground.
Shinnosuke used his to intercept the monstrous barrage descending from the sky.
But Hiyu's eyes were already full of despair.
That Tailed Beast Bomb was over ten meters wide.
It was simply not something he could stop.
Maybe—
If the Hokage himself were here, he could have blocked it.
But him…?
He could only hope Orochimaru would intervene.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke and his four shadow clones launched the Five Elements Great Barrage upward.
And yet, to his horror—
Kitsuchi and the others had studied him thoroughly.
Kitsuchi's Earth Release: Flying Gravel targeted the Water Dragon Bullet of his barrage directly.
Gomoi's Lightning Release: False Darkness went straight for the Earth Dragon Bullet.
Two of the five elements in his Five Elements Great Barrage had been specifically countered.
With two of the elemental components neutralized, the power of the technique dropped sharply.
Shinnosuke had no choice but to force the five chakra natures into conflict early—
Detonating the second-stage explosion of the Five Elements Great Barrage ahead of time.
That hasty response crippled the technique's intended power.
The Five Elements Great Barrage exploded in the air—
Creating a massive cloud of smoke.
But to Shinnosuke's despair—
The Tailed Beast Bomb, the Earth Release, and the Lightning Release all burst through the smoke and came straight at him.
At that instant, Orochimaru appeared behind him in a blur of Body Flicker.
Even Orochimaru's eyes were filled with disbelief.
If this had only been the Cloud—
Or only the Stone—
Sarutobi Shinnosuke would never have been in mortal danger.
But somehow—
This rising star of Konoha had made two entire villages take him so seriously.
Orochimaru slammed both hands onto the ground.
Triple Rashōmon!
No—
Only two gates rose.
And they did not rise straight upward.
Instead, they tilted like a slanted roof, shielding Orochimaru and Shinnosuke beneath them.
But whether two Rashōmon gates could actually block that much incoming force from above was beside the point.
Because by then—
The Two-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb had already smashed through Sarutobi Hiyu's Five Elements Great Barrage and was hurtling directly toward Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
Hiyu shouted,
"Not good!"
Orochimaru watched as Hiyu was swallowed whole by the Two-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb and blown apart.
And in that moment, the only thing left in his mind was confusion.
Why?
Why were they targeting Sarutobi Shinnosuke this hard?
Anyone who knew the truth would say Madara had gone to Konoha and killed three of its leaders.
But anyone who didn't know the truth might think Shinnosuke had personally gone to Iwagakure and Kumogakure and killed three of their top brass each.
Where was all this hatred even coming from?
The Tailed Beast Bombs.
The thunder.
The flying stone fragments.
The area covered by those attacks was so vast that all escape techniques became meaningless.
Body Flicker.
Substitution.
Any evasive ninjutsu—
Completely useless under an attack of that scale.
The explosion raged for what felt like an eternity.
When the smoke finally began to clear—
Kitsuchi and the other five stood in a cautious fan formation, watching the dissipating haze.
Tōtai frowned slightly.
"Something feels off…"
"Sarutobi Shinnosuke doesn't seem as strong as the intelligence reports claimed."
Huangtu nodded.
"His Five Elements Great Barrage wasn't that impressive."
"But all the reports suggested that within Konoha, he was at least top three."
Han said flatly,
"The pressure he gave me was nowhere near the level of Konoha's White Fang."
"They weren't even in the same class."
Gomoi narrowed his eyes.
"Then I have every reason to suspect that Konoha was manufacturing hype."
"They were building Sarutobi Shinnosuke up."
Pokkle clicked his tongue.
"So after all this effort—sending so many elites and top-level fighters—"
"All we did was kill a fraud who only had a big name?"
"Not exactly a fraud," Tōtai said.
"His Five Elements Great Barrage was still powerful."
"He just couldn't withstand the combined attack of all six of us."
The six-way assault they had launched together had been truly apocalyptic.
Pookle shot him a sidelong glance.
"Combined attack?"
"I was watching pretty clearly."
"You didn't do a damn thing."
In Pokkle's eyes, the three Cloud ninja only had two people worth respecting—
The Two-Tails Jinchūriki and Gomoi.
As for Tōtai?
He looked like dead weight.
Lava Release: Rubber?
What kind of garbage ability was that supposed to be?
Tōtai snorted.
"Then why don't you try and see whether your explosive clay can break my defense?"
Gomoi suddenly shouted,
"Enough! Orochimaru is still alive!"
In the distance, Orochimaru slowly rose from the blackened crater.
Kitsuchi frowned.
The ground beneath Orochimaru rippled like water.
That level of Earth Release control was so precise—
Even Kitsuchi had to admit he couldn't match it.
Orochimaru stared at the six of them and said in his hoarse voice:
"The Cloud ninja, who always look the most like brute-force idiots…"
"And yet, every time, you lot end up allying with someone."
"First you joined forces with the Mist to wipe out the Uzumaki Clan."
"And now you've joined forces again to kill Sarutobi Shinnosuke."
His gaze shifted.
"And the Stone…"
"If you hadn't joined this battle, how could Sarutobi Shinnosuke possibly have died?"
He looked like he wanted to say more—
But Lightning Release: False Darkness shot toward him and burned him into black ash.
Tōtai stared for a while, then finally muttered,
"Did Orochimaru die?"
Gomoi slowly shook his head.
"No…"
"No. He definitely didn't."
Sure enough—
Orochimaru rose from the ground once more.
His eyes swept across all six of them.
And for the first time, even they felt a chill crawl up their spines.
Killing Sarutobi Shinnosuke was certainly satisfying.
But what came next—
Konoha's retaliation—
Was far more troubling.
Kitsuchi finally spoke.
"In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and conflict…"
"We of Iwagakure will withdraw first."
"No need for us to interfere with your pursuit of the Konoha ninja."
Far away, Nara Kyoichi and the others were fleeing in terror through the hills of the Land of Hot Water.
Dead.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke-sama was dead.
Sarutobi Hiyu was dead too.
Both of them had died under the combined assault of Cloud and Stone.
The aftershocks of that battle alone had killed dozens of Konoha ninja.
Nara Kyoichi forced himself to think quickly.
He made a decision at once and called over several speed-type ninja nearby.
"You two—head to the capital of the Land of Hot Water immediately!"
"Report everything that happened here to the Guardian Ninja captain, Sarutobi Yamatori!"
"Tell him to gather all Konoha ninja stationed in the Land of Hot Water!"
Then he pointed to two others.
"You two—go to the Land of Fire border immediately."
"Find the jōnin in charge of the outpost fortresses."
"Gather at least three fortress garrisons and bring them here as reinforcements!"
He clenched his fist and added:
"Whether you find Yamatori or the outpost jōnin first—"
"Make sure they use a ninja hawk to notify the village."
"Something enormous has happened in the Land of Hot Water!"
After dispatching the intelligence runners, Kyoichi felt an agonizing pain in his chest.
He was Shinnosuke's bodyguard.
He was supposed to protect Shinnosuke-sama.
And yet—
Shinnosuke-sama had died.
While they were the ones who survived.
He wondered—
When the Second Hokage died, had the Third Hokage and Danzo felt the same kind of agony?
Fox-sama never should have been sent away from the frontline.
And where had Orochimaru-sama gone?
Had Orochimaru-sama died too?
But Clan Head Nara Shikakaku had once said—
Orochimaru specialized in survival-based secret techniques.
And Fox specialized in defensive secret techniques.
Both of them were extremely hard to kill.
So then…
Where were they?
The first person to receive news of the catastrophic frontline defeat was Sarutobi Yamatori, captain of the Guardian Ninja in the Land of Hot Water.
He immediately sent a ninja hawk back to the village.
His hands were shaking as he wrote the report.
A mistake.
A catastrophic mistake.
Why had Shinnosuke sent Fox away on another mission before the decisive battle?
What mission could possibly have been more important than Shinnosuke's safety?
Shinnosuke had been too confident.
Too aggressive.
No matter how important Fox's mission was—
He should have proceeded steadily.
One problem at a time.
The Cloud threat had been the immediate danger.
If that threat could not be resolved—
Then every other plan, no matter how perfect, would have been meaningless.
Yako, however, knew nothing about what had happened in the Land of Hot Water.
He had already arrived at the gate of the Fire Temple.