"I truly apologize. I really couldn't find a pebble any smaller than this."
Garp grinned, lightly tossing the tiny stone in his right hand.
"Are you mocking me?"
The Raikage grew even angrier.
He was the Third Raikage.
The strongest Raikage in the history of the Hidden Cloud.
Ever since the end of the Warring States Period and the death of the White Fang of the Leaf, many shinobi even regarded the current age as the Raikage's Era.
"You call this mockery?"
Garp looked somewhat surprised.
"Is it not? A mere pebble, forget shattering my strongest shield, it couldn't even bruise my body. If this isn't humiliation, then what is.?"
A, roared through gritted teeth.
As rage burned through his heart, the Lightning Release chakra coating his body became even more violent.
Seeing their Raikage mocked and taunted like this, the Cloud shinobi, who had previously been trembling, also felt their anger ignite.
If not for the A, stopping them, they would've charged forward recklessly to fight Garp to the death.
"I'm not like those shameless shinobi who go all out even against children. Although you're a somewhat famous Raikage, in my eyes, you're still just a kid who hasn't grown up yet.
To deal with you, this is enough. Anything bigger, and that would be embarrassing for me."
Garp said it completely seriously.
"Iron… Fist. I swear upon the name of the Raikage, I will defeat you here."
A, roared, eyes bulging with fury, stomping down hard enough to shatter the earth before launching forward, a violent shockwave rolling behind him.
Seeing this, Garp calmly curled his five fingers around the pebble.
Visible streaks of black-purple lightning surged from his fingertips, coiling around the stone.
With a metallic clang, the once brownish pebble turned pitch black, as if coated in a hardened metallic lacquer.
"Not good."
The instant the pebble hardened under Haki, an intense sense of dread washed over the Third Raikage, irritating, suffocating, and unmistakably ominous.
Before he could think further, the blackened pebble slipped from Garp's hand, flying out with a shrill whistle so sharp that every shinobi on the battlefield had to cover their ears.
At the same time, realizing the danger, the Third Raikage unleashed his fastest speed without hesitation.
Yet even though he had just flashed a hundred meters away, an overwhelming, unstoppable force slammed into his chest, halting his high speed movement on the spot.
A moment later, centered on his body, an explosive shockwave, like a Tailed Beast Bomb detonating, burst outward, sweeping across the land with crushing force, wave after wave.
Any Cloud shinobi within a thousand meters was instantly blown off their feet.
Those within two thousand meters didn't fall, but were pushed back repeatedly by the raging wind.
When the roaring shockwave finally subsided, the Cloud shinobi who had been knocked down, and the Konoha shinobi who had been pushed back, slowly stood up and looked toward the Third Raikage.
What they saw sent chills through every heart.
The roaring Lightning Armor covering the Third Raikage was still there, but a hole the size of palm had been blasted through it.
Behind that hole, his chest was covered in spiderweb cracks, each one so deep and terrifying that it felt like his body would shatter like a cracked porcelain vase with just a light touch.
"This… this can't be real."
"Hurry, dispel this genjutsu. This has to be Iron Fist's illusion."
"Lord Raikage's strongest shield can withstand even the Eight-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb head-on, how could it be broken by a pebble barely the size of a palm?"
One after another, Cloud shinobi collapsed or fell to their knees.
They weren't idiots.
Back when Garp was snoring away and the Third Raikage still couldn't injure him in the slightest.
Many Cloud Jonin, like Dodai, already faintly understood that even the strongest Raikage in Cloud history was no match for the mightiest hero of the shinobi world.
But understanding was one thing. Seeing their Raikage crushed in such a brutal, humiliating way was another matter entirely.
The strongest shield that could take a Tailed Beast Bomb head-on… shattered by a random roadside pebble.
Which Cloud shinobi could accept such a thing.
The moment the Raikage spat out blood, and his iron tower-like figure, who had never once fallen, slowly knelt under the haze of crimson, every shred of denial and hope in their hearts shattered completely.
The pride of the Land of Lightning.
The undefeated myth of the Hidden Cloud.
The so-called Raikage Era.
All of it vanished the instant the strongest armor shattered, and the Third Raikage fell to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth.
Then came the fear, boundless fear, panic, helplessness, crashing over the Cloud shinobi like a series of tidal waves, drowning their spirits, their will, their faith.
"Garp…."
But at this moment, A, no longer had the mind to care about his village.
Kneeling on the ground, he raised his head with difficulty, staring fixedly at the man before him, the man he had called a relic of a bygone age just moments ago.
As the peerless warrior, who had shattered his strongest armor with a flick of the wrist, came into view, a thought surfaced uncontrollably in his mind.
You are merely a relic of a past era. This age has no village capable of bearing someone like you.
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