"Tempest Kick."
Garp's right leg snapped upward, cutting through the air as he swept it toward the Third Raikage and the others.
A violent gust howled forth like a natural disaster, a typhoon crashing down onto the battlefield.
Sand and stones flew in a storm that spanned a mile.
More than ninety percent of the shinobi couldn't even keep their eyes open. Many staggered, feet sliding against the earth as they were pushed back again and again.
Boom!
Just as the Raikage and the others began to think that Garp had changed his mind and was about to annihilate all the thousand Cloud shinobi present, a deafening explosion erupted behind them.
Every shinobi instinctively turned around.
The Third Raikage fell silent.
The Cloud ninjas' jaws hung wide open, yet no sound came out.
The once chaotic battlefield instantly became deathly still.
"T-The mountain… it's split open."
"That mountain was at least five hundred meters away from us."
"Those shinobi and samurai from the old era… just how hopeless they must have felt back then?"
Choza and Shikaku exchanged glances. In each other's eyes, they saw deep, overwhelming shock… and a trace of pity.
At this moment, they finally understood what shinobi and samurai from Garp's era must have felt.
That maddening mix of misfortune and luck, being born in the same generation as this monster.
"Don't feel frustrated. Maybe you really were fighting with everything you had. But unfortunately, that doesn't change my view of you.
A child's play war is still a child's play war."
Garp slowly lowered his right leg.
"So you're saying… in the fight just now, you weren't even serious…. "
"What adult goes all out when playing with children?"
Before A could finish his sentence, Garp's single remark shut him down entirely.
The strongest Raikage in history could only close his eyes in bitter despair.
"I understand."
After a long moment, A opened his eyes.
"For as long as any Cloud shinobi lives… none of you may take a single step into the Land of Fire. Anyone who violates this… will be treated as a rogue ninja."
He roared out each word at the terrified, shaken Cloud ninja.
Every shout sounded as if it tore a piece of life out of him.
By the time he reached "treated as a rogue ninja," his spirit had already been drained dry, like his soul had been sucked out by a demon.
He was clearly still in his prime, but he looked like a withered corpse, half a step into a grave.
"Yes..."
It wasn't just the Third Raikage.
These Cloud shinobi, who had all been full of vigor before the Third Ninja War began, who once followed the Raikage to invade other nations, now looked just like him.
Breathing weakly, alive in body but dead in spirit.
"Cough… cough. Garp, this should satisfy you, right?"
A stared fixedly at Garp's back. As soon as he finished speaking, he coughed up blood.
"Get lost."
Garp waved a hand without turning around.
"Retreat!"
A said nothing more. Using the last shred of his strength, he shouted out the word he once despised most, his greatest humiliation.
Immediately after, unable to withstand the combined collapse of his body and spirit, he collapsed unconscious.
"Lord Raikage."
Dodai, Toroi, and the others were petrified, but they didn't dare stay even a second longer.
They hurriedly lifted the Raikage and fled with the defeated Cloud remnants, like beaten roosters, toward the Land of Lightning.
These battle hardened shinobi, the backbone of the Cloud Village, knew very well that their crisis wasn't over.
Because this battlefield still held Garp the Fist… and Konoha's shinobi.
"Lord Garp, are you really just going to let those Cloud ninjas walk away?
This is the perfect chance to finish off the Raikage and cripple the Cloud Village.
Give those Cloud ninjas to me, I'll make sure none of them survive. Without the Third Raikage, Cloud will never threaten Konoha again."
Danzo, the King of Opportunists, would never miss his cue.
He was always the first to show up and never the one to disappoint people like Toroi and Dodai.
Watching the fleeing Cloud remnants, his single eye burned with cold killing intent… and wild ambition.
Cloud Village? The Raikage?
No. In his eyes, these were nothing more than stepping stones to the Hokage's seat.
If he killed the Third Raikage and wiped out Cloud's army, with such merit and prestige, how could he not be the fourth Hokage?
"…"
Garp glanced at him lightly.
"L-Lord Garp… did I say something wrong?"
Danzo's pupils shrank. His face turned pale. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and back.
"Just a glance… and it scared the Darkness of Konoha this badly?"
Shikaku and Inoichi were both stunned.
Self important fool. Did he really think uncle Garp was part of Konoha?
At this point, how could he still not see that what uncle Garp wanted wasn't a dead Raikage, but a crippled one?
Tsunade didn't even bother speaking. She just stood at Garp's side, watching Danzo with a mocking expression.
She understood perfectly, Danzo's logic wasn't wrong… but only if Garp were a hero of Konoha.
But he wasn't.
Garp was a hero of the shinobi world's warring states period. His only connection to Konoha was the bond he once shared with her two grandfathers.
And with the passage of time, the only one left who still held even a single thread of that bond… was her, the last survivor of the Senju clan.
As for the rest, whether Konoha thrived, whether Hiruzen was competent, whether Danzo was trustworthy…
Garp didn't care at all.
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