"Clang!"
"Boom!"
Yagami lifted his hand and swung it forward.
In the next instant, a golden slash over twenty meters tall burst out, towering like something that could split the world itself.
It roared straight toward Hanzō of the Salamander.
The Land of Rain was drenched in endless storm clouds year-round, leaving the entire country dim and heavy beneath a curtain of gloom.
But the moment Yagami unleashed that overwhelming strike, the darkness was torn apart.
The entire sky and earth were flooded with brilliant golden light.
"Nani!?"
Hanzō's eyes widened.
The sheer brightness and monstrous pressure behind that slash hit him instantly.
Because he was standing so close to Yagami, there was no time to calmly weave signs and escape with the Body Flicker Technique.
In that split second, Hanzō abandoned any thought of preserving his dignity as a village leader.
He threw himself aside and rolled across the ground, narrowly dodging the incoming slash.
"Puff—!"
A burst of white smoke exploded nearby.
The giant salamander behind him had been so startled that it instinctively used Reverse Summoning and fled on the spot.
"Move! Get out of the way!"
The Rain shinobi behind the salamander shouted in alarm, their voices full of panic.
A moment later, the entire Rain force scattered to both sides in a rush.
Luckily, because the salamander's poison breath was so dangerous, the Rain shinobi had been keeping their distance behind it from the start.
That buffer gave them just enough time to evade the attack.
Of course, the real reason they managed to avoid it at all was because Yagami had deliberately slowed the slash down.
Otherwise, a few people might have escaped...
but there was no way all of them would have made it out in time.
"Rumble—!!"
The massive golden slash tore straight through the dark skies of the Land of Rain, carrying enough force to make the heavens themselves seem to tremble.
The earth in the middle of the Rain shinobi formation split apart with a deafening roar.
A massive trench was carved directly into the ground, stretching deep into the distance.
Fear seized every Rain shinobi present.
Their faces went pale in an instant, as if all the blood had drained from them.
No one could hide the shock in their eyes.
"Boom... rumble..."
The roar of the slash continued for hundreds of meters before finally weakening, fading little by little until it disappeared into the distance.
Then, silence.
The attack was over.
Only the sound of rain remained, pouring endlessly from the sky.
No one spoke.
Everyone simply stood there with their mouths half-open, unconsciously holding their breath.
Even the Konoha shinobi standing behind Yagami were stunned by what they had just seen.
After all, this wasn't a real battle to the death.
The two sides weren't openly at war yet.
If anyone had actually been caught in that attack, the situation would have spiraled out of control immediately.
Fortunately, Yagami had held back and suppressed the speed of the slash.
Otherwise, what was supposed to be a display of power would have very likely turned into a full-blown disaster.
"Oi, oi... what the hell!? Why'd they start fighting all of a sudden!?"
On top of the distant hill where the Akatsuki group was watching, Yahiko jolted in shock and blurted out loudly.
One reason was his fear that the Land of Rain was about to be dragged into another war.
The other was simple shock at that ridiculous slash.
As for the rest of the Akatsuki members, nearly all of them were left staring with widened eyes.
For a moment, it felt like common sense itself had been shattered.
When that slash lit up the battlefield, even their position had been bathed in that blinding golden glow.
It was so bright it almost felt like dawn had come early.
"Yahiko, calm down. Rain didn't counterattack. It doesn't look like this is turning into a war yet."
Nagato raised a hand and placed it on Yahiko's shoulder, trying to steady him.
Feeling that quiet reassurance from his friend, Yahiko finally let out a tense breath and forced himself to settle down.
"Y-You...!"
Hanzō glanced at the trench stretching well over a hundred meters across the battlefield, then slowly turned his gaze back toward Yagami.
His voice came out low and strained.
Because of the gas mask covering his face, no one could see his expression.
But the violent trembling in his eyes told the whole story.
Shock.
Disbelief.
And a fear he could barely suppress.
"There are still nineteen moves left."
Yagami suddenly grinned.
Then he lifted his left hand and pointed a finger toward the ground near Hanzō's feet.
A dazzling golden light began to gather at his fingertip.
"Tch."
The moment Hanzō saw that light, his body reacted on instinct.
Without even having time to think, he immediately began weaving hand seals at blinding speed, so fast that both hands became afterimages.
"Beam of Light!"
"Whoosh—!"
At almost the exact same moment Hanzō finished his seals, Yagami fired.
A beam of golden light shot forward like a laser.
"Boom!!!"
The beam slammed into the ground at Hanzō's feet and erupted in a violent explosion of light.
The shockwave and flames swept through the area instantly—
but Hanzō's body collapsed into a puddle of water.
A Water Clone.
The real Hanzō had already used the Body Flicker Technique to escape at the last possible second.
"Haa... haa..."
A short distance away, Hanzō reappeared, breathing hard.
"Ninjutsu... with no hand seals!?"
His voice was filled with disbelief.
Cold sweat ran down his body beneath the armor.
By now, he had already pulled back about thirty meters from Yagami.
"Oh? That makes two moves already, Hanzō-sama."
Yagami's voice rang out again, carrying that same exaggerated, almost mocking tone.
"Aren't you going to make a move?"
As Hanzō listened, his expression darkened.
"This brat..."
His teeth clenched behind the mask.
"He's actually this strong..."
"No wonder Konoha sent him here."
"I got careless..."
Even though Yagami had only attacked twice, Hanzō already understood one thing very clearly.
This was not some arrogant upstart showing off.
Yagami was the real deal.
A monster on the same level as him.
And that made things troublesome.
A large part of Hanzō's reputation as a demigod came from the poison of his salamander.
But now the salamander had already fled in fear.
And even if it were still here, Hanzō couldn't casually unleash poison gas in a situation like this.
This wasn't an all-out war between villages.
At least not yet.
Right now, this was still supposed to be a "spar."
But standing there in the rain, staring at Yagami's relaxed grin, Hanzō knew better.
This was no simple exchange.
This was Konoha showing him exactly what kind of monster they had sent into the Land of Rain.
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