The Land of Frost had become a crucible of steam and ionized air. Where the Gold and Silver Brothers had once stood, a localized apocalypse had rewritten the geography. The permafrost, which had remained frozen for millennia, was now a bubbling slurry of mud and glass, vitrified by the sheer thermal output of Kaito's Sun Breathing.
Kaito stood at the epicenter of the crater, his hands tucked casually into his pockets, a bright, almost infectious smile on his face as he watched the crimson Nine-Tails' chakra dissipate into the freezing atmosphere. He wasn't even breathing hard; the Solar Saturated Breathing was a closed-loop system, recycling energy with a mechanical efficiency that made the concept of fatigue seem like a distant, quaint memory.
"You know, for legends of the Sage of Six Paths, those two were remarkably flammable," Kaito remarked, his voice carrying that signature cheerful resonance that seemed to vibrate the very air. He turned to look at the Konoha war-vessel, which was currently struggling to stay afloat in the turbulent, boiling wake of his battle. "Tsunade-san! Did you see that? I think I accidentally purified the sea-water. It's probably drinkable now, if you don't mind the taste of burnt Tailed Beast!"
Tsunade stood on the deck, her knuckles white as she gripped the railing. She didn't answer. She couldn't. Beside her, Jiraiya was staring at the four legendary Treasured Tools—the Bashosen, the Shichishiken, the Benihisago, and the Kohaku no Johei—which were lying scattered in the mud like discarded toys.
"He... he didn't even use a jutsu," Jiraiya whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of awe and a rising, cold dread. "He just... punched the chakra out of them."
Orochimaru was the only one moving. He had already leaped from the deck, his yellow eyes tracking the spatial distortions still lingering in the air. "It's not just physical force, Jiraiya. It's a collapse of laws. Look at the way the snow refuses to fall in a ten-meter radius around him. He isn't just hot; he is an absolute sovereign over his own space."
The Arrival of the Mountain
The moment of levity was shattered by a sound that wasn't a sound at all—it was a pressure. The horizon to the north didn't just change; it exploded. A streak of blue lightning, so intense it turned the afternoon sky into a blinding, artificial noon, tore across the ice-plains.
The Third Raikage arrived not with a landing, but with an impact that made the previous battle look like a playground scuffle.
The shockwave of his arrival sent a wall of ice and compressed air screaming outward. Tsunade and Jiraiya were nearly blown off the deck, while Orochimaru had to bury his blades into the permafrost just to anchor himself.
In the center of the new crater stood a mountain of a man. His Lightning Release Armor was so dense it was no longer a cloak; it was a physical shell of plasma that hummed with the frequency of a thousand dying stars. His eyes, burning with a violent, electric blue, locked onto Kaito.
"Where are the brothers?" the Raikage rumbled. The sound didn't come from his throat; it felt like it came from the ground beneath Kaito's feet.
Kaito didn't move. He didn't take his hands out of his pockets. He simply tilted his head, his smile remaining perfectly, arrogant and bright. "Oh, you mean the Gold and Silver twins? They're currently occupying several different zip codes. Most of them as ash. But hey, on the bright side, I saved their luggage for you!"
Kaito gestured casually toward the Treasured Tools lying in the mud.
The Raikage's armor flared, the blue lightning turning a jagged, angry violet. "You... a whelp who has not yet seen a decade of life... you dare mock the blood of Kumogakure?"
"I'm not mocking the blood, Raikage-sama," Kaito chirped, his Total Concentration: Solar Saturated Breathing shifting into a higher gear. "I'm mocking the results. You Kumo guys are all 'lightning this' and 'muscle that,' but when the sun comes out, you all seem to melt rather quickly."
The Physics of a Sovereign
The Raikage didn't waste words. He vanished.
This wasn't a Body Flicker. This was the pinnacle of Lightning Release: Shunshin. To a normal Jonin, it would have appeared as if the Raikage had simply ceased to exist in one location and occupied another.
But Kaito wasn't a normal Jonin.
> [System Status: Integration 8.5%]
> Observation Haki Active: Predatory Mapping.
> Calculated Trajectory: 12 degrees to the left.
> Point of Impact: Carotid artery.
> Probability of Evasion: 100%.
>
Kaito leaned his head to the side. He didn't even shift his feet. The Raikage's hand, shaped into the deadly Hell Stab: Four-Finger Spear, whistled past his ear, the sheer wind pressure of the strike cutting a kilometer-long trench into the glacier behind him.
"Missed," Kaito said playfully.
The Raikage didn't hesitate. He pivoted with a grace that defied his massive bulk, swinging a leg wreathed in lightning for a decapitating roundhouse kick.
Kaito finally took one hand out of his pocket. He didn't block. He reached out and caught the Raikage's shin with his bare palm.
BOOM.
The impact wasn't a dull thud. It was a discharge of energy that turned the surrounding mud into steam. Kaito's Steel Bone Density absorbed the kinetic energy, while his Armament Haki—now refined into a light-swallowing obsidian—negated the piercing effect of the lightning.
The Raikage froze. His leg, capable of kicking through a Susanoo ribcage, was held in place by a seven-year-old boy who was currently yawning.
"You know, you're much faster than the Tsuchikage," Kaito said, his eyes beginning to glow with a deep, solar crimson. "But your 'Will' is a bit disorganized. It's all scattered like static. Here, let me show you what a focused intent looks like."
The Sovereign's Coating: First Discharge
Kaito didn't strike back with a punch. He didn't need to. He focused the Conqueror's Haki—the raw, absolute essence of his sovereign "Will"—and channeled it through his hand into the Raikage's leg.
"Sovereign's Coating: Internal Rupture."
Black lightning, jagged and thick as tree trunks, erupted from Kaito's palm. This wasn't electricity; it was the physical manifestation of an ego so powerful it refused to let anything else exist in its space.
The Raikage's Lightning Armor didn't just break—it was shattered. The plasma shell cracked like glass, the black-and-red Haki lightning crawling up his body and bypassing his legendary durability to strike at his very nervous system.
The giant of a man was launched backward, his body skipping across the frozen ocean like a stone before he finally crashed into a distant iceberg, the entire structure collapsing over him.
Kaito looked at his hand, the obsidian sheen fading back into a faint, golden glow. "Oops. I might have overdone that. I keep forgetting that most people don't have Steel Bone Density."
The Internal Monologues of the Gods
On the deck of the ship, Tsunade felt her heart hammering against her ribs so hard it was painful. She was a Senju. She was the granddaughter of the First Hokage. She had been raised on stories of gods walking among men.
But this... this was different.
He's not even using chakra, she thought, her medical mind frantically trying to analyze the biology of what she had just seen. When he hit the Raikage, his cells didn't flare with energy. They simply... hardened. It's as if he's rewritten the fundamental laws of his own mass. He's not a ninja. He's a walking anomaly that the world's biology can't comprehend.
Beside her, Orochimaru was trembling. It wasn't fear—it was a dark, twisted rapture.
Look at him, Orochimaru thought, his yellow eyes reflecting the black lightning. He laughs at the Raikage. He treats the Sage's tools like trash. He has found the path to immortality that I have only dreamed of. Not through soul-transference, but through the absolute perfection of the physical vessel. Kaito-kun... you are the answer to every question I've ever asked.
The Ruthless Negotiation
From the ruins of the iceberg, the Third Raikage emerged. He was no longer the pristine mountain of lightning. His vest was shredded, his chest was covered in black, spider-web burns from the Haki-coating, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
But his eyes... they were filled with a new, terrifying clarity.
"You are not a child of the Leaf," the Raikage said, his voice now a low, dangerous rasp. "You are a calamity that Hiruzen has failed to leash."
"Leash?" Kaito laughed, the sound bright and arrogant. He stepped forward, his aura of Sun Breathing intensifying until the falling snow for a hundred meters vaporized before it could touch the ground. "Raikage-sama, you're still thinking in terms of pets and masters. I'm not anyone's tool. I'm the one who decides when the sun sets on your little empire."
Kaito reached out and picked up the Bashosen fan. He looked at it for a moment, then looked at the Raikage.
"I'll tell you what. I'm feeling generous today. I'll give you back these toys," Kaito said, waving the legendary fan casually. "On one condition. You return to Kumo, you tell your Council that the Land of Frost is now a neutral zone under my protection, and you never, ever let me see your face in a war-zone again."
"And if I refuse?" the Raikage growled, his hand forming the Hell Stab: Three-Finger Spear.
Kaito's smile didn't fade, but his eyes went cold—a ruthless, absolute void.
"Then I'll stop being so cheerful," Kaito whispered. "And I'll show you what happens when the Sun decides to go Supernova. I'll burn Kumo to the ground, and I'll do it with a smile on my face. Do we have a deal?"
The silence that followed was the heaviest thing in the Land of Frost. The Raikage, a man who had once fought ten thousand shinobi alone, looked at the eight-year-old boy and saw the end of his village.
He didn't speak. He simply deactivated his Lightning Armor, turned his back, and began to walk away into the mists.
"Good choice!" Kaito called out, his cheerful voice returning instantly. "Safe travels! Tell your son I said his hair is still a bit too much, but it's growing on me!"
The Sovereign's Toll
As the Raikage disappeared, Kaito felt the System hum in the back of his mind.
> [System Status: Integration 9.0%]
> New Perk Unlocked: [Sun Breathing - Eleventh Form: Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance (Mastery)].
> Current Status: The Unstoppable Sovereign.
> Points Awarded: 5,000.
>
Kaito turned back toward his team, his hands back in his pockets, whistling that same jaunty tune. He looked at the Sannin—his friends, his peers, his subordinates—and saw the distance in their eyes. He knew he was losing his "Humanity" with every percent of integration, but as he looked at the clear, sunlit sky he had created in the middle of a blizzard, he realized he didn't care.
"Who's for dinner?" Kaito asked, his grin bright and arrogant . "I hear the Land of Frost has excellent crab. My treat!"
The Second War was effectively over. Not because of a treaty, but because a sovereign had decided he was bored with it. And as Kaito walked back to the ship, the world began to realize that the "Top Brass" were no longer in charge.
The Sun had risen, and everything else was just a shadow.