About a hundred miles away from Kumogakure, in a stretch of low mountains, a battle was nearing its end.
On one side were Kizaru's teammates, Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo.
On the other was a ten-man elite squad that had originally been led by the Third Raikage.
Half an hour earlier, after receiving news of the attack on the village, the Third Raikage had ordered the elite squad to continue toward the border while he himself rushed back to Kumogakure.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo, who had been hiding deep within the Land of Lightning near the route between Kumogakure and the border, discovered the team and quickly realized that the Third Raikage was no longer with them. The moment they confirmed it, they launched an ambush without hesitation.
A Kage-level shinobi skilled in assassination working together with an elite jōnin with exceptional all-around ability—combined with careful planning and the advantage of surprise—their opening strike was devastating.
In the very first exchange, two of Kumogakure's ten elite shinobi were killed, one was left heavily wounded, and three more suffered lighter injuries.
Once the battle shifted into open combat, Sarutobi Shinnosuke used his superb all-round ninjutsu to hold the enemy at the front, constantly creating openings and buying time for Hatake Sakumo, who moved around the battlefield like a ghost.
With his incredible speed and razor-sharp swordsmanship, Sakumo cut through them like they were nothing, striking down five enemies in a row.
By the end, only two elite jōnin from Kumogakure still retained the strength to fight.
The two stood back to back, staring warily at Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo, who had them pinned from both ends.
These two elite Cloud jōnin were both members of the Third Raikage's faction. Both had mastered the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and crackling arcs of lightning now wrapped around their bodies.
"Are you Konoha shinobi trying to start a war?" one of them demanded coldly, his tone already certain of the answer.
The Land of Fire had always been the Land of Lightning's greatest enemy, and Kumogakure had invested more effort spying on Konohagakure than on any other village.
From the way these two fought, the Kumogakure shinobi had already more or less guessed who their enemies were.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke and Hatake Sakumo said nothing.
The two merely exchanged a glance.
Then, with perfect understanding, they attacked at the same time.
Hatake Sakumo's Body Flicker Technique was unbelievably fast, among the very best in Konoha. In an instant, he appeared in front of his target, almost like teleportation.
But at that moment—
Someone was even faster.
A golden flash streaked across the sky.
Just as Sakumo was about to bring down his blade, that golden light dropped from above.
Two long legs glowing with a metallic black sheen appeared out of nowhere and came crashing down onto the heads of the two elite Kumogakure jōnin, slamming them straight into the ground.
Boom!
Hatake Sakumo leapt lightly into the air, sword already halfway raised, but the moment he saw who it was, his expression shifted and he immediately pulled back.
"I'm not late, am I~?"
Standing in the crater he had made, amid the dark red earth, Kizaru kept both hands in his pockets and looked up at his two teammates above him.
Hatake Sakumo silently sheathed his ninja blade behind his back, then immediately began checking Kizaru over with a sharp eye.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke, standing at the edge of the crater, was doing the exact same thing.
Kizaru's clothes were stained with blood, but after a closer look, neither of them found any actual injuries on him.
Seeing that, both men quietly let out a breath of relief.
"Get up here, Kizaru," Sarutobi Shinnosuke said.
Kizaru bent his knees slightly, then jumped out of the crater and landed beside him.
"You're not injured, are you?" Sarutobi Shinnosuke asked, unable to hide the concern in his voice.
Kizaru tilted his head and smiled.
"Nope~ Not mine, anyway."
Sarutobi Shinnosuke gave a small nod, then looked across the crater at Hatake Sakumo, who was finishing off the last wounded Kumogakure shinobi still lying on the ground.
"Let's withdraw."
"Understood."
The moment the words fell, all three figures vanished at once.
Elsewhere—
The Third Raikage stood atop the ruins of the village, his upper body bare, his waist, abdomen, and left chest wrapped in thick bandages. His face was dark with fury.
Damn it... I'll kill that bastard!
Veins bulged across his forehead. His fists, each as big as a casserole, were clenched so tightly they trembled. Rage filled his chest to the point of boiling over.
This attack had dealt Kumogakure grievous losses.
Hundreds of shinobi had been killed or injured. A great number of buildings and village facilities had been reduced to rubble.
But of all those losses, the one that pained the Third Raikage the most was Dodai's death—the young genius of the next generation, and a valuable subordinate he had carefully nurtured.
Since taking the position of Raikage near the end of the First Shinobi World War, he had spent more than twenty years strengthening and developing the village.
And in less than an hour, a huge portion of those results had been torn apart.
"Do we have any clues about the enemy?" the Third Raikage asked, turning toward the elder and the senior officials beside him, his voice thick with suppressed anger.
The officials exchanged glances, then all looked toward the elder.
Faced with everyone's eyes on him, the elder remained calm.
"I have a guess regarding the enemy's identity."
"What is it?" the Third Raikage asked at once.
"The enemy came from Konoha," the elder said.
Though he called it a guess, his tone was steady and certain.
"Konoha?" The Third Raikage frowned. Thinking of the Third Hokage's usual character, he clearly found that hard to believe. "Do they even have the nerve?"
"The shinobi who attacked the village could fly," the elder said, recalling the earlier battle. "And the techniques he used were unlike anything I've seen before. They were unbelievably fast, overwhelmingly destructive, and shone with a blinding light."
He paused for a moment before continuing.
"His abilities match the intelligence we've gathered on Konoha's newest genius... Shimura Kizaru."
"And we've already attempted to assassinate him twice. Both he and Konoha have reason to retaliate."
"Konoha... Shimura Kizaru..." The Third Raikage narrowed his eyes.
As he replayed the battle in his mind and compared it to the intelligence they had on Shimura Kizaru, he found that it really did line up.
But there was still one problem he could not accept.
According to their information, Shimura Kizaru of Konohagakure was not even ten years old yet.
A child under ten had launched a solo air raid on Kumogakure, killed hundreds of shinobi, slaughtered dozens of jōnin—including Dodai—and then, after all of that, ambushed and seriously injured him before escaping.
How was that even possible?
Could such a monster really exist in this world?
"That Shimura Kizaru isn't even ten this year," the Third Raikage said, staring at the elder as if trying to force a different answer out of him.
The elder let out a slow breath.
"That," he said gravely, "is the village founded by Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara."
Senju Hashirama.
Uchiha Madara.
Just those two names alone were enough to make the Third Raikage feel a heavy pressure settle in his chest.
Those were monsters—beings who had once possessed the power to sweep across the entire shinobi world.
Could it be... that less than thirty years after their deaths, a third monster had appeared in Konohagakure?
And this one possessed the power of flight, terrifying speed, and some mysterious technique that made ordinary attacks meaningless against him.
A chill crept up from the bottom of his heart.
At that moment, more than anything else, the Third Raikage wished the enemy had not come from Konoha.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 200 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.