Chapter 340: Naruto and Gaara vs. the Third Hokage
"Enough."
Senju Tobirama's low, gravelly shout cut through the tension, interrupting their exchange.
"Big Brother, put away your tiresome peace theories." The Second Hokage shifted his crimson gaze. "And you, Uchiha brat, cease your pointless verbal sparring."
Tobirama's tone was absolute ice, devoid of any warmth. "The ninja world has always been dictated by strength alone. Who is right? Who is wrong? A battle will naturally carve out the answer. Let us witness the truth with our own hands."
Uchiha Akira offered a slow, measured nod. He genuinely appreciated Tobirama's ruthless directness. No hypocrisy, just the cold reality of power.
"As you wish," Akira replied smoothly.
He turned his attention to the two girls standing nearby. "Hinata, Temari. Wait outside for now. Do not worry; I will handle everything here."
Though anxiety swirled in her pale lavender eyes, Hinata nodded obediently. If Akira-sensei gave a command, she would follow it without question.
Akira raised a hand, casually waving it toward the two kunoichi. Instantly, their physical forms blurred, turning ethereal and illusory before they were teleported out of this isolated, independent dimension.
With the battlefield cleared of non-combatants, Akira shifted his gaze back to the First and Second Hokage.
A single thought flickered through his mind.
In a blur of spatial distortion, Uchiha Akira, Senju Hashirama, and Senju Tobirama vanished from their positions. When they materialized a split second later, they stood atop a high grassy hillside several hundred meters away. From this elevated vantage point, they had a perfect, unobstructed view of the three figures preparing to clash in the valley below.
Down in the cratered clearing, Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the blonde boy standing opposite him. A chaotic storm of guilt, regret, and lingering duty churned within the Third Hokage's chest. The wrinkles around his eyes deepened as he took a slow, rattling breath, attempting to resolve this the only way he knew how—with words.
"Naruto..." Hiruzen began, his voice thick with heavy sorrow. "I know you have suffered immensely. And all of this... it is my fault. But you must understand, everything I did was to protect you. To keep you safe from—"
"Protect?"
The word sliced through the air like a poisoned kunai. Gaara, standing just a few paces from Naruto, interrupted the Third Hokage without a shred of hesitation. The red-haired boy's teal eyes were completely devoid of warmth.
"Allowing Naruto to be treated as a demonic monster by the entire village since he was an infant," Gaara's voice was a flat, chilling drawl. "Leaving him to freeze and starve in an empty apartment. Forcing him to survive under the scornful glares and disgusted whispers of everyone around him."
Gaara took a step forward, the sand in his gourd hissing like a nest of vipers. "Is this your so-called protection? If it weren't for Akira-sensei, Naruto would still be that pathetic, broken wretch, 'protected' by you in some dark, forgotten corner."
The sand around Gaara's feet began to swirl. "Your brand of 'protection' makes me sick."
Gaara's merciless dissection of the past landed like a physical blow against Hiruzen, draining the color from the old man's face. Simultaneously, those words acted as a spark, completely igniting the suffocating anger that Naruto had buried deep within his heart for years.
"That's right!" Naruto roared, his vocal cords straining as his azure eyes flared with raw, unadulterated fury. "Gaara is right! You damn old man! Stop being so disgusting and hypocritical!"
Naruto clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. "Today, I'm going to use my own two hands to beat every ounce of grievance and suffering I've endured over the years right back into you! I'm done talking!"
Hiruzen's expression finally hardened, the last traces of grandfatherly warmth evaporating from his aged features. If words could no longer reach them... then he would have to use the Hokage's method to forcefully correct these two brats who had strayed so far from the Will of Fire.
"Since you two are so stubbornly blind," Hiruzen declared, his voice dropping to a dangerous, authoritative rumble, "then this old man will personally beat you back onto the right path!"
His wrinkled hands blurred into a flawless sequence of hand signs, his muscle memory taking over instantly.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
He inhaled sharply and exhaled a ferocious, roaring dragon of pure, white-hot flame. The sheer heat warped the air itself, sending a scorching wave of destruction hurtling directly toward Naruto and Gaara.
But the God of Shinobi was far from finished. Almost simultaneously, his other hand completed a secondary sequence.
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
The ground beneath them violently ruptured. A colossal dragon forged of jagged rock and dense mud burst from the earth, spiraling upward to intertwine with the roaring flame dragon. The two elements fused into a devastating, world-ending torrent of molten rock and fire.
"Bring it on!" Naruto screamed, a wild, exhilarated grin stretching across his face. He crossed his fingers in his signature cross-shaped seal. "Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thick plumes of white smoke erupted across the battlefield. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Naruto clones materialized, their collective battle cries echoing through the valley as they charged fearlessly like a tidal wave toward the incoming elemental dragons.
The front lines of the clone army were instantly incinerated, vanishing into puffs of smoke the moment they made contact with the overwhelming heat. But their sacrifice was not in vain. Dozens of remaining clones used the blinding smoke as cover, leaping out from the explosive shockwaves and sprinting straight for Hiruzen.
Beside the chaos, Gaara remained perfectly still. His face was a mask of icy calm as he simply slammed his palms against the ground.
"Sand Shield!"
An endless torrent of dense yellow sand erupted from the massive gourd slung across his back. It surged forward like a living tidal wave, solidifying into an incredibly thick, towering wall of compressed sand right in front of him and Naruto's true body.
The fused fire and earth dragons slammed violently into the barrier. The impact produced an devastating boom that rattled the very bedrock. Searing flames splashed uselessly against the defense while molten mud and shattered rocks rained down in all directions.
Ignoring the blocked jutsu, Hiruzen locked his eyes on the swarm of Naruto clones closing in on him. He let out a cold, dismissive snort and his hands blurred once more.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
He hurled a single, standard shuriken. Mid-flight, the weapon multiplied exponentially, transforming into a sky-blotting storm of razor-sharp steel that rained down upon the charging clone army.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The shuriken tore through the ranks with lethal precision, reducing the clones to useless clouds of white smoke before they could even utter a sound.
"It's not over yet!"
A voice echoed from Hiruzen's blind spot. Naruto's true body had used the chaotic distraction to circle around to the Third Hokage's rear. In the boy's palm, a sphere of violently rotating, concentrated blue chakra illuminated his determined face.
"Rasengan!" Naruto thrust the grinding sphere forward, aiming directly for the old man's spine.
Without even turning around, Hiruzen slammed his hands onto the dirt. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
A massive, reinforced slab of solid earth erupted from the ground, instantly forming an impenetrable barricade between him and the boy. The Rasengan ground furiously against the stone, carving out a massive, cratered gouge, but the jutsu ultimately fizzled out, failing to pierce the thick defense.
From across the battlefield, a cold, murderous light flashed in Gaara's teal eyes. He raised a single hand.
"Sand Coffin!"
The loose yellow sand that had been secretly slithering beneath the earth suddenly erupted upward. It morphed into two colossal, grasping hands of sand that locked tightly around Hiruzen's ankles, anchoring him in place.
"Got you," Gaara stated, his voice devoid of mercy.
"Naive!" Hiruzen barked, his eyes narrowing sharply.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Instead of aiming at his enemies, Hiruzen spewed a massive, five-meter-wide sphere of condensed fire directly at his own feet. The blistering, white-hot flames engulfed the sand hands. The sheer intensity of the heat instantly superheated the silica, fusing and burning the crushing sand into brittle, harmless glass crystals.
Using the concussive force of his own explosion, Hiruzen propelled himself high into the air. While suspended in the sky, he brought his hands together in a single seal.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent, hurricane-force gale blasted from his mouth. The localized tempest slammed into Naruto and Gaara, who had been moving in to flank him, violently throwing them backward and disrupting their formation.
"Damn, this old man is strong!" Naruto cursed, spitting out a mouthful of dust as his boots skidded against the dirt.
"His mastery over all five chakra natures has reached the absolute peak," Gaara analyzed, his eyes tracking the old man's descent with cold, calculated precision.
Hiruzen landed gracefully, his feet touching the ground without a sound. He immediately clapped his hands together, summoning his oldest companion.
Summoning Jutsu: Enma!
A plume of smoke cleared, revealing the Monkey King, who instantly transformed. A heavy, black diamond staff materialized in Hiruzen's waiting grip. He twirled the Adamantine Staff with practiced, lethal grace, the heavy weapon whistling through the air.
"Next, this old man will get serious!"
Before the final syllable even left his lips, Hiruzen's figure vanished. He didn't just move; he completely disappeared from sight.
A split second later, he materialized directly in front of Naruto. The Adamantine Staff cleaved through the air, carrying a terrifying, bone-crushing momentum.
It was too fast.
Naruto couldn't even raise his arms to block. An irresistible, overwhelming force slammed into his torso. The boy was violently launched backward like a broken ragdoll, tumbling and rolling over the jagged earth a dozen times before finally skidding to a halt.
"Naruto!" Gaara shouted, his stoic facade cracking for a fraction of a second.
"Brat! It's your turn!" Hiruzen's chilling voice echoed right beside Gaara's ear.
Gaara's heart seized. Acting entirely on instinct, the yellow sand at his feet surged upward in a desperate frenzy, instantly forming a dense, semi-circular dome of absolute defense around his body.
But Hiruzen offered no quarter. He thrust the Adamantine Staff forward, the weapon suddenly extending at blinding speed. The heavy diamond tip violently collided with the sand sphere.
Crack!
Under the sheer, unadulterated physical power of that single strike, Gaara's ultimate defense fractured, a massive spiderweb of cracks spreading across the hardened sand.
Second strike.
Third strike.
Bang! Bang!
Hiruzen became a blur of motion, furiously bombarding the weakened sand sphere with a relentless, high-frequency barrage of heavy blows.
With a final, deafening boom, the sand sphere completely imploded, shattering into a million useless grains of dust. Wielding the Adamantine Staff transformed from Enma, Hiruzen Sarutobi displayed an overwhelming, suffocating level of combat supremacy.
Up on the distant hillside, Senju Tobirama observed the brutal exchange. A faint, grim hint of satisfaction finally touched his stern features.
"Hmph. At least he still looks somewhat like a Hokage," the Second muttered, his arms crossed over his armor.
Senju Hashirama, however, leaned forward, his face etched with deep concern. "The monkey is being far too heavy-handed! Those two children..."
Beside the legendary founders, Uchiha Akira stood with his hands resting casually in his pockets. His dark eyes remained placid, not a single muscle twitching in worry.
To him, this fierce clash was nothing more than a simple warm-up. Naruto and Gaara had yet to tap into the true, terrifying power of the Tailed Beasts sealed within them.
Down on the ruined battlefield, the dust began to settle.
Naruto groaned, shaking his violently dizzy head as he slowly pushed himself up from the cratered ground.
"Damn it..." the blonde boy gritted his teeth, wiping a smudge of dirt from his cheek. "That hurts..."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]