Chapter 438: In the Blink of an Eye, Onoki's Support Arrives
"It's over, Kakashi," Darui stated, his voice flat and devoid of inflection.
A blinding rain of Storm Release laser beams tore through the air, illuminating the battlefield in harsh, jagged flashes of white light. Yet, faced with this overwhelming barrage, Kakashi Hatake did not miss a single step. His sprint remained an unbroken, fluid line.
His hands blurred through a sequence of hand seals. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
The ground rumbled violently. A thick, towering rampart of solid rock erupted from the earth, its surface adorned with the carefully carved heads of bulldogs.
But a mere wall of stone was nothing against the absolute piercing power of Storm Release.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The blinding lasers effortlessly punctured the thick rock, turning the sturdy defense into a crumbling ruin in a fraction of a second. Dust and pulverized stone exploded outward.
However, at that exact moment, Kakashi's silhouette vanished from behind the barricade.
Warning bells shrieked in Darui's mind. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Above him.
"Lightning Release: Purple Lightning!"
A low, commanding shout echoed from the sky.
Kakashi was suspended high in the air, descending rapidly. But he was not wielding his signature Lightning Blade. Instead, a terrifying mass of violet electricity crackled around his hand. It did not spark erratically like standard lightning; it flowed and surged like a volatile, superheated liquid.
This was the new Lightning Release ninjutsu Kakashi had painstakingly developed after losing his Sharingan. While it lacked the absolute, concentrated piercing power of the Lightning Blade, it completely eliminated the need for a high-speed, linear thrust. It was adaptable and could be discharged in all directions at once, covering his blind spots perfectly.
'Not good!' Darui pushed chakra into his legs to retreat, but the Purple Lightning was simply too fast.
The violet storm crashed down.
The earth within a dozens-meter radius instantly shattered. Countless boulders and slabs of rock were vaporized into fine dust under the tyrannical rampage of the purple electricity.
"Black Lightning: Black Panther!"
Pushed to the absolute brink, Darui roared, unleashing a massive panther forged entirely of pitch-black lightning to intercept the strike.
The Purple Lightning and the Black Lightning collided, tearing at each other frantically in mid-air. The two vastly different, highly condensed forms of Lightning Release chakra reacted violently upon contact.
A massive concussive shockwave erupted from the epicenter, violently knocking both shinobi backward.
Darui hit the ground hard, his boots plowing two deep, smoking furrows into the shattered earth before he finally ground to a halt. The left sleeve of his uniform was completely shredded. His exposed skin was covered in angry, violet burn marks, the muscles underneath trembling uncontrollably from the residual electrical discharge.
Darui sucked in a sharp breath of cold air, his jaw tight. This level of penetration and sheer destructive force was truly worthy of the name Kakashi Hatake.
On the opposite side of the crater, Kakashi landed with silent, predatory grace.
Arcs of purple electricity still danced and hissed along the length of his weapon, the White Fang Short Blade.
"The warm-up is over."
Kakashi's visible eye was freezing cold, radiating a suffocating, razor-sharp aura of killing intent that seemed to drop the temperature of the surrounding air.
"I will show you exactly why my father was called the 'Konoha White Fang'."
Kakashi raised the short blade, holding it horizontally in front of his chest. His chakra erupted, swirling around him in a visible, dense shroud. At that moment, his entire being transformed. He was no longer just a shinobi; he was a blade drawn from its sheath, sharp, exposed, and infinitely dangerous.
Meanwhile.
High above the chaotic ground war, a different kind of battle raged in the sky.
Although the Third Tsuchikage's Dust Release possessed terrifying, absolute destructive power, he was currently struggling. Under Deidara's shameless, hit-and-run rogue tactics, Onoki found himself momentarily unable to land a decisive blow.
Time was a cruel master, and Onoki was old. His back ached with a familiar, agonizing stiffness. The prolonged, high-intensity flight combined with the massive chakra drain of repeatedly casting Dust Release was causing his stamina to plummet at an alarming rate.
"Huff... huff..."
Onoki hovered in the air, panting heavily. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, stinging his eyes.
"This slippery brat..." he muttered, grinding his teeth.
"Old man! Can't you go on anymore, hm?"
A distance away, Deidara sat cross-legged on the back of his giant clay bird, mocking the Kage with a smug, infuriating grin.
"Do you want me to throw a cane down for you?"
"Bastard!!"
Onoki's face flushed crimson with rage. He raised his hands, preparing to form the seals for another atomic dismantling.
But right at that moment, a massive shadow eclipsed the sun.
A white figure suddenly materialized in the airspace directly above Onoki.
"Who's there?!"
Onoki snapped his head up.
Descending from the heavens was a towering figure with a wild mane of white hair, standing casually atop the head of a gargantuan, pipe-smoking toad.
"Yo, Tsuchikage old man."
Jiraiya stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at Onoki with a relaxed smirk. "At your age, having such a fiery temper... watch out for high blood pressure."
"Jiraiya!" Onoki's expression darkened instantly, the wrinkles on his face deepening into a scowl. "Has even one of the Legendary Sannin come?"
"Can't be helped." Jiraiya shrugged, his tone utterly unapologetic. "After all, I am a part of Konoha too!"
He shifted his gaze, glancing sideways at the blonde bomber hovering nearby.
"And..." Jiraiya continued, his voice dropping a fraction of an octave. "This kid might be a problem child, but he's one of our Konoha people now. How can I let an old guy like you bully him as you please?"
"Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"
Without wasting another breath on pleasantries, Jiraiya launched his assault. He took a massive breath, his chest expanding as he synchronized his attack with Gamabunta beneath his feet.
The giant toad reared back and spat out a torrential, tidal wave of highly flammable toad oil.
Simultaneously, Jiraiya exhaled a roaring torrent of intense, superheated flames.
The wind aided the fire, and the oil fueled the flames.
A sky-covering sea of fire instantly erupted, blanketing half the horizon in a blinding, roaring inferno that swept directly toward Onoki.
"Damn it!!"
Onoki's face twisted in horror.
Threatened by the lingering danger of Deidara's C3 bombs in front of him, and now pincer-attacked by Jiraiya's apocalyptic sea of fire from behind.
Konoha's foundation was truly too terrifying.
The sea of fire devoured the sky, sending rolling waves of blistering heat in every direction. Onoki felt the hair on his arms and his beard stand on end; the scorching air hitting his face was so thick and hot it made it nearly impossible to draw a breath.
"Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!!" Onoki roared, his voice cracking with desperation.
A translucent, geometric barrier materialized between his palms and expanded frantically outward. The blinding white light shot forward, forcibly decomposing the incoming tsunami of fire.
The beam of absolute destruction collided with the inferno. Wherever the white light passed, the roaring flames and thick toad oil were completely annihilated, reduced to nothing more than scattered atoms.
Dust Release was truly domineering. But Jiraiya's attack range was simply too massive.
Onoki's beam could only carve out a narrow, cylindrical passage of safety through the flames, while the surrounding sea of fire continued to crash toward him, squeezing in like a collapsing burning tunnel.
"Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Jutsu!"
Making a split-second decision, Onoki abandoned his defense. He drastically multiplied his own body weight, causing him to drop out of the sky like a lead meteorite. He plummeted toward the earth, narrowly dropping out of the core incineration zone of the sea of fire.
But even with his rapid descent, he was not entirely unscathed.
The sheer radiant heat blistered the back of his uniform, singeing the fabric and the skin beneath it.
"Cough, cough..."
Onoki crashed heavily onto a large boulder on the ground below, his landing disheveled and ungraceful. He clutched his chest, coughing violently as he tried to clear the smoke from his lungs.
Above the battlefield.
Deidara saw his opening. He urged his giant clay bird into a steep dive, preparing to launch a fatal offensive against the grounded Tsuchikage.
Suddenly, several sharp, whistling sounds tore through the air.
"Tsuchikage-sama!!"
Seeing their leader in peril, a squad of Iwagakure Anbu rushed forward like madmen, throwing themselves into the line of fire to block the path to Onoki.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several kunai, their hilts wrapped in hissing explosive tags, sailed through the air, precisely intercepting the giant clay bird's flight path.
Deidara clicked his tongue and yanked his bird into a sharp barrel roll to dodge to the side.
The explosive tags detonated in mid-air. The resulting concussive airwaves buffeted the giant bird, making it shake violently and throwing off Deidara's balance.
"Who is it? Who dares to disturb This Great Lord's art appreciation, hm?!" Deidara yelled, glaring down at the new arrivals with intense annoyance.
"Deidara. Tsuchikage-sama has no time for your nonsense," one of the Anbu Platoon Leaders stated coldly, his voice muffled behind his stone-patterned mask. "Your opponents are us."
After speaking, the Anbu did not give the rogue bomber a single second to retort.
"Earth Release: Rock Gun Jutsu!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A barrage of hardened rock bullets erupted from the Anbu squad, filling the air like a storm of shrapnel aimed directly at Deidara and his mount.
"Tch, a few annoying rats," Deidara sneered, a flash of murderous impatience crossing his visible eye. "Since you're in such a hurry to die, then I'll grant your wish, yeah!"
He plunged his hands into his ninja tool bags, the mouths on his palms eagerly chewing the explosive clay. In a fluid motion, he hurled a handful of tiny, carefully crafted clay spiders into the air, scattering them casually toward the Anbu below.
Seeing the dreaded white clay, the Iwagakure Anbu knew better than to resist head-on. They exchanged rapid hand signals, and in the blink of an eye, their figures scattered in different directions.
"Want to run?!"
Deidara's temper flared into a raging inferno. This exact hit-and-run tactic was what infuriated him the most.
"Don't think you can escape from This Great Lord's palm!"
Banking his giant bird sharply, Deidara accelerated, chasing fiercely after the retreating Anbu, his eyes locked onto his new prey.
[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!]