"What... what is that?!"
Two ghostly masses of flame wrapped around twin suns as they burned slowly within Susanoo's eye sockets...
Vast shadows fell over the forest, swallowing Itachi and Shisui whole.
The two boys stared up in horror, mouths hanging open, throats tight...
The blue giant had first unfolded its skeletal frame, then grown muscles and skin. In the span of a moment, it had outgrown the surrounding trees and risen to a height of forty meters.
Roy slowly rose to his feet, then abruptly poured in more aura and said calmly, "Armor."
Crack... crack... crack...
At high noon, blazing sunlight suddenly spilled down from above and landed on Susanoo.
The two suns turning in its eyes immediately shot out dazzling beams of light...
Its body swelled again. A suit of red armor wrapped in roaring flames slowly emerged across its surface.
Heat rippled off the armor as it spread upward from the waist, tightly covering the upper half of Susanoo's body.
Unlike Sasuke's purple, Itachi's deep crimson, or Madara's azure-blue,
Roy's red armor burst into existence and, in an instant, reduced the tree behind him to ash. It gave Susanoo a windswept, heroic air like a blazing cloak, and the streamers of fire added a free, untamed elegance that was hard to put into words.
The only pity was that it was still only half a body.
Standing inside Susanoo's विशाल chest cavity, Roy could feel his aura draining like a burst dam. He knew his current aura reserves still weren't enough to manifest Susanoo's fourth stage—the humanoid form.
So he gave up on that and instead tried to keep arming Susanoo further.
"Sword."
With the armor in place, Roy spoke softly.
A sharp sword cry suddenly exploded across the sky.
The sound hit Shisui and Itachi so hard their heads rang. Their eardrums felt like they had been pierced, and they instinctively clapped their hands over their ears.
Then they looked up again in shock and saw Susanoo reach forward with its right hand, casually grasp at empty air—
and out of glowing sparks of flame and golden light, a hundred-meter greatsword took shape.
Susanoo clenched it tightly in its hand and thrust it skyward, scattering huge amounts of heat and light.
Buzz—
The thrust shot straight into the heavens, piercing the sky itself... and then it seemed to hit something.
Pop.
The sensory barrier covering all of Konoha was punctured on the spot, ripped open with a hole. The sword's momentum didn't stop there—it kept going, punching clean through the wind and clouds high above.
"Enemy attack!"
The Barrier Team maintaining the barrier was instantly alarmed.
It was the Third Shinobi War, a time when everyone's nerves were already stretched thin. The slightest disturbance could trigger panic, let alone this—
the hole in the barrier had opened inside Konoha, and not even that far from the village center.
So the moment the Barrier Team sent out the warning, one powerful presence after another dropped what they were doing and rushed toward the southern forest.
Among them were a head of brilliant blond hair and a striking mane of white.
Minato Namikaze was about to head to the front, so lately he had been training Kakashi, Obito, and Rin without rest.
Today was no different. He had been sparring one against three, tempering their skills in real combat when his expression suddenly sharpened. Flashing to the top of a tree, he stood on the tip of a branch and stared grimly in one direction.
Before Kakashi, Obito, and Rin could even react, he flicked out a Flying Thunder God kunai marked with his formula.
Then he vanished, leaving behind only one instruction:
"Stay where you are. Don't move."
The three of them looked at each other in confusion.
"What happened?"
"Sensei looked really urgent."
"Did someone invade Konoha?"
Curiosity and unease grew like weeds.
Kakashi, Obito, and Rin each scrambled up separate trees and peered into the distance through the canopy. Far away, they could just barely make out the outline of a gigantic sword blazing with fire and gold.
All three of them stared with wide eyes, stunned speechless.
Whoosh—
The Flying Thunder God kunai kept flying.
Minato's bright blond hair streamed behind him as he flashed once, then again, then again, rapidly closing the distance. At one point he glanced back over his shoulder—
A dazzling head of white hair, wrapped in blinding lightning, was racing right behind him. A short blade was strapped across the man's back.
"Hatake-senpai!" Minato called.
Then he flashed again, and he and Sakumo Hatake split left and right as they sped toward the disturbance.
Whoosh—
Crackle—
Sakumo gave Minato a slight nod in acknowledgment and kept his eyes fixed ahead as he accelerated.
As he got closer, his instincts sharpened.
He felt a massive chakra presence.
It was unfamiliar and yet strangely familiar—as if he had felt something like it once before.
In an instant, it dragged him back into an old memory: his seventh S-rank mission, when he infiltrated the Land of Earth to gather intelligence on the Four-Tails.
One of the very few times in his life he had witnessed a tailed beast go berserk and experienced that kind of madness and terror firsthand.
Now... that same feeling seemed to have returned.
Sakumo turned into a streak of lightning, his face grim, then lunged forward again.
In midair he drew his blade, stepped off a treetop, and landed at the top of another one.
There, together with Minato, forming a pincer angle, he finally reached the scene.
And when he looked ahead—
A blue giant clad in crimson flame armor stood there, a cloak marked with a blazing sun and swirling nebula unfurling behind it as it stirred up a sea of heat.
At its center stood a boy, still absorbed in feeling out his own power. He spoke again:
"Shield."
A storm of aura surged outward.
Beside the sword of light, a huge round shield of flame condensed into existence.
Two clear characters were branded across its face:
Dawn.
It really did look like the light of dawn breaking through the dark, bringing endless daylight to the world.
"Ren?!"
Roar!
With the light-sword raised in its left hand and the Dawn shield in its right, Susanoo let out a sky-shaking roar, and waves of sound swept across the entire forest...
It was only then that Minato and Sakumo finally got a clear look at Roy's face.
The two men exchanged a glance. Both visibly relaxed—
and then immediately tensed again as Roy, from inside Susanoo, looked over at them.
Minato gripped his kunai. Sakumo gripped White Fang.
What terrifying pressure...
They looked at each other once more, then Minato shouted up at Roy:
"Ren! Look at the barrier over your head! Stop now!"
So this was the limit of the third-stage Susanoo at Roy's current aura level.
Its armament was complete.
Roy willed it to disperse. With a wave of his hand, the blue giant in crimson sun-fire armor collapsed inward. In the blink of an eye, it shrank—sword, shield, everything—back into Roy's body and vanished.
A gust of wind swept through, carrying with it a faint burnt smell.
Roy let out a breath and glanced up at the sky with some regret.
A huge hole in the chakra barrier hung directly above him.
Clearly, that was the opening his hundred-meter light blade had accidentally punched through.
Yeah... looks like I made a bit too much of a scene.
He released En like a radar across the ground and, beyond Minato and Sakumo who had already arrived, sensed several other figures rushing toward him fast.
Standing with his hands behind his back, Roy gave the two men a small nod.
"Sorry."
Minato and Sakumo looked at each other, then jumped down from the treetops with wry smiles.
"Apologizing to us won't help," Sakumo said flatly, glancing over his shoulder. "Looks like... you're going to have to make a trip to the Hokage Tower."
At that moment, a ninja wearing a fox mask suddenly appeared on the trunk of a nearby tree.
"Uchiha Ren," he said from above, "the Hokage orders you to report to the Hokage's office immediately."
Roy gave him a flat look and casually formed a shadow clone.
"You go."
The shadow clone nodded to him, took one step, and instantly melted into the light. When it reappeared, it was already standing right beside the Anbu operative.
"Shall we?" the clone asked, glancing sideways.
The Anbu was so startled he instinctively reached for his sword.
The blade had barely come an inch out of its sheath before the shadow clone pressed it right back in with one hand.
"You should avoid drawing your sword in front of him," Sakumo said coolly, glancing at the Anbu. "Let the clone go in Roy's place. After all, Roy's shadow clone is still Roy."
The Anbu adjusted the fox mask on his face, looked from Roy to Sakumo, then kicked off the trunk with a pair of bounding leaps and turned toward the Hokage Tower.
"Since Lord White Fang has spoken, I'll report it exactly as it is to the Hokage."
His voice drifted back through the forest.
Sakumo didn't react.
Roy's shadow clone looked back at Roy once, nodded to Sakumo as well, then dissolved into the light and followed the Anbu at an easy pace until both disappeared into the woods.
Their footsteps faded away.
Roy didn't even turn around as he spoke to the two little ones behind him.
"This has nothing to do with you. Keep training."
"Yes," Shisui and Itachi answered together.
The two of them pushed themselves shakily off the ground and walked back to the side with their swords. Their calves were still trembling so badly it was obvious they hadn't recovered from the shock.
What was that?
I saw Nii-san's Sharingan...
But his eyes weren't like mine.
Is there something even stronger than the three-tomoe Sharingan?
And that giant just now—was that what you can manifest when your ocular power reaches another level?
Their thoughts exploded in their minds.
Under the blazing midday sun, Shisui and Itachi took a deep breath, forced themselves to lift their swords, and with the next swing, their understanding of the world—and their sense of what was possible—shattered into pieces.
"Three thousand five hundred twenty-seven... three thousand five hundred twenty-eight..."
Their shouted count echoed through the training ground with every slash, cutting through the hot wind.
Roy turned to Minato and Sakumo at the right moment and pointed to a large blue-gray boulder nearby.
"Want to sit for a bit?"
As the aura gathered at his fingertip, three stone chairs and a stone table took shape.
Earth Release?
Judging by the way he handled chakra so naturally, it didn't even look like ordinary Earth Release...
Minato and Sakumo exchanged another look, then each picked a stone chair and sat around the table with Roy.
There were trees, wind, and chairs—
but no tea.
That seemed a bit rude.
So Roy pointed again. Several stone cups and a stone kettle took shape, filled themselves with water, and then he heated them to a boil with the Intent of Scorching Truth.
With a flick of his hand, two steaming cups floated over to Minato and Sakumo.
The two men watched all of this quietly as Roy said:
"No tea leaves. You'll have to make do."
Minato smiled faintly and said nothing. He simply picked up the stone cup, tilted his head back, and drank down the hot water in one gulp.
Then he set the cup down and stood.
"Ren. Kakashi and the others are still waiting for me."
"When I come back from the front, we'll have a proper talk."
With that, he nodded to Sakumo, turned away, and headed back the way he came.
The Third War was about to enter full meat-grinder mode. Orochimaru had defected. Jiraiya was struggling to hold the line alone. Roy understood the urgency in Minato's heart.
Watching him go, Roy chuckled.
"Say hi to Aunt Kushina for me. Tell her my mom made a bunch of good food. I'll send some over later."
Minato paused.
A warm little smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and without turning around he lifted a hand and waved.
"Got it."
Then he flashed away into the trees.
The wind came again, stirring the leaves with a rustling sound.
As if sensing the faint sadness and heaviness of parting, Sakumo's white hair stirred in the breeze.
He took a sip of hot water and smiled at Roy.
Like Minato before him, he never brought up Susanoo at all.
It was almost as if they had both come not to question him—
but to say goodbye.
"Ren. I have to go too."
"The front is in trouble. Jiraiya's already sent several letters pressing for reinforcements. With his lazy, sloppy personality, I'd bet he's already furious by now," Sakumo said with a dry chuckle.
At the mention of Jiraiya, Roy had to agree.
The Pervy Sage with no women's bathhouse to peep on was probably miserable.
But when it came to war and missions, Roy knew Jiraiya, as one of the Sannin, understood what mattered—especially now, with Orochimaru gone and Tsunade completely checked out.
Roy raised his stone cup and lightly clinked it against Sakumo's.
"Same here."
Sakumo blinked, surprised.
"You're going to the front too?"
Roy slowly shook his head.
Looking through the sunlight at the dense forest, where leaves spiraled in the air, he said,
"Not the front. But close enough."
"Anyway—"
"A man's gotta fight."
Inside him, his hot blood churned with scorching heat.
A hint of battle intent leaked out before he could stop it.
Sakumo looked at Roy and thought he could see starlight in the boy's eyes—
confidence in his own strength, yes, but also a deep anticipation and hunger for the battle that was coming.
So...
Who exactly was he planning to fight?
In the Hunter World,
inside the enormous study on the eastern end of the second floor,
a man sitting in a full side split, each foot resting on a separate chair, suddenly sneezed.
His silver hair, long enough to reach the floor, spilled across the boards like liquid mercury, gleaming coldly in the light…
~~~
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