Chapter 415: Sage Art! Slaying King Yama!
"…I also feel deeply saddened by the passing of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi," Darui said in a low voice. "The attacker went far beyond the line this time. I have every reason to suspect that Heavenly Demon was involved in the attack on Kirigakure and the Land of Water. He may even be the mastermind behind it."
Originally, he had come to demand an explanation.
After all, Kumogakure had suffered a devastating attack at an outpost provided by Konoha, and the casualties were severe. To be honest, even if this had triggered the Fourth Great Ninja War, it would not have been surprising.
However, this matter had to be viewed from two sides.
Konoha had also been attacked.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had died, and Konoha's casualties were just as heavy.
In other words, Konoha was also a victim, and their losses were even greater than those of the other villages. After all, Konoha had truly lost a Hokage. If the other Ninja Villages wanted to express dissatisfaction now, they would have to put forward the death of their own Kage first. Otherwise, their standing simply would not be equal.
Even Chiyo, the powerful elder of Sunagakure who possessed Kage-level strength, still lacked Hiruzen Sarutobi's seniority and reputation.
"Yes. This kind of attack method is Heavenly Demon's specialty." Kitsuchi nodded. "That demon's strength keeps improving."
Kitsuchi was considered the next Tsuchikage's successor. Although he himself had no interest in the position, he still understood much of the Ninja World's intelligence.
Naturally, Kitsuchi knew about Heavenly Demon, the ninja who had recently become the most prominent figure in the Ninja World. Moreover, his old man had once entrusted Heavenly Demon with a mission.
Jiraiya listened as they spoke so highly of Mukuro, and for a moment, his heart was complicated.
He did not know whether he should feel happy, sad, or perhaps both.
Heavenly Demon was most likely Amamiya Kenichi.
That guy was Orochimaru's disciple, and he had once been a member of Konoha. But now, he was a rogue ninja of Konoha, and his hands were stained with the blood of countless Konoha ninja.
At that moment, Jiraiya had already entered Sage Mode.
After all, the attack had only just ended, and no one knew whether the attacker would strike again. If the enemy truly launched another attack, the situation would become extremely dangerous.
Jiraiya had to ensure that he remained at his peak combat power.
Shikaku had already sent a distress team back to Konoha. They only needed to buy enough time until Tsunade arrived.
With airships and hot air balloons, requesting aid had become much faster. They only needed to use Wind Release ninjutsu to accelerate their speed and hurry back to Konoha. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, it would take several days for Tsunade to arrive, and by then, many of the wounded would likely be dead.
"I have a suggestion." Darui looked at Jiraiya.
Now that Hiruzen Sarutobi was dead, the highest command authority on Konoha's side fell to Jiraiya.
Shikaku was not unsuitable, but he was severely injured and recovering. Mei was strong enough, but she was from Kirigakure and had not fully pledged allegiance to Konoha. That meant Jiraiya was the only one who could be approached.
"What?" Jiraiya glanced at Darui.
At the same time, he frowned and looked around. For some reason, an inexplicable sense of crisis was prickling at him, forcing him to raise his guard.
"I want to discuss bringing Killer Bee, Kumogakure's Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, here. Otherwise, I'm worried…"
Darui did not finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.
Right now, Konoha, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure had all completely dispersed their teams to avoid a second attack of the same kind.
One strike had already killed so many people.
Who could withstand another?
Ninja were still ninja. After suffering from the earlier disaster, they quickly analyzed that the powerful attack had exploded from the center of impact and spread outward in a circular range. The farther one was from the center, the weaker its destructive effect became.
Because of that, all the ninja were relocating.
Meanwhile, the high-level combatants of each Ninja Village gathered together to deal with a possible attack from Heavenly Demon. With those powerful fighters assembled, they would at least have some chance of resisting.
"Killer Bee?"
A voice suddenly sounded.
The ninja present looked up at the same time.
Under the moonlight, three figures crouched on the treetops. All three wore strange spiral-patterned masks.
The person in the middle had a highly recognizable mask, and everyone present immediately knew who he was.
Heavenly Demon.
This guy actually dared to come down and attack them?
"If you mean that loud, strange big guy, he might already be here." Amamiya Kenichi glanced into the distance.
When he had jumped down just now, he had noticed fallen trees in the distant forest, as if something was approaching.
"Heavenly Demon!"
Kitsuchi furiously thrust a stone spear toward Amamiya Kenichi, but the attack was blocked by the masked man beside him.
"Cough, cough… Kitsuchi of Iwagakure, right?" Danzo jumped down and looked at Kitsuchi with a trace of amusement in his eyes. "I'll be your opponent."
As the former leader of Root, Danzo had done many things.
Among them, Kitsuchi of Iwagakure had left quite an impression on him. This opponent was no simple character, and Danzo wanted to test how much strength he could exert without the Sharingan.
Jiraiya frowned.
That masked man's tone sounded so familiar…
But then he had no time to think further.
Looking at Heavenly Demon and the other masked figure still crouching above, Jiraiya immediately launched a Fire Dragon Flame Bullet without another word.
If Heavenly Demon truly was that little bastard Amamiya Kenichi, then Jiraiya believed he still knew a thing or two about him. After all, he knew Amamiya Kenichi's teacher, Orochimaru, very well. And Orochimaru's student…
The Fire Dragon Flame Bullet struck the treetop at high speed, and the massive tree burst into flames.
However, Amamiya Kenichi and Minato had already shifted to another location.
The moment they appeared, Darui's Lightning Release and Mei's Water Dragon Bullet were unleashed at the same time.
The attack was blocked.
A kunai flew over and embedded itself into the ground.
Immediately afterward, a masked man strangely flickered in front of them, the kunai in his hand slashing swiftly toward their necks.
"I am your opponent."
Minato looked at his teacher, Jiraiya, with complicated eyes.
He truly did not want to attack his benefactor. In that sense, Mei and Darui's attacks had actually helped him get away from Jiraiya.
"Flying Thunder God! Who are you?!" Darui looked at the ninja who had appeared before him in astonishment, then glanced at Jiraiya.
Was this really not a Konoha conspiracy meant to wipe them all out?
Jiraiya stared blankly at the masked man in front of him.
Flying Thunder God.
That familiar way of moving.
That familiar presence.
Jiraiya might mistake many people, but he would never mistake his own student, Minato Namikaze.
He instantly recognized Minato's voice.
But wasn't Minato already dead?
He still remembered that his student had died during the Nine-Tails' attack. He had returned too late back then and had regretted it for a very long time.
But now…
Jiraiya hesitated. He felt that the person was Minato, but because the man was wearing a mask, could he truly be certain?
Just as Jiraiya hesitated, the Rasengan that Minato instinctively used completely exposed his identity.
Jiraiya's face instantly flushed.
With anger.
However, just as Jiraiya was about to say something, he suddenly noticed something wrong.
Why had that little bastard Heavenly Demon not made a move yet?
He glanced toward the treetop.
Amamiya Kenichi had already stood up and was forming hand signs at extreme speed.
The hand signs were fast and complex, which left Jiraiya momentarily unable to determine what ninjutsu Amamiya Kenichi was preparing. After all, for ninja at their level, many ordinary ninjutsu could already be performed with a single hand sign, or even without any hand signs at all.
But even though he was puzzled, Jiraiya still acted immediately.
A qualified ninja would never calmly watch an enemy prepare a ninjutsu.
Jiraiya whipped his hair, then opened his mouth and spat a stream of yellow oil toward Amamiya Kenichi.
"Summoning Jutsu: Triple Rashomon!"
A Shadow Clone rushed out from the side and slammed its hands onto the ground.
A single Rashomon gate rose high from the earth.
In the next instant, the gate was pierced through by countless white spikes, and the oil splashed across its surface.
"Isn't that just one Rashomon?" Jiraiya could not help but comment.
He was now even more certain that the person in front of him was Amamiya Kenichi.
Rashomon was a defensive ninjutsu that Orochimaru was very fond of using.
But Jiraiya did not hesitate.
He immediately unleashed Fire Release ninjutsu. Combined with the toad oil he had spat out earlier, the flames directly shattered the Rashomon. At the same time, a Giant Rasengan appeared in Jiraiya's hand, and he threw it toward Amamiya Kenichi's location.
However, a masked man suddenly appeared in the Giant Rasengan's path and directly blocked the attack.
The Giant Rasengan blasted away a large portion of Minato's body, but Minato was unharmed. His body was even rapidly regenerating.
"Edo Tensei?"
Jiraiya, who had fought Orochimaru before, instantly recognized the ninjutsu.
He looked at Minato, who had once again flown back to hold off Mei and Darui, and finally understood what was going on.
Amamiya Kenichi had clearly used Edo Tensei to reanimate his student, Minato Namikaze. That was why he could use the Flying Thunder God so flawlessly, along with those familiar ninjutsu.
Then who was the other one?
Was that person also an Edo Tensei reanimation?
At that moment, Amamiya Kenichi's hand signs finally stopped.
His Mangekyo Sharingan quietly observed the air.
In front of Amamiya Kenichi, chakra formed a profound gate.
This was a ninjutsu Amamiya Kenichi had adapted from his previous research into One's Own Life Reincarnation and Edo Tensei.
However, it had only existed at the theoretical experimental stage before this.
Now, Amamiya Kenichi used this untested ninjutsu on the land where countless people had just died.
"Sage Art: Slaying The Lord of Death!"
Amamiya Kenichi shouted with a touch of theatrics, instantly drawing the attention of all the ninja present.
For a moment, the entire battlefield became eerily quiet.
Then, pairs of withered bones crawled out of the ground, covered in dirt and forming the shapes of animals.
The entire forest instantly came alive.
Jiraiya could even hear the startled gasps of other ninja.
Countless deceased ninja, whose skeletons still remained, opened their eyes.
At Konoha's outpost, a ninja who was mournfully preparing Hiruzen Sarutobi's body watched in horror as the Third Hokage opened his eyes.
In the same instant, Hiruzen spewed scorching flames from his mouth, igniting that ninja into a human torch.
The gathered corpses, which had been prepared for a joint burial, also rose one after another and began attacking every living person around them without restraint.
"You!"
Although Jiraiya could not see what was happening at the outpost, he understood what this guy had done.
This madman.
This absolute madman!
He had actually desecrated so many dead.
He had actually made the dead rise again to fight.
Darui and Kitsuchi also realized that something was wrong. They wanted to return and check on their own villages' ninja, but they were held back.
The beasts made of bone and mud bared their fangs at them and lunged forward without fear.
Even if one kick could shatter their bones, as long as bones remained, these beasts would continue to interfere with them.
Danzo looked at the scene and could not help but sigh in admiration.
Compared to Amamiya Kenichi, Danzo felt as pure and innocent as a small white flower.
"The effect seems pretty good."
Amamiya Kenichi looked down.
He had not expected this ninjutsu to even use the corpses of these beasts. But were there really beast souls in the Pure Land?
Amamiya Kenichi honestly did not know.
As for why it was called Slaying The King of Death, the reason was simple. This was a large-scale resurrection-type ninjutsu, so he had originally named it Ten Thousand Banners Slaying The King of Death.
But saying that whole name was too troublesome, so he shortened it.
Before Amamiya Kenichi could continue admiring his results, two toads had already appeared on Jiraiya's shoulders.
The fury in Jiraiya's heart could no longer be restrained.
Even if this guy truly was Amamiya Kenichi, Jiraiya would make sure he was buried here.
"Sage Art: Goemon!"
Oil, wind, and fire merged into a sea of terrifying heat.
With an extremely high temperature, a massive range of diffusion, and the acceleration provided by Wind Release, the overwhelming flames of Goemon engulfed Amamiya Kenichi in an instant.
But under Jiraiya's shocked gaze, a giant Wood Golem slowly emerged from the flames and let out a thunderous roar toward him.
Wood Golem Jutsu?
However, a closer look would reveal that this Wood Golem was somewhat different from the Wood Golem Jutsu recorded in legend.
But what shocked Jiraiya the most was that Amamiya Kenichi could actually use Wood Release ninjutsu at this level.
"Wood Golem Jutsu?"
Tsunade, who was on the airship, looked at the giant standing in the forest with surprise.
…..
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I Became the Alien God in Tokyo