Several Kumogakure shinobi were operating the equipment.
They aimed the muzzle of the Chakra Cannon toward Konohagakure and waited for Raikage A's command to fire.
By now, all of the Kumo shinobi had already forced themselves past their inner hesitation.
"Samui, are you ready? I'll leave the launch command to you!"
Although A was usually reckless because of his faith in brute strength, there was no denying that he was also a leader who cared about his subordinates.
He knew Samui had been drowning in self-blame lately. The failure of two missions in a row had turned the calm, strong-willed woman into someone far more withdrawn than before.
The composed confidence she once carried was gone, replaced by a desperate desire to do something, anything, for the village.
That was why A handed the final command of the Chakra Cannon over to Samui.
But even so, he had not thought it through enough. Samui did want to contribute to the village with all her heart, yet placing the burden of a weapon capable of wiping out an entire population directly on her shoulders only pushed her further under pressure.
No matter how cold she looked on the outside, Samui was still kind by nature.
And this time, if their plan succeeded...
Then countless civilians in Konoha would be killed, injured, or simply erased altogether.
That kind of weight was too much for Samui.
But A had already given the order, and there was no turning back now. She could only force herself to calm down.
She looked toward Konohagakure in the distance and kept repeating the same words in her mind, over and over, as if trying to brainwash herself.
This is for the village.
If Konoha isn't destroyed, then Kumogakure will be the one destroyed next.
Once that thought settled in her heart, Samui no longer hesitated. She parted her lips and spoke softly.
"Countdown. Prepare to launch."
"Five... four... three... two... one..."
Samui bit her lower lip hard.
She had already made up her mind.
"Fire... launch!"
The Kumogakure shinobi beside her heard the order, adjusted the instruments at once, and fired the Chakra Cannon.
The massive muzzle of the weapon had already begun gathering energy.
But at that very moment, the sharp-eyed among them spotted a figure standing not far ahead.
"It's Namikaze Kirito!"
"How did he find us?!"
"This is bad! Stop the launch!"
"No, it's too late! It's already firing!"
Samui immediately panicked and tried to halt the launch. It wasn't because she feared hitting Namikaze Kirito.
It was because she had seen the smile at the corner of his mouth.
Ever since the last time, when she and her subordinates had been completely wiped out by Namikaze Kirito, his existence had become a shadow buried deep in her heart.
Now he had appeared here, fully aware of their purpose, and was calmly waiting in front of them.
That could only mean one thing.
It was a trap.
But obviously, once the Chakra Cannon had reached this stage, it was no longer something that could simply be stopped on command. A did not understand the true extent of Namikaze Kirito's strength, but if they forcibly interrupted the Chakra Cannon now—
Then the energy already gathered would likely explode and blow every shinobi around it into the sky.
The situation was too urgent. There was no time left for hesitation.
Boom!
A deafening roar exploded in everyone's ears as the Chakra Cannon fired.
For a single instant, the world was swallowed by a blinding white flash.
The moment that terrifying energy burst forth, everyone nearby was sent flying by the shockwave.
Faced with such an attack, Namikaze Kirito had no intention of dodging at all.
He met it head-on.
Of course, with Namikaze Kirito already standing at the Six Paths level, blocking it was not a problem.
But what Kumogakure had done still made him very unhappy.
"If that's how you want to play it… then I won't hold back."
At that thought, a strange light flashed in Namikaze Kirito's eyes.
"Yomotsu Hirasaka."
As Namikaze Kirito cast his Rinnegan forward, the space in front of him suddenly darkened.
This was not an innate Rinnegan ability, but a technique of Urashiki Otsutsuki. However, with the Rinnegan enhancing it, the teleportation range became vastly greater.
In that instant, even someone as powerful as Namikaze Kirito nearly had all the chakra in his body drained away.
It wasn't that the technique itself consumed too much.
It was because the distance he was forcing it to bridge was simply too great.
Before he could spare another thought for it, the Chakra Cannon had already slammed into the dark rift.
It was clearly only moments away from striking Namikaze Kirito, yet that black curtain was like the mouth of an abyss, swallowing the blue beam whole.
Although the edges of the dark space were being constantly torn apart by the Chakra Cannon's destructive force, it still repaired itself again and again.
Namikaze Kirito had no intention of moving. He simply stood there and watched as the Chakra Cannon in front of him was gradually devoured by the darkness.
The sight left everyone present frozen in shock.
None of them could comprehend how an attack as powerful as the Chakra Cannon had been stopped so easily.
At the same time—
Far away in Kumogakure, Raikage A had taken most of the shinobi out on a mission that day. The majority of those left in the village were civilians with no combat ability.
They trusted their Raikage completely.
In just a few short years since the Fourth Raikage had taken power, Kumogakure had risen several levels in strength.
Every enemy that invaded had been crushed.
In the eyes of the villagers, anyone foolish enough to challenge Kumogakure was just throwing an egg at a rock. With their Raikage personally leading the mission, there was nothing to worry about.
At that moment, the civilians who were going about their daily lives suddenly saw a dark rift appear in the sky.
Sensing the abnormal chakra fluctuations, the shinobi who had remained behind hurried over as well.
But none of them could understand what that black curtain meant.
Just as they were preparing to send someone to notify the Raikage, a dazzling light suddenly flashed from within the darkness.
Then, in the very next instant, a blue beam of light came crashing down from the rift.
Boom!
A colossal burst of blue radiance swallowed the entire Kumogakure in an instant. The mountains surrounding the village collapsed on the spot, and vast stretches of buildings were completely annihilated.
The shinobi who had come to investigate were instantly vaporized by the scorching heat, erased without even leaving ashes behind.
The blue energy pillar continued to ravage everything in its path, and the violent explosion forced an enormous mushroom cloud to rise above Kumogakure.
Only after a long while did the blue beam finally disappear completely, leaving scattered traces of blue chakra drifting through the air.
And when one looked at Kumogakure again—
More than half of the village had literally vanished.
That missing half had become a massive, bottomless abyss.
The surrounding land still radiated blistering heat, and even the underground spring water had been evaporated by the chakra from the blast.
The remaining portion of Kumogakure had only survived because the dark rift had shifted the attack slightly. Otherwise, the entire village would have been erased in that instant.
The survivors stared at the scene before them with empty, lifeless eyes.
Only after a long while did wails and sobs begin to rise one after another.
"Raikage-sama... where are you?!"
"Our village... our village is gone!"
The cries did not stop.
Most of Kumogakure had been destroyed, which meant that more than half the villagers had disappeared with it.
Their families, their friends, their homes—
all of it had been there.
And now, not even a single body remained.
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