Raikage A and Tsuchikage Ōnoki still knew nothing of the tragedy that had befallen Kumogakure. Both of them stared at Namikaze Kirito as though they were facing a monstrous enemy.
"How long until the Chakra Cannon is ready to fire again?"
A kept his eyes locked on Kirito in the distance as he questioned the Kumo shinobi beside him.
"If we force the recharge at full capacity, it should take another thirty minutes!"
The group of Kumo shinobi operating the device reported through sweat and panic. Under normal circumstances, the Chakra Cannon required three full days to recharge. Compressing that into thirty minutes alone showed just how many resources Kumogakure had poured into it.
"Raikage, it seems we'll have to hold that man off for thirty minutes."
Standing at the side, Ōnoki had clearly heard the exchange. His cloudy old eyes remained fixed on Namikaze Kirito, not daring to look away.
This was his first time facing him directly.
And yet, even with Kirito simply standing there, Ōnoki could already feel a faint tremor in his heart.
It reminded him of his youth, when he and the previous Tsuchikage had once stood before Uchiha Madara. Back then, Madara had not even bothered to regard the two of them as worthy opponents.
As if they were nothing more than dust beneath his feet.
And Namikaze Kirito felt even worse.
He had a smile on his face the entire time, but with Ōnoki's years of experience, he could tell.
That smile did not mean friendliness.
It meant Kirito did not take any of them seriously.
He had blocked a weapon as powerful as the Chakra Cannon as if it were nothing.
Thirty minutes.
They needed thirty minutes for the Chakra Cannon to recharge.
Which meant that even if this old body had to be broken apart here, Ōnoki still had to stop him.
This was no longer a simple clash between shinobi.
This was a battle that would decide the life or death of two great villages.
Even someone as calculating as Ōnoki did not dare entertain the slightest selfish thought at a moment like this.
That much could be seen from the way he had spoken to A just now.
In the past, if he encountered an enemy he could not defeat, he would have flown away without hesitation.
But now there was nowhere left to retreat.
Even if he escaped, Namikaze Kirito would simply head straight for Iwagakure.
The end result would be the same.
At this point, Iwagakure and Kumogakure were already bound to the same war chariot.
And yet, what neither A nor Ōnoki could understand was why Namikaze Kirito still had no intention of attacking.
Why was he just standing there?
Why was he not even ordering Konoha's forces to move?
Since the enemy did not move, Kumogakure also did not dare move.
For a time, both sides remained locked in a tense stalemate.
Unlike A and Ōnoki, however, Namikaze Kirito had stayed put for a very simple reason.
He was waiting.
Waiting for them to fire the Chakra Cannon a second time.
But after waiting and waiting, all they did was stare at him from afar, with no intention of making a move at all.
The longer it dragged on, the more bored Kirito became.
In the end, he lost interest in waiting.
Yomotsu Hirasaka activated instantly.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared directly in front of the crowd.
"Everyone, nice to meet you for the first time. I'm Namikaze Kirito."
Whoosh!
Just as Kirito finished introducing himself, a golden figure flashed forward with the Body Flicker Technique and struck at him without hesitation.
"Yeah… what a bad habit. Attacking before someone can even finish introducing himself."
Kirito tilted his body to the side, casually avoiding the short sword aimed at him, then answered with a whip-like kick.
Samui was sent flying on the spot.
Her body crashed into the earth and sank deep into the ground. If she had not resembled Tsunade just a little, then what happened just now would not have ended so simply.
Had he put any real force into that kick, her internal organs would have shattered instantly.
Faced with Kirito's sudden advance, A said nothing.
At this moment, his thoughts were elsewhere.
Namikaze Kirito had crossed such a vast distance and appeared right in front of him in an instant.
And before his figure emerged, the space before them had first turned pitch-black.
That was definitely a space-time ninjutsu.
But if that was true… then where exactly had the Chakra Cannon attack been sent just now?
If it had merely been redirected somewhere nearby, there should have been an explosion.
But there had been nothing.
No sound.
No impact.
How far could a space-time ninjutsu send away something like the Chakra Cannon?
For some reason, the more A thought about it, the more uneasy he became.
Ōnoki, an old veteran in his own right, had clearly realized the same thing.
But he kept his mouth shut.
He did not dare ask.
Because he feared that once the question was spoken aloud, the answer waiting for him would be one he did not want to hear.
"Namikaze Kirito… where did you send the Chakra Cannon?"
A and Ōnoki were not the first to grasp it.
Mabui had already pieced it together, and it was she who forced herself to ask the question.
In truth, she already had a guess before she spoke.
She just did not want to say it out loud.
Kirito glanced at the dark-skinned woman with mild surprise, as though amused that she had managed to figure it out.
"You're pretty sharp. A kunoichi from Kumogakure, huh? As for where it was sent… you should already know the answer in your heart, shouldn't you?"
Hearing Kirito's casual reply, Mabui stiffened, but still forced herself to remain calm.
"Did you send it to our… our village?"
The moment those words left her mouth, every Kumo shinobi around them widened their eyes in disbelief.
Samui, who had just started to pull herself up out of the crater, froze the instant she heard it.
Everyone on the battlefield waited for Kirito's answer.
Faced with all those eyes, Kirito said nothing.
He simply let a wicked smile curl at the corner of his mouth.
And that smile alone gave them their answer.
"Namikaze Kirito! You bastard! Aahhh—!"
Samui roared and tried to rush forward again, only to be restrained by the Kumo shinobi beside her who had managed to keep their heads.
They all understood that if anyone lost control and charged him now, they would die.
More and more Kumo shinobi dropped to the ground in despair.
Their families were in the village.
Their friends were in the village.
No one understood the power of the Chakra Cannon better than Kumogakure itself.
If a weapon like that had truly been unleashed inside their village, then who could possibly survive?
In an instant, their will to fight crumbled.
All that remained was regret.
If they had never brought the Chakra Cannon here in the first place… then none of this would have happened.
By contrast, A was also filled with grief, but as Raikage, he could not allow himself to be the first to break.
If even he lost his fighting spirit now, then the remaining Kumo shinobi would either become Konoha's prisoners… or be wiped out where they stood.
"Pull yourselves together!"
Raikage A's roar slammed across the battlefield and brought the Kumo shinobi back to their senses.
"The enemy is right in front of us! How can you collapse now?! Don't even speak of whether what he said is true or not. Even if our village has truly been destroyed, then we will rebuild it!"
"But this hatred…"
A's eyes turned bloodshot as he glared at Kirito.
"This hatred can only be repaid with blood!"
Hearing the Raikage's words, the Kumo shinobi gritted their teeth, picked up their weapons once more, and looked toward Namikaze Kirito with killing intent burning in their eyes.
Ōnoki gave A a rare look of approval.
At a time like this, he felt no urge to mock Kumogakure's misfortune.
Because he understood very clearly—
As long as Namikaze Kirito remained alive, Iwagakure would one day face the same disaster as well.
"Namikaze Kirito! Leave him to me!"
"I'll kill him!"
"We'll crush Konoha in one push!"
"The fact that you came here alone will become the greatest mistake of your life!"
"Your arrogance will make you pay for this!"
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