Flying Thunder God Jutsu. A true space-time ninjutsu.
Created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and perfected by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Minato even developed the jutsu's second stage. It was precisely because of this technique that a young Minato was able to step into the absolute pinnacle of the Kage tier. Otherwise, based purely on raw personal power, he would have been an average Kage at best. This space-time ninjutsu triggered a qualitative leap in his strength.
After all, 99.9% of ninja were still just ordinary humans—glass cannons with high attack power but low defense.
Minato's space-time ninjutsu was so fast that these ninja simply couldn't react. It was an instant kill in the blink of an eye. In that era, Minato was the undisputed apex predator. Even the Fourth Raikage, A, was inferior in comparison.
Physical speed could never compare to spatial leaps. Originally, after the Fourth Hokage's death, this jutsu was never seen again. But today... Menma had forced the Fourth Raikage to relive those bitter memories!
This jutsu was currently Menma's greatest trump card. It had to be said, Menma truly inherited the talent of his biological father in this life. In just a few short months, he had completely mastered the technique!
While he hadn't yet reached his father's masterful, almost divine level of proficiency, it was more than enough for actual combat. It didn't matter how strong the enemy was. If they couldn't land a hit, it was entirely meaningless.
Looking at the Fourth Raikage's incomparably furious expression a short distance away, the corners of Menma's mouth curled up, revealing a faint trace of mockery.
Swish! With a flip of his hands, he pulled out four or five special kunai, each engraved with a unique formula marker.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Flicking both wrists simultaneously, Menma sent the kunai shooting toward the Fourth Raikage at blinding speed.
The Fourth Raikage already had profound experience dealing with this. Having suffered a loss once, he naturally wouldn't fall for it a second time.
Boom! A terrifying aura erupted from him. "Lightning Style: Lightning Forest Jutsu!"
Slamming his massive hands together...
Rumble! High above, lightning flashed and thunder roared.
One massive bolt of lightning after another struck down, precisely targeting the incoming kunai.
Bang! Bang! Crack! The lightning forcefully blasted the kunai away.
Chakra weapons?! The Fourth Raikage originally intended to shatter the kunai completely. Seeing that his attack could only knock them away, his gaze narrowed.
His eyes darted around, clearly and accurately burning the exact landing spots of those scattered kunai into his brain.
In this localized battle space, the Fourth Raikage knew all too well that if he failed to memorize those positions, Menma could launch a surprise attack from any of them in the next second. It was an attack impossible to defend against. Memorizing the locations of the scattered kunai was the absolute key to victory.
Whoosh! However, Menma didn't care at all how the Fourth Raikage responded. As far as he was concerned, the Raikage had already stepped into his domain.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Speeding forward, Menma rapidly formed hand signs.
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Dozens of white smoke clouds appeared out of thin air all around.
Boom! "Get him!"
Nine-Tails chakra erupted from all of them simultaneously as they scattered. A portion charged head-on, while the rest flanked from the sides. Menma's true body hid seamlessly among the swarm of clones.
Clap! He unleashed the Flying Thunder God Jutsu once again.
Bang! Rumble! Figures crisscrossed violently, forming a suffocating, high-pressure siege.
"Hmph!" The Fourth Raikage snorted coldly, unleashing a storm of raging lightning. "Lightning Style: Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop!"
With a flash of lightning, the Fourth Raikage took the initiative to counterattack. Plunging straight into the sea of clones, he blasted away the two vanguard shadow clones with a single punch and kick.
Immediately after, he spun around to face several more charging clones.
Bang! Crossing his arms defensively in front of him, he stimulated his lightning aura even further.
Bang! Bang! He forcefully blocked the clones' fierce assault.
"HAAAH!!!"
With a furious roar, the lightning flared violently. "Heavy Flowing Crash!!!"
Bending his arms and leading with his elbows, he slammed heavily into two clones approaching from both sides.
Bang! But at that exact same moment, the shadow clones threw their arms wide open. The instant they locked him in a death grip...
Bang! "!?"
It created a split-second delay.
Clatter! In the very next second...
Clang!
From both flanks, those same golden chains from before shot forward. This time, their numbers had doubled. A full four chains whipped through the air, aiming squarely at the Fourth Raikage's limbs.
Feeling the chilling aura rushing toward his face, the Fourth Raikage cursed, "Bastard!" His expression drastically changed.
Squelch! He was forced to contort his body at an incredibly bizarre and unnatural angle.
Crack! A sickening sound of snapping bone echoed out.
Bang! Bang! A wave of bone-chilling agony washed over him. Yet, A's face didn't change in the slightest. He remained as stoic and fierce as ever.
Taking advantage of the opening created by his contortion, his hands shot out ruthlessly. Shrouded in violent lightning, he directly pierced through the chests of the two shadow clones holding him.
Poof! Poof! As the clones vanished into white smoke, he seized the brief window of opportunity to frantically retreat. He narrowly avoided the binding chains by a hair's breadth.
Crossing his arms once more, he used his massive metal bracers to smash heavily against the golden chains.
Clang! A deafening metallic boom rang out.
While he managed to deflect one of the chains, the sheer rebounding force caused his expression to twist uncontrollably. He had no choice but to passively flash further away to retreat.
The next moment, a sharp whistling sound ripped through the air behind him.
Swish! A point of cold light arrived first. Immediately followed by a flash of crimson. Menma's true body suddenly materialized right behind the Fourth Raikage.
Swish! Raising the Sword of the Thunder God high, crimson chakra surged wildly around the blade. Aiming directly for the Fourth Raikage's exposed abdomen, he slashed down ruthlessly.
Even though it wasn't infused with Lightning Style chakra—meaning the sword's true power wasn't fully unleashed—the sheer enhancement of the Nine-Tails' chakra was devastating. If the Fourth Raikage took the hit undefended, this strike would undoubtedly cut him down on the spot!
Sensing the palpable scent of death, the Fourth Raikage's expression hardened.
"Lightning Style: Guillotine Drop!"
Unable to turn his body in time, he instantly concentrated all his chakra into the sole of his foot and stomped ferociously into the ground.
Bang! Rumble! The entire ground shattered. As the earth violently quaked, massive chunks of debris rocketed upward. Boulders launched toward Menma like shrapnel.
While the rocks didn't pose a lethal threat, they successfully obstructed Menma's attack, wedging a physical barrier between them.
Bang! Bang! As boulder after boulder smashed against his chakra cloak and the Sword of the Thunder God, Menma lost his window for an instant kill. The attack was delayed by at least half a second.
This gave the Fourth Raikage the precious breathing room he needed. Pushing off with one foot, he immediately created distance.
Swish! Thud thud thud thud! After clearing the debris, Menma watched the Fourth Raikage attempt to pull away.
"Hmph!" He scoffed lightly.
With a single thought, he focused on a shadow clone positioned on the opposite flank.
Whoosh! A burst of red light flashed, and Menma instantly reappeared right in front of that clone.
At that moment, the special kunai held in the shadow clone's hand gleamed blindingly!
"Bastard!"
This completely unexpected tactical deployment caused the Fourth Raikage's pupils to contract sharply.
This was a tactic even Minato Namikaze couldn't use. Shadow clones demanded a massive toll on the user's chakra reserves. Factoring in frequent usage and the sheer, absurd number of clones on the field, Minato simply didn't have the chakra pool to sustain it. If he tried this a few times, he'd kill himself from exhaustion before the enemy even landed a hit.
This was a high-tier tactic exclusively reserved for Menma! Using his own shadow clones as living, breathing human markers!
"Let's see how you dodge this attack, Lord Raikage!" Menma sneered, his brow steeped in killing intent as he launched yet another ferocious assault.
Bang! Rumble! With the shadow clones scattered everywhere, the Raikage's movements became incredibly restricted. The core issue was that he had no idea which clone was holding a marked kunai—or worse, if the clones themselves were marked with the Flying Thunder God formula.
Bang! Thud! The red and blue streaks clashed violently, exchanging one brutal impact after another. Unlike before, when the Fourth Raikage could proactively launch offenses, the tables had completely turned. Now, Menma was simply steamrolling him!
Though it was difficult for Menma to secure a swift kill against a powerhouse like the Fourth Raikage, his advantage was steadily accumulating. In fact, Menma was deliberately using the Raikage as a whetstone to polish his mastery over the Flying Thunder God and the Adamantine Sealing Chains. It also gave his body time to fully adapt to the Nine-Tails' chakra!
The Eight Trigrams Seal had already been completely undone. Yet, up until now, Menma hadn't tapped into 100% of the Nine-Tails' chakra. Part of it was due to lingering caution, but it was mostly because he hadn't faced an opponent formidable enough to warrant unleashing that level of power.
Even during his fight against Jiraiya, the Toad Sage hadn't entered Sage Mode, meaning the threat he posed was limited. Not to mention, Jiraiya never really had the desire to fight to the death in that skirmish. Naturally, Menma didn't have the right opportunity to test his limits.
But today, right here, the Fourth Raikage—a man standing at the absolute ceiling of the Kage tier—was the perfect target dummy for Menma to sharpen his fangs.
Bang! Slowly whittling down the Raikage under crushing pressure was the best approach. Besides, as for the rest of the battlefield, Menma wasn't worried in the slightest.
Utakata and Fu were already utilizing their Tailed Beast chakra. Utakata, in particular, had gone into a full Tailed Beast transformation. The twin flank offensives were advancing with overwhelming momentum.
Yugito was capable of going toe-to-toe with Utakata, sure. But what about Fu? Darui had already died by Menma's hand. Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, wasn't present due to other arrangements. The Cloud ninja on the field were forced to rely purely on numbers to hold off Fu.
The only saving grace was that Fu hadn't truly mastered the Seven-Tails' power yet, allowing the Cloud ninja to put up a stubborn resistance. But even that resistance was visibly crumbling, bit by agonizing bit.
All Menma needed to do was keep the Fourth Raikage pinned down. Assuming no outside forces intervened, victory would almost certainly belong to the Hidden Waterfall.
Bang! "Heh, is that all you've got? Lord Raikage, this doesn't quite match up to the arrogant boasting you were spouting earlier!"
After controlling his demon fox tails to forcefully swat the Fourth Raikage away once again, Menma stepped down. Looking at the battered and thoroughly disheveled Raikage, he spoke with a faint, mocking smile.
It wasn't quite a total, utter suppression. Menma wasn't in a full Tailed Beast state, nor was he utilizing the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. With only seven demon fox tails swaying behind him, purely based on the intensity of his aura, he was still technically at the pinnacle of the Kage tier. He hadn't yet crossed the threshold into the Super Kage realm.
In the original timeline, Naruto only achieved his next qualitative leap after mastering Sage Mode or the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. The current Menma was still lacking that final puzzle piece. But that gap was as thin as paper, ready to be pierced at any moment.
Faintly, Menma could feel his body finally acclimating to the Nine-Tails' corrosive chakra. Live combat truly was the ultimate shortcut for a ninja's growth. And even at his current power level, Menma could firmly suppress the Fourth Raikage.
A's proudest asset—his speed—was genuinely insignificant in the face of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu. The presence of shadow clones meant Menma effectively had spatial markers scattered everywhere across the battlefield. He wasn't restricted to just the marked kunai anymore.
This was an overwhelming advantage built purely on the foundation of Menma's massive chakra reserves! The Fourth Raikage, naturally, realized this as well. Miscalculating Menma's strength had been a fatal error!
Not only was his own battle going poorly, but looking across the broader warzone, the Hidden Waterfall forces—led by Utakata, Fu, and Shibuki—were completely routing the Cloud ninja ranks. Shibuki hadn't hesitated to burn through his own life force, drinking the Hero's Water once more, despite Menma explicitly advising him against it before the battle.
But the young village leader, desperate to secure every possible advantage for this war, cared little for his own vitality. Boosted by the Hero's Water, Shibuki's personal combat power skirted the edges of the quasi-Kage tier. In a battle like this, ordinary Cloud ninja were simply no match for him.
One by one, the Cloud ninja were slaughtered.
Bang! "Ugh?"
"GAAAH!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Witnessing his own elite Cloud forces being brutally suppressed, watching the battle lines steadily collapse around him... it drove the Fourth Raikage into an erratic, blindingly violent rage.