Hiruzen mobilized his chakra.
Behind him, the ANBU piloting the flying ninja tool watched their Hokage with a mixture of reverence and apprehension.
To keep his approach hidden before entering the battlefield, Hiruzen had deliberately ordered the flying ninja tool to climb to an exceptionally high altitude.
'He's going to jump from this high?'
The ANBU took a deep breath and offered the most heartfelt prayer he could muster.
'Sage of Six Paths above, please let Hokage-sama come back safe and sound!'
He knew, of course, that the Sage of Six Paths was little more than a distant myth.
But with the situation on the battlefield this tense, even the Will of Fire wasn't enough to calm the ANBU's nerves.
All he could do was put his faith in something like the Sage...
Besides, invoking the Will of Fire in a situation like this somehow made it sound as though Hokage-sama wasn't coming back...
High above the battlefield, Hiruzen plummeted under the pull of gravity, accelerating with every passing second. The halberd formed by Enma gleamed coldly in his hands.
Natural energy was steadily accumulating within it.
'I need to strike deep into their formation...'
'Otherwise, with how cunning Ōnoki and the Third Raikage are, they'll never take the bait.'
Hiruzen looked down upon the vast expanse of land below.
The figures that had resembled swarming ants were gradually growing larger...
Iwagakure's army of ten thousand and Kumogakure's elite forces.
They had arranged themselves into three layers in the most cautious and seasoned manner possible.
Forward reconnaissance, the main blocking force, and a mobile reserve.
They hadn't made the same mistake as Third Mizukage Kiritori and committed their entire army at once.
The forward units were responsible for gathering intelligence.
The main blocking force, meanwhile, was led by Iwa and Kumo's veteran jōnin and other powerful shinobi, with seasoned chūnin organized into cohesive formations beneath them. It was a genuine killing machine built for war.
That was also why Hiruzen had decided to enter the enemy formation alone...
This wasn't merely an act of individual heroism meant to bolster his reputation. A massed military formation like this genuinely posed a significant threat even to powerful shinobi.
In Konoha as it currently stood, Hiruzen was the only one who could simply disregard that threat.
The wind screamed past his ears as the halberd tore through the air.
His body temperature steadily rose.
Even for him, this was something he had never attempted before.
He was about to face the combined formations of Iwagakure and Kumogakure, which almost certainly included several jinchūriki.
And his strategic objective was to draw both the Third Raikage and Ōnoki toward him.
On top of that, the mysterious organization Uchiha Madara had established was another unpredictable factor.
Madara had already interfered with Tobirama and Danzō.
Hiruzen could more or less trace the thought process of the greatest "madman" of the Warring States Period, but he didn't dare claim certainty.
Because as Hiruzen saw it, even Madara himself might not know what he wanted to do anymore. Trying to reason through his actions logically was therefore pointless.
It was like trying to discuss the Will of Fire with Danzō.
Both men believed they possessed it, but that was merely what they themselves believed.
So Hiruzen had to remain exceptionally vigilant.
On one hand, he needed to create enough chaos and inflict enough damage to draw the attention of both Iwa and Kumo toward himself, thereby relieving the pressure on Tobirama and Danzō.
On the other, he needed to penetrate deep into the Land of Earth's interior and convince Ōnoki and the Third Raikage that he wouldn't simply use the Flying Thunder God Technique to escape—all while remaining alert in case Madara suddenly decided to do something insane.
Even so, Hiruzen wasn't overly worried.
His hard work and sweat gave him confidence.
And behind him stood all of Konoha!
Just as Konoha's shinobi believed in him...
Hiruzen likewise believed that Konoha's shinobi would do their part. Once he smashed open Iwa and Kumo's ironclad formation, they would advance at full speed and come to the aid of their Hokage!
"Enma, lend me your strength..."
Once the enemy's main blocking formation became clearly visible below, Hiruzen spoke in a low voice.
The senjutsu chakra Enma had accumulated within his halberd form flowed into Hiruzen's body.
During his time training at Mount Myōboku, Enma had gotten along remarkably well with Fukasaku and Shima, and his skills had continued to improve.
Taking Hiruzen's particular circumstances into account, the two Toad Sages had devised a method specifically for Enma to gather senjutsu chakra—essentially an externalized version of Jiraiya's Sage Mode...
'So that's how it works...'
Although this was Hiruzen's first time using senjutsu chakra, Spirit Release gave him a unique ability to break down and analyze chakra structures.
His chakra threads allowed his eyes to perceive the "core" of techniques and energy...
Hokage-sama quickly grasped the nature of this unusual power.
The combination of natural energy and chakra produced a remarkably fascinating chemical reaction.
Chakra restrained the chaotic, violent dissipation of natural energy, while natural energy gave chakra far greater destructive power. The two complemented each other almost perfectly.
Hiruzen might not know Sage Mode himself yet, but his partner Enma did.
More and more Konoha shinobi were mastering this higher level of power...
Which basically meant he had mastered it too!
Perhaps this was what Konoha's bonds were all about...
Hiruzen's gaze sharpened as he brought his hands together.
Sage Art: Meteor Volcano: Enma's Wrathful Descent!
In an instant—
The sky had been perfectly clear, stretching cloudless for thousands of miles.
Yet countless enormous fists of molten rock suddenly formed out of thin air, coated in searing magma as they plunged toward the earth alongside Hiruzen!
Huge, ominous bubbles churned across the magma fists.
And there was one fundamental difference between this Sage Art Lava Release and its ordinary version: it possessed the explosive propulsion of an erupting volcano!
Ordinary Lava Release generally produced relatively "static" molten rock. Its applications usually involved lava flowing and solidifying into granite, or transformations resembling mortar.
But in Hiruzen's hands, every enormous magma fist now blasted a powerful jet of flame from its rear, accumulating kinetic energy at a terrifying rate!
Enma, transformed into the halberd, silently sensed the power coursing through Hiruzen.
'Wait...'
'Does Hiruzen really not know Sage Mode?'
'How did he perfectly combine Lava Release with senjutsu chakra the very first time he tried it?!'
Enma had heard Fukasaku and Shima say that even someone like Jiraiya—who could incorporate all five basic chakra natures into senjutsu and master a technique like Goemon within a few years—already counted as talented...
'So this is what the Professor's mastery of ninjutsu looks like?'
Hiruzen, however, obviously had no attention to spare for Enma's thoughts.
Once he entered battle, having already worked out the fundamental logic behind this war, his focus became absolute.
At that very moment—
The combined Iwa-Kumo forces on the ground were vigilantly monitoring their surroundings, repeatedly cross-checking the intelligence coming in from their forward reconnaissance units.
Every one of them knew that this might become the turning point of the war!
For more than a year, Konoha's strategy of "bleeding itself to train its troops" had reduced Iwa and Kumo to free training grounds.
Like free experience packs, they had allowed batch after batch of young Konoha shinobi to grow stronger.
Konoha had also used the bonds forged between comrades-in-arms to rapidly integrate both Kirigakure and Amegakure into its sphere.
Iwa and Kumo had watched all of this unfold with growing anxiety, yet there was nothing they could do about it.
Quite a few of them had already done the calculations.
Even once their important combat forces and jinchūriki had fully recovered, all that would accomplish was tightening their defenses somewhat. It wouldn't fundamentally change the broader course of the war.
After all, even if they gathered their forces and fought another full-scale battle, the disparity between their core combat forces had already been proven.
And that wasn't even considering that Sunagakure had already withdrawn from the war after ceding territory, while Konoha had gained both Kirigakure and Amegakure.
They had wanted to launch a preventive war.
Instead, the fighting had only caused Konoha to develop even faster than before the war began...
"Hold the line! We have to hold the line!"
"As long as Tsuchikage-sama and the Third Raikage capture Danzō and the young Madara, everything will turn around..."
Having returned from the hospital and barely recovered enough to fight again, the Steam Ninja Han paced through the blocking force, clapping his hands repeatedly as he tried to keep his comrades' spirits up.
Yes.
Tobirama's current identity, Uchiha Seisui, had been portrayed throughout Iwagakure as the Uchiha Clan's new-generation "Madara."
And in Ōnoki's eyes, he was even more dangerous than Uchiha Madara.
Tobirama's talent certainly couldn't compare to Madara's. There was a massive gulf between them.
But an Uchiha who had mastered Senju Tobirama's techniques while possessing none of the usual bloodline pride or Uchiha way of thinking?
That was far too terrifying!
If you bowed your head to Madara, the Shura of the Shinobi World would probably stop. You might genuinely be able to sit down afterward and discuss the terms of surrender.
But if you bowed your head to Senju Tobirama, then even if he spared you for the moment, there was no telling what might happen later...
The way Konoha's Military Police Force had been designed to deal with the Uchiha Clan was famous throughout the shinobi world.
With one clever maneuver, Tobirama had bound a warrior clan that had fought for a thousand years firmly to the village. It was difficult for outsiders not to know about something like that...
And in Ōnoki's opinion, an Uchiha like this might ultimately prove even more destructive than Madara...
Han's expression remained steady, but inwardly he was thinking: 'If we can take hostages, Iwa should at least get one chance to catch its breath!'
The first time that thought had occurred to Han, even he had found it strange.
Shinobi were ruthless.
Even if figures as important as Danzō and Seisui were captured, Hiruzen could simply choose not to rescue them. He could instead use their capture as the spark to ignite Konoha's fighting spirit and drive the shinobi on the front lines into a frenzy for revenge.
An army driven by grief was bound to fight fiercely!
And even if they signed a peace agreement and exchanged hostages, Hiruzen could always go back on his word afterward.
But Han simply felt...
Even though the Hokage was his enemy, the man's reputation for keeping his word was enough to make Han entertain such a fanciful hope.
He believed Hiruzen would play by the rules...
'I hope everything goes smoothly...'
'I wonder what the Hokage will do? There's almost no way for him to break this deadlock. He absolutely has to keep his emotions under control...'
Han thought to himself, an uneasy feeling gradually stirring within him.
Danzō and Seisui held unusual positions, and even Iwagakure knew how important the two of them were to Hiruzen.
And Konoha was a village that became terrifying whenever its bonds were involved...
Han remembered Uzumaki Shio and Uchiha Tomie.
Their chakra link had put him through hell!
At that moment—
The violent fluctuations of chakra and the steadily rising temperature in the air made Han snap his head upward, his eyes instantly widening!
The sky above the entire battlefield was suddenly filled with Sage Art magma fists that resembled divine punishment. Their churning red surfaces stood out starkly as they descended like meteors, trailing columns of black smoke!
"How is that possible..."
Han murmured in disbelief. "We prepared our air defenses!"
Because Konoha possessed airborne squads, Iwagakure had deliberately taken precautions to protect its airspace.
But nobody had imagined that Hiruzen could enter the battlefield in free fall from an extreme altitude.
It practically shattered everything shinobi understood about the physical limits of the human body...
Even jinchūriki protected by Tailed Beast chakra couldn't pull something like this off.
You needed a body at least on the Third Raikage's level.
"Earth Release! Earth Release!"
Han froze for a moment before desperately shouting, "Get your defenses up! Spread out! Spread out!"
As though the Hokage had heard his cries, the magma fists accelerated even further.
And at the very center of that rain of molten destruction, an enormous amount of chakra gathered within Hiruzen's halberd as he aimed straight at the heart of the enemy formation...
In the eyes of the Iwa shinobi, Hiruzen's figure went from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a fist in an instant.
They blinked—
And he was already directly above them!
The halberd struck the ground.
A terrifying explosion erupted.
The explosion and impact merged into one, sweeping outward like an enormous invisible scythe. Vast swaths of earth were ripped upward!
The Iwa and Kumo shinobi closest to the point of impact still had expressions of shock frozen on their faces when they were killed instantly!
The earth groaned beneath the unbearable strain as an artificial earthquake erupted across the battlefield. Even though the shockwave weakened as it spread, Iwa and Kumo shinobi a kilometer away still couldn't keep their footing.
Even channeling chakra into the soles of their feet wasn't enough.
The violently bucking ground seemed determined to take out the pain of the Hokage's blow on them, hurling Iwa and Kumo shinobi high into the air before the shockwave slammed into them and scattered them in every direction!
Han, who was relatively close to the impact, covered himself in a thick layer of Tailed Beast chakra. Massive amounts of steam blasted from his back as his legs nearly buried themselves in the ground, and only then did he barely manage to avoid being thrown off his feet like his comrades...
"You've got to be kidding me..." the Five-Tails wailed from inside Han, sounding utterly miserable.
"What kind of luck do you have? First you ran into an Uchiha and an Uzumaki, and now you have to face the Hokage himself?"
"With things going like this and luck this bad, how much longer are we even going to survive in the shinobi world?!"
The Five-Tails felt utterly miserable.
This was just ridiculously unlucky!
Once the shockwave passed, Han finally managed to open his eyes against the raging wind.
After the Five-Tails' ominous warning, he turned and surveyed the battlefield, letting the splattering magma strike the layer of Tailed Beast chakra covering his face as a deeply bitter smile crossed his lips.
He had only just been wondering whether the Hokage—normally so even-tempered, so reluctant to initiate wars, and so reminiscent of Hashirama—might do something completely out of character if his bonds were threatened...
And then his fears had immediately come true!
First, the Iwa and Kumo shinobi at the center of Hiruzen's halberd strike had been reduced to dust. Nothing remained within a hundred-meter radius!
A halberd strike delivered straight from the heavens was certainly a first for the shinobi world.
Meanwhile, the countless enormous magma fists used their accumulated momentum and tremendous impact force to punch through one temporary anti-air bunker after another!
"Sage Art: Meteor Volcano: Enma's Wrathful Descent" had torn Iwa's carefully constructed defensive line apart!
Magma flowed across the earth, transforming what had moments ago been an orderly military formation into a blazing inferno...
Area-of-effect ninjutsu would always inflict the greatest possible damage on the cohesion of a battle formation!
Once a single point was breached, all it took was maintaining the right tempo. The advance could then spread like falling dominoes, tearing through layer after layer of the enemy's defenses.
"There's no way that bastard Rōshi has this kind of power!"
"Which one of them is supposed to be the Four-Tails' jinchūriki?!"
Han's arms began to spasm involuntarily. His eyes remained fixed on the dark-clad figure in the distance as wave after wave of alarm surged through him.
It wasn't merely the Hokage's sheer combat power that shocked him.
The fact that Hiruzen had entered the battlefield in this manner meant Konoha's attitude toward the war was very likely beginning to slide in an uncontrollable direction...
Ōnoki's plan had been to capture Danzō and "Seisui," give Hiruzen a way to back down, and then have both sides sit down and negotiate.
But unexpectedly, this time Hiruzen had chosen the traditional shinobi approach instead.
Hiruzen had no intention of talking things out at all. If anything, he seemed ready to use this as an excuse to fight the war all the way to the end!
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