If the appearance of an ordinary Kage-level powerhouse on a battlefield without an opponent of the same level brought enemies thoughts such as "we cannot fight this" and "we must retreat," then this scene before them, as if one person had reversed heaven and earth and could pour down that sea in the sky with a casual wave of his hand, brought only despair.
Despair so deep that they could not even form a single thought of resistance.
"How can… anyone do something like this…"
Even the Amegakure shinobi who had once followed Hanzo into the Second Shinobi World War and witnessed the top experts of the Land of Wind and Land of Fire lost all courage because of this sight.
No matter how strong a shinobi was, they ultimately had limits.
Even if Amegakure's leader was Hanzo, praised as the demigod of the shinobi world and acknowledged as someone standing at the peak of the shinobi world, he had not been able to lead Amegakure to victory against the Five Great Shinobi Villages through his strength alone.
The fact that Amegakure's leader Hanzo still could not call himself by the title of Amekage, that the Land of Rain's territory was still so narrow, and that in the Third Shinobi World War that had just ended, it had once again become a battlefield between Konoha and Iwagakure—
That was the best proof of the failed ending of the man who had started the Second Shinobi World War.
But this person before them.
This person wearing Akatsuki's uniform.
This person who had torn apart the clouds and rain covering the entire Land of Rain with his own strength, forcefully creating a patch of land illuminated by sunlight and a sea in the sky…
As long as he waved his hand and dropped that immeasurable sea in the sky straight down, even Konohagakure, which possessed the greatest military power among the Five Great Nations, would be completely destroyed by this one strike, right?
Even if he had borrowed the Land of Rain's endless downpour.
Even if he had relied on this land's special climate and the abundant water sources that existed everywhere in the Land of Rain to unleash a ninjutsu of such shocking scale…
Damn it, even if they found ten thousand excuses, this was not an enemy they could possibly resist.
Thud.
One Amegakure shinobi, unable to endure such enormous pressure, collapsed weakly to his knees on the earth where not a trace of moisture remained.
His movement was like the first falling domino.
It quickly spread among all the Amegakure shinobi participating in this battle.
One after another, everyone trembled and knelt on the ground.
Like believers who had encountered a divine miracle, they fearfully expressed submission to the god walking through the heavens.
"God, please do not lower your wrath upon us…"
Someone knocked his head against the ground, kneeling on land that had never been so dry before, and whispered with trembling sincerity.
"Very good. Then before this matter is over, behave yourselves and stay here."
"Water Release: Water Prison Technique."
From that sea in the sky, whose volume was impossible to estimate, several hundred neatly sized water spheres descended.
With dizzying impact force, they accurately struck the Amegakure shinobi kneeling on the ground.
Then they turned into slowly circulating, heavy water spheres and trapped every one of them inside.
"Hey, hey, hey! If you squander chakra so extravagantly, the amount of time I can maintain this side will also decrease greatly!"
Ichikishimahime looked at Rei's operation of forcing several hundred Amegakure shinobi to surrender and could not help complaining to him as he stood in the sky.
"Do you think I am the same kind of monster as you, with infinite chakra and stamina?"
"Come on, Ichikishimahime. No matter how you put it, you are a Snake Sage who has followed the White Snake Sage for hundreds of years. If this is all you can manage, that would be a little disappointing…
"Hold for the full ten minutes. Not one second less."
Rei ignored Ichikishimahime's complaints.
Then he turned his head to the Akatsuki members, quite a few of whom had dislocated their jaws because their mouths had opened too wide.
Especially Yahiko and Konan, who stood at the front.
"All right. The matter here is mostly handled. Those who should rescue people, rescue people. Those who should treat wounds, treat wounds.
"I will go see what is happening on Nagato's side…"
As he spoke, Rei dragged that extremely conspicuous sea in the sky and moved toward the distant place where intense chakra clashes were erupting.
Yahiko looked at Rei's departing figure and murmured to himself,
"So this is… the form of the future war you imagine, Rei Kaguya?"
"A war that belongs only to one person.
"A war that belongs only to the highest and strongest…"
"Yahiko?"
Konan stepped forward and looked at Yahiko worriedly, as if he had suffered some huge shock.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Konan, I want to see it."
"Huh?"
Yahiko turned around.
His eyes carried a passion and curiosity they had never held before.
"I want to see the battle between Hanzo, the demigod who represents the old era, and Rei Kaguya, who wants to open a new era…"
"I want to listen to the sound of the new era's gate opening!"
…
On the other side, Jiraiya had just cooperated with Gamabunta and used Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet to clash with Hanzo, who was skilled in Water Release.
Then he turned around and used Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld to trap a Root shinobi who had approached him.
At that moment, he raised his head and looked at the clouds and rain in the sky suddenly dispersing at high speed, revealing a somewhat puzzled expression.
"What's going on? Does the Land of Rain actually have weather changes like this?"
"Idiot! Why are you spacing out all of a sudden, Jiraiya?!"
Gamabunta timely stretched out his tongue and pulled Jiraiya out of the range of the salamander's poison mist spray in advance.
Then he angrily scolded him.
"Our opponent is Hanzo of the Salamander! How can you space out like that?"
"Uh, because Hanzo is spacing out too…"
Jiraiya awkwardly scratched his messy white hair, which had been burned into a terrible state, and pointed at Hanzo, whose gaze was likewise grave.
"But from the look of it, this change seems to affect him even more, and in an even worse way… Heh. Just by looking at his eyes, I can tell this change was completely outside his expectations."
Jiraiya did not know what exactly had caused this sudden change.
But he was quite happy to see the terrain advantage possessed by Hanzo, someone skilled in Water Release, weakened.
Now that Hanzo had shamelessly ambushed Nagato and even intended to kill him, the last bit of respect Jiraiya had held for this old senior of the shinobi world, who had once granted him the title of one of the Sannin, had completely vanished.
Right now, he only wanted to beat the other party fiercely and vent the pressure and resentment he had accumulated lately.
Then, just as he was about to attack, a strange "sea of clouds" drifting against the natural flow appeared in the corner of Jiraiya's eye and quickly attracted all his attention.
"Hey, hey, hey… Bunta, my eyes aren't broken, right? Why do I feel like I'm seeing… a sea flying in the sky?"
Listening to Jiraiya's shocked muttering from above his head, Gamabunta took a deep drag from his pipe and gripped the short sword in his hand.
He spoke as if facing a great enemy.
"I see it too… And I also see the guy controlling that sea as it flies through the sky."
The "sea of clouds" did not move quickly.
But it carried a suffocating pressure.
It was like an invisible hand had gripped their hearts.
Each time the "sea of clouds" grew a little closer in their field of vision, each time it expanded a little more, the hand gripping their hearts tightened with a bit more force.
Slowly, irresistibly, step by step, it forced them toward an inescapable dead end.
Jiraiya was not the only one affected by the approaching "sea of clouds."
The Root shinobi who had been attacking Jiraiya alongside Hanzo also experienced intense emotional fluctuations because of the person controlling the "sea of clouds."
"That guy… There is no mistake. Although he used Akatsuki's uniform for the most basic disguise, the only person who can do something like this is that man!"
"Rei Kaguya!"
When a Root shinobi skilled in sensing said this name, all the Root shinobi's breathing froze.
What followed was an emotion that was extremely luxurious and abnormal for them.
Rage.
Root shinobi existed to carry out Danzo Shimura's will.
To them, Danzo Shimura was the supreme god.
For Danzo Shimura's orders, they could ignore all rules.
Even if Danzo Shimura ordered them to assassinate Anbu members under the Third Hokage, or even the Third Hokage himself, Root shinobi would not hesitate in the slightest.
So when facing Rei Kaguya, who had killed Danzo Shimura and thrown his corpse into the stinking underground bounty station in exchange for money, viciously slapping every Root shinobi in the face—
Of course they would be angry.
Of course they would be filled with hatred.
Of course they would spare no cost to avenge Danzo Shimura.
"Retreat. Immediately. Right now."
White Zetsu, transformed into "Sora" and having been slacking off throughout the battle, decisively gave this order to the Root members around him.
"Sora?! Why?!"
"We are not Rei Kaguya's opponents. If we all die here, then Root's will and the desire to avenge Lord Danzo will forever turn into nothing…
"Root should not be an organization ruled by anger and impulse."
On the surface, White Zetsu was speaking to the Root members around him, who were glaring furiously at him.
In reality, he was speaking for Obito Uchiha, who was lurking nearby, to hear.
He wanted to prevent Obito from losing control of his emotions after seeing Rei Kaguya's appearance and revealing himself meaninglessly in front of Rei.
Unexpectedly, however, not all the Root shinobi present opposed White Zetsu's plan.
About a quarter of them nodded, agreeing with White Zetsu's proposal.
The rest did not completely reject his idea either.
Only one of them spoke.
"However, someone must stay behind to face Rei Kaguya.
"Not only to cover the others' retreat and ensure Root's continuation, but also to prove that Lord Danzo's will is with us."
"Then let it be me."
White Zetsu thought for a moment and stepped forward voluntarily.
"Those without special bloodlines or secret techniques will stay with me and declare our revenge to Rei Kaguya.
"Those with special bloodlines and secret techniques will leave. To realize Root's revival and true revenge, go accumulate new power…"
"Sora… Root will remember you."
Hearing White Zetsu's allocation plan, the Root members nodded and silently divided into two groups.
White Zetsu looked at the group that was about to leave and suddenly spoke.
"Tobi, come out and take them away…
"After me, you will lead Root buried deep underground."
Hearing White Zetsu suddenly call his name, Obito Uchiha first froze.
Only then did he spiral out of the void under the scrutinizing gazes of the remaining Root members and stand beside the group that was leaving.
"Sora? We have never heard the codename Tobi…"
Among the Root members about to leave, someone spoke.
"Why is he the person who will lead Root after you?"
"He is Lord Danzo's final, most hidden, and most successful creation."
White Zetsu, already deep in character, nodded toward Obito Uchiha, who wore a tiger-striped mask.
Then the Root members saw sharp, pointed wooden spikes erupt from Obito Uchiha's body.
Through the hole in his mask, they also saw a rotating Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Wood Release and the Mangekyo Sharingan?! It actually succeeded?!"
"I see… Sora, I have no objections to your proposal."
Seeing this scene, the Root members who had originally been confused nodded one after another and acknowledged White Zetsu's arrangement.
The future enemy Root had to take revenge against was the Fourth Mizukage, Rei Kaguya, known as the Tenth Tailed Beast.
To defeat that kind of monster, this Tobi before them, who had gathered the Mangekyo Sharingan and Wood Release—the two powers that created Konohagakure—in one body, was their only hope.
"Hurry up and leave. If that guy gets serious, you will not be able to escape."
Obito Uchiha nodded with a complicated expression, accepting White Zetsu's urging.
Then he raised his hand and placed it on the Root shinobi who possessed secret techniques and bloodlines, sucking them one by one into Kamui's alternate space.
With this new batch of materials he had obtained for no clear reason, he temporarily left the battlefield.
Looking at the Root shinobi, whose numbers had been halved in just a few words, Hanzo took a deep breath.
He worked very hard to restrain the urge to cut, slice, and chop all these pig teammates into pieces.
He had already been completely locked onto by Rei Kaguya's senses.
Now, even escaping was impossible.
If he killed the teammates on his side who could slightly divide Rei Kaguya's attention, then he would have to face that monster who had created a sea above the clouds all alone.
Not to mention the ill-intentioned Jiraiya watching hungrily from the side.
"Hmph. I originally thought that today, this old man was the one plotting against those Akatsuki brats. I did not expect that Konoha and Kirigakure were actually joining hands to scheme against me."
"So be it. Since you want the Land of Rain so badly, then let this old man weigh whether you truly have the qualifications to replace me, the demigod, and become the peak of the shinobi world, Fourth Mizukage Rei Kaguya!"
Hanzo removed his mask, tightened his grip on his kusarigama, and stared fixedly at Rei, who had already arrived at this battlefield while carrying that sea above the clouds.
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