Chapter 132: Third Raikage's Haki Evolution vs. Hiruzen's Tailed Beast Cloak, Danzō's Dakkon Rampage, and Madara's Growing Interest
Shimura Danzō's anger was almost uncontainable. He still hadn't avenged being heavily injured by the Third Raikage.
Moreover, seeing so many ninjas on the battlefield made Danzō drool—in his eyes they weren't enemies anymore, just experience points.
Danzō urged Sarutobi Hiruzen: "Ignore that guy. When has Konoha ever been afraid? If they dare come trouble us, just kill them all!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen still wanted to make one last attempt. He said to Ōnoki and the Third Raikage A: "Konoha is willing to give each of your villages one Teigu in one and a half years! This is Konoha's bottom line!"
Ōnoki was somewhat moved. In the current situation—with the Third Raikage having received a massive boost—even if they allied and swallowed Konoha, Iwagakure's share of the cake wouldn't be large.
But if he could obtain a Teigu that suited him, perhaps his strength could see a terrifying increase.
Ōnoki had figured it out: if Uchiha Naraku's Teigu matched the user perfectly, the combat power boost was horrifying.
Otherwise—like with Danzō and Tsunade—there was improvement, but it couldn't break limits.
Yet the Third Raikage directly rejected Sarutobi Hiruzen's condition: "Hand over Uchiha Naraku. Afterward, all our ninja villages can divide the weapons he forges together. Otherwise—no deal!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen gripped Infinite tightly and said calmly: "Then let's go to war!"
The current situation was simple: the Raikage felt war with Konoha would bring more gains, while Sarutobi Hiruzen had to make the Third Raikage understand Konoha wasn't an easy target!
War is the continuation of politics! Konoha must prove its strength to gain negotiating power later.
The weak have no right to negotiate—they can only accept!
Hearing Sarutobi Hiruzen's words, the Third Raikage A revealed a wild smile.
He had wanted to fight for a long time!
He directly activated Armament Haki and charged toward Sarutobi Hiruzen, confident in his close-combat ability.
Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally showed no fear—he immediately called Infinite for armor transformation.
Soon Sarutobi Hiruzen appeared before everyone clad in green armor patterned with Tyrande motifs.
Ōnoki immediately shielded everyone and flew backward.
He wasn't particularly skilled in close combat—especially against powerhouses like Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Raikage.
He feared accidentally getting caught in the crossfire.
Shimura Danzō—breaking from his previous habit of using Hachifusa—charged straight into the enemy lines wielding Dakkon.
He knew his current strength wasn't the Third Raikage A's match, so he needed Dakkon to devour more ninja blades' murderous aura and the chakra and vitality of ninjas!
During the charge, enemy ninjutsu was either dodged or cleaved apart with one slash.
Some attacks were directly devoured by Dakkon and returned to the enemies.
This ferocity greatly surprised Ōnoki—he felt Shimura Danzō's mind seemed a bit unhinged.
Just as he prepared to act against Danzō, the three Sannin stuck to him.
This battle had quite severe restrictions on them—with Ōnoki present, if they dared use summoning, Ōnoki would happily dust them.
Even Katsuyu splitting would lose a huge chunk of flesh against Dust Release—Gamabunta and Manda were even worse off.
Meanwhile, the fight between the Third Raikage and Sarutobi Hiruzen presented a surprisingly even matchup. Neither used ninjutsu anymore—they fought like brutes: one punch, one staff strike.
The Third Raikage's body became a killing weapon—fists, feet, fingers, elbows, knees launched fierce attacks against Sarutobi Hiruzen in his first form.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's Infinite could grow big or small, thick or thin, long or short. Years of staff experience made his strikes fierce and powerful.
From time to time he used Infinite's Heavy Strike skill to land a brutal hit on the Third Raikage A.
Yet what felt strange to Sarutobi Hiruzen was that every time the Third Raikage A took a staff hit, he grew angrier instead of furious.
Sometimes after being knocked flying, he didn't even dust himself off before charging back to eat more staff strikes.
The Third Raikage A himself found Sarutobi Hiruzen's attacks sweet as candy—he felt he had found an exceptionally good teacher to help him train Haki.
Only now did he realize how shallow he had been before—training Haki by punching mountains would take forever?
To rapidly improve, you really had to take beatings!
Sarutobi Hiruzen once again used Infinite to knock the Third Raikage A far away. Seeing the Third Raikage A still full of vigor and dragon-like ferocity,
Sarutobi Hiruzen felt something wasn't right—the Third Raikage A's "sit-up" speed was getting faster and faster.
At this moment Sarutobi Hiruzen recalled Naraku's explanation of the Haki Seed—it only provided a slight defense boost. He had a bold guess.
If this continued, wouldn't the Third Raikage A's defense keep growing stronger?
So he made up his mind—no more holding back.
He directly attached the tailed beast cloak to his armor. After all, based on the battle intelligence Shimura Danzō had given him: although Wood Release had some suppressive effect on this guy's chakra,
he could rely on Haki to break free from Wood Release directly.
The Third Raikage saw Sarutobi Hiruzen gain an extra layer of tailed beast cloak and couldn't help showing surprise.
Because in his memory Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't a Nine-Tails jinchūriki. He secretly guessed: Could Uchiha Naraku have developed a way for non-jinchūriki to use tailed beast chakra?
A faint shadow fell over his heart. Previously his own strength could be said to be on par with the Eight-Tails.
During his time as Raikage he had suppressed the Eight-Tails' rampages multiple times—even once using "Strongest Spear" Hell Thrust: One-Finger Pierce to snap all eight of the Eight-Tails' tails.
But because the battle was so intense, both he and the Eight-Tails collapsed from exhaustion before the final move could be released.
This also left him with a lightning-shaped scar on his chest. Since he had injured himself, he always regarded this scar as a lifelong humiliation and refused to mention it again.
He had struggled so much against the Eight-Tails—now even with his great breakthrough in strength, he had no confidence facing the Nine-Tails.
According to records anyway—even if you gathered the other eight tailed beasts together they might not beat the Nine-Tails.
And now Konoha had developed technology to utilize the Nine-Tails! What a terrifying existence that was?
As everyone knows, a tailed beast combined with a perfect jinchūriki can unleash even greater power. Perfect jinchūriki are rare and hard to come by—but weapons forged by Uchiha Naraku could directly bypass that step.
At this moment, the Third Raikage A became completely serious.
Another layer of Lightning Release chakra covered his dark skin—further increasing his speed.
Sarutobi Hiruzen also knew that even if he condensed a Tailed Beast Bomb he couldn't hit him—he could only let Nine-Tails chakra manifest four agile claws on his armor.
"Hell Thrust: Four-Finger Pierce: Internal Destruction!"
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