Chapter 352 – The Hundred-Thousand-Meter Great Rock River! A Lone Assault!
In front of the Tenshukaku, the massive doors that had been shut for five days finally swung open.
Third Raikage A took a deep breath. Glancing up at the sky dome enveloping the entire city, he found himself—unlike the other Kumogakure shinobi—not caught in an illusion.
Instead, he closed his eyes and issued the first heavy command that would change the tide of the battle:
"Mabui, use Heavenly Transfer to send a message to those Iwagakure shinobi that A brought in."
"Tell them—"
"Destroy the barrier squad stationed on the western front!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Mabui's eyes widened in shock. Her face turned pale with horror.
"Lord Raikage… But, those are—"
The barrier squad on the western side was made up of Kumogakure's own shinobi—comrades, brothers.
And yet…
Mabui knew all too well—this was the only method left to break the barrier. No one else could bring themselves to give such an order.
"I understand."
She gritted her teeth, pulled out a scroll, and quickly formed the 'Ram' seal with both hands.
In the next instant,
A flash of white light from the Heavenly Transfer technique soared skyward from the heart of the battlefield!
Soon after—
At the first defensive perimeter, beneath the inner city wall.
"Combined Ninja Art: Earth Release – Earth Dragon Concealment!"
Upon receiving the signal from Kumogakure, the Iwagakure forces immediately mobilized. A hundred-strong Earth Style special ops unit performed this joint jutsu in unison.
From a bird's-eye view—
The terrain of the entire inner city of Yunming sloped inward at a 5-degree angle from the outer ring toward the center.
Beneath Yunming City, countless loose tunnels had been preemptively dug using Earth Dragon Concealment—angled at 45 degrees to connect deep pits hundreds of meters beyond the inner city wall with linear tunnels stretching over a kilometer within.
At this moment—
The hundred-man unit reactivated the jutsu, causing nearly a thousand of these tunnels to collapse in an instant.
The result on the surface was catastrophic—
The entire city began to quake violently, as though countless explosives had been detonated underground!
Nearly a thousand sinkholes appeared across the surface. Then, under the pull of gravity, countless water-saturated masses of solid earth began to shift—
Turning the ground into a river of rock, forging a massive current of stone weighing billions of tons!
A premeditated tactical strike was unleashed in the blink of an eye!
Like a champagne tower, Yunming Inner City was structured in a three-tiered pyramid.
The lowest tier was completely sacrificed—
Along with the nearly two thousand shinobi and samurai from all nations and Kumogakure itself stationed there!
From the second tier downward, a monstrous rock river surged like a cascading waterfall!
And at that moment—
Standing atop the city wall, right within the range of the mudslide, inside his Susanoo—
Uchiha Ci, who had just been about to give his Susanoo legs and charge the Kumogakure defenses, suddenly froze. His massive avatar staggered violently, losing its balance.
"What the hell?!"
"That's brutal!"
"The ground… is retreating!?"
This was a rock river conjured not by chakra, but by the raw force of nature and physical laws—
And it surged forward in an instant!
Uchiha Ci watched in stunned disbelief as everything around him began sliding rapidly backward and downward!
The city wall collapsed in a flash, and his unbalanced Susanoo was thrown into the pit below!
Immediately after—
Billions of tons of falling rock, and the twenty-meter-high city wall made of ultra-dense black stone came crashing down on him!
Even a thirty-meter-tall Susanoo seemed helpless, crumbling and collapsing under the endless onslaught of the kilometer-long rock river!
At the same time—
On the western side of Yunming Inner City—
Within one of the side halls that had survived the previous city collapse—the base of the Kumogakure barrier squad—
A flash of golden light heralded the sudden appearance of Minato Namikaze on the rooftop. He looked down at the small, boat-like palace below with surprise.
Then, looking up, his expression instantly darkened—
A rock river, nearly a hundred meters tall and surging like a tsunami, was crashing toward him. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the rooftop.
The next moment—
Darkness swept in.
All sound was swallowed by the thunderous roar of the shifting earth.
The entire palace was engulfed beneath billions of tons of stone!
The finely wrought, intricately patterned jutsu formations within the hall—and the several dozen barrier squad members—were all swept away.
Boom!
In that moment, the sky dome over the entire city shattered, revealing the endless crimson dusk behind it.
All across Kumogakure, shinobi woke as if from a dream, breaking free from the illusion.
But before they could collect themselves, a roar like that of a furious lion rang in their ears:
"Everyone—"
"Form up!"
"Prepare for battle!!!"
Covered in blood, his arm severed, his eyes filled with grief and fury—
Young A leapt down from the fifty-meter-high second defensive wall, landing heavily on the ground. He stumbled but managed to get up, roaring with all his might!
That familiar voice instantly jolted the dazed Kumogakure shinobi awake, causing them to move reflexively.
And in the next moment—
They looked up to see—
Amid the crashing waves of the raging rock river,
A colossal flaming figure, blazing like fire itself, planted a thunderclap-length greatsword into the riverbed, standing its ground against the surging flow!
Though riddled with cracks and on the verge of collapse,
The giant lifted its right arm and hurled something with all its might!
A black silhouette cut a clean arc through the air,
Flying over the kilometer-long, hundred-thousand-meter-wide hollow rock river—hurtling toward the two-thousand-strong core Kumogakure unit!
And then—
It landed with a thunderous crash in a perfect warrior's kneel, shaking the earth in a wave of dust!
"That's… That's—"
"Uchiha Ci!"
As the dust dispersed, the gathered Kumogakure forces all saw—
A pair of crimson eyes opening in the midst of the explosion's aftershock!
No time to breathe.
The moment he landed,
Uchiha Ci straightened up in the chill morning breeze, his hands folding behind his back, his posture lowering—
And charged straight toward the two thousand shinobi of Kumogakure with an expressionless face!
"He's coming!"
"He's coming!"
"He's coming!"
His swift, light footsteps pounded like war drums against the hearts of the two thousand Kumogakure ninja.
The rising wind was hot and dry.
And as they watched this lone youth charge them head-on—
Despite their overwhelming numbers, they inexplicably froze.
A chilling dread surged from the soles of their feet to the backs of their heads. Their faces turned pale as though drained of blood, and their wide eyes filled with terror.
And at that moment—
Clutching his bleeding stump, the youth A struggled to his feet.
He spread his legs wide, firmly stomping the ground,
Drawing deep breath from his abdomen and bellowing like thunder:
"Listen up—"
"Our sensory and intel divisions are completely wiped out!"
"From this moment on—"
"It's either we stop him here—"
"Or we die here! There is no second option!!"
"This is war—"
"Now kill him!!!"