The technique was legendary – fast enough to rival the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God jutsu. Shihouin Naraku found himself genuinely intrigued by the possibility. Could he match such incredible speed? Perhaps even surpass it?
It had been far too long since he'd encountered a worthy opponent, and Naraku felt excitement coursing through his veins. After growing accustomed to overwhelming enemies with his most powerful techniques, the prospect of engaging in an intense physical battle with an equally matched foe stirred something primal within him.
The Fourth Raikage was the perfect candidate for such a confrontation.
Fire blazed in one pair of eyes.
Lightning crackled in another.
Their chakra began to surge and build. The Fourth Raikage's body erupted with electrical energy, blue lightning dancing across his form as his muscles bulged and expanded. His already imposing physique became even more formidable, radiating raw power.
The Raikage's eyes burned with increasing fury as he watched his Cloud shinobi being overwhelmed by Konoha's forces. In the next instant, he vanished – appearing before a Konoha ninja who was about to deliver a killing blow to one of his men. His massive fist, like a sledgehammer, descended toward the Konoha shinobi's head.
Had such a devastating punch connected, the ninja would have died instantly.
"Bang!"
At the last possible moment, a pale, deceptively delicate hand caught the Fourth Raikage's wrist. Despite its slender appearance, that hand held the iron-hard fist completely immobile.
"What exactly were you planning to do to my subordinate?" Shihouin Naraku asked, a smile playing at his lips while an unusual gleam of battle-lust flickered in his eyes.
Only then did the warring Konoha and Cloud shinobi realize their respective leaders had appeared. Neither side had sensed their arrival until this very moment.
The Konoha ninja broke into a cold sweat, staring at the massive fist frozen mere inches from his face. Understanding flooded through him – he'd been a heartbeat away from death.
"Lord Naraku!" the Konoha forces called out.
"Lord Raikage!" the Cloud shinobi responded.
"BOOM!"
An explosion of chakra erupted from both leaders. The devastating shockwave sent nearby shinobi flying before they could even cry out. Fire and lightning clashed violently, waves of overwhelming power radiating outward without discrimination.
"Shi! Houin! Na! Ra! Ku!" The Fourth Raikage ground out each syllable through clenched teeth, his voice dripping with barely contained rage.
"You seem to harbor quite the grudge against me," Naraku observed, tilting his head with genuine puzzlement. "Is there some kind of misunderstanding between us? Though I'll admit, the bombing of Thunder Gorge was indeed my doing."
"BOOM!"
Before Naraku could finish his thought, the Fourth Raikage's power exploded outward with renewed fury.
With the two combatants at its epicenter, the ground catastrophically gave way. Spider-web cracks spread in all directions as chunks of earth shattered and flew skyward, a massive cloud of dust and debris rising into the air.
Yet neither warrior released their grip, their contest of strength continuing unabated.
"BOOM!"
The earth finally surrendered to the immense pressure, creating a deep crater at the center of the battlefield.
Konoha and Cloud shinobi alike scrambled to escape the expanding destruction, though some weren't quick enough to avoid being caught in the devastation.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Two blurred figures clashed repeatedly in mid-air. Thunder roared and flames erupted as they moved at speeds beyond what normal eyes could follow. Observers could only glimpse a crimson figure wreathed in fire locked in furious combat with a muscular form surrounded by crackling lightning.
Shihouin Naraku's taijutsu was devastatingly powerful. Every strike he threw carried monstrous physical strength behind it. Regular ninja would die from a direct hit and suffer severe injuries from even glancing blows. Even with the Fourth Raikage's incredibly durable body, enhanced by his Lightning Style armor, he couldn't afford to take many such hits directly.
Making matters worse for Ai, Naraku's attacks came accompanied by explosive fire chakra and scorching heat, adding another layer of danger to every exchange.
The Fourth Raikage, for his part, had pushed his Lightning Style Chakra Mode to its limits. His cells were supercharged with electrical energy, his reflexes enhanced to superhuman levels. He moved like living lightning itself, his extensive hand-to-hand combat experience showing in every movement. Each of his strikes carried the paralyzing power of his lightning nature.
Their speed proved nearly equal, with fire and lightning each bringing unique advantages to the battle. The key difference lay in their respective mastery of taijutsu – and here, Naraku found himself at a disadvantage.
This gap stemmed from their fundamental approaches to combat. Ai had dedicated his life to perfecting physical techniques and close-quarters fighting. Naraku's true talents had always been in the realms of spirit and soul. Though his physical abilities had recently undergone significant improvement and his taijutsu was far from weak, such comparisons were relative.
The Fourth Raikage Ai stood among the ninja world's elite when it came to pure taijutsu mastery.
Despite this disparity, Naraku held his ground throughout their frenzied exchanges, suffering no real disadvantage.
"What's happening? How can he read my movements so perfectly?" The Fourth Raikage's thoughts raced even as he maintained his furious assault.
Behind his seemingly wild attacks, Ai's mind remained sharp and analytical, using his tactical acumen to make his offensive even more unpredictable and fierce. Yet something felt fundamentally wrong. Despite the clear gap in their close-combat expertise, Naraku consistently anticipated his attacks.
He couldn't comprehend how this was possible.
The enemy possessed no dojutsu like the Sharingan – Ai was certain of that. Moreover, he had complete confidence that even the legendary Sharingan would struggle to track his Lightning Style-enhanced movements.
Yet Naraku not only perceived his attacks but found opportunities to counter them.
"Bang!"
Ai's fist drove straight through Naraku's chest, aimed directly at his heart. But something felt wrong – the impact wasn't what it should have been.
His suspicions proved correct. Though his fist had indeed pierced through Naraku's heart, this seemingly fatal blow had no effect whatsoever.
As Ai dodged Naraku's retaliatory side kick, he stared in disbelief at the gaping hole in his opponent's chest. Flames suddenly materialized, rapidly filling the wound until it vanished completely, leaving no trace of injury.
"What kind of bloodline limit is this?" Ai wondered.
Ever since reports emerged of Shihouin Naraku allegedly killing Orochimaru, various hidden villages and organizations had investigated his background, despite many dismissing the claim as impossible.
The Shihouin clan had naturally drawn scrutiny, though most dismissed them as insignificant. After all, the Shihouin weren't a major clan, and they possessed no renowned bloodline limit that anyone knew of.
Now, witnessing Naraku's body transform into fire and regenerate, the Fourth Raikage immediately categorized it as some unknown kekkei genkai related to fire nature.
"If you can regenerate, then I'll simply beat you until you can't!" The Fourth Raikage's eyes turned cold as he launched himself at Naraku once more.
Naraku met the charge head-on, fists and feet flying without hesitation.
Both combatants recognized the destructive scale of their battle. To minimize casualties among their respective forces, they wordlessly agreed to move their fight to a more isolated area.
Flames detonated across the landscape!
Thunder split the air with deafening roars!
Two fundamentally different powers collided again and again, their terrible might laying waste to everything in their path. They left nothing but devastation in their wake.
Through their physical confrontation, Naraku's combat experience grew at an astonishing rate. While he couldn't match the Raikage's decades of hand-to-hand combat expertise, his Observation Haki combined with his elemental abilities meant he had no fear of the Raikage's strikes.
The result was a peculiar stalemate – Naraku could take direct hits without lasting damage, but the Fourth Raikage had to constantly guard against Naraku's devastating counterattacks.
"Heavy Style: Violent Strike!"
"Leaf Strong Whirlwind!"
The Raikage's lightning-wrapped elbow met Naraku's flame-enhanced spinning back kick in a catastrophic collision.
"BOOM!"
The ground beneath them simply ceased to exist, pulverized into dust. A massive shockwave of debris and smoke engulfed both fighters as stones and splintered wood filled the air like deadly shrapnel.
Expanding flames turned the surrounding area into a hellscape while arcing lightning reduced anything still standing to rubble.
Everything within a kilometer radius lay in complete ruins.
Witnessing such terrifying destruction, both Konoha and Cloud shinobi had long since retreated to safer distances, not daring to approach the apocalyptic battle between their leaders.
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