"Yagami Ei, was the last beating I gave you not enough?" Sato Ryosuke sneered, lips curling in contempt. A man he had already defeated dared to show his face again?
It was none other than the First Raikage of the Hidden Cloud, Yagami Ei. The first four Raikage all bore the codename "Ei"—the letter A in English—while their true names remained unrecorded. For now, he would be called Yagami Ei.
"To face you again fills me with joy, Ryosuke! This time, I'll smash your skull to pieces!" the First Raikage roared, swinging a thunderous fist at his head.
"Oh? Is that so? You think your lightning release can withstand my fists?"
Expressionless, Ryosuke gave a flick of his hand. In an instant, the massive spiked club in his grip vanished.
BOOM! Their fists collided with earth-shaking force, and the Raikage was hurled backward.
BOOM! He slammed into the ground with explosive impact, dust billowing as the earth caved into a deep crater.
Ryosuke stood unmoving, eyes cold. "Pathetic."
Yet, to his surprise, the Raikage staggered back to his feet. Ryosuke noticed blood seeping from the split skin at his palm, proof that the man had been shaken by his punch.
Even so, he was impressed by the resilience. "Three years apart, and the defeated dog has grown tougher."
"Curse you, Ryosuke!" the Raikage snarled, stepping out from the smoke, eyes blazing. "For three years, I've lived with the humiliation of being crushed in a single blow. Every day, I trained, driven only by the thought of this moment!"
"The monster of the shinobi world, the immortal body, isn't that what they call you? Then witness the ultimate lightning of the Hidden Cloud! We'll see if you can die or not!"
BOOM!
Chakra surged wildly from his body. Above them, the sky thickened with storm clouds. Lightning writhed and roared, converging in violent arcs.
"This is the Hidden Cloud's secret lightning technique?" Ryosuke asked without a flicker of emotion.
"That's right! The ultimate Lightning Release I forged through madness and pain. Today, I will kill you!" Ei bellowed.
Ryosuke's thoughts curled into a silent sneer. Kill me? The only way is to make me eat a second Devil Fruit. But this is the world of shinobi—where would you even find one?
The storm raged as bolts of lightning condensed into the Raikage's right hand. The glow of lightning chakra grew brighter, fiercer.
SWOOSH!
Empowered by surging cells and accelerated chakra flow, Ei's speed erupted. In the blink of an eye, he was at Ryosuke's side, his fist wreathed in savage lightning as it hurtled toward his face.
"What violent lightning chakra," Ryosuke thought, feeling the raw force behind it. A strike like that could obliterate even a seasoned Kage. Against a jonin, it would leave nothing but ash.
But would it matter? He smiled coldly. Kaido's undying body was impervious to blade, flame, or lightning.
Ryosuke raised his hand calmly, catching the thunderous fist head-on.
"What?!"
CRACK!
His leg whipped upward, boot smashing into Ei's body. The Raikage was sent flying, coughing blood as he tumbled through the air.
Why had the lightning not harmed him at all?
Ei hit the ground hard, despair flickering in his heart. If even this couldn't hurt him, then what could?
"Ahahaha!" Ryosuke's wild laughter rolled over the battlefield like thunder. The five thousand elite jonin surrounding him grimaced in frustration.
On the distant ridge, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara watched the scene with troubled eyes.
"Hashirama, must it really be this way?" Madara asked, his tone edged with displeasure.
The three pillars of Konoha's might—Hashirama, Ryosuke, and Madara—each possessed the power to suppress the shinobi world. Though Madara despised Ryosuke's bloodthirsty ways, he agreed with his vision. Only through unification could true peace be secured. Otherwise, the nations would forever clash over profit.
To ally with former enemies and betray a comrade from the same village filled Madara with disgust.
"Madara, you know I never wanted this," Hashirama said, his face strained. "Ryosuke and I grew up as brothers. But his nature, his ambition… they've grown too dangerous. He wants to be king of the entire shinobi world!"