Crushing a Tailed Beast Ball with his bare hands.
That scene was etched into the battlefield like an eternal imprint.
The aftershocks of the storm gradually faded, sweeping across the silent battlefield.
Arashi still stood in place, his clothes fluttering in the wind, not even a speck of dust on him.
As if what he had just crushed wasn't a Tailed Beast Ball, but a fragile glass orb.
In that moment, time itself seemed to freeze.
The surviving Kumo ninja on the battlefield, the Konoha higher-ups on the city wall, and even the dark figure lurking in the distance—everyone's thoughts came to a standstill.
"Gulp..."
A swallowing sound echoed from the massive throat of the Eight-Tails, Gyūki.
Its enormous beast eyes stared at the tiny human figure below, filled with fear and confusion.
What was that?
What had that person… done?
The Tailed Beast Ball… was crushed?
As an ancient existence that had lived since the time of the Sage of Six Paths, Gyūki's understanding of the world was utterly shaken in that instant.
It had seen Immortals.
It had seen Uchiha Madara.
It had seen Senju Hashirama.
But it had never seen such absurd, such completely unreasonable power!
This was not Ninjutsu.
Nor was it Sage Jutsu.
What kind of power was this?
On the city wall.
Minato's face had long lost its color. He stared blankly at the Daimyo standing below.
As the fastest shinobi in the world, he felt for the first time that his own thoughts were unbearably slow.
Flying Thunder God?
Rasengan?
The techniques he was so proud of seemed like jokes in front of that world-ending attack… that was so easily erased.
For a moment, a thought crossed his mind.
He, and the Genin who had just graduated from the Academy… perhaps there was no difference in front of that man.
Tsunade's Shadow Clone stood frozen, her lips slightly parted, unable to make a sound.
The pinnacle of medical ninjutsu was Creation Rebirth.
But the power that man had just displayed… left her without words to compare.
"Monster…"
Hiruzen's Shadow Clone muttered to himself, the eyes behind his glasses completely unfocused.
Suddenly—
"ROAR!!!"
A beast's roar, filled with fear and desperation, shattered the silence.
The Eight-Tails, Gyūki, moved!
Its eight enormous tentacles, like mountains, slammed toward Arashi from all directions with overwhelming force!
This wasn't an attack.
This was a desperate struggle, born from the most primal survival instinct of a living creature!
Faced with the Eight-Tails' might, powerful enough to shatter the land, Arashi didn't even blink.
"A death throe, huh?"
He let out a soft chuckle, stepping forward instead of retreating, moving toward the falling tentacles.
One tentacle smashed into the ground.
At the same moment, Arashi's toes lightly landed on the surface of the tentacle.
A gentle tap.
BOOM!!!
The entire tentacle suddenly caved in, smashing straight into the earth!
The ground split apart, and dust exploded into the sky.
Using the recoil, Arashi soared upward, sprinting along the massive tentacle.
The remaining tentacles swept toward him from different angles, stirring fierce winds as they tried to crush him.
But Arashi casually spun mid-air, using one tentacle as a springboard to leap to another.
In the middle of that chaotic, destructive assault, he rose and fell rhythmically, each step bringing him closer to Gyūki's main body.
Finally—
Arashi leapt from the final tentacle, landing squarely atop Gyūki's head.
He looked down at the giant beast's fearful eyes.
"Hang in there. This'll be over soon."
Arashi clapped his hands together in front of his chest.
"Sage Art: Wood Release — Myōjinmon!"
Boom! Boom! Rumble!
The sky cracked open.
Dozens of massive red torii gates, engraved with sealing runes, descended from above with crushing force.
As if the heavens themselves were sending down judgment.
"What… what is that?!" Minato shouted from the city wall.
"Sage Art: Wood Release — Myōjinmon…" Hiruzen's Shadow Clone stammered, his voice trembling. "This is the technique the First Hokage used to suppress Tailed Beasts…"
Before he could finish.
One torii gate had already crashed down onto Gyūki's neck, pinning it to the ground!
Immediately after, more gates fell from the sky, locking down its tentacles and entire body.
Layer after layer, pressing it down completely!
"ROAR! ROAR!"
Gyūki roared in fury, thrashing madly and sending up clouds of dust.
But the Chakra flowing through the Myōjinmon sealed off all of its strength, rendering it unable to move.
Inside its mental world.
B's consciousness was already fading.
And Gyūki's soul trembled before an unimaginably vast golden figure.
Was that… the Sage of Six Paths?
No.
It wasn't the Sage of Six Paths… then who was it?
Why was that power so similar?
Under the gaze of that golden figure, its soul didn't even dare to resist.
Outside.
Arashi's figure slowly descended, landing in front of Gyūki's pinned head.
He gently placed his hand on the massive forehead.
There was no violent chakra.
No earth-shaking aura.
Just a simple touch.
Gyūki's colossal body trembled violently.
In that instant, its beast-like eyes lost their ferocity, turning empty and docile.
Under Arashi's palm, its form began to shrink at a visible speed.
Flesh melted. Bones retracted.
The vast, ominous Tailed Beast chakra receded like a tide, turning into a stream of red light and condensing back into one form.
Soon—
The towering hundred-meter beast vanished.
Only a blood-soaked, unconscious Killer B remained.
His body fell from mid-air.
But before he hit the ground, a gentle force caught him and slowly delivered him beside Raikage A.
The two brothers lay side by side.
Perfectly aligned.
Once everything was done.
Silence returned to the battlefield.
Five hundred Shadow Clones stood silently in place, surrounding the remaining Kumo shinobi.
The only reason they had kept resisting up until now was because they pinned their hopes on Raikage A and Killer B.
But now those hopes were crushed.
Their fighting spirit collapsed.
Clang.
Someone's kunai slipped and hit the ground with a clear sound.
That sound became the signal.
Clang!
Clang! Clang!
Hundreds, thousands of Kumo ninja dropped their weapons, falling to their knees.
Their faces were filled with nothing but numbness and despair.
Raikage-sama was defeated.
B-sama was defeated.
They… had lost.
Utterly lost.
They had been defeated without even a shred of dignity.
Just then—
A figure appeared on the city wall in an instant, dropping to one knee.
His voice was filled with urgency.
"Lord Fourth!"
"An unknown intruder appeared in the village. Their target… their target was Kushina-sama!"
"Lord Third and Lady Tsunade repelled him, but the enemy used a strange Space-Time Ninjutsu to escape!"
What?!
Minato's body went stiff.
A chill shot to the top of his head.
He whipped around and stared at the Anbu who delivered the report, then subconsciously looked down at the battlefield.
Crisis from within and without.
And he, the Hokage, had stood here the entire time, watching a performance he was utterly powerless to influence.
A deep sense of helplessness and lingering dread surged up inside him.
As if sensing his gaze.
At the center of the battlefield.
That man slowly turned around.
Arashi's expression was blank.
He walked through the kneeling Kumo forces, through the ranks of his silent Shadow Clones.
Then, he looked up at Minato standing on the wall.
"Minato, come down and clean this up."
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)