Under Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God, the two of them needed less than half a day to return to Konoha's main camp, hopping through space again and again.
By the time they arrived, you could already see massive Cloud formations gathering around the outskirts of the Konoha position. If not for the blinding speed of Flying Thunder God, they'd have been intercepted before they ever got close.
Back in the command tent, Uchiha Feiyu immediately noticed how tense the atmosphere had become. All the jōnin were fully armed, faces grim, waiting for orders.
"Orochimaru-sama, we're back!"
The moment they flashed into the tent, Minato announced their return. Orochimaru swept his gaze across the two, then gave a small nod.
"Good work. The mission went well. Those Cloud brutes got riled up faster than I expected this time."
As he spoke, Orochimaru shot Feiyu a very subtle look.
Even someone as cold-blooded as Orochimaru felt that attacking crippled wounded was going a bit too far.
Those disabled ninja would never see the battlefield again—if anything, they were a burden to Cloud. Killing them didn't bring any tangible benefit besides enraging the enemy, which was precisely why Orochimaru, of all people, had enough spare empathy to frown at it.
But he also had to admit: in the current situation, Feiyu's method had been brutally effective.
And the result was right in front of them—Cloud was now charging toward a full-on decisive battle.
"Move out."
Outside the camp, Orochimaru stood at the very front of the Konoha army. On his left and right were Namikaze Minato and Uchiha Feiyu.
Feiyu ignored the strange look Orochimaru had given him earlier, casually found a place to sit down and asked:
"So, when do we actually start?"
Orochimaru gave a sharp wave of his hand.
The massed ninja army burst apart like a pile of fleas scattering, streaking out of the camp in all directions.
With a ninja's leg strength, twenty kilometers was nothing. By the time the two sides came into visual range, Konoha's "army" had already broken down into dozens upon dozens of squads—the standard way shinobi fought.
On the other side, a full twenty kilometers from the Konoha camp, Cloud's forces had long since arrived.
Several sensory ninja picked up the pressure of a huge chakra concentration and hurriedly reported to the Third Raikage.
"So Konoha finally has the guts to fight a decisive battle? Good. Come with me—we'll crush them!"
For ninja, everything was done fast. Early the next morning, every shinobi in Konoha's camp was fully armed and ready.
At the same time, the Third Raikage threw up a massive hand. The Cloud army behind him roared as one and charged after their leader, murderous intent boiling off them in waves.
The Third Raikage stood at the very tip of the formation, A–B combo on either side, and looked across the field at Orochimaru. He let out a loud, jeering laugh.
"So the sneaky little snake finally dares crawl out of that Konoha turtle shell of his?!"
The last time they'd clashed, the Konoha army had been totally annihilated by the Third Raikage's "center detonation" tactic. This time, when Orochimaru rebuilt the camp, he had gone completely overboard—layer upon layer of defensive barriers, stacked so thick it was obscene.
Which was exactly why the Third Raikage called it a "turtle shell."
Orochimaru smiled faintly.
"Bandits who can act that justified about it… you Cloud folk really are an eye-opener."
"Enough talk. This world is survival of the fittest. Konoha is weaker than Cloud—so you give up the benefits that were never yours to begin with!"
"Tch. Then let's settle it with our hands."
Orochimaru wasn't exactly a disciple of "Will of Fire" morality either. He personally agreed with the whole "might makes right" philosophy, so once the line was drawn, he didn't bother trading insults.
He clapped his hands together in a rapid seal sequence, then slammed them down.
"Summoning Technique!"
A massive explosion of smoke blossomed in the middle of the battlefield.
A gigantic serpent emerged, scales gleaming—a familiar form, yet completely different from before.
Manda.
Only now, the purple scales that once covered his body had been replaced by a bright, metallic silver. Two small horns protruded from his head, each showing a smooth, jade-like bone texture. Even more startling: his venomous fangs had become crocodile-like, jagged saw-teeth.
The pressure rolling off him was on a whole new level—Feiyu hadn't seen a real tailed beast in person yet, but judging from the aura alone, this version of Manda wasn't any weaker than the weaker bijū he'd heard about.
"So he really applied that silver-scale serpent breeding method to Manda too… Didn't think even a boss summon could be successfully 'cultivated' like this."
Just from those silver scales, Feiyu could immediately tell what had been done.
But only someone with Orochimaru's research genius could have taken that old experimental method and pushed it this far.
"Go, Manda. Every Cloud ninja you see on this field—
they're all yours to eat."
Orochimaru said quietly.
Manda gave a piercing hiss and lunged forward without a second thought, charging straight at the Third Raikage's position.
"Feels like Manda's gotten a lot more obedient too. Must be another perk of 'cultivating' him…"
Feiyu watched the giant serpent barrel toward the enemy, then glanced at Orochimaru engaging alongside him. He nodded slightly.
A stronger Orochimaru and a stronger Manda meant a longer, tougher fight against the Third Raikage—which in turn meant more opportunities for Feiyu to slip in a finishing blow.
"You little Uchiha brat—what are you staring at?!"
A furious roar split the air.
The Fourth Raikage's body exploded into lightning as he shot straight at Feiyu like a launched shell.
"Big dumb lug. You think I'm scared of you?"
Feiyu snapped back with a laugh. Lightning flared over his own body as well, his hand closing on the hilt of the Kusanagi Sword.
The blade gleamed with a faint, ghastly white light as he rocketed forward to meet the Fourth Raikage head-on.
"Lightning Taijutsu—Raidō Nin U Sutoreidō!"
The Fourth Raikage's fist drew back, wrapped in raging lightning chakra. As he drove it forward, the move's "grand name" didn't change the fact it was essentially… a straight punch.
Feiyu forcibly pushed down the urge to complain "so this is just a straight right, huh?"
The Kusanagi Sword in his hand flashed with blinding white light as he swung.
Two streaks of lightning smashed into each other.
The air between them shattered inch by inch, compressed shockwaves bursting outward as fist met blade.
And then—
The Fourth Raikage's expression abruptly changed.
The dense lightning armor around his fist collapsed instantly the moment it touched the Kusanagi Sword, torn apart like cobwebs in a storm.
The cold edge of the blade slipped through the broken chakra, bit into his fist, then his skin, then muscle, blood vessels—bone.
Before the Break-Evil-imbued Kusanagi, the Fourth Raikage's flesh might as well have been paper.
In a single heartbeat, his fist turned into a cloud of blood mist.
A ragged scream tore from the Fourth Raikage's throat.
As one of Cloud's famous iron-willed warriors, under normal circumstances, even being blown to pieces wouldn't make him scream like that—
But Break-Evil didn't just cut flesh.
Its power tore into the soul itself.
The pain it inflicted was easily ten times worse than any physical wound.
Even someone like the Fourth Raikage couldn't stop that howl from ripping free.
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