The Fourth Raikage's scream tore across the battlefield.
The one closest to him, Killer B, went pale. He shot forward like a cannonball.
"Big Bro!! How are you—?!"
"Sorry, I can't let you through.
Your opponent… is me."
A volley of Flying Thunder God kunai flashed out.
Then a golden blur streaked across the field—Namikaze Minato appeared in front of B, his special kunai stabbing straight toward B's eye.
"Get lost!"
B roared, Eight-Tails' chakra surging from his body.
A thin layer of tailed-beast cloak formed, blocking Minato's kunai.
Minato frowned slightly.
His figure flickered, vanishing—then reappeared behind B.
The kunai disappeared from his hand, replaced by a swirling ball of chakra.
Rasengan!
The Rasengan smashed into Killer B's back.
B coughed blood, staggering forward as the thin cloak on his back blew open, leaving a gaping hole.
But as more and more Eight-Tails chakra poured out of him, the thin cloak rapidly thickened. A massive tailed-beast tail swept across the air, smashing through one of Minato's golden afterimages.
The more tailed-beast chakra B used, the tougher his defenses became. Minato found it increasingly difficult to punch through.
But with Flying Thunder God on his side, B had no chance of hitting him either.
The two of them were quickly locked in a stalemate.
Meanwhile, the Fourth Raikage's arm had been shredded by the Break-Evil Kusanagi. The wound, ravaged by that sinister aura, was nearly impossible to heal. Blood poured out of him in a horrifying spray.
And yet, despite the agony of a wound that damaged both body and soul, the Fourth Raikage—stubborn as iron—only screamed that first instant when his arm was pulverized. After that, though his whole body trembled from the pain, he gritted his teeth and didn't let out a single extra sound.
He simply forced more lightning into his armor.
His hair spiked upward, crackling with electricity, as he cranked his speed higher and higher.
In pure ability, the two were originally roughly on par.
The Fourth Raikage had higher top speed.
Feiyu had more versatile techniques, and finer skill.
In a straight fight, they should've been evenly matched.
But after that opening "first-meet kill" where the Raikage's arm was turned to paste, things had shifted completely.
This was nothing like the manga, where the Fourth Raikage himself sliced off his arm with lightning and took almost no blood loss before getting immediate treatment.
Here, after Feiyu grabbed the Kusanagi Sword, the field flipped.
With Break-Evil active, the Lightning Armor on the Fourth Raikage's body might as well have been tissue paper. It offered no protection at all.
In just a few short minutes, Feiyu used the Kusanagi to carve multiple deep, bone-revealing wounds into the Raikage.
As his injuries mounted, the Fourth's combat power kept dropping.
And because Break-Evil damaged the soul even more than the flesh, his mental state took a heavy hit as well—his focus kept slipping, his mind growing fuzzy, his thoughts harder to gather.
While Minato and Killer B were stuck in a deadlock, Feiyu and the Fourth Raikage's duel had turned into a one-sided beatdown.
The Raikage flung himself into the fight like a madman, attacking recklessly.
Feiyu, by contrast, stayed calm, unhurried, unshaken.
With wounds like that, on both body and spirit, anyone less stubborn than the Fourth Raikage would have fainted long ago. All Feiyu had to do was keep dragging things out—victory would inevitably be his.
And then—
BOOM!
A deafening crash shook the earth.
A figure smashed into the ground right next to Feiyu.
Feiyu glanced sideways. In the crater lay Orochimaru, body twisted at an unnatural angle.
A harsh, cracking sound rang out. Orochimaru's skin split open, flaking away—and a brand new Orochimaru crawled out from within.
The injuries he'd just sustained vanished with the shedding of his skin.
His already pale complexion, however, had turned ghostly white. Clearly, that "recovery" hadn't come cheap. The chakra cost had to be enormous.
Overhead, a massive hiss split the sky.
Manda—once shining bright silver—was now drenched in blood, his massive body criss-crossed with deep wounds. One of the dragon-like horns on his head had been completely snapped off.
A blazing lightning bolt streaked around him again and again, each pass carving another gaping wound into his flesh.
And this was with Manda's silver scales being tougher than steel—otherwise, he would have been shredded in an instant, like the unlucky shinobi who'd tried to intercept that lightning and were instantly torn to blood mist.
Then a roar rang out across the battlefield:
"Hell Stab—Four-Finger Thrust!!"
The blinding bolt of lightning speared straight through Manda.
The giant serpent screamed, then exploded into a puff of smoke, vanishing entirely—forced back to the Summoning Realm by his injuries.
"Tsk. Orochimaru-sensei, your performance is a little underwhelming, don't you think?"
Feiyu's voice carried a teasing drawl.
Orochimaru glanced at him—then at the Fourth Raikage, who was swaying on his feet, his body covered in wounds from Feiyu's blade. For the first time in a while, that usually cold, expressionless face showed a hint of wounded pride.
"That old man's defense… is a bit too tough, that's all…"
"Orochimaru! Die!!"
Before Orochimaru could finish, the Third Raikage—who had just dismissed Manda—transformed into a streak of lightning that shot straight toward him.
"Leave this one to me, Sensei.
You go deal with A!"
The instant Feiyu saw the Third Raikage barreling in, his eyes lit up.
Lightning danced over his own body again. The Kusanagi Sword in his hand pointed straight at the Third Raikage's heart as he charged in without hesitation.
"Good, brat. Then die!!
Hell Stab—Three-Finger Thrust!!"
The Third Raikage, who had been focused on fighting Orochimaru, hadn't seen Feiyu's battle with his son at all. Even if he had, with his absolute confidence in the strongest shield, he might not have bothered to dodge anyway.
BOOM.
Two human figures collided—yet the sound they made was like two locomotives slamming into each other.
Feiyu was blasted backward, spraying blood through the air.
A massive hole gaped in his chest. He hit the ground and tumbled end over end.
But instead of screaming, he was… laughing.
Flat on his back, blood soaking his clothes, he laughed wildly.
And then—
His entire body's skin cracked open.
Like a snake shedding its skin, a layer of "human shell" peeled off him—and the moment it fell away, the wound on his chest vanished without a trace.
Great Serpent-Style Substitution Technique.
Orochimaru's signature move—by shedding one's skin, any and all injuries could be ignored and instantly "healed."
The only drawback: the chakra cost was immense.
The worse the injury, the more chakra it required. You couldn't use it multiple times in a single battle.
Feiyu rose calmly to his feet.
Across from him, the Third Raikage, looming like a wrathful thunder god… lowered his head.
He stared down at the Kusanagi Sword protruding from his chest—right where his heart should be.
He let out a long, slow breath.
Then went still.
The strongest shield.
Pierced.
And the Third Raikage… finally fell.
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