"Zzzzt…"
The dust hanging in the air slowly scattered.
A massive circular crater, nearly twenty to thirty meters wide, was revealed before everyone's eyes.
Golden flames burned inside the pit.
The heat was so intense that even the air above it seemed to twist and warp.
"That's…"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes widened in disbelief.
His voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen nearby.
"Sarutobi? What is it?"
"Reinforcements from Konoha?"
At that moment, Enma turned toward him, confused by Hiruzen's reaction.
Hiruzen stared at the golden flames in the crater, his expression shifting between shock and doubt.
"It should be…"
He nodded slightly, then immediately shook his head.
"But that's impossible."
In all of Konoha, there was only one person whose power could produce golden light like that.
Yagami.
But Yagami should still be on the front line in the Land of Grass, fighting Iwagakure.
Even if Mikoto had contacted him through the Den Den Mushi, it should have taken him at least two days to arrive.
So why…
Why was that golden light here?
Was there someone else who could use the same power?
For a moment, even Hiruzen could not make sense of it.
Then—
Golden light gathered inside the crater.
The light twisted, condensed, and slowly formed into a human shape.
A moment later, Yagami stepped out of the light as if he had simply walked through the sun itself.
There was no exhaustion on his face.
Not even his clothes were damaged.
His body had transformed into light and crossed the battlefield at terrifying speed, leaving only golden fire and scorched earth behind when he arrived.
Seeing that figure, Hiruzen's disbelief finally turned into certainty.
"So it really is him…"
Hiruzen stared into the crater, his face filled with shock.
"It really is Yagami!"
Yagami stood in the crater calmly.
The first thing he did was activate Kagura Mind's Eye and search for Mikoto's chakra.
When he sensed her on top of the high wall, unharmed, his gaze softened for only a brief moment.
Then it turned cold.
"You Kirigakure shinobi…"
His voice came from inside the crater, low and heavy.
"None of you are leaving this place alive."
The voice carried through the battlefield.
The Mist shinobi slowly approaching the crater froze.
For some reason, the moment they heard him speak, a chill crawled up their backs.
Yagami had crossed the distance in light form, but his irritation had not lessened in the slightest.
Without realizing it, he drew on the power of the mind stone, causing his emotions to sharpen and spread outward.
That was why his voice felt so oppressive.
For an instant, the Mist shinobi felt as though they had been thrown into an icy wasteland.
Their expressions stiffened.
Hearing Hiruzen's words, Enma and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen immediately understood.
The one who had arrived was not some ordinary reinforcement.
He was one of Konoha's true monsters.
Boom!
The ground inside the crater shattered.
Yagami shot upward like a streak of golden light, then stopped in midair, floating in complete defiance of gravity.
On top of the high wall, Uchiha Mikoto had thought she was hearing things when she first heard his voice.
After all, she had spoken to him through the Den Den Mushi only two hours ago.
Yet now, seeing him rise into the sky with her own eyes, she covered her mouth in disbelief.
He had really come.
In just such a short period of time…
No.
It was not even proper travel anymore.
He had turned into light itself and crossed an impossible distance.
Floating high above the battlefield, Yagami brought his hands together.
Golden photons began gathering between his palms.
"Yasakani no Magatama."
The Mist shinobi below frowned in confusion.
Because they had taken a detour to avoid Konoha's scouting routes, they had never encountered the intelligence personnel returning from the front line.
Because of that, Kirigakure's army knew nothing about Yagami.
They did not know his abilities.
They did not even know that Sunagakure had already been defeated.
So even though they could tell he was preparing some kind of large-scale attack, they had no idea how wide its range would be.
Some of them even began moving toward the breach in the wall again.
"Is that the technique…?"
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes as he watched the golden light condense in the air.
"The one that wiped out hundreds of enemies at once?"
He remembered the reports from the front line.
Yagami had used a rain of light bullets from the sky to annihilate enemy forces.
Hiruzen quietly glanced toward the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, then shifted his attention back to Yagami.
Truthfully, he had been curious about Yagami's new abilities for quite some time.
Now, he finally had the chance to witness them directly.
"Forget him! Push into Konoha!"
One Kirigakure jōnin shouted after seeing Yagami gathering energy in the sky without immediately attacking.
Then he took the lead and charged toward the giant crater.
Yagami was too high up.
They had no way to reach him.
But if they could cross the crater and pass through the broken wall, they could enter Konoha itself.
"Move!"
"Break through!"
"Get inside the village!"
The Mist shinobi did not understand what Yagami was doing.
But once their commanding jōnin gave the order, they rushed forward without hesitation.
Their numbers gathered again, forming a dense tide of shinobi that poured down into the crater like ants.
Yagami looked down at them from the sky.
The corners of his mouth curved into a cold smile.
"Sleep here forever."
His hands opened.
"Sayonara."
In the next instant—
Countless golden light bullets poured down from the sky.
Like divine punishment, the entire crater was swallowed by a storm of light.
The Mist shinobi who sensed the glow above them barely had time to look up.
Then the bombardment fell.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted one after another, so dense that they sounded like endless thunder.
Golden flames from the photon blasts raged across the ground without stopping.
The earth was torn open.
Crater after crater appeared.
The bodies of the Mist shinobi were ripped apart under the relentless bombardment.
The lucky ones died the moment the first light bullet struck them.
The unlucky ones were blasted apart piece by piece, surviving just long enough to feel terror before the next wave swallowed them.
At the end of their lives, nothing remained in their hearts but fear.
Pure, instinctive fear.
Yagami watched from above without the slightest mercy.
Just as these Mist shinobi had shown no mercy to Konoha's ninja moments earlier, he had no intention of holding back now.
Besides…
In his eyes, every one of them was also a shining pile of system currency.
And he had no reason to let money walk away.
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