Light-Gold Body: Activate.
Pop—humm!
The instant Uchiha Kai triggered the trait, the white glare before him and the blue radiance behind him reflected off one another—
And poured down over his body.
Once again—
He became light.
Soft, shimmering radiance.
"You're not dodging? Not even blocking? You're courting death, brat!"
Behind him, Raikage A saw Kai show absolutely no reaction.
Rage erupted in his chest.
He felt looked down on.
In that moment, he drew out every last drop of chakra in his body.
BOOM!
A lightning-wreathed fist—powerful enough to punch through a mountain ridge—
Tore the air apart.
The fist's path aimed straight for Kai's exposed back.
In Raikage A's eyes burned the madness of a man going all-in.
Every muscle in his body bulged to its limit, hard lines carved into steel.
This punch wasn't just speed and strength pushed to the peak—
It was his pride as Raikage, condensed into one decisive strike.
He didn't seek survival.
He sought mutual destruction.
"Is that… ignorance? Or fearlessness?"
Compared to the Raikage's violent fury, Ōnoki had far more thoughts racing through his mind.
And beneath them—
A sense of dread.
He watched Kai's utterly indifferent expression, and ripples stirred in his heart again.
This posture…
Ōnoki knew it too well.
Just like that man long ago—
Arrogant, absolute, impossible to match.
For a fleeting instant, the urge to turn and flee surged up inside him.
Then he crushed it.
"No. No. No!"
"Sixty years ago I ran in terror!"
"If sixty years later I still run in terror—then what were all these years for?!"
"I will—kill you!"
The murk in Ōnoki's old eyes hardened into resolve.
The white light erupting from his hands grew so intense it devoured even the air itself.
And then—
Just as the Raikage's brutal fist was about to collide with Kai's Uchiha robes…
Just as Dust Release's white light was about to swallow the boy's black hair…
The boy smiled.
Uchiha Kai bared his teeth, amusement curling at the edges.
Then he opened both arms—
As if welcoming them.
BOOM—!
Shhk!
In an instant, the pincer attack passed through Kai's body.
BOOM—SHHK!!
Raikage A's iron fist.
Ōnoki's white light.
Two killing blows pierced straight through that shimmering figure—
Yet—
There was no spray of blood.
No shattered bone.
The white Dust Release light merely rippled slightly…
Like a pebble dropped into a deep pond.
Pop.
Ripples rose—then spread.
And in the next heartbeat, the world changed.
The Dust Release that should have erased Kai—
When it met that faint radiance—
Its ripple froze for a split second.
Then, without slowing at all, it continued onward.
As if it had passed through sunlight.
It roared downward at full power.
Below, the mountain-punching lightning fist slammed into the radiance—
Pierced through it—
And then… collided head-on with the descending white light.
SSSZZZT—!
Blue and white.
Lightning and dust.
Two supreme attacks—
Collided violently at the center point where the radiance trembled.
CRACK!
Time seemed to freeze.
Raikage A: …?
The moment he saw the white light right in front of him, his dark face turned downright green.
Others might not understand how deadly that technique was—
But he did.
Yet now, with no time to retreat—
Raikage A could only forcefully pour out Lightning Release chakra.
Thickening his chakra armor as much as possible.
BOOM!
BANG!
The impact came anyway.
A blinding sphere of explosive light tore open in midair like a missile strike.
A terrifying shockwave expanded outward in a perfect ring.
In an instant, visibility within a hundred meters was completely erased.
CRACK—!
At the Forest of Death's edge, ancient trees thick enough to take ten men to encircle snapped clean in half—
And disintegrated into powder.
Shhk—
The ground was shaved down by half a meter as if scraped by an invisible blade.
Mud and shattered timber surged skyward like a tidal wave.
"What just happened…?"
"That roar—what did the Raikage do?!"
"Is the Tsuchikage… helping us?"
"No… it must be Lord Kai. He dodged."
Nearby, Konoha shinobi stared in disbelief.
Even several elite jōnin clan heads couldn't be sure.
But then—
From inside the blinding white glare came another sound.
"GAAAH!!!"
A scream so distorted it barely sounded human ripped through the light and smoke.
Shhk!
In the next instant, Raikage A's massive body flew backward like a torn sack.
His right fist—
Was now completely charred and twisted.
The thick muscle lines that once covered his arm were simply gone.
No—
To be precise, the flesh along his entire forearm…
Had vanished.
Only two or three blackened red bones remained, barely connected.
Inside his body, violent lightning chakra detonated through his pathways.
His chest was caved in.
"PUH—!"
He spat out frothy blood mixed with shattered organ fragments.
BANG!
Like a kite with its string cut, he slammed into a rock wall a hundred meters away—
Carving out a human-shaped crater.
Perfectly fitted.
"Hh… hh…"
He raised his only relatively intact left arm, trying to pry himself free—
But failed.
His body was nothing but wounds.
Just lifting that left arm was already the most he could do.
Compared to the Raikage's half-dead state—
Ōnoki's condition looked far better.
But his mind—
Was breaking.
"Cough… how… how is this possible…"
"I blanketed the area—how could he dodge?"
"No… not dodge…"
"He didn't dodge at all…?!"
He murmured in a daze.
And with each word, the chill in his heart deepened.
His cloudy pupils bulged.
Below—
Uchiha Kai still stood exactly where he had been.
Unharmed.
Unchanged.
Black hair. Red eyes.
His Uchiha robes were spotless.
Only the hem fluttered slightly in the wind, rippling once.
Dead silence.
Absolute dead silence.
The moment everyone understood what had happened—
Even Konoha fell quiet.
Every gaze locked onto the figure ahead.
The one still holding his arms open, as if mid-embrace.
"Hah… the Light-Gold Body really is strong."
Kai dismissed the trait and rolled his shoulders.
He had clearly seen the Raikage's shock when he punched through.
He had seen Ōnoki's disbelief when the white light did nothing.
That feeling—
Was too good.
He realized he might be falling in love with this little game—
This exquisite way of controlling people's emotions.
At that moment, the Raikage—embedded in the cliff—finally managed to crane his head out.
Staring upward, he at last understood what had happened.
His face turned a terrifying shade of iron-blue.
"Ōnoki… you old bastard!"
"You actually set me up!!"
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