"You look quite miserable, Orochimaru."
Seeing Orochimaru return empty-handed, Danzo, who had relied on the ability of his subordinate sensory shinobi to "watch" the entire battle, took the initiative to speak, sneering at Orochimaru, whose aura was already somewhat unstable.
"If Rei-kun were not that strong, why would I need to share the research results obtained from his body with you?"
Orochimaru accepted Danzo's aggressive remark without a care.
Seeing this, Danzo did not continue dwelling on such a meaningless little dispute.
With a swing of his cane, he commanded the Root shinobi under him to change formation, quickly surrounding Rei Kaguya, who had entered the array.
"Mm. Only this many people?"
Looking at the dozens of Root shinobi around him who had drawn their weapons, Rei Kaguya spoke with some disappointment.
"If this is all you have, it is not worth making Orochimaru take such a big risk to lure me here."
"Only this much? What an arrogant and swollen brat. You really dare to say anything…"
Standing at the hardest point of the formation to break through, Shimura Danzo narrowed his eyes.
The killing intent on his body, like a mountain of corpses and sea of blood, erupted violently. Along with the illusory wails of countless dead souls, it pressed toward Rei Kaguya.
But Rei Kaguya was no longer a naive Genin who had just entered the world.
Even if the ruthlessness, heartlessness, darkness, and killing intent on Danzo's body were ten times greater than his own, Rei's expression did not change because of it.
"Heh. Rei-kun probably does not know this, but before this Shinobi World War erupted, Root designed this ambush formation specifically to deal with Kumogakure's Third Raikage."
Orochimaru stood at another core point of the formation. While summoning a large number of giant snakes, he revealed a chilling, crazed smile.
"It was designed to firmly trap the Third Raikage, who possessed a Tailed Beast-like body and absurd speed…"
"Compared with the Third Raikage, your body is stronger, your vitality is more vigorous, and you have more chakra. But in the most crucial aspect of speed, you are far inferior to the Third Raikage. Even if you have Sage Mode to compensate, you absolutely cannot escape!"
The instant Orochimaru's voice fell, the Root shinobi began moving in an orderly fashion.
The first thing to suppress him was Earth Release: Pressure Technique, stolen and improved from Iwagakure by Root's spies.
Several Jonin skilled in Earth Release jointly unleashed an Earth Release technique capable of increasing localized gravity.
In an instant, the gravity around Rei Kaguya increased to over fifty times its original level.
Even with Rei Kaguya's current physical strength, his movements could not help slowing slightly.
What followed was naturally the secret techniques of the Nara and Yamanaka clans, both skilled at restricting enemy movement, as well as the Aburame clan's signature kikaichu swarm.
Once the control chain stabilized, the other shinobi using Lightning Release, Wind Release, Fire Release, and offensive secret techniques would naturally come forward and begin outputting damage.
If the target had been the Third Raikage, who was only skilled in Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, breaking through this group of Root elites' coordinated attack in a short period of time would have been quite difficult.
And if he accidentally got caught in the control chain, with Shimura Danzo, who was skilled in Wind Release, present, Danzo might actually have seized the opportunity to kill him directly.
But Rei Kaguya was different from the Third Raikage.
What he was best at was Water Release, not Lightning Release.
The nature of Lightning Release itself determined that its users had a hard time developing map-wide bombardment-style ninjutsu that could seep through every gap.
No matter how strong your chakra was, it was very difficult to change that fact.
But Water Release was different.
As long as you had enough chakra, you could create a wave dozens of meters tall and smash it toward any suspicious location.
Then, no matter how hidden the enemy's position was, they could only helplessly be slapped out on the spot by the monstrous flood.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
Rei Kaguya clapped his hands together.
After relying on his Tailed Beast-level brute strength and body to forcibly break free from the interference of the Shadow Imitation Technique, his chest rose high.
Then he spat out a towering wave large enough to make the hearts of the Root shinobi surrounding him stop.
Under Rei Kaguya's full-force chakra output, the huge wave surged violently in every direction at tremendous speed.
It swiftly broke through a height of fifty meters, transforming into a nightmare-like raging tsunami that swallowed the entire forest with unstoppable momentum.
The enormous force carried by the tide slammed the Root shinobi away, snapping tendons, breaking bones, shattering organs, and sweeping them into the rampaging waves.
It destroyed all their formations.
It broke all the ninjutsu they were preparing.
Then it buried them all in this fleeting ocean that had appeared on land.
"Water Release: A Thousand Feeding Sharks."
Thousands of sharks formed from chakra viciously pounced on the Root shinobi who were vomiting blood.
They bit apart, tore apart, and devoured those who no longer had the strength to resist, turning them into patches of blood that slowly spread through the deep-blue seawater.
"Bastard!"
Shimura Danzo, whose skills had not deteriorated too badly and who was still in the prime of his age, retreated out of the wave's range.
His eyes were wide with rage as he watched his subordinates be almost completely lost beneath the sharks' feeding frenzy. His face rarely revealed such intense fury.
But Rei Kaguya knew that this was not because Danzo felt heartache for his dead Root subordinates.
He was grieving because a trump card he had prepared early had been unexpectedly broken by Rei.
When several Root shinobi were torn apart and eaten, Rei had noticed some special marks carved onto their bodies.
They looked like an inverted version of Kushina Uzumaki's Four Symbols Seal.
"Hiss. You had Reverse Four Symbols Seals carved onto all your subordinates in advance? No wonder you looked so confident. If I had not used A Thousand Feeding Sharks to kill the people in the water and had instead gone close to finish them off myself, you might really have schemed against me…"
After seeing Root's combined-attack formation cleared in one wave by Rei Kaguya, Orochimaru no longer had any intention of staying.
On the surface, he took the initiative to approach Danzo, appearing as if he intended to face Rei Kaguya together with him.
But his real body had long since turned into an inconspicuous little white snake and burrowed into the ground, swiftly heading in the direction of Konoha.
His plan to hunt Rei Kaguya had undoubtedly failed.
This Kirigakure youth, who was much younger than Minato Namikaze, had already been tempered by war and grown at an absolutely abnormal speed into a terrifying monster capable of challenging an entire nation's military force alone.
Orochimaru did not know what exactly had acted as the catalyst behind this.
But the strength that had been catalyzed was in no way false.
Since he already knew the matter could not be done, there was no need to continue wasting time in place with unnecessary attempts.
He was a shinobi with the great dream of understanding every ninjutsu and every piece of knowledge in the world.
How could he fall before solving a massive mystery that had only just revealed half its veil?
Shimura Danzo, however, could not withdraw from the battlefield so easily.
Compared with Orochimaru, who possessed an entire body full of life-saving techniques, Shimura Danzo's raw strength was indeed slightly higher.
But that limited advantage was not enough for Shimura Danzo to develop the courage to face a monster like Rei Kaguya alone.
Even though Shimura Danzo knew Rei Kaguya must have consumed an enormous amount of chakra to create that scale of Water Release just now, he had no desire in his heart to gamble.
I cannot die here.
I am the man who will become Hokage and change the entire shinobi world…
"I said it from the beginning. The lineup you prepared was nothing more than 'only this much,' Shimura Danzo."
Standing at the peak of the giant wave, Rei Kaguya looked down at Shimura Danzo, whose face had already shown the intent to retreat, and at Orochimaru, whose expression was unexpectedly calm for some reason.
With a trace of madness in his smile, he asked,
"If my intelligence is correct, neither of you should possess a convenient ninjutsu like Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God Technique, which lets him freely travel between the battlefield and the rear at any time…"
"In that case, I will be borrowing both of your heads today."
Boom.
Seeing Rei Kaguya charge toward him while stepping on exploding water, Shimura Danzo gritted his teeth and drew a chakra blade to meet the enemy.
But in his heart, he was shouting a line completely unsuited to his identity.
Minato Namikaze!
Where is Minato Namikaze!?
Save me!
Use that unmatched Flying Thunder God Technique of yours and save this old man!