Against an ordinary squad of elite Jōnin, even in numbers, the Hidden Cloud Village—one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations—would never have fallen into such a desperate struggle.
But the mysterious masked intruders who appeared this time possessed strength that far eclipsed the standard elite, coupled with abilities that defied all conventional logic.
The mere feat of sustained flight allowed them to look down upon ninety-nine percent of all shinobi. Had the Hidden Cloud not been situated atop jagged peaks, allowing the Cloud ninjas to use the Raikage Building and surrounding summits as springboards for mid-air strikes, they likely wouldn't have even been able to get close.
Furthermore, the mysterious figure wielding the scythe was a living nightmare. Any contact with the blade or its launched "wind blades" would instantly drain a victim's chakra, leaving them a hollow husk—dead or crippled in a heartbeat.
In the initial clash, under the desperate commands of Darui, Cee, and Mabui, the Cloud had already sacrificed two Jōnin and twelve Chūnin just to force the two hovering enemies into a corner.
However, once the two masked figures stood back-to-back, their coordination became even more impenetrable. Darui and Cee led several elite Jōnin in a multi-directional assault, only to see every strike dismantled. The battlefield had ground into a bloody stalemate.
In any hidden village, a Jōnin is considered the absolute pinnacle of combat power. Even at its peak, Konoha's Jōnin count rarely exceeded fifty. Currently, Konoha only had about thirty registered Jōnin, with a similar number of Special Jōnin. The Uchiha clan had been hailed as the "Greatest Clan" precisely because they maintained a standing force of over ten Jōnin; anyone who awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was virtually guaranteed to be an elite Jōnin-level powerhouse.
Yet now, a scene the Fourth Raikage would remember for the rest of his life was unfolding in the heart of his village.
Beneath the half-collapsed Raikage Building, as the smoke cleared, two masked figures hovered in mid-air. Back-to-back, they were holding off ten times their number of Cloud elites without yielding an inch of ground.
These were not merely "strong" enemies—they were monsters.
Responding to Ay's urgent summons, Mabui handed over the tactical command of her wing to Samui, who had just arrived. Samui was a blonde-haired beauty of the same age as Mabui—calm, incredibly knowledgeable, and one of Killer Bee's star pupils in swordsmanship.
"Raikage-sama!" Mabui rushed to Ay's side. "The Communication Corps has called for reinforcements! Lady Yugito will be here soon!"
The Hidden Cloud possessed two Jinchuriki, both of whom were "Perfect Jinchuriki." Once Yugito Nii and the rest of the village's forces arrived, the tide would surely turn.
"Bee! Use the Tailed Beast transformation!" Ay barked his orders, then whispered to Mabui, "Prepare to transport Bee and me to Unraikyo!"
At his brother's command, Killer Bee tapped directly into the Eight-Tails' chakra. A shroud of bubbling, crimson energy coated his skin, and eight tails of raw power began to thrash violently behind him. With his physical attributes exponentially boosted, Bee charged forward, blades in hand, to re-engage the masked man.
Simultaneously, the Fourth Raikage became a literal bolt of lightning, his chakra tearing through the air as he lunged from the opposite side.
"Double Lariat!"
Both men concentrated massive amounts of chakra into their elbows, aiming to decapitate their foe in a synchronized pincer move.
But just as the strike was about to connect—
BOOM—!
A surge of violent, dark-red chakra erupted from the mysterious masked man. It instantly formed a protective shroud around him, physically intercepting the twin-pronged assault!
CLANG!
Bee's Tailed Beast Shroud and Ay's Lightning Armor were halted a mere ten centimeters from the man's neck. The air screamed from the friction of the competing energies.
"Foolish~ what's the deal? This chakra is real~!" Bee's rap carried a note of genuine shock. He finally understood why Gyuki had warned him. This masked man's shroud was nearly identical to a Jinchuriki's—but the aura of darkness and malice it radiated was even more oppressive than that of the Eight-Tails!
"Mabui!" the Fourth Raikage roared.
Not far away, Mabui's face was grim as her hands blurred through signs. "Heavenly Transfer Jutsu!"
A sensation of space-tearing force instantly enveloped the Fourth Raikage, Killer Bee, and the masked intruder.
"I see." Feeling the vibration of the spatial shift, Menma looked at Mabui with newfound respect.
"In that case, take this."
Just as the teleportation took hold, Menma's right hand manifested a small, dark-purple orb of energy. At its core sat a violent, pitch-black chakra, wrapped in a high-frequency shell of wind-style energy.
The moment Menma and the AB Combo vanished, the Spiraling Ring drifted slowly toward the ground.
——————
Unraikyo (Cloud-Thunder Gorge)
The AB Combo and Uzumaki Menma materialized in the desolate gorge.
The second they hit the ground, Bee went into a full Tailed Beast transformation. The gargantuan form of the Eight-Tails, Gyuki, rose like a mountain from the valley floor.
"Yo~ Gyuki~ look at this guy~ which beast does his chakra imply~?" Bee asked internally.
Inside Bee's mental landscape, the Eight-Tails was caught in a spiral of confusion and dread. This chakra was familiar—drenched in the same darkness and malice as the Nine-Tails—and yet it was utterly alien. It was so contradictory that Gyuki felt its own senses failing.
"It's him... it is... no, it isn't... wait... is it?" The Eight-Tails was suffering a total crisis of identity.
"Bee! Give it everything!" Ay activated his ultimate Lightning Style Armor. High-intensity currents coated his body, and his hair stood on end as his power peaked.
Just as the two prepared to lunge, the masked man floated upward, standing in the sky and looking back toward the direction of the Hidden Cloud Village.
"Let's watch together," Menma's hollow voice echoed from behind the mask.
Ay and Bee were confused for only a moment.
In the distance, the Hidden Cloud—already shrouded in a black storm cloud—suddenly emitted a blinding flash of light.
The brothers watched in horror as a colossal mushroom cloud rose into the atmosphere, the searing light tearing the black clouds above the village to shreds. Thirty seconds later, the deafening roar of the explosion finally reached Unraikyo.
"You bastard! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Ay's eyes turned bloodshot. He leapt into the air, concentrating every scrap of lightning chakra into a hand-sword strike. "Horizontal Thousandfold Chop!"
The strike slammed into Menma's chakra shroud, but it didn't even cause a ripple.
"I've had enough fun for today," Menma chuckled softly, floating higher and higher.
"BEE!" Ay screamed.
The Tailed-Beast-form Bee braced his massive forelimbs against the earth, tilted his head back, and opened his maw. A pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb began to condense at a terrifying speed.
Looking down at the forming sphere of destruction, Menma's right hand manifested another dark-purple orb.
"This... is a parting gift."
Menma tossed the Great Spiraling Ring downward.
The orb drifted light as a feather, descending until it collided with the roaring Tailed Beast Bomb surging upward—
BOOM—!!!
A terrifying wave of energy erupted instantly, swallowing the entirety of Unraikyo in a blinding, white-hot void.