"Given the losses you've taken, Kirigakure only needs to commit two thousand shinobi to the coming war," Natsuki said after a moment's thought.
"Agreed." Mei didn't hesitate.
Two thousand was nothing. If anything, it was insultingly little — a war with Kumogakure would demand six or seven thousand at minimum. Which meant Konoha intended to field five thousand of its own.
"In a week, send word for Ao to come home," Natsuki added.
Mei's eyebrows climbed. Konoha expected to drive Sunagakure off in a week?
"Understood, Natsuki-sensei." She chose to take him at his word.
"Are there any undersea volcanoes nearby?" Natsuki was already thinking about his newly acquired Magu Magu no Mi.
"There are." Mei swallowed her questions. "Kirigakure keeps detailed charts of them."
Eruptions were a real hazard in these waters. The village had surveyed and mapped every one for safety's sake.
"Then let's go get them." Natsuki raised a hand and tore open a rift.
The two of them stepped through and came out inside the Mizukage's office in Kirigakure.
This Space-Time Ninjutsu really is absurdly convenient, Mei thought.
And absurdly dangerous, in the wrong hands. If an enemy with that kind of technique could walk in and out of Kirigakure whenever he pleased — a man with Natsuki's strength, no less — how much damage could he do before anyone even sounded an alarm?
Fortunate, then, that he wasn't an enemy. For now.
She found the chart quickly and handed it over.
"Get your defenses in order," Natsuki said, then opened another rift and sent her back to the Mist's temporary camp.
He returned to Konoha alone.
"Mikoto." He spotted Uchiha Mikoto the moment he stepped into the Hokage's office. "Round up the advisors and the aides. Meeting, now."
"Yes, sir."
She changed and left.
Before long, Tsunade, Nawaki, Uzumaki Kushina, and the rest had assembled.
"Kirigakure has agreed to work with us," Natsuki said, cutting straight to it.
"So we march for the Land of Water?" Nawaki asked.
"We split." Natsuki laid it out. "One force to the Land of Water. The other to the Land of Lightning."
The Mist and the Sand were both already in his pocket. Iwagakure had been beaten badly enough that it wouldn't be causing trouble for a while.
Since the founding of the Five Great Villages, no hidden village had ever been fully occupied by another.
Natsuki intended to find out what happened if one was — and whether taking Kumogakure outright would unlock a new template.
"Minato. Five thousand shinobi to the Land of Lightning," he said.
"Yes, Lord Hokage." Namikaze Minato answered instantly.
"Tsunade-sensei, Nawaki — two thousand to the Land of Water."
He looked at Tsunade as he said it. He knew her well enough to expect a refusal. With Nawaki's name attached to the order, that refusal became a great deal less likely.
"Yes!" Nawaki practically vibrated with excitement.
Tsunade simply nodded.
"Move out immediately. Get there as fast as you can." Natsuki paused. "I'll buy Kirigakure some time."
"By yourself?" The question was out of Kushina's mouth before she could stop it.
"By myself is plenty." Natsuki chuckled.
"You're the Hokage." Tsunade frowned. "Since when does the Hokage walk into a war zone alone?"
"I won't be alone — the Mist's shinobi are already there. And I have Space-Time Ninjutsu." He waved the topic away before it could grow legs. "Enough. We're wasting daylight. Dismissed."
"...Watch yourself," Tsunade said, and left it there.
Kushina's lip curled — she was clearly unhappy — but she didn't argue either.
The meeting broke up. Tsunade, Nawaki, Minato and the others filed out without lingering, leaving only Mikoto and Kushina behind.
Natsuki glanced at Mikoto.
She blinked, took his meaning, said her goodbyes, and slipped out of the office.
Natsuki crossed the room and pulled Kushina into his arms, kissing her before she could get a word out.
She melted against him almost immediately. When they finally broke apart, her face was flushed and she was glaring at him.
"Relax," Natsuki said, smiling at the shine on her lips. "If things go badly, I'll come straight back for you. Then everyone gets to see what you can do."
"Really?" Kushina's eyes lit up.
She'd been angling to fight at his side for months.
"Have I ever lied to you?" He gave her thigh a light pinch.
"Break that promise and you're not setting foot in the room with me and Nonou again." Kushina rolled her eyes and jabbed a finger into his chest.
"That's cold."
"I'm not joking!" She planted her hands on her hips.
Natsuki's gaze drifted, entirely without his permission.
"Noted," he said, smiling. "We'll go over the details tonight."
Kushina froze, her face going hot. But unlike Mikoto, she wasn't the type to be flustered into retreat — she lifted her chin and nodded, looking ready to take him up on it.
Once Kushina had gone, Natsuki stepped through another rift and arrived in the Kazekage's office in Sunagakure.
Pakura looked up.
"End the war with Kirigakure," he said, crossing to her desk.
"Why?" She looked genuinely confused. He was the one who'd told Sunagakure to declare war on the Mist in the first place.
"Konoha reached an agreement with them this morning. We're helping them push Kumogakure back."
"Kirigakure agreed?" Pakura's frown deepened — and then, abruptly, cleared. "You put Terumi Mei in the hat, didn't you?"
Two things made it obvious. First, she'd taken the Kazekage's seat on his backing herself. Second, Mei was far too young; by any normal reckoning she should never have beaten out Yagura and the rest.
With Natsuki behind her, though, it made perfect sense.
Pakura knew exactly what the blood curse could do.
"That's right," Natsuki said.
Pakura opened her mouth and found she had nothing to say.
He was the Hokage of Konoha. He now held Sunagakure and Kirigakure in his hand as well.
Three of the Five Great Villages. And counting.
What was he actually building toward?
Whatever it was, she couldn't stop him. Worse — she was going to help him do it.
"If the rest of your council balks, tell them Konoha threatened you," Natsuki said. "That'll be true enough for their purposes."
"Mm." Pakura nodded.
In truth, Sunagakure could no longer be pried loose from Konoha's economy. The rainwater contracts and the hydroelectric ventures had bound the two villages together tightly enough that cutting the cord would gut the Sand.
That dependence was the real reason Sunagakure had never marched on the Leaf during this war — Pakura's influence was only part of it. Attack Konoha, lose the trade, and the ledger came out worse than if they'd never drawn a kunai.
And, of course, there was the other reason. They couldn't win.
After Konoha's crushing victory over Iwagakure, the Sand's leadership had made its peace with reality.
Although if the Leaf were routed by the Cloud, that calculation would change overnight. Even Pakura would struggle to hold them back then.
Konoha was simply too rich to leave alone.
"My work here is finished," Pakura said suddenly, her voice quieter than before.
Natsuki met her eyes. There was something soft and unguarded in them.
He looked down at her — the fine line of her collarbone, the rise and fall of her breathing — and stopped pretending he had anywhere else to be.
She reached for him, and the rest of the afternoon belonged to the two of them.
The next day. Land of Water, Kumogakure's forward camp.
"Lord Raikage, urgent report." The Anbu operative's voice was tight. "Konoha and Kirigakure have signed a cooperation pact and jointly declared war on us. Konoha has also split its forces — one column moving on the Land of Water, one on the Land of Lightning."
"So that's why the Mist kept stalling!" The Third Raikage's temper snapped instantly. "That girl playing Mizukage has a death wish!"
The fattest prize of the war had been halfway down his throat, and someone else had yanked it out.
Dodai, for his part, was simply surprised.
As far as he could recall, this was the first time in history Konoha had declared war on anyone.
Partly that came down to the temperament of its Hokage. But the real reason was geography and wealth — the Leaf sat on the best land in the shinobi world and had never needed a war to prosper.
Which made this new Hokage, Natsuki, a genuinely restless creature.
"How many did they send?" the Third Raikage asked, forcing the anger down.
"Five thousand toward the Land of Lightning. Two thousand toward the Land of Water."
"Seven thousand." He let out a cold snort. "That's a serious number."
Konoha and Kumogakure were the two strongest villages in the world, but even for them, putting seven thousand shinobi in the field at once was no small thing.
It meant the Leaf wasn't posturing.
"We have to return to the Land of Lightning immediately," Dodai said grimly.
Whatever happened in the Land of Water was ultimately someone else's problem. The Land of Lightning was theirs. Losing it was unthinkable.
"So we just let the Mist walk?" A demanded, scowling.
"Of course we don't." The Third Raikage didn't hesitate. "I'll stay. You take our people home."
Both fronts needed a commander, and Kumogakure had exactly two men qualified to be one — himself and his son.
"When did the Leaf columns move out?" Dodai asked, struck by a sudden thought.
"Yesterday, around midday."
"From Konoha to either border is a two-day march, minimum, even at a dead sprint." Dodai's grim expression cracked into something close to eagerness. "Which means that right now, there is nothing in the Land of Water but fewer than two thousand Mist shinobi."
"You're right." The Third Raikage's eyes narrowed. "We can break Kirigakure's back before a single Leaf shinobi sets foot on these islands."
"The one variable is Natsuki," Dodai warned. "He has Space-Time Ninjutsu."
"Irrelevant." The Third Raikage's confidence didn't waver. "One man on his own can harass us. Nothing more."
He had fought Namikaze Minato before. The Flying Thunder God was an irritating technique, but that was all it was. He carried the strongest shield and the strongest spear in the world, and Minato had never once broken through his guard — nor dared close the distance, knowing a single clean hit would put him down.
By reputation, Natsuki was Minato with the dial turned higher.
The Third Raikage still liked his own odds.
"No more delays." He started issuing orders. "A — take the main force back to the Land of Lightning now. Leave me four thousand."
"Yes, Father."
"Dodai, you hold the camp. I'm taking three thousand and hitting Kirigakure's base directly."
"Yes, Lord Raikage."
Three thousand against two. However you turned the numbers over, the advantage was theirs. Even adding Natsuki to the scales didn't change it.
Natsuki's most impressive kill to date was Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki.
The Third Raikage's record was better. He had beaten Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, more times than he could count.
"Move out!"
A and Killer B led the main body north toward the Land of Lightning. Under Dodai's direction, the remaining three thousand formed up within minutes and set off behind the Third Raikage.
They were halfway there when the sensor Jonin at the head of the formation called out.
"Lord Raikage."
"What is it?"
"There's a single shinobi on the island ahead."
"One?" The Third Raikage frowned. "Who?"
"He isn't concealing himself at all." The sensor hesitated. "Going by his face... I believe it's the Fourth Hokage. Natsuki."
"Natsuki? You're certain?"
The Third Raikage came to a dead stop.
"I've never met him in person, but I've seen his portrait," the sensor said.
"So Dodai was right. He got here early." The Third Raikage exhaled. "Surround the island."
"Yes, Lord Raikage!"
The formation split and swept in from every direction.
From a distance, the Third Raikage could make out a lone figure standing at the waterline. He closed the gap in a single burst of speed.
"So it really is you." He looked Natsuki up and down. "Fourth Hokage."
"Lord Raikage." Natsuki smiled. "I'm glad you came."
"Your village has an agreement with the Mist."
"We do."
"And you came alone." The Third Raikage's voice went cold. "You should know the last Kage who thought Space-Time Ninjutsu made him untouchable died to Cloud shinobi."
He meant the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. Kinkaku and Ginkaku had never been disavowed as rogues, which made them Kumogakure's, in the end.
"Feel free to try," Natsuki said, unbothered.
The words had barely left his mouth before the air split with thunder.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
Lightning sheathed the Third Raikage from head to heel. One step, and he was inside Natsuki's guard, boot already coming around in a kick that warped the air and cracked a sonic boom across the beach.
Armament Haki!
Natsuki kicked back.
The two legs met, and the shockwave flattened the water for fifty meters in every direction.
The Third Raikage rocked back on his heel, genuinely startled.
In Chakra Mode, his taijutsu was the finest in the shinobi world, bar none. And this man had just matched it — with taijutsu of his own.
He gave ground half a step and drove his fist forward instead, lightning boiling around the knuckles, aimed straight at Natsuki's heart.
Natsuki didn't move an inch. He simply punched back.
Raw force met crackling lightning, and the discharge detonated between them.
The Third Raikage's expression changed as his own body betrayed him, sliding backward step by step. Every heel-strike blew a crater in the sand. He didn't manage to arrest himself until his back was nearly to the surf.
Around the island, three thousand Cloud shinobi stared.
What? Their Raikage — losing a straight exchange of fists?
Natsuki wasn't surprised in the least. He was currently carrying the physical strength of the Sakazuki template.
The Third Raikage studied him, all traces of humor gone. He drew a long breath and extended his right arm.
Lightning Style: Lariat!
He blurred forward, his arm rigid as a blade, and swept it toward Natsuki's throat.
Lightning Style: Lightning Blade!
Natsuki met it with a knife-hand, lightning wrapping his fingers.
The discharge tore outward in a white sheet. The ground between them scorched black in an instant, and the pressure wave whipped up a gale that sent sand screaming across the island.
The Third Raikage was driven back again.
Only two steps this time — but blood was running down his right forearm.
It dripped into the sand. Every Cloud shinobi watching went very still.
The Third Raikage glanced at the wound, and the lightning around him surged.
A pressure like a physical weight rolled off him and climbed into the sky. Thunder rolled without pause. The glare became painful to look at.
This was Chakra Mode's true form. The Ultimate Lightning Armor.
Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite!
He moved.
Every scrap of lightning in his body funneled into a single fingertip, and he came in like a thrown spear, driving that finger at Natsuki's chest.
Hell Stab was the Third Raikage's finest weapon, and the fewer fingers he used, the more devastating it became. The one-finger form was the reason the world called him the strongest spear.
In the original timeline, he had severed all eight of the Eight-Tails' tails with this technique.
Natsuki felt the first real prickle of danger. Even with his body, taking that head-on and walking away unmarked would be a tall order.
So he wouldn't take it head-on.
Armament Haki. Reinforcement Magic. Monstrous Strength.
Natsuki closed his fist.
Chakra flooded into his arm. Invisible Haki coiled over it in a second skin. Layered twice over, his guard was no weaker than the Ultimate Lightning Armor itself.
He swung.
The wind of the punch alone hit like an avalanche.
The Third Raikage's breath caught — but he was already committed, the strike beyond recall, and all he could do was meet a fist with a finger.
BOOM.
The detonation flattened everything for a hundred meters. The ground beneath them split and dropped away into twin craters.
Out of the smoke and the scattering lightning, the Third Raikage's body came flying backward.
"Lord Raikage!"
Two Cloud Jonin lunged to catch him — and were sent tumbling themselves, faces blanching at the sheer momentum still in him.
More rushed in behind them.
"Don't touch me!" the Third Raikage barked.
The Ultimate Lightning Armor had held. He wrenched himself under control and landed hard, boots gouging furrows in the sand.
His right arm had gone numb from the shoulder down. The finger throbbed with a deep, splintering pain — he wasn't sure it wasn't broken.
He looked up at Natsuki and couldn't make himself believe it.
Kumogakure had a file on this man. The Third Raikage had read it more times than he could count.
Nowhere in it was there a word about taijutsu like that.
What Natsuki was known for — to the Cloud, to the entire shinobi world — was space-time manipulation. The Doa Doa no Mi. And Unlimited Blade Works, which was the one that truly mattered.
Beyond those, there was Hado #99: Five Swirling Dragons of Destruction. And Wood Style.
"Your strength is remarkable," the Third Raikage said at last. "But you are still one man."
Every Cloud shinobi who knew him understood exactly what he'd just conceded.
They had watched it happen with their own eyes and still couldn't accept it. To them, the Third Raikage had always been unbeatable.
Until today, he had never lost.
"Anbu, hold position! Everyone else, move on the Mist's camp!" he roared.
If he couldn't kill Natsuki, he'd pin him. The point of this march was Kirigakure, not one man on a beach.
"Yes, Lord Raikage!"
"Is that so?" Natsuki raised both hands, unhurried.
The Third Raikage tensed. So did the Anbu around him.
The rest of the formation turned to run.
That was when the world lurched.
The island shook. The sea heaved. A scorching pressure rolled over the water as, somewhere beneath it, a volcano tore itself open and vomited magma into the deep.
The Third Raikage's head snapped left, then right, and he scowled.
Natsuki had done this deliberately — that much was obvious.
Fortunately, it was only one volcano.
"Go! Now!" he bellowed.
And then his heart seized.
Natsuki's hands were turning to magma.
"Lava Style?"
He didn't get the chance to finish the thought.
Natsuki's fists were already moving.
Chakra erupted out of him and took shape — fist after fist of molten rock, hammered skyward faster than the eye could follow, until the air above the island was thick with them.
Then they fell.
"Scatter!" the Third Raikage shouted.
The Cloud shinobi broke in every direction as the magma fists slammed down around them.
For half a heartbeat, the Third Raikage allowed himself to think they'd made it.
Then his eyes went wide. "No—"
Every fist detonated at once.
In the space of a blink, the island and the water around it became a single burning lake. The shinobi who had dodged the impacts and thought themselves safe were already cooking where they stood, dying in the heat before they understood what had happened to them.
Magu Magu no Mi: Ryusei Kazan — Meteor Volcano.
In the war that had ended an era, this technique had sunk half a pirate armada. The falling magma was only the opening; the secondary detonations were what did the killing, spreading a molten lake two kilometers across.
At Natsuki's full output, it was several times that.
It covered all three thousand of them.
"I'll kill you!"
The Third Raikage's rage went past speech. He could do nothing for the men burning behind him — nothing at all — so he did the only thing left to him and threw himself at the man responsible.
Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite!
Everything he had left went into it. He crossed the distance like a runaway train.
And his finger passed clean through Natsuki's chest.
The Third Raikage faltered.
That was wrong. After the strength Natsuki had shown, no strike should have landed that easily.
Then he saw why.
There was no blood around the wound. Where flesh should have been, molten rock oozed slowly back into place.
His mind went instantly to the Hozuki clan and their Hydrification Technique — the ability to dissolve the body into water and let attacks pass harmlessly through. It had its counters, of course. Lightning. Ice.
This was the same thing, made of magma instead. And it had swallowed his strongest technique without so much as a ripple.
Which meant nothing in his arsenal could touch this man at all.
By the time he understood that, it was already far too late.
Magu Magu no Mi: Meigo — Hellhound.
Natsuki's molten arms came around at the Third Raikage's head.
The impact hit the Ultimate Lightning Armor first, and the blinding corona of it guttered and dimmed under the heat.
The Third Raikage felt the force of it in his bones and threw himself backward on pure reflex, an animal fleeing the edge of death.
Magu Magu no Mi: Inugami Guren — Crimson Lotus Hellhound.
With the armor all but extinguished, Natsuki's arms reshaped themselves into a pair of snarling hounds.
They tore free and struck.
The Third Raikage screamed once. Heat beyond anything a human body was built to endure blackened his skin in an instant, and the sound died in his throat as he went down.
Where the hounds had bitten, there was nothing left at all.
"Lord Raikage!"
The survivors cried out as one — and then ran, scattering outward across the water. There was no time to grieve.
Natsuki let them go.
There weren't many left to chase. Of the three thousand who had set out that morning, the island had swallowed nearly all of them.
He turned his head toward the far end of the beach.
Terumi Mei was standing there, staring, her mouth slightly open.
She'd been afraid he couldn't hold the Third Raikage's force by himself, so she had slipped out to watch.
She had not expected to see this.
Two questions circled in her head, and nothing else could get past them.
Why could Natsuki use Lava Style?
And why, in the name of everything, was it that strong?
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