Chapter 366: Heavenly Transfer! A Nation on the Attack!
While two fierce and savage figures were locked in a wild and intense battle—
On the other side—
After the Hidden Cloud duo, A and B, left the Tenshukaku to confront the enemy, Jiraiya deliberately created a diversion to slip away. He secretly infiltrated the intelligence division built inside a stone pillar to investigate intelligence from within the Tenshukaku.
At the same time, someone else took advantage of the chaos to quietly slip away from the diplomatic delegation.
At that moment—
Amid the ruins of the fifty-meter city wall—
A young man wearing an Iwa headband and dressed in a purple monk's robe emerged from underground.
He gazed off into the distance at the two figures colliding with earth-shattering force, tearing through the ground and battling farther and farther away—
Only then did he finally let out a breath of relief.
"Whew..."
A deep fear still lingered on his face. Even after the two terrifyingly powerful figures had been blasted several kilometers away, Rōshi was still shaken. He touched his numb back—at some point, it had been drenched in cold sweat.
"Those two guys are monsters. Absolute monsters!"
"Especially that kid!"
"If he had unleashed this level of power last time, there's no way I could've faked my death right under his nose and escaped with my life!"
If not for a deal made between Iwa and Suna before coming here—where he obtained a death-simulation poison from Chiyo—he never would've been able to hide so securely, not with the Sharingan and Uchiha Ci's terrifying sensory abilities.
(Note: In the original series, Chiyo was highly skilled at playing dead. The anime even showcased this trait when she faked death to deceive Kankuro during the Fourth Great Ninja War. According to Chiyo herself, it was a mischievous habit of an old lady.)
"But still..."
Rōshi's eyes shifted, locking onto a pile of rubble split open from the impact.
That was the exact spot where Uchiha Ci, using the berserk power of his Susanoo, had brutally smashed the Third Raikage's head with his great sword—driving him into the ground like a nail.
The sheer blunt force had pierced even the strongest Lightning Release Armor, causing blood to pour from all seven of the Third Raikage's orifices. It was a devastating blow—nearly fatal.
Inevitably, some of the Raikage's blood had spilled on the scene.
Rōshi stared at the pool of blood atop the rubble, took two steps forward,
Then pulled out a prepared test tube from his robes,
He carefully collected the still-warm blood, and even dug out all the blood-soaked soil around it, sealing everything into a scroll.
"All that effort sneaking in this close… all the risks I took… it wasn't for nothing!"
Staring at the scroll in his hand, a deep hatred gleamed in Rōshi's eyes, followed by a crazed grin.
"This—this is the ultimate fruit of my efforts!"
"It will bring this entire country to ruin!"
Meanwhile—
Atop the Tenshukaku—
"We can now confirm that under the leadership of the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, Iwagakure has covertly stationed a force of ten thousand troops inside the Land of Lightning."
"And they intend to launch a war against the current chaos in Hidden Cloud that could determine the fate of their entire nation!"
"With one decisive strike—they plan to wipe the Land of Lightning off the shinobi world's chessboard!"
"To that end, they've dispatched large numbers of shinobi under the daimyo's authority to reinforce Yunming City—not merely to help Hidden Cloud take down Uchiha Ci and the Akatsuki you've formed."
"There must be another purpose behind all this preparation!"
After analyzing all the current intel,
Jiraiya stared solemnly at the massive rock river spanning a hundred thousand meters that now formed a new moat below the Tenshukaku. He spoke to Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan with grave intensity.
Nagato continued immediately, his voice tight with urgency,
"Not only that—"
"There's another key piece of intel we extracted from the brain of Higashi—"
"In addition to Higashi, another person was entrusted with an important mission directly from the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki!"
"That person—was Iwa's Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Rōshi!"
"We don't yet know what his objective is, but as a Jinchuriki—a living weapon—there's no way they'd place him so close to enemy territory at such a critical moment without a good reason."
"He may be the key to this entire operation!"
"If we can find him, we can trace the entire outline of Iwa's strategy—find out exactly what they're planning and—"
Nagato took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and looked heavily at the other three,
"Understand what we must do—"
"To stop this war before it begins!"
Hearing normally-reserved Nagato say so much in one breath, Yahiko, Konan, and even Jiraiya—who knew Nagato well—were momentarily stunned. They exchanged glances.
Then Yahiko nodded solemnly and declared,
"You're right. That's exactly what we must do—and what the Akatsuki was created for—"
"To stop war!"
At the side, watching the scene, Jiraiya couldn't help but smile with pride. In a flash, the three before him overlapped with the protagonists of Tales of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja, the book he had written. He couldn't resist ruffling Yahiko and Nagato's hair hard.
"You three... have really grown up."
Yahiko's face flushed slightly. He pushed Jiraiya's hand away and continued seriously,
"If they planned to use the Jinchuriki for direct assault—"
"Then why deploy the Four-Tails, and not the more powerful Five-Tails, whose abilities are better suited to counter the Third Raikage?"
"Jiraiya-sensei and Nagato's analysis is solid."
"Iwa's moves are never without purpose. Considering their earth-shaping techniques and the deployment of the Four-Tails Jinchuriki—"
"I believe their target is—"
Standing atop the six-hundred-meter-high Tenshukaku, Yahiko looked down over the vast battlefield and pointed toward the massive ravine formed by the hundred-thousand-meter rock river.
"Right there!"
"So—"
Just as Yahiko was about to assign tasks to Nagato and Konan—
Suddenly—
A dramatic change occurred!
From the intelligence division within the Tenshukaku—
"Fwoosh!"
A beam of lightning erupted from the mountain and shot skyward—carrying a scroll into the heavens!
"That's... the Heavenly Transfer Technique!?" Konan gasped at the piercing ray of light.
And the next moment—
BOOM!!
A monstrous beast over seventy meters tall burst from the ground beneath the Tenshukaku!
Its form resembled a red-furred gorilla, with four tails lashing violently behind it—each bearing black and yellow protrusions!
With a single sweep of its arm, the rooftops were smashed into rubble!
In an instant—
A fully transformed Tailed Beast had descended.
And with one step, it crushed the Tenshukaku that Hidden Cloud had spent a fortune to rebuild!
Then—
It suddenly turned its head, its gaze locking onto the massive rock river outside the inner city.
With a thunderous stomp, its giant ape arms thrust upward—
Fully transformed, it vaulted straight from the six-hundred-meter-tall Tenshukaku toward that ravine!
"As I suspected!"
Watching the scene, Yahiko's theory was completely confirmed. He locked his gaze onto the site and shouted in shock:
"He's going to trigger the underground magma!"
"He wants to fill the massive ravine formed by the hundred-thousand-meter rock river with molten lava—turning it into a deadly chasm that ordinary shinobi can't cross, trapping the eight thousand Hidden Cloud troops inside!"
Yahiko's eyes widened, his body trembling as he predicted aloud:
"Iwa..."
"Is about to launch a full-scale assault!"