Smoke and fire still rose from the broken shell of Iwagakure, the once-proud Rock Shinobi Village now reduced to smoldering rubble in several districts. Craters marred the ground. Streets had become trenches. Buildings were nothing but cracked stone and ash.
And hovering above it all, with fury in his eyes and chakra blazing around his body like a storm, stood the Fourth Raikage—Ai.
Opposite him, old but still proud, was Third Tsuchikage Ohnoki. The aged leader of Iwagakure floated midair, his fists clenched and face twisted in fury.
"FOURTH RAIKAGE! YOU DARE BRING WAR TO MY DOOR? YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" Ohnoki shouted, his voice trembling not with fear, but with rage.
For a Kage to personally lead an attack on another great village without warning—it wasn't war. It was madness.
The Fourth Raikage, lightning dancing around his frame, grinned with contempt. "You know what you did, Ohnoki. Don't play the victim. You think you can hide behind words after what your beast did to my people?"
As the two titans clashed, the very sky seemed to tremble. Raikage shot forward, covered in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, the fastest man alive—like a bolt from the heavens. But Ohnoki was no ordinary old man.
"You're not the only one with deadly tricks!" Ohnoki roared, forming a hand sign with one hand while levitating. A brilliant white cube began to glow between his palms.
Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!
This terrifying bloodline limit could disintegrate anything it touched. But even such a devastating power had a weakness: it needed to land a hit.
Raikage was too fast.
With a sonic boom, he narrowly dodged the Dust Release cube, which shot into the distance and vaporized an entire building behind him.
"Tch... You're good at tearing things apart, old man!" Raikage mocked, dashing in from another angle.
Their battle shook the earth. The Tsuchikage Building collapsed into a pile of rubble under the combined assault of Raikage's brute strength and Ohnoki's Dust Release. Stone walls crumbled. Craters opened beneath them. Villagers fled in panic.
In the chaos, Ohnoki's old body faltered.
"Argh! My back—damn it…!" he winced. In his fury, he'd strained his waist again, an old wound that haunted him in every major battle.
Still, he gritted his teeth and remained floating.
---
Elsewhere in Iwagakure, the Cloud Shinobi invasion force continued its terrifying advance. From the eastern cliffs to the central granary, they moved like a blade through butter—unstoppable.
In just ten minutes, Raikage's forces had punched deep into the heart of the village.
The tailed beast squads had already wreaked havoc. And now, under the leadership of elite Jonin like Tutai, Cloud Shinobi began pulling back—mission accomplished.
"Raikage! You bastard! Do you really want to go to war with Rock Shinobi over this?! What will you gain?" Ohnoki shouted from above, even as pain lanced up his spine.
Raikage didn't answer immediately. His fist clenched tightly as he thought of his father—the previous Raikage, who had died in a tragic attack from Iwagakure.
A Tailed Beast Bomb from the Four-Tails… unleashed without warning. No apology. No justice. Only silence.
"You talk about war? YOU declared it the day your beast killed my father!" Raikage thundered. "You should've expected I'd come for blood one day. Today, I collect."
With a roar, Raikage leapt back into battle, fists flashing like lightning. Ohnoki raised his palms again to release another Dust Release technique, but—again—missed.
Something was strange.
Ohnoki squinted. Raikage's attacks were weakening. His forces were pulling back. The two Tailed Beasts had vanished from the battlefield.
"What's going on…?" Ohnoki muttered.
And then, Raikage landed on the ground below and looked up.
"You surprised me, old man. Still sharp after all these years. But this isn't over."
At that moment, a subtle flash came from a Cloud Shinobi communicator. It was the signal to withdraw—Dodai had completed the secondary mission.
With a grunt, Raikage turned his back.
"We'll finish this later. Don't get too comfortable."
"H-Hey! You can't just attack and leave!" Ohnoki shouted, floating forward. "You think Iwagakure is some playground?!"
He tried to press forward, but pain in his waist made him wince again.
"Argh… my back again?! Curse this old age!"
Still, the old war hawk of the Stone would not allow himself to collapse before the enemy.
"Gather every available shinobi! Summon the Jounin Command! I want a full-scale combat unit formed and dispatched to the borders immediately!" Ohnoki roared.
"**And send word to the Daimyo—**we are at war!"
---
Though Ohnoki burned with rage, he knew better than to rush into a reckless counterattack. The Cloud Shinobi had shown they weren't just about brute strength—they'd struck with terrifying precision.
Even if he sent pursuit forces now, Raikage alone could destroy them. And there were still two perfect Jinchūriki in the Cloud's ranks.
No. He had to be smart.
"There will be a next time… and when it comes, we'll be ready." Ohnoki vowed.
The war had begun—and it would not end quickly.
---
Meanwhile, far across the border, Raikage's forces were already retreating into Earth Country's outskirts, leaving a trail of devastation. But they didn't look back.
They'd done what they came to do:
Weaken Rock Shinobi's infrastructure.
Test Iwagakure's defenses.
Destroy key food and weapon storage.
Raikage had chosen not to finish the fight—not yet. He understood that if the war dragged out too long, other great villages might take advantage of their weakened position.
If the Cloud was stuck in a quagmire, Konoha, Sunagakure, or even Kirigakure might invade.
This was only the beginning.
As was tradition in all past ninja wars, the major battles would eventually move to the borderlands or neutral countries caught between the great powers.
Small nations—like the Land of Grass, the Land of Rivers, or the Land of Birds—would become unwilling warzones once again. Innocent people would suffer. Small villages would be trampled under the weight of giants.
But there was no stopping it now.
---
Back at Iwagakure, Ohnoki stood among the rubble of the Tsuchikage Building, his fists trembling as his Anbu arrived with reports.
"Tsuchikage-sama! Nearly seventy percent of the village is damaged!" one ninja said with a pale face.
"We have five hundred confirmed casualties… and two hundred eighteen shinobi are dead."
"Twenty of them were Jōnin."
Silence.
No one dared speak as those numbers settled like ash over the crowd.
"Tsuchikage-sama… the logistics depot was hit. All stored rations and weapons were either looted or destroyed. Half the food is gone. The rest was set on fire. And the treasury—our silver coin reserves—was emptied."
Ohnoki's knees buckled.
"Wha…?"
And then, his vision swam, and the next moment—
He collapsed.
"Tsuchikage-sama!!" several ninjas shouted.
"Get the medical corps! Hurry!"
---
Cloud Shinobi had come like a thunderstorm and left like a gust of wind. But the damage was done.
The scars would take far longer to heal than the buildings.
And in the distance, war drums were already beating louder.
--------------------------------------------------
Get membership in patreon to read more chapters
Extra chapters available in patreon
patreon.com/Dragonscribe31
-----------------------------------------------------