"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash, Thirty-Two Fold..."
In a single move, Nagi unleashed thirty-two slashes, striking at the Fourth Raikage, A, like a golden thunderbolt. But even Thunder Breathing, with its explosive speed, was still a fraction too slow against A's Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Or perhaps, it was that Nagi himself wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough.
This exquisitely refined swordsmanship might have been enough to cut down any other opponent, but against the Fourth Raikage, it was mediocre at best. As mentioned before, if the speed was sufficient, the power was lacking; if the power was sufficient, the impact was not. Nagi's Thunderclap and Flash, Thirty-Two Fold, had just enough speed, especially after using the Flying Thunder God to ambush A from behind, but it lacked the power to break through his Lightning Armor.
Clang— After a shower of sparks, Nagi's longsword shattered into several pieces. A, on the other hand, protected by his Lightning Armor, was completely unscathed.
Instead of dodging or moving forward when Nagi attacked, A had turned and grabbed his hand.
"Now you can't run, heh heh," A sneered. "Lightning Release: Liger Bomb!"
Liger Bomb was a technique that concentrated lightning chakra into the elbow before striking the enemy. Like the Monstrous Strength Fist, it was a combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu. The Fourth Raikage hadn't dodged precisely for this moment.
Just as his elbow was about to slam into the person he thought would have his head instantly explode, his opponent swung his own bandaged left hand to meet the blow.
"You're asking for death!"
The Fourth Raikage could already picture the scene: his elbow would shatter the man's arm and then smash his body into a bloody pulp, either by piercing his chest or turning him into a fine red mist... But in that split second, he saw no fear of death in his opponent's eyes.
"Monstrous Strength Fist!"
Some had wondered what would happen if the Monstrous Strength Fist went up against the Raikage's power. In reality, the two had never truly fought. But one thing was certain: Tsunade's body, when using the Monstrous Strength Fist, was definitely more powerful than Nagi's. Her incredible physical constitution was proof enough. But while Nagi's body couldn't compare to Tsunade's, his left hand could be unleashed without any reservation. After all, its regenerative power was plain to see.
BOOM!
A deafening crash echoed through the air. The Kage guards were nearly deafened, their ears bleeding from the shockwave. The ground around the Raikage and Nagi spiderwebbed outwards from the point of impact and then collapsed entirely.
The Raikage was sent flying back hundreds of meters like a broken kite.
The result of the exchange was clear: the Monstrous Strength Fist had won.
"Raikage-sama!"
"Raikage-sama, are you alright?!"
The Kage guards were aghast, rushing over to check on the Raikage's condition. Darui, the jonin with a kekkei genkai and the future Fifth Raikage, stood grimly in front, ready to act as the Raikage's shield if Nagi decided to press his advantage.
"Get back! I'm not dead yet!"
With a roar, A stood up from the rubble. The Kage guards breathed a sigh of relief. The Raikage's Lightning Armor was still active, which meant he wasn't seriously injured. But the powerful impact of the Monstrous Strength Fist had still caused him some damage. The Raikage wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. There were no external injuries, but the physical shock had still hurt him. It was a minor injury, not fatal.
Nagi narrowed his eyes. The Raikage's "turtle shell" was too hard, clearly on the same level as a Susanoo, and that was on top of his already incredibly powerful body. The most impressive example was his father, the Third Raikage, who had taken a Wind Style: Rasenshuriken with his bare body, without even needing his Lightning Armor. And after taking the hit, his body wasn't even pulverized; it didn't even need to be reassembled by the Edo Tensei... But could A reach his father's level? Probably not.
BOOM!
With a loud roar, A charged forward again, this time even faster than before. His rage had pushed his strength to a new level. Nagi wasn't foolish enough to get into another punching match with him. With a flash of the Flying Thunder God, he teleported a safe distance away.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
The Fourth Raikage narrowed his eyes. Looking at the shape of the pinwheel, it was a ninjutsu that fused two chakra nature transformations. Getting hit by a technique like that would be disastrous. Mei Terumi's fusion of two kekkei genkai had been able to break through a Susanoo, and the Rasenshuriken was of a similar caliber. But the Fourth Raikage was no fool; he wasn't going to just stand there and take the hit.
"So, how are you going to hit me? There are no Flying Thunder God markers around here for you."
Just by throwing it from a distance, even if this pinwheel was fast, was it faster than Amaterasu? A's speed was so great that even Amaterasu couldn't catch him.
The Kage guards understood at once. With a flurry of ninjutsu, they cleared away all the nearby Flying Thunder God kunai. The Flying Thunder God Technique seemed powerful, but once you knew how it worked, it was possible to counter it with targeted tactics. The truly difficult opponent was a ninja like the Fourth Raikage, who combined speed, strength, and defense into one seamless package. He was seemingly invincible, with no weaknesses. Even Itachi's genjutsu would have a hard time affecting A when he was wrapped in a layer of lightning chakra. The only thing that had ever given A trouble was the unquenchable black flames of Amaterasu... Unfortunately, Nagi couldn't yet control Amaterasu well enough to add it to his Rasenshuriken. No, there was a way, but he would have to wait a few years to get it...
The Rasenshuriken hurtled towards the Fourth Raikage with unstoppable momentum, the hissing of the wind sounding like Kakashi's Chidori, a constant, shrieking cry.
Just as the Fourth Raikage dodged the Rasenshuriken, Nagi vanished from his spot.
Hmm? He disappeared. Is he trying to ambush me?
As fast as the Raikage was, he was no match for the Flying Thunder God. The moment Nagi vanished from his sight, he began searching for him. But every time he landed, he had calculated the positions of the nearby Flying Thunder God markers, even accounting for Nagi's Second Step... But this time, there were no markers near him.
Suddenly, a hand rested on his shoulder. The instant it touched him, the Fourth Raikage immediately swung his elbow back, but the scenery before him shifted. In less than a tenth of a second, not only had his attack hit empty air, but he had appeared in a different location.
Before he could even process what had happened, a giant, hissing pinwheel, like a death symphony, slammed into him.
Nagi had reappeared in another location, a faint smile on his face. "Enjoy it. A gift from Prince Naruto, the giant pinwheel... the Rasenshuriken."
Just now, Nagi had used another skill he had never before shown to anyone: Mind Teleporter. He had teleported behind the Fourth Raikage and then used the Flying Thunder God to move him directly into the path of the Rasenshuriken he had just dodged. So, the Fourth Raikage had dodged the Rasenshuriken the first time, but he had never expected to be teleported by Nagi directly in front of the giant pinwheel, taking the full force of the blow...
"Aaargh!" the Fourth Raikage roared in agony.
The giant pinwheel that would one day hit Kakuzu and make him its first test subject had now struck the Fourth Raikage. The two-hundred-and-twenty-centimeter-tall giant... one had to wonder if he was regretting his impulsiveness. He frantically poured out his chakra, trying to maintain his Lightning Chakra Mode, because he knew that if his Lightning Armor broke, he would probably die. This pinwheel-like ninjutsu was making his sixth sense scream in alarm. Danger! Danger!
The pinwheel carried him back for hundreds of meters, crashing through countless trees and walls before finally getting stuck on a giant boulder, giving him a point of leverage.
"Get off me!" The Fourth Raikage, his back against the giant rock and his feet planted firmly on the ground, finally found his footing. With a mighty heave, he pushed the giant pinwheel up into the sky.
The pinwheel continued to hiss as it flew upwards, on a trajectory that might just take it out of the atmosphere and into the moon.
After it was all over, the Fourth Raikage was a bloody mess. Although his Lightning Armor had ultimately withstood the cutting force of the pinwheel, it had still broken at the moment he pushed it away. Even if it was only for a split second, the powerful and minute cutting force of the Wind Style had still injured him. His physical durability was a far cry from his father's. His father was a peerless warrior who had single-handedly held off an army of twenty thousand Land of Earth ninja for three days and three nights, and in the end, he wasn't killed, but had died of sheer exhaustion. For three days and three nights, Onoki probably couldn't have just watched him slaughter his ninja. The only possibility was that Onoki couldn't beat him, or couldn't hit him, and could only fly around in the sky in a frustrated panic.
The two faced each other from a distance once more. In this round, the Fourth Raikage was injured. Nagi was the victor.
Actually, Nagi had considered using Amaterasu. But Amaterasu was only a burning flame that clung to its target like a maggot. If he hit the Fourth Raikage with it, he would still be able to jump around for a long time. As long as his chakra wasn't depleted and his Lightning Armor was still active, Amaterasu couldn't harm him. So, in the end, he had chosen to use the Rasenshuriken to deal with him. He hadn't expected his Lightning Chakra Mode to be so powerful that it could even block the Rasenshuriken.
Swoosh swoosh...
Just then, from all directions, an endless stream of figures appeared, surrounding the Raikage and his men. They were the samurai of the Land of Iron.
"Fourth Raikage, A! Why have you come to our Land of Iron and killed our leader, Mifune-sama?!" a leading samurai demanded angrily, and the others echoed his sentiment.
"Land of Lightning, do you want to go to war with the Land of Iron? The Land of Iron is a permanently neutral country!"
Dozens of samurai surrounded the Fourth Raikage. Someone had seen him fighting with Mifune and had gone to notify the others. Mifune's body had been placed by Nagi not far from the battlefield.
However, the Fourth Raikage completely ignored this bunch of rotten potatoes and smelly eggs. Even if a thousand of them came, it wouldn't be enough for him to fight. The only one he was wary of was the Uchiha before him, who could use space-time ninjutsu and break through his defense.
Nagi was also hesitating. Should he finish off the Fourth Raikage here? He didn't care about the consequences of changing the course of history, but the fallout would be... If the Fourth Raikage died in the Land of Iron, the Land of Lightning would surely send an army to attack. He could, of course, just leave, but what would happen to the Land of Iron? He had just caused Mifune's death; could he really bring disaster upon his country as well? Wouldn't that be going too far?
He had stolen the Island Turtle. The Hidden Cloud ninja had died on their way back, surely because of him. Then A had come for revenge, and Mifune had stood in his way, only to meet a tragic end. Now, he had died because of him, and with his dying breath, he had entrusted him with passing down the Breathing Style he had worked so hard to create to the samurai of the Land of Iron... It was because of these thoughts that Nagi hesitated. Otherwise, he could have just finished A off with an Amaterasu before he had a chance to reform his Lightning Armor. And once A was dead, his Kage guards, including the seemingly powerful future Raikage, Darui, would be no match for him. He could kill them easily. But right now, the Fourth Raikage was only injured, not seriously. That's why Nagi was hesitating. There was still a chance for both sides to back down.
"Raikage-sama, we should retreat," Darui, still just a Kage guard, said in a low voice to the Fourth Raikage. "If we don't retreat now, I'm afraid there will be big trouble."
He was right. More and more samurai were gathering. The Land of Iron, being a neutral country, didn't have a single village that the entire nation supported like Konoha. It was relatively loose, but it had its own organizations. Now, hundreds of samurai had already gathered...
"Hmph. A bunch of rabble. No need to pay them any mind." The Raikage wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The Land of Iron had no one who could fight. He wasn't afraid at all. Their strongest man, Mifune, the so-called sword saint, had been dealt with in just a few moves.
"Raikage-sama, now is not the time to talk about that. You are the Kage of the village; you cannot afford any mishaps," Darui advised calmly. "As your Kage guards, it is our duty to protect you. If anything happens to you, we can only atone with our lives."
"Let's go, Raikage-sama."
"Live to fight another day, Raikage-sama."
The other Kage guards, whether out of genuine concern for A or fear for their own lives, kept urging the Raikage to leave. Finally, after some hesitation, the Raikage nodded in agreement. The Kage guards breathed a collective sigh of relief. They weren't going to die...
"You guys go first. I'll cover the rear," Darui said. With his kekkei genkai, he was stronger than a regular jonin, on the level of a special jonin. Holding off this group of samurai shouldn't be a problem.
But...
This is tricky. A man with space-time ninjutsu and the Mangekyo... Darui thought, his head aching. The Raikage could ignore the Mangekyo's genjutsu because the layer of lightning chakra armor wrapped around his body was similar to the raging chakra of Guy's Eight Gates. A genjutsu's chakra would have to penetrate the Raikage's lightning armor before it could enter his mind. So, when A's armor was active, he was immune to genjutsu, just like Guy. But Darui was not...
Nagi was also hesitating. Should he kill the Raikage? If he activated his Yin Seal and went all out, he should be able to do it...