After hearing Ash's words, the Fourth Raikage spoke—and the moment his voice fell, his right arm and Killer B's left arm simultaneously clamped down on Ash's head.
"Damn it, Kumogakure is truly shameless." Seeing the Raikage and Killer B's sudden strike, Minato Namikaze gritted his teeth. In his eyes, such betrayal of an ally was unthinkable.
Minato was still young, and his ideals too naïve. If anything, Konoha was the village with the deepest history of betrayal and internal framing. The previous Eight-Tails incidents alone had shown that many tragedies involving the Tailed Beasts were caused by Konoha's own machinations.
"Fine. Since you've already made your choice, I have nothing more to say—other than this: you'll regret it."
Just as the Raikage believed Ash had been killed, a voice rose sharply from beneath the ground.
Ash burst upward, his clothes slightly disheveled from the earlier ambush. The Raikage and Killer B's strike was fast—too fast for even him to react at first. Only by exerting his full power had he escaped that fatal blow.
"Are you ready to pay the price… betrayers?" Ash said coldly, glaring at the shinobi behind the Raikage.
The word betrayer triggered something deep within him—memories of his previous life, of being betrayed by a loved one. Betrayal was one of the things he hated most—whether it came from lovers, friends, or allies.
Even in a temporary alliance, betrayal was unacceptable. And now, the Raikage had crossed the final line.
His Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan snapped open, blood-red light spiraling outward as a skeletal frame erupted around him. In seconds, a massive red giant stood before everyone—armored, with a blade in its left hand and winglike structures extending from its back.
"S-Susanoo…?!"
Shock rippled through both Kumogakure and the Konoha shinobi. Whether it was the chilling pressure released by Ash's chakra or the monstrous aura of the Susanoo itself, no one could muster the will to resist.
"Tch… Chakra output still isn't enough. I can only maintain this state for ten minutes." Inside the Susanoo's forehead crystal, Ash frowned as he felt the chakra drain.
"So even at quasi-Kage chakra reserves, it's still a bit low."
His pupil power, however, was overflowing. As long as he had enough chakra, he was confident he could maintain the fully-formed Susanoo indefinitely.
"Nameless Divine Style: Flowing Water Dragon!"
Ash drew the long blade from Susanoo's left hand and slashed downward. A colossal water dragon surged from the arc of the strike, roaring toward the shinobi below.
"Everyone! Defensive ninjutsu—quick!!" Jiraiya shouted.
"It's too fast! Everyone, fall back now—!" Minato tried to warn them, but his voice was drowned out. The water dragon's speed was overwhelming—too fast for proper defense.
BOOM!
The blast swallowed the battlefield, flooding the area beneath with a crushing wave. Many Kumogakure shinobi were instantly swept away and killed.
"Damn it—pull yourselves together!" The Raikage roared as he saw nearly half of his men obliterated. Lightning surged around him as he launched himself toward Susanoo.
Konoha had fared far better. Jiraiya and Orochimaru were safe, of course. Minato, with his Flying Thunder God, escaped instantly, bringing several Konoha ninja with him. Compared to the devastation on Kumogakure's side, their casualties were minimal.
"You've made your choice—so don't show me that pathetic face now."
As the Raikage charged, Ash's expression darkened. Susanoo's right arm swung, and the Raikage was smashed aside like a rag doll.
The Totsuka Blade shifted into Susanoo's right hand. Ash plunged it into the gourd-shaped sheath on the right wrist. His Eternal Mangekyō narrowed, cold and merciless.
"War breeds hatred—and today, you'll taste that hatred for yourselves."
Ash raised the blade.
"One of the Totsuka Sword techniques—Shattering Calamity."
As Ash finished speaking, the Totsuka Blade in Susanoo's left hand slid free from the gourd-like sheath. The moment it was drawn, fiery red energy erupted along the blade's edge. Susanoo swung downward in a merciless arc, the strike cleaving across the battlefield.
In an instant, every shinobi caught in the slash froze—their shadows tore free from their bodies, forcibly separated and lifted into the air. The detached shadows ignited, burning with red spiritual flames. This was the true power of the Totsuka Blade, awakened only after Ash's Mangekyō had evolved into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
The Totsuka Blade—together with the Kusanagi—ranked among the highest sealing weapons. Anything pierced by it would be transformed into spiritual energy and sealed within the gourd attached to the blade. The gourd itself held three separate dimensional spaces, and currently, all three were filled.
But the Totsuka Blade held more than just sealing power. Beyond its primary seal technique, it possessed a newly awakened sword art—Shadow Severing (Duanying).
This technique carried its own restrictions.
First, the sealing technique required the opponent's strength to drop to a certain threshold. Without weakening them, forcing a seal was nearly impossible.
Second, Shadow Severing:
Once struck, the target's shadow was sliced away, leaving the body shadowless. The detached shadow would burn until the technique completed. During that time, anyone without their shadow lost the ability to mobilize their chakra—they could only rely on taijutsu. When the burning finished, the shadow returned, and the person regained chakra flow.
The limitations were clear:
Lower-ranked ninja had slow shadow-burning speeds.
Stronger opponents had faster-burning shadows.
Jōnin-level: ~5 seconds
Quasi-Kage: ~3 seconds
Kage-level or above: completely immune
Even God-tier shinobi were unaffected.
...
TN:
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