"B, you idiot!
I warned you a long time ago, Garp, that bastard, was never someone you three brats could bury!
So why wouldn't you listen to me?"
The Eight-Tails, Gyuki, lowered his head in panic and humility, repeatedly apologizing to Garp, while the corner of his eye drifted toward Killer B's body, which was already growing cold.
Watching the only Jinchuriki in thousands of years who had truly understood him become a lifeless corpse, there was no anger in Gyuki's heart, no hatred, only dejection, helplessness, and a trace of bitter disappointment toward B for his stubbornness.
As the Eight-Tails all but knelt on the ground to apologize, Garp raised a finger and pointed.
Armament Haki burst outward.
A dazzling white light suddenly bloomed deep within the forest of Konoha.
In the next instant, the gigantic Eight-Tails let out a muffled groan as his massive body was launched straight into the air like an enormous artillery shell.
Countless trees were crushed beneath him as he flew more than a thousand meters before finally losing momentum, then slammed viciously into a vast lake below.
"Who are you calling a bastard?"
Garp glanced at the Eight-Tails, who had carved a ravine over a hundred meters wide and more than a mile long through the forest, his tone tinged with displeasure.
"I'm sorry…"
After apologizing, and then taking that brutal blow head-on, the battered and bruised Gyuki didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
Enduring the pain, he scrambled up from the lake as fast as he could, then planted both hands on the shore and smashed his enormous bull-like head into the ground.
"You should be grateful that when that brat gathered Tailed Beast chakra and fired the Tailed Beast Bomb, you didn't stop him, but you didn't help either."
The moment Garp said this, Gyuki's massive body began to tremble uncontrollably as he knelt by the lake.
"You should be even more grateful that you were once kept by me. Even now, I still regard you as pets!"
With that, Garp didn't spare the Eight-Tails another glance and stepped toward A, whose gaze was unfocused and whose expression was utterly blank.
"Hah…"
Seeing that Garp had no intention of killing him, Gyuki finally let out a long breath of relief.
Though he had taken a vicious beating, he neither dared to feel anger nor voice resentment, on the contrary, he felt fortunate.
Because those words from Garp meant that this matter was considered settled.
Crack….
However, just as Gyuki was secretly rejoicing at having survived, Garp brushed past C.
Without any visible movement, the elite Kumogakure shinobi, who was proficient in genjutsu, medical ninjutsu, sensory techniques, and even barrier arts, was suddenly decapitated, as if an invisible blade had sliced cleanly through his neck.
"I'm sorry… B… it's all my fault…"
"I shouldn't have ignored your advice and acted on my own!"
"And C… my recklessness and arrogance got you killed!"
As Garp stopped in front of him, the hollow, lifeless eyes of A slowly regained a trace of focus.
With his brother's killer standing right before him, his first reaction wasn't to charge forward in a rage. Instead, utterly dejected and lost, he dropped to his knees and broke down in sobs.
"So this is the one you said… surpassed the Third Raikage, and was even more outstanding than your father?"
Garp looked at A, expressionless.
"This was all my doing alone. The two of them were forced by me to take part in the assassination against you.
This has nothing to do with my father, nor with Kumogakure!
If you want to kill someone, then kill me alone!"
After speaking, A slammed his forehead viciously into the ground.
At this moment, all hope had drained from him.
At this moment, his heart was as dead as ash.
At this moment, he was filled with boundless regret.
Everyone around him had tried with all their might to hold him back, yet he had charged forward recklessly to the very end.
The Third Great Ninja War, and even the fate of Kumogakure itself, should have ended with a single letter of surrender from the Third Raikage.
Yet now, through his actions alone, he had caused B's death, C's death, and even reignited the flames of war.
"Your name is A. That makes you the next Raikage, doesn't it?
Let me count, there have been four Raikage in Kumogakure including you. But among them, three have knelt before me at the slightest provocation.
The First, the Third… and you."
Garp glanced at A, kneeling on both knees, and pondered for a moment.
"It seems the Raikage of your village really like kneeling before this me.
Is this some traditional skill mastered by those who bear the name 'A'?"
At those words, A's body trembled, yet he remained kneeling, not daring to raise his head or refute a single sentence.
The deaths of Killer B and C had stripped him overnight of all his arrogance, impulsiveness, and recklessness.
"Lord Garp… does this mean you've agreed to my request?"
A took a deep breath and spoke words of supplication that even he himself found unbelievable.
"Your father once promised me that any shinobi of Kumogakure would not set foot in the Land of Fire for the rest of their lives… A, do you still remember those words?"
Garp patted A on the shoulder, leaving behind a question instead of an answer, then turned and walked away.
"Lord Garp!"
"So the battle is finally over!"
"The Eight-Tails, and even the next Raikage, are actually kneeling?"
At this moment, Orochimaru and the others, as well as Hiruzen, Minato, Jiraiya, and the rest who had rushed over at full speed from the outskirts of the battlefield, all arrived.
Looking at the devastated battlefield, and at the Eight-Tails Gyuki and A kneeling both near and far, everyone was first struck with shock.
Yet when their gazes turned toward Garp, it all suddenly felt inevitable.
"So no one is allowed to go back on their word in front of you?
Hahaha… I understand now…"
A seemed not to notice Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others at all. He laughed softly to himself, his voice filled with desolation and regret.
That utterly hopeless demeanor made Hiruzen, Minato, and the others, seeing such a scene for the first time, feel their scalps prickle.
"I finally understand how Onoki, the Third Raikage, the Fourth Kazekage, and the Third Mizukage felt when facing Garp."
Especially Hiruzen, at this moment, he felt a bone-chilling cold surge from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, lingering there, coursing endlessly through his body.
...
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