The Eight-Tails, Gyuki, threw its head back and roared.
"Blood for blood!"
The words thundered across the night sky. Even the earth seemed to tremble.
A piercing alarm cut through the darkness.
The Hidden Cloud Village jolted awake.
"Emergency squads, assemble! The Eight-Tails is rampaging!"
"That monster's gone mad again!"
Chaos erupted.
The Eight-Tails' chakra, thick with malice unique to a tailed beast, spread like wildfire. Every Hidden Cloud shinobi felt it claw at their nerves.
Rampages had happened before.
Usually it was partial leakage. The village's sensory division would sound the alarm immediately. Once powerful shinobi arrived and suppressed the Jinchuriki, the damage stayed manageable.
But a full rampage, right in the center of the village?
That was a first.
"So this is a complete tailed beast… magnificent," Orochimaru murmured.
He pressed a sealing technique onto Blue B's forehead. It would make extracting intelligence easier later.
As the furious Eight-Tails roared toward the heavens, Orochimaru manipulated the Kusanagi Sword, slicing off a chunk of flesh from the beast. Then he collected Blue B's corpse, the former Jinchuriki now reduced to Konoha's spoils of war, and withdrew at speed.
"Kurama clan genjutsu… interesting."
The Eight-Tails fell into extreme rage. It cursed the Hidden Cloud Village while lashing out with its tentacles, smashing nearby buildings as if unseen enemies surrounded it.
Even after being cut by the Kusanagi Sword, it merely tilted its head, never shifting its attention toward Orochimaru.
Time to go. Genma said the illusion won't last long.
A massive snake slid from Orochimaru's sleeve and swallowed Blue B's body whole.
At the same time, Danzo Shimura drove his Wind Style: Vacuum Blade straight through the Head Ninja Hizashi had identified earlier.
Around them, the Anbu tore open a breach in the Hidden Cloud's outer defenses.
Under cover of night, with the Byakugan providing intelligence and a carefully laid ambush, it was a flawless, silent assassination.
When Orochimaru reunited with Jiraiya and Genma Kurama, the three formed a tight formation, alert for any sudden ambush as they advanced rapidly toward their extraction point.
They encountered no resistance.
Danzo's Anbu had already cleared the way.
"The mission went smoothly?" Danzo asked in a low voice.
"Very smoothly. You did well yourself," Orochimaru replied lightly. "Shall we take this Hidden Cloud ninja along? Their rank is decent. They should have useful intelligence."
Danzo's expression darkened.
"I don't need you to tell me. It's already being handled."
That damned Orochimaru.
Back in Root, he had been nothing more than a subordinate.
Now that he stood closer to Hiruzen, he could not even be bothered to call him uncle in rank, and had the nerve to comment on his work?
Arrogant brat.
Orochimaru, you'll regret this, Danzo swore silently.
Yet his body moved without hesitation, ordering the Anbu to collect Hidden Cloud corpses and erase all traces to avoid pursuit.
This isn't the time to bicker. Do the job first. I'll find a chance to report him to Hiruzen properly.
Orochimaru glanced at him, faintly surprised.
He did not pick a fight?
Perhaps sensei's repeated "guidance" had matured him a little.
I'll need to watch Danzo more closely. He seems to have grown a brain.
Just then, Hizashi spoke up.
"The Eight-Tails is gathering chakra… Is that a Tailed Beast Bomb?"
Everyone turned toward the Hidden Cloud Village.
In the Eight-Tails' mouth, unstable chakra condensed at terrifying speed. A blood-red sphere of energy formed, swelling larger by the second.
Danzo's eyes gleamed.
If that detonated inside the village, it would be one spectacular firework.
A streak of lightning shot forward.
A figure charged straight at the Eight-Tails.
"That's the Third Raikage…" Danzo muttered, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes.
If he got caught in that blast—
But what happened next stunned them all.
The Third Raikage did not retreat.
He thrust his hand forward like a blade and stabbed directly into the half-formed Tailed Beast Bomb, detonating it prematurely at point-blank range.
"Is he insane?" Hizashi whispered.
"He's preventing it from growing larger. The bigger it gets, the wider the blast radius," Orochimaru analyzed calmly.
The explosion turned night into day.
The shockwave rolled outward in a violent surge, so powerful even the Konoha shinobi felt it from their distance.
"He survived? And he can still fight?" Hizashi's voice carried disbelief.
As the aftermath of the Tailed Beast Bomb faded, the Eight-Tails roared in furious rage.
Lightning crackled across the Third Raikage's body as he charged again.
Man and beast clashed in raw physical combat.
In sheer bodily refinement, the Third Raikage had surpassed the limits of ordinary shinobi.
"What a monster," Jiraiya breathed.
"With that level of Lightning Style Armor, only extremely refined Wind Style could pierce it. A composite wind technique might work better…" Orochimaru licked his lips thoughtfully.
"His body is that resilient. Is his soul the same? There must be a way."
"I'll discuss it with sensei."
He recalled the Iron Skin technique he had once used during sparring with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
I wonder… could sensei attempt this Lightning Style body technique as well?
Then he dismissed the thought.
That might be asking too much. He may have grown younger, but he's still aging.
Watching the Third Raikage's strength stirred something in him.
The shinobi world was no stagnant pond. Heroes rose one after another.
If you did not advance, your enemies would surpass you.
Danzo narrowed his eyes.
The Third Raikage's might exceeded his expectations.
It also reminded him that he could not neglect his own cultivation.
Danzo was no weakling. In Wind Style, he prided himself on surpassing even Hiruzen.
Against the Lightning Style Armor, with the amplification of his summon-enhanced Wind Style, he was confident he could inflict damage.
But combat was more than releasing a jutsu.
How long could a summon survive? What if the enemy closed the distance? Every variable mattered.
If I want to become Hokage, I can't slack off in strength either. That damned Hiruzen, secretly training all this time.
But he's right. Assassinating the Jinchuriki alone isn't enough. We have to expand the results, just like he said.
The intelligence in those Hidden Cloud shinobi's minds will be our best material for analyzing the Third Raikage.
That thought surfaced, and Danzo immediately shook his head.
He was learning the essence of being Hokage, yes.
But he could not blindly agree with that man. He had to think independently.
He reminded himself of that.
After the squad returned to Konoha under strict concealment, the bodies of Blue B and the Hidden Cloud Head Ninja were sent to the Analysis Team.
Shinobi from the Yamanaka Clan extracted the intelligence within.
Ten days later.
Konoha, Hokage Tower conference room.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat with documents on Lightning Style body techniques spread before him, reading with complete focus.
He waited for Orochimaru and the others to arrive.