Chapter 470: The Raikage's Arrival Escalates the Battle
Thick plumes of smoke and dust choked the air. The violent shockwaves from the massive toad Gamahiro's landing had only just begun to settle, leaving the center of the battlefield a cratered, unrecognizable wasteland.
"Where is Uchiha Fugaku?!"
A furious roar shattered the lingering silence. Fourth Raikage Ay stood like a towering demon, his massive frame completely enveloped in a violent, crackling shroud of Lightning Release chakra. The intense static charge made his pale blonde hair stand on end. His fierce gaze swept across the Konoha camp, scanning the ranks of shinobi.
Nothing.
That man with the cursed Mangekyo Sharingan, Uchiha Fugaku—the very man who had been a constant, agonizing thorn in his side throughout this war—was nowhere to be found.
"In a battle of this scale, Uchiha Fugaku doesn't even have the spine to show his face?"
Thick blue veins pulsed violently against Ay's dark forehead. The ground beneath his heavy boots spider-webbed with a sharp, echoing snap as his chakra flared.
"Is he looking down on me?!"
Having failed to crush the Uchiha clan head in their previous encounter, and even suffering a humiliating tactical loss, the fiercely proud Raikage had been itching for a chance to wash away the stain on his honor. Now, with the allied army pressing directly onto Konoha's throat, the enemy commander was playing a disappearing act?
A low, mocking chuckle drifted down from the sky.
High atop the giant toad's head, Jiraiya stood with his arms casually crossed over his chest. His long, spiky white hair whipped wildly in the turbulent wind.
"To deal with a rabble like you..." Jiraiya drawled, a confident smirk playing on his lips. "...we are more than enough."
"Arrogant scum!!"
Ay's rage boiled over. The blue lightning armor flared with blinding intensity. He crouched, his muscles coiling like steel springs, ready to launch himself at the Toad Sage and tear him limb from limb.
"Do not be impulsive, Raikage!"
A small figure suddenly floated directly into Ay's path. Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki hovered in the air, his wrinkled face set in a grim scowl.
"We gain no advantage in a blind, head-on clash against these opponents," the old man warned.
"Then what do you suggest?!" Ay ground his teeth together, the knuckles of his massive fists popping like firecrackers as he clenched them.
"There is only one logical explanation for Uchiha Fugaku's absence." Ōnoki lowered his voice, his eyes narrowing into shrewd slits. "Our previous intelligence confirmed that Edo Tensei shinobi launched a massive assault on Konoha's rear. That bastard Fugaku is definitely injured! And likely crippled at that!"
Ay's eyes widened, a predatory gleam flashing within them. Strike while the beast is wounded.
"You mean..."
"I will pin down Jiraiya and the rest of their frontline vanguard," Ōnoki instructed, his tone cold and calculating. "You use your absolute speed. Take the most elite units of Kumogakure and completely bypass this meat grinder!"
The Tsuchikage pointed a weathered finger toward the distant horizon. "Break through their lines! Konoha's logistics, their medical camps, and that arrogant Uchiha Fugaku who is hiding like a rat to lick his wounds..."
Ōnoki dragged a thumb across his own throat. "Wipe them all out."
It was a flawless tactical strike. As long as they severed the command structure and supply lines, no matter how monstrous these Konoha experts on the frontline were, they would wither and die like trees ripped from their roots.
Ay did not hesitate for a single second. This brutal, direct strike at the enemy's heart suited his temperament perfectly.
Beside him, Ōnoki took a deep breath. A microscopic point of piercing, geometric white light began to hum and condense between his wrinkled palms.
"Kumogakure units!!" Ay spun around, his voice booming across the battlefield like rolling thunder. "Anbu elites! Form up on me!!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Following the Raikage's command, dozens of sleek silhouettes materialized from the ranks in an instant. They were clad in pitch-black, skin-tight tactical suits, heavy ninjato strapped securely to their backs, their faces hidden behind the distinct, painted masks of Kumogakure's black ops. Every single shinobi among them radiated the heavy, suffocating chakra of an elite Jonin.
This was the hidden blade of the Village Hidden in the Clouds.
"Move!!" Ay roared.
Ōnoki wasted no more breath. He thrust his glowing hands forward, locking onto his target.
"Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!!"
A blinding, geometric pillar of pure white light erupted from his palms, piercing the sky as it shot directly toward Deidara, who was circling high above.
"Holy crap! You crazy old geezer!" Deidara shrieked, his eyes bulging. He desperately yanked his hands, forcing his massive clay dragon into a perilous, violent barrel roll in mid-air.
The beam of white light silently grazed the dragon's right wing. There was no explosion, no sound of impact. A massive chunk of the hardened, explosive clay simply ceased to exist, erased at the molecular level. The edge of the missing wing was left as smooth and reflective as polished glass.
"It is not over yet, brat!" Ōnoki shouted, waving his hands in rapid succession. Several more deadly pillars of Dust Release tore through the battlefield, forcing Deidara to weave frantically through the sky and sending Jiraiya leaping desperately across the cratered ground to avoid being atomized.
"Now is the time!!" A sharp, savage light burst from Raikage Ay's eyes.
"Lightning Release Chakra Mode: Full Power!!"
A terrifying column of raw electrical energy shot into the heavens. The earth beneath Ay vaporized. He transformed into a literal bolt of blue lightning, vanishing from his spot with a deafening thunderclap. He moved with such blinding velocity that his afterimages burned themselves into the retinas of the surrounding shinobi.
"Charge!!"
The dozens of Kumogakure Anbu surged forward, turning into a deadly black torrent that chased the blue lightning, frantically tearing a bloody path straight toward Konoha's defensive line.
"Not good!" Mei Terumī's expression twisted in alarm. The Fifth Mizukage instantly saw through the enemy's brutal maneuver.
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
Her red lips parted, and a massive torrent of boiling, highly acidic mud spewed forth, sweeping across the battlefield like a tidal wave to completely seal off the Raikage's path.
"Get out of my way!!" Ay roared, his voice shaking the very air.
He had absolutely no intention of slowing down. Facing a corrosive wave capable of melting solid steel into slag, the Raikage did not even attempt to alter his trajectory.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
The Lightning Release Armor enveloping his massive physique was pushed to its absolute zenith, forming an impenetrable, crackling barrier of pure energy. Boiling mud splattered violently in all directions as Ay's towering figure crashed headfirst through the searing Lava Release blockade.
Thick plumes of acidic steam hissed as the mud desperately tried to eat through his lightning shroud, but Ay's terrifying momentum did not drop by a single fraction.
Mei Terumī's pupils shrank to pinpricks. 'This absolute madman...'
"Stop him!!" Jiraiya bellowed. He pivoted, muscles straining to launch himself back to reinforce the broken line, but Ōnoki's deadly Dust Release followed him like a vengeful shadow, forcing him to roll away from another atomizing beam.
"Your opponent is me, Jiraiya!!" Ōnoki declared, floating higher into the air as his hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals.
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"
The solid ground beneath Jiraiya's wooden sandals suddenly bucked and violently plummeted, throwing the Toad Sage completely off balance and interrupting his desperate sprint.
In that single, fatal split second of delay...
...the Fourth Raikage and his black-clad Kumogakure elites completely shattered Konoha's defensive vanguard, tearing through the gap like a pack of starving wolves.
"Hahahaha!!"
"Konoha trash! Die!!"
High above the chaos, the turbulent air currents whipped violently.
Deidara crouched low on the back of his massive clay dragon, his hands locked in a tight seal. Dozens of small, white clay birds detached from the beast's wings. Like a fleet of suicidal dive bombers, they shrieked through the clouds, plummeting frantically toward the densely packed ranks of the Allied Shinobi Forces below.
"Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration!"
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!!"
Down on the blood-soaked earth, the dark-skinned Kumogakure commander, Darui, slammed his palms together.
A blinding flash of electrical light erupted from his body, instantly followed by a barrage of brilliant, winding laser beams. The Storm Release lasers moved as if they had a mind of their own, tracing erratic, impossible angles through the sky before accurately piercing through the center of every single falling clay bird.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A deafening chain of explosions ripped through the sky. Blossoms of orange fire turned the clouds a hellish red, the shockwaves rattling the teeth of the shinobi below, but the deadly payload failed to touch a single member of the Allied Forces.
"Damn it!" Deidara cursed, gritting his teeth as he yanked the dragon's reins, pulling the massive beast into a sharp, vertical climb.
The moment he vacated his previous airspace, a massive, jagged spear of solid rock whistled through the smoke, narrowly grazing the pale belly of his clay dragon.
"That bastard with the dead-fish eyes again!" Deidara snarled, glaring down at the lazy-looking Kumogakure Jonin standing amidst the enemy ranks.
It was infuriating. As long as he dared to lower his altitude to ensure a precise bombing run, those relentless Lightning Release and Storm Release attacks would swarm him like a plague of deadly flies.
"Fine! Since I can't go down..." Deidara plunged both hands deep into his tactical pouches, scooping out massive handfuls of explosive clay and shoving them into the mouths on his palms, chewing frantically. "...then taste this, yeah!"
"C2 Dragon Bombardment!!"
He didn't care about precision anymore. He just needed to saturate the zone.
A dense, terrifying payload of heavy clay bombs detached from the dragon's maw, falling toward the earth like a localized meteor shower.
"Earth Release: Multiple Earth-Style Wall!!"
Down below, the Iwagakure heavy infantry unit, specialized entirely in defensive formations, was already moving in perfect synchronization. They slammed their palms against the dirt.
Rumble!
One massive, thick slab of solid rock after another erupted from the earth, interlocking smoothly to form a colossal, impenetrable tortoise shell over the vanguard of the main army.
The C2 bombs hammered against the stone canopy. The roar of continuous explosions was deafening, sending massive chunks of shattered rock and blinding dust flying in every direction. Yet, despite the apocalyptic bombardment raining down upon them, the relentless advance of the Allied Shinobi Forces only slowed by a fraction.
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