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Their own Sky Ninja units still hadn't been deployed; for now, their identity and full strength had to stay concealed.
Hiruko flashed through hand seals. A thick mist surged up from the sea, rolling outward until it swallowed the entire area. The airship halted, its position completely hidden within the white shroud.
With a Body Flicker, Hiruko leaped out of the suspended cabin and appeared atop the airship.
His Sharingan snapped open, tracking the flow of air through the dense fog. Sunagakure's Aerial Unit was climbing fast, taking a position far above the airship.
Then, dozens—no, hundreds—of black dots rained down from high altitude. The moment they vanished into the mist, they began to explode.
Flashes of fire ripped through the fog, tearing brief holes in the white curtain before it closed up again.
But that instant was all the ninja needed.
More projectiles followed, this time aimed precisely at the airship's location.
Hiruko activated Swift Release. Black thunderclouds swirled into being around him, lightning flickering inside. In an instant, he shot forward, intercepting and detonating every explosive.
None of them reached the airship.
But the next volley came almost immediately. As Hiruko moved to intercept again, his Sharingan caught something different mixed among the falling dots.
Several special containers burst open mid-air, spraying a transparent liquid.
The liquid splattered across the airship's defense, releasing white smoke and a harsh, sizzling hiss.
The outer layer corroded rapidly. Gas began to leak from the airship's gasbag, and the hull shuddered, growing unstable.
Seeing this, Hiruko immediately abandoned the airship, pushing off from the hull and dropping to the surface of the sea.
Above him, the out-of-control airship tilted and began to fall. Dozens of black shapes tumbled from the cabin, splashing into the water one after another.
At the edge of their vision, the silhouettes of more than a dozen large ships slowly came into view.
"Those are the targets we're supposed to intercept this time," Jūzō said as he walked over, the Executioner's Blade strapped to his back. "Looks like the enemy's real target was us—the interception force."
"We should retreat, Hiruko."
From beneath his bandages, Hiruko let out a cold sneer. "Retreat? There's no need."
"Let them witness... the completed Chimera Technique."
In the next heartbeat, he vanished, instantly closing the distance to the ships.
"Storm Release: Storm Demon Dragon!"
As his hand seals finished, a massive vortex of thunderclouds formed in the sky above.
At the same time, the sea beneath Hiruko began to stir—
No.
Not beneath him.
The seawater under the ships was rising.
One meter, five meters, ten—
Twenty, thirty meters—
The waves climbed higher and higher, forming a circular wall of water around the fleet. The entire group of ships was lifted up into the air.
Hiruko's pupils narrowed sharply.
This is... Water Release?!
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique."
On the ship perched at the crest of the highest wave, Rōshi stood at the bow, looking down at the people below.
Within the swirling black raincloud overhead, countless bolts of lightning burst forth. At the same time, every ship except the one beneath Rōshi's feet broke apart, its hulls disassembling into layers of wooden shields that rose to cover the sky above him.
Lightning poured down.
So did the towering waves.
Thunderbolts slammed into the wooden barriers. Each time a layer was split apart, a new one grew from the remaining wood, replacing it again and again without end.
Hiruko lifted his hand, then slowly lowered it.
Seeing the massive wave bearing down, Jūzō glanced at the Executioner's Blade in his grip, didn't even bother forming hand seals, and immediately turned and ran.
After sprinting only a few dozen meters, a white blur shot past him.
"So... wouldn't it have been better to just retreat earlier..."
He let out a helpless sigh and pushed himself to run even faster.
The shinobi operating the airship weren't as fast.
They became corpses drifting on the surface of the sea.
Rōshi still stood at the bow, staring toward where Hiruko and Biwa Jūzō had vanished. In that stretch of ocean, only the gradually calming waves remained.
Silver hair, short stature, a beige high-collared coat, and all those bandages—there was no mistaking him.
"Hiruko, huh..."
"He used Storm Release and Swift Release."
"That move just now... was he trying to use Dark Release...?"
But he had only manipulated naturally existing seawater. Dark Release could absorb chakra, not water itself, so it was useless in that situation.
Once a wave had already formed, even if he drained away the chakra controlling it, a wall of water tens of meters high crashing down would still hit with a physical force equivalent to tens of tons of explosives.
The other one who escaped quickly was Biwa Jūzō. That Executioner's Blade was far too eye-catching, and Rōshi still remembered him as a member of Akatsuki. Even though neither Jūzō nor Hiruko wore the Akatsuki cloak, their presence together all but confirmed that Hiruko had joined the organization.
Since Hiruko had been recruited into Akatsuki and completed the Chimera Technique ahead of schedule, there was no way Obito would deny him at least one Sharingan.
If he had the chance, Rōshi really wanted to see whether the "immortal body" that came from Hiruko's completed Chimera Technique in the movie version was actually real.
But if even Hiruko had been brought into Akatsuki, that meant Rōshi's other suspicion was probably correct as well.
He withdrew his gaze from the horizon.
At that moment, a silver-gray warship surfaced from beneath the water.
Its metal hull gleamed in the noonday sun as it pulled up alongside the wooden boat.
One after another, Sunagakure shinobi descended from above, their Flying Wings folding away as they landed neatly on the warship's deck.
Baki emerged from the warship and stepped onto Rōshi's boat.
He took in the sight of the charred wood scattered across the deck, then signaled to the warship. Several Suna shinobi immediately boarded and began clearing away the debris.
"Rōshi-san, your jutsu are powerful and breathtaking as ever. If you hadn't come in person, breaking through here really would have been extremely difficult."
"It wasn't a breakthrough," Rōshi replied. "Anyway, we should head back."
Now that he had confirmed the Land of Snow was connected to the Akatsuki and had seen Obito reveal his hand, pressing further alone into enemy territory would have been reckless.
—
The Sunagakure warship didn't linger in the waters near the Land of Lightning. It sailed to a nearby uninhabited island, then submerged and disappeared without a trace.
By the time Rōshi guided the lone boat back to shore, the Raikage was already waiting on the pier.
A watched the approaching vessel. Only one boat had returned; the rest of the fleet was gone. That alone told him Rōshi had already engaged the enemy.
But the fact that this boat had made it back meant... "How was it?" A asked.
"Destroyed one of the Land of Snow's airships." Rōshi jumped ashore and landed on the pier. "Judging from their numbered markings, they have three left."
"What about the interceptors?"
"Quite strong—and they retreated very quickly."
A's eyes narrowed. "So they escaped, huh..."
He turned and headed toward the village, Rōshi falling into step behind him.
Not until they were inside the Raikage's office did A speak again. "Next time, I'll go with you. Have Sunagakure's Aerial Unit coordinate with us."
He fixed Rōshi with a hard stare. "I want Dotō Kazahana's head twisted off within a month."
Rōshi shook his head. "I'm afraid that won't be possible."
Mabui, standing to the side, froze with a stack of documents halfway through her handoff. Darui, leaning against the wall, opened his usually half-closed eyes a fraction wider.
A's brows drew together—an instinctive flare of anger—before he forced himself to steady.
"As for that plan of yours, Kumogakure hasn't fully weighed it yet. Let's settle the Land of Snow matter first."
"This plan only has meaning if both sides consider it feasible. Lord Raikage, I'm not using this as leverage," Rōshi said. "On the contrary—I'm saying it because it's not possible."
He decided to lay it out more bluntly.
"With the combat strength Kumogakure and Konoha can currently mobilize, to crush the Land of Snow would likely require all of the top-tier fighters from both villages."
"And there is still a chance of... failure."
A stared him down.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
The air in the office seemed to solidify.
Then the Raikage moved.
He lifted his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and brought it crashing down on the heavy wooden desk beside him.
The desk blew apart from the center, wood splinters shooting through the room. Documents, scrolls, pens, and ink scattered across the floor. The thick tabletop snapped cleanly into two slabs and slammed down on either side.
Mabui instinctively stepped back half a pace. Darui straightened away from the wall.
Rōshi didn't move.
A held his stance, fist still suspended in the air, eyes sharp and clear.
"What exactly do you know, Rōshi?" the Fourth Raikage asked, his tone heavy. "There aren't many enemies that your power and my speed together can't handle."
"This isn't just the Land of Snow getting lucky and hiring a few ninja, is it?"
"You're right. The mastermind behind this is tied to that incident between Konoha and Kumogakure a few years ago," Rōshi replied.
Now that things had escalated to this point, continuing to hold back information would only make him seem suspicious.
"Last year, when the demon Mōryō was resurrected, I met that person and fought him."
A quietly spoke the name: "Uchiha Madara..."
"Afterward, Mōryō disappeared. If we have to say who he's connected to, it's probably only him."
"This also means that, if necessary, Mōryō can be released again at any time, and the Golem Army of the Land of Demons could be revived."
At those words, everyone in the Raikage's office understood what was at stake.
The combat forces on the continent's western front could be pinned down at any moment.
"In that case, we need to crush the Land of Snow even faster," A said, voice low. "If we let them keep developing, Madara's power will eventually reach onto both the eastern and western fronts at the same time."
"That Uchiha Madara backed off last year. That means he didn't have the confidence or preparations needed to face the forces you deployed back then."
A fixed his gaze on Rōshi. "Or are you saying you're weaker now than you were last year?"
"If it were just that Madara alone, there would indeed be ways to force him to retreat."
"But if we have to deal with the entire Akatsuki organization, it's not enough," Rōshi said calmly. "There's information I've recently obtained regarding the level of combat power Akatsuki currently possesses."
"Lord Raikage, there are many legends about the Sage of Six Paths in the Land of Lightning, aren't there?"
A said nothing, simply watching him continue.
"Then, have you heard anything about the power the Sage of Six Paths wielded?"
"Among the Three Great Dōjutsu of the ninja world, aside from the Sharingan and the Byakugan—"
He met A's eyes.
"—there is the Rinnegan, which represents the Sage of Six Paths' power."
"In the Akatsuki organization, someone possesses those eyes. I don't know if he's currently in the Land of Snow."
"If he is, and we gather all our strength and, by fortune, manage to win in the end, that would of course be ideal."
"But if he isn't, then while our forces are marching on the Land of Snow, the other villages will be left dangerously exposed."
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