"Orochimaru, now!"
Following Minato Namikaze's roar, a heart-pounding surge of chakra suddenly erupted from a corner of Konoha.
It originated from a massive artillery battery situated behind the Hokage Rock.
This was a fortification created by Orochimaru, combining the Hidden Cloud's Chakra Cannon technology with Konoha's sealing arts, supplemented by the Scientific Ninja Tool concept provided by Gamakon—the 'Konoha Unit 1: Anti-City Annihilation Cannon.'
By now, the muzzle was fully charged, emitting a blinding white light.
"Fire!"
In the underground command room, Orochimaru slammed the fire button, a fanatical light shimmering in his snake-like pupils.
BOOM—!!!
A thick pillar of light, over ten meters in diameter, shot into the sky accompanied by the shrill whistle of tearing air.
The pillar, composed purely of highly compressed chakra, seemed to warp the very space it passed through.
Like a sword piercing the heavens, it met the falling meteorite head-on.
*Pshhh!*
Before everyone's shocked eyes, the beam of light actually pierced right through the sun-blotting meteorite!
Immediately after, the Wind Style nature transformation contained within the beam exploded.
*Crack! Crack!*
Countless fissures spread out from the impact point, instantly covering the entire meteorite.
"Shatter!"
Standing high in the air, Minato watched this scene with a sharp glint in his eyes.
RUMBLE!!!
The massive meteorite disintegrated in mid-air, bursting into countless fragments of varying sizes.
The 'Tengai Shinsei' that should have destroyed Konoha had been pulverized by the village's technological might!
"W-We succeeded?!"
On the ground, the international students who were just in the depths of despair stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with disbelief.
A disaster that had left even the Raikage and Tsuchikage feeling helpless had actually been stopped by Konoha?
"It's not over yet!"
Minato's voice echoed across the field via chakra. "Everyone, watch out for falling debris! Anbu, Barrier Team, intercept at full power!"
Though the meteorite was broken, the rubble falling from ten thousand meters still possessed immense lethality.
Specifically, several giant fragments over a hundred meters in diameter would still wipe out entire districts if they landed.
"Leave it to me!"
Minato took a deep breath. Though his Six Paths Power was depleted, he was still the Yellow Flash!
*Flash! Flash! Flash!*
In the sky, the golden flash began to flicker wildly.
With every flicker, a giant piece of debris vanished into thin air.
Minato was using the Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder to instantly teleport these devastating boulders to uninhabited deserts or the vast ocean thousands of miles away.
This was the strategic significance of the Flying Thunder God!
As long as there was enough chakra, one man was an absolute defense!
Meanwhile, the Anbu elites led by Kakashi, Itachi Uchiha, and Shisui took action.
"Lightning Blade!"
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
"Uchiha Style: Sword Leap Flame!"
High-level ninjutsu of all kinds soared into the sky, crushing the remaining medium and small debris one by one.
Only a few minutes later...
The apocalyptic scene had vanished.
Aside from a forest outside the village being pockmarked with craters, the interior of the village was completely unscathed!
"It... It was blocked..."
"They really blocked it!"
"Long live the Hokage! Long live Konoha!"
After their brush with death, the villagers and shinobi erupted into deafening cheers.
The sheer relief of returning from hell to heaven made countless people weep with joy.
Kurotsuchi of the Hidden Stone looked at the slightly exhausted blonde figure, her mouth hanging open so wide it could fit an egg.
"That's it... it's solved?"
She turned to Darui beside her. "Hey, is your Hidden Cloud's Chakra Cannon this powerful?"
Darui shook his head bitterly. "The principle is similar, but the power... it's worlds apart. Besides, no one else in the shinobi world but Minato Namikaze could pull off that precise teleportation."
In this moment, the geniuses from the Five Great Nations finally understood the true depth of the 'Greatest Shinobi Village.'
Not only did they have a Hokage who could go toe-to-toe with Susanoo, but they also had this kind of high-tech weaponry capable of shattering meteorites.
With such strength, they truly were qualified to lead the Shinobi Alliance.
However...
Just as everyone was immersed in the joy of victory...
A cold, disdainful voice suddenly rang out over the battlefield, reaching everyone's ears clearly.
"Oh? You actually blocked it?"
Madara Uchiha hovered in mid-air, arms crossed. Looking at the cheering crowd below, his lips curled into a cruel arc.
"That cannon and that teleportation technique... they are indeed somewhat interesting."
"Minato Namikaze, you've done well."
Madara's tone was like a senior critiquing a slightly promising junior. "But..."
His tone shifted abruptly.
A sense of despair and terror, even more oppressive than before, instantly enveloped the area.
"If this is your limit, then it is time for this game to end."
Madara spread his sensory perception across Konoha.
'Is that woman Kaguya still refusing to make a move?'
A flash of displeasure crossed Madara's mind.
He had caused such a massive disturbance, even resorting to Tengai Shinsei, not just to destroy Konoha...
...but to force out the legendary Progenitor of Chakra to see just what she was made of.
Yet, she remained so incredibly composed?
"In that case..."
Madara's eyes turned cold. "Let despair come even more violently."
"I really want to know—how will you deal with the second one?"
Before his words even finished echoing...
The sky, which had begun to clear, darkened once more.
That suffocating shadow shrouded the earth yet again.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
And then, they witnessed a sight they would never forget.
Above the clouds where the previous meteorite had shattered, a second meteorite—even larger and heavier than the first—was silently bearing down on them.
Tengai Shinsei: Dual Strike!
This was the horror of Madara Uchiha.
The first meteorite was merely an announcement of his arrival; the second was to ensure everyone greeted death!
"You've... you've got to be kidding me..."
The smiles of the cheering villagers froze on their faces.
The hope that had just bloomed was utterly crushed in an instant, transforming into an even deeper abyss of despair.
"There's another one?!"
In Orochimaru's command room, alarms blared in unison.
"No! The cannon needs time to recharge! There's no way to fire a second shot in time!" Orochimaru's face was grim as he looked at the data on his screens.
High above...
Minato Namikaze watched the massive meteorite looming close, his heart sinking to rock bottom.
To clear the fragments of the first meteorite, he had used the long-range Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder dozens of times in rapid succession.
His chakra was now nearly depleted, making it impossible to teleport something of this magnitude again.
"Dammit..."
Minato clenched his fists, unwilling to accept this end.
Was it really going to end here?
"Kaguya!"
Perched on Minato's shoulder, Gamakon snapped his head toward the Hokage Building and muttered internally, 'Are you still not going to move? If this thing hits, your snacks and TV shows are toast!'
However, there was still no movement from Kaguya's side.
That woman seemed determined to watch Konoha make a fool of itself—or rather, she was waiting for Gamakon to make the first move.
'A bunch of cunning schemers...'
Gamakon cursed under his breath, but he wasn't prepared to act personally because he sensed someone had returned.
At that very moment...
A blue figure suddenly shot up from the ruins on the ground.
Like a blue cannonball, he relied on pure physical strength to kick off the air, charging toward the despair-inducing meteorite.
"That's..."
Everyone's gaze was drawn to this figure.
It was Might Guy!
The man who usually prattled on about 'youth,' wore a ridiculous green jumpsuit, and was mocked by other villages as a 'strange beast.'
In this moment...
His usual goofy grin was nowhere to be found.
His thick-browed face was etched with unprecedented seriousness and resolve.
"Everyone! How can you make such faces at a time like this!"
Guy's voice echoed through the sky, brimming with passion and power.
"True youth is something that blooms in the face of despair!"
"If ninjutsu isn't enough, if technology isn't enough..."
Guy came to a sudden halt directly beneath the meteorite.
Faced with the colossal entity that could destroy everything, he looked as small as an ant trying to shake a tree.
But his aura underwent a world-shaking transformation in an instant.
"Then we'll use our bodies! Our fists! We'll use our hot-blooded spirit to smash it!"
BOOM!
As he spoke, the blue steam surrounding Might Guy intensified.
That was not the color of chakra.
It was steam formed by evaporating sweat!
It was proof of life energy burning after the body's limiters were forcibly opened!
This was the Seventh Gate of the Eight Inner Gates—the Gate of Wonder!
RUMBLE!!!
With that roar, the blue steam around Guy surged upward, turning into a pillar of blue light that pierced the sky.
The surrounding air warped under the horrific high pressure.
Even the descending meteorite seemed to be halted for a split second by this sheer force.
"What is that?!"
Madara Uchiha's cold eyes changed for the first time.
He watched the man wreathed in blue steam, his pupils constricting slightly.
'It's not chakra... Is that pure physical strength?'
'To generate such pressure through physical power alone?'
Madara had lived a long time and seen countless powerhouses.
But he had never seen a shinobi who achieved this level purely through physical training, without relying on bloodlines or ninjutsu.
"Interesting."
A sliver of excitement curled on Madara's lips. "Then let me see how far the Eight Inner Gates can go!"
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Guy let out a long roar toward the heavens, the blue steam condensing to its peak.
His hands formed seals rapidly, and then he slammed both fists toward the meteorite above.
The strike didn't even touch the meteorite.
Instead, the terrifying pressure from his punch compressed the air in front of him, forming a massive, white tiger!
It was an air cannon formed entirely of high-pressure currents!
"Daytime Tiger!!!"
ROAR—!!!
An earth-shaking tiger's roar resounded through the clouds.
The massive white tiger roared as it charged the meteorite.
The two collided violently in mid-air.
BOOM—!!!
In that instant, the world went silent.
A horrific shockwave swept out from the impact point in all directions.
It didn't just shatter like the first one.
Under this peak physical impact, the giant meteorite looked as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, and then...
It disintegrated!
Pulverized!
Annihilated!
The massive rock turned into a sky full of fine powder under the Daytime Tiger's bite.
The sun-blotting meteorite had been punched out of existence!
"W-What?!"
This time, it wasn't just the people on the ground.
Even Madara Uchiha widened his eyes in shock.
The Tengai Shinsei he took so much pride in had been punched away?
And from a distance by mere air pressure?
"Impossible!"
'No nature transformation... just simple air compression?'
'Just how much power and speed are required to achieve this?'
Madara naturally recognized the technique as the Eight Inner Gates, but he never imagined that the Seventh Gate alone could hold such power.
Madara's thoughts drifted to a man named Might Duy.
*Whoosh—*
The gale dissipated.
The dust from the stone fell like snow from the sky.
Amidst the white powder, Might Guy maintained his punching posture, wreathed in blue steam as he stood tall in the sky.
He gasped for air, his skin flushed red.
At this moment, the light in Guy's eyes was brighter than the sun!
He turned his head toward Madara and grinned, flashing his signature sparkling white teeth.
"This is Konoha's Blue Beast!"
Silence.
Absolute silence fell over the field.
Then, an even more frenzied cheer than before erupted.
Everyone who witnessed this couldn't help but feel: Is this the pinnacle of taijutsu?
To actually be able to crush a natural disaster of that scale?
"A monster..."
Kurotsuchi of the Hidden Stone swallowed hard as she looked at the man in blue steam. She felt as though her worldview was collapsing.
Just how many more monsters did Konoha have?
A Hokage who could teleport, a toad sage who could pilot a mecha, and now a taijutsu fanatic who could punch through a meteorite?
How are we even supposed to fight this?!
"Whew..."
Minato looked at Guy's back and let out a long sigh of relief.
In the sky...
Madara Uchiha looked at the man emitting blue steam, all traces of contempt gone from his eyes.
It was replaced by an unprecedented gravity.
Even... a slight sense of threat.
'That color of chakra...'
Madara narrowed his eyes, feeling the violent aura coming from Guy.
It was power obtained by burning one's very life.
Though it was only the Seventh Gate, that peak burst of explosive power caused even the current Madara—possessor of the Rinnegan and an immortal body—to feel a pang of trepidation.
'If he goes one step further and opens the legendary Eighth Gate...'
A thought flashed through Madara's mind.
'This man is worthy of killing me!'
"Very good."
Madara spoke slowly, his voice carrying a hint of suppressed excitement.
"I take back what I said."
"Konoha... truly is a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers."
"What is your name?"
Madara looked directly at Guy, as if looking at a respected opponent.
Guy took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, and settled into a classic fighting stance.
"Konoha Jonin, Might Guy!"
"Well said, Might Guy."
Madara laughed loudly, his battle intent boiling over once more.
"Since you possess such strength, don't just stand there."
"Come!"
"Show me if your fists can shatter my Susanoo!"
BOOM!
Blue chakra exploded once again.
But this time, Madara didn't use wide-range ninjutsu. Instead, he directly commanded his Susanoo to draw its twin blades.
He would respond to this taijutsu master's challenge with the most direct form of combat!