Who was this? Nobody knew. What did he just do? He seemed to have punched the Raikage right back where he came from. "Uh... tell me, am I dreaming?" "Probably."
Hundreds of Konoha ninja stared at the scene, stunned into silence, unable to believe their own eyes.
"What are you all staring for? Retreat, now!"
The moment the giant spoke, Nara Mao recognized his voice. He let out an involuntary cry of shock: "Aburame Tetsumaru?!"
They knew Tetsumaru was tall, but this... this was clearly not a human height.
The command finally jolted Mitokado Homura out of his panicked daze. He hurriedly ordered the three battalions to retreat. These Chunin and Genin were essentially useless on a battlefield dominated by Jonin; worse, they were liabilities the enemy could exploit.
The remaining Jonin recovered even faster. Exchanging glances, they moved toward Tetsumaru, naturally forming a combat formation with him as the "tip of the spear."
They were seasoned veterans, and their decisiveness was peerless.
Tetsumaru didn't waste time with pleasantries. "I'll hold the Raikage. I'm counting on you all to handle the rest of the Cloud ninja."
"As long as you can actually pin him down, we won't let anyone interfere. But..."
One Konoha Jonin hesitated. Holding the Raikage meant more than just surviving an exchange; it meant being a threat the Raikage couldn't ignore. That first punch had clearly caught the Kage off guard, but they couldn't count on luck twice.
Tetsumaru smirked, pointing a thumb at his own chest. "Just watch me."
With a wave of his massive hand, the Insect Wall collapsed and surged forward like a black tide, swallowing the path ahead. Tetsumaru vanished into the swarm along with it.
"A distraction-based harassment tactic. That's more grounded," Senior Kon-nyo muttered, nodding. He signaled the others to flank the swarm, heading for the Cloud's wings to intercept their Jonin.
The four Uchiha present had already activated their Sharingan. Their crimson eyes burned with a murderous light—they were furious about being forced to run earlier.
When facing the Raikage directly, they had no choice; he was too fast and too dangerous. But against regular Cloud Jonin? That was a different story. Now that someone had stepped up to pull the "boss's" aggro, it was time to vent their rage and avenge their fallen clansmen.
If Konoha's side was defined by shock and relief, the Cloud's side was suffering a crisis of faith. Their Raikage—their symbol of absolute power—had been violently repelled.
Aside from when the Eight-Tails went on a rampage, the Raikage had never been forced backward. Was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki hiding on the other side of that bug wall?
The Raikage rubbed his chin. His lips and teeth were still numb from the impact. That hit had been solid. Who had dared to ambush him?
Strange... I have no memory of a guy like this. Does Konoha really have such a person?
Before he could process the thought, the towering wall of bugs collapsed toward him like a flood.
The Raikage reached out and snatched a Flight-Locust out of the air. Looking at the cucumber-sized insect, he finally recalled a specific piece of intelligence. So, the Aburame Tetsumaru he had been looking for was right here.
Good. I'll kill him right now.
The Raikage crushed the locust in his palm. Lightning flared, vaporizing the insect remains and cleaning his hand instantly before he charged headlong into the swarm.
Even though the Raikage could ignore the locusts' bites, he couldn't see through the dense cloud of insects. He was effectively back to square one, fighting blind.
But there was one major difference: before, no one in Konoha could stop his momentum, allowing him to zig-zag through their ranks at will. Now, Tetsumaru was there to meet him head-on, using the information gap to achieve a "four ounces to move a thousand pounds" leverage.
Halfway through his charge, a massive fist lunged out from the right, slamming accurately into the Raikage's ribs. The sheer force broke his momentum.
The blow landed right where the muscle was momentarily relaxed, sending a piercing jolt of pain through the Raikage. Ignoring the sensation, he reached out and clamped his hand onto the massive forearm.
"Got you."
Chakra surged into his left hand as he hammered down on the bio-armor's right arm, only for the strike to be caught by the armor's left hand. The two giants began a brutal, close-quarters struggle within the span of a few square meters.
Tetsumaru's bio-armor had more explosive power and thick plating, and his extra-long reach gave him a distinct advantage. However, the Raikage was the superior martial artist—faster, stronger, and more refined. In this phone-booth fight, the Kage was winning.
Within a minute, Tetsumaru took several heavy blows. Fortunately, the Raikage's reach was shorter, so he could only focus on the armor's arms. Even so, the chitinous plating on the armor's forearms was shattering, and green insect blood was spraying everywhere.
The Attached Insect Limbs on his hands were nearing total failure; his acid sprayers and wrist blades were offline. Gritting his teeth, Tetsumaru triggered the shoulder launchers, unleashing a volley of Acid-Exploding Beetles to force the Raikage back.
Tetsumaru immediately commanded the swarm to tighten around the Kage. During the brief reprieve, he tore off the dying bio-armor sleeves and summoned fresh ones via a quick Summoning Jutsu.
The entire replacement took only six seconds. Refreshed and repaired, Tetsumaru lunged back into the fray.
The moment they clashed again, both were startled. The Raikage had drawn a kunai, while Tetsumaru had extended his vibration wrist-blades.
Raikage & Tetsumaru: This devious bastard—he wants to go for a weapon-based kill?
But they were both wrong. Neither of them had much skill with short blades. Both were overconfident in their own defenses and accustomed to trading blows. It was a race to see who could kill the other while their own armor held out.
The fight was ugly. No finesse, no parrying, no dodging. They simply poured everything they had into attacking each other's vitals.
The high-frequency vibration of the blades couldn't bypass the Raikage's lightning defense, and a simple kunai couldn't hope to pierce Tetsumaru's heavy plating.
They both realized they needed a bigger move. Tetsumaru, however, was running out of high-intensity options. He looked at the surrounding battlefield. The Leaf reinforcements had retreated, but the Jonin from both sides were locked in a stalemate, suffering heavy casualties.
If he couldn't neutralize the Raikage, none of them would make it out alive. Tetsumaru decided to bet everything on one play.
Suddenly, the Cloud's Storm Release user, Genji, managed to break away from his opponent. He aimed his hands toward the center of the swarm.
Storm Release: Nine-Headed Lightning Whip!
Despite the name, the technique split into countless threads of lightning, forming a massive web—or more accurately, a giant broom of electricity. It swept through the swarm three times, instantly vaporizing more than half of the insects.
The battlefield cleared. The barrier between Tetsumaru and the Raikage vanished. In the next heartbeat, the Raikage's fist slammed into Tetsumaru's chest, sending the massive suit of armor flying.
Because Tetsumaru had been focusing entirely on the Domain Field Barrier to manage the swarm, he couldn't track the Raikage's high-speed movement once the "interference" was gone. He took the hit full-force.
The impact vibrated through his entire body. The heavy chitin shell held—barely—but the blunt force trauma was agonizing. He felt like he'd been hit by a freight train and then run over by the rest of the cars.
"Well done," the Raikage praised his subordinate. "Next strike ends it."
"Summoning Jutsu!" Tetsumaru ignored the pain, completing the seal he had been preparing. He pulled his trump card from the Tea Country base: the Giant Wind-Bug.
The creature's debut stunned everyone. At 36 meters tall and 55 meters long, its sheer scale was a psychological weapon. Even the Raikage frowned.
The surviving Konoha ninja felt their morale soar. The Aburame among them were practically drooling; looking at the giant insect, their minds were filled with a single thought: I want one.
"Hmph. What can a summon do once its master is dead?"
The Raikage straightened his right hand, tucking his thumb and folding two fingers. Lightning erupted around him as he charged.
Hell Stab: Two-Finger Nukite!
Before anyone could blink, the Raikage's arm pierced through the armor's abdomen and struck Tetsumaru's actual chest just as he was ejecting from the suit.
"Too fast... that was nearly it." Despite switching to the Eye of Truth's dynamic vision, Tetsumaru hadn't expected the Raikage to pierce the heavy armor so easily.
Grabbing the Raikage with the suit's remaining arms, Tetsumaru used his left hand to press a handful of Kikaichu into his own wound to stem the bleeding. With his right hand, he gave the Giant Wind-Bug the command.
The massive creature lurched its eight legs and turned its rear toward them. Its head began to glow, the light traveling down its massive abdomen as enormous amounts of chakra gathered at its tail.
The tail plating split into six petals, revealing a pre-formed sphere of compressed air over ten meters in diameter.
Wind Style: Gale Cannon!
The sphere launched. Tetsumaru commanded the bio-armor to self-destruct and disintegrate just before impact, allowing the wind blades to shred the armor fragments while the main force of the vacuum sphere slammed into the Raikage.
The wind blades couldn't hurt the Kage, but the sheer kinetic force of the Gale Cannon carved a massive trench into the earth, carrying the Raikage with it as it blasted him miles away to the northwest.
The Kage had been forcibly removed from the battlefield.
The shift in morale was instantaneous. The Cloud ninja began to scatter and flee, while the Leaf ninja began a frenzied pursuit.
"Stop! Everyone, retreat!"
A calm Konoha Jonin halted the madness. He saw clearly that while the Raikage was gone, he wasn't dead or even seriously injured. He could be back at any moment.
Meanwhile, their "ace" had collapsed. As Tetsumaru lost consciousness, the giant summon vanished in a puff of white smoke.
Konoha's "victory" was an illusion. They were exhausted and wounded; if the Cloud rallied, they'd be wiped out. The Jonin agreed immediately. They performed a hasty sweep of the field, recovering their fallen and their wounded, and vanished.
When Tetsumaru finally opened his eyes, he was in the Konoha Hospital. He turned his head to see a man dozing by his bed: his father, Aburame Wafu.
The movement woke Wafu, who jumped up in joy and ran out to find a medical ninja, waving his arms like a madman.
After a series of checks, the medic declared Tetsumaru out of danger. Wafu broke down into heavy sobs, causing quite a scene in the ward.
The news of his awakening spread fast. His classmates were the first to visit; the Ino-Shika-Cho trio gave him a solemn, heartfelt thanks for saving their lives.
Then came a parade of Aburame relatives, including the Clan Head and Elder Shiki, who arrived in a wheelchair.
Finally, the Hokage himself visited. Hiruzen Sarutobi rambled on for a long time until he saw Tetsumaru's eyes growing heavy with fatigue, at which point he finally took his leave.
That evening, Wafu finally got a private moment with his son.
"You brat, have you lost your mind? Challenging the Raikage? That was a Kage!"
"I didn't want to, but you were there."
Wafu choked up. "I would rather have died than see you take a risk like that."
"Don't say that, Dad. That's how you trigger a 'death flag.'"
"A what? Flag?"
"Never mind. Don't overthink it. I only stood up because I was confident I could survive." Tetsumaru paused, looking at his father. "Besides, you've raised me for seventeen years. How could I just watch you die?"
Wafu fell silent. Tetsumaru didn't say anything else; he drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Wafu didn't bring up the danger again. Instead, he was beaming with pride, recounting the glory of the past few days.
"Your performance made the Hokage very happy. He decided on the spot to promote you to Jonin."
"Heh... I doubt he's that happy."
"Huh?"
It was true. Tetsumaru was a generation younger than Orochimaru and Jiraiya. In his generation, the "chosen one" of the Hokage's lineage was supposed to be Minato Namikaze.
But Minato hadn't yet stepped into his full glory. Meanwhile, Tetsumaru had already displayed the power to stall a Raikage and commanded the loyalty of the "Giant Insect Squadron." The gap between them was glaring.
Lord Hokage was likely more troubled than pleased.