"We… how much longer can we hold on?"
A young Konoha shinobi lay on the devastated battlefield, staring blankly at the corpses of over a hundred Konoha ninja scattered around him. The words slipped unconsciously from his mouth.
Beside him, another middle-aged shinobi slammed his fist violently into the ground, utterly unwilling to accept the situation.
"Damn it! If the Sannin were all here… if the Yellow Flash and Shimizu Uzuki were here too…"
Although the Two-Tails had been blasted away from Konoha by the Third Hokage's Adamantine Staff, giving every Konoha shinobi a tremendous boost in morale, reality remained brutally cold.
The Two-Tails was not something the small number of shinobi left behind in Konoha could fight against.
In the distance, deafening explosions continued to erupt from the center of the battlefield.
That was where the Third Hokage was fighting the Two-Tails to the death.
"With only Lord Hokage alone, there's no way he can handle both the Kumogakure elites and the Two-Tails at the same time…" A Konoha shinobi in standard combat gear swept his gaze across the survivors around him. Out of nearly two hundred men, fewer than twenty remained standing.
His voice sank heavily.
"Right now, Lord Hokage is occupied holding off the Two-Tails… which means on the Kumogakure side, even if we die, we must hold the line."
The moment he finished speaking, figures began flickering through the distant forest once again.
The enemy had arrived.
"Everyone, stay alert! The enemy is advancing fast—"
Before the warning was even complete, a cold gleaming blade had already appeared before his eyes.
"Oh? So you noticed our speed."
The voice of death echoed beside his ear.
The shinobi's pupils contracted violently. He desperately tried to turn and block—
Too late.
Death descended.
Clang!
A uniquely shaped three-pronged kunai suddenly appeared out of nowhere, intercepting the fatal strike.
"The Yellow Flash…"
Killer B, with his light blond hair and black sunglasses, immediately withdrew his blade and leapt backward the instant he recognized the newcomer.
The Yellow Flash!
Hope instantly reignited in the eyes of every Konoha shinobi present.
Namikaze Minato had arrived.
Killer B rubbed the cut on his cheek before asking curiously,
"Why didn't you stay at the border?"
According to Kumogakure's plan, the Yellow Flash should have remained trapped on the main battlefield between Kumo and Konoha.
Minato, however, looked seriously at the dazed Konoha shinobi before him.
"Kisuke. As a shinobi of Konoha, allowing an enemy to close in on you during battle without noticing was careless."
"Yes…" The shinobi called Kisuke lowered his head in shame.
Minato slowly raised his head again.
"Failing to leave all of you behind at the border was my mistake."
Traces of blood stained the three-pronged kunai in his hand.
After blocking Killer B's lethal attack, Minato had still possessed enough speed and precision to counterattack immediately, slicing across Killer B's cheek.
Had Killer B's reactions been even slightly slower, that strike would have severely wounded him.
"Since you've come to Konoha…"
Minato's gaze sharpened.
"…don't think about leaving."
"Yellow Flash, do you really think you alone can stop us?"
The Fourth Raikage, A, suddenly appeared beside Killer B.
Behind them, large numbers of Kumogakure shinobi continued pouring onto the battlefield.
Kumo had clearly come fully prepared.
Konoha had detected Kumogakure's movements as well, but they had still reacted one step too late. In order to reach Konoha as quickly as possible, Minato had separated from the main force and rushed back alone.
At this moment, Konoha's elite troops were still on their way back to the village.
Under the blazing summer sun, a thin layer of sweat finally appeared on Minato's forehead.
"So Kumogakure likes bullying the outnumbered that much?"
A middle-aged man's voice suddenly echoed across the battlefield.
"Then count me in too."
Long white hair.
A red sleeveless coat.
Traditional wooden geta sandals.
One of the Legendary Sannin—the Toad Sage, Jiraiya—had arrived.
"Lord Jiraiya?!"
The morale of every Konoha shinobi instantly surged.
"Lord Jiraiya is here!"
"Sensei, weren't you…" Minato knew very well that Jiraiya had previously suffered near-fatal injuries.
Wounds of that severity should not have healed so quickly.
"I only went wandering around gathering inspiration for a bit, and now rats are causing trouble in my home." Jiraiya sighed helplessly.
"Do you people really think one of the Sannin is that easy to bully?"
The Kumogakure side exchanged uneasy glances.
Jiraiya's appearance had completely disrupted their previous plans.
After all, they had spent a long time gathering intelligence yet never managed to discover Jiraiya's whereabouts. Kumogakure had gradually come to believe that, like the other Sannin, Tsunade, Jiraiya had completely left Konoha behind.
Otherwise, how could he have remained absent from the battlefield for months despite the continuous wars?
"I didn't expect Konoha to hide its strength so deeply…" A stared intensely at Jiraiya, trying to detect any sign of weakness.
But he was disappointed.
The Jiraiya before him was unquestionably real, and his chakra was vast beyond measure. More importantly, the overwhelming pressure radiating from him was exactly the same as during the battle at Takigakure.
That was the confidence born from absolute strength—a presence only possessed by the truly powerful of the shinobi world.
Even so, with Jiraiya and the Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato, Konoha now only matched A and Killer B in a two-versus-two confrontation.
Meanwhile, several hundred elite Kumogakure shinobi still stood behind them.
Kumo still held the advantage.
BOOM!!!
Suddenly, an enormous explosion erupted in the distance, dwarfing every previous blast on the battlefield.
This massive detonation was caused by the Third Hokage's supreme Ninjutsu technique—the Five Release Great Combo Technique.
Using four shadow clones, he unleashed four different elemental release techniques simultaneously, then fused them together with the fifth nature transformation released by the original body.
The moment all five chakra natures converged—
An overwhelming explosion was born.
It was as though different ratios of elemental chakra had fused together and reached a critical limit, triggering an overwhelming explosion.
Its destructive power rivaled that of a miniature Tailed Beast Bomb.
At last, the massive body of the Two-Tails—like a collapsing mountain—crashed heavily to the ground.
The sudden turn of events immediately drew everyone's attention.
"What was that?!"
"What happened over there with the Two-Tails?!"
Only a few breaths later, a surge of emerald Wind Release chakra swept across the battlefield, stirring up a violent gale.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Sarutobi Hiruzen appeared before everyone.
Dressed in a black combat uniform, the Third Hokage landed directly in front of the Kumogakure forces, blocking their path.
"It's Lord Hokage!"
"Lord Hokage is here!"
"Lord Hokage defeated the Two-Tails!!!"
Cheers erupted from every Konoha shinobi present.
With the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, and Minato standing together, Konoha's side instantly stabilized.
"Sensei…" Jiraiya's expression turned grave.
The Third Hokage slowly swept his gaze across the battlefield littered with the corpses of Konoha shinobi before speaking in a heavy voice.
"Earlier, every shinobi assigned to guard the Two-Tails inside Konoha died under mysterious circumstances. Shortly afterward, the Two-Tails appeared and went berserk…"
"The primary suspect was a young man dressed in a black combat suit with layered crimson armor over it."
"I have reason to believe his appearance is connected to Kumogakure. However, I also believe your true objective was only to retrieve the Two-Tails—not to invade Konoha."
"That much is obvious from the fact that you dared to penetrate deep into the Land of Fire and approach Konoha with fewer than a thousand shinobi."
"But while cooperating with you, that man released the Two-Tails and drove it into a rampage…"
The Third Hokage's eyes narrowed sharply.
"That clearly made your rescue operation far more difficult."
"I doubt that aligns with your original intentions."
The moment those words fell, silence spread across the battlefield.
"And you're telling us this because you want us to stop fighting?" A stepped forward and questioned coldly. "And how exactly do you know so much about the suspect?"
"I fought him myself." The Third Hokage's voice grew solemn. "He's strong… stronger than any one of us here."
"And I believe he has another hidden objective. Right now, he may very well still be lurking nearby…"
"Waiting for the moment we exhaust ourselves before revealing himself."
"You think we'll believe you just because you say so?" A flatly rejected the Third Hokage's explanation.
"If you're trying to make us retreat with words like that, then give up."
Blue lightning chakra erupted across A's body as his fighting spirit surged higher.
The Two-Tails was the core objective of this mission. For the sake of Kumogakure, even a terrible sacrifice would be worth it if they could complete it.
"After fighting the Two-Tails, I imagine your chakra reserves are heavily depleted, Third Hokage."
Since this battle could no longer be avoided—
Then they would fight.
The Third Hokage, Jiraiya, and Minato formed a triangular battle formation, fully prepared for an all-out war against Kumogakure.
However, just as A was about to give the order to attack, a Kumogakure ANBU suddenly stepped forward and whispered several words into his ear.
In the next instant, A's expression turned ice-cold.
Already cloaked in Lightning Release Chakra Mode, he vanished from sight.
BOOM!!!
A massive tree exploded into splinters beneath A's punch—
But at the exact moment of impact, a figure flickered away from the shattered trunk.
"You still dare show yourself before us? Looks like you really do have a death wish."
A's voice was freezing cold.
Their supposed ally had betrayed them at the final moment. Every Kumo shinobi involved in the Uzumaki clan transaction had died, and their secret mission to retrieve the Two-Tails had been completely exposed.
Anyone would want revenge after being manipulated like that.
"So even a mere rat dares look down on me now."
Surrounded by countless shinobi, Madara merely smiled faintly and brushed dust from his armor.
"I was only watching for a moment. I didn't expect to be discovered so quickly."
A's expression grew increasingly serious.
The reaction speed Madara displayed just now was no slower than the Yellow Flash himself.
"Third Hokage… it seems your suspicions were correct."
"The matter of the Two-Tails can wait."
A's eyes locked onto Madara.
"Kumogakure and Konoha should join forces."
"This enemy… is extremely dangerous."
As the Third Hokage looked upon Madara once more, his expression became incomparably grave.
"Jiraiya. Minato. Be careful."
"Yes, Sensei."
"Yes, Lord Hokage."
At that moment, Konoha's reinforcements finally arrived.
Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Akimichi Torifu each led large groups of Konoha shinobi onto the battlefield.
In an instant, nearly a thousand Konoha and Kumogakure ninja—along with multiple top-tier shinobi—completely surrounded Madara.
"Hiruzen, what's the situation?" Homura asked in a low voice.
"The true enemy has appeared. Do not lower your guard."
Following Hiruzen's gaze, Koharu's eyes widened slightly.
"The enemy… is only one person?!"
Yes.
Only one person.
Because one was enough.
Madara slowly swept his gaze across the battlefield again, searching for the Mist ANBU who had exposed his location earlier.
But the figure was already gone.
"Forget it. How I was discovered no longer matters."
"The Third Hokage. One of the Sannin, Jiraiya. The Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato. The Fourth Raikage. The Eight-Tails' jinchūriki…"
Madara smiled faintly.
"That sounds rather frightening."
"Very well."
"I'll entertain all of you."
"Who exactly are you?" A finally demanded.
The person who had traded with them earlier was indeed this man—but he absolutely had not looked this young.
Moreover, this mysterious individual had fought the Third Hokage and escaped unharmed. Judging from Hiruzen's evaluation, his strength likely surpassed everyone present.
At first, A had assumed the Third Hokage was merely making excuses to avoid battle.
But the failed ambush just now had genuinely shocked him.
Effortlessly evading his sneak attack…
Remaining perfectly calm while surrounded by so many powerful shinobi…
Yet none of the famous experts A knew in the shinobi world matched this man's appearance.
It was as though he had appeared from nowhere.
Who… exactly was he?
And in the next moment, everyone finally received their answer.
"My name…"
The man slowly raised his head.
"…Uchiha Madara."
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