“Enma, lend me your strength!”
Hiruzen tightened his grip on the staff in his hands.
Chakra flowed steadily through his body as his eyes locked onto the colossal beast charging toward them.
“Got it.”
Enma’s voice echoed from within the weapon.
The next moment, the staff began extending at incredible speed.
Longer.
Longer still.
Its tip shot forward directly toward the giant rhinoceros beetle.
“What the hell is this?”
Kakui’s brows instantly furrowed.
A flash of confusion crossed his face.
Clearly, none of the intelligence reports had mentioned this particular ability.
Even so, he didn’t stop his attack.
Instead, he glanced down at the giant beetle beneath him.
Its armor was harder than steel.
Lightning chakra crackled across its shell.
A sneer appeared on Kakui’s lips.
A skinny little stick like that?
How much damage could it possibly do?
So he charged straight ahead.
Then—
His confident smile froze.
BOOOOM!
The Adamantine Staff slammed into the beetle’s armored shell.
An overwhelming force exploded outward.
A force far beyond anything Kakui had imagined.
“W-Wait!”
His face changed dramatically.
He immediately crouched down and pressed both hands against the summon beast.
The giant beetle desperately drove its razor-sharp legs into the ground.
Trying to stabilize itself.
Trying to resist.
Trying to survive.
It didn’t matter.
Before Enma’s terrifying strength, all resistance was meaningless.
After all—
This was the same Enma who could physically wrestle with the Nine-Tails.
The same summon beast capable of forcing Kurama out of Konoha through sheer brute force.
Compared to that monster…
This giant beetle was nothing.
The summon held out for less than a second.
Then it was sent flying backward.
The beetle’s legs scraped furiously across the earth.
Deep trenches appeared in the ground.
Stone shattered.
Debris scattered everywhere.
Finally, the massive creature crashed into the cliff behind it.
The entire mountainside trembled.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
The feared Giant Insect Ninja, Kakui, had just been blasted away.
Again.
Twice in a single battle.
And his opponents were nothing more than a pair of young Konoha shinobi.
At least, that’s how it looked to everyone present.
Meanwhile, the Cloud shinobi who had attempted to use the summon beast as cover and slip around behind Danzō suddenly found themselves intercepted.
“Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!”
Homura struck first.
His hands flashed through a sequence of seals.
Chakra surged outward.
A massive water dragon materialized from thin air.
The enormous construct twisted through the battlefield.
Roaring as it charged toward the incoming Cloud shinobi.
The enemy formation immediately scattered.
Then—
“Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!”
Kagami Uchiha opened his mouth.
A gigantic fireball erupted forward.
The Uchiha Clan’s signature technique.
A blazing sphere of fire large enough to swallow multiple enemies at once.
The intense heat distorted the surrounding air.
The Cloud shinobi who had barely escaped the water dragon found themselves immediately engulfed by a sea of flames.
They barely had time to curse before diving for cover.
Then water met fire.
Steam exploded across the battlefield.
A dense white mist spread everywhere.
Visibility dropped instantly.
And from within that curtain of steam—
A massive shadow emerged.
“Expansion Jutsu…”
Torifu’s voice echoed through the battlefield.
His body rapidly expanded.
Growing larger and larger.
Until he resembled a giant.
Then he curled into a gigantic sphere.
“Human Bullet Tank!!”
BOOOOM!
The enormous rolling mass crashed into the battlefield.
The impact shattered the ground.
Rocks exploded outward.
Cloud shinobi were sent flying in every direction.
Some were launched into the air.
Others crashed headfirst into nearby cliffs.
The formation that had been advancing moments earlier collapsed instantly.
As the dust slowly settled—
A new defensive line appeared.
At the front stood Hiruzen.
The Adamantine Staff rested across his shoulder.
His posture was straight.
His gaze sharp.
Like an immovable mountain guarding the battlefield.
To his left stood Homura.
To his right stood Kagami and Torifu.
Kagami’s crimson Sharingan slowly rotated.
Three black tomoe drifted within blood-red eyes.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
Hypnotic.
The four young shinobi stood shoulder to shoulder.
Facing an army.
Not retreating.
Not wavering.
Behind them, Danzō remained atop Baku’s massive back.
The giant beast continued gathering wind chakra.
One devastating attack after another was being prepared.
For the first time since the battle began—
The surviving Konoha shinobi felt something they thought they had already lost.
Hope.
And standing at the center of it all was the newly appointed Third Hokage.
Shimura Danzō.
Like a fortress.
Like a war machine.
Like a commander who could truly stand against an army by himself.
The message was clear.
If the enemy wanted to reach him—
They would first have to break through the four monsters standing in front.
Torifu seized the opportunity to pop a Soldier Pill into his mouth.
The medicinal pellet dissolved quickly, restoring both his depleted chakra and his stamina.
The normally good-natured giant no longer looked approachable.
His honest, cheerful face had been replaced by cold killing intent.
His eyes remained locked firmly on the enemy.
Even Homura, who was usually among the most cautious of the group, wore an expression of absolute determination.
At this point, there was no turning back.
They had already committed themselves.
The only path forward was to protect Danzō.
Because as long as Danzō survived, so did their future.
After all—
How many shinobi dreamed of standing at the pinnacle of Konoha’s leadership?
How many would kill for a seat among the village’s highest ranks?
The four disciples positioned themselves perfectly.
Their formation left no openings.
Danzō stood safely at the center.
At that moment, the Second Hokage’s elite guard—the disciples of Tobirama Senju—had fully taken the battlefield.
And this…
Was exactly the strategy they had devised before arriving.
Danzō would serve as the primary attacker.
Using his coordination with Baku, he would unleash devastating large-scale Wind Release techniques from long range.
Simply put—
He was the artillery platform.
The magical turret.
The walking siege weapon.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen and the others acted as his shield.
Their task was straightforward:
Destroy anything that tried to get close.
Create space.
Protect the artillery.
Allow Danzō to fire without interruption.
The weakness of this strategy was obvious.
Endurance.
A mage without mana was just a guy waving his hands around.
No matter how powerful your techniques were, they meant nothing once your chakra ran dry.
Unfortunately for Kumogakure—
That weakness no longer existed.
After obtaining the Senju Physique and receiving multiple boosts from the Tree of Fortune’s Prestige branch, Danzō’s chakra reserves had grown to an absurd level.
Was he comparable to Hashirama Senju?
Of course not.
That man was practically a cheat code given human form.
But firing a hundred Great Vacuum Spheres?
That wasn’t a problem.
Suppressing the entire Cloud force before him?
More than enough.
“Damn you, Konoha brat!”
Kakui once again emerged from a mountain of shattered stone.
At some point, the confidence that had filled his face at the start of the battle had vanished.
In its place remained only caution.
And fear.
He had to admit it.
Tobirama’s disciples were far stronger than expected.
Still—
Chakra was finite.
No matter how powerful Danzō was, he couldn’t possibly possess limitless chakra like Tobirama.
Right?
Kakui narrowed his eyes.
“I want to see how much longer you can keep this up.”
His hands rapidly formed seals.
Lightning burst across the giant beetle’s body once more.
Then, for what felt like the hundredth time, Kakui led another charge.
One hour later…
BOOOOOOM!
Another deafening impact echoed across the battlefield.
Kakui and his giant beetle were once again embedded in a cliff face.
At this point, the battlefield was barely recognizable.
The once-towering valley had been blasted apart.
The surrounding cliffs resembled shattered ruins.
The ground was covered in countless craters.
Corpses littered the battlefield.
Broken armor.
Discarded weapons.
Pools of blood.
The scene resembled the aftermath of a natural disaster.
The Cloud rebels, who had begun the battle full of confidence and momentum, had long since lost their spirit.
Danzō’s endless bombardment had not only inflicted horrific casualties—
It had left psychological scars.
At times, it genuinely felt as though they were the ones being surrounded.
“Danzō…”
Baku raised its trunk and spoke in an unusually cheerful tone.
“You really do last forever.”
The giant beast sounded genuinely impressed.
To be honest, it had never fought a battle this luxurious before.
With Danzō supplying chakra, every technique it launched was absurdly powerful.
Bigger.
Stronger.
More destructive.
But the most ridiculous part wasn’t the firepower.
It was the stamina.
More than an hour of nonstop bombardment.
And Danzō still showed no signs of slowing down.
No signs of fatigue.
No signs of depletion.
Combined with Hiruzen and the others guarding him from every direction, Baku felt utterly spoiled.
Its entire job consisted of only two steps:
Gather chakra.
Fire.
Repeat.
Simple.
Efficient.
Beautiful.
In response, Danzō merely waved a hand dismissively.
His expression remained calm and composed.
As though the entire battle were nothing worth mentioning.
The gesture seemed to say only one thing:
“Enemies at this level?”
“I could take on ten more.”
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