"What?! Yugito has been captured?"
When the Fourth Raikage received the news, he smashed his desk to splinters with a single, furious blow. His eyes blazed with a savage, predatory light.
True to his volatile nature, he didn't even stop to think. He roared out his orders: "Summon the Raikage Guard and the Anbu to mobilize with me immediately! This time, no matter what, we're going to teach that brat a lesson. I'll make him realize that Kumogakure isn't a force to be trifled with!"
"What? You're heading out personally? Are you joking?!" an elderly advisor shouted, attempting to restrain him.
While the Kage of the Hidden Cloud had always been renowned for their peerless individual strength, it was unprecedented for the leader of the village to mobilize personally over every incident. If the Raikage continued like this, no matter how great his power, he wouldn't live long enough to see the consequences.
The fate of the Third Raikage, the man said to possess the "Strongest Spear and Strongest Shield," who was ground down to death by ten thousand Iwagakure shinobi, remained the ultimate cautionary tale.
"And why shouldn't I go personally?! Look at how arrogant that brat Neji Hyuga has become! He dared to snatch our Two-Tails Jinchuriki right off the street! If we don't make a stand now, Kumogakure will become the laughingstock of the entire ninja world!" A shouted, his fists clenched so tight they shook.
While the Sand and the Mist had already become jokes in their own right, he would never allow the Cloud to fall to that level. Kumogakure's unity was built entirely on its uncompromising, hardline foreign policy. If they lost that edge, the village's spirit would wither, leading to stagnation and eventual ruin.
Worse yet, disgruntled factions might even stage a coup to assassinate him! Decades ago, the Second Raikage had met such an end at the hands of the Gold and Silver Brothers. Among the Five Great Nations, the Land of Lightning was emotionally the least capable of enduring the humiliation of defeat.
This was why the Third Raikage and his successor seemed cut from the same cloth, possessing the same short fuse and the same preference for using violence to solve problems. It was the only way to satisfy the appetite of the Cloud's shinobi.
"Darui! You've seen that Allen person, and you've seen Neji Hyuga. Tell us, what should we watch out for regarding this brat who turned his back on Konoha and the Hyuga Clan?"
Seeing that he couldn't stop the Raikage, the advisor turned to the only eyewitness for intel. Much like a battle between Nen users in the Hunter world, shinobi were a group that relied heavily on information. Caution was paramount when facing an enemy with unknown abilities.
The ninja world was home to an uncountable number of Kekkei Genkai, ninjutsu, sealing jutsu, and forbidden arts; a single moment of negligence could lead to permanent disability or death. In the original timeline, the Fourth Raikage had been ignited by Amaterasu during his first encounter with Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan due to his carelessness, forcing him to amputate his own arm on the spot.
Darui gave a bitter smile. "My apologies, Counselor. I haven't seen Allen or the red-haired girl in action, so I have no way of gauging their strength. But Neji Hyuga... he took out several of my men in an instant, including seasoned Jonin. His style is bizarre—it looks like the Gentle Fist, but it isn't quite. And his speed... it's terrifying. It might be the only thing comparable to the Lightning Release: Lariat."
"Comparable to the Lariat?! Is he really that fast?" A, the Fourth Raikage, showed a rare expression of genuine shock.
"Yes. His attacks are nearly impossible to dodge. Even I might only manage to parry a strike or two before being knocked flat," Darui admitted helplessly.
"Call Killer B! This time, the A-B Combo moves together. I refuse to believe Neji Hyuga is truly that formidable!" The Raikage made his decision after a moment's hesitation.
Kumogakure could not lose! Especially now. If they surrendered here, the Land of Lightning was finished.
Soon, under his personal lead, an elite squad left the village, initiating a high-speed pursuit. Within a day or two, they encountered Neji, standing alone on the path.
Looking at the young man in the white tunic, A finally spoke: "Hey! Kid! Where have you hidden our village's Jinchuriki? Give her up now if you know what's good for you!"
"I'm afraid you're out of luck. Yugito left this area two days ago. If everything went according to plan, she should reach Otogakure in a few hours. Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, you're the Raikage, aren't you? The plan to steal the Byakugan from the Hyuga Main House in Konoha all those years ago... that was your handiwork, wasn't it?"
As Neji spoke, he unleashed his Nen without restraint. The raw pressure was so immense it left several Cloud experts gasping for air, their faces pale with shock and fear.
They had all clashed with the Resistance's Nen users before and understood that when this invisible energy reached a certain threshold, it manifested as a physical, crushing weight. But they had never encountered anything this intense. This pressure alone confirmed that the young man before them was a monster.
"Hah! That's right! That was my decision! What of it? Do you seek revenge for your dead father?"
The Fourth Raikage was hot-headed, but he wasn't a fool. Connecting Neji's identity to the victim of that incident, he instantly realized the boy's true intent: to exact bloody retribution on Kumogakure and slaughter everyone involved.
"Precisely. Allen once said that this world doesn't need forgiveness; it needs everyone to be held accountable for their actions. Now, it's time for you to pay the price for what you did. That price is death. You will die here today!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Neji blurred forward at high speed. He swung his arms, a continuous stream of near-solidified chakra erupting from his pressure points.
"Kill me? You've got quite the mouth on you, brat!"
The Raikage was no ordinary opponent. He instantly shrouded himself in his Lightning Release Armor and charged to meet the attack.
The next second...
BOOM!!!!!!
The two collided!
The explosion of chakra and Nen was so violent that the ground within a forty-meter radius collapsed, forming a deep, hemispherical crater. The chakra venting from Neji's pressure points acted like razor-thin wires, lashing out from the crater's center.
Four Cloud shinobi were too slow to dodge; they were struck instantly and disintegrated into a mist of blood that scattered in the wind.
It was true, the mere shockwave of the exchange between the Raikage and Neji had killed four Jonin. The yawning chasm in power was so great that any thoughts of intervention vanished from the minds of the survivors.
This was not a battle they were equipped to join.