The standoff lasted only a moment before Shiraishi swung his fist again, lunging at Minato Namikaze like a massive, predatory beast.
As the punch whistled toward him, Minato leaned back slightly, activating the Flying Raijin. He felt the sharp gale from the fist scrape past his face, stinging like a blade's edge.
Minato's body acted like a coiled spring. The Flying Raijin flickered him to Shiraishi's right, where he unleashed a concentrated globule of chakra from his fist.
He struck toward Shiraishi's waist, intending to collapse his form before he could transition to the next move.
This chakra mass contained a specialized Sealing Formula; anyone struck by it would find their internal chakra flow thrown into total disarray.
When Shiraishi caught Minato's fist with one hand, he immediately realized the young Hokage had cooked up something troublesome again.
What a nuisance... his sealing jutsu!
In the heat of the moment, Shiraishi's expression remained cold and unmoving. Following the momentum of the upward punch, he leaped and spun, whipping out a whirlwind of leg sweeps.
Kick followed kick, strike followed strike—a relentless, violent cycle of physical pressure.
At this stage, Shiraishi felt that using Ninjutsu against Minato was futile, as it was constantly countered in bizarre ways. He decided it was simpler just to beat him into submission with pure Taijutsu!
Watching Shiraishi's kicking technique from afar, Uchiha Shisui's face stiffened, memories of his own encounter with Shiraishi's rapid-fire kicks resurfacing painfully.
"It seems the Kazekage has the most confidence in his Taijutsu."
Despite all the strategic layers he utilized, Shiraishi possessed a "Taijutsu soul." Deep down, he trusted his physical output above all else.
Minato, now moving as a mere blur, manifested a large Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder barrier around himself. He raised his forearms to block, his joints snapping as he absorbed the impact, retreating in an orderly, controlled fashion.
Shiraishi's kicks grew increasingly ferocious. As Minato parried, he realized with a start that his physical functions were being suppressed, slowly sliding downward under the sheer weight of the assault.
This is going to get ugly if I don't break this rhythm!
Minato had a sudden moment of clarity. He used another Flying Raijin flash to vanish, searching for a gap in the air to interrupt Shiraishi's tempo.
However, Shiraishi's transitions were seamless. As the massive air-current tornado from his kicks reached its end, he immediately swung his arm to fire an Azure Flame Bullet. When Minato dodged, Shiraishi followed up instantly with a bolt of Thunderstrike.
Seeing the combined assault of lightning and blue fire, Minato refused to back down. He used his specialized kunai to continuously deflect and guide the lightning away. For a time, the arena was filled with the deafening roar of constant explosions.
Minato retaliated with other elemental releases to stall Shiraishi's follow-up. The clash of their chakra created scorching sparks in the air that shimmered alongside the azure flames and golden lightning.
"These two..."
The "Yellow Flash" truly lived up to his name. Many of Shiraishi's abilities that had given the other Kage headaches were being dismantled one by one by Minato's ingenuity, forcing the Kazekage into a purely physical brawl.
Yet, even when restricted to Taijutsu, this Kazekage was terrifyingly dominant.
In that moment, the Tsuchikage and Raikage finalized their decision: they would wait for Shiraishi and Minato to exhaust each other, then strike to kill the Kazekage right there at the Summit.
The Hidden Threat
On the outskirts of the Land of Iron, ten elite Cloud Ninja squads had been lying in wait. As the battle at the peak intensified, over a hundred shinobi crept toward the base of the mountain, awaiting the Raikage's signal.
Onoki wasn't as bold as the Raikage, but he was prepared. His earlier battle with Shiraishi had convinced him; even though both had held back, Onoki's visible arsenal hadn't been enough to suppress the young man. This solidified his resolve to eliminate Shiraishi.
Having lived through the era of Uchiha Madara, Onoki drew a sharp comparison. In terms of raw power, Shiraishi hadn't reached the level of despair Madara once inflicted, but he was undeniably the powerhouse of the current era.
To ensure the Hidden Stone wouldn't be crushed by the Sand after his death, Onoki decided to gamble his old bones on keeping the Kazekage here forever.
Tragedy in the Land of Vegetables
At the Dojari clan's settlement beneath the North Axe Hot Spring Mountains, a scene of chaos and mourning awaited Dojari Souji and Morimoto Ryoji.
As they rushed into the camp, they found it littered with the bodies of clansmen. Except for the Chief's quarters, the entire area was a graveyard.
"Lord Souji! The Chief was attacked... we couldn't react in time, and he was taken!"
As Souji examined the wounds, his expression darkened. "This Sand Manipulation..."
Ryoji stepped forward to inspect the corpses. They had been killed by the Sand Waterfall Funeral (Sabaku Sosō). The bodies were mangled, and a significant amount of viscous sand remained within the wounds.
"This is the unique sand technique of the Arakawa family!"
Among the three main lineages of the Sand, the Arakawa family utilized a sand with special adhesive properties, making their Sand Binding Prison and Sand Waterfall Funeral distinct.
However, no one in the Arakawa family had mastered this secret art in years; even Arakawa Maru only had a superficial grasp of it.
The evidence pointed directly at the Hidden Sand—not necessarily the leadership, but certainly someone connected to the three lineages.
"Ryoji, help me treat the survivors."
Ryoji started to speak, but Souji shook his head. "The truth isn't clear yet. The attacker used the Arakawa style to incite internal chaos in the Land of Vegetables. But the culprit was too clever for their own good and overlooked a simple fact."
Souji stared at the residual sand for a long time before speaking softly. "This sand... it didn't come from the Land of Vegetables."
"What?" Ryoji was stunned. "You can tell the difference?"
Souji picked up a handful of the sand and a local stone in the other. He used a basic transformation technique to crush the stone into fine sand. Comparing the two, the grain size and color were subtly different.
"A master of sand control usually sources their materials locally. They might mix in some of their own, but they wouldn't use foreign desert sand on this scale.
They used imported sand because they didn't want their own chakra signature to be exposed."
Souji calmly blew the fine grains into the wind.
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