"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
A lance of lightning speared upward, charring his robe; only his short stature and swift flight kept the spear from piercing flesh.
"Lord Raikage—you came to support us!"
Two-Tails Matatabi exulted, Yugito having recognized the bronzed, blond-haired titan who stepped from the fading light—Fourth Raikage Ay!
"You've done well, Yugito. Leave the rest to me."
"So fast… Fourth Raikage, you've gotten quicker."
High above, Ōnoki spoke, still rattled, fear lingering in his eyes.
"That was the Heavenly Transmission Technique just now, wasn't it? The instant you were teleported in you already reacted—dodged my Dust Release and nearly killed me…"
"You're a lot tougher than your old man!"
To most Ninja, the Third Raikage was far stronger than the Fourth. His Lightning Release Armor could block an S-rank Wind Release Rasenshuriken, and Wind is supposed to counter Lightning. That made his so-called strongest shield worthy of the name; ordinary Ninja, even average Jonin, couldn't hurt him no matter what they tried.
For Ōnoki, though, the Third's defense was irrelevant—Dust Release ignores defense entirely—so he worried more about the Fourth's speed, which gave him bigger headaches.
Yet even by Ōnoki's reckoning the Fourth shouldn't be this fast. Anyone arriving by Heavenly Transmission should have been hard-pressed by that Dust Release, yet the newcomer hadn't a scratch, while Ōnoki himself had nearly died.
The Fourth Raikage snorted coldly, secretly relieved: without the nerve-reflex boost and added toughness from learning Current Propulsion, the lag of the Heavenly Transmission might have left him dead on arrival.
If he'd died that easily he'd have become the laughing-stock of the Five Great Ninja Villages—too ashamed to face his father even in the Pure Land.
Glancing around and seeing the Vegapunk Clone still safe and the Two-Tails jinchūriki still active, the Fourth Raikage relaxed slightly—until his gaze fell on Darui's quartered corpse and his eyes narrowed to pinpoints.
"Darui… you little runt, you actually dared!"
Ōnoki rose higher and answered coldly, "I killed your old man; one more brat Ninja means nothing."
"Bastard—die!"
The Fourth's temper flared; he snapped a Lightning Release jutsu straight at him.
But the Fourth's own speed didn't extend to his jutsu. Airborne, Ōnoki dodged easily and hurled Dust Release back—useless against a foe now faster than the human eye thanks to Current Propulsion.
After a few exchanges the Fourth's rage cooled. He'd grown far stronger, yet without flight the duel was pointless.
Unless he could catch Ōnoki before take-off, the Raikage saw no way to nail the wily Tsuchikage.
Calm again, he scanned the field, spotted the remaining Iwagakure Ninja on the ground, and gave a sinister smile.
"Not good!" the Third Tsuchikage cried. "Kitsuchi—pull back, now!"
"Too late for warnings," the Fourth Raikage sneered, vanishing like a mirage.
At his father's shout Kitsuchi, who'd been battling the Two-Tails with a giant stone golem, snapped alert and hardened his body to obsidian—Earth Release hardening at its peak.
But the Fourth's first target wasn't him. A blazing light danced among the Iwa Ninja; in seconds it winked out, leaving a dozen of them shredded on the ground.
Ōnoki's Kekkei Tōta was hailed as the most destructive in the Ninja World, yet Ninja rely on evasion more than blocking; strong ones fear Dust Release but don't despair.
The true harvesters of despair, besides monsters like Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, are speed-blitz specialists.
Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake, and the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, were paragons; their speed killed so many that the great Villages ruled missions against them automatic failures—just flee and survive.
Every Raikage is such a reaper, though none ever ran solo missions like Sakumo or Minato, so no similar rule spread.
"Too fast… I couldn't even see him move," Kitsuchi realized, ice in his veins.
When the speed gap is this vast, nothing else matters; if you can't react, you're simply erased.
"Now for you." Standing atop the corpses, the Fourth Raikage's cold gaze pinned Kitsuchi, who involuntarily flinched.
"You bastard…"
The Third Tsuchikage trembled with rage, barely restraining himself from diving down to save his son.
Yet Ōnoki knew the Fourth hadn't finished Kitsuchi precisely to bait him; even he hadn't followed that last burst of speed.
Again, when reaction speed is eclipsed, other advantages cease to matter.
If Ōnoki landed, no matter how potent his Dust Release, the Fourth's speed would kill him before he could form a single seal.
Sensing Ōnoki would never descend, the Fourth gave a mocking smile. "Ōnoki—guess how many seconds I need to snap your son's neck?"
Ōnoki hovered in icy silence, face hard as stone.
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