"Lord Raikage!"
"Brother!"
The battlefield erupted in cries, then fell into a suffocating silence.
When the sand cocoon burst apart, every shinobi present, whether from Kumogakure, Konoha, or those observing from the shadows, felt their hearts leap into their throats.
All eyes were locked onto the scattered gold dust.
The sand settled slowly, revealing a horrifying sight.
A thick pool of blood stained the dazzling gold.
No one spoke.
No one could.
The Fourth Raikage was dead.
Not just dead, but completely erased. No intact body remained, no bones, nothing that could even be called a corpse.
Only blood and remnants scattered across the ground.
A man who stood at the peak of the shinobi world had led an army to Konoha with overwhelming momentum, only to be reduced to this in an instant.
It felt unreal.
"That guy… died just like that?"
Ōnoki stared blankly, disbelief written all over his face.
No one understood the Raikage's strength better than Iwagakure. During the Third Shinobi War, the Third Raikage had held off ten thousand shinobi alone for three days before dying from exhaustion.
The Fourth Raikage might not have reached that level, but he was still among the strongest alive.
Yet he died here.
Like this.
"Brother! You killed Brother!"
Killer Bee snapped out of his daze, his voice breaking as rage took over. He immediately drove Gyūki forward, charging at Ryūjin with a deafening roar.
Some Konoha shinobi grew tense again.
Ryūjin didn't.
He walked forward at an even pace, as if he were strolling through an empty street.
The massive Eight-Tails charging toward him didn't seem worth reacting to.
"Gyūki, crush him. I'm not letting this go," Killer Bee growled.
"Leave it to me, Bee. Tricks don't matter in front of absolute strength."
That confidence didn't last.
As Ryūjin advanced, a vast surge of blue chakra erupted around him. The energy churned violently, forming something enormous.
A towering blue giant took shape.
It stood nearly one hundred meters tall, clad in armor, wearing a Tengu mask, and holding two massive blades.
It looked like a god made manifest.
The pressure alone made it hard to breathe.
"My god… what is that?"
"Is that even human?"
"How do you fight something like this?"
Kumogakure shinobi felt their legs grow heavy. This wasn't fear of death. It was something deeper, the instinctive realization that resistance was meaningless.
"Susanoo… that's Susanoo, but this size is insane…"
Rasa's voice trembled as sweat ran down his face.
Even Uchiha Shisui's Susanoo was only a fraction of this size.
Ōnoki and Yagura were equally shaken.
"This is ridiculous," Uchiha Obito muttered, anger mixing with shock.
"Don't panic! It's still Susanoo," a Kumogakure jonin shouted. "This kind of technique drains huge amounts of chakra. He can't keep it up for long!"
The words steadied some of the panic.
But not Gyūki.
"What… is this…"
The Eight-Tails froze, its earlier aggression gone.
This feeling was familiar.
It reminded him of someone from the past, someone who made even Tailed Beasts uneasy.
"Bee, we can't fight this. This is beyond us," Gyūki said urgently.
Even the Nine-Tails wouldn't handle this easily.
Killer Bee clenched his teeth, his expression dark.
There was no argument.
"Run," Gyūki insisted.
Without hesitation, the massive beast turned and fled.
The battlefield fell silent again.
The Eight-Tails had been summoned, yet it chose to run without even fighting.
"No point running now," Ryūjin said casually.
The giant Susanoo moved.
Two massive shuriken formed in its hands and were thrown instantly.
They struck Gyūki's legs cleanly.
The Kamui-infused blades erased them completely.
The Eight-Tails crashed to the ground with a massive impact.
Before it could recover, the Susanoo charged forward, each step shaking the earth.
Gyūki struggled, using its tentacles to move, but it barely got anywhere before a blade swung down.
The strike carved a massive trench into the ground.
Gyūki was sent flying like a ragdoll.
The Susanoo reached forward and grabbed the Eight-Tails.
It looked like a toy in its hand.
Gyūki struggled wildly, but it couldn't break free.
Desperate, it fired a Tailed Beast Ball.
Ryūjin responded instantly.
Another Kamui shuriken.
The attack vanished.
Then the Susanoo raised Gyūki closer.
Through the construct, their eyes met.
Ryūjin's gaze was cold.
"Behave yourself," he said. "Or I'll crush you every time you come back."
No emotion.
Just a statement.
Then both hands tightened.
Gyūki struggled violently for a brief moment.
Then it exploded.
A massive burst of chakra scattered into the air.
Shock rippled across the battlefield.
"That… that was the Eight-Tails…"
"Crushed with bare hands…"
No one could process it.
Even the Konoha shinobi were stunned.
"This… this is beyond a shinobi…"
Killer Bee lay within the Susanoo's grasp, staring blankly.
His will to fight was gone.
He wasn't dead.
Ryūjin had controlled his strength precisely, dispersing Gyūki back into chakra rather than killing it outright.
Killing a Tailed Beast was pointless. It would simply revive.
Control was better.
The Susanoo began to fade.
The massive figure dissolved, leaving Ryūjin standing alone again.
Killer Bee lay in front of him, unable to move.
Ryūjin crouched and tore open Bee's shirt, exposing the sealing formula on his abdomen.
"What are you doing?"
Bee forced out the words, swinging his blades.
"Magnet Release."
Gold dust rose instantly, blocking the attack without effort.
More sand followed, binding Bee's limbs and neck, pinning him to the ground.
Ryūjin ignored everything else and focused on the seal.
To him, the surrounding army didn't matter.
A faint disturbance approached.
Darui appeared, moving fast.
"Lightning Release: Black Panther!"
A black lightning beast surged toward Ryūjin.
"Deva Path."
The Rinnegan activated.
The attack was absorbed completely.
Darui's expression darkened.
His abilities were useless here.
Ryūjin glanced at him.
Then vanished.
In the next instant, he appeared behind Darui.
A Sage Art Rasengan slammed into him.
Darui couldn't react.
He was launched backward, his body already destroyed before he hit the ground.
One of Kumogakure's strongest had died just like that.
"Charge!"
The remaining shinobi roared, fury taking over.
Thousands surged forward.
Ryūjin looked at them briefly.
Then turned and walked toward them without urgency.