"Where is he now?"
Uchiha Madara took a long, steadying breath, forcibly suppressing the primal urge to tear himself away from his life support and hunt Ikki down. He looked at Black Zetsu with a gaze that, even without eyes, felt sharp enough to cut.
"He annihilated a battalion of Rock Shinobi with a single blow, saved the Sannin, and is now crossing into the Land of Thunder," Black Zetsu reported. He felt a wave of relief seeing Madara regain his composure. If the old Uchiha had chosen to be as reckless as the current Raikage, Zetsu would have been forced to trigger a backup plan far sooner than intended.
"And what of the Cloud?" Madara asked, his voice returning to a cold, thoughtful rasp.
"Despite the news of the Rock's surrender, the Cloud has not relented. In fact, they've intensified their assault on Konoha's border, currently led by Danzo Shimura," Black Zetsu said. "The Third Raikage—who has styled himself the strongest man in the world since the White Fang's suicide—is completely undeterred. It seems he intends to challenge the Iron Fist personally."
Madara let out a dry, hacking laugh that shook his fragile frame. "Challenge Ikki? These children have played in the sun so long they've forgotten what a real storm looks like."
"Only you are truly worthy of facing a man like Ikki, Lord Madara," White Zetsu added with a sycophantic grin. "A mere Raikage is nothing but a footnote."
"Cease your flattery," Madara snapped. "Keep a constant watch on Ikki. I want to know the exact moment he arrives at the battlefield between the Cloud and the Leaf."
He settled back into his throne, the shadow of a plan forming in his mind.
"Do you truly care so much for the Raikage's fate, Lord Madara?" Black Zetsu asked, curious. In an era without the legendary titans, the Third Raikage was undeniably the dominant force on the board.
"When the tigers are away, the monkeys become kings," Madara sneered. "Why should a frog at the bottom of a well, ignorant of the true shape of the world, concern me? Ai is nothing to me. However, he is a sharp blade—the sharpest in this pathetic era. I will use him to test Ikki's depth. I need to see if that ageless body of his has finally reached its limit, or if he has truly found a way to keep ascending."
Madara closed his eyes, signaling the end of the conversation. Black and White Zetsu bowed and sank into the earth, one to shadow a king, the other to follow a god.
Frontier of the Land of Fire
Thousands of Cloud shinobi, their skin bronzed by the mountain sun and their eyes alight with the fever of war, swarmed across the border like a plague of locusts. They threw themselves at the Konoha camp with a reckless, frantic energy. The air was a chaotic symphony of screaming steel, exploding tags, and the guttural roars of men dying for inches of soil.
"Hold the line!"
"This is our last defense! Do not let them breach the border!"
Despite their desperate cries, the Konoha forces were being systematically dismantled. In just two days, the army led by the Third Raikage had carved a bloody path from the Land of Sound to the very edge of the Fire Nation.
Danzo Shimura stood at the center of the carnage, his face a mask of cold fury. Beside him, the contemporary Ino-Shika-Cho trio and Hyuga Hizashi fought with a level of coordination that should have been unbeatable. But they were facing a humanoid disaster.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Hyuga Hizashi pushed his Byakugan to the breaking point, tracking the blur of motion that was the Raikage. He thrust his palm forward, unleashing a wall of compressed air.
BOOM.
The Gentle Fist technique, capable of shattering a man's internal organs even through armor, struck the Raikage dead-on. The giant didn't even flinch. The shockwave merely ruffled his mane of hair as he stood his ground, unmoved.
"Summoning Technique!"
Danzo, his arm already hanging uselessly at his side, seized the opening. With a burst of smoke, a colossal Baku—the Dream Tapir—appeared. The beast opened its cavernous maw, creating a vacuum vortex that threatened to drag the Raikage into its stomach.
"Shadow Stiches!"
"Mind Transfer!"
Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi struck simultaneously. Shikaku's shadows snaked across the ground, binding the Raikage's limbs, while Inoichi projected his consciousness in a desperate bid to seize control of the giant's mind.
"Choza! Now!" Danzo barked, coughing up a spray of blood.
"Butterfly Mode!"
Behind Akimichi Choza, massive wings of brilliant blue chakra erupted. He channeled every ounce of his energy into his fist. "Super Expansion Jutsu!" The chakra wings condensed into his arm, turning his fist into a gargantuan mallet of pure force. He slammed it down, driving the Raikage into the bedrock. The earth collapsed in concentric rings of ruin, sending a pillar of dust hundreds of feet into the air.
The Konoha ninja held their breath. They had used every high-level secret technique in their arsenal in a perfect, synchronized strike.
But as the dust settled, a burly, gold-flecked figure climbed out of the crater. The Third Raikage rolled his shoulders, his skin crackling with lightning, completely unscathed.
"This monster..."
"Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu... nothing works!"
"If only the White Fang were still alive," a shinobi whispered, his voice trembling with despair. "Only his blade could have cut through this man."
Danzo and his commanders stared at the laughing giant before them. It wasn't just fear that gripped them; it was the crushing weight of futility. They had performed this exact song and dance a dozen times in the last forty-eight hours, and every time, the result was the same.
The Cloud was an ocean, and they were trying to hold back the tide with their bare hands.