Above the Hidden Rain Village, the brilliant golden sun formed by End of the Earth continuously vaporized the storm-laden atmosphere. The entire landscape seemed to tremble beneath its staggering weight.
"Uchiha Kaede... so you were Sunagakure's deep-cover mole all along."
Facing the terrifying majesty of the golden sun, Nagato rapidly thrust his hands forward. Under his precise control, a colossal meteorite condensed high in the heavens, hurtling downward to violently collide with the golden sun.
The resulting shockwave from the massive explosion tore across the airspace of the metropolitan city. Sparks rained down in every direction, signaling the definitive start of the war.
"Starting today, the Akatsuki organization will be completely erased from the history of the Land of Rain."
Stepping out from the enveloping shadows, Uchiha Kaede's Mangekyo Sharingan gleamed with a crimson luminescence. His icy gaze made Pain's Deva Path, under Nagato's direct control, realize the true gravity of the situation.
"Where is Kisame?"
"Most likely still on his way back."
Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Kaede had just gone out to execute a mercenary contract. During their return route to the Land of Rain, Kaede had deliberately forged ahead to clear a path for Shiraishi and the others.
The moment the words left his mouth, a dazzling array of multicolored light illuminated the sky. Molecular-shredding beams of Dust Release tore through the perimeter barrier seals that Pain had erected, striking from all directions.
Deidara... that brat turned coat as well...
"Konan, mobilize all organization members for immediate battle."
Meanwhile, along the return path, Hoshigaki Kisame suddenly noticed that Uchiha Kaede had vanished. Looking up to see the radiant golden light erupting over the distant Hidden Rain Village, Kisame instantly put the pieces together.
"Someone is raiding the village!"
The moment he took a step forward, a wild torrent of flames erupted around him, rushing to consume his entire body. However, as his form was slowly incinerated, it ultimately shattered into a pool of water.
"A Water Clone?"
Utilizing the intelligence provided by Uchiha Kaede, Ace had intended to suppress Kisame with a single punch, only to watch him skillfully use a Water Replacement to evade the fatal blow.
Hoisting Samehada over his shoulder, Kisame's expression turned utterly grim. "Sunagakure's 'Fire Fist' Ace? What a troublesome opponent. Rumor has it you possess a Sage Body identical to the First Hokage—the exceedingly rare Fire Release Sage Body."
If this man had appeared here, did it mean Sunagakure was officially launching an offensive against the organization?
What on earth was Zetsu doing? Why hadn't he warned them in advance?
"Lord Kazekage..."
"Zetsu, according to our prior agreement, the eradication of Akatsuki was always an intrinsic part of the master plan. Why do you look like you are suddenly having second thoughts?"
Deep within the Hidden Rain Village, Shiraishi confronted Zetsu as the latter emerged from the ground. His tone carried a thread of absolute authority, looking down on the entity before him from a superior vantage point.
Zetsu's mind was flooded with bitterness. From the bottom of his heart, he absolutely did not want Akatsuki annihilated by Suna. His only purpose in appearing now was to stall Shiraishi, allowing Nagato enough time to swiftly dispose of Deidara and Uchiha Kaede.
Seeing Zetsu remain silent, Shiraishi instantly manifested countless waves of Magnet Release sand around his body, which surged outward to engulf the entire Hidden Rain Village from every direction.
"Regarding the agreement over the Rinnegan, I hope the Lord Kazekage does not go back on his word."
Left with no other alternative, Zetsu could only fight to protect his absolute bottom line: the pair of Rinnegan possessed by Pain.
Though a distress signal had already been dispatched to the Hidden Stone Village, Black Zetsu had no idea if they would actually send reinforcements or what tier of military strength they would deploy.
While the fierce battle was erupting in the Hidden Rain Village, the Chunin Exams at Mount Kikyo continued to unfold in an orderly fashion.
Although Shiraishi was currently operating through his human puppet clone, his core consciousness remained fully attached to it. On the battlefield, the clash between Uchiha Akira and Hozuki Suigetsu was finally entering its closing phase.
Through the continuous, shifting forms of a longsword, a shortsword, and a spear, Akira's close-quarters combat grew progressively sharper. Although Suigetsu's Hydrification Technique was incredibly evasive, he still suffered immensely when matched against Hikari's Sharingan.
Amid a thunderous explosion, a bowstring snapped out from Akira's longsword. Gripping his shortsword simultaneously, he fell into a textbook archery stance.
"That's a bow?"
This highly unconventional offensive style caught many off guard. Amid the sudden wave of murmuring from the audience over the realization that Akira's longsword could transition into a bow, the shortsword was loosed. It transformed into a beam of detonating light, completely enveloping Suigetsu.
Water Style: Water Formation Wall!
The explosion detonated violently. As the water barrier was blasted apart, a massive amount of blood leaked from Suigetsu's arm. Had Akira not intentionally held back at the final fraction of a second, Suigetsu's right hand would have been blown to pieces.
And this was even with his Hydrification Technique actively maintained...
Witnessing this, Uchiha Sasuke's mental state began to fracture. Akira's stellar performance forced him to realize that, despite all the years of arduous training he had put in as the young master of the Uchiha's main lineage, his strength was inferior to a mere peer from a side branch.
This Uchiha Akira had never been famous within the clan in the past. Could Sunagakure's training environment truly afford someone such a cataclysmic transformation in strength?
In an instant, Sasuke's mindset twisted, and a fierce, burning jealousy consumed his thoughts.
"The winner: Uchiha Akira!"
The moment the two concluded their match, the fourth round officially commenced.
"Aoki Shigeru versus Gaara!"
This specific match-up triggered a massive uproar throughout the stadium. The collision between the sons of two generations of Kazekage—who also happened to be teammates—piqued the intense curiosity of the representatives from the other hidden villages gathered at Mount Kikyo.
Shigeru took a deep breath, exchanged a firm look with Gaara, and walked onto the arena floor.
As teammates who had grown up together since childhood, they thoroughly understood each other's temperaments. Furthermore, after undergoing Shiraishi's specialized sealing therapy, Gaara's disposition was vastly more stable than its historical counterpart.
As for Shigeru, despite being Shiraishi's son, Maki's strict and rigorous demands ensured he never slacked in his ninjutsu cultivation.
After exchanging the traditional Seal of Confrontation, Shigeru condensed an immense volume of water within his palms, channeling it to abruptly gather high in the sky.
Water Style: Rain Alignment!
Compared to the Water Style Suigetsu had displayed moments prior, Shigeru's application was far grander and more sweeping. The Rain Alignment Technique he unleashed was a massive Water Style ninjutsu that consumed an immense reservoir of chakra.
The technique gathered Water Style chakra in the air and fired it downward with the velocity of bullets.
It possessed immense destructive power, raining a cascading waterfall of high-pressure water cannons that could pierce through enemies over an area that scaled directly with the user's chakra reserves—effectively mimicking a violent downpour.
Seeing the incoming assault, Gaara rapidly mobilized his Shield of Sand, entering his Absolute Defense mode.
It had to be said that the clash between water and sand provided a magnificent visual spectacle, particularly because Shigeru had completely shed his past passive combat style in favor of a fiercely aggressive offense.
Water Style: Super Water Fang Bullet!
Countless swirling vortices of water crashed against Gaara's sand shield like a localized hurricane. The explosive concussive waves radiating from the impacts left many spectators in absolute awe.
The crowd had heard rumors that Gaara was the One-Tail Jinchuriki, giving him naturally vast chakra reserves.
Yet, this son of the Kazekage standing across from him was performing even more like a Jinchuriki. He threw around large-scale Water Style ninjutsu without showing a single shred of strain, creating the illusion that his chakra pool was bottomless.
In reality, Uzumaki Tomoko, utilizing her Byakugan, could see the truth perfectly clearly. Shigeru's chakra consumption rate was exceptionally low. For the exact same ninjutsu, any other ordinary ninja would likely have to expend twice the amount of chakra Shigeru used.
Furthermore, that boy's Water Ring technique functioned as a water-based equivalent to the Sand Gathering technique, allowing him to regenerate his chakra reserves at a remarkably rapid pace.
At that moment, Gaara launched his counteroffensive, deploying the high-level Sand Style variant Sand Shower to clash directly with Shigeru's Super Water Fang Bullet.
"Incredible..."
This was the very first time Uzumaki Naruto and his peers had ever witnessed such a massive spectacle of ninjutsu colliding.
They stared open-mouthed in utter astonishment. Even Uchiha Sasuke momentarily forgot his lingering envy over Uchiha Hikari's staggering display, losing himself as he stared blankly at the two titans battling on the field.
Were these Sunagakure Genin even Genin anymore?
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