Malphegor
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GSiN: Ch. 103
🕑 Added 2025-05-24 16:21:18 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
Only when the smoke cleared did the Konoha ninja, whose emotions had been on a roller coaster, finally react. Although they didn't quite understand what had just happened, that didn't stop the excitement surging in their hearts. After all, those Tailed Beast Balls that had almost come crashing down on their heads had been overwhelmingly oppressive.
Only now did the communication ninjas finally deliver their intelligence, albeit belatedly.
"Attention all combat units: The Tailed Beast Balls launched by Kumo have all been handled. Proceed with the original plan."
To be fair, it wasn't the command center's fault for not issuing orders sooner, they simply hadn't expected Ryouma's counterattack to be so sharp and devastating, practically crippling Kumo's ninja forces single-handedly.
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One side rejoiced, another despaired.
At Kumo's strategic base, a giant flaming blue cat stretched its body out, revealing A, Darui, and others inside.
A's expression was grim. He didn't even need to inspect things closely, just the overwhelming stench of blood in the air told him how massive Kumo's losses were in the wake of the explosions.
The unquenchable rage in his heart made him roar furiously. "Damn! DAMN!"
At this point, very few people knew about Ryouma's "counter" ability, only high-ranking officials from the Kiri and Suna who had previously fought him had some understanding. But even if A and the others had this intel, they still probably wouldn't believe that Ryouma could deflect dozens of Tailed Beast Balls in one go.
Yugito had now reverted from full tailed beast form, as she calmly assessed the situation. "The attack range was too wide. Conservatively speaking, we have at most less than half of our combat strength remaining."
After speaking, she cast a meaningful glance at Darui, who understood her intent immediately. His face grew bitter, but he still steeled himself and said, "We should probably retreat for now."
Bang!
Upon hearing Darui's words, A's eyes widened as he slammed a nearby boulder into rubble. "What did you just say?!"
Darui shrank back, not daring to argue further.
Beside them, C picked up where Darui left off and also tried persuading A to retreat. As someone with exceptional sensory abilities, no one present understood the gravity of the situation better than him.
"If we delay any longer, Konoha's forces will enter close-combat range. By then…"
In truth, A also knew that continuing the fight would likely mean defeat for Kumo. Retreating was the best option. The problem was, Konoha wasn't some band of wild beasts, they wouldn't just let Kumo retreat unchallenged.
Someone would have to stay behind to intercept Konoha's troops.
And those people… would essentially be sacrificed.
He couldn't bring himself to make such a decision.
"I'll do it! I'll lead a group to cover the retreat," Darui volunteered. Unlike his earlier hesitation, this time his voice was incredibly firm.
"Yo, you guys are still chatting? Don't worry, you're not going anywhere."
A voice abruptly interrupted A and the others.
Yugito turned warily toward the source of the voice. The speaker made no attempt to conceal himself, he stood atop a jagged stone spike created by the recent explosion.
"White hair, a tanuki on his shoulder… That guy is the Leaf's Gale." C pulled out two kunai from behind and held them in his hands, quickly sharing the intel with the other Kumo ninjas.
"So it's you!" A exploded into action, and quickly covered himself in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode. The ground beneath his feet cracked apart from the sudden force, and using the recoil, he closed the distance to Ryouma in an instant, forming a hand blade with his left hand and chopping downward.
Facing the incoming chop, Ryouma swung Lostvayne.
The domain of Full Counter unfolded once again.
The moment A's lightning-covered arm touched the domain, the very rules of chakra began to reorganize.
For A, this meant the chakra he had gathered in his left arm suddenly went out of control. What was originally intended to enhance his body was instantly transformed into a force that damaged his own cells.
The Lightning Release Chakra Mode was violently torn apart by his own chakra.
BOOM—
The surging lightning chakra exploded at point-blank range against A's body, launching him backward along the path he had come from. His body slammed into the ground, creating a large crater upon impact.
"A-sama!"
A's earlier move had indeed been reckless, but none of the Kumo ninjas expected such a disastrous outcome.
"I'm fine." Though his body wasn't as indestructible as his father's, years of rigorous training meant a mere chakra explosion wasn't enough to knock him out of the fight.
He slowly rose from the crater. Looking at the bleeding but not severe wounds on his left arm, he frowned deeply. He couldn't quite figure out what strange technique the opponent had used.
To be fair, Ryouma's Full Counter wasn't as visually dramatic against taijutsu-type ninjas as it was when reflecting ninjutsu.
Taking advantage of A's earlier attack, and under Yugito's command, C, Darui, and several Kumo ninjas who had survived the Tailed Beast Ball barrage closed in, surrounding him.
Ryouma, however, showed no awareness of being surrounded. "Don't be so hotheaded, Raikage-sama. Oh, wait, I forgot, you haven't actually become Raikage yet. What a shame. Looks like… you never will."
"What did you just say?!" A shouted angrily.
As the son of the Third Raikage, he was destined to succeed as the Fourth Raikage after this war with Konoha ended, regardless of the outcome. But from what Ryouma had just said, wasn't he implying that he would die?
A, already known for his short temper, was immediately pushed into a blazing rage.
"Don't let him provoke you," Yugito quickly warned. "He can also use the Flying Thunder God Technique. He's likely here to block our retreat."
Yugito. A calm voice sounded from within her body.
Did you notice something? Yugito asked internally.
Matatabi's uncertain voice responded again in her mind. The tanuki on the enemy's shoulder is definitely the One-Tail, but... it doesn't look like it's sealed.
In any case, assuming the worst, they should treat Ryouma as a perfect jinchūriki like Yugito herself. Surely, it couldn't get any worse than that, but in reality, it absolutely could.
Ryouma glanced at the Kumo ninjas, and asked the more level-headed Yugito, "So all you know about me is that I can use the Flying Thunder God Technique?"
Without any hesitation, Yugito immediately entered her tailed beast chakra cloak form. Like a feline, she crouched on all fours, her cold and regal voice ringing out. "You're trying to talk about your Blaze Release, right? It's certainly something well-suited for group combat. But you've overlooked something."
"Oh?" Ryouma's curiosity was genuinely piqued by the cat-like woman. "Do tell."
A slight smirk tugged at the corners of Yugito's mouth under the red cloak of chakra. "As long as we kill you, in a way, our mission will still be considered a success."
It had been mentioned before: the reason Kumo suddenly declared war on Konoha was to divert internal conflict. The real purpose was to prove to the citizens of the Land of Lightning that their village was still strong.
Now, with the odds of actually defeating Konoha looking slim, killing the Leaf's gale could still serve to prove Kumo's strength.
Ryouma had underestimated his own notoriety. His feat of forcing Kiri to surrender single-handedly was only comparable to the First Hokage, who had once brought peace to the chaotic shinobi world.
Of course, Hashirama's pacifistic nature played a part in why he never dominated the other villages like this.
Thanks to the actions of several communication ninjas, more and more Kumo ninjas began gathering around.
Although he had already done his best to redirect the Tailed Beast Balls toward clusters of Kumo ninja, unlike Konoha's tightly coordinated formations, the Kumo ninjas had been spread out from the beginning.
That was intentional, so that after the Tailed Beast Balls devastated Konoha's forces, they could easily move in for the kill.
Ironically, this tactic helped preserve some of their strength for a counterattack. And in mountainous terrain like the Valley of Clouds and Lightning, the terrain wasn't as conducive to the devastating spread of shockwaves as open plains would be.
Watching the countless Kumo ninja surrounding Ryouma layer after layer, Yugito finally felt a bit more at ease.
She had actually told a few little lies just now.
Ryouma could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, and like her, he was a perfect jinchūriki. Leaving him alive was basically out of the question. What she said earlier was just to try and intimidate him into retreating, so that A and the others could escape safely.
But now, it looked like he was simply too confident. He didn't even strike first, choosing instead to wait while the Kumo forces surrounded him.
If the enemy was being this arrogant, maybe they really could him.
Twirling Lostvayne in his hand, Ryouma showed absolutely no concern for Yugito's threat before him. "The one thing I fear least... is being surrounded. Looks like the Third Raikage being besieged to death gave you all the wrong idea."
As he spoke, his left hand formed a few hand signs. Then, with his index and middle fingers together like a sword, he slowly slid them along the blade.
The dark purple blaze chakra flowing from his fingertips seemed almost tangible as it coated the sword, extending from its tip to form a medium-length Tachi-like blade.
All the surrounding Kumo ninjas who heard Ryouma's words had furious expressions. The death of the Third Raikage was practically a taboo topic in Kumo at this point. And now he had brought it up so bluntly.
This was truly unforgivable, especially for one particular person.
A charged at Ryouma again. This time, however, he didn't activate the full-body Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Instead, he concentrated the lightning armor only on his legs and parts of his upper body.
Using the massive arm guard wrapped around his forearm like a weapon, he charged toward Ryouma like a runaway freight truck.
The Liger Bomb was a powerful taijutsu technique that granted the user's arm a blade-like cutting force by channeling immense speed and power into a strike.
In a fraction of a second, A's Liger Bomb was almost touching the tip of Ryouma's nose, the shockwave from his movement whipping Ryouma's hair wildly in the air.
Fwoosh—
As expected, A missed.
Ryouma had vanished with the Flying Thunder God Technique, reappearing on a patch of open ground a few meters away.
During the previous conversation, Ryouma had already secretly used the Shadow Seal Manipulation Jutsu to place multiple Flying Thunder God marks all around. At this point, the entire area had effectively become his personal battlefield.
"Attack!" With Yugito's command, a swarm of Kumo ninjas launched a massive assault on him using brute-force numbers.
A barrage of elemental jutsu, shuriken, and kunai came flying toward him like a storm.
This was war, not a martial arts duel. No matter how skilled you were, blades dulled and stamina ran dry.
But ninjas weren't swordsmen. But Ryouma's chakra wasn't limited, he had Shukaku's support and the Rikugan's perfect chakra control.
Facing thousands of charging Kumo ninjas, he raised Lostvayne high above his head. A vast amount of Shukaku's chakra was converted into blaze chakra, which surged along the blade.
Dark purple waves of flame pulsed along the sword. With each wave, the blade expanded, growing to a length of ten meters.
Spinning in place, he swung the massive blade, leaving behind a wide, blazing ring of fire in the air.
Within a radius of ten meters, the closest Kumo ninjas were "lucky" enough to be struck by the blade itself, instantly carbonized by the searing heat of the slash.
In a single sweep, over a hundred Kumo ninjas at the front line died, leaving no corpses behind.
Faced with this attack, it no longer seemed to matter whether one was a genin, chunin, or even jonin.
Meanwhile, the ring-shaped blaze attack continued to expand outward in waves, cutting through the middle of the Kumo forces' encirclement from the inside out.
Comments
Hersh Jobanputra
Can you please release more of GSiN? While I do like your other stories, this one is far more intriguing.
