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Mastermind of the Akatsuki 431
🕑 Added 2025-07-06 16:00:03 +0000 UTCChapter 431: Power Beyond Kage Level
Facing Byakuya’s provocation, Tsunade, Ōnoki, and the Fourth Raikage exchanged glances and immediately entered combat stance.
They knew they stood no chance against Byakuya and Madara Uchiha, but since they had come this far together, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and fight.
As leaders of their respective villages, surrender was never an option.
Sasori of the Red Sand and Mei Terumī hesitated briefly but still moved into position to surround Byakuya. Since he hadn't issued any explicit orders, they still stood on the Allied Shinobi Forces’ side.
Surrounded by a group of Kage-level opponents, Byakuya showed no fear whatsoever. On the contrary, he launched the first attack. With a flicker, he vanished from his original spot and charged directly at Tsunade.
Among these shinobi, Tsunade was the only medical ninja, making her a top-priority target.
Ōnoki and the Fourth Raikage realized this as well and immediately moved to shield Tsunade. The Fourth Raikage, now in Lightning Release Chakra Mode, directly intercepted Byakuya’s assault.
Feeling the Raikage’s strength, Byakuya smiled and said, “Raikage, it seems your power has grown stronger than it was ten years ago. Unfortunately for you, I’ve grown even faster.”
With that, Byakuya stimulated his muscles with chakra, erupting with even greater strength.
He launched a punch infused with monstrous force, sending up a huge cloud of dust from the ground. When the dust settled, both Byakuya and the Fourth Raikage had been knocked back more than ten meters.
Judging by the distance each was forced back, Byakuya’s power was clearly superior.
After being overpowered, the Fourth Raikage’s expression shifted. Since childhood, he had rarely lost in raw strength. Aside from his father and a fully transformed Killer Bee, no one else in the ninja world had been able to suppress him physically.
Still, the Fourth Raikage didn’t lose confidence. Compared to strength, his forte was speed.
With a stomp, the Raikage vanished in a flash of lightning, leaving an afterimage behind and appearing behind Byakuya. He launched a Liger Bomb.
The Liger Bomb was a taijutsu technique powerful enough to distort the air itself. Although Byakuya could have dodged it, he chose to take it head-on.
With a thought, he activated the Eight Gates Released Formation and directly entered the Fourth Gate state. His body was enveloped in green chakra as he charged at the Raikage.
This clash made an even bigger impact than before, shaking the very earth.
When the dust cleared, spiderweb-like cracks spread out from beneath their feet for dozens of meters.
Looking at his tattered Akatsuki cloak, Byakuya glanced at the Raikage’s wounded arm and smiled, “Fourth Raikage, how does it feel to be defeated in taijutsu? I told you before: I’m the kind of opponent the five great villages need to unite to handle. If you keep coming at me one by one like this, you’re only going to lose even more miserably.”
The Fourth Raikage’s expression turned dangerously dark. He had never imagined that someone could surpass him in both strength and speed, and that the person was a youngster not even thirty.
It was a huge blow to his pride.
Seeing the Raikage injured, Tsunade hurried over to heal him. Under her medical ninjutsu, the wounds were quickly healed. However, she found Byakuya’s taijutsu oddly familiar.
Wasn’t that the Eight Gates Released Formation used by Might Guy and his father? How could Byakuya have mastered such a technique? This wasn’t some ordinary secret jutsu; it was a forbidden jutsu that required decades of effort and training to master.
Why did a monster like Byakuya even exist in the shinobi world?
In fact, it wasn’t just Tsunade who was shocked; even Madara Uchiha and Obito tensed their gazes. Madara had once witnessed Might Duy open the Gate of Death and burn his life away, and had remembered that forbidden technique.
Obito had also seen Guy open the Seventh Gate in battle and knew of the Eight Gates' existence. Even someone as gifted as Madara found himself unsettled by Byakuya’s talent; this man had already surpassed both him and Hashirama at that age.
At that moment, Ōnoki made the first move.
He brought his hands together and activated Dust Release, launching a beam of destructive energy toward Byakuya. Just as it was about to hit, Byakuya vanished.
The next instant, Byakuya appeared in midair and countered with the Cutting Technique.
The jutsu rained down hundreds, even thousands, of wooden spikes like a torrential downpour, forcing Ōnoki to defend with Earth Release, turning his body into stone.
“Ōnoki, your destructive power is impressive. Too bad you can’t land a hit on me. If you were twenty years younger, maybe I’d be wary of your Dust Release. But now? You don’t even compare to that worthless Third Hokage.”
While he was pleased to hear the Third Hokage insulted, Ōnoki was still provoked by being called weaker than him. The truth was, physically, he really couldn’t match Hiruzen.
“You arrogant brat. Yes, I’ve grown old. But don’t underestimate the power of our unity.”
Before he finished speaking, Sasori of the Red Sand, Mei Terumī, and Zabuza launched a coordinated attack, saving Ōnoki just in time. Sasori also sent his puppets to assault Byakuya.
After years of modifications, Sasori’s puppet army had undergone a complete overhaul.
His former human puppets had been reforged into an ironclad army. Not only were these puppets remotely controlled, but they could also perform ninjutsu, equivalent to hundreds of fearless, elite chūnin.
Faced with such numbers, Byakuya responded with Wood Release. Countless vines erupted from the earth.
The once barren ground was transformed into a vast forest. The puppet army was swallowed whole by an endless sea of vines. This was Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence.
After wiping out the puppet army, Byakuya stood atop the trees, looking down at the Kage-level shinobi.
He formed a seal with his hands, and six wooden giants emerged from the forest, advancing on Tsunade and the others to launch another assault.
Seeing this, Madara Uchiha’s expression twitched slightly. Wasn’t this the very technique he had used during the Five Kage Summit? How had Byakuya learned it? Was his learning ability really that terrifying?
Very soon, Madara noticed the difference.
Unlike him, Byakuya wasn’t toying with the Kage. He was fighting them with full force. While they were occupied with the wooden giants, he attacked from the shadows.
With each strike, another Kage lost the ability to fight.
The first to fall were Mei Terumī and Zabuza. Though they had reached Kage-level strength, they were the weakest of the group and could only contribute when fighting together.
Next was Sasori of the Red Sand. Without his puppet army, he had lost most of his combat capability.
Though Sasori himself was a powerful puppet, he had no desire to continue resisting. In the world of puppetry, Byakuya was arguably his senior, not to mention, he hadn’t even left the Akatsuki yet.
After subduing Tsunade with the Wood Dragon Technique, the dragon drained her chakra completely. Even with her Yin Seal, Tsunade was rendered powerless when pierced by wooden spikes. She could only watch helplessly as Byakuya approached Ōnoki and the Fourth Raikage.
Facing Ōnoki, who had used Light-Weight Rock Technique to ascend into the clouds, Byakuya snapped his fingers.
The clouds above changed color and transformed into countless paper tags, surrounding Ōnoki in radiant light as a chain of explosions erupted.
Watching the scene unfold, Byakuya smirked with contempt.
The clouds in the sky had actually been forged from explosive tags. Ōnoki, who had attempted to avoid the brunt of the battle, ended up facing one of the most violent attacks yet. Amidst the intense tremors, he plummeted straight toward the ground.
Byakuya caught the semi-conscious Ōnoki steadily, then casually had the wooden dragon absorb his chakra.
Once Ōnoki regained clarity, he stared blankly at Byakuya and asked, “Byakuya, you disguised explosive tags as clouds… Why would someone as powerful as you ally yourself with Madara Uchiha?”
Byakuya shrugged and replied, “First, for revenge. Second, because it's fun. Don’t you think being the enemy of the entire world is interesting? And besides, when your great nations instigated wars against smaller ones, you never bothered to ask for their opinions.”
Ōnoki ultimately couldn’t bring himself to say that the great nations had suffered as well. He fell silent.
With Ōnoki captured, the only one left was the Fourth Raikage. As a taijutsu specialist, he posed one of the greatest threats aside from users of space-time ninjutsu.
Faced with such a foe, Byakuya waved toward Nagato.
Responding to the signal, Nagato intercepted the Fourth Raikage. With a commanding Shinra Tensei, the Raikage was forced back into place, his body pierced by a dense array of black rods.
And so, in just a matter of minutes, the leaders of the Five Great Shinobi Villages had all fallen to Byakuya.
This sight shocked not only the defeated Tsunade and the others, but also left Madara and Obito wary. They began seriously considering acting against Byakuya ahead of schedule.
There was no need to elaborate on Obito as he had already been defeated by Byakuya once.
Any one of the Five Kage could put up a fierce fight against Obito individually. Yet Byakuya had taken them all down with relatively little effort.
Madara, of course, had the confidence to defeat the Five Kage, but even he could not help but be cautious now.
Byakuya’s combat prowess had reached a level comparable to his own, and in some aspects, might even surpass him.
It was no exaggeration to say this man was a living Hashirama.
The difference was that, unlike Hashirama, who longed for peace, this man was utterly mad.
Looking over the defeated leaders of the Five Great Villages, Byakuya remained expressionless as he said, “You self-proclaimed Five Kage are but weaklings. I’ll give you one last chance. Surrender now, or die resisting.”
The Fourth Raikage glared at him and said, “If you’re going to kill me, do it. Don’t waste words. There are no Raikage who kneel to survive, only Raikage who die standing. Kumogakure will never surrender or compromise!”
Ōnoki added, “Byakuya, I’m old. Even if I surrendered, I wouldn’t live much longer. I’d rather dedicate one last effort to Iwagakure. If you’re going to act, go ahead.”
Tsunade had just steeled herself to give a heroic declaration when,
A large group of ninjas appeared at the scene. They were all at least jōnin-level elites.
They glanced at the defeated Five Kage, then at Byakuya, confused by the situation. One of them asked doubtfully, “General Byakuya, why are you fighting them? Isn’t our enemy supposed to be Madara Uchiha?”
Byakuya lazily replied, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m on the same side as Madara Uchiha. After capturing the nine Tailed Beasts, there’s no need to keep up the charade any longer…”
At those words, all the jōnin present paled.
If the Allied Forces’ supreme commander, Byakuya, was truly working with Madara, it wasn’t some cruel joke; it would make the entire Shinobi Alliance a cosmic farce. If anyone else had said such a thing, they would’ve dismissed it as a manipulative ploy.
But it had come from Byakuya himself. And standing before him were the battered, nearly lifeless Five Kage. Judging by their chakra, they were barely clinging to life.
And if Byakuya truly was the enemy, then what of the Ame-nin within the alliance...?
At that realization, many turned to look at Yahiko, Konan, and the other Ame jōnin. Under their collective gaze, Yahiko looked seriously at Byakuya and asked, “Byakuya, what’s really going on? You’re not like this. Were you caught in a genjutsu?”
Byakuya cast a glance at Yahiko, then gave a cold laugh, “Yahiko, what makes you so sure I’m the man you think I am? Because we defeated Hanzo together? Because I saved the Akatsuki? Why can’t everything I did have been part of earning your trust so that I could take the Rinnegan?”
He then pointed to Nagato and said, “From the moment I saw him, I knew Nagato possessed the Rinnegan. At the time, I was weak. So I approached you deliberately. My goal was always to get the Rinnegan. After I succeeded in becoming friends with Nagato, I began laying plans to collect the Tailed Beasts.
Once the nine Tailed Beasts are gathered and the Ten-Tails is revived, I’ll have the ultimate power. Now, there’s only one thing left: to become the Jinchūriki of the Ten Tails.”
Yahiko stood frozen, as if he had heard something incomprehensible.
Beside him, Konan scoffed coldly, “So this is your true face, Byakuya. And to think we trusted you. You used our friendship to ambush Nagato? What did you take our bonds for? What did you take our ideals for?”
Byakuya seemed to recall something, paused in thought, then said, “That was just part of the struggle along the road to growth. People always pay a price to grow. Your childish idealism nearly destroyed the Akatsuki.”
Byakuya smiled, “You’re still just as naïve now. Unfortunately, I’m the enemy of the alliance now. But I can give you a choice. If you’re willing to join me, I’ll let the past go. We can all enter the dream of Infinite Tsukuyomi together.”
Their conversation carried to everyone present.
On one hand, they were stunned by the secrets behind the Akatsuki; on the other, they were deeply worried about the future of the shinobi world.
If even Yahiko and Konan became enemies, how could the Alliance possibly stand against Madara Uchiha?
Yahiko and Konan fell into silence. Then they stared at Byakuya and declared, “Byakuya, Infinite Tsukuyomi is wrong. This time, we won’t follow you. From now on, we are enemies.”
Byakuya smiled and said, “In that case, let the farce begin.”
