---Third POV---
Between the two watchtowers in the Iwa stronghold, space twisted like a vortex as the figures of Ryouma and the other two emerged from within.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Ryouma immediately activated his Rikugan at full power, just as they had planned in the Kamui space, taking in all the information about the Iwa stronghold.
Upon spotting that familiar white-haired man, he sharply looked up.
"Found him. Follow me."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he charged straight out of the alleyway without trying to conceal his presence.
Obito hurried after him, slightly anxious. "Won't we be discovered like this?"
"No, Obito," Minato shook his head. "We were already discovered the moment we entered."
"What?" Obito still didn't fully understand sensory-type jutsu. In setups like this, where sensory barriers are fixed in place, their accuracy can be extremely high.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" A burst of alarmed shouting instantly shattered the once-silent and tense atmosphere.
From all directions, large numbers of Iwa troops with forehead protectors surged in like a tide. They moved swiftly and silently, and in the blink of an eye, surrounded the three of them.
Bunkers, streets, alleys, and even some underground tunnel entrances, everywhere was filled with Iwa ninjas.
This was exactly why Hiruzen and Orochimaru had agreed to send only Ryouma and Minato for this mission.
Because apart from those two, who possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique, not a single other ninja in the shinobi world could hope to escape alive from such a massive war stronghold.
With a quick sidestep, Minato dodged two incoming shuriken, then turned and skillfully threw dozens of Flying Thunder God kunai.
His figure vanished without a trace. The next moment, countless brilliant flashes of yellow lightning streaked across the battlefield, zipping through the air at terrifying speed.
Each time a yellow flash streaked by, an Iwa ninja would scream and collapse lifelessly to the ground.
The once-aggressive Iwa ninja now looked around in panic, trying to catch a glimpse of his figure, but it was all in vain.
Meanwhile, since information about Ryouma's ability to reflect jutsu was no longer a secret, he was being targeted with an unusually large number of physical ninja tools.
Aa～
The sound of a thousand birds chirping rang out as bright blue lightning danced around him, deflecting all the incoming shuriken.
At the same time, special lightning chakra arced rapidly through his body, stimulating and activating his cells.
Bzzz～ Bzzz～
After several days of training, the Lightning Release Chakra Mode could now be used in real combat. While the amplification wasn't as great as A's version, it still represented a major boost compared to Ryouma's original speed.
He spun and delivered a powerful back-kick to the abdomen of an Iwa ninja attempting to sneak up on him. The sheer force sent the enemy flying and smashed through the outer wall of a nearby bunker.
Dust and smoke exploded outward.
Whirrrr～
He formed two Rasenshuriken in his hands and threw them one after another to the front, trying to blast open a path. The razor-sharp spinning blades tore through the air, aiming at the surrounding Iwa ninjas.
Several squads of Iwa ninja quickly raised multiple walls of earth in front of them, attempting to block the Rasenshuriken's flight.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The two Rasenshuriken tore through dozens of earth walls like paper, their speed completely unaffected. But then, a milky-white cube instantly expanded in front of the two Rasenshuriken, swallowing them up and disintegrating them into atoms.
"It's the Tsuchikage!"
Upon seeing that familiar white barrier, the surrounding Iwa ninja were instantly filled with renewed confidence.
Ōnoki slowly descended from the sky, surveying the battlefield below. Just as he had predicted, Konoha had sent Ryouma and Minato to rescue Jiraiya. But that kid... who was he? He seemed strong too, yet he had never seen or even heard of him before.
At that moment, Obito was fending off several Iwa ninjas at once, but he didn't look the slightest bit strained. In fact, if he were more familiar with his eye's powers, these Iwa ninja wouldn't even pose a challenge. His base strength was roughly at the level of a chunin, but for the Uchiha clan, increasing power didn't require slow, steady progress. Every evolution of the Sharingan brought comprehensive enhancements to their ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.
Counting his Mangekyō awakening, he had undergone multiple boosts in a single day in the Land of Hot Water, his growth was terrifying.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, Ryouma sensed a strange air current behind him. Without hesitation, he spun around and grabbed hold of something nearly invisible.
"Ugh, disgusting."
The slimy sensation in his right hand instantly told him what he'd caught. He yanked hard, spinning around and smashing the hidden object into the ground, collapsing a few nearby buildings in the process.
The force of the impact broke the stealth effect. A giant color-changing chameleon was forced to reveal its true form.
Boom!
A massive multi-headed dog summoning beast charged in from the side, aiming directly for the center of the battlefield where the three were located.
In battles between ninjas, intelligence was key. Knowing that this giant dog would split into more heads when attacked, Ryouma rapidly formed hand signs, channeling a large amount of Magnet Release chakra into the ground.
Countless streams of sand surged up from below, wrapping around the dog like giant serpents. The beast went wild, smashing buildings in an attempt to rub the sand off its body.
But it was futile. Within seconds, the sea of sand had enclosed the dog inside a pyramid. A series of black sealing symbols immediately began spreading across its surface.
Clack!
With the sound of the sealing mechanism locking in place, the massive dog was completely sealed away.
While Ryouma dealt with the multi-headed dog, Minato wasn't idle either. A massive Rasengan shattered the upper body of a giant centipede emerging from underground.
Obito phased through the strike of a giant scorpion's pincers. As he glanced around, he noticed something unusual.
"These summoned beasts… their eyes, they look like…"
"Yeah. But this is probably just some kind of visual projection jutsu. There's no way there are that many Rinnegan out there," Minato calmly analyzed.
As expected of the future Fourth Hokage, sharp eyes and quick thinking.
Ryouma turned his gaze toward the earth-yellow six-sided barrier in the distance, a hint of suspicion in his expression.
If Ōnoki already knew that the intruders were space-time ninjutsu users like him and Minato, then why bother setting up a barrier that seemed completely useless?
"Captain Minato, do you know anything about that barrier outside?"
"That barrier?" Minato tried hard to recall what he had seen or heard before, but in the end, he shook his head, indicating he had never heard of it.
In the shinobi world, barrier techniques were highly complex. They could use various pre-prepared elements to produce effects comparable to some forbidden jutsu.
As for this unfamiliar barrier, if it was merely enhancing the "sealing" effect like the Six Red Yang Formation, then Ryouma wasn't too worried. What he feared was some unknown special power.
He briefly sensed the Flying Thunder God kunai left outside. To his relief, this barrier didn't seem capable of interfering with space-time techniques.
In that case…
He formed hand seals, rapidly converting a large amount of chakra into dark purple flames, which flowed around his body like a fluid.
"Captain Minato, Obito, give me an opening! I'm going to blast a hole through!"
Shouting to his comrades, he took a stance as if drawing a bow. A gigantic flaming arrow, over dozens of meters long, formed instantly and floated silently beside him.
Several Iwa ninjas fearlessly charged forward, attempting to attack while he was using the jutsu. But with several flashes of yellow light, before they could even get near Minato's afterimage, their throats had already been slit, they dropped dead instantly.
Ryouma's attack was ready. The invisible bowstring was released with a whoosh, and the arrow shot out at high speed. Though made of fire, the thick, tangible blaze chakra produced a sharp, metallic slicing sound as it cut through the air.
Such a powerful technique couldn't escape Ōnoki's notice. However, he didn't counter it with Dust Release, if it was somehow reflected back, his body wouldn't survive the rebound.
Just as the attack was released, he quickly formed hand seals as well. A spindle-shaped mass of milky-white chakra formed in his hands.
Just as the technique was about to fire to intercept the flame arrow, a swirling distortion suddenly appeared above his head.
To focus, Obito covered his right eye and fixed his left eye firmly on Ōnoki above. The vortex rapidly expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it sucked Ōnoki's entire head into Kamui's dimension. The now headless body fell toward the ground.
Seeing his attack hit perfectly, he panted in excitement.
This move was nothing like phasing with his right eye, it took a real toll. But the payoff was huge.
However, before he could fully celebrate, the falling body turned out to be a clay clone.
"Damn, I missed," he muttered.
Still, he had successfully prevented the Dust Release attack from being fired.
The supersized Flaming Annihilation Arrow continued on its path toward the Iwa troops ahead. Several of them used the Earth Dragon Bullet together to try to detonate the jutsu prematurely, but they were completely annihilated without even scratching the arrow's body, silently consumed by the flames.
If nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected was bound to happen.
A red-haired figure suddenly appeared, blocking the path of the arrow. Like a tiny ant trying to stop a falling tree, he raised his right hand and spread his palm.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive force from the Rinnegan expanded rapidly. The flame arrow that countless Iwa ninjas couldn't stop dissolved into the air on impact.
"What? He blocked Ryouma's attack just like that?" Obito couldn't believe his eyes.
"Be careful. He's the enemy Jiraiya-sensei went to investigate," Minato warned.
"That's just a puppet," Ryouma exposed Black Zetsu's trick directly.
He had no idea what new scheme Madara had cooked up, sending the Rinnegan to the battlefield. But he better not give him a chance, otherwise, he would gladly shatter those eyes, the root of all evil.
Guided by the information from his Rikugan, he locked onto a direction, drew Lostvayne from his back, and ran a finger along the blade. Blaze chakra smoothly coated the weapon.
"The real body is over there!"
As soon as he spoke, Ryouma slashed forward, and a curved arc of flames tore across the ground, speeding toward a bunker.
Boom!
As the flames reached the bunker where Black Zetsu was hiding, it exploded on contact, giving him no chance to use the Preta Path to absorb it.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The repulsive force field expanded again, blasting the dark purple flames away. Flaming debris splattered onto nearby buildings and Iwa ninjas.
"Ryouma… you truly are our greatest enemy."
These words were from his heart. To be honest, after manipulating ninja history for so long, this was the first time he'd encountered someone like Ryouma, someone capable of defeating the reincarnation of Indra purely by their own strength.
A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, indeed.
Now that his real body had been exposed, there was no longer any need to use the clone as a decoy. It was only created in the first place to trick Jiraiya.
Since he couldn't multitask anyway, Black Zetsu simply had the Deva Path clone fly into the air, planning to use it as a god's-eye view surveillance drone.
Psshh... psshhh... psshhh...
Just as Ryouma was thinking about how to break through the restraints of Black Zetsu and Ōnoki, a rhythmic hissing of steam echoed across the battlefield. From the flank of the battlefield, a massive, pure-white beast with dolphin-like features and a unicorn-like horn on its head charged in, like a fusion of a horse and a marine mammal.
"What the hell is that?" Obito finally understood what people meant when they said S-rank missions were on another level. So this is the kind of monster Ryouma and Minato dealt with on a regular basis.
"That's Iwa's tailed beast. Be careful not to get too close, you'll get scalded by the steam."
Minato stood ready, Flying Thunder God kunai in hand, fully alert.
Ryouma casually swung Lostvayne, sending several arcs of flaming sword energy at the Five-Tails. The dark purple flames clung to its body, burning silently.
"Aaargh!"
The searing pain made the Five-Tails let out a miserable howl.
Seeing this, Black Zetsu immediately flew over and used the Preta Path to absorb the flames, freeing the beast.
"Something's not right," Ryouma said, frowning.
"Agreed," Minato responded, having also sensed that something was off.
"Huh?" Obito felt a little out of the loop. As far as he could tell, aside from not being able to break through Iwa's encirclement yet, the plan seemed to be going pretty smoothly.
"The enemy's been stalling us this whole time, as if their only goal is to keep us stuck here."
From the very first Dust Release attack, it felt like the enemy was holding back something big, only going on the defensive and counterattacking.
At first, Ryouma thought they might be trying to wear them down like they did with the Third Raikage, but now… it didn't seem quite the same.