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Gold Horn roared as he shot two Tailed Beast Bombs at the Second Hokage in quick succession. At the same time, Silver Horn appeared on the other side, swinging a massive fan that sent violent gusts of wind flying toward the Hokage with every sweep.
Seeing this, the Second Hokage teleported into the sky with Flying Thunder God and cast a jutsu:"Water Style: Raging Water Assault Rain!"Suddenly, the sky opened up and torrential rain poured down. From the water, a giant humanoid made of liquid formed, stretching out its hands to catch both incoming Tailed Beast Bombs and fling them right back at Gold Horn. As Silver Horn's whirlwind struck, the Hokage merged into the water giant's body, using it as a shield to block the winds.
Landing safely, the Second Hokage glanced at the fan in Silver Horn's hand and cursed,"So it was you two bastards who stole the Sage of Six Paths' sacred tools back then!"
Gold Horn barked back, "Bullshit! These weapons have been passed down in the Cloud Village since ancient times. It was Hashirama who stole them!"
Right after, Silver Horn summoned a massive red gourd and shouted at the Hokage,"Senju Tobirama!"
The Second Hokage chuckled, "You think you can kill me with this trick? How naive. You think I've never seen these relics before?"
He then called out,"I'm right here!"As soon as he responded, a powerful suction force latched onto him—but in a flash, he teleported dozens of meters away using Flying Thunder God again. Forming hand signs, he unrolled a massive sealing scroll.
Just as the suction kicked in again, he shouted,"Open!"A white protective barrier burst from the scroll, blocking the red gourd's pull.
The Second Hokage looked at them and said,"Besides the Amber Purifying Pot, none of the Sage's tools can stand up to the sealing scroll my brother left behind. If you've got the guts, bring out the Amber Pot!"
Suddenly, Gold Horn burst with powerful red chakra, forming two tails behind him. The Hokage watched his deformed appearance and muttered,"You two were never meant to handle the Nine Tails' power. Should've died long ago."
As he taunted Gold Horn, a white-haired man suddenly appeared in front of him, yelling,"Now you're done for! Hell Strike: Four-Finger Piercing Palm!"
A wall of water instantly formed around the Hokage, briefly blocking the attack. Taking that chance, he teleported again, then unleashed:"Water Style: Hard Spiral Water Blades!"Two sharp spears of water shot straight at the white-haired attacker.
Silver Horn came in from behind, wielding the Seven-Star Sword, aiming to stab the Hokage. But Tobirama reversed his grip on the Raijin Sword and parried the blow, sending a burst of lightning through it that blasted Silver Horn backward.
Just then, the beast-like Gold Horn charged in, his two tails swinging like massive blades. He fired another Tailed Beast Bomb from his mouth while his hands turned into sharp claws aiming straight for the Hokage.
Without hesitation, the Second Hokage slammed the Raijin Sword into the ground:"Lightning Style: Sixteen Pillar Binding Technique!"Huge bolts of lightning exploded out, wrapping around Gold Horn and pinning him to the ground.
Tobirama began weaving signs to seal him, but Silver Horn appeared again, swinging the Banana Palm Fan to break his jutsu. With the Seven-Star Sword, he stabbed at the Raijin Sword, trying to break the binding formation.
The white-haired man also lunged again, aiming his spear-hand attack. Tobirama quickly responded with:"Summoning Jutsu: Quadruple Rashomon!"Four massive demon-faced gates burst from the earth, blocking Silver Horn.
The white-haired brute's piercing strike broke through two of the Rashomon gates but was stopped by the third.
Meanwhile, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked down at the massive wave of Cloud ninja swarming the mountain and said to the nearby Konoha shinobi,"Build fortifications! Earth and Water Style users, start constructing defensive walls. We'll hold them off while the defense is set up!"
With that, he summoned Enma and led nearly a hundred Konoha shinobi rushing toward the middle of the mountain.
Just then, Aki arrived at Hiruzen's side and said,"We can use Earth Style to roll huge boulders down the slope. That might slow them down a bit. Let's start gathering rocks!"
Hiruzen shook his head slightly,"Cloud ninja value swordsmanship and taijutsu above all. Stones might not be enough to stop them."
Looking around, he added,"Let's create a buffer zone. If the Cloud ninjas charge, we'll torch this forest first. Fire should buy us some time, and then we'll hit them with the boulders. We just need to hold out for reinforcements."
Aki muttered,"Let's hope the Raikage doesn't join the fight... otherwise all 500 of us might not make it out alive."
And wouldn't you know it, just a few hundred meters away, a tall, thin man with a polygonal hat showed up. Hiruzen turned to Aki and yelled,"You jinxed it! Why is it always the bad predictions that come true?!"
Aki looked awkward and replied,"Not my fault! He must've been nearby this whole time…"
Turning to the other Konoha shinobi, Aki shouted,"All you Jonin—help me boost the Fire Style with Wind Release!"
He created two shadow clones, and all three shouted:"Fire Style: Grand Fire Dragon Barrage!"Three massive fire dragons erupted from their mouths. The Wind users behind him joined in, making the flames even more intense. In seconds, the mountainside was ablaze, forming a wall of fire that blocked the Cloud army.
Back on the battlefield, Silver Horn watched the Second Hokage taunt the transformed Gold Horn repeatedly. He turned to the white-haired man and said,"Shit! Big bro's already sprouted four tails. He's almost at his limit!"
The man frowned, "What do you mean?"
Silver Horn explained quickly,"We were once swallowed by the Nine Tails. Inside its belly, we were starving and ended up eating its flesh. That gave us its chakra, letting us partially transform—but there's a catch. We can only control the beast form with sheer willpower, and that only works up to a point!"
The white-haired man looked at the four-tailed Gold Horn,"So he's about to go berserk?"
Silver Horn nodded grimly,"Tobirama's doing it on purpose—he wants my brother to lose control. A mindless beast is way easier to deal with than a rational ninja!"
The white-haired man stared at Gold Horn, pinned to the ground by the Raijin Sword,"I didn't expect Tobirama to be this tough. Looks like only our teacher can take him. Neither of us can seriously hurt him like this."
Silver Horn growled,"If it weren't for those Konoha shinobi holding us off outside the cave, the Gold Horn Squad my brother and I trained could've taken Tobirama down!"
The white-haired man said firmly,"We need to retreat now. If this drags on, we're the ones who'll end up dead!"
The two of them, without a word more, launched simultaneous attacks at the Raijin Sword stabbed into the ground, trying to break the sealing formation and free Gold Horn.
Meanwhile, the raging flames continued to engulf the lower forest. The Second Raikage looked around at the surrounding Cloud shinobi and roared,"Useless bastards! Can't even do a basic Water Style jutsu! And not a single one of you brought a damn water user!"
The others muttered bitterly to themselves,Aren't you a Water-Lightning dual type ninja yourself, old man? Why don't you use Water Style?
The Raikage shrugged off his ceremonial robes and drew two nearly two-meter-long blades."I'll clean out those Konoha fire-style users myself. You follow me and try to capture, not kill!"
Then he charged into the burning forest, heading straight for the mountain.
Hiruzen saw the flaming forest halting the Cloud army's advance and sighed in relief,"That should hold them off for a while…"He patted Aki's shoulder,"Good thing we had trees here. Otherwise, we'd be screwed!"
Suddenly, a man wielding twin blades burst through the flames, charging right at them.
Hiruzen stepped forward with his staff. The Second Raikage slashed at him with one powerful blow. Hiruzen blocked with his staff, but the force of the strike sent him flying into the ground.
Aki jumped in, unleashing a"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"But the Raikage didn't even flinch—he tanked it head-on and plunged his blades toward Hiruzen, who was still half-buried.
Aki's father and the nearby Konoha shinobi reacted in time. Uchiha Hui teleported behind the Raikage with a space-time jutsu and summoned a massive shuriken, slashing down. Others cast"Earth Style: Earth Flow River"to interrupt the Raikage's attack.
Aki saw his fire jutsu fail and drew his short blade, focusing his chakra."Flying Thunder God Slash!"He charged in and slashed at the Raikage's waist, blasting him back.
Aki dropped to one knee, his hands bleeding and trembling. He stared at the unharmed Raikage rising in the distance and the shattered pieces of his own blade.Is he made of steel?! He totally shrugged off my Flying Thunder God Slash... My sword shattered, and my arms are completely numb!
The Raikage laughed, looking at the broken blade on his waist."Ha! A space-time slash? That's Tobirama's technique. You must be his student! And you're what—under ten years old? You're not going anywhere!"
He pointed his blade at Aki and charged. Aki's body, still weak from the earlier attack, couldn't move. His hands were numb, and he couldn't perform any jutsu. All he could do was stare as the Raikage closed in.
The gust of wind from the Raikage's charge was so strong Aki couldn't even keep his eyes open.I'm not strong enough… This is the end...
Then suddenly—BAM!—someone kicked him out of the way.
When Aki opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his father—Uchiha Hui—getting stabbed through with both of the Raikage's blades.
Aki's Sharingan turned blood-red, spinning wildly as he screamed,"You bastard! I'll kill you...!!"Suddenly, the space around him cracked open, and black flames poured out from the rifts, surging straight at the Second Raikage.
"....."