The chill of dawn had yet to fully lift. The dust lingering in Training Ground One seemed frozen in the air.
Ryo calmly watched as Kumo's medical shinobi scrambled to carry away the heavily injured and unconscious A from the rubble.
The Third Raikage stood where his son had just collapsed. The muscles in his dark, resolute face were taut. Beneath his steady gaze surged a storm of emotions, finally condensed into cold fury.
Around them, Kumo's elite shinobi held their breath. The air was thick with suffocating disbelief and humiliation.
The silence was broken by the Third Raikage's low and restrained voice.
"Kamiyama Ryo. Kumogakure does not welcome your group. Leave immediately."
He watched as the medics lifted A, whose chest was mangled and breath faint, onto a stretcher. The muscles in his jaw twitched, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.
For someone known for his explosive temper, being able to restrain himself from attacking on the spot was already his greatest show of control.
Ryo's gaze shifted from the distant misty mountains back to the Third Raikage. His face remained calm, as if he hadn't heard the command laced with anger.
"Whether I leave or not isn't up to you," he said. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the tense atmosphere.
"My perception tells me you've set up a barrier that blocks space time ninjutsu. That aimed at me?"
When he had stepped into the center of the training ground earlier, the subtle fluctuations from the runes and barrier pillars, along with the invisible field enclosing the area, had been fully exposed under the range of his Observation Haki.
His eyes briefly swept toward Kumo's core taijutsu technique, his expression showing undisguised interest.
He had his eyes on Kumogakure's signature technique—Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
From A, the future Fourth Raikage, he had clearly "seen" the technique's mechanics.
Powerful chakra stimulating the body, forming a lightning armor that greatly enhanced speed, strength, and defense.
A couldn't bring out the full power of the technique yet. The problem lay in his physical foundation not being strong enough.
But Ryo was different.
With his tempered and monstrous body, this technique would be like wings on a tiger.
To someone who pursued physical prowess and pure taijutsu, it was the ideal support technique.
If Kumogakure had tried to use him as a whetstone, or had other schemes, Ryo didn't care.
He only knew that if they dared to use him, they had to be prepared to shatter their blade.
How it began was up to Kumogakure. How it ended was up to him.
If they tried to scheme against him, then they would have to pay the price.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode. He had decided.
Not even the Sage of Six Paths could stop him.
The Third Raikage's heart sank. Their setup had been directly exposed, but he forced himself to stay calm.
This was their territory. This was Kumogakure.
Hurting A was something he could tolerate. Trying to seize the Nine Tails jinchūriki outright was too risky. The potential losses were unacceptable. Could Ryo really dare flip the table in their own village?
"What are you after?" the Third Raikage asked, his voice heavy with pressure.
"I want your core taijutsu technique. Lightning Release Chakra Mode." Ryo said it flatly, as if requesting a cup of tea.
"Impossible! You brat!" the Third Raikage's fury exploded. His killing intent surged instantly.
Core secret techniques were the foundation of a shinobi village, born from the blood, sweat, and battlefield victories of generations.
Ryo's demand was a direct attack on the roots of Kumogakure. An insult to his pride as Raikage.
Intelligence was the lifeblood of a shinobi. Giving up core jutsu was like toppling their own walls.
Rage burning in his eyes, the Raikage shot a cold glance at Dodai standing just behind him.
Dodai's gaze sharpened beneath his glasses. His hand inside his sleeve formed a covert seal.
A silent signal was transmitted.
Around the training ground, Kumo's elite shinobi, long hidden in ambush, burst into view like wolves.
Dark figures surged from behind rocks and concealed entrances. They quickly formed a tight encirclement around Ryo, Tsunade, Kushina, and Mikoto, along with the rest of the viewing area.
The cold gleam of kunai reflected the morning light like a field of icy stars.
Since Ryo didn't know his place, they would abandon the plan and act now. The Nine Tails jinchūriki—no matter the cost, would stay!
"Then we've got nothing more to talk about," Ryo said, his hand casually resting on the hilt of the Kusanagi.
That subtle movement made the front line of the encirclement tense up instinctively. Cold sweat broke out.
The Third Raikage glared at Ryo. His massive frame radiated pressure.
"You plan to die here. Kamiyama Ryo, I know numbers mean nothing to you. But this barrier not only blocks space time ninjutsu, it's also reinforced to guard against mental interference. Be smart. Leave now, and I'll pretend nothing happened."
He nearly gritted the last words out.
Ryo's display of strength in defeating A, especially the sword strike that ignored the Lightning Armor's defense, had shaken him to the core.
If they forced a fight, the cost to Kumogakure would be immense.
Letting Ryo go was the most rational choice for both sides.
Ryo glanced around at the densely packed Kumo shinobi, then looked up at the invisible dome of the barrier.
A faint, icy smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"I don't think so."
As soon as the words fell, he moved.
There was no grand display of drawing his sword, only a sharp upward flick of his wrist.
Just one motion.
A deep purple wave of light burst from the tip of the Kusanagi, like a blade tearing through the heavens.
It didn't target any of the shinobi.
Instead, it rocketed straight into the sky with unstoppable momentum.
As the light carved upward, the air compressed and ionized violently, releasing an ear-piercing shriek. A long-lasting purple trail marked its path into the thin clouds above.
"Heavenly Obstruction Star!"
This was a move born from Ryo's deep understanding of gravity, based on the Earth Release: Weighted Boulder Technique, combined with his refined Observation Haki and the precision of his Mind's Eye of the Kagura.
He had recreated a terrifying technique from another world—Issho's gravity technique.
A technique that forcibly pulled a massive meteorite from orbit and slammed it down.
It might not be enough to kill the strongest shinobi outright, but that wasn't the target today.
The target was Kumogakure.
The heart of this ninja village.
Through Mind's Eye of the Kagura, which covered the heavens and earth, Ryo had already locked onto a natural celestial body, kilometers in diameter.
Its impact force would be enough to wipe Kumogakure, and the surrounding mountains, off the map entirely.
Minutes passed.
The training ground was dead silent.
Only the whispering wind and the rough breathing of the Kumo shinobi remained.
The Third Raikage frowned, eyes scanning the sky. Apart from the disturbed airflow from Ryo's strike, nothing had changed.
He was suspicious. Why shout out a technique name and swing a sword into the air? Was it bluffing?
"Cheap tricks..."
Dodai pushed up his glasses, trying to suppress an inexplicable sense of unease. But the chill down his spine was growing.
Just as the Third Raikage opened his mouth to demand what Ryo was playing at—
Buzz...
A strange sensation enveloped everyone.
It wasn't a sound, but an instinctual perception of a massive threat descending.
The light from the sky dimmed without warning.
It was as if an enormous invisible curtain was slowly covering the sun.
"Why... why is it getting dark?" a Kumo shinobi asked.
"Look up!!" another screamed.
Everyone—Raikage, Dodai, Tsunade, Kushina, Mikoto, and every single Kumo shinobi—instinctively looked up at the suddenly darkened sky.
What they saw froze their souls.
A meteorite of indescribable size was breaking through the atmosphere, falling toward Kumogakure.
Its surface burned with red hot fire, friction from the air igniting it as it descended from the upper atmosphere.
Its mass dominated the sky. Its diameter was clearly over a kilometer.
Tearing through the sky at terrifying speed, it roared like a billion thunderclaps, the sound growing louder by the second.
From its trajectory, from its velocity, it was clear.
In two to three minutes, that doomsday star would crash directly into the center of Kumogakure.
Unlike Uchiha Madara's version, which used the Rinnegan to summon a smaller meteor from low orbit, Ryo's Heavenly Obstruction Star had dragged a real celestial body from deep space.
Its kinetic energy and destructive power far surpassed the former by orders of magnitude.
This was the wrath of the heavens.
"W-what kind of monster is that?!"
"It's a meteor! A meteor is falling!"
"Run!!"
Panic spread through Kumo like wildfire.
Screams, wails, and despair replaced the earlier silence.
The elite shinobi of Kumogakure, trained and disciplined, broke down in the face of absolute annihilation.
Some collapsed, others ran, some stood frozen in place, gazing up at their approaching doom.
The training ground fell into chaos.
Despair hung over the village like a choking fog.
The Third Raikage's massive frame trembled. The color drained from his face. His pupils shrank to pinpricks.
He stared at the blazing, earth destroying star in the sky.
The shock shattered even his normally unshakable mind.
He turned his stiff neck with great effort to look down at the dark figure standing calmly below, and spoke with a hoarse voice, filled with horror and disbelief.
"You... you monster..."
Ryo slowly lowered his gaze from the sky, meeting the Raikage's eyes.
His voice cut through the chaos and despair like a death knell.
"I told you. Numbers mean nothing to me."
He paused, then added each word with the weight of a mountain.
"Your Kumogakure... will be erased from the shinobi world today."
The colossal shadow of the meteorite engulfed the entire training ground, swallowing the sunlight and every trace of light.
The roar of destruction, like a death god's bell, thundered in every ear.
Kumogakure's fate now hung by a thread.
(To be continued.)