The Golden and Silver Brothers screamed, their bodies shriveling as Wood Style drained the last of their chakra.
Raizen stepped forward, Susanoo towering behind him, its crimson eyes glowing like the wrath of some forgotten deity.
"Arrogant… at this level?"
He sneered, grabbed both brothers with Susanoo's massive hand, and yanked them from the living forest.
They dangled helplessly before his face.
"What's wrong? Why aren't the two little mice barking now?"
Kinkaku and Ginkaku trembled. True fear, the kind that no bravado or stolen Nine Tails chakra could hide.
Raizen's expression hardened.
"No answer? Then die."
He flung them upward—two ragdolls hurled into the sky.
As they fell, Susanoo's arm blurred—
BOOM!!
Their bodies slammed into the ground like meteors, carving a trench before crashing into a cliffside.
They didn't even twitch.
Raizen tilted his head, mildly surprised.
"…Not dead?"
Of course. Nine Tails chakra lingered in their bodies, knitting their wounds in real time.
Annoying, but understandable.
Before he could finish them, a roar split the valley.
"UNFORGIVABLE!"
Ai burst from the rubble, battered but burning with fury.
The future Second Raikage appeared beside him, lightning screaming across both their bodies.
The two locked eyes.
Then moved.
"Absolute Secret Art—Twin Thunder Guillotine!"
They vanished.
A thunderclap detonated behind Raizen.
Susanoo's chest split open—
The crack from their earlier attack widened, spiderwebbing across the entire torso.
Even Raizen blinked, impressed.
"They actually cracked complete-body Susanoo…"
Uchiha Madara's Susanoo was monstrous because of his ocular power.
Raizen's wasn't quite on that level yet—but it was still complete form.
The fact these two broke it?
That meant they were absolute monsters.
For anyone else.
Raizen smiled coldly.
"The stronger you are… the more reason I have to kill you."
Susanoo raised the Ten-Fist Sword.
"DIE."
The blade fell.
Cloud's elites gasped. Panic overtook training.
They threw themselves between Ai and the attack—
"Commander! MOVE!"
Their bodies split under the sword-light, buying Ai a split second.
Ai's rage flooded the battlefield.
"Leader—run!"
One of the Jōnin, severed from the waist down, used his final breath to shove Ai aside—
Ai blitzed away with Lightning Release armor at full output.
Susanoo's blade crashed down.
BOOM!!!
Stone exploded. Trees shattered. The valley floor split wide open.
Ai barely escaped.
Raizen clicked his tongue.
"Fortunate. For now."
But Ai's retreat wasn't the only thing happening.
Cloud shinobi were dying.
Their morale shattered.
And Raizen still hadn't taken serious damage.
Ai's voice echoed across the battlefield, hoarse and furious.
"CLOUD SHINOBI—RETREAT!"
The remaining survivors snatched the half-dead brothers and sprinted away.
Raizen considered chasing them—but then sensed something.
Large numbers of reinforcements were racing from Cloud Village.
Yeah… fighting the entire country solo would be a little too much paperwork.
Raizen exhaled.
Susanoo crumbled around him like burning embers.
Kamui distortion wrapped around his body—
And he vanished.
Cloud Shinobi POV
"He's… gone?"
Ai staggered up, trembling with rage and humiliation.
He finally had the counterattack ready—
Only to find his enemy gone like smoke.
But then a worse realization hit him.
"Eight Tails!"
His heart dropped into his stomach.
"Report!"
A shinobi shouted over the wind:
"Lord Ai! Eight Tails is fleeing toward the Land of Frost!"
Ai's face twisted.
"All units—pursue! We MUST retrieve Eight Tails!"
Raizen on the Hunt
Meanwhile—
Raizen walked out of Kamui space onto a broken ridge, Byakugan scanning ahead.
Eight Tails' chakra trail was massive, sloppy, and screaming with fear.
The beast was running for its life, crashing through mountains and rivers like a living natural disaster.
"Damn. Those legs are too long."
One step from a tailed beast equaled hundreds of strides from a human.
Even with Kamui jumps, Raizen had to keep tracking the trail like a man chasing a freight train.
Eight Tails barreled across the border of the Land of Lightning—
Past the foothills—
Toward the Land of Frost.
And still didn't stop.
Raizen raised an eyebrow.
"…You're really running for your life, huh?"
He kept chasing.
Hours passed.
Then a full day.
And by dawn the next morning—
The entire shinobi world was buzzing:
Raizen captured One Tail.
Raizen fought Cloud's elites.
Raizen is hunting tailed beasts on a massive scale.
Every village trembled.
Every clan whispered.
And in the white fields of Frost Country, one tailed beast continued to flee—
With a reincarnated madman right behind it.