Seeing Uchiha Gen charge toward him, the Iwagakure jōnin Kari of the Explosion Release nearly froze. His instincts screamed at him; facing Uchiha Gen alone was suicide.
"Support! I need support!" he shouted, already retreating.
He had witnessed Gen's duel with Kitsuchi, the thunderstorm above, and the lightning that carved through their army. No sane man would fight that monster alone.
Earth Release: Rock Bullet Technique!
Nearby chūnin and jōnin responded instantly. They spat out clusters of stones that expanded mid-air, swelling into massive boulders. Dozens of them shot forward like a rain of trebuchet stones, fanning through the air toward Gen.
Vacuum Sword!
Gen swung Shizukamaru in a single fluid arc. The blade cut air itself, compressing it into sharp, invisible currents. A web of wind blades spread wide, intercepting the storm of rock. The projectiles shattered mid-flight, fragments scattering harmlessly.
"Kyouki."
"Yes, Master."
The black dragon's spirit emerged, coiling around Gen's left arm. Lightning welled in his fist, blinding white and hissing with power.
He punched the ground.
BOOOOM!
A wave of incandescent arcs erupted outward, devouring everything in a hundred meters. The air itself screamed as lightning crawled across stone and flesh alike.
"Ahhh!"
Several Iwa chūnin weren't fast enough. The lightning ran up through their legs, convulsing their bodies violently. They shrieked as their muscles locked and eyes rolled back, collapsing like twitching marionettes.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!
Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!
Two jōnin moved as one. A massive wall of rock surged from the ground, and Kari drove his fist into it. The wall detonated outward, blasting a torrent of stone bullets, dense and fast as a storm of arrows.
Gen didn't even blink. He thrust his left fist forward, Kyouki roaring with him. White lightning shot outward, consuming the incoming barrage. The stone bullets disintegrated in midair, erased utterly by the storm of light.
The two jōnin leapt aside, trying to use the moment to reset—
Crack!
Gen's blade moved again, almost lazily. Two bolts of lightning, thick as spears, dropped from the storm overhead, aimed squarely at their foreheads.
They reacted quickly, proof of their rank. Kari detonated another Landmine Fist, blasting one strike apart. His partner hardened his arm into a massive rock gauntlet, gritting his teeth as he tanked the other bolt head-on.
But Gen's assault didn't stop. He moved like a living turret—no hand signs, no pause. Sword arcs, clenched fists, and storm answered. A dozen more bolts rained down in an unrelenting cascade, each as thick as a child's arm.
The two tried desperately to block, but the sheer volume overwhelmed them.
"Gaaahhh!"
Their bodies convulsed, smoke rising from their skin. Within seconds they collapsed, twitching heaps left smoldering on the ground.
Earth Release: Fissure!
Three chūnin who had survived until now didn't flee. They stamped the ground together, cracks spreading outward in a spiderweb that split beneath Gen's feet.
The ground gave way. For a moment, his body dropped then with a blur, he rose again, standing atop a swirling black thundercloud. Lightning flickered beneath his feet, carrying him effortlessly into the air.
The three froze, despair written across their faces. Gen's Sharingan flared, and in an instant their wills crumbled. They fell, trapped in his genjutsu, their souls already prey.
With the area clear, Gen wasted no time. He drew in the pale lights of their lifespans and souls, harvesting them into himself before moving on.
The hunt continued. His focus shifted upward, jōnin first, then chūnin. Genin he ignored, unless they were foolish enough to throw themselves at him.
Each time he struck, more of Iwagakure's and Kusagakure's elites fell. Slowly but surely, the coalition's high-end strength was gutted.
The pressure spread like cracks through glass. Their lines faltered.
Some of the smarter Iwa commanders began to realize the truth. If this battle dragged on, they wouldn't just lose but they risked total annihilation. Breaking free, they rushed to Kitsuchi's side to plead.
Kitsuchi scowled but didn't hesitate. He wasn't Tsuchikage material, but as a battlefield commander he was competent. Survival outweighed pride.
"Signal retreat!" he barked.
A flare burst into the sky.
The order was immediate. Except for those locked in deadly struggles, the coalition forces broke contact and began withdrawing en masse.
Konoha and Suna shinobi didn't hesitate to chase. Victory was at hand they wouldn't let the enemy slip away unscathed.
Han, the Five-Tails' jinchūriki, erupted into full transformation once again. The massive beast tore across the battlefield, bodies scattering beneath its hooves. With raw physical force and the looming threat of another Tailed Beast Ball, Han carved a path to shield his retreating allies.
Even so, he could not match Gen.
Gen soared above, untouched by terrain or brute force. He could ignore Han completely if he wished.
Instead, his gaze fixed on one man: Kitsuchi.
The commander. The son of Ōnoki. His soul was immense just shy of Kage level.
Perfect prey.
Gen didn't care about his lineage. Even if killing Kitsuchi provoked Ōnoki into larger war, so what? War meant more corpses, more souls. And realistically, Ōnoki wouldn't gamble everything on vengeance. Not when other villages waited like vultures for either side to fall.
No, the old Tsuchikage would weigh duty above fatherhood.
But killing Kitsuchi wouldn't be simple. Despite the chaos of retreat, his leadership kept their lines from collapsing entirely. Subordinates surrounded him, intercepting attacks, and Kitsuchi himself was a fortress.
Gen pursued from the sky, raining down lightning and fire. Each strike tore gaps in their ranks, leaving corpses and smoke in his wake. Kitsuchi endured, rage twisting his face.
To buy time, he dispatched suicide squads.
They fought with abandon, throwing themselves into Konoha and Suna's vanguard. For a moment, the victors balked, why throw their lives away? That hesitation allowed the main Iwa force to keep moving.
But not even that could save them from Gen.
He cut through the skies above like judgment itself, blasting apart squads, burning the wounded, and thinning Kitsuchi's numbers step by step.
Still, the commander himself refused to fall.
Gen narrowed his eyes, weighing whether to unleash his Spirit Transformation Technique to finish it...
...and then stopped.
A black speck appeared on the distant horizon.
With Soul Perception active, Gen's vision sharpened instantly. His Sharingan confirmed the figure long before ordinary eyes could.
Short. Stooped. A comically large nose jutting from his face.
The Third Tsuchikage himself. Ōnoki.