Dust and wind howled across the battered valley, but the battlefield had gone still—held in place by the presence of two figures who defied all logic.
Minato Namikaze and the crimson giant stood like twin sentinels, a golden blur and a walking storm. Behind them, scattered Konoha shinobi and wounded allies looked to them with hope as the air shimmered around Minato's kunai.
But the enemy did not stay quiet for long.
A voice boomed over the broken terrain, thick with venom and arrogance.
"Oi, oi…" growled the Third Raikage, his massive arms folded, muscles bulging.
"Do you think this is some kind of house game?" His lips curled into a mocking sneer.
"That you can come and go as you please? That we'll sit back and watch you skip around with your little flash tricks?"
A wave of cruel laughter followed from the Kumogakure forces behind him.
From above, Ōnoki, the Stone Shadow, floated higher, frowning down with contempt.
"Konoha's Yellow Flash… trying to play the saviour-" he muttered.
"How laughable. You believe war bends to your whims?"
He raised one hand, the chakra in his palm beginning to compress—forming a deadly, rotating cube.
"Foolish. The battlefield is not a playground, Namikaze."
Troops from Iwagakure and Kumogakure stepped forward, readying kunai, weaving signs. Some bore fresh blood on their armor—still warm from the massacre they had left behind.
The Two-Tails behind Yugito snorted, smoke curling from its maw. Her golden eyes narrowed on the shinobi trying to regroup.
"I won't let you take them-" she said coldly.
"They're as good as dead already."
The frontlines of the enemy began to march forward, surrounding the group slowly, tightening like a noose. Malice crackled in the air.
Still… the Yellow Flash did not react with panic.
He simply exhaled through his nose, eyes half-lidded but sharp.
Then Radahn's boots shifted in the dirt beside him with a heavy thud—just enough for the enemy to flinch, despite themselves.
Minato didn't even turn to the enemy.
The wind had calmed, but tension hung like a blade over the battlefield.
Minato stepped forward, lifting a marked kunai in his hand. Behind him, a group of Konoha shinobi—bloodied, fatigued, some barely able to stand—gathered in a loose formation.
"Everyone, get ready. I'll teleport us back to base."
There was hesitation in the air.
A young chunin looked at him, eyes wide."B-but… what if they attack while we move?"Another murmured, "Can you really teleport us all, Minato-sama?"
Minato turned to them, voice calm but unwavering.
"I promised to protect you. And I keep my promises."
His golden hair rippled in the breeze. His gaze sharpened, confident and clear.
"Trust me. Just hold on. We're going home."
As his chakra began to hum, glowing softly in golden wisps, the enemy forces stirred.
The Third Raikage took a heavy step forward, cracking the earth beneath him.
"They're actually leaving? You think we'll just stand here and watch that happen?!"
Ōnoki hovered slightly lower, his brow furrowing.
"Enough games."
Yugito's hands clenched. The Two-Tails behind her growled, its tails beginning to flick.
Jutsu formed, chakra flared.
And then—
"I dare you to take a step."
The voice cut through the air like thunder wrapped in silence.
A red cloak billowed in the wind, casting a long shadow across the dirt.
Radahn stood still as a mountain, his golden eyes gleaming with the radiance of a burning star.The two colossal blades fell with a deafening clang—not stabbed into the ground, but simply resting at his sides.His hands hadn't even gripped them yet.
Yet something shifted.
The enemy forces… stopped.
Raikage's charging muscles froze mid-motion.
Ōnoki's floating body halted, refusing to descend a meter further.
Even the Two-Tails' tails stopped flicking.
The entire battlefield seemed to hold its breath.
No chakra was released. No sealing jutsu was triggered.No genjutsu.No trick.
Still, none of them could move.
They stood, paralyzed.
Sweat dripped down the side of Raikage's temple. His fist trembled.
"W-What's going on?" he muttered, glaring at his feet. "Why can't I move?"
He struggled, but it was like his body denied him the will to even twitch forward.
"Is it a jutsu? No…"
His voice shook slightly.
"It's like… like my body refuses. Like it knows something I don't…"
His breath hitched. His eyes slowly turned to Radahn—unmoving, unblinking.
And then he understood.
'It's… fear.'
Ōnoki's eyes widened in stunned silence.
The old Tsuchikage had faced wars, legends, monsters—but never had his bones felt this heavy.
The sensation in his chest wasn't unfamiliar, but it had been decades since he'd last felt it.
Terror. Pure. Primal.
Meanwhile, the Two-Tails spoke from within Yugito, its voice trembling in the recesses of her mind.
"W-What is that… that monster?!"
"That presence—this isn't chakra. He isn't human!"
"So sinister....So bright… so overwhelming… like the skies themselves have turned to watch us die."
'I WANT TO RUN AWAY!'
Even the beast's wild heart pulsed erratically. Its instinct screamed, not in rage, but in warning.
Yugito's lips parted in disbelief.She could feel it too.Her legs were locked. Her fingers numb.
A silence swallowed the enemy lines.
And amidst it, Radahn stood—not roaring, not moving, not even gripping his weapons.
Only being.
Then,
FLASH.
In the blink of an eye, the Konoha shinobi vanished—leaving behind nothing but swirls of dust, the hum of chakra, and a silence that weighed like iron.
Radahn stood where they'd been, his crimson cloak fluttering gently behind him.
His enormous frame barely shifted—
The shinobi and Kage forces found they could breathe again—move again—but something wasn't right.
The air hadn't grown lighter… just sharper.
Like the pause between a heartbeat and a blade's descent.
Ōnoki blinked rapidly, sweat rolling down his wrinkled brow.
'That sensation… that weight...'
He looked at Radahn, whose glowing golden eyes scanned the field with quiet, suffocating intensity.
"That… that wasn't chakra-" he muttered, heart racing.
"And it wasn't killing intent either… So what was it?"
He narrowed his gaze at the giant.
"Was that a genjutsu? No. That wasn't any illusion… That was real. Whatever that was—it brought even me to stillness."
He grit his teeth."Even Madara… not even he made me feel so…" He didn't finish the thought.
Then it happened.
A deep, electrical hum pulsed from the ground.
Ōnoki turned just in time to see the Third Raikage slam his foot into the soil, cracking it beneath the pressure.
Lightning exploded around his body like a storm contained within skin.
The Raikage's body glowed blue, electricity dancing across every muscle and tendon, his breath coming in sharp, controlled bursts.
He was charging to the fullest—calling forth every ounce of speed, power, and fury.
The Lightning Release Chakra Mode wrapped around him, so intense it caused pebbles to lift into the air from the sheer static.
Ōnoki's eyes widened."He's going for it… already?"
Raikage's foot slammed again. Then again.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Like thunder heralding a coming storm.
Ōnoki realized with a start—
"He plans to end it now. Before that giant moves. He's betting everything on the first strike."
But he barely had time to warn anyone. The Raikage vanished in a streak of lightning.
He zigzagged forward, each sharp turn exploding with force, his form a blur of light and rage. The earth behind him splintered. The very air screamed as he carved through it.
From 200 meters… to 100… to 50.
The battlefield became chaos behind him—but to him, everything else faded.
Only one thing remained in sight—Radahn.
The Raikage's mind was steel, unyielding.
'We strike now. Before he takes a single step. Before he even thinks. No hesitation. No delay. I have to hit his throat—hard and clean. If we fail, it's over.'
But then—mid-charge, something crawled up his spine.
A cold, ancient instinct.
He looked forward.
Radahn hadn't moved. Not even an inch.
But his eyes—
—were locked onto him.
Every twitch. Every flash of motion. Every shift in direction.
The Raikage was faster than most could even see—but those golden eyes followed him perfectly.
And then it hit him.
Time itself felt slower.
The air thickened. His heart pounded like war drums in his chest. His knees strained, his nerves screamed, but he didn't stop.
He couldn't.
Because Radahn was right there now.
Right in front of him.
His face—calm. Cold. Unshaken.
Those eyes burned with unforgiving gold.
The Raikage's heart pounded. The sensation crawling down his spine wasn't lightning. It was dread.
'How—?! At this speed—he's still tracking me?!'
Raikage's roar ripped through the silence as he launched forward, his piercing chakra-arm extending, aimed straight for the giant's throat.
"DIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!"
The air burst apart at the speed.
And Radahn—still had not moved.
Dust erupted-
The battlefield seemed to hold its breath as the Raikage charged forward with blinding speed, his entire body crackling with dense lightning chakra. Every eye was fixed on him, expecting the decisive strike that would end the fight swiftly.
Many had thought this would be the end—the swift, brutal blow of the Third Raikage was legendary. The air itself hummed with the tension of the impending clash.
But what happened next shattered all expectations.
Their faces soon changed—shock twisting quickly into sheer terror.
They saw it clearly.
Raikage's fingers, upon impact with Radahn's exposed throat, bent backwards in impossible angles—cracking and bleeding profusely.
Bones shattered. Tendons snapped.
The sight was horrific beyond belief.
Blood burst forth, pouring from shredded skin and fractured bones, yet his fingers did not release.
The impossible was unfolding before their very eyes: Raikage's fingers were broken, bleeding, and mangled, yet Radahn held them firm with an unyielding grip.
Radahn's eyes locked with the Raikage's—those burning golden eyes filled with ancient, overwhelming power, like molten fire searing through steel.
The Raikage's face twisted in disbelief and terror.
Radahn's hand shot out with terrifying speed, grasping the Raikage's throat firmly just as the attack landed.
The Raikage's fingers flailed in mid-air, broken backwards and bleeding from the brutal impact, but it was Radahn's unyielding grip on his throat that sealed his fate.
Radahn's golden eyes bore into the Raikage's, glowing like twin infernos, exuding a presence so overwhelming it seemed to crush the very soul of the lightning warrior.
The Raikage's face twisted in disbelief and agony. He tried to speak, voice strangled and trembling,"I—impossible..."
But Radahn's grip tightened further, an iron vise crushing not just flesh and bone, but life itself.
He gripped tighter and broke Raikage's neck with completely destroying his throat.
The sound was crisp and final—a sickening crack like a dry twig snapping underfoot.
Raikage's body went rigid, muscles locking painfully before falling limp.
He crashed onto the ground with a heavy, echoing thud.
A powerful warrior, feared and revered across the lands, was now utterly defeated—lifeless beneath Radahn's shadow.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Shock rippled through the onlookers, turning quickly to raw fear.
The legendary Third Raikage—the embodiment of unbreakable will and overwhelming strength—had been ended with brutal ease.
The battlefield, once alive with the roar of war, now trembled with the chilling reality of Radahn's power.
No one dared make a sound.
No one dared move.