Arata had already expended more than half of his stamina, and nearly all of the techniques he possessed revolved around lightning.
Faced with a massive incoming tsunami, there was truly little he could do. If it were Uchiha Madara, he might have been able to hold it back with Wood Style. Arata, however, could only watch helplessly.
As for the vast stretch of land the Land of Fire was about to lose, he could only wait until he reached Six Paths–level strength—or acquired some new ability—before thinking of a way to reclaim it.
Nearby, the Nine-Tails, completely unconscious and still bound by Deep Forest Emergence, was in an awkward position.
From the looks of it, the beast had been abandoned by Uchiha Madara.
Though Madara could control the Nine-Tails, the beast was never truly loyal to him. Keeping it at his side permanently was unnecessary. To Madara, the Nine-Tails was nothing more than a pet he could retrieve whenever he wished.
Moreover, Arata judged that the tailed-beast capture plan had not yet begun. Madara had no reason to drag the Nine-Tails around with him at this stage.
Arata, however, had no intention of letting the Nine-Tails escape.
Even if it could no longer be mentioned in the same breath as him in terms of strength, it was still a Super-Kage–level combat asset. And if one ever intended to cultivate the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, the Nine-Tails was indispensable.
Besides—he had already taken Kushina in. How could the Nine-Tails be left out?
With that thought, Arata walked over to the unconscious Nine-Tails, grabbed a handful of its fur, and space itself began to ripple.
In an instant, spatial distortion enveloped both Arata and the massive tailed beast.
In the past, performing Kamui on a target of this scale would have been difficult even for Arata. But with the enhancement from the Sharingan, Madara's bloodline, and his own ascent to Super-Kage peak, the technique flowed smoothly.
Transporting even the Nine-Tails caused him no strain.
A flash of white light—
And both Arata and the Nine-Tails vanished completely from the devastated battlefield.
...
With his disappearance, the battlefield fell into a brief silence.
But it did not last long.
Only minutes later—perhaps ten at most—dark figures began appearing one after another.
Most wore black combat uniforms and masks, but the forehead protectors they bore were different.
Kumo. Suna. Iwa. Even Ame.
Elite operatives from multiple nations had gathered here.
Yet there was no conflict.
As if bound by an unspoken agreement, they immediately spread out, maintaining distance from one another while carrying out their own missions.
Their task was simple:
Who fought here? How fierce was the battle? And who won?
Unfortunately, unlike White Zetsu, they could not approach the battlefield too closely.
From afar, they could only make out one certainty.
One of the combatants was Arata.
By now, Arata's name was infamous across the shinobi world. Many nations had already listed him as their top-level threat.
Because of this, intelligence on his techniques had spread widely. His Lightning Armor: Second Gear was already common knowledge, leaked long ago by Kumogakure.
And the scale of this battle—
The final form Arata displayed, Lightning Armor: Third Gear, towering over six hundred meters tall—
Even from a great distance, there was no mistaking it.
Susanoo might have had other users in history.
But a giant wreathed entirely in lightning?
There was only one.
That was clearly the Lightning Armor—lightning incarnate—not Susanoo.
As ANBU-level operatives, they recognized Susanoo well—the legendary Uchiha secret art that once shook the entire shinobi world.
Madara's Armored Susanoo, even when mounted upon the Nine-Tails, was no weaker than Arata's Lightning Armor. But its height was comparatively modest, and from such a distance, they could not clearly identify the opponent.
The only thing they could confirm was this:
Arata's opponent had been capable of controlling the Nine-Tails.
That alone was enough to shock them.
The Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb was unmistakable—those catastrophic explosions could not belong to any other beast.
But wasn't Uzumaki Mito the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki?
And if their intelligence was correct, wasn't she the grandmother of Tsunade—Arata's wife?
With that connection, could Arata's opponent really have been Uzumaki Mito?
The idea made no sense.
Yet lacking further information, they could only remain baffled.
They were not Konoha shinobi—nor were they Hiruzen Sarutobi, who knew far more than he let on.
Without knowing that Madara could freely control the Nine-Tails and treat jinchūriki as expendable, no one outside Konoha could piece together the truth.
As long as Konoha kept silent, the other nations would never deduce Madara's involvement from the battlefield alone.
But whether they knew the opponent or not no longer mattered.
What mattered was this:
The Land of Fire was about to lose a massive portion of its territory.
When Arata first noticed the wave, it already stood over two hundred meters tall.
By the time these operatives arrived, it had not diminished in the slightest—and it was now terrifyingly close.
Faced with such a sight, even elite jōnin dared not linger.
Clutching the intelligence they had gathered, they fled the battlefield as if running for their lives.
Their speed might not rival Arata's—but it far exceeded the tsunami's advance.
Escape was assured.
But once they returned, the entire shinobi world would erupt.
Especially when word spread that Arata had quite literally blasted a portion of the continent into the sea.
In the past, Madara and Hashirama had carved out the Valley of the End.
Impressive—but sinking an entire stretch of land?
That was far more terrifying.
And what unsettled these operatives most was this:
Hashirama and Madara had been dead for decades.
So why—
Why had another monster like Arata appeared?
He was only nineteen.
Already this strong.
Who could even imagine where his limits lay?
The minor nations—and even the other four Great Nations—had once believed they could rise during Konoha's internal strife in the Second Great Shinobi War.
Now?
With Arata standing in Konoha—
That hope was well and truly dead.
***************************
Read advanced chapters ahead of everyone else on my P@treon.
P@treon/GodDragcell