"Boom!"
The Tailed Beast Bomb came roaring toward them with a suffocating pressure, like a black sun tearing through the sky.
The shadow of death fell over the entire island.
Akira stayed calm. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled out two specially made kunai.
"Akira! Don't get cocky!" Shinra shouted in alarm.
Samui had no idea what Akira was about to do, but she still raised her shortsword on instinct and stepped in front of him, even knowing it would be useless.
At the very instant the Tailed Beast Bomb was about to swallow them whole, Akira moved.
Countless black markings spread through the air like chains, instantly forming a massive web of formulae.
"Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder!"
"Vmmmmm..."
Space itself seemed to tear open. The enormous Tailed Beast Bomb vanished the moment it touched the formula, as if swallowed by a black hole.
The next second, far out over the sea dozens of kilometers away, a blinding light flared across the horizon, followed by an earth-shaking explosion.
"BOOOOM...!!!"
The blast threw up monstrous waves, and even from this distance the sea wind turned scorching hot.
Samui and Shinra both stood there with their mouths open.
"That... that was the Second Hokage's Flying Raijin Jutsu?!"
Samui felt like her understanding of the world had been overturned yet again.
It could teleport not just people, but an attack like that too?
That was practically cheating.
Shinra burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Just like I thought. The man I chose really is something. That was beautiful!"
After using the technique, Akira's face paled slightly. That move had burned through a sizable chunk of chakra all at once.
Out in the distance, even the Three-Tails seemed stunned. Its ultimate attack had landed on absolutely nothing.
Its pride took a brutal hit.
"ROAR!"
Humiliated and furious, the Three-Tails gave up on long-range attacks and switched straight into brute-force mode, churning through the water as it charged toward shore.
Standing atop Shinra's head, Akira looked full of spirit.
"Shinra, go! Show it what happens when it picks the wrong fight!"
"You got it! Let's see if I can't strangle this overgrown turtle!"
Shinra's huge body twisted through the sea as if it were gliding over flat ground, moving even faster than the Three-Tails.
In the blink of an eye, the two monsters collided and tangled together.
Using the advantage of his long body, Shinra coiled tightly around the Three-Tails' neck and torso, then opened his jaws to bite down.
But the Three-Tails was no easy target. It instantly split off countless miniature versions of itself, flea-like creatures that swarmed all over Shinra's body and began biting frantically.
"Hiss! Ow, ow, ow! These little pests are infuriating!"
"Lightning Style: Lightning Net!"
Akira chose his moment perfectly. Dense arcs of electricity burst from his body.
A massive web of lightning instantly spread over both Shinra and the Three-Tails.
For Shinra, it was only a prickling numbness. For those tiny water-heavy miniatures, it was fatal. They were instantly scorched into blackened cinders.
"Nicely done!" Shinra took the opening and sank his fangs into the Three-Tails' face.
At the same time, a stream of gray venom sprayed from his mouth.
The Three-Tails let out a pained bellow, all three tails lashing wildly as it tried to break free.
Akira brought his hands together.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Bind!"
Chains of lightning appeared out of thin air and wrapped tightly around the three whipping tails.
Violent currents surged through the chains and into the Three-Tails' body, shocking it until smoke rose from its shell. There was even a faint smell of roasted seafood in the air.
The area around its head, where Shinra had bitten down, began turning to stone. Under the double torment of petrification and lightning, the Three-Tails finally realized these two were not prey.
With a violent surge of chakra, it shattered parts of the stone creeping over its body, ripped itself free from Shinra's coils, and dove for the deep sea without looking back.
"Trying to run? Not a chance!" Shinra, fully worked up, was about to give chase.
"Let it go." Akira stopped him. "It's already lost its nerve. There's no point pushing it. We can't kill it anyway."
Watching the Three-Tails flee in a clumsy panic, Samui frowned slightly.
"Do you think it might come back around?"
Akira shook his head, calm and certain.
"Tailed Beasts have intelligence too. Its strongest attack got neutralized. If it stays, it just humiliates itself further. Right now it wants distance more than anything."
Once the situation was confirmed safe, Shinra vanished in a puff of smoke.
Samui looked at Akira, her expression impossibly complicated.
This Konoha ninja was powerful, mysterious, and had saved her life.
As a shinobi of the Kumo, she should have been wary of someone this dangerous. But what she felt now was only respect.
"What are you standing there thinking about? Mission's over. Time to head back."
Akira's easy smile snapped her out of it.
Samui sheathed her blade and resumed her usual cool expression.
"I still can't believe you actually drove off a Tailed Beast. I'll be reporting this exactly as it happened."
Akira shrugged.
"Suit yourself. Akita's gone without even ashes left behind, so there's nothing to take back for your report anyway."
At that moment, the shadow clone at the cave entrance dispelled.
The five who had been worrying themselves sick rushed out. The moment Ino saw Akira completely unharmed, she let out a shriek and threw herself straight into his arms.
"Akira! You scared me half to death! Seriously!"
Hinata stood nearby with tears at the corners of her eyes. She wanted to hug him too, but didn't dare. All she could do was watch Ino with open envy.
Shino adjusted his glasses, hiding the shock in his gaze. He had not seen the fight with his own eyes, but the way the earth had shaken told him more than enough.
As for Omoi and Karui, they now looked at Akira as if he were some kind of divine being.
If word of this got out, Akira's name would echo across the ninja world.
When the time came to part ways, Samui stood at the bow of her ship and looked at Akira for a long moment.
"Akira... I hope we never end up facing each other on opposite sides of a battlefield."
Akira smiled and waved.
"As long as the Kumo doesn't start trouble, we'll stay friends."
Watching the Kumo ship vanish into the distance, Ino couldn't help asking, "Are you really okay with them carrying all that information about you back home?"
Sitting on the deck of the return ship with the sea breeze in his face, Akira looked completely relaxed.
"That's what deterrence is for. Konoha needs to show a little muscle right now, or everyone will think they can come take a bite out of it."
The truth was, Konoha looked strong on the surface but was badly hollowed out inside. Tsunade had become Hokage, but the village's top-tier combat strength had taken a hard hit.
If the reputation of a Kage-level fighter like him spread, it would make other villages think twice before trying anything stupid.
More than ten days later, the group returned to Konoha covered in dust and salt from the road.
Inside the Hokage's office, Tsunade listened to the report, her brows knitting together.
"I didn't expect this mission to spiral like that. You actually fought the Three-Tails?"
Akira submitted the mission report as if it were no big deal.
"Yeah. My first time trading blows with a Tailed Beast. Not bad. Just cost a bit of chakra."
Tsunade shot him a flat look. The way he said it made it sound like target practice.
Then Akira suddenly asked, "I heard Sasuke left the village?"
Tsunade rubbed her temples and sighed.
"He did. The kid's mind was already gone. But right now I'm more concerned about you. The Kumo knows your strength now. They may start making moves."
Akira smiled, confidence shining clear in his eyes.
"If they want me dead, they'd better be prepared to bury an entire ninja village trying."
"Because while there are people in this world who could kill me, there still aren't many of them."
The office window stood half open, and the breeze stirred a stack of papers on the desk.
Akira tapped the tabletop lightly with one finger, leaving unspoken the thought in his head.
As long as Six Paths Madara never showed up, there was nobody in the shinobi world who could kill him.
Saying that out loud would be too much.
Tsunade rested her fingers together beneath her chin and studied the boy before her. In the end, she gave a slow, satisfied nod.
A village leader needed a reputation sharp enough to frighten the shadows. Otherwise, the rats hiding in the dark would keep testing their luck.
If Akira's name became a hard enough wall, the assassination attempts aimed his way would dry up on their own.
Because in truth, there really were only a handful of people in the entire shinobi world who could threaten his life.
"As for Sasuke..." Tsunade changed gears, the slightest crease returning to her brow. "Naruto failed to bring him back."
She paused, then continued in a heavier tone. "Orochimaru's methods are hard to guard against."
"Maybe it wasn't manipulation."
Leaning back in his chair, Akira gazed out the window toward the Hokage Rock and let out a soft sigh.
Tsunade looked up in surprise.
"That boy is carrying the entire blood-soaked massacre of the Uchiha clan in his heart."
Akira turned back and met her eyes.
"If he stayed in Konoha, who here could promise him the power to surpass Itachi Uchiha?"
"Even Naruto has one of the Legendary Sannin personally training him now, and his growth has exploded. He may already be stronger than Sasuke."
"That kind of gap isn't something Kakashi can fill."
"So when Orochimaru holds out an olive branch called power, would you really expect Sasuke to refuse it?"
"Even if the price is getting his body stolen a few years from now, the Sasuke of today would still bet on himself. He'd bet that he can kill Orochimaru before that deadline ever comes."
Tsunade fell silent for a long time. At last, the tightness in her brow eased.
The logic was cruel, but it was sound.
"Even so, the village leadership will never allow that kind of 'study abroad.'"
It was defection, plain and simple.
The only reason Tsunade had not already issued the wanted order was because of Naruto.
"Then why not handle it the same way your case was handled back then?" Akira said with the faintest trace of a grin.
Tsunade's eyes lit up at once. That would still be difficult to push past the advisors and Danzo, but now that she was Hokage, things were different. She was far more decisive than the Third had ever been.
The advisors had already lost much of their authority. Informing them would be little more than a formality.
Looking at the certainty in Akira's expression, Tsunade made the decision on the spot.
Since Akira had already left Team Seven's standard roster, he no longer had to take ordinary missions.
After leaving the Hokage Tower, he went straight down into the Senju underground archives.
The air there was filled with the scent of dry paper and preservation powders.
For a full year, he absorbed the knowledge on those shelves like a starving man.
By the time he closed the final scroll, he had mastered the full breadth of the Senju clan's legacy.
Not only Senju jutsus, but also Uzumaki sealing arts, and even fragments of Uchiha forbidden jutsus hidden among them.