Chapter 196: Chapter: 194

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If we hit 150 PW I post a extra chapter.

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Every time the Third Tsuchikage unleashed a burst of his legendary Particle Style (Jinton), the physical matter of the stadium—stone slabs several meters thick, reinforced iron structures, guard towers, and granite pillars—simply ceased to exist, turning into a cylindrical abyss of void and atomic dust.

In the midst of that storm of molecular deconstruction, Kazekage Daigo moved like a pink ghost, bounding between crystal platforms that he created and destroyed in fractions of a second.

The aerial dance was one of brutal, unrelenting violence. Daigo utilized the continuous flow of the First Breath of the Seven Heavens to expand his lung capacity and accelerate the blood flow to his muscles far beyond normal human limits.

Every time his feet struck the crystal mirrors, a sonic boom exploded, pulverizing floating rocks around him and sending crystal shrapnel flying like lethal debris.

However, behind the amazing agility of his movements and the deadly beauty of his fighting style, the Kazekage's mind worked with a cold, calculating precision, well aware that he was not in an open field, but in his own home village.

Daigo understood perfectly that a prolonged war of attrition against a Kage-level shinobi possessing Ōnoki's chakra reserves, battle experience, and tactical mastery was an unacceptable, reckless risk for Sunagakure.

Even if the Tsuchikage suffered from severe physical ailments due to his advanced age, his absolute mastery over Particle Style turned any slight error or posture flaw into instant atomic eradication.

Furthermore, with every additional second the battle dragged on at the apex of the village, collective panic devoured the morale of the civilians trapped in shelters, central district buildings collapsed under continuous shockwaves, and defensive troops suffered devastating collateral casualties in the lower tiers of the colosseum.

An immediate, categorical, and definitive end had to be put to this conflict before the cost of victory became so high that it would be indistinguishable from defeat.

"Answer me one thing before you reduce what little reputation you have left in this world to ashes, Ōnoki!" Daigo's voice echoed, strong, clear, and amplified by the dense flow of compressed air from his internal breathing as he bounded across the polished surface of a large pink crystal plate.

"Why on earth did you organize such an excessive, anachronistic, and suicidal invasion? You are over eighty years old; you have been a direct witness, participant, and survivor of three Shinobi World Wars; you have watched thousands of your own men fall in the mud of the battlefield; and you know better than anyone on this continent the absurd price of blood paid when moving your troops across foreign borders."

Floating over forty meters high above the stadium's void via his body-lightening technique (Koshinjutsu), Ōnoki did not interrupt the precise, complex sequence of hand seals he wove with his gnarled, weathered fingers for even a millisecond.

His face, wrinkled by the inevitable passage of decades, contorted into a grimace of deep bitterness, contempt, and ideological inflexibility.

"I do it for the absolute good, eternal glory, and long-term survival of the Hidden Rock Village!" Ōnoki roared, his harsh, powerful veteran's voice reverberating against the walls of the colosseum as he launched a new Particle Style prism that dissolved an entire observation tower into invisible atomic dust.

"You are an aberrant danger that should have never emerged in this era of feigned peace! You appeared out of nowhere in the ranks of Sunagakure, irreversibly altered the sacred balance of power among the Five Great Nations, and industrialized a village of merchants and sand at a completely insane speed! If I allow your economic, military, and technological model to consolidate unopposed, Iwagakure will forever be relegated to the shadow of insignificance. True geopolitical balance demands your immediate elimination!"

Daigo landed momentarily on the upper ledge of a semi-destroyed stone arch, adjusting the straps of his military robe without showing the slightest sign of physical agitation, sweat, or respiratory fatigue.

He looked up at the Tsuchikage floating in the vast expanse of the sky and slowly shook his head, offering a faint, bitter smile filled with pity toward the old leader.

"What a tragic, obsolete, and limited mindset you have," Daigo murmured in a measured yet firm voice that echoed through the ruins.

"I simply sought what was best for my village from the very first day I assumed its leadership. I worked tirelessly for its development, diversified our economy, strengthened our defenses, educated our troops, and look at everything I have built with my own hands and the firm resolve of my people. If instead of living obsessed with foreign borders, spy networks, and the progress of your neighbors, you had focused that same energy on reforming your own village, eradicating the rotten bureaucracy of your councils, and seeking better paths of prosperity for your people, perhaps Iwagakure would be enjoying the same abundance as Suna today. But you preferred to stay stuck in envy, past paranoia, and fear of everything you cannot control."

"Shut your mouth once and for all, brat!" Ōnoki yelled, his throat raw from the exertion, dust, and combustion smoke, sweeping the dazzling cone of light from his technique in a downward, destructive arc.

"You know absolutely nothing about true shinobi history! You don't understand the sacred weight of the Will of Stone or the complex diplomatic alliances that have kept the great powers afloat for generations! Men of the caliber of Tobirama Senju and the Second Tsuchikage taught me that in this shinobi world, only absolute strength, constant suspicion, and relentless determination guarantee the peace and sovereignty of a nation!"

Daigo dodged the violent atomic burst by moving fluidly to a higher stone ledge, continuing his speech in an icy tone that cut easily through the deafening roar of tons of rock tumbling into the abyss of the colosseum.

"You are wrong again, Ōnoki. The real reason I managed to transform Sunagakure and usher it into a golden era was not mere coincidence or luck, nor was it the outdated teachings of ghosts from the past. It was because I understood from the very first second what needed to be done without my hand trembling."

Midair, Ōnoki halted the expansion of his chakra flow for a second, scowling with deep irritation, accumulated fatigue, and suspicion at the young Kazekage's utter composure.

"What on earth are you talking about with such arrogance, boy?"

"I am talking about drastically removing from the way all those whose minds were still completely bound to past times of poverty, war, and resistance to change," Daigo answered with an unyielding calm in his gaze—a look that chilled the old Tsuchikage's blood.

"Decrepit elders with closed minds, stuck in obsolete dogmas that only serve as a heavy, useless drag on a nation's true progress. I changed Sunagakure's old structures because they were inefficient, corrupt, and did nothing to help the evolution of our people. You, on the other hand, are so stubborn that despite decades having passed since you took the title of Tsuchikage, you have stubbornly refused to step down for the new generations of your own blood. I will be doing Iwagakure an immense favor by eliminating you from this world today... Perhaps your granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, will have a far brighter, more flexible, and modern vision of the future, making her an infinitely better Tsuchikage than you ever were or could ever hope to be."

The words uttered by Daigo landed as a direct, crushing, and unforgivable insult upon the pride of the most veteran and respected shinobi in the ninja world. The explicit mention of his granddaughter and the cold accusation of being an obstacle to Iwagakure's future ignited a blind, uncontrolled fury in the old man's heart.

"Damn you a thousand times, Sand bastard!" Ōnoki bellowed, blood rushing violently to his temples as he concentrated all the elemental chakra remaining in his body to forge a giant cube of Particle Style that reached a diameter of over twenty meters in the desert air.

"I will reduce you to atomic ashes along with your whole damn village and history!"

However, Daigo did not commit the absurd tactical blunder of waiting for the atomic technique to finish shaping or reach its critical detonation point.

He closed his eyes for a fraction of a millisecond and took a deep breath to draw the maximum amount of oxygen into his lungs.

"Fifth Breath of the Seven Heavens: Release..."

The air in a forty-meter radius around Daigo compressed in a violent, sudden, and terrifying manner, emitting a sharp, piercing screech akin to the roar of a gale trapped within deep canyon walls. The physical pressure and air density detonated from the Kazekage's body with a destructive force multiplied fivefold beyond the ordinary limits of the technique.

His sensory perception speed, reaction capacity, and physical displacement reached a scale so overwhelming that he ceased to be trackable to an untrained human eye, tactical sensors, or any conventional shinobi of the era.

Swoosh.

In a fraction of a second, Daigo's figure vanished completely from Ōnoki's visual spectrum and tactical radar.

Before the anger-blinded Tsuchikage could adjust the trajectory of his immense Particle Style cube or react with his worn sensory faculties, Daigo's imposing presence emerged directly in his most vulnerable blind spot—floating right behind his back just inches away.

Daigo hovered using the exact same body-lightening technique as Ōnoki, surprising the old man even further.

In a fluid, seamless, and terrifyingly devastating movement, Daigo executed a downward axe kick packed with high-density compressed air. His right heel struck with thunderous violence against the nape of Ōnoki's neck, spine, and upper shoulders.

BOOOOM!

The old Tsuchikage's body shot down toward the void like an out-of-control comet, tearing through the air at dizzying speed until crashing head-on into the center of the colosseum's stone arena floor.

The impact generated a seismic shockwave that shattered the ground, kicking up a dense plume of dust and debris over forty meters high and leaving a massive crater in the surface of the sand.

Without granting him a single second of respite to recover from the crushing impact or attempt to stand, Daigo plunged straight down from the heights of the stadium.

The abyssal difference in age, vitality, and physical condition revealed itself in a brutal, raw, and merciless manner in battle: Daigo, a Kage at the absolute peak of his biological, athletic, and chakra performance, unleashed an unyielding barrage of overpowering taijutsu upon Ōnoki's severely battered body.

Open-palm strikes imbued with a layer of crystal, direct knee strikes to the floating ribs, and devastating right hooks demolished the old man's physical defenses before he could raise a single Earth Release armor or activate his weight technique to escape.

The one-sided beating demonstrated with tragic clarity that, although both held the supreme rank and ultimate authority of their respective villages, the passage of time and relentless youth had delivered their death sentence.

Coughing up large mouthfuls of dark blood onto the dry soil of Sunagakure, Ōnoki attempted to drag himself backward clumsily, raising a trembling hand in a final, desperate attempt to gather chakra to defend himself and put distance between himself and this monster.

Daigo took a firm step forward. His gaze reflected no anger, no hatred, no thirst for revenge—only the icy, professional resolve of one fulfilling a necessary duty for the survival and sovereignty of his nation.

Taking advantage of the total, irreparable opening in the weakened enemy's guard, Daigo's right hand was instantly coated in a dense, hyper-dense layer of pink crystal via Crystal Style (Shōton), shaping his fingers into a perfect spear sharp as an unbreakable diamond.

Executing the move at a speed that completely outpaced the Tsuchikage's agonizing reaction time, Daigo thrust his crystalized arm forward in a clean, sharp, and lethal strike.

CRACK!

The crystal spear pierced flawlessly through Ōnoki's back, tearing through the muscles of his torso, puncturing the thoracic cavity between his ribs, and bursting out from the front of the old man's chest in a violent spray of crimson blood.

Ōnoki's eyes opened wide, freezing instantly in an expression of pure disbelief, pain, and horror at the inevitable.

Daigo retracted his crystal arm with a sharp, cold, and flawless motion. In the open palm of his pink hand, extended just inches away from the dying Tsuchikage's eyes, lay Ōnoki's still-beating heart, pumping small, irregular bursts of warm blood before losing its vital force completely.

The legendary Tsuchikage stared at his own vital organ during an agonizing, eternal second in which the world seemed to come to a complete standstill—unable to articulate a single word or exhale a final breath—before the light of life vanished permanently from his pupils and his lifeless body collapsed face down onto the hard stone floor of the stadium.

The tactical, political, and psychological impact of the event was immediate and heartbreaking across the entire battlefield. Throughout the Great Colosseum, on the perimeter walls, and in the adjacent residential sectors, the deafening clash of weapons, battle cries, and constant ninjutsu detonations ground to a sudden halt in a deathly, heavy, and terrifying silence.

The invading Iwagakure ninja, the defensive forces of Sunagakure, Akatsuki members, and foreign diplomats fleeing toward shelters all watched the terrifying scene in absolute panic.

Even Kurotsuchi, who was fleeing the grand battle alongside a one-armed Deidara, witnessed the scene—tears streaming down her face as she saw her grandfather run through by Daigo.

The legendary Third Tsuchikage, the immortal shinobi from the era of world wars, lay executed on the floor of the Sand.

To eradicate any lingering shadow of doubt, resistance, or hope in the hearts of the invading Rock troops, Daigo raised his bloodstained crystal hand toward the desert sky and closed his fist with relentless force.

SPLAT!

The heart burst in his grip, scattering crimson drops across the dust of the colosseum and sealing the defeat of the Iwagakure invasion in a definitive, tragic, and historic manner.

Feeling the blood drip from his hand, Daigo simply looked on with the smiling demeanor he had maintained ever since the end of the Third War. He had not expected something like this to happen until at least the Fourth Shinobi War.

However, Ōnoki had committed an act that all of Iwa would come to regret: attacking his people and his village. And because they had done so, they would serve as the example of why Sunagakure was no longer what it used to be.

Sensing Kurotsuchi's presence, Daigo vanished in a blur of speed and reappeared directly in front of her, startling her and causing her, alongside Deidara, to fall to her knees.

"Ka... ze... kage," Kurotsuchi stammered in terror, staring at her grandfather's killer, who was now looking back at her with an entirely expressionless face. In her young mind, her instincts screamed at her to run, but her legs and body refused to respond.

"Kurotsuchi, this is war. The death of those close to you is all that it brings. Your grandfather started this, and this is what he gets," Daigo said, looking down at her.

Surprised that Daigo had not already killed her, Kurotsuchi swallowed hard, tears welling in her eyes, before asking in a low voice—yet loud enough for him to hear:

"Then why didn't you just defeat my grandfather instead of killing him? That would have ended everything."

"Things are not as simple as leaving your grandfather alive. It was either him or me, and he lost, which means his death. In war, capturing a Kage will not bring an end to it. You have to break their confidence to truly finish it," Daigo said, still staring directly into Kurotsuchi's eyes.

"So are you going to kill me too?" she asked, wiping away her tears as she understood his message.

To her surprise, Daigo simply shook his head and began to float into the air using the Light-Weight Rock Technique.

"I won't. I want you to become the Tsuchikage and change your village for the better. Though you will only achieve that if you grow strong—stronger threats are coming in the future that Sunagakure and the other villages are not ready to face," Daigo said, pausing to ensure she understood clearly.

Seeing that she understood, Daigo continued: "That doesn't mean Iwa won't pay for attacking Sunagakure. So run, before I change my mind and eliminate you."

Without another word, he rose into the sky, facing a dark figure with orange hair who was staring back at him with a solemn expression.