The air was thick with malice. I leaped through it, from branch to massive branch with Ao at my side, sweat dripping down his face as I led him toward calamity. As the heat from acres of burning intensified, I reached into one of my more intact pouches and retrieved a scroll I immediately unsealed in a poof of smoke.
Out of the gust came my trustee Bo-staff, I twirled it after a jump sent me at a higher branch and used its greater hook to cling onto and wheel around a branch. The spinning action flung me into the skies upon release and I soared past the large trees with enough momentum to break through their canopies in a go.
I bore witness above it all. Konoha burning. No, more than that. I thought as I beheld a Tailed Beast out in the physical world for the first time. As tall as a mountain he was and at his feet were puddles of flames kindled by corpses of civilians and shinobi with no discrimination. He roared, a full toothy maw on display as he swiped at the obstacles before him, the wind pressure alone uplifted and buried homes, offices, shops and more underneath themselves all while Nine of his tails danced behind him.
Konoha is being destroyed. I allowed myself to fall all the way to a lower branch and continued advancing on Konoha and the Nine-Tails. Judging from what I'd seen above the canopy the Nine-Tails was westward of where we were, though it wouldn't be difficult to trace it from its destruction alone, it was large enough that we could get lost around it. But facing the Nine-Tails at this very moment wasn't a goal of mine.
Without a word I adjusted and headed northward, speeding ahead of Ao until I arrived at the last branch before the forest gave way to civilization, except there wasn't any to be found amongst the destruction.
Where a wall would have stood was now occupied by burning wreckage piled atop another. Buildings tilted into each other, homes and stores squashed under the weight of their neighbours and streets covered in the clutter of their users. There was a scent of burning blood, an iron pungent taste that made its way to the back of my throat as the flames continued to lick and spread.
Ao landed beside me at last and though heavily panting, he quickly activated his Byakugan and peered through the light of the Nine-Tails terror, "There are…many still fighting to stay alive despite the weight upon them. Many more are being burnt and boiled by the heat, Yagura-sama."
I nodded, having expected as much during such calamity. These people's saviours wouldn't be free to save them until the Nine-Tails was dealt with but they were right in front of me. "We save as many as we can, Ao." I said and scrutinised his expression. He wasn't unwilling at all, he was ready to jump in the fray and perhaps even after the Nine-Tails itself but he would do so confused, "There isn't time for questions now but should you ask them I will answer."
I gave him that assurance and kicked off the branch so my body soared over the burning wreckage, without Ao I wouldn't know where to start from but it didn't matter as much as even so. First things first, I landed atop a tilted building, its spiked rooftop as my platform above the destruction and chaos below. I dipped into my reserves of chakra, half full after an exhaustive fight with Obito and an endless journey across continents.
Ram, Dog, Rat. For the sake of doing it once and right I weaved through the hand seals patiently enough to ensure the chakra I fed would suffice. Once I was ready, I let a trail of it seep into the clogged atmosphere through pointed fingertips.
"Hijutsu: Mist Rain!" The technique latched onto the chakra thread seeped into the atmosphere like a tether, on its own the ANBU secret technique was capable of producing rain from nothing and more importantly, rain droplets that absorb any chakra it comes in contact with.
That last part was necessary in this case, the fires that burned Konoha were not in the least bit natural. Kurama, the Nine Tails, was a walking chakra beast whose hair strands contained as much chakra as an average Academy student. Every wild swipe of his claws would infuse and possibly overpower the natural explosions with his malevolent chakra, exaggerating the effect of their destruction.
The Mist Rain will eat away at his chakra and quench the fires. I thought as the jutsu poured. The rain stretched to cover at least half of the destroyed district, the other half just outside how far I was willing to extend the jutsu. Any more and it will lose its concentrated effectiveness, take longer to quench the fires.
Fortunately, I wasn't alone. Ao was already climbing through the wreckage, his Byakugan seeking out victims where they were buried, and he wasn't alone in the search either. A young boy trailed along by his side, he strained his voice screaming out a name,
"Jiro! Jiro-kun!"
I turned away from them, there were others who survived, their numbers multiplying as [Mist Rain] did its work. Their cries, tears and agonised wails would be drowned out as I sought to help others. My reserves took a dip once more as I channelled chakra through precise handseals.
"Leave that to us!" A voice called before I could press my fingers in the last handseal. Below the wreck I stood atop I found the three sleeper agents from earlier, they didn't look the best but there was a determined look in their eyes, Kurosaki especially.
He weaved through similar handseals and a gale of wind exploded with him at the centre. He kept his hands pressed in the Bird hand sign, sprinting about the wreckage, picking up droplets of my [Mist Rain] in his jutsu. I saw the merit to his idea better than what I had in mind earlier. I would have needed to create a [Wind Clone] to maintain the jutsu I was preparing whereas he can simply run about with his.
I gave a curt nod to the man, Kurosaki, I memorized his name to be and turned to the rampaging Nine-Tails. At the very least, even if they weren't here, Konoha's shinobi drew the beast's attention away from populous centres. A district or two might have been destroyed already but the potential damage was the village's entirety and it had yet to release the one force that would reduce everything in sight to crumbling dust.
They're sacrificing their lives for those who are still living, those who might. I breathed in the cleansed air as [Mist Rain] continued, I'd spared enough chakra to keep it running until my subordinates quenched the two levelled districts in sight.
"Ao!" I called, he was the centre of attention as civilians and shinobi recognized the value of his Byakugan, he directed those who could move to move and save more lives. He looked up in my direction and looked ready to abandon them all to jump to my side, "Stay, I'll see what I can do about that."
His face and clothes were soaked from the rain, it washed down his stressed and confused face and made him look frustrated from where I stood. Perhaps he was, I couldn't blame him, the past days have been everything you wouldn't expect from a Mizukage. The betrayal I feel in my chest is real. I thought, holding on to that unsteady feeling screaming that I'm doing something I shouldn't.
I shut my eyes and reminded myself of what was at stake, the Nine Tails screeched a sonic blast that reverberated throughout the besieged village and all the way up in my bones. If Minato dies, that future is all the more likely, I can't let him die just so Kirigakure has a leg up on Konoha, Yagura, you can't. I scolded myself even as I leaped away from Ao and the sleeper agents helping where they could and at my orders.
I found that the sight of Konoha burning didn't upset me as much as I thought it would, rather it incited a joy I felt putrid for. But we have always been the enemy, even as I aided them now the damage they'll suffer would set them away from any war tables for years and limit their willingness to send shinobi away from the village. Their suffering would be our stepping stool, I should be back at my office preparing to take advantage of it.
Groaning at yet another intrusive thought to backstab would-be allies, I sprinted across the village, paying no mind to the people as they ran helter skelter for a modicum of safety that wouldn't be found until this nightmare ended. I perched atop a teetering building, a chasm cleaved the street it was built upon, one of the Nine-Tails tails ran along it and I was tempted to hop onto it, torn between letting it rampage longer and being the kind person I thought of myself.
But it was too late. The Nine-Tails' massive tail swept gracefully behind it, its movements deceptively slow yet brimming with lethal intent. Its fiery gaze, tinged with Sharingan's blood-red malevolence, zeroed in on something far in the distance, dismissing the swarm of shinobi around it as inconsequential insects. Explosions flared and fizzled across its impenetrable hide, their efforts akin to sparks against a mountain.
I turned to follow its line of sight and felt an icy ripple of déjà vu claw through my chest as the Hokage Monument loomed into view. My breath caught, realisation of what was about to happen and it did.
The Nine-Tail's colossal maw opened, the very essence of malevolence swirling within it. The oppressive heat of its chakra ignited the atmosphere, drawing air upward as his massive jaws contracted. A ball of condensed annihilation began to form—a swirling orb of midnight black, radiating chaotic energy that distorted the space around it.
His eyes burned with rage, the crimson Sharingan spinning madly like a cursed whirlpool. With a guttural roar that tore through the remnants of the village, the Nine-Tails unleashed the [Tailed Beast Bomb]. The orb shot forth, a harbinger of unrelenting destruction, cutting through the night like a meteor birthed from hatred.
A straight line of devastation carved through the heart of Konoha. The ground erupted in molten fury, buildings reduced to ash in an instant. The immense heat melted stone into slag, while the sheer force crushed everything beneath its path into unrecognisable rubble. Fragments of what once were homes and lives soared high into the air, only to rain back down as smouldering debris. Screams snuffed out before they could even begin, the roar of annihilation drowning all.
But hope flickered like a candle against the gale. Minato is still here. The [Tailed Beast Bomb] hurtled toward the monument, promising the end of everything in its path. Yet, in a brilliant flash of yellow light, space itself folded and twisted as Minato's [Space-Time Barrier] manifested. The bomb crashed against an invisible wall, the collision sending shockwaves that rippled through the air.
The Fourth Hokage's technique swallowed the bomb in quick fashion, seizing its might as it vanished, displaced into the far distance with a flash of spatial distortion. The aftermath left the air trembling, debris cascading like brimstone from an apocalypse.
Gritting my teeth, I dodged a chunk of falling rubble, my mind racing. The monument stood and the bomb detonated a safe distance away—a testament to Minato's resolve. But this wasn't over. I could feel Jason's memories bubbling to the surface, a roadmap of what was to come burning in my mind.
I needed to act. Now. Where is the Third Hokage?