Taking One’s Own Life (3K)

Lightning Oppression: Horizontal!

Thunder exploded. Hiranaka Minoru felt as if his heart had skipped a beat. He merely blinked, and that restless thunderclap was already at his ear.

The towering Fourth Raikage appeared before the man clad head to toe in armor, who seemed utterly out of place in the entire Ninja World. His hand blade, wrapped in fierce Lightning Release Chakra, viciously split the air.

It slashed down at the other man’s chest.

Sizzle!

The air was struck by lightning, giving off a scorched smell. Hiranaka Minoru had originally been nothing more than an ordinary genin. Faced with such an attack, he should have been incapable of making any effective response.

Yet at that moment, as the golden halo in his eyes contracted, his body tilted backward as though he intended to dodge.

Seeing his movement, the Fourth Raikage snorted inwardly. Ordinary taijutsu and Body Flicker Jutsu could scarcely evade his Nintaijutsu. By the time your Chakra began to flow or your body started to turn, his hand blade would have already cut through you.

Buzz!

The air was sliced apart in an instant. Blue-white lightning spread nearly a meter from his hand blade, but there was nothing beneath it.

He turned his head and saw that the fellow in heavy armor had merely swayed, then appeared several meters away as if he had vanished. He was now constantly widening the distance between them.

Space-Time Ninjutsu?!

The Fourth Raikage had initially assumed the other man was merely a Konoha scout. He had not expected him to possess an ability resembling short-range Teleportation.

In that instant, he had definitely slashed through where the other man’s body should have been. Yet the man had "vanished" right before his hand blade and opened the distance.

This was also Hiranaka Minoru’s first time using the ability known as Hound’s Pace in actual combat. He had successfully escaped the Fourth Raikage’s Nintaijutsu.

He had never expected to run directly into the Fourth Raikage here, much less for the other man to attack without a word.

Perhaps this is the fate Miss Heaven’s Will said I would face…

But Hiranaka Minoru neither regretted nor feared it.

He was prepared to give up his life. Compared to this world, where wars had been continuously launched for a thousand years and ordinary people could never live in peace, he believed more in the Erdtree Era Miss Heaven’s Will had described.

Even without death, people would still suffer troubles and hatred because of other things.

But death was indeed the root of all suffering for everyone in this age.

He knew that because of the intelligence he had passed along, everyone in Crimson River Town had been killed. For a time, he had hated himself and wanted to end his own life. He had hated those ninjas for mercilessly slaughtering the weak, and had even hated Miss Heaven’s Will for leaking that intelligence to him.

But after obtaining that sapling, he had found his own path to redemption.

As long as the Erdtree’s blessing shone upon the entire world, death would no longer be the end of life. The Erdtree would be.

Without death, people would no longer grieve over loss, nor would they slaughter one another. Once death was no longer a limiting factor, everything in the world would become peaceful. Life would merely be a journey to enjoy before Return to the Erdtree.

Everyone could free themselves from the eternal cycle of hatred. That was true—Utmost Benevolence and Goodness!

Hiranaka Minoru ran swiftly toward the Land of Lightning. He was prepared to sacrifice himself, but that had to wait until the Erdtree had fully grown. Before then, no matter what, he had to stay alive.

Fierce thunder rumbled behind him. He could feel every fine hair on his exposed skin standing on end.

Hiranaka Minoru turned around and looked at the ninjas behind him, their hands blazing with intense electric light.

He drew the unusually shaped Claymore from his back. Golden patterns lit up across the blade. Hiranaka Minoru planted the sword before himself and spread his hands.

He prayed devoutly to the Erdtree. So that the Erdtree Era might come, he begged for the Golden Order’s protection.

Massive golden magic circles lit up one after another before him.

Erdtree Vow

Golden Magic Protection

Golden Lightning Protection

Erdtree Blessing

Prayers he had never known before miraculously appeared in his mind, and he cast them one after another.

Hiranaka Minoru’s body was almost entirely obscured by golden light.

Sizzle!

Sizzle!

Lightning burst forth. Lightning Release ninjutsu struck where Hiranaka Minoru stood one after another, but they had completely lost their effect. Beneath the layered radiance of prayers, Hiranaka Minoru pulled out the Claymore before him.

Golden light flared along the blade, making the Claymore appear as though forged from gold. Two semicircular arcs of radiance even appeared on it. Beneath the golden glow of prayer, the sword shone as brilliantly as glazed crystal.

Hiranaka Minoru looked at the Raikage and the others in the distance. He raised his sword above his head as though praying to someone, then held it horizontally at his right side with one hand. His body and the blade formed a subtle triangular stance.

The Erdtree’s emblem lit up once more. The next moment, Hiranaka Minoru gripped the sword with both hands and swept it sideways from dozens of meters away.

Ring!

The golden Claymore suddenly drew a shriek from the air. Golden prayer-light first burst around Hiranaka Minoru, then transformed into a massive golden sword aura that slashed toward the gathered ninjas.

"Watch out!"

A ninja shouted a warning. During their battle with Konoha, they had already witnessed the peculiarities of these golden-glowing ninjutsu. No one dared let down their guard now.

They all dodged in an instant.

Even the Fourth Raikage was no exception. Those who had rushed back to support their country alongside him were all elites. By the time the golden sword aura tore through the air, everyone had already fully evaded it.

Boom!

The sword aura cut into the ground, then exploded violently. Its power was terrifying.

The Fourth Raikage could not sense even a trace of Chakra from the other’s attack, nor had it produced any nature transformation. That glittering golden technique seemed completely unrelated to the Chakra system.

This was no longer something that could be explained by a Kekkei Genkai or secret technique.

"He’s running, Fourth Raikage."

The Fourth Raikage watched the man flee several hundred meters away after unleashing that slash. For some reason, he felt that the man before him was even more important than the Land of Lightning’s daimyo, whose fate was still unknown.

He waved his hand.

"You return to the village and find Bee, then go reinforce the royal capital together. I’ll catch this fellow and see what Konoha is up to!"

The group swiftly split into two parties.

The Fourth Raikage was incredibly fast. His physique was formidable, and with Nintaijutsu augmenting him, his endurance over long distances far surpassed that of ordinary ninjas. After activating Lightning Release Chakra Mode, few could rival his movement speed besides Namikaze Minato in his day.

Hiranaka Minoru simply could not shake off the Fourth Raikage. But A did not immediately capture him. He kept following Hiranaka Minoru, wanting to see just what the other’s purpose was in heading to the Land of Lightning.

Suddenly, the Fourth Raikage turned his head and saw another figure several hundred meters away. It drifted like a ghost, likewise following behind the man.

That figure wore a Red Cloud Black Robe and a spiral mask.

Uchiha Obito watched Hiranaka Minoru, whose stamina seemed endless, with utter indifference in his Sharingan.

He was certain that Kakashi had been hidden away by that woman. If he could not retrieve his other Mangekyō Sharingan from Kakashi, he was not confident he could defeat Mercenary Tao and Nagato.

Nor could he stop that madman Mercenary Tao from cooking and eating the tailed beasts.

The Eye of the Moon Plan could not proceed.

His actions had reached a dead end, so he had turned to searching for that woman’s whereabouts. Zetsu had provided crucial intelligence: this man named Hiranaka Minoru was likely extremely important to her.

She had hidden him away before, yet now she had released him. His purpose was unknown.

Since Mercenary Tao could have Uchiha Shisui hide Uzumaki Naruto, and that woman could hide Kakashi, then he could naturally hide Hiranaka Minoru too!

He merely glanced at the distant Fourth Raikage without taking him seriously. He silently drifted through the air toward Hiranaka Minoru as illusory ripples began to appear in his eyes.

As long as he sucked Hiranaka Minoru into the Kamui Dimension, no one would ever find him again.

Thud!

A Blazing White shockwave pierced through Obito’s body, followed only then by a string of air explosions.

Cloud-like ripples exploded one after another from the distant forest.

As the tomoe in his Sharingan spun, he could already see clearly that what had pierced through his body was a black pebble.

In the distance, a figure leaped through the air and rapidly entered Uchiha Obito’s field of vision.

From the air, Bai Cangshu spotted the man gleaming with golden radiance at once. The man wore heavy armor utterly out of place in this world, and Bai Cangshu was certain that he was probably the target he needed to protect.

Boom!

Bai Cangshu dropped straight down from the air, and the ground exploded.

This time, he did not use any force-dispersing techniques. He simply smashed his terrifying body, now weighing several hundred kilograms, into the ground from a height of nearly one hundred meters.

Bai Cangshu was furious. He was deeply displeased!

Hiranaka Minoru stopped at once and raised his hands before him. When the ground exploded, flying sand and stones struck his gauntlets with ringing clangs.

After the dust settled, the man Miss Heaven’s Will had said would, under the guidance of "fate," protect him until the Erdtree matured had finally appeared.

Moreover, it was under this man’s protection that his wife had survived.

The final piece of Utmost Benevolence and Goodness—Mercenary Tao—had appeared!

Only then did Hiranaka Minoru finally relax somewhat. He was not skilled in battle. Even with the Erdtree’s blessing granting him incredible abilities, he still did not dare fight the Fourth Raikage.

"Mercenary Tao, that’s wonderful, you…"

Whoosh.

A figure emerged from the wind. Its terrifying body, over three meters tall, exuded a horrifying pressure.

Before Hiranaka Minoru could finish speaking, his throat tightened. A powerful hand had already seized his neck.

Hiranaka Minoru struggled, but the other man’s strength was terrifying. He could not move him in the slightest.

Huff—

White mist streamed from the other’s nose and mouth, making Hiranaka Minoru feel that he looked even more like a monster.

His heart sank. This was different from what he had imagined. The other did not seem to be the final piece of the Erdtree Era of Utmost Benevolence and Goodness. Instead, he seemed like… a butcher…

"I say, Mr. Hiranaka Minoru, could you do me a favor?"

Bai Cangshu’s gaze swept over Uchiha Obito and the Fourth Raikage in the distance before settling sinisterly on Hiranaka Minoru.

"Could you please… take your own life?"