When Ā was normally frustrated, something had to be broken. Usually, it was a table, door, or wall. On some occasions, he created craters in his anger. But today, he had other plans in mind. Kumogakure's location made it naturally easy to defend but hard to navigate. In the decade's past, Ā's predecessor had constructed a railway that served to link the mountain peaks to each other.

When he was just a boy, Ā's father had shown him the plans he had for expanding the ferry system with multiple tracks to expedite travel. His death during the Third War had put a pause to the construction but Ā had fulfilled his father's wishes in the end.

The Fourth Raikage stood with his arms folded as he waited for the Ferry to be summoned. At his side, his two young bodyguards watched. Darui yawned, a lazy expression in the right eye not hidden by his bangs. As he rubbed it, his partner, C, stood at attention. His blue eyes were locked off into the distance, but he said nothing.

If he's noticed something, he'll speak, Ā thought. He had given orders for Kumogakure to be on higher alert after his encounter in Unraikyō. If Konoha wished to send threats his way again, they'd be met with force. But, there had been no news from their adversary to the south and their spies hadn't reported any troops movements. That didn't mean that they weren't doing anything.

Worrying about these possibilities was why he was heading to the entertainment district now.

"My lord," Darui said as the carriage approached, cutting through the thin clouds.

"About time," Ā grumbled. His cloak blew in the wind as he stepped onto the ferry. C and Darui followed closely behind him. On the dock, the workers cranked levers and the carriage burst up the railway.

Ā closed his eyes as the Cloud Ferry slid up the red metal track, whining as it swayed slightly in the cold winds. He could overhear the young shinobi behind him talking in hushed voices.

"What do you think the plan is going into the entertainment district?"

"Dunno," Darui replied. "Probably entertainment."

Ā could almost hear C's face twist in annoyance. "Obviously. But what kind?"

"The kind that requires our eyes to be open and our mouths to be shut," Darui said. This made the Raikage smirk. The stoic and almost dull-natured boy had once been a student of Ā's father for a brief time before the outbreak of the Third War, but long enough that he'd managed to learn a secret technique that not even Ā had attempted to.

He just might succeed me one day, he thought. At nearly forty, he hadn't been worried about a succession plan but for a shinobi, he was getting a bit old. Even as a Kage, his life could be forfeit at any time, and it would throw his village into turmoil. It was something he'd have to consider soon. Especially if...

The explosion rocked the vessel, splintering the scarlet beams carrying it like wood. Ā sucked in air as he, Darui, and C quickly dropped into the cloudy abyss beneath them. The Raikage scanned the area and assessed his options. The cloaked figures hung attached to the cylindrical mountains. He thought he saw their hands and feet coated in a thin layer of chakra.

Frowning, Ā grabbed his two young bodyguards into his arms. "Brace yourselves," he called over the howling winds. Lightning crackled around his body then sparked at his feet. He burst through the cool, thin air until he landed with a crash on a mountainside. "Remember your training." Darui and C responded to his gruff command, focusing chakra to their feet as they clung to the rocks.

"There are three of them," C said. "They're attempting to flank us."

To what end? Ā wasn't foolish enough to underestimate enemies he'd never faced before but there was a particular confidence and security that came with his position as a Kage. No ordinary shinobi would presume to be able to kill him so easily. Even so, they were attacking with fervor and admirable conviction.

As Ā clung to the mountainside and thought on which of his assailants he'd go after next, he heard C call out, "Behind us!" But it was too late.

The wind whistling in the mountains hid the sound of the attack. Ā felt the pillar immediately fall and grit his teeth, turning in the direction it had come from.

He saw a masked shinobi with a sword covered in wispy yellow chakra. Fūton… Ā thought sourly. That would put him at a natural disadvantage should their jutsu clash. Fortunately, that wasn't what he had planned. As they fell, the Raikage looked to his bodyguards and nodded at them. They knew what he expected.

Ā jumped from the broken piece of rock, sailing through the air towards the Fūton user. As fast as he was moving, he could still process the images in front of and around him. The masked shinobi's hands began to move to create hand seals that he recognized to be another Fūton jutsu from the position and angle of his fingertips and thumbs. The look of shock on the shinobi's face filled Ā with satisfaction.

Lightning sparked on his right arm, cauterizing the stump of his enemy's neck as he decapitated them with a lariat and send their hand spinning in its descent through the clouds. The Raikage collided with another mountain and left a crater in his wake. When he turned, he saw Darui trading sword blows in the distance with one of the other masked shinobi while C led his man up the mountain pillar and away. It was time to finish this farce.

Ā cloaked himself in lightning chakra so heavy that his hair stood on end and the crackling filled his ears. He had been saving this technique for his next, inevitable encounter with the Yellow Flash, a jutsu that would allow him travel great distances and at even greater speeds than the famed teleporter. But, it would not hurt to test it further. Ā focused on the center of the mountain, quickly running through the logistics of his attack. With his strength and speed combined, he had no doubt that he could shatter the mountain with relative ease. But with Darui and C both fighting on it, it wasn't the optimal result. Instead, he realized, he could aim all of his speed and strength at a single, smaller target.

Ā predicted that C's chakra sensing abilities would alert him to a rise in his energy and he would respond with the combination they'd rehearsed a hundred times. He moved as soon as C utilized the Flash Pillar, emitting a blinding white light that dazed his pursuer. The Raikage struck him like the lightning that cloaked his flesh, frying the shinobi upon impact and sending a wave of electricity through the rock formation.

"We'll capture and question the last," Ā said, digging his fist out of the ground. C nodded and dashed towards where Darui fought. Dizziness began to overtake the Raikage, his brain adjusting to accommodate for the sudden lack of electrical charges being pumped to it. I'll have to consider that when I utilize this jutsu, Ā mused as he slowly gathered himself, all the while feigning strength as he approached his bodyguards.

The two young shinobi worked well in tandem, feinting and weaving past the rogue's desperate sword swings until Darui disarmed him. Frantically, he tried to get away but C launched a kunai so hard that it stuck his hand to the ground.

Ā walked forward and knelt down. He gripped the shinobi's porcelain mask and snatched it off, revealing a young man with raven black hair, frightened red eyes, and troughs that framed them. A Konoha headband glinted in the sunlight. He grit his teeth. "An Uchiha..." The boy said nothing. He only scowled. Defiance was something that Ā expected. But, the boy would talk. Ā's first punch was a light one, but the boy's blood spurted from his mouth and nose. "You've trespassed into my village and attempted to take my life. If you admit to your Hokage's complicity, I will be merciful to you."

An angry stare. "Fuck you."

The Raikage squeezed the boy's throat and punched him once, harder this time. Then again. And again. The boy's right eye was swollen and his nose was contorted. He wheezed between his teeth until Ā relinquished his grip around his throat. Coughing and gagging, the young Uchiha was covered in his own blood.

"Talk, boy," Ā growled. "Or I will kill you with my own hand and bring your head to your Hokage."

"F–"

Ā's anger flashed. He didn't hear or feel the crunching of the boy's jaw bone or his teeth. The warmth of the boy's blood was lost in the chill of the winds and so was the heat of his anger. "M-my lord..." C said, his voice shaky. Even Darui seemed a bit shaken. Ā's hand shook as he looked down at the dead boy at his feet. His mind raced, attempting to circle a track that never looped.

He was a shinobi that had killed another who'd attacked him first with the intent to assassinate him. He was a Kage defending his village from assailants. Those two facts were true. Then why did he feel a lingering sense of guilt?

No. A shinobi feels no guilt. A Shinobi does not compromise or bend. My strength is what matters and I've shown it today. Fugaku had made the first move and failed. It was time that Kumogakure answered. Ā looked down again at the boy and let his heart grow cold as stone then turned to Darui and C, fixing his face to be stern and uncaring.

"Gather the body and take it to the council chamber," he said.

The two boys looked at each other. C ventured to ask a question. "And then what?"

The wind blew through the mountaintops. An eagle cried above them. The clouds shifted below. Ā took in a deep breath then exhaled. "War."