Chapter 311 : Thunder Prisoner Reappears, A Power That Does Not Belong To Humans

"Roar—!"

The Titan, over two hundred meters tall, stood in the forest just outside the walls of Kirigakure.

Violent tremors rippled across several kilometers of land.

"Boom—!"

"Crack—!"

The moment the thunder giant appeared, it formed a colossal shield of lightning chakra between its hands—spanning hundreds of meters—and charged directly toward the incoming chakra beam.

Every step the Titan took sent shockwaves rumbling across the earth, shaking everything within a radius of thousands of meters.

And then, something that left everyone dumbfounded occurred.

The thunder titan raised its massive lightning shield and met the oncoming chakra beam head-on.

"BOOM—!"

The blinding collision of the chakra beam and lightning shield triggered a colossal shockwave. For dozens of kilometers around, it was as if the land had been struck by an earthquake. Landslides roared. Ground split open. The world shook violently.

Just as had happened when the beam struck Konoha, the region surrounding Kirigakure—despite being spared a direct hit—was swallowed in a frenzy of destruction.

Deep fissures tore through the land.

Each crack stretched over ten kilometers, some wide enough to form snaking canyons tens of meters across.

After a few seconds of incredible resistance, the massive chakra beam dissipated completely.

Terumi Mei and the shinobi of Kirigakure stood frozen, their gazes locked on the thunder colossus.

Was such an inhuman power even real?

Terumi Mei was the first to regain her composure.

There had to be a controller. A being like this couldn't exist independently. She didn't believe the Raiden Titan was autonomous.

It was too controlled. Too deliberate. Like a weapon made purely of chakra—like a Tailed Beast.

It had to be under someone's command.

No matter how impossible that seemed, someone had summoned and was guiding this force.

She immediately activated her chakra sensing and began scanning the area.

Moments later, her sharp eyes landed on a figure standing atop a thick tree branch in the nearby forest, barely a hundred meters from the city wall.

When Terumi Mei recognized the man, her eyes narrowed.

"It's him."

Her heart skipped a beat.

It was Riku.

There was no doubt about it. The titan was his doing.

For weeks, rumors about Riku had spread across the shinobi world. Tales of an unparalleled prodigy from Konoha, one who wielded power on par with the First Hokage himself.

Terumi Mei had seen sketches and descriptions. She knew the face.

She hadn't expected him to appear here.

"Lady Mizukage," Ao said, stepping forward. "Should we invite him over?"

Terumi Mei stared at Riku in silence for a long moment before shaking her head.

"No," she replied. "He'll come when he's ready. And I'm certain now—that thing must be connected to Konoha. Otherwise, Riku would never have shown up to shield us from its attack."

Ao's eyes narrowed.

"You're saying… that weapon has ties to Konoha?"

Terumi Mei nodded gravely.

She was a rational leader.

The fact that Riku had appeared just in time to intercept the devastating beam from the flying fortress, and had protected Kirigakure without hesitation, strongly suggested the fortress had some connection to Konoha.

Otherwise, Konoha would only stand to gain from Kirigakure's destruction.

There would be no reason for one of its most powerful young shinobi to intervene on their behalf.

Unless…

The flying fortress posed a danger not just to them, but to the shinobi world as a whole—and Konoha included.

Whatever the reason, Riku's presence confirmed it.

And his power… was far more terrifying than any rumor could convey.

"He's only seventeen..." Terumi Mei murmured, her eyes narrowed. "How is he this powerful?"

"This… this isn't power a human should possess. To command a creature of such immensity and complexity, to grant it such awareness, such precision—that's not something humans should be capable of."

On the forest branch, Riku's gaze remained locked on the sky.

On the flying fortress.

And the Titan stood tall behind him, its thunderous aura crackling through the storm-choked air, awaiting his next command.