Under Yuto's gentle gaze, Isobu turned into a tailed beast that no longer feared life or death, charging straight toward Shin Susenju (True Several Thousand Hands).
Seeing this, Yuto nodded in satisfaction, then lifted his head to look toward the colossal Shin Susenju in the distance, a rare smile surfacing on his face.
This really was a nostalgic jutsu.
"Hashiboy, I can pretty much guess what kind of 'back-up plan' you left behind."
Yuto murmured to himself with a smile. He still wasn't completely certain, but at least eighty percent sure.
"This war should almost be wrapping up… but as for the shinobi from the other three villages…"
He stopped there. The smile still hung on his face, but his voice carried a faint chill.
Yuto hadn't sent Isobu charging out there to save the shinobi of the Sand, but to buy the Mist forces time to retreat.
He just hadn't expected that, in his current exhausted state, Gaara's body could still enter a complete One-Tail form.
Right now, Gaara was controlling the fully manifested Shukaku, charging at Shin Susenju from another direction.
Gaara might not care all that much about most of the Sand shinobi, but when it came to his big sister Temari, even if he never showed it on the surface, his feelings ran deep.
And it was precisely that feeling that drove Gaara, already on the brink of collapse, to force himself into the full Shukaku form.
"You idiot! Run already, you're just throwing your life away here!"
Shukaku's furious voice roared inside Gaara's mind.
Gaara didn't respond at all. Even though a fully transformed tailed beast was enormous in its own right, compared to Shin Susenju's size…
The tailed beasts' bodies were like newborn infants—or maybe even less than that.
But there wasn't a hint of fear on Gaara's face. Instead, it was filled with madness.
If this had been before, seeing two tailed beasts charging at him, Hiruzen would only have thought of retreat.
But now, controlling Shin Susenju, Hiruzen's face wore a cold smile. The jutsu Hashiboy had left behind gave him a feeling of absolute invincibility.
Even the tailed beasts that once made the entire world tremble were nothing much in Hiruzen's eyes at this moment.
With a single thought from Hiruzen, the giant Kannon statue's two hands, which had been about to slam down on the ground, suddenly paused and then shifted direction at the same time.
Boom! Boom!
Two heavy impacts exploded through the air.
Before Shukaku and Isobu could even react, the two enormous hands slammed into them, pinning both tailed beasts hard against the earth.
Gaara coughed up a mouthful of blood, but the madness in his eyes actually deepened. He frantically forced his chakra to surge.
Wave after wave of sand erupted from the ground, trying to blast away the massive palm pinning him in place.
On the other side, Isobu let out a thunderous roar. Chakra gathered rapidly in his mouth as he prepared to fire a Bijuu Dama (Tailed Beast Bomb) to blow the Buddha's palm apart.
Hiruzen naturally wasn't going to give the two tailed beasts that chance. Controlling the two palms, he shifted from open hands into clenched fists, hammering over and over again in the direction of the tailed beasts.
For a moment, the whole earth shook as if gripped by an earthquake.
"Yo, interesting."
Yuto raised an eyebrow and spoke softly.
Behind him, Utakata saw this scene and flickered forward in a Shunshin, his figure vanishing from where he had been standing as he rushed out toward the battlefield.
Moments later, the form of the Six-Tails, Saiken, emerged into everyone's field of view.
Roar! Roar!
At the same time, two more thunderous roars rang out from farther away.
From within the Iwa forces, Han—who had been held back as a contingency—finally tapped into his tailed beast's power, transforming into the Five-Tails, Kokuo, appearing not far in front of Shin Susenju.
If he didn't use the tailed beast now, his Iwa troops were going to be wiped out by the collateral damage alone.
The other roar belonged to the Eight-Tails, Gyuki.
Seeing Cloud shinobi dying in droves, even Killer B—who had felt a bit of sympathy for Konoha when it was being attacked by four villages at once—forgot all about that sympathy and flew into a rage.
Any sympathy he'd felt at the beginning had long since been thrown out the window.
Sympathy only existed when it had nothing to do with you.
The five towering forms of the tailed beasts all roared together on the battlefield.
The sight of this clash, like something out of legend, sent a tremor of excitement through every shinobi present.
Even the fleeing forces of the four villages couldn't help but glance back over their shoulders.
Scenes like this were something they knew they would never forget for as long as they lived.
Behind Yuto, Zabuza and the others looked toward the distant battlefield, then couldn't help glancing back at Yuto's figure in front of them.
Ameyuri, Zabuza and the rest suddenly realized they could no longer picture what level of power Yuto himself might have reached.
On the battlefield—
Saiken was the first to rush in, body curling slightly before he spewed a massive torrent of corrosive acid from his mouth, drenching the arm that had been pounding Isobu.
Ssshhh!
The piercing hiss of corrosion rang out from the giant arm. In just a short span of time, the wooden limb was eaten full of pits and holes.
Isobu seized the opening, opening his jaws to unleash a powerful Water Release that slammed into the same arm.
Crack!
A crisp, explosive sound echoed through the air.
Under the combined assault of the Three-Tails and Six-Tails, the already-corroded arm finally snapped and crashed down from the sky, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Off to the side, Kokuo lowered his head slightly before charging forward at full speed.
Kikakuori (Horn Break)!
All five of Kokuo's giant horns slammed into the fist that Shin Susenju had been bringing down on Shukaku.
The impact resounded across the entire battlefield with a deep, booming thud. Some unprepared shinobi had to clap their hands over their ears to ease the shock of the sound.
For a moment, Kokuo and one of Shin Susenju's arms were locked in a dead stalemate.
Roar!
Kokuo let out a low, rumbling growl, forcing his head upward. For a moment, his strength actually began to overpower that of the enormous arm.
Rariatto (Lariat)!
Fully tailed-beast-cloaked, Killer B charged over from the side.
A massive mass of chakra formed in front of Gyuki, taking the shape of a huge skeletal bull's head.
The crushing collision smashed into the same arm of Shin Susenju with a violent impact, making the entire limb creak and groan under the strain.
In the next instant, Gyuki's eight octopus-like tails wrapped tightly around that same arm.
All eight tails pulled together with full force, and with Kokuo's power adding to the strain—
Crack!
That now-familiar sound rang out again across the battlefield.
Shin Susenju's second arm was torn free as well.
All five tailed beasts then leapt back together, their towering forms lined up like a living wall, barring Shin Susenju's advance.
Clearly, their goal was the same—to buy as much time as possible for their own villages' shinobi to escape.
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