"It's here!"
"A massive chakra reaction just appeared in the north!"
At the Allied Shinobi Headquarters, an extremely powerful spike of chakra appeared on the barrier perception sphere. Everyone in the intelligence and sensory team knew what it meant.
Uchiha Obito.
The chakra reading was coming from him. Obito, who had been in hiding this whole time, had finally made his move. The Allied Shinobi Headquarters immediately went on full alert.
"Move out now!"
"The fast assault squad needs to hurry up, even faster than before!"
"We'll follow right behind. All other squads, proceed as well. Search for Obito's allies like Orochimaru and any other Akatsuki members along the way!"
Up in the sky, dark clouds began to gather. Obito controlled the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, which now contained the chakra of eight Tailed Beasts.
The statue opened its mouth wide, and two chains shot out, wrapping around Ginkaku and Kinkaku. In the next instant, a surge of red chakra—the very same they had stolen from the Nine-Tails—was ripped from their bodies.
The Demonic Statue seemed to tremble with excitement as it yanked Ginkaku and Kinkaku into the air and swallowed them whole. All the eyes on its head lit up at once.
Clearly, the Demonic Statue was about to revive. After centuries as an empty shell, its body was finally being filled with chakra, allowing it to return to its true form.
A massive, guttural roar echoed across the land as the statue tilted its head to the sky and let out a bellow.
No… this was no longer just the Demonic Statue.
This was the Ten-Tails. The origin of all chakra in the world.
Even though everyone knew about the Ten-Tails and its terrifying power, no one had expected its revival to have such a monstrous presence. The scariest part was that it seemed to have been born for the sole purpose of destroying the shinobi world.
The Ten-Tails was like a berserk beast.
Realizing things were getting out of control, Obito quickly jumped onto the Ten-Tails' head and used his Rinnegan to try and force it to calm down.
However, just as he was about to perform the hand signs to become its jinchuriki, a pitch-black, swirling portal opened right in front of him.
"Tsk… Quite a bold move," a familiar voice rang in Obito's ear.
Madara Uchiha was the first to step out of the portal, his face showing its usual arrogant confidence.
"Madara!" Obito's expression instantly turned grim.
Even though he'd suspected the Akatsuki would show up quickly after hearing about Shirou's attack on the Stone Village, their speed still caught him completely off guard.
Several figures in black Akatsuki cloaks stepped out of the portal, forming a path. Shirou's wheelchair slowly emerged and stopped at the center.
This time, the Akatsuki had come out in full force.
"Hmph!" Obito snorted in anger and didn't hesitate. He quickly used Kamui with his Mangekyo Sharingan to summon his own reinforcements.
Orochimaru, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Uchiha Sasuke appeared.
"Huh?" Madara paid little attention to Orochimaru or Kisame, but when he saw Sasuke, he paused and let out a self-mocking laugh. "Sasuke, so you've chosen his side?"
"..." After a brief silence, Sasuke gave an answer that left both Madara and Obito speechless. "Does it matter whose side I'm on? Both of you have the same goal anyway."
"Tch… you brat," Madara clicked his tongue, his tone surprisingly light-hearted. "But it's not all the same. I personally raised Obito, yet he betrayed me. And I personally took care of you as you grew up..."
"You should be used to this by now," Obito replied coldly. "After all, when you left Konoha, none of your clan followed you."
"..." Madara's smile remained, but a new glint of coldness appeared in his eyes. "You're right. Maybe I am used to it… Let's go!"
As soon as Madara finished speaking, he dashed straight for Obito and the Ten-Tails.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Orochimaru quickly summoned several coffins.
One coffin opened, revealing the battered body of the First Hokage, who instantly clashed with Madara.
"Madara!"
"Hahaha, Hashirama! You showed up just in time!"
Madara, seeming happy rather than angry, charged forward without any concern for the Ten-Tails or Obito, diving straight into battle with Hashirama. Meanwhile, the rest of the Akatsuki charged at the other reanimated ninja, and the entire area erupted into chaotic fighting.
"Be careful," Orochimaru warned Obito as he dropped down onto the Ten-Tails. "Shirou can break the balance at any time. He can destroy the Edo Tensei so easily."
"I won't give him the chance." Obito focused on controlling the Ten-Tails, his eyes locked on Shirou. He simply ordered the massive beast to attack.
The Ten-Tails opened its mouth wide, its ten tails floating behind it. A massive, blood-red Tailed Beast Ball formed and shot straight at Shirou.
"That's… a Tailed Beast Ball from the Ten-Tails?" Kabuto's face twisted in shock.
He'd never seen such a terrifying attack before. It wasn't just its size; the amount of chakra it contained was on a completely different level from any other Tailed Beast.
"Targeting me directly?" Shirou sensed the massive Tailed Beast Ball rapidly approaching, like a cannon shell flying right for him. This attack could easily wipe out an entire town.
However, Shirou simply raised his hand.
Yomotsu Hirasaka seemed to turn space into blocks, and a black portal rapidly expanded in front of him. The next moment, the Tailed Beast Ball disappeared into it.
"Not good!" Obito's expression changed. He quickly looked back just in time to see another portal appear behind the Ten-Tails.
But it was too late. He couldn't make the Ten-Tails dodge. The beast's enormous body couldn't possibly move fast enough.
In that exact moment, the Tailed Beast Ball shot out from the portal behind it, hitting the mountain-sized beast squarely in the back.
The Ten-Tails, Obito, and Orochimaru were all engulfed in an enormous explosion that blasted them sky-high.
The shockwave from the blast spread rapidly, blowing everyone else on the battlefield away and forcing them to pull back in total disarray.
"Did the Ten-Tails just blow itself up?" Kabuto wondered, waving away the smoke.
He glanced toward Shirou, who calmly erased the force of the blast with a simple gesture, then looked up at the Ten-Tails plummeting from the sky.
"The Ten-Tails won't die," Shirou said, shaking his head gently.
He could sense it was already beginning to evolve into its next form. The beast actually had a consciousness of its own. Even if its mind was like a wild animal's, it was cunning enough to change its form when it sensed danger.
Splat!
The Ten-Tails crashed to the ground like a mass of ruined flesh. But its body immediately began to transform, growing thin and beastly, its tails turning into long, sharp claws.
Its head started morphing into twisted, root-like shapes, with a single crimson Rinnegan spinning in the center, staring right at Shirou.
"Roar!" the beast howled furiously at him.
"Don't attack Shirou," Obito hurriedly forced the Ten-Tails to stop, gritting his teeth as he stared at the man in the wheelchair. He was realizing the situation had become a stalemate.
If they attacked Shirou, they'd just suffer an even worse backlash.
If they didn't, Shirou would completely dominate the entire battlefield.
That blind man… was just too much trouble to handle.