Chapter 353: Tailed Beast Bomb
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
"First Battle Division, arrived!" Darui led his troops onto the field.
"Second Battle Division, arrived!" Kitsuchi led his forces into position.
"Third Battle Division, arrived!" Acting Captain Iwashi Tatami led the unit to the front.
"Fifth Battle Division, arrived!" Mifune and his samurai arrived.
"Sensor Division, arrived!" Cee led his team to the sensory hub.
"Surprise Attack Division, arrived!" Kankuro led his squad to the flank.
"Medical and Logistics Division, arrived!" Shizune led the support staff to the rear.
"We finally made it! Glad we're not late!" Shibi Aburame appeared with Iruka's squad.
"Yo-ho! How could a scene this big happen without us?"
Tonbo Tobitake and the Five Kage descended from the sky, landing firmly at the head of the entire Allied army.
"It's Lord Tonbo and the Five Kage! Fantastic!"
"But the size of that enemy... it's too big, isn't it?"
"Is that the Ten-Tails?"
The arrival of the leaders sparked a wave of excitement through the Alliance. However, the monster facing them, the Ten-Tails, was gargantuan. It was over a dozen times larger than any other Tailed Beast. Ninjas familiar with Tailed Beasts realized with a shudder that the Ten-Tails' eye alone was the size of an entire Tailed Beast.
The pressure was suffocating. A normal Tailed Beast could cause catastrophic casualties; this thing could wipe out the entire Alliance with a single stray movement.
"This is Headquarters. Readjusting combat deployment. Tonbo..."
At that moment, Shikaku's voice echoed in the minds of every commander, initiating a strategic layout. The Five Kage, respecting Shikaku's intellect, immediately signaled their compliance.
"Senior Shikaku, my 'Allied Ninjutsu' can only connect about ten thousand people at once. Any more and I won't be able to control the flow..." Tonbo reminded Shikaku.
That's enough for now, Tonbo thought. I can't link the entire army, or the Ten-Tails won't even have a chance to play.
"Understood. Your division will handle support. Naruto and the Five Kage will execute the decapitation strike..." Shikaku quickly pivoted. The entire Alliance began to shift like a giant machine.
Boom!
Inside the Uchiha Shrine in the Hidden Leaf Village.
The four Hokage and Orochimaru's group all suddenly felt a powerful resonance. Everyone sensed it, but the Second and Fourth Hokage's perceptions were particularly acute.
"We've told you everything you need to know," Hashirama said to Sasuke. "It is time to resolve this."
Orochimaru: "Then, let us go see what is happening."
He loved this kind of scene—war, the ultimate large-scale laboratory. Whether it was the Hokage, Sasuke, or the others, they would all be his research subjects. He also wanted to see what kind of "wind" the Child of Destiny he had personally refined would blow through the world.
Swoosh!
In an instant, the four Hokage surged out of the Naka Shrine.
"Let's go as well," Orochimaru said to Team Taka. Suigetsu, who had just been terrified by the Hokage's presence, immediately ducked behind Sasuke.
"First, Second, Third—I'll head on ahead."
A yellow flash streaked across the sky. Like a bolt of lightning, Minato left the other three Hokage far behind, disappearing from their sight in a burst of speed.
Hashirama: "Sarutobi, he's quite impressive. How did he end up dying alongside the Nine-Tails...?"
"Uh..." Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent. Not everyone can be a monster like you, Lord First!
Roar!
The Ten-Tails had been buried in the earth by Shikaku's tactics, leaving only the tip of its head exposed. Obito and Madara stood atop its brow. In the distance, the Alliance exhibited near-perfect coordination under the guidance of a rhythmic horn signal.
"I didn't expect Genjutsu to be used this way. I underestimated him."
Uchiha Madara watched the Ten-Tails being forced back by the Alliance's tactics. He was genuinely impressed by the Alliance's commander and Tonbo's illusionary coordination. A mastermind paired with a battlefield conductor—the resulting power was beyond expectation.
"It seems we need to solve the issue of the enemy's 'head' first."
Obito had intercepted the chakra transmissions from the Allied HQ, narrowing down their general direction.
Zip—!
As the Ten-Tails remained pinned, the horn signal ceased, replaced by the sound of a bowstring drawn to the breaking point. An attack faster than lightning streaked toward them.
"Uchiha Reflection."
Madara already had intel on this move. He held his Gunbai in front of him, bracing against the chakra arrow.
Crash!
Even so, the force pushed him back a great distance, the connector tubes stretching behind him as he moved.
Whoosh!
Bang!
Though he intended to reflect it back at the Alliance, the attack was too powerful; the deflection went wide. The arrow pierced the earth, creating a diagonal, bottomless pit in the distance. The ground above rolled and buckled.
"This guy is also a headache."
"Impressive. It only took seeing it once for the move to become useless. As expected of Uchiha Madara," Tonbo observed. He wasn't surprised the arrow was reflected.
Besides, that wasn't his true goal. Beneath his feet, dark, branching patterns connected him to the Ten-Tails. While the beast was buried, Madara and Obito couldn't see that Tonbo's neural system had already saturated the Ten-Tails' interior.
He was harvesting data. He had planted neural "seeds" in the Gedo Mazo back when he fought Pain, but in terms of data extraction, "wireless" was no match for "wired." He needed to absorb as much information as possible in the shortest time.
The current Ten-Tails was different from the Mazo. In his perception, it was radiating terrifying amounts of natural energy—far more concentrated than the anomalies he'd felt in the Land of Snow.
A walking source of infinite energy, Tonbo noted.
"Hmm?"
While analyzing the beast, a figure suddenly entered his sensory range. The figure glanced at the battlefield and immediately flickered away to another location. The Body Flicker technique was executed with absolute perfection.
Minato is here, Tonbo deduced. He sees the battlefield is holding up, so he's gone to mark locations with Flying Raijin.
Minato's base speed, even without Flying Raijin, was significantly higher than Shisui's.
ROAR!
Suddenly, the buried Ten-Tails underwent a violent transformation. Its form mutated rapidly, growing even more massive. The natural energy became even thicker. A flower bloomed from its mouth, and a colossal amount of energy began to gather.
A dark-red Tailed Beast Bomb appeared.
"Oh no!"
"Mind Transfer Jutsu!"
Under Shikaku's command, members of the Yamanaka clan immediately attempted to possess Obito to veer the Tailed Beast Bomb off course.
Boom!
In less than three seconds, Obito shattered the Mind Transfer. The Tailed Beast Bomb fired, followed immediately by a second one. They were being fired like cheap ammunition. Perhaps because it was their first time controlling the beast, Madara and Obito missed their marks, several bombs veering wide.
Then, one Tailed Beast Bomb was aimed directly at the sky.
Bang!
"That... that's the direction of Headquarters..."
Shikamaru deduced the target instantly. For a moment, his heart skipped a beat.
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