The sight of the enormous deep blue barrier rising between the white bone blades entered the eyes of everyone currently paying attention to the battlefield.
But to most people, including those on Konoha's side, the effect of this scene was nothing but shock and deep uncertainty.
Every side possessed wide-range and highly effective intelligence-gathering methods.
It was impossible not to understand just how terrifyingly powerful that strike had been when it easily killed the Seven-Tails and sealed the remaining three Tailed Beasts inside.
And looking across the present shinobi world, aside from the Fourth Mizukage, Rei Kaguya, there was no second person capable of launching an attack on this scale.
Then came the problem.
Kirigakure's Mizukage had quietly infiltrated the Land of Fire.
Then he attacked Iwagakure and Kumogakure's Jinchuriki, who were currently trying to destroy Konoha.
So what exactly was his position right now?
Was he a reinforcement temporarily standing on Konoha's side for some reason?
Or was he a third-party force with his own interests, merely forced to reveal himself because of Kumogakure and Iwagakure's sudden movements?
At a time like this, no Konoha shinobi dared treat Rei, who had suddenly appeared here, as an ally.
Even Jiraiya, who had interacted with Rei many times, could not determine his exact purpose.
Nagato, who had already made up his mind to turn the Akatsuki into a platform for mediating conflicts between the Five Great Shinobi Villages, could still be explained.
He had caught Root's tail and taken personal action to prevent them from dragging war back into the shinobi world.
But someone like Rei Kaguya, whose identity and position clearly placed Kirigakure as his absolute first priority, had extended a helping hand to Konoha without any prior information exchange or negotiation of benefits.
If that was truly the case, then what he wanted from Konoha would definitely be even more astonishing than those openly outrageous conditions he could place on the table.
However, "Rei Kaguya" did not care about those things.
After forcibly constructing a barrier capable of temporarily trapping Iwagakure and Kumogakure's allied forces, preventing them from continuing to attack Konoha with Tailed Beast Balls or simply retreating when they realized the situation had turned unfavorable, the massive amount of chakra the main body had stored in this bone clone to deal with emergencies was nearly exhausted.
If he had not sensed Jiraiya rushing toward him at full speed, he would not even have left this final bit of chakra behind for basic intelligence exchange and conditional negotiations with Konoha.
"Yo, Jiraiya… From the look of it, you people were beaten into quite a sorry state by Root."
Looking at the expression on Jiraiya's face, as though he were facing a great enemy, Rei stood atop the Seven-Tails' gradually dissipating enormous body.
Relying on the whip-sword core maintaining the Hunting Nation seal, he greeted the newcomer calmly.
"Why are you here, Rei Kaguya!?"
Jiraiya maintained the Sage Mode he rarely used in front of others because it made him ugly.
His tone carried unconcealable tension and concern.
"Is Kirigakure also going to interfere in today's war?"
"Then do you want us to interfere, or do you not want us to interfere, Jiraiya?"
Rei propped his cheek up with one hand, sounding somewhat amused.
"If you do not want Kirigakure and me to interfere, I can cancel this Hunting Nation barrier right now, call Shisui, who has been entangling Obito Uchiha all this time, and leave the battlefield with him. Then we can sit by and watch Konoha get blasted into the sky by the Tailed Beast Balls from three Tailed Beasts. After that, we can leisurely come over to receive Konoha's refugees and casually provide a little funding and support to those who want revenge…"
"Konoha is not a village that will fall so easily!"
Jiraiya could not help stubbornly refuting him.
"Oh, is that so?"
Rei raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiraiya from the corner of his eye.
"Then I will conveniently knock Nagato unconscious and take him away too. Let us see how long Konoha can last without him using the Rinnegan's power to deflect Tailed Beast Balls.
"Do not forget, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is still in a dangerous period. Judging by the current situation, if Minato Namikaze is forced to leave her side to protect the village, it will not take long before the number of Tailed Beasts bombarding Konoha becomes four.
"And that is only because the most dangerous Seven-Tails to you has already been killed by me. Otherwise, no matter how noble and blazing Konoha's Will of Fire is, do you think it can withstand bombardment from five Tailed Beasts' Tailed Beast Balls?"
Jiraiya's expression turned bitter.
Clearly, faced with the evidence Rei had laid out so logically, he could not think of anything to say for a moment.
He silently thought for a while before asking again:
"How long can this barrier last?"
"Around ten minutes. After all, I am only a bone clone. Unlike my main body, I do not have close to infinite chakra."
Rei answered absentmindedly.
A clone?
A bone clone?
Merely a bone clone assigned to an infiltration mission could instantly kill a Tailed Beast and create a sealing barrier of such terrifying range and strength, one capable of withstanding Tailed Beast Ball bombardment?
Jiraiya took a deep breath, calming the emotions that had surged again because of Rei's answer.
At the same time, he took out a communication toad from his clothes and sent it to receive the other Konoha shinobi he had left behind while rushing ahead.
Then he spoke with a trace of self-mockery.
"Even though I have already tried to estimate your strength as highly as possible, it seems a frog sitting in a well still cannot imagine how vast the sky truly is…"
"Is that an apology?"
Rei narrowed his eyes, waiting for Jiraiya's next answer.
"…You can think of it that way, Fourth Mizukage."
Jiraiya gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
Then he put on a serious, official bearing again. Even his way of addressing Rei changed from before.
He said in a deep voice, "However, since your clone is here, Fourth Mizukage, then based on what I know about you, you should also be able to reverse-summon your main body here, right?"
"If the price is right, that is not impossible."
Rei whistled crisply in a youthful manner, fingertips touching as his expression turned playful.
"The only question is what price you plan to pay to have Kirigakure help you thoroughly resolve this problem, Jiraiya…"
"Would the three Jinchuriki here and the Tailed Beasts inside them be enough?"
Jiraiya asked tentatively.
"No. Strictly speaking, they belong to the spoils of war waiting to be harvested. They should not be discussed as part of the payment… Also, I do not believe that if my main body arrives, Konoha will still have the ability to take down three Jinchuriki on its own and use them to trade with me."
Rei rolled his eyes and waved at Jiraiya in annoyance.
"If you want me to enter the field on behalf of Kirigakure, at least bring out Konoha's secret forbidden techniques as bargaining chips, right? For example, those things left behind by the Second Hokage… Hm?"
"…Do not tell me you originally had your clone infiltrate at this exact time because you wanted to take advantage of the chaos and steal the Scroll of Seals?"
Jiraiya's expression instantly darkened like the bottom of a pot.
"In your heart, have I already fallen so low that I need to resort to stealing to obtain Konoha's Scroll of Seals, Jiraiya?"
Rei raised an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes with displeasure.
"If that is what you think, then I will raise the price on the spot."
"…Who told you to say something so misleading? No, wait, this is not the time to ramble with you about things like that!"
Coming back to his senses, Jiraiya slapped his own cheeks hard, then clenched his fist in frustration and said:
"In any case, I will first represent Konoha and thank you, Fourth Mizukage, for shooting down the Seven-Tails and sealing the other three Jinchuriki. If we can repel the invading enemies from here, Konoha will absolutely not forget the crucial assistance Kirigakure extended to us in this desperate moment.
"But if the situation that follows still exceeds what we can control… then I ask the Fourth Mizukage not to hesitate to extend aid to Konoha again. Konoha is absolutely not a group of ungrateful people who receive kindness and refuse to repay it."
The moment his words fell, Jiraiya's figure disappeared from Rei's sight.
He rushed toward the nearest area, where the Four-Tails and the Iwagakure unit had already begun trying to break through the barrier.
Rei turned his head and looked toward Konoha Village in the distance, where the lights flickered.
With a sigh, he merged into the enormous white bone whip-sword beside him.
"How optimistic, Jiraiya."
"Even I can no longer say with confidence that everything is still under control."
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