Once everyone on Jiraiya's side was in position, they were ready to execute their battle plan.
Taking advantage of the brief gap between Shukaku's Air Bullets, Jiraiya leapt forward with Gamabunta, jumping right over Shukaku's head.
Gamabunta puffed up his throat and sprayed out a massive wave of oil, while Jiraiya simultaneously breathed out flames.
It was, Fire Style: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!
The huge fireball scorched Shukaku's head, the flames blocking his line of sight.
The other shinobi, who had long been prepared and were skilled in Water Style, formed hand seals!
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"
A massive surge of water gathered into a vortex, then poured down like a tidal wave toward Shukaku.
The enormous sand beast was drenched in the deluge, and once the sand absorbed the water, it grew incredibly heavy.
At that moment, the Earth Style users pressed their hands to the ground.
"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"
Dozens of them cast it at once. Beneath Shukaku's feet, a massive swamp instantly formed.
The heavy Shukaku began to sink, and in just a few seconds, a third of his body was already submerged.
Watching through his binoculars from afar, Yura frowned.
They had dared to bring Shukaku out, of course, they would never allow him to fall into Konoha's hands.
Yura waved toward the sealing team.
The sealing team formed hand seals.
At once, glowing dissolving chains appeared on the body of Shosuke, Shukaku's host.
Because Shukaku was sealed inside Shosuke at this moment, the beast felt excruciating, soul-tearing pain.
Already trapped and panicked, Shukaku began screaming hysterically.
"AHHHHHH!"
"This lord isn't going back!"
"NO! I'LL DIE! AH! DIE!"
Like the deranged ravings of a lunatic, his shrill screams felt sharp enough to pierce Jiraiya and the others' eardrums.
Shukaku's chakra began to surge wildly, like a violent tide.
Soon, a dark purple-black orb began forming in his mouth.
That was—
A Tailed Beast Bomb!
Jiraiya's face paled and he immediately dodged, while Gamabunta and Gamaken jumped away at once.
Fortunately, Shukaku's mind was completely deranged, his aim was nonexistent.
The Tailed Beast Bomb struck the ground instead, blasting the entire area apart and carving out an enormous crater near Jiraiya.
The other shinobi, though not directly hit, were all blown away by the shockwave.
But it wasn't over yet. Feeling that his host was about to die, Shukaku screamed even more frantically and began forming a second Tailed Beast Bomb.
This one was three times larger than the first.
Jiraiya and the others' faces turned ashen, "Hide! Quickly!"
Gamabunta and Gamaken, being the largest targets, vanished in a puff of smoke with a loud bang, returning to Mount Myoboku.
Even Hiruko and Sarutobi Ishishu, who were still locked in combat elsewhere, both hesitated and backed off.
No one was joking around, if that massive Tailed Beast Bomb hit, even if they survived, they'd be stripped of a few layers of skin.
From a distance, Yura and the others made another hand signal.
The sealing team once again formed hand signs.
The chains on Shosuke's body began to burn and snapped apart!
His body instantly ignited like spontaneous combustion, turning to charred ashes on the spot.
The half-formed Tailed Beast Bomb in Shukaku's mouth exploded prematurely.
BOOM!
A hurricane-force blast erupted outward.
The massive shockwave obliterated the exposed part of Shukaku's body into pieces, leaving a huge crater in the ground.
Everyone nearby was blown away.
Sarutobi Ishishu was the first to reach Hiruzen's side, both of them hit the ground, hugging tight.
Ishishu spread the Nine-Tails chakra cloak over his back, shielding them so they wouldn't be blown away.
Hiruko, lacking battle experience, only reacted when the shockwave was already upon him.
He was sent flying several kilometers through the air.
The aftershock alone from that close-range, massive Tailed Beast Bomb was like a Category 12 typhoon.
Half the forest was flattened, and the air was filled with screams of agony.
As for Yura's group, the ones who initiated it, they were prepared. They dove into the trenches they had dug in advance.
When the storm finally passed and they saw that Shukaku was dead, they quickly made a hand signal and began their retreat.
"Peh! Peh! Peh!"
Hiruko spat out the sand covering him, shaking it off as he stood up.
'How could a Tailed Beast Bomb be this powerful?'
His Steel Release armor still covered his body, the black surface marked all over with white slash lines left by Sarutobi Ishishu's blade.
In close combat, Hiruko had been completely overwhelmed.
He didn't know why the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki wasn't under Uchiha control, but in this situation, there was no way staying here would end well for him.
Even though several of his summoned beasts had died here, seeing how many Sarutobi shinobi were dead made him feel satisfied enough.
Time to take the win and leave.
After getting his bearings, Hiruko quickly slipped into the forest.
There were quite a few people secretly watching the chaos.
After all, Hiruzen's forces were moving slowly, hey'd been trying to lure the Uchiha in, so they hadn't cleared out the spies.
Now, people from the black market, Iwagakure, and even Kumogakure had all managed to gather bits of intel.
Especially regarding Hiruko, many had now taken note of him.
After all, his Kekkei Genkai came from the bloodline limit users captured from various villages.
There was no way anyone would believe that was just a coincidence.
Among those who had gathered the most intelligence was, of course, the Hyuga clan with their Byakugan.
Originally, Rengoku had just wanted to observe who would attack Hiruzen's group, and what a show it turned out to be.
Hiruko's attack had been completely outside Hiruzen's expectations, combined with the Sand's Shukaku, the results were disastrous.
The breakaway faction from Konoha had lost thousands.
More importantly, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, who should have been under Uchiha supervision in Konoha, had appeared in their ranks.
Which meant, Sarutobi Hiruzen had taken the Jinchuriki with him.
The Uchiha clan would never let Hiruzen and his group get away with that.
After the battle, they began gathering up the surviving civilians.
With so many dead, many people began doubting whether following Hiruzen had been the right choice.
Some even quietly slipped away, heading back toward Konoha.
Sarutobi Ryunosuke's unit, meanwhile, secretly regrouped with Hiruzen's forces.
Inside Hiruzen's tent, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado had come over as well.
They argued for quite a while, all expressing their dissatisfaction with Hiruzen, after all, many from their clans had died.
Only with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki as his trump card did Hiruzen manage to calm them down.
When the numbers were finally tallied, out of their thirty-thousand-strong army, more than 3,400 had died.
Even more were injured.
Many were still suffering internal damage from the Tailed Beast Bomb's shockwave, and others were missing entirely.
It took them a long time to reorganize the forces and stabilize the camp once more.
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