"Run!"
At that moment, ninjas in the path of the charging Two-Tails, Matatabi, simultaneously ceased fighting and scrambled to the sides.
Unlike the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Blue B, the Two-Tails Jinchuriki was far from being a "perfect Jinchuriki." Upon complete transformation, their own consciousness was lost, replaced entirely by the Tailed Beast's instincts.
The current Matatabi rampaged across the battlefield. A sweep of its two massive tails cleared large swathes of ground. A swipe of its claws shredded any ninja unfortunate enough to stand in its way.
Matatabi's terror wasn't directed solely at Konoha ninjas; many Cloud shinobi also fell victim to its indiscriminate destruction. However, because Konoha held the overall advantage on the battlefield, the majority of ninjas killed by Matatabi were from Konoha. If this continued, Konoha's hard-won advantage might well be erased.
On the battlefield, among the Konoha ninjas possessing Jonin-level strength, perhaps only Li Anshi currently faced no direct opponent. His earlier feat of instantly killing six Jonin had thoroughly terrified the Cloud forces. The moment they saw Li Anshi approach, these Cloud Jonin would rather endure attacks from their Konoha adversaries than risk getting close, fearing they too would be instantly slain like the previous nine.
Without Jonin obstruction, even though Li Anshi no longer used his flying daggers indiscriminately, no one could halt his advance. After piercing through the Cloud formation, Li Anshi had intended to press the advantage further, but he hadn't expected the Two-Tails Jinchuriki to break free from Sasuke Sarutobi and charge into the main army ranks.
"I must stop the Two-Tails' rampage."
"Sagawa, Kondo, Sakamoto, I'm going to stop that Cloud Tailed Beast. You three be careful."
Li Anshi glanced back, gave his three subordinates instructions, and before they could reply, chakra erupted from beneath his feet. With a few quick flickers, he rapidly closed the distance to the Two-Tails.
This was the Body Flicker Technique!
Li Anshi's unique chakra prevented him from using elemental ninjutsu, but it placed no restriction on taijutsu-based movement techniques like the Body Flicker. In fact, due to his absolute control over his chakra, Li Anshi possessed a distinct advantage in taijutsu training.
The taijutsu Body Flicker required no hand seals, only precise chakra bursts to drastically increase speed. While perhaps not as fast as ninjutsu-based Body Flicker variants, it caused significantly less disorientation after rapid position changes. In Li Anshi's hands, this technique was no slower than any other Jonin's Body Flicker, and his heightened senses negated any ill effects from the rapid movement.
Swish!
While sprinting, a flying dagger slipped from Li Anshi's sleeve, its ringed hilt caught between his thumb and forefinger. Focusing his mind, Li Anshi channeled chakra into the dagger, causing it to emit a white glow.
Unlike dealing with other ninjas, even Kage-level powerhouses like Hiruzen Sarutobi, where simply throwing the dagger using the Little Li Flying Dagger technique was sufficient, Tailed Beasts were different. They were massive aggregates of chakra. Killing a Tailed Beast outright was something only individuals like Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha could accomplish alone. Otherwise, it required overwhelming numbers, slowly draining the Tailed Beast's chakra until it perished.
Against a true Tailed Beast, the current Li Anshi admittedly had few options. However, Jinchuriki possessed a fatal weakness compared to their unbound counterparts: the Jinchuriki themselves. They were the "vessels" sealing the Tailed Beasts. If the vessel died, the sealed beast would break free, regaining its liberty.
However, due to the nature of the sealing techniques, the Tailed Beast's life force was linked to the Jinchuriki. If the Jinchuriki died, the released Tailed Beast would also perish. Because of this limitation, even Tailed Beasts harboring immense hatred for humans wouldn't deliberately kill their own Jinchuriki.
After all, while a Tailed Beast could eventually reform after death, the reborn entity's consciousness would no longer be the original. Of course, if a Tailed Beast was resealed into a new Jinchuriki before completely dying, its life could be preserved.
Although the current Matatabi had fully transformed, the core of the Jinchuriki remained enveloped within its chakra. To stop Matatabi's rampage, Li Anshi needed his flying dagger to pierce through its chakra and strike the Jinchuriki within.
The white light emanating from the dagger in Li Anshi's hand now carried a sharpness reminiscent of Wind Release chakra nature transformation. However, the chakra nature transformation Li Anshi had cultivated through his flying dagger practice wasn't the "sharpness" of Wind Release, but rather "penetration."
This was the name Li Anshi had given the unique property his chakra developed after mastering the Little Li Flying Dagger. As long as he held a dagger, Li Anshi could imbue it with this trait, granting it immense penetrative power. When thrown, the dagger could even pierce space itself, allowing it to reach speeds exceeding normal human reaction time.
Under this characteristic, Li Anshi's dagger was invincible. Once locked onto, no one had yet survived his throw.
Boom!
Locked onto by Li Anshi, Matatabi, who had been wildly slaughtering surrounding ninjas, suddenly felt an intense sense of mortal danger. Its chakra flared outwards like spikes, its four paws dug deep gouges into the earth as it skidded to a halt amidst a cloud of dust.
"Hmm?"
Matatabi's reaction slightly surprised Li Anshi. Since perfecting the Little Li Flying Dagger, Matatabi was the first creature he had targeted that reacted so strongly.
"Is it this guy?"
Matatabi lowered its head, looking warily at Li Anshi not far ahead. Although Tailed Beasts were thousands of times stronger than ordinary ninjas, Matatabi knew that among humans, there existed super-powerhouses capable of matching, or even surpassing, its own strength.
The Cloud Village's Third Raikage was one. The Uchiha fighting Gyuki and the one fighting the Third Raikage also counted. But even those three didn't instill the same sense of crisis in Matatabi as the young human before it now.
In Matatabi's memory, only Madara Uchiha, who had captured it long ago, and the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, who was even stronger than Madara, had ever posed such a profound threat.