Ōnoki was so furious at the thought that his teeth were nearly grinding to dust. He had finally seen it clearly—this was absolutely, absolutely, absolutely a scheme by that brat, Hoshiyomi Gekkō.
The boy must have calculated this from the very start, which was why he had shown up at that exact spot, acting perfectly positioned yet pretending to be completely at someone's mercy.
But the problem was that behind him was the main camp of Iwagakure. Ōnoki truly had no choice but to help him deal with that Tailed Beast Ball—otherwise, the entire Iwa camp would go up in flames along with Hoshiyomi.
The thought that not only had he failed to kill that little bastard, but now he was actually helping him deal with a Tailed Beast Ball made Ōnoki want to blast Hoshiyomi into molecules with a single Dust Release.
But it was too late to dwell on that now. The Four-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb was on the verge of fully forming. If it wasn't stopped, Iwagakure would suffer a catastrophic loss!
Thinking this, Ōnoki dared not delay any longer. He quickly began condensing Dust Release chakra in his hands.
Worried that the large, cylindrical form of the Dust Release might directly destroy the Four-Tails' brain and thereby endanger the life of its jinchūriki, Rōshi, Ōnoki altered the shape into a sharper, conical form instead.
At the exact moment the Four-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball was about to complete, Ōnoki unhesitatingly launched the Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique from his hands. The conical beam of Dust Release shot straight toward the Four-Tails' face.
With no pause at all, the technique—capable of disassembling all things into their most basic particles—pierced through the left cheek of the Four-Tails and exited from the right, punching directly through its mouth cavity.
The agony of having its mouth pierced clean through was even worse than the slash from Hoshiyomi earlier. The Four-Tails, who had been building up its Tailed Beast Bomb, was suddenly struck by this devastating blow and could barely stand the pain.
Its eyes went blood-red from the agony, and it could no longer maintain the Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth. With a sky-shaking roar, it spat the sphere out, and in the sky it detonated into a massive explosion.
BZZZZT!!
The originally pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb, upon exploding, erupted into a blinding white light—so bright it seemed to strip away all illumination from the world itself.
It was as if a small sun had risen in the dark night sky. The blazing white light illuminated the heavens, turning the gloomy, rain-shrouded night over the Land of Rain into something bright as midday.
The explosion's force was enough to shake over half the Land of Rain. Even Sakumo and the others far away on the other front, facing Sunagakure, were startled. They ran out of their tents and stood frozen as they stared at the disturbance from the Iwagakure front.
What on earth had happened to cause such a disturbance?
Orochimaru and Tsunade immediately thought of Hoshiyomi. Without a moment of hesitation, they wanted to go over and see what was happening, but Sakumo stopped them
"I'll go. You two aren't as fast as me, and besides, we still have to keep an eye on Suna's forces here. We can't leave this front unguarded. Don't worry—Hoshiyomi's even stronger than I am. Nothing's going to happen to him."
As he spoke, bright arcs of lightning erupted from Sakumo's body. His aura spiked to a terrifying level, and with a whoosh, he was already far gone into the distance.
Seeing this, Tsunade and Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a jolt of awe. They had only ever sensed such overwhelming chakra from two people — Hoshiyomi and Hiruzen Sarutobi. In other words, Sakumo had become the second among their group of six, after Hoshiyomi, to step into Kage-level power.
Realizing this, they both felt reassured about Hoshiyomi's safety—but at the same time, they clenched their fists. If Sakumo had already reached Kage-level, then it was about time they pushed themselves harder as well!
Back on the Iwa front, Ōnoki didn't dare let his guard down after stopping the Tailed Beast Bomb. Having personally participated in tailed beast sealing operations, he knew exactly how dangerous a berserk Four-Tails could be.
He had no intention of letting it charge up another Tailed Beast Bomb. He'd already used two Dust Release attacks and a number of Earth Release techniques. The chakra drain from the Earth Release wasn't the main issue — the real concern was the Dust Release.
As a Kekkei Tōta that surpassed all Kekkei Genkai, Dust Release consumed far more chakra than most jutsu. A single Detachment of the Primitive World Technique used up more chakra than casting two S-rank techniques at once.
Even someone like Ōnoki, who could be considered beyond standard Kage-level, could only manage four or five such attacks at most.
Now, he'd already used two. If he had to stop two more Tailed Beast Bombs, he'd be in serious trouble.
With that in mind, Ōnoki wasted no time. He didn't even bother to deal with the distant onlooker, Gekkō Hoshiyomi. Instead, he used Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique to fly straight to the Four-Tails.
Weaving in a tight spiral to evade the magma-slicked swing of its tail, Ōnoki reached the beast's head, pressing his palm against its skull.
"Earth Release: Rock Fist Technique!"
"Earth Release: Super Added-Weight Rock Technique!"
With his shout, a thick gauntlet of stone instantly encased Ōnoki's right arm. Spreading his fingers across the Four-Tails' head, he poured the Super Added-Weight Rock Technique into it.
Boom!
Under the crushing gravity, the Four-Tails felt its entire body grow several times heavier in an instant. It slammed to the ground with a thunderous crash, its lower legs sinking completely into the ground.
Ōnoki's hands kept moving through seals.
"Earth Release: Rock Arms!"
The ground trembled again, and in the next moment, two massive hands of stone erupted on either side of the Four-Tails, gripping its flailing arms tight.
Its legs were buried, its arms pinned, and its body crushed under overwhelming gravity — bound hand and foot, the beast could only open its mouth in impotent rage.
When Ōnoki saw it begin to charge another Tailed Beast Bomb, his fingers flew through another rapid sequence of seals.
"Quicklime Congealing Technique! Shut your mouth!"
He spat a mouthful of thick, viscous quicklime straight into the Four-Tails' open jaws. The substance hardened almost instantly, sealing its mouth completely. Now, the beast was utterly immobilized, able only to emit muffled, frustrated grunts.
In truth, the wound Hoshiyomi had inflicted earlier was a big help to Ōnoki. That downward slash had cut deep, and the Four-Tails had expended great effort to force it closed.
But with Ōnoki's restraint techniques locking it down, the beast's violent struggling split the half-healed wound wide open again.
Already badly injured, the Four-Tails now suffered from renewed bleeding on top of it. Naturally, it grew weaker and weaker.
Its muffled roars lost strength, and Ōnoki knew the opportunity wouldn't come again. Without hesitation, he began performing a sealing jutsu he wasn't particularly skilled at.
Against a Four-Tails in peak condition, such a simple sealing technique would be useless. But in its current, utterly weakened state, the difficulty had dropped tremendously.
Under Ōnoki's seal, the Four-Tails slowly shrank down… until it returned to the form of Rōshi.