"Get out of here quickly!" Minato shouted urgently at Chijin. At this moment, Chijin was trying to use a kunai to scratch away the sealing formula covering the tree trunk. It was creative, but once a sealing technique had already been deployed, even destroying the entire tree wouldn't undo it.
"Farewell, Yellow Flash" Chiyo's gaze turned cold. To catch a speed-type shinobi like him was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Chakra-Light Spear Assault!"
In the blink of an eye, the blue chakra spear was about to pierce straight through Minato's body.
But then a somewhat young, yet confident, voice rang out:
"Shukaku!"
"Got it!"
Countless grains of sand surged upward from beneath Minato and Sarutobi, wrapping them completely.The blue chakra spear slammed against the sand sphere with violent tremors. Waves of air burst outward from the point of contact between spear and shield.
The spear actually began to pierce into the sand sphere—But only barely. Light Spear Assault was not a sustained ninjutsu. After a few seconds of struggle, the blue spear flickered weakly several times before dissipating.
In this clash between spear and shield, it was ultimately the Shield of Sand, molded personally by Shukaku, that prevailed.
"This… could it be…?" Chiyo's pupils shrank. She knew exactly what that Shield of Sand represented.
"The great tanuki-sama is back, you bastards of Sunagakure!" Shukaku canceled his Subterranean Voyage, his massive body erupting from underground as he roared his arrival to everyone around.
Mitsuki leapt from Shukaku's palm to his head.
"Break that sealing technique first. Save Captain Minato."
Hearing Mitsuki's command, Shukaku immediately dispersed the Shield of Sand, revealing Minato immobilized inside the sealing barrier.
Shukaku formed hand seals. Sand spread rapidly across the ground, climbing over the Lion Closing Roar that restrained Minato. Black sealing formulas surfaced, completely overriding and destroying Chiyo's original seal.
Seeing the Lion Closing Roar about to be undone, Chiyo had no time to even question why the One-Tail was here — let alone why it was siding with Konoha. She swung her hands, sending all six of the ten puppets attacking Minato at once.
Some unleashed volleys of projectiles; others spat fire and wind blades from hidden mechanisms. Chiyo didn't care if they were effective—this was her only chance to kill Minato.
Her expression darkened.
"Damn you, Shimizu Mitsuki!" This time, it wasn't mock anger—she was truly furious.
But before Mitsuki even had to speak, Shukaku's tail swept once, blocking every single attack. That was why Tailed Beasts were considered the ultimate weapons of shinobi villages. Ninjutsu that could devastate ninja barely even registered against a Tailed Beast. As for poisoned projectiles—deadly to humans—against a Bijū it was nothing but a joke.
"All done!" As expected of the "genius among Tailed Beasts" Shukaku broke Minato's seal in just a few seconds.
The sealing array crumbled, rendering the Lion's Roar Binding useless.Sarutobi Chihito braced himself and tore the lion head mechanism straight off the tree.
"Mitsuki!" Freed at last, Minato's first words were to shout Mitsuki's name.
Mitsuki understood instantly and called back loudly:
"Don't worry! I already dealt with the enemies at camp—Tsunade and Rin are safe too!"
He raised his voice not only so Minato could hear, but also to let every shinobi on both sides of the battlefield know. This would boost Konoha's morale while crushing Suna's.
Sure enough, under Mitsuki's Six Eyes, Chiyo's face in the distance turned green with rage. Feeling inwardly delighted, Mitsuki stood proudly atop Shukaku's head, gazing down over the battlefield.
"Time to clear the field, Suna-nin."
"BZZZZZZZ!"That unbearable, skin-crawling hum filled the air once more. Fierce wind-natured chakra, compressed to the limit under Mitsuki's precise control, gathered in his hands—Two massive chakra shuriken formed.
"Rasenshuriken!"
Mitsuki swung his arms, hurling them one after the other.The same familiar sound, the same devastating technique.The Suna shinobi were practically developing PTSD just from hearing it.
Through Mitsuki's Six Eyes, the battlefield looked like a strategy board game with full map vision unlocked. Guided by his control, the two Rasenshuriken tore across the field like twin blue race cars, annihilating every target marked as "enemy" in his sight.
On the battlefield—
"Die, damn Konoha shinobi!" A Suna shinobi raised his kunai, ready to stab a Leaf shinobi who had just finished off another enemy and wasn't expecting a strike from behind.
As his pupils dilated in shock, already seeing his life flash before his eyes—A blue flash streaked past. His ears rang with that shrill hum.
The Suna shinobi who had been about to kill him was suddenly sliced clean in half, collapsing to the ground, twitching.
Scenes like this kept repeating across the battlefield. Even though Mitsuki had released only two Rasenshuriken, in terms of reaping ordinary shinobi's lives, Chiyo's puppets — Even all ten of the together — couldn't compare in the slightest.
Any Suna shinobi who survived this war and returned home would never forget the Rasenshuriken.
Meanwhile—
"Hahahaha! Ebizō, you still won't surrender? Keep this up and Sunagakure's men will all die out! Don't you dare blame Jiraiya-sama when it happens, heh heh heh!"
Jiraiya was trading taijutsu blows with Ebizō, all while spitting endless trash talk to rattle his opponent.
Ebizō had lived with strict discipline for most of his life, priding himself on his composure. But today, this Jiraiya was breaking through all his defenses.
And seeing the One-Tail seemingly under Mitsuki's control, it was clear Rasa's ambush had failed as well. Loss after loss had already frayed his patience.
Now with Jiraiya's incessant trash talk—he nearly choked in rage.
"There's an opening! Wild Lion's Mane!"
Seeing his words finally take effect, Jiraiya exclaimed gleefully, instantly unleashing ninjutsu as his hair whipped violently toward Ebizō.
Ebizō had never faced anything… quite like this. He couldn't even find words for it. He dodged frantically, barely keeping up.
Despite his cocky chatter, Jiraiya had nearly been scared to death earlier watching Minato in danger. If not for Mitsuki showing up at the right time to save him, he didn't dare imagine what Kushina would do to him if Minato had been gravely injured here.
Speaking of which — That Mitsuki kid was a monster. In just a short time, he had slaughtered so many Suna shinobi. Jiraiya couldn't even begin to guess how high his bounty would climb on the black market one day. And even the Tailed Beast listened to him.
For a moment, Jiraiya even wondered if the "Child of Prophecy" he'd been searching for was really Nagato after all.