Down below, the fighting beneath the Ten-Tails was just as brutal.
A threw out Rairyū Nekkutō (Lightning Plow Hot Knife), and Yugito's head went flying clean off.
A was naturally familiar with Yugito's fighting style. He caught the opening almost immediately, and with Yugito no longer having any tailed-beast chakra, dealing with her wasn't difficult.
"A, seal me already!" Yugito truly didn't want to keep being used as a tool.
"Relax. I'll find someone who can seal."
As he spoke, A drove another punch into Yugito's stomach, blasting her apart into fragments so she wouldn't regenerate too quickly.
Then he flashed away with Raiton Shunshin (Lightning Body Flicker). When he returned, Jiraiya was with him.
"Jiraiya, seal Yugito first!" A tossed out the order, then took Jiraiya's place and went to fight Minato instead.
"Yeah, yeah. I knew this 'dirty work' was going to end up on me." Jiraiya muttered as he hurriedly slapped a Fūin Fuda (Sealing Tag) onto Yugito, instantly sealing her up into something like a mummy.
Even so, he still flicked his gaze over her figure and shook his head in regret. What a knockout, and she had to be an Edo body. What a waste.
With a heave, he hurled the mummy toward the rear headquarters and let them handle the guard duty.
He'd barely finished there when Mei called him over—because Utakata had been taken down as well.
Utakata's real strength wasn't that high to begin with; he'd mainly relied on his tailed beast. Now that the tailed beast was gone, Mei subdued him easily. Chōjūrō didn't even get a chance to step in.
Jiraiya slid over, sealed Utakata at speed, then flung that mummy toward the rear again.
After that, he, Mei, and Chōjūrō moved to support the others—and before long, they dealt with Roshi and Han too.
That left three troublesome opponents: Nagato, Minato, and Tobirama!
At that moment, Nagato was locked with Neji in a contest of gravity. The two faced each other from a distance, palms raised as if pressing against invisible hands, pulling so hard that space itself warped—neither giving an inch.
Nagato even spoke while maintaining the strain. "You've grown a lot since last time, but it's still not enough. You can become even stronger. I can feel your Tenseigan (Reincarnation Eye) still has room to evolve. Keep developing more powerful techniques, then defeat me—and destroy the Ten-Tails!"
Neji nodded. "I know. I've never stopped pushing it."
In truth, the Tenseigan's ceiling was terrifyingly high.
In the finale, Ōtsutsuki Toneri forced his way into a Six Paths-tier state through the Tenseigan's power alone, and his Gudōdama (Truth-Seeking Balls) techniques were outright monstrous.
Neji simply hadn't reached that level yet.
By comparison, someone who awakened the Rinnegan (Samsara Eye) typically only reached the level beyond Kage, still a huge step short of Six Paths-tier. Maybe you needed something like Sasuke's six-tomoe Rinnegan to truly enter Six Paths territory.
But Sasuke had been forcibly boosted with the Sage of Six Paths' help!
So really—reaching Six Paths-tier wasn't something you could just do.
Even Madara planned for so long, and after becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, he only barely qualified as Six Paths-tier. And even that "Six Paths-tier" still got ended by Black Zetsu with a simple hand-through-the-chest.
Honestly, it almost made Six Paths-tier feel… not that unbeatable.
Anyway—back to the point.
Nagato and Neji erupted with Shinra Tensei (Repulsive Force) at the same time, and the space between them looked like it might shatter. Still, neither side could overpower the other.
Seeing that, no one dared interfere. Instead, everyone swarmed toward Tobirama and Minato—ganging up on two Hokage should let them win faster.
Tobirama even praised them. "Good. That's it. Defeat us together, then hurry and support the jinchūriki!"
Minato added, "Jiraiya-sensei, Tsunade-sama—Naruto is in your hands!"
Then everyone surged in.
In the rear, Tenten swallowed a Hyōrōgan (Soldier Pill). While resting and recovering, she lifted a set of binoculars to observe the battlefield.
When she saw her husband blast off another of the Ten-Tails' legs, she cheered with a grin, practically bouncing in place.
Others saw Yugito, Roshi, Han, and Utakata all defeated as well. Hearing the cheering, they joined in too. Overall, morale didn't dip at all.
On the contrary, with the main battlefield fighters holding the advantage, the rear headquarters was brimming with confidence.
After checking the perimeter again and confirming no White Zetsu had slipped in, Shikamaru finally let out a hard breath. But seeing how intense the fighting was up front—while everyone in the back could only watch—he scratched his head despite himself.
"What can we do?" Shikamaru blurted.
"Wow. Shikamaru, you're not calling it a pain for once," Tenten said, genuinely curious. "Aren't you the guy who hates hassle the most? You're actually thinking about helping now. Are you really Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Tenten, I hate hassle, sure—but when it's time to fight, I never slack off. Watching everyone battle while I can't do anything… that makes me uneasy too, you know?"
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
They wanted to charge in as well, but they also knew they couldn't.
They weren't strong enough. If they went, they'd only drag everyone down—or die for nothing. And that would be utterly meaningless.
So they could only watch, each of them wound tight and ready, thinking that if the moment came, they'd rush forward—if only to haul the wounded back.
Konan felt that most sharply.
To make up for her mistakes, she wanted to contribute however she could. But this fight had already escalated beyond anything she could participate in.
She'd once planned to offer up six hundred billion explosive tags so Tenten could pull out the ultimate money-path secret art. But now even Tenten couldn't recklessly step onto the field, let alone execute a plan like that.
Tenten was frustrated too. With the Six Paths ninja tools, she might not be able to do much—and the consumption cost was enormous.
She needed another way to help.
Then an image flashed through her mind: earlier, when Zhi Mu fired that railgun and blew off the Ten-Tails' left foreleg. She remembered the railgun principles Cao Mu had explained—and her eyes lit up.
She immediately pulled out paper and pen and began drafting a design.
By railgun theory, she'd need a special 1.7-meter barrel. With electrical power and magnetic force, the barrel would generate a tremendous push. Then she'd need to manufacture the projectile—so that, under that massive acceleration, it would launch at extreme speed. It should be able to inflict serious damage on the Ten-Tails.
If she carved a Hiraishin Jutsu-shiki (Flying Thunder God Formula) onto the projectile, then followed up with Qian-dō Ōgi (Way of Money Secret Art), at minimum she could blow the Ten-Tails so hard it would go cross-eyed—and that alone would count as meaningful support.
Most importantly, she'd be attacking from the rear, so it would be safe.
So what was she waiting for? Do it.
Tenten decisively opened a scroll and summoned a massive pile of iron sand. Then she activated the magnet-release external heart module on her right arm and began shaping the iron sand with Jiton (Magnet Release) to form the barrel.
Seeing her work, everyone gathered around to watch.
Before long, a gigantic barrel was completed—its first round already snapped back and slammed into the chamber in an instant.
(End of Chapter)
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