"Tenten, what are you doing…" Shikamaru felt like Tenten was getting a little carried away.
After all, they were very far from the Ten-Tails. Even a cannon might not reach it, let alone actually injure it. Worse, it could even hit their own people.
And yet—he didn't think she was doing something pointless.
Tenten wasn't stupid. After spending so long around Natsuki, picking things up by osmosis, she'd probably learned a thing or two.
Tenten smiled. "You saw the move Natsuki used to blow off the Ten-Tails' left foreleg, right? That's called a railgun. Natsuki explained the principle to me. I think we can try it. When the time comes, we'll pool everyone's chakra and launch the shell. I refuse to believe the Ten-Tails won't take any damage!"
Shikamaru immediately rubbed his chin. "If that works, it's actually a pretty good idea."
Konan noticed something too. "You carved a Flying Thunder God formula on the shell. Are you planning to run the money-style secret art again?"
"You caught that?" Tenten gave her a look that basically said, you're sharp. "I'm thinking if the shell can get close enough, we'll try blasting it with, say, one or two billion worth of secret-art bombing. If it works, we keep going until it dies!"
Lee squeezed in, eyes shining. "This is perfect! Not being able to help has been eating at us. If we can combine everyone's power and hit it with one shot, I'll burn my chakra to the last drop. Besides, we've got tens of thousands of people here. No way we can't blow it apart!"
"Yeah, yeah! And we're far enough back that it's not even dangerous!"
"Right. If we can't go up front without getting in the way, then we support from the rear. One shot and drop it!"
"Tenten's got it. Everyone, help out!"
More people crowded in, each of them fired up.
Because honestly, being unable to fight felt awful. Charging in would only get them killed or make things worse, so they'd been forced to sit on their hands—and it was driving them crazy. If they could at least contribute with long-range artillery, everyone was willing to go all-in.
Tenten smiled. "Easy, easy. Let me test it first. It should work."
With that, she began to sight in on the Ten-Tails.
The Ten-Tails was massive, so aiming wasn't hard. The real question was the railgun's range and output.
Once she had her line, Tenten decisively poured in a huge amount of Lightning Release. Lightning produced magnetism, and electromagnetic force instantly formed inside the barrel, generating a violent push that slammed the shell forward.
Boom!
The projectile screamed out trailing sparks and lightning, its speed not inferior to Natsuki's Storm Release.
Not long after, Shikamaru lowered his binoculars. "Tenten alone is too weak. Get more people—feed in more chakra, and tighten the aim!"
"I'll do it, I'll do it!"
"Move. How much chakra do you even have?"
"Let me. I've got the most!"
They rushed to volunteer, shoving so hard even Lee got pushed aside. In the blink of an eye, more than three hundred people were lined up behind her.
Tenten waved them into place. "I've corrected the direction, but I have to maintain the barrel with Magnet Release, or the recoil will shatter it. I need a few Lightning Release users up front to feed Lightning Release chakra into the barrel. Everyone else, supply those guys with chakra. When I trigger it, push together—everyone at once."
Three burly Cloud shinobi stepped to the very front.
They planted their big hands on the barrel. Behind them, a long chain formed—each person gripping the shoulders of the one in front, ready to pour power forward.
Shikamaru stayed on binocular duty to make sure they didn't accidentally tag Sasuke, Naruto, or the others. When he saw a wide, clean opening around the Ten-Tails, he signaled sharply.
Tenten immediately barked commands. "Now, start feeding chakra! Lightning Release chakra into the barrel—don't rush. Charge it, charge it, charge it! On three. One… two… three—fire!"
Boom!
A streak of white light erupted from the barrel, surging forward like it was going to tear the air apart.
The recoil was so savage it flipped the three hundred-plus people behind it onto their backs. But they scrambled up immediately, eyes locked on that white streak—
And then, with a heavy thud, it smashed into the Ten-Tails' right shoulder. The Ten-Tails staggered, and the shell actually punched in and lodged there.
"Yes! It worked!"
"Hahaha! That was incredible!"
"Yeah! It did damage!"
The damage wasn't huge, but it was damage. And if three hundred people could do that much—
What about ten thousand? Wouldn't that snap the Ten-Tails' remaining legs clean off?
Everyone started calling for more people, but most of them were wobbling on their feet. They'd nearly drained themselves dry and were exhausted.
Fortunately, Lee hadn't gotten to join earlier because he'd been shoved aside. Now he bounced off at full speed to spread the word.
Tenten checked through the binoculars again. Once she confirmed the shell was still embedded in the Ten-Tails, she immediately pulled out a scroll and summoned a mountain of explosive tags.
Konan used Paper Release to add even more, piling them right in front of Tenten. "Take as many as you want. Or do we just use everything?"
"Uh… let's start with fifty billion." Tenten's face went deadly serious. "I'm going to bleed myself dry for this."
She wrapped fifty billion explosive tags in chakra, used Flying Thunder God to warp them over for a delayed detonation, and shouted, "Money Style Super Secret Art—Fifty Billion Explosive Tags Jutsu!"
Up front, Sasuke and Naruto were still desperately keeping the Ten-Tails occupied.
But Sasuke felt something was off. He snapped, "Naruto, two things just flew in—felt like they came from behind. Was that an attack from the rear?"
Naruto didn't have the bandwidth. "No clue. But one of them looked like it punched into the Ten-Tails. That one hit hard!"
"What the hell is going—"
"Money Style Super Secret Art—Fifty Billion Explosive Tags Jutsu!"
The voice from the rear was loud—almost like it was meant to warn them. Sasuke and Naruto both jolted as they instantly understood what "money-style" meant.
And fifty billion?
Fifty billion explosive tags?!
That was insane.
"Everyone, get back! It's going to blow!"
Sasuke and Naruto shouted it out, then turned and hauled Tsunade and the others away at full speed. Gaara followed suit. Even Shino and Fuu hurried to get far out.
Tenten had deliberately set the explosion on a delay—specifically so their allies could clear the area.
The next second, an explosion tore the world open.
The Ten-Tails vanished beneath a colossal mushroom cloud, its screams swallowed whole.
The shockwave was so violent that, even at that distance, it hit like a hurricane and flipped everyone off their feet.
But as they tumbled, they laughed. Some of them were outright cackling.
"Hahahaha! We did it! No way that ugly thing survives!"
"Exactly! If it's still alive, we hit it with one hundred billion! One trillion!"
"Hey, hey—do we even have that many explosive tags?"
"Of course we do. Konan's got six hundred billion. And Tenten's loaded too. If we weren't worried about hitting our people up front, we could've dropped all six hundred billion and turned that Ten-Tails into paste!"
(End of Chapter)
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