The Central District burned, its flames lighting up the pitch-black sky in crimson.
With a single slash of its claws, Nine-Tails sent buildings toppling one after another.
Explosions, cries, and furious shouts mixed into a horrifying scene.
"Look this way, Nine-Tails!"
"Where are you looking?"
"Face me, damn it!"
To draw Nine-Tails' attention away from the villagers, the ninjas unleashed all their techniques at once.
Though most of them were weak, some even collapsing from chakra exhaustion after just a few jutsu, they didn't give up; kunai, senbon, shuriken, and explosive tags—anything they could throw was hurled at Nine-Tails in a desperate attempt to stop it.
"Don't be afraid! Even if we can't defeat Nine-Tails, we must do our best to hold it back and give everyone a fighting chance to evacuate!"
"Aid Lord Hiruzen in driving Nine-Tails out of the village!"
Seeing their efforts, the Third Hokage felt a sense of pride while biting his thumb and slamming it onto the ground. "Come forth, Enma, the Monkey King!"
A monkey appeared, arms folded. "It's Nine-Tails! Was the seal released?"
"No time to explain—we must drive it out of the village immediately!" the Third declared firmly. "Enma, use the Adamantine Staff!"
"Understood!"
With a nod, Enma transformed into a thick, long iron staff.
The Third gripped the staff tightly and commanded, "Extend!"
The staff shot upward in length, pressing directly against Nine-Tails as if trying to push it out of the village.
However, halfway through being pushed, Nine-Tails suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke.
"What the—jutsu?!" The Third's eyes widened, his mouth twitching violently. "Seiki, Minato, what the hell did you teach it?!"
If Nine-Tails could use jutsu, how was anyone supposed to fight it?
Even more shockingly, the fox reappeared, its hind legs crouched on the ground while its front paws began forming hand seals in a surprisingly humanoid manner.
"Nine-Tails using elemental techniques?" The Third's scalp prickled at the thought of what kind of devastation a bijuu with that much chakra could unleash. Why was he, a former Hokage, doing something this dangerous?
No time to think. The Third immediately summoned four shadow clones and activated his signature technique—[Five Elements: Great Blast Bullet Technique!]
The five types of elemental chakra merged together, clashing violently with the [One Thousand Fold Grand Fireball Jutsu] that Nine-Tails had just finished sealing.
The resulting explosion was like the splitting of heaven and earth itself. The shockwave instantly destroyed the surrounding buildings, tearing up entire streets and leaving the ground scorched and cracked like burnt tortoiseshell!
Villagers who hadn't managed to escape suffered severe injuries from even a glancing blow of the shockwave.
"Hiruzen's battle with Nine-Tails is too intense—we can't get close at all!"
"Hurry, help the wounded! That's the summoned beast from Lord Seiki's people over there!"
"Cursed bastard! Look at this destruction!" The Third's eyes were bloodshot with fury.
Before he could counterattack, he saw Nine-Tails' front paws each form a sun-sized Rasengan, while another tailed beast ball began forming in its mouth, aimed straight at him.
"There's no way to fight this!"
Hiruzen was filled with grief and rage. Before, he had barely managed to suppress the Nine-Tails, but now, he considered himself lucky to still be alive.
Even so, he did not give up.
[Summoning Technique: Quintuple Rashomon!]
Five gates, symbols of hell's entrance, instantly appeared before him.
The Nine-Tails ignored everything, launching its Tailed Beast Ball and taking out one gate at a time. Finally, the Tailed Beast Ball it fired destroyed the remaining three gates.
Luckily, Hiruzen had already anticipated the Rashomon might not hold. Using the moment the Nine-Tails' vision was blocked by the Quintuple Rashomon, he quickly sidestepped to create some distance.
Then, as soon as the Quintuple Rashomon was destroyed, he swung the iron staff toward the Nine-Tails from the left.
The Nine-Tails was being controlled and in a frenzied state, failing to notice Hiruzen's movement. By the time it reacted, it had already been hit by the iron staff.
"Ow!"
"Finally hit you!"
Hearing the Nine-Tails' painful cry, a look of joy appeared on Hiruzen's face. However, before he could relax slightly, he saw the Nine-Tails endure the pain and tightly grab the other end of the iron staff.
In the next moment, the Nine-Tails raised the staff high, lifting Hiruzen into the air, and then slammed him down with all its strength.
Of course, Hiruzen didn't dare to match the Nine-Tails in strength and could only let go and dodge.
Boom!
The terrifying force instantly caused the ground to collapse, and the spreading shockwave was like a super earthquake.
"Phew! That was close!" Looking at the ruined state of where he had been standing, cold sweat streamed down Hiruzen's back. If he had been hit, he would have been flattened into a meat pancake.
However, the Nine-Tails didn't plan to let him off easily. Swinging the iron staff fiercely, it continuously struck at him like whacking moles.
Seeing the Nine-Tails swinging the iron staff, Hiruzen cried in his heart—this Nine-Tails was truly unfair!
Using Ninjutsu was one thing, but even his iron staff had been snatched away!
"Enma, shrink!"
Upon hearing Hiruzen's command, the iron staff immediately shrank and slipped out from between the Nine-Tails' claws.
The Nine-Tails, as if it had lost its favorite toy, roared furiously and began forming hand seals again.
With a "Bang!" sound, a dozen Nine-Tails clones surrounded Hiruzen.
"This is... the Shadow Clone Technique?" Seeing this scene, Hiruzen's heart turned cold.
With the Nine-Tails' chakra reserves, creating thousands of Shadow Clones was effortless, but its large body meant too many clones would push it out of Konoha.
Still, even just a dozen clones were enough to make Hiruzen feel hopeless.
A dozen Nine-Tails clones rushed forward together, surrounding him in the middle and pounding him relentlessly.
One minute later.
Hiruzen lay in a crater, staring at the night sky. The pain spreading throughout his body made it impossible for him even to stand up. "I've done my best! Unfortunately, I couldn't use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal from the beginning!"
The Dead Demon Consuming Seal required the enemy to be restrained before it could land a hit. In his current state, there was no way he could restrain the Nine-Tails.
After all, I never imagined from the start that I would be facing off against an upgraded version of the Nine-Tails... Hiruzen thought bitterly, helplessly watching the Nine-Tails raise its fist toward him.
"Something's wrong! Hurry and protect Third Lord!"
"It's over! Even the Third Lord has been defeated!"
Surrounding ninja rushed forward recklessly, but the Nine-Tails simply swatted them away with one hand.
They were completely on different levels!
[Fire Release: Hiding in Ashes!]
A surge of grayish ash rushed forward. The Nine-Tails hesitated for a moment, and someone seized the chance to drag the Third out.
Then, the ash suddenly exploded into a blazing sea of fire, engulfing the Nine-Tails.
"Asuma?" The Third stared in disbelief at the person who had rescued him.
Asuma proudly placed his hands on his waist. "Hah! This time it's my turn to protect you!"
Just as he finished speaking, both of them were tackled to the ground by another person.
The ground where they had stood was smashed by a claw covered in flames.
"Fool! This isn't the time to be proud of yourself!" Mizuki said coldly.
"Hmph! Thanks for that just now," Asuma mumbled.
The Third forced himself up to his feet. "Don't let your guard down. Our enemy is the Nine-Tails!"
"Third Lord, let us try an awakening attack!" Guy gave a thumbs-up.
"Awakening attack?" The Third looked confused.
"Exactly like this!" Guy dashed toward the Nine-Tails and launched a powerful aerial kick. "Nine-Tails, play Diamond Five!"
At that moment, something stirred in the Nine-Tails' DNA. As it slapped Guy away, it instinctively shouted, "I call Diamond Six!"
"It actually works!" Kakashi twitched his lips and launched an Earth Dragon Projectile Jutsu. "Play Diamond Ten!"
The Nine-Tails fell silent for a moment, then cried out in despair, "I can't play!"
Everyone stared wide-eyed. You really think your luck's that bad? You're giving up already?
Driven mad by pain, the Nine-Tails became even more furious, attacking everything around it uncontrollably.
"Oh no, we seem to have messed things up!" Asuma muttered nervously.
The Third sighed as well. How naïve of him to have hoped for their help.
Facing the rampaging Nine-Tails, the people of Konoha found themselves in an even more desperate situation.
Elsewhere,
Shinku Yuhi leaned against a rock, her face smeared with blood. Coughing up blood, she sighed, "I really overestimated myself. Seeing the Nine-Tails controlled by [Genjutsu], I actually thought I could challenge that power."
Kurenai frantically tore open a medical scroll, her voice breaking with tears. "Don't talk anymore, please!"
Shinku Yuhi gave a bitter smile. "If I don't speak now, there won't be another chance from now on."
"That's not true!" Kurenai shook her head fiercely, biting her lip. "You absolutely will pull through!"
"I know my body better than anyone." Shinku Yuhi took a deep breath. "You must take good care of yourself... Cough, cough... Seiki is a good match for you. You two absolutely must..."
"That's right, Seiki!" Kurenai said excitedly. "Just hold on a little longer. Seiki will come soon, and he'll definitely save you!"
"I believe he'll come, but not to save me..." Shinku Yuhi's eyes sparkled with bright light. "He'll come to save Konoha. I'm sure he can do it!"
Elsewhere,
Iruka trembled as he cried out, "Blood... Mom, there's so much blood on you."
"Mom is fine. Hurry, get away from here!"
"How can you be fine with all this blood?"
"Iruka frantically shouted toward the battlefield, "Dad, Mom got hit by a rock while protecting me!"
"Who told you to come here from the evacuation zone?" his father scolded angrily, then quickly called out, "Hurry up and find any Katsuyu-sama nearby!"
"Katsuyu-sama?" Iruka anxiously looked around, but all the nearby Katsuyu were either busy treating other wounded people or had curled up from exhaustion.
"What do I do?! What do I do?!"
Just as he stood there crying in despair, a fine drizzle began falling from the sky.
Moments from losing consciousness, Iruka's mother sensed something strange. This rain... seemed filled with powerful vitality.
"Am I imagining this?"
At that moment, as she questioned herself, a voice suddenly rang out across the battlefield.
"Everyone who can't wait for Katsuyu's treatment, try your best to let your wounds touch the raindrops—these raindrops carry healing power!"
At this voice, everyone on the battlefield trembled with excitement and turned their eyes toward its source.
There, Seiki stood atop the Hokage Rock, shouting, "Sorry I'm late!"
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~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** on the weekend!