Rin had always known how strong Mitsuki was. No matter the enemy, she believed that as long as Mitsuki was there, everything would be fine.
Obito, on the other hand, was unusually silent. Normally he would shout in confidence, but this time he held his tongue. He had realized he might be a jinx—every time he yelled "We did it!" something terrible happened right after.
"Damn it! What the hell is the Intelligence Division doing? What's with this brat? How can he be this strong?!"
Rasa cursed bitterly in his heart, his condition already worsening. And those strange chakra orbs Mitsuki used—he hadn't been able to understand them at all. Each seemed capable of instantly transforming into different elemental jutsu. What kind of absurd ninjutsu was that?
Absurd indeed.
Unlike the accidental creation of the Blazing Wind Annihilation, Mitsuki's Rasen Orbs were the result of painstaking development.
Though the name resembled the Rasengan, the two were fundamentally different. The Rasengan's core was a chaotic storm of chakra currents, but inside a Rasen Orb, the chakra rotated in a steady clockwise motion.
Up until now, Mitsuki had shown destructive jutsu of massive scale. But the Rasen Orb was different—it was a functional jutsu. Each orb contained pure, non-elemental chakra, which Mitsuki could use as a core to instantly reproduce any ninjutsu his body could perform.
At first glance, that might not seem like much. If he could use jutsu himself, why bother with orbs? But Mitsuki knew better than anyone the limits of the human body.
He had only two hands, which meant he could only form and release two jutsu at once. Combination techniques like Blazing Wind Annihilation were even more restrictive, wasting precious time.
It was like running a giant bank but only having two service windows open.
With the precision chakra control granted by his Six Eyes, that was nothing but a waste. So Mitsuki created the Rasen Orbs—tools to bypass those human limitations.
The earlier battle had proven their value. While defending against Rasa's Gold Dust Rain with a fire shield, Mitsuki had simultaneously unleashed Ground Current and Rasenshuriken—three jutsu at once.
That seamless combo had crushed Rasa instantly. This was the true advantage of the Rasen Orbs.
Back on the battlefield—
Mitsuki willed another orb to fly forward. It transformed with the cry of a thousand birds into a lightning spear, piercing toward the helpless Rasa at blinding speed.
Rasa tried to raise a golden sand wall, but his body was too battered. The grains of sand barely lifted before collapsing back down, lifeless.
"Damn it, move! Move, you cursed sand!"
The scene mirrored moments ago when Rasa had driven sand spikes toward Tsunade. Now, the roles were reversed.
Just as the lightning spear was about to end him—
The ground beneath Rasa cracked open, and a red figure erupted from below, shoving him aside at the last possible moment.
Zzzt!
The Chidori spear slammed into the ground, missing Rasa's skull by a fraction of a second. He could feel death brushing past him.
A cloak of red chakra, with a single tail swaying behind it—there was no mistaking it.
The One-Tails' jinchūriki, Bunpuku.
This didn't surprise Mitsuki. The instant Minato had teleported him back with the Flying Thunder God, Mitsuki had activated his Six Eyes to scan the area within several dozen kilometers. Of course he had noticed Bunpuku.
That was why he'd walked slowly toward Rasa instead of rushing in close with Body Flicker. He had been wary of Bunpuku ambushing Tsunade and the others while he was occupied.
If Bunpuku had attacked them, Mitsuki was confident he could have intercepted him instantly.
Although in the original story Bunpuku was a gentle monk who longed for peace, Mitsuki wasn't about to let "character profiles" from another timeline cloud his judgment. Information was just reference material—the truth, he would judge with his own eyes.
In the end, Bunpuku hadn't gone for Rin or Tsunade. He had saved Rasa instead.
"What now?" Bunpuku, wrapped in the tailed ceast cloak, asked Rasa calmly.
"Take him down. As long as he dies, the rest are nothing."
Rasa knew better than anyone the situation Suna was in. They had staked everything on this operation. If they couldn't kill Konoha's forces here—especially Tsunade—Suna would face inevitable defeat. Even if it cost him his life, he had to see this mission through.
With Bunpuku now committed, Mitsuki flickered to the edge of the crater carved by his Rasenshuriken. From above, he looked down coldly at Rasa.
"You really went all out for this little ambush. You even brought a jinchūriki."
Rasa didn't answer. In truth, he had opposed deploying a jinchūriki during the strategy meetings. With enough Explosive Tags at his disposal, he had believed he could carry out the mission alone.
But reality had proven him wrong. The tags had devastated Konoha's camp as planned, leaving many incapacitated—but he had been outplayed and crushed by this rising prodigy, Mitsuki.
What the hell were Konoha's kids being fed?
"Bunpuku, do it."
At Rasa's order, the monk gathered chakra in his mouth.
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
"No, I can't let you fire that." Mitsuki's eyes narrowed. Many Konoha shinobi were still unconscious nearby. He hadn't even resorted to his most destructive jutsu yet, and he wasn't about to let the battlefield be annihilated.
The Chidori spear embedded in the ground twisted unnaturally, morphing into a jagged net of lightning that spread outward, instantly trapping both Rasa and Bunpuku.
The violent current disrupted the forming Tailed Beast Ball, scattering it before it could launch.
Of course Mitsuki had prepared for Bunpuku.
Two more Rasen Orbs shot forward from his back. One darkened into a deep violet blaze.
"Great Flame Rasengan!"
The other split apart into countless coin-sized spheres.
"Finger-Gun Rasengan: Bullet Rain!"
Bunpuku's cloak flared wildly, swelling with raw chakra. Scarlet energy surged outward, wrapping the lightning net and smothering its current. Strange symbols, like wriggling tadpoles, crawled across the cloak, sealing away the raging lightning in an instant.