"Gates, what's wrong?"
Uzumaki Minami asked in surprise and suspicion, but Gates ignored her, continuing to gather power, while its body gradually grew larger.
Both bear paws continuously gathered the power of the earth, then the bear's mouth opened, forming a golden energy ball.
The golden light grew stronger, and once Gates noticed the opponent's energy ball was about to launch, it directly attacked first!
Beast King Roar Bullet!
Bang!
The golden energy ball shot out from Gates' mouth, and the powerful shockwave directly flattened nearby houses. Along the path of the Beast King Roar Bullet, the shockwave plowed a deep trench, utterly destroying all the buildings.
Outside Kikyo Castle, Shukaku, which had just sent two toads flying, also completed the Tailed Beast Ball, launching it towards Kikyo Castle.
"Hahaha, humans, all of you die! Die!"
But after Shukaku fired the Tailed Beast Ball, it suddenly realized a golden energy ball flew out from inside Kikyo Castle, directly hitting its Tailed Beast Ball.
The Tailed Beast Ball and Beast King Roar Bullet collided directly. After a moment of stalemate between the golden and black energy spheres, they suddenly exploded in an extremely dazzling white light with a deafening thunderous noise.
The powerful shockwave and impact directly blew off Kikyo Castle's walls. In the ground beneath the explosion of such magnitude, an enormous pit appeared, even blowing away the clouds in the sky with the strong wind generated by the explosion.
"Bastard..."
Shukaku, relatively close, was blown away by the impact of the Tailed Beast Ball and Beast King Roar Bullet explosion, rolling on the ground a couple of times.
As for Gama Bunta and Gama Ken in the distance, they suffered less damage than Shukaku but still couldn't maintain the Summoning Jutsu, disappearing with a puff of thick fog, returning to Mount Myoboku.
"Damn bastards, daring to sneak attack your grandpa Shukaku, and that old monk, how come you can't hold on fast enough, you're all bastards!"
Shukaku kept cursing, but its massive body still slowly turned to sand and then dispersed, finally emerging from the sand, a withered human figure walked out.
The Hidden Sand Ninja in the distance, seeing Shukaku disappear, quickly rushed two teams forward to protect Bunboku, escorting him away immediately.
But before leaving, they fired a signal flare into the sky, then headed straight back to their Hidden Sand camp without looking back.
This was their mission; once Shukaku disappeared, they were to immediately take the Jinchuriki back, without worrying about anything else.
After the signal flare exploded in the air, Hidden Sand Ninja at several other battlefields noticed it.
Rasa, who was in a confrontation with Jiraiya, also saw it, then sneered and said, "Jiraiya, it seems like your Konoha Ninjas are all going to die, that loud noise just now should be the Tailed Beast Ball.
If you don't want to die here, bring out your Konoha's Nine-tailed Jinchuriki, or get out of Kikyo Castle!"
Rasa also wanted to know whether Konoha's Nine-tailed Jinchuriki could fight, as it hadn't appeared in the Second Ninja World War, seeming as if Konoha was always hiding the Jinchuriki.
"Stop dreaming, Rasa!"
Jiraiya made a double-handed seal, his hair rapidly growing longer, and becoming as hard as steel, but the next moment got entangled by the Golden Sand controlled by Rasa.
The two were evenly matched, if Jiraiya summoned the two Great Immortals to enter Sage Mode, he could overpower Rasa, but Rasa definitely wouldn't give Jiraiya that much time, and there was no environment nearby for Jiraiya to stall.
"Let's call it a day here, the next time Hidden Sand attacks, Kikyo Castle will be your burial ground."
After saying this, Rasa used the Golden Sand Torrent to force Jiraiya back, then leaped back, retreating from the battlefield.
Just now, the signal flare signified that the Jinchuriki had been recovered, along with the massive explosion sound, making Rasa think that after Shukaku had released the Tailed Beast Ball, due to Bunboku's body not withstanding the Tailed Beast Transformation, he was taken away by the recovery team.
However, the Tailed Beast Ball had been released, and surely Konoha suffered a lot of damage. Hidden Sand's objective for today was achieved.
Chiyo at another battlefield also noticed the signal flare from the Tailed Beast recovery team, and she quickly led the other Hidden Sand Ninja to withdraw from the battlefield.
This time, Chiyo demonstrated true skill—the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets, an S-Class Puppet Secret Technique, simultaneously controlling ten intricate puppets to confront the enemy.
These ten puppets standing in sets of three, whenever Namikaze Minato tried to destroy one, he would face attacks from the other two puppets. Moreover, if Namikaze Minato attacked other Hidden Sand Ninja, Chiyo would also redirect her puppets towards the Konoha Ninja.
The new antidote hadn't been developed yet, anyone injured by these ten puppets would surely die, so Namikaze Minato could only continue to be entangled with Grandma Chiyo forcibly.
The other Hidden Sand Ninja achieved significant results, with over half of the Konoha Ninja being poisoned to death after the Hidden Sand's retreat.
After the retreat of the Hidden Sand, Konoha quickly counted the casualties, redeployed personnel, and also involved the medical team in the rescue operations.
"What? It's Uchiha Minami's Summoned Beast? That bear knocked away the One-tailed's Tailed Beast Ball?"
Jiraiya was shocked upon hearing this. He had rushed back fearing something might have happened to Kikyo Castle, but after hearing the report from Nara Shikaku, he found that Kikyo Castle suffered far less damage than he imagined.
However, the news about that bear indeed shocked him. Why did they hide such a powerful Summoned Beast, not reporting it to the village?
But Jiraiya also recalled Gama Bunta and Gama Ken, not knowing how they were doing.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Jiraiya summoned a small toad, then said, "Kosuke, how are Bunta and Ken?"
Gama Kosuke said, "Seriously injured, probably won't be able to move for a month. Jiraiya, who were the bosses fighting?"
Jiraiya said apologetically, "The One-tailed!"
"Oh, that monster, no wonder the boss and Ken Bro got so badly hurt. Alright, I have to go back now, if you want to summon the boss for battle, you better wait a month."
"I understand, Kosuke, let Bunta and Ken rest well."
After saying this, Jiraiya sent Kosuke off.
"Shikaku, is the One-tailed Jinchuriki injured?"
Nara Shikaku shook his head, "I don't know, it was impossible to investigate at that time. When we reached there, the One-tailed Jinchuriki had already been taken away."
"Jiraiya-sama, we can't be certain the One-tailed Jinchuriki is injured, they might use the Jinchuriki again in their next attack...."
Jiraiya suddenly got a headache, he knew that Hidden Sand wouldn't give up using the Jinchuriki, but they couldn't use Konoha's Jinchuriki either, releasing the Nine-tailed might just lead to their deaths.
"How about asking Uchiha Minami? If the Hidden Sand uses Jinchuriki, let her Summoned Beast join the battle?"
Jiraiya suggested, as he had just heard that Uzumaki Minami could also use the Vajra Seal, which was one of the best jutsus against Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts.
Nara Shikaku nodded internally, he had wanted to say this for a while, but it was better for Jiraiya-sama to mention it. Then he spoke, "Who should go to persuade her?"
Jiraiya looked at Namikaze Minato, who was Kushina's boyfriend and should be familiar with Kushina's clansmen.
But Namikaze Minato shook his head and said, "Jiraiya-sensei, I don't know her at all, I almost got Uchiha Minami and Kushina angry once, and I haven't spoken a word to her since."
"Forget it, I'll go talk to her."
There's no reason to shirk when contributing to the village.
Jiraiya decided, then turned his head to Nara Shikaku and said, "Shikaku, quickly count the people, set up patrols, have the Earth Release Ninja repair the walls temporarily, and set up a barrier, I'll provide the village with an update later."
"Understood, Jiraiya-sama."
Then, Nara Shikaku went down to make arrangements, the number of casualties was almost counted, nearly a hundred casualties were registered in just one night, and the injured couldn't return to the battlefield anytime soon, with some having to be arranged to return to the village for recovery.
Almost a fifth of the forces reduced in one night, although they also killed seventy or eighty Hidden Sand Ninja, the remaining ninja strength was hardly enough to cope, so they must request reinforcements from the village.