There's a very simple way to determine whether Iwagakure is targeting Team One or Shen specifically.
All they have to do is split up and go their separate ways—then we'll know for sure.
"No way!" Nayou instantly rejected the idea while tightly hugging Shen's left arm.
Nawaki, who didn't have time to be envious, also disagreed. "You've gotta be kidding! What if all those people chase after you?"
A swell of warmth rose in Shen's chest, and as he glanced back at the Rock-nin fifty meters behind, his resolve to split up hardened further.
But the sensations from both hands made him hesitate slightly.
The crux of Shen's hesitation was precisely here—should he value his own life or his teammates' safety more?
Shen's dilemma lay exactly there.
At the Exchange Site, after spending over ten minutes preparing, Jiraiya finally completed his preparations.
"Thanks for your help," he said to Orochimaru and Tsunade before suddenly standing up and leaping into the air.
Filling with a mysterious chakra, his face began to change eerily.
His flat, round pupils, the red markings spreading down from his eye sockets, the scattered warts across his face, and the webbing between his fingers—all of these made him seem like a completely different person.
"This feeling…" Orochimaru's expression shifted to astonishment.
The chakra characteristics Jiraiya revealed when he jumped gave Orochimaru, this former biologist, an indescribable sense of awe.
Han, locked in fierce combat with Tsunade, naturally sensed this approaching presence.
However, he currently had no capacity to respond to it.
Because Tsunade had already launched her devastating counterattack—a brutal injury-for-injury strategy.
"Boom!" Their fists collided, flattening everything within a five-meter radius around them.
Their battlefield had already been reduced to ruins after hundreds of such powerful exchanges.
Mid-air, Jiraiya focused chakra into his right palm and swung directly toward Han, who was struggling against Tsunade.
"Aaaah!" A large amount of steam burst from Han's body.
He suddenly threw a punch at the approaching webbed hand.
The Sage Art from Mount Myoboku and the superhuman strength granted by the Five-Tails' Boil Release met head-on.
With a slap, Han—who was fighting two opponents alone—was slammed into the ground.
Unfamiliar with Sage Arts, Han was then grabbed by a giant hand and held down firmly.
Jiraiya pressed down hard on Han, but he didn't look even slightly at ease.
The Five-Tails Jinchuriki who could fight Tsunade for over ten minutes could at most be suppressed for two or three minutes, even with his imperfect Sage Mode.
"Hurry and find Team One!" Jiraiya's expression was resolute as he chose to face Han alone.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Tsunade clenched her right fist and punched Han.
Then she followed up with a left hook. "This is a Jinchuriki! It took that much commotion just for Shen to take down the Four-Tails!"
Jiraiya, adding even more pressure with both hands, felt a quiet wave of emotion inside.
However, after absorbing several brutal blows, Han suddenly burst forth with shocking power.
"This hurts like hell!" Han's entire body started to emit crimson chakra.
The two men who sensed the change immediately recognized it as a partial Tailed Beast Transformation—one that allowed only limited rationality.
"Get lost!" Han, his single crimson tail flaring, easily swept both opponents aside.
After landing and locking eyes with Han's hateful gaze, Jiraiya swiftly bit his thumb.
[Stage Collapse Summoning Technique!] After activating the summoning technique, he grabbed Tsunade and withdrew.
Gamamay Chung descended from the sky, crashing straight into Han, who was enveloped in a chakra cloak.
The shocking shockwave caused the two retreating figures to tremble even after they had fled two or three hundred meters away.
"Darn it!" The moment the pressure vanished, Han quickly rose.
Bang!!! Gamamay Chung leaped upward again, slamming heavily onto Han.
Under Gamamay Chung's second strike, Han flattened further as he tried growing a second tail to resist the third blow.
But barely holding onto his sanity, Han didn't realize that each time Gamamay Chung jumped, his strength increased significantly.
After striking Han seven or eight times consecutively, Gamamay Chung finally drove him motionless into a deep pit.
Exhausted from using so much chakra, Jiraiya's Sage Mode features gradually began fading away.
For someone whose mastery of Sage Techniques wasn't strong, maintaining Sage Mode for nearly three minutes already counted as an extraordinary feat.
"Watch out!" Tsunade noticed Han generating a third tail.
Jiraiya used the final few seconds of his Sage Mode to hurl Han straight up into the air.
Orochimaru in the distance spotted the small red dot overhead.
Without much time to think, Orochimaru pulled out his powerful rocket launcher.
Smoothly loading the ammunition and aiming, he squeezed the red trigger.
A missile trailing a long flame struck Han spinning mid-air during his freefall descent.
With an explosion spanning nearly twenty meters, half of Han's crimson tail was blown clean off.
Hitting successfully, Orochimaru promptly loaded the next round.
The secret weapon originally intended for Takigakure was now being fired nonstop, as if they were expendable.
"Ugh!!!" Roaring furiously after losing most of his chakra cloak, Han released numerous large crimson chakra masses.
Everyone on the battlefield ignored their enemies' attacks, lifting their heads toward this spherical chakra mass.
"Has Han gone berserk too?" Roshi stared at the expanding chakra mass, suddenly feeling eerily disconnected from his familiar surroundings.
Rock-nin guarding him gathered closer, with their leader placing a hand on his shoulder. "Lord Roshi, we must retreat."
"Alright." Nodding in agreement, Roshi quietly started withdrawing from the battlefield under their escort.
When the tailed beast chakra expanded beyond a hundred meters, everyone began fleeing desperately.
Ninja from the Allied Forces followed Angel's command, evacuating far from the area.
When Five-Tails Kokuo — its body horse-shaped, with a gray-white coloration and a dolphin-like long horn protruding from its head — appeared, both sides had already retreated beyond a three-hundred-meter radius.
[Hssss—] Controlled by an unconscious Han, Five-Tails Kokuo let out a prolonged roar before beginning to gather massive amounts of chakra in front of its open mouth.
"This isn't good!"
"That direction..." Tsunade glanced toward the west, where the Tailed Beast Ball was aimed.
There lay a nation in that direction—one eager to join this war, yet viewed with hostility by others.
Orochimaru quickly unsealed over a dozen rocket launchers from the Sealing Scroll.
Without needing explanation, Jiraiya and Tsunade swiftly loaded the ammunition.
Three shells struck directly at Kokuo's mouth, completely dispersing the half-formed Tailed Beast Ball.
"Boom!!!" The chakra inside the rockets reacted with Five-Tails' chakra, triggering an explosion comparable to the power of a Tailed Beast Ball itself.
Yet moments later, Kokuo swung its tail and aside from additional scratches and soot, it had only sustained minor injuries.
"Hiss—" Letting out another skyward roar, it charged straight toward the location from which the rockets had been fired.
Despite its massive fifty-meter-tall body, Kokuo ran forward without even a hint of sluggishness.
After fumbling through a clumsy reload, Mamba—acting as chief commander—shouted out with rallying words: "Everyone! Tailed beasts aren't invincible! The capture of the Four-Tails Jinchuriki is the strongest proof!"
The remaining elite forces of Konoha, Sunagakure, and Kusagakure were all inspired by his words.
Sunagakure's Verbal Jutsu—truly lived up to its reputation as the art of battlefield persuasion.
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