"Bypass Susanoo! Focus on the Konoha shinobi!"
The Sarutobi commander shouted until his voice broke. Anyone who'd survived this past year of slaughter knew one thing—charging a Susanoo head-on was suicide. That towering red giant wasn't something you fought; it was something you survived around.
The order went out like wildfire, and the Sarutobi troops fanned wide across the blood-soaked field.
"Kill them all!"
Kunai flashed. Chakra blades sang. The two armies slammed together, steel on steel, flesh on flesh. Screams drowned under the sound of clashing weapons. In seconds, the air filled with blood mist ten meters high. Arms, heads, and courage flew in every direction. Thirty lives vanished in the first exchange alone.
"Dead men don't need orders."
Raizen's voice cut through the chaos like thunder. His Susanoo swung the Sword of Amaterasu downward. Black fire bloomed across the ground, devouring everything it touched. The flames hissed and spread, eating through the Sarutobi ranks like a living thing.
Someone screamed, "Summoning Technique!"
Raizen turned sharply—his Mangekyō spinning. A seal flared on the battlefield, and smoke exploded outward. When it cleared, a monster the size of a fortress loomed in the haze.
The Three-Tails.
Even Raizen felt the tremor in the earth as it shifted its weight.
On the Sarutobi side, terror spread faster than any command.
"Not that thing again…!"
"That demon—he's summoned it again!"
Men who had survived its last rampage now backed away on instinct. The last time the Three-Tails had appeared, it turned a river valley into a graveyard.
From behind the lines, Sarutobi Sanbei slammed his fist against the table in his command tent.
"Why hasn't the southern team reported back yet?! If that thing isn't ready soon, we'll all be dead before sundown!"
A grizzled voice answered him—it was Sarutobi Renji, his most reliable aide.
"Patriarch, the southern squad is proceeding, but the ritual is unstable. One mistake and everything could—"
"There's no time! Half an hour! Tell them to finish it within half an hour, no matter the cost!"
"Understood!"
Renji disappeared into the storm of chakra and steel, sprinting south toward the Floating Slope.
Hidden deep beyond that ridge lay a canyon—an unmarked wound in the earth that didn't belong on any map. The mysterious "ally" who had whispered to Sanbei had revealed it weeks ago, calling it the key to ending the war.
When Renji arrived, the air was dead still. No birds, no wind. Even chakra felt muffled, like the world itself was holding its breath.
Two Sarutobi guards emerged from the shadows and dropped to one knee.
"My lord, the site is nearly uncovered—but we'll need more time."
Renji's jaw tightened.
"No more waiting. Start it now. Wake whatever is down there."
One guard hesitated.
"My lord… without the full sealing team, it'll go berserk—"
"That's the Patriarch's order!" Renji snapped. "Do it! Their families will be honored—if anyone's left to honor them!"
The guards swallowed their fear and obeyed.
Moments later, explosions rattled the canyon. Chakra surged like a tidal wave, cracking stone and twisting the air. Then came the roar—deep, ancient, hateful.
The sky turned dark. Wind howled through the gorge.
A presence vast enough to crush thought itself rose from the earth.
"Report to the Patriarch," Renji barked. "We've awakened it."
At the heart of the canyon, the creature stirred—a mountain of flesh and armor-like scales. Its chakra leaked like poison, staining the sky crimson.
"Patriarch's order!" Renji shouted to the trembling ninjas. "Lead the beast toward the Floating Slope! Even if it kills you!"
Someone near him hesitated, hand shaking as he tied detonating tags together. "Forgive us," he whispered—and hurled them.
The explosion went off like a festival sparkler against a cliff. The monster didn't even flinch at first. Then its eye opened.
One massive, slit-pupil eye glowing red like molten glass.
"ROAR!"
The sound shredded the air. Men dropped their weapons, ears bleeding. The beast—half-awake, fully enraged—dragged itself upright.
"Move! Lead it north!"
Dozens of Sarutobi sprinted out of the canyon, throwing tags and kunai behind them just to keep its attention. The ground quaked with every step the creature took.
It rose higher and higher, tail cutting furrows through the mountainside. Crimson chakra flooded from its body, swirling into a storm.
"Run!" someone screamed.
But it was already too late.
The monster's mouth opened, chakra spiraling inward—dense, glowing, volatile.
Renji's eyes widened. He'd seen enough to know what was coming.
"Tailed Beast Bomb—"
The world turned white.