Aburame Tetsumaru dug into his backpack and pulled out some snacks he'd been saving, sharing the dried fruit with his captain.
As for the two new teammates? They'd worry about them if they managed to survive the next mission.
Captain Ueno shot him a look but didn't hesitate to snatch half the dried fruit, wolfing it down without a shred of politeness. Tetsumaru's biggest quirk was his uncanny ability to always have food stashed away. No matter the situation, no matter how many times Ueno Hayato searched him—and he had personally frisked the boy more than once—Tetsumaru would turn around and somehow produce a fresh packet of food.
It was a talent that would make a member of the Akimichi clan die of envy.
Ueno had spent two months scolding him for it and another month giving him the cold shoulder. By now, the Captain had reached the point of simply enjoying the fruits of his subordinate's "contraband" as a natural perk of the job. After all, once a Genin survives three months on the front, they're a veteran. Veterans were allowed to have a few habits—or even neuroses.
As they ate, however, their expressions slowly darkened. Something was wrong.
The battle inside the encirclement was growing increasingly intense. Two more waves of reinforcements had already arrived from the camp. By the time the second wave hit the field, Tetsumaru could no longer sit still; he dispatched a dragonfly toward the battlefield.
The siege on the Jinchuriki was dragging on far too long. It was turning into a war of attrition. The problem was that a Tailed Beast was a literal mass of chakra that could pull energy from the natural world; no number of shinobi could win a war of stamina against a beast like that.
Standard doctrine for handling a Tinchuriki was for Jonin and elite Jonin to deplete the host as quickly as possible—ideally with a Kage-level powerhouse leading the charge—to either kill the host or force the beast into a berserk state that could be sealed.
Konoha's Land of Rain camp was packed with high-level talent. Between the commander Shimura Danzo, the future Sannin (though they didn't have the title yet), the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and veterans like Yamashiro Inaba, Kato Dan, Mumui Isago, Aburame Shige, and Inuzuka Ryo, they had enough elite power to counter a Jinchuriki. They were essentially stationed here to prevent exactly this kind of threat from Suna's One-Tails.
So why was taking down the Four-Tails taking so long? It wasn't like they were fighting the Nine-Tails.
Unless... they were shorthanded.
Roshi was now in a state of full eruption, radiating a staggering amount of chakra. He looked absolutely formidable.
Scouting insects like the dragonfly were paralyzed with fear from a distance, refusing to go any closer. Tetsumaru was forced to use his Summoning Silk and secret arts to completely override the insect's instincts, taking direct manual control. Under his command, the dragonfly became a hollow puppet, flying in a wobbling, erratic path as it slowly approached the battlefield.
"This is bad," Tetsumaru reported. "Only Shimura Danzo is on-site. The Sannin are nowhere to be found, and Shige-niisan and the Ino-Shika-Cho group aren't here either."
The "Sannin" each possessed massive summons—the best tools for fighting a Tailed Beast. Without them, their only hope for a heavyweight encounter was Danzo's Baku.
However, the Baku was a summon specialized for ambushes and clearing out fodder; it was physically outmatched by the Four-Tails. In terms of raw power and durability, it couldn't hold the line. It was currently being chased all over the battlefield, leaping and dodging in a frantic attempt to survive. It was an ugly, desperate fight.
Captain Ueno sucked air through his teeth as he listened to the intel. He signaled the squad to move closer. "Everyone, stay together. We're moving in."
Around the perimeter, a dozen other scouting squads began to move as well. Some fanned out to watch the path Roshi had come from, while others closed in on the fight.
Ueno Hayato and Tetsumaru watched the battlefield with a sense of utter helplessness. Their squad was useless here; they weren't even qualified to be cannon fodder.
Half of the core battlefield had been turned into a lava lake, while the other half was a lake created by the collective Water Style of the Konoha ninjas. Where the two met, the water boiled, sending up thick plumes of white steam.
Roshi used the lava lake to launch a relentless rain of volcanic boulders. The Konoha Jonin counter-attacked from their side of the water, raising seven massive water dragons to intercept the projectiles. Meanwhile, Shimura Danzo used his Vacuum-style Wind Release to weave in and out of Roshi's guard.
The scale of the battle was immense, but Konoha was clearly on the back foot. Roshi was a Jinchuriki; in a contest of chakra reserves and recovery speed, no normal shinobi could compete with a Tailed Beast.
Even the four Hyuga Jonin standing at the edge of the lake could do nothing but watch with frustrated, anxious expressions.
If only the Third Hokage were here, Tetsumaru thought. Hiruzen Sarutobi could have flattened Roshi with a few combination jutsu. Even Mito-sama would have treated Roshi like a child playing in a sandbox.
"I'd even take the Sannin right now," Tetsumaru muttered. He and his captain began weaving their own jutsu, providing whatever meager support they could to the Jonin in the center.
A barrage of C-rank Wind, Water, and Lightning Style jutsu flew toward the lava lake, interspersed with heavy weaponry like Fuma Shuriken.
The environment was too extreme. Tetsumaru's insects couldn't even get close, and the secret techniques of other clans were similarly hindered. The only thing that worked was raw elemental ninjutsu and large-scale tools.
Roshi realized he had stumbled upon a legendary opportunity: the chance to single-handedly destroy a Konoha base camp. The thought exhilarated him. He fought with increasing ferocity, and without noticing, a single chakra tail manifested behind him.
For some reason, the Jonin at the center of the fight were grit-teeth determined to keep trading jutsu.
The Chunin captains on the perimeter, however, were more pragmatic. Having lived on the edge of death for months, their danger sense was tingling. Ueno Hayato sent a silent signal to Tetsumaru: Prepare to bolt.
Tetsumaru signaled back: Reinforcements are here.
Another wave of ninja arrived from the camp, led by three figures in Jonin flak jackets. Two of them were the same Jonin who had passed Squad Ueno during the retreat.
Through the dragonfly's eyes, Tetsumaru clearly recognized the woman in the lead: blonde hair tied in twin tails, a commanding presence—Senju Tsunade.
Konoha's greatest medic had arrived, and she brought a summon the size of a mountain with her.
Our stamina just hit infinite, Tetsumaru thought, a grin spreading across his face. Alright, let's go again. He happily began spamming Wind Style.
Ueno Hayato blinked, picking up on Tetsumaru's excitement. He quickly deduced who had arrived and began gleefully firing off the Lightning Style jutsu he'd recently mastered.
Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram—
"Summoning Jutsu!"
As the white smoke cleared, a massive blue-and-white slug appeared on the battlefield. The fifteen-meter behemoth immediately split into hundreds of human-sized mini-slugs, each one latching onto a Konoha shinobi.
Katsuyu didn't just heal wounds; she replenished chakra. Instantly, the volume of ninjutsu being fired by the Konoha side doubled.
The lava lake began to shrink rapidly. Tetsumaru, however, was in a bit of a slump.
Most of the insects he'd released earlier had been incinerated by the lava river. Even his specialized liquid nitrogen insects had failed miserably, succumbing to the environment before they could even act.
It was a total failure of engineering. In the high-heat environment of the lava field, the insects didn't function as intended. The thermal insulation of the internal cavities was simply not up to standard; the liquid nitrogen boiled and gasified inside the insects, blowing them apart before they could reach the target.
Even the pressure valves for the nitrogen release failed. Once an insect started spraying, it couldn't stop, flying around like a leaking balloon until it spiraled into the lava.
The nitrogen insects hadn't even lasted as long as a standard beetle. Tetsumaru realized with a pang of frustration that against a Jinchuriki who could terraform the environment, his current bugs were useless.
Meanwhile, Tsunade finished the emergency healing and stepped to the front line.
Tetsumaru noticed she looked ragged. She had clearly just come from a major engagement; her clothes were torn, and she carried a deep, palpable exhaustion.
Ueno Hayato noticed it too. "Lady Tsunade's condition is rough. Where are the other two?"
"Tsunade-sama isn't a long-range specialist," Tetsumaru noted. "Her Monster Strength and Medical Ninjutsu aren't really—"
CRASH!!
Shrouded in the green glow of medical ninjutsu, Senju Tsunade leaped forward. She slammed a fist into the lava-coated Roshi, sending the partially transformed Tinchuriki flying.
Tsunade used the Body Flicker to stay on top of him, delivering a measured, relentless sequence of strikes. Under the weight of the Slug Princess's Monster Strength, trees were leveled and the very earth shattered.
So this is a Kage-level ninja...
Her medical ninjutsu was so potent that any burn or injury she took from the Lava Style was healed near-instantaneously—so fast it looked like she wasn't even being hurt. Her Monster Strength was a force of nature; a direct hit meant critical injury, a glancing blow meant shattered bones, and even the shockwaves of her misses were devastating.
One overzealous Hyuga Jonin tried to move in for an opening, but he got too close to the blast zone and was sent tumbling seven or eight meters by the air pressure from Tsunade's Heavenly Spear Kick.
Tsunade's combination of absolute offense and absolute defense formed a tactical system that transcended the Jonin level. She was undeniably in the realm of a Kage.
Under her relentless assault, the exhausted Roshi began to falter. As the battle moved away from the lava lake, the Konoha ninjas noticed his jutsu potency and durability were dropping.
The crowd began to follow Tsunade's rhythm, bathing Roshi in jutsu whenever she backed off to reset.
BOOM!! That was Tsunade's fist, sending Roshi skyward. Zap-crackle-boom!! That was the rain of ninjutsu from the Konoha ranks, washing over him like a storm.
Roshi couldn't counter. He couldn't even block. His eyes rolled back into his head.
Suddenly, the tyrannical chakra coming from him increased tenfold, kicking up a massive pillar of dust. Four giant tails erupted from the smoke, followed by the appearance of a massive ape.
The Tailed Beast had gone berserk. They had finally pushed him to this stage. Tsunade let out a breath and signaled the next phase.
"ROAARR!!" The Four-Tails pounded its chest and let out a deafening howl of rage, looking for something to crush.
The Konoha ninjas scrambled back, clearing a massive space.
Huh? Tetsumaru spotted a faint, translucent silhouette. It drifted through the crowd like a ghost, passing through solid bodies without resistance. It glided toward the Four-Tails and dove straight into the beast's head.
What is that? A jutsu? A spirit?
No, I've seen that face before.
Tetsumaru turned toward the edge of the now-hardened lava lake. Under a massive tree, the two Jonin who had arrived with Tsunade were standing guard—one standing, one sitting.
The one sitting with his eyes closed was the exact double of the silhouette. It had to be a specialized technique. Was Tsunade's entire assault just a distraction to set this up?
The Four-Tails froze mid-roar, standing like a seven-meter-tall statue. Everyone watched the beast with bated breath.
Tsunade quickly explained the situation to the Jonin, and the word trickled down through the ranks. Soon, every Konoha ninja knew what was happening.
While this battle had been raging, the main Konoha force led by the Hokage's disciples had been ambushed by Ame forces. To repel the Ame leader, Hanzo of the Salamander, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya had fought a desperate battle.
Hanzo had emerged victorious, but for whatever reason—perhaps respect for their talent, perhaps because Ame was too exhausted to continue, or perhaps due to some other agenda—he had allowed the three young ninjas to live and chose to retreat. Before leaving, Hanzo had bestowed upon them the title of the "Sannin of Konoha," acting with the arrogance of a seasoned senior.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya had been the primary combatants and had been severely poisoned; they were currently unconscious and out of the fight.
Tsunade had rushed here alone to reinforce. While she could suppress an exhausted Jinchuriki, she lacked a definitive way to handle a full Tailed Beast transformation.
Fortunately, Kato Dan was on the scene. His S-rank Spirit Transformation Technique was a super-powered evolution of the Yamanaka clan's secret arts. He could project his soul out of his body to infiltrate an enemy, gather intelligence, control them, or even strike at their spirit directly.
Normally, Dan couldn't target a Jinchuriki because they had two souls in one body; entering would result in a two-on-one fight he couldn't win. Furthermore, the complex layers of Sealing Jutsu inside a Jinchuriki could easily trap a stray soul. That was why he had been forced to flee from Roshi earlier.
However, once the beast went berserk, the situation changed. In a berserk state, the Jinchuriki's soul was suppressed by the beast, and the beast's soul was exposed but still anchored by the seal. This created a perfect opening for the Spirit Transformation Technique.
The two lovers had devised a plan: Tsunade would handle the first phase, beating Roshi into a berserk state, and Kato Dan would handle the second phase—killing the Jinchuriki from the inside.
Everything rested on Kato Dan now.
Everyone waited in tense silence. One minute passed. Two.
At the three-minute mark, Tsunade began ordering the ninjas to pull back further. Dan had told her that while his technique was incredibly lethal, a soul-on-soul battle with a Tailed Beast was a different beast entirely. The longer it took, the lower the chance of success.
The Konoha ninjas formed a defensive perimeter around Kato Dan's physical body. Tsunade stood in the front row with a dozen Jonin.
There were about two hundred combat-ready ninjas left in the line. The casualty count had been tallied: over a hundred dead, and over three hundred—including the commander, Danzo—heavily wounded. Those with critical injuries were already being evacuated back to camp.
To take down a single Jinchuriki, Konoha had deployed over seven hundred ninjas of Chunin rank or higher. After ten minutes of fighting, they had lost sixty percent of their strength, and almost everyone was injured. And this was just the Four-Tails. No wonder Konoha had been crippled for a decade after the Nine-Tails attack.
At the seven-minute mark, the frozen Four-Tails finally moved.
It exploded. No one expected it.
A thirty-meter-tall Tailed Beast self-detonating was an explosion second only to a Tailed Beast Bomb. The shockwave flattened every Konoha ninja within two hundred meters. A blue silhouette was blown out of the fire and smoke, tumbling through the air. In the chaos of the blast, the soul passed through the bodies of several ninjas before tearing straight through Aburame Tetsumaru.