A nuclear fusion strike!
The question was simple: are you afraid?
Jiraiya might not have known the exact scientific principles behind nuclear fusion, but that didn't stop him from understanding the terrifying scene that had played out at the Hidden Stone Village. Even if he had reason to suspect this was merely a verbal bluff, he didn't dare gamble, let alone joke with the lives and safety of the village and its people.
Ultimately, he abandoned his original plan of resorting to force and spoke bluntly to Chiyo behind him. "Give up the One-Tails! Unless you want to see this place razed to the ground!"
"What?! After paying such a staggering price, you're telling me to give up?" Chiyo's eyes widened in fury.
One had to realize that in the short time Shukaku had been released, it had already laid waste to nearly a third of the Hidden Sand Village. As far as the eye could see, there were nothing but ruins and broken walls. For a village as impoverished as theirs, such a loss was an absolute catastrophe. They simply didn't have the funds required for reconstruction.
"Did you notice that thing? Do you intend to watch it detonate here and turn this into a second Hidden Stone?" Jiraiya questioned, his tone dead serious.
Just as Chiyo was about to argue further, Ebizō finally stepped forward to intervene. "Enough, Nee-chan! Stop struggling. For the survival of the village, give up the One-Tails. Regardless of whether that thing is real, we can no longer afford the price of war."
"But what about Gaara? He is the next Kazekage we've been grooming!" Chiyo clenched her fists, her aged face full of resentment and indignation.
"We can demand that he spare Gaara's life."
At this, Ebizō paused intentionally and turned his gaze toward Allen, who was standing beside the nuclear warhead. "If I recall correctly, after you extracted the Seven-Tails, you didn't let the Jinchūriki die, did you?"
Allen nodded slightly. "Mm. Correct. Strictly speaking, I have never been one for indiscriminate killing. As long as you don't stand in my way, I naturally won't engage in senseless slaughter."
"In that case, we of the Hidden Sand admit defeat. The One-Tails, Shukaku, is yours." Ebizō conceded their failure with surprising pragmatism.
As the former head of the Hidden Sand's intelligence, he had planted countless moles within the major nations. He had even seen spy photos of the moment of the nuclear blast; he understood perfectly what it would mean for the Land of Wind if that thing were actually detonated here.
"See? It would have been much easier if you'd just started with that."
After delivering that infuriatingly smug remark, Allen immediately shouted toward the other side, where "Second Young Master" Sasuke was still trading blows with Shukaku: "Hey! Sasuke! Are you going to finish this or not? If you can't handle it in five minutes, I'm swapping you out for Karin."
"Damn it! Don't rush me! It's almost over!"
Upon hearing that Karin might replace him, Sasuke's expression changed instantly. His entire body erupted with an astonishing surge of Chakra and Nen. He transformed into a streak of lightning, crashing like an arrow directly into Shukaku's belly.
BOOM!ZZZZT!
Without fail, a massive hole appeared in the tanuki's abdomen. Under the effect of the powerful current, vast amounts of sand rapidly disintegrated, and the sleeping Jinchūriki, Gaara, was jolted awake by the pain.
This time, Sasuke had no intention of holding back. He cranked up the voltage, shocking Gaara until he was half-dead, then tossed him at Allen's feet like a stray dog. "Done! I told you I could do it."
"Hmph! It took you a full ten minutes to handle the One-Tails? You really are pathetically weak," Karin mocked with a sneer.
"Shut up, you gorilla-woman! I just wanted to get a little more combat experience," Sasuke retorted, his stubborn pride as unyielding as ever despite the sand covering his clothes.
Seeing that the two were about to start another argument, Neji finally spoke up to stop them. "Alright, that's enough. We still need to extract the Tailed Beast."
"Right here?" Sasuke glanced at the surrounding Hidden Sand ninjas, whose eyes were filled with hatred and rage.
"What, are you scared?" Karin stared at her rival with provocative eyes.
"You've got to be joking! Me, scared?" Sasuke gritted his teeth and fired back. Because of the battle with Shukaku, his Chakra was mostly depleted; he certainly didn't want to trigger a more intense conflict in the short term.
However, Karin was clearly one to fear nothing under heaven or earth. After a brief coordination with Neji, the two quickly began to manifest their sealing technique, extracting the Tailed Beast from Gaara's body.
That's right.
Right in front of the assembled Hidden Sand ninjas, they were openly and brazenly plundering the One-Tails. Such an arrogant act was no different from one nation defeating another and then holding a military parade in the enemy capital's largest square to flaunt its power.
Disgrace! An unbearable, agonizing disgrace!
Many Hidden Sand ninjas were on the verge of rushing forward to take the enemy down with them in a suicide attack. Unfortunately, they were all ultimately held back by Chiyo.
The entire extraction process lasted several hours until Shukaku was completely sealed within Allen's body.
The moment the ritual was complete, Ebizō was the first to approach and check Gaara's vital signs. He discovered that, aside from the missing Tailed Beast, everything else was no different from a normal person. Not only were his breathing and heartbeat stable, but even his Chakra hadn't suffered much loss, completely overturning the established law that a Jinchūriki would die once their Tailed Beast was extracted.
Realizing this, he immediately looked up and asked, "How did you do it?"
"You mean keeping the Jinchūriki alive? Simple. Just inject a bit of life force in the final seconds of the extraction process," Allen answered without hesitation.
The reason a Jinchūriki dies when a Tailed Beast is extracted is actually because the Tailed Beast's own Chakra volume is so immense that it drags the Jinchūriki's own Chakra out along with it during the separation. Since Chakra is essentially a form of life energy, a person naturally cannot survive once all their life energy is drained.
Of course, injecting life energy isn't something just anyone can do. If injected too early, the extraction process would simply suck that energy out as well, resulting in one more casualty. If intervened too late, the optimal window would be missed, and the Jinchūriki would inevitably die.
Allen was only able to achieve this by harnessing the power of the Red Dragon.
"I see. Since you have obtained what you wanted, please leave immediately," Ebizō said, issuing an eviction notice as soon as he got the answer he sought.
But Allen was clearly in no hurry to go. He lightly tapped the nuclear warhead and said with a smile, "Don't be in such a rush. As a reward for your voluntary surrender of the One-Tails, I've decided to broaden your horizons."
The moment his voice fell, a pair of massive dragon wings erupted from his back. Dragging the heavy warhead, he took to the skies, flying toward a location over thirty kilometers away. Finally, in the depths of a desolate desert, he activated the detonation device.
A few dozen seconds later, another flash of white light and a mushroom cloud rose into the air. The entire earth trembled violently following a thunderous roar.
Everyone who witnessed this, whether they were the Hidden Sand ninjas or the reinforcements from Konoha who had arrived with Jiraiya, was stunned into absolute silence.