Chapter 29 — Not Over Yet?
At this moment, the situation on the battlefield had become strangely delicate.
The Konoha forces had fully withdrawn, abandoning the area entirely. Casualties were heavy.
Although Ōnoki had resorted to a risky gambit and technically achieved his objective, Jiraiya's sudden arrival had thrown his entire plan into disarray.
If it had been only Orochimaru, Ōnoki was confident he could have calmly suppressed and resealed the Five-Tails. He had even prepared a new jinchūriki vessel in advance, whose physique and compatibility with the Five-Tails' seal were nearly perfect.
But now, with two of Konoha's Sannin present, neither side could act freely. They were forced to pull back and confront one another from a distance. As for the injured Five-Tails, it had lost all interest in continuing the fight. Its sole focus was escape, constantly searching for a route off the battlefield.
Ōnoki, of course, could not allow his village's ultimate weapon to slip away. He repeatedly used Earth Release techniques to block its path. Yet with two Konoha Sannin watching him like hawks, he found himself stretched thin.
At times like this, even Ōnoki couldn't help but resent Konoha's absurd fortune.
First there had been the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, and the Asura of the Shinobi World, Uchiha Madara. Even after their deaths, Konoha continued to produce one powerhouse after another—Kage-level figures appearing in endless succession.
By contrast, Iwagakure felt painfully short on successors. He alone carried the village, with no one among the younger generation truly able to satisfy him.
Harassed incessantly by Ōnoki's techniques, the Five-Tails grew increasingly agitated. Scalding steam once again billowed from its body. Though it did not immediately unleash another Horn Cleave, it was clearly teetering on the brink of a full berserk state.
Seeing the beast nearing the edge of the battlefield, Ōnoki knew he could not delay any longer. If this continued, the Five-Tails might truly escape.
He made his decision.
"Earth Release: Sandwich Technique!"
With Ōnoki's shout, two colossal hemispheres of stone surged up from the ground, slamming toward the Five-Tails from both sides. If caught between them, even a tailed beast would struggle to break free.
"Heh. Ōnoki—time for you to feel what it's like to be pressured."
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed as he moved in perfect sync with Jiraiya, both striking at once.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!" ×2
Twin barrages of blazing fire rained down with pinpoint accuracy toward Ōnoki. Though he dodged as best he could, the interruption caused a brief hesitation in his technique. The Mountain Coffin faltered—just for an instant.
That instant was enough.
The Five-Tails seized the opportunity with terrifying precision. Steam erupted violently from its body as it burst free of the stone confinement and charged straight toward the corridor previously carved open by its Tailed Beast Bomb.
___
A flash of steel—another hidden Iwa ninja collapsed without a sound.
Namikaze Yami was drenched in blood, sticky and thick, staining him like a demon stepping out of a sea of slaughter.
Behind him, Nawaki and Shibi were barely holding on. Their strength was simply insufficient for a battlefield of this scale. Every clash had been a brush with death.
Yami spared a moment to sense the kunai being carried away by Shibi's kikaichū. It was nearly beyond the battlefield's range. Relief flickered through him.
But he didn't dare linger.
The moment he had been forced to strike back and kill an Iwa ninja, their position had been exposed. Any hint of combat drew Iwa shinobi like sharks to blood.
He could not place all his hopes on the insects' success. All he could do was keep moving—skirting the edges of the battlefield, breaking through wherever he could.
Gradually, something changed.
Amid the relentless pressure, Yami found himself sinking into the killing intent of the battlefield itself. It was no longer just about escaping with the other two—there was a dangerous thrill now, a razor-edge exhilaration, like dancing atop a blade.
"They're coming again."
Yami's mind snapped taut. Kagura Mind's Eye clearly captured another Iwa squad charging straight toward them.
He glanced back at his teammates.
Though their expressions were resolute, their hands trembled around their kunai, drained to the limit. They were spent.
Yami inhaled sharply.
"Eight Gates—Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain, open!"
Green chakra erupted from his body as the air itself seemed to scream in protest.
Emerald-green energy erupted once more. Even with his physique, repeatedly opening the Eight Gates was already pushing him to his limits.
Not daring to waste a second, Yami turned into a streak of green lightning and plunged straight into the enemy ranks. Relying purely on the explosive speed granted by the Eight Gates and the razor edge of the Hokage's blade in his hand, he fought with brutal efficiency—overwhelming force meeting fragile stone. Every slash sent up a spray of blood, his sole objective to annihilate the enemy as quickly as possible.
Yet this squad of Iwa ninja behaved strangely.
They showed little desire to fight. Rather than encircling the three of them, it felt more like a panicked retreat—wolves scattering before a greater predator.
Blade-light flashed in every direction as Yami cut through them like a reaper. Still, one Iwa ninja gritted his teeth and took a slash head-on, forcing his body forward just long enough to hurl several kunai toward Nawaki and Shibi.
Yami saw it clearly—among them was a kunai with an explosive tag tied to its tail.
There was no time to save them.
Even as Yami twisted back and decapitated the attacker in one clean stroke, the kunai had already left the man's hand.
Exhausted to the brink, Shibi released a massive swarm of kikaichū, wrapping himself and Nawaki within a dense black cocoon. The ordinary kunai struck the insect mass and fell away, harmless.
But the explosive-tagged kunai ignited.
The blast detonated right in front of the swarm.
Flames swallowed the two figures instantly.
Yami's heart clenched—but in his perception, their chakra signatures did not vanish. At the instant the explosion went off, Nawaki had managed, in sheer desperation, to cast Water Release: Water Formation Wall, barely blocking the lethal force.
As the firelight and insects dispersed, the two reappeared. Yami had only just begun to breathe again when he saw both of them spit out blood. The shockwave had still injured their internal organs.
What made the situation even more despairing was their location.
The breakout route had been carefully chosen—near the forest bordering the massive empty corridor blasted open earlier by a Tailed Beast Bomb.
The logic had been simple, drawn from Yami's past life: no shell ever lands twice in the same crater.
But who could have imagined that instead of another shell, the cannon itself would come charging straight at them?
In Yami's perception, the surrounding Iwa ninja were already fleeing in all directions through the forest. And in the distance—on that barren, scarred corridor—the massive white beast was clearly visible, closing in at terrifying speed.
Looking at the two companions who had completely lost the ability to fight, Yami felt himself driven into a corner.
After act, Nawaki forced himself to speak.
"Brother Yami… don't worry about us. If you carry us… none of us will make it."
Shibi nodded as well, unwilling to become a burden.
The beast's footsteps grew closer, each step pounding like a hammer against their hearts.
Then—Yami's expression suddenly changed.
He grabbed both of them without hesitation, and their figures vanished in an instant.
The plan had worked.
The kikaichū had successfully carried the marked kunai far away. More importantly, the Five-Tails' rampage had shattered the Iwa formation, creating the opening they needed.
Before the three of them could even celebrate their narrow escape, Yami turned his head—
A blinding white beam tore across the sky and slammed straight into the Five-Tails.
Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique.
Terrifying energy ripped through the beast's massive body. Though a tailed beast, being a chakra construct, shed no blood, its enormous form was blasted violently backward—
Straight toward the three of them.
"Is this ever going to end?" Yami thought bitterly. "Are you seriously chasing us to the death?"
Only one thought remained in his mind:
Back at the village gate… I really should have sewn Nawaki's mouth shut.