"Ah?"
What is that?
"It's Lady Fu!"
"Yeah! Lady Fu is here!"
"Not good! It's the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki!!"
"Quick, someone stop that thing!"
The colossal figure was impossible to miss. Even from a distance, both the Waterfall and Leaf shinobi on the battlefield instantly spotted it, especially as its overwhelming chakra aura washed over them.
While the Waterfall shinobi erupted in ecstatic cheers...
The Leaf shinobi paled in horror.
The combat boost provided by a fully manifested Tailed Beast was no joke. Hadn't they just seen what that "black monster" was capable of? It had nearly completely obliterated their left flank. Now, an actual Tailed Beast had arrived.
The suffocating pressure it radiated was not something ordinary ninja could withstand.
From his position in the rear, Shikaku's expression turned incredibly grim the moment he laid eyes on the Seven-Tails.
"Perfect timing, huh?"
Having fully transformed into the Seven-Tails, Fu looked down at the chaotic battlefield, took a deep breath, and recalled Menma's exact instructions.
"Chomei!"
"Got it, Fu!"
With a deep mental shout...
HUM!!!
The Seven-Tails, Chomei, suddenly raised its head. Right in front of its massive jaws, a dense, rapidly condensing sphere of chakra began to form.
"Damn it! It's a Tailed Beast Bomb! Scatter! Now!!"
The glaringly obvious build-up...
Caught the attention of everyone on the battlefield instantly.
From the rear, Shikaku roared the order, his voice laced with pure panic.
He immediately turned and bolted in the opposite direction at top speed.
The target of the attack was entirely predictable.
Knowing exactly how terrifying a Tailed Beast Bomb was, Shikaku didn't harbor a single thought of trying to block it.
This was fundamentally not something ordinary shinobi could survive!
BOOM!!
Almost the exact second Shikaku's warning left his lips...
A short distance away, Chomei finished condensing the massive chakra sphere.
"Chomei, don't miss! Make sure you don't hit our own people!"
Fu called out nervously within their shared mental landscape.
"Don't worry, Fu."
The Jinchuriki and her Tailed Beast partner already shared a flawless synergy.
BANG!
The next second.
The massive, terrifying sphere of concentrated chakra violently erupted from Chomei's mouth, carrying a suffocating, lethal aura.
Its target was glaringly obvious.
It was aimed directly at the rear command and support cluster of the Leaf army.
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
In an instant...
The Tailed Beast Bomb descended with terrifying speed.
The Leaf shinobi in the rear were already sprinting for their lives.
BANG!
RUMBLE!
But it was obvious many of them simply couldn't clear the blast radius in time. The moment the Tailed Beast Bomb made contact, a blinding light engulfed the area.
An unimaginably terrifying explosion instantly ripped across the entire battlefield. The earth violently fractured and shattered. The shockwave was so massive that even those fighting on the far front lines felt the violent tremors.
Within the direct blast zone...
It was an absolutely lethal, catastrophic jutsu that guaranteed the annihilation of any normal ninja caught inside.
"Shikaku!?"
"Inoichi!?"
On the front lines...
Kakashi, Guy, and Choza all blanched in horror.
Especially Choza.
Shikaku and Inoichi were his lifelong best friends. The decades they had spent together far surpassed any other bond they had in the village.
Seeing the Tailed Beast Bomb completely envelop their position...
How could Choza not feel his heart drop into his stomach!?
In the center of the battlefield, Jiraiya's expression turned incredibly ugly as he witnessed the catastrophic explosion in their rear.
A Tailed Beast Bomb!
It was the signature ultimate move of every Tailed Beast, widely recognized as the most destructive, wide-area attack in the entire ninja world!
In past wars...
Countless shinobi had been vaporized by Tailed Beast Bombs.
Because the Leaf couldn't easily deploy the Nine-Tails, they were often forced to simply absorb these catastrophic blasts from other villages without the ability to return fire in kind.
Therefore, their standard doctrine was either to pre-emptively locate the enemy Jinchuriki and dispatch a specialized strike team to neutralize them, or to immediately force a massive, chaotic melee.
Once forces were completely intermingled, enemy Jinchuriki couldn't recklessly fire Tailed Beast Bombs.
They had to worry about friendly fire, right!?
Wiping out your own army alongside the enemy was the absolute peak of stupidity.
This was exactly why Fu had aimed her Tailed Beast Bomb as far into the enemy's rear as possible. She desperately wanted to avoid catching any Waterfall shinobi in the blast, even though the Leaf heavily outnumbered them on the field.
Furthermore, striking the rear command element was the most effective way to inflict a massive psychological blow to the Leaf army.
Even if the sheer number of casualties was relatively low...
The tactical and psychological impact was unparalleled.
Indeed, seeing the massive, smoking crater instantly vaporize their rear lines dealt a devastating blow to the morale of the Leaf vanguard.
Tailed Beasts.
They were the ultimate nightmare of every ordinary shinobi. Witnessing their catastrophic power firsthand was profoundly traumatizing.
The blast zone was reduced to scorched, blackened earth.
Severed limbs and mangled bodies were scattered everywhere.
Blood soaked the ground, painting a picture straight out of a horrific hellscape.
Caught in the immediate blast radius...
Despite their desperate attempts to flee, more than half of the Leaf shinobi in the rear had been instantly incinerated.
The survivors were almost entirely critically wounded, writhing and screaming in pools of their own blood.
Even Shikaku, the supreme commander, hadn't escaped the devastation. He wasn't dead yet, but his right arm and right leg were completely gone. He lay collapsed in a pool of blood, his life slipping away rapidly alongside the massive hemorrhaging.
"Cough, cough..."
The Leaf truly had to count themselves lucky that Fu didn't possess Menma's monstrous sensory abilities and couldn't precisely target the blast.
If Menma had fired that Tailed Beast Bomb, every single person in the rear echelon would be dead.
To guarantee zero friendly fire, Fu had intentionally aimed slightly off-center.
This slight deviation allowed a fraction of the Leaf shinobi to survive.
Inoichi Yamanaka was one of them.
Though completely battered and covered in ash, his limbs were intact, and he had only suffered minor injuries.
He rushed immediately to Shikaku's side.
Seeing his best friend's catastrophic condition...
Inoichi felt his heart physically wrench in his chest.
He frantically began administering basic first aid. While he wasn't a highly skilled medical ninja, he knew the essential emergency procedures.
He barely managed to stem the catastrophic bleeding, but Inoichi knew perfectly well that without immediate, high-level medical intervention, Shikaku was going to die.
"Inoichi... cough, cough... we can't keep fighting... retreat... cough, cough... my predictions were wrong... tell Lord Jiraiya to order an immediate retreat..."
Shikaku's voice was agonizingly weak.
Blood continually bubbled from the corners of his mouth.
Gripping Inoichi's sleeve with his remaining hand, he spoke with desperate urgency.
"I know, I know! Lord Jiraiya will make the right call! Stop talking, Shikaku! The medics are coming!"
Feeling Shikaku's breath growing shallower...
Sensing his life force fading rapidly...
Inoichi's expression twisted in pure, frantic panic.
"Hurry! Medics!! Now!!"
He roared desperately.
Hoping to manifest a medical squad out of thin air.
It was an utterly horrific scene.
The sheer terror of the Tailed Beast Bomb.
While strictly speaking, the blast had only killed or critically wounded a few hundred Leaf shinobi...
The psychological devastation it inflicted on the entire battlefield far exceeded those numbers.
Even Jiraiya, fighting on the absolute front lines, felt a profound shock rattle his composure.
"Heh."
Menma acutely caught the micro-shift in Jiraiya's demeanor. A cold smirk touched his lips. The moment Jiraiya saw it, the Toad Sage's mood soured even further.
But things had already reached this point.
Jiraiya had completely lost the desire to speak to Menma.
Everything that needed to be said had already been said.
Ultimately, Jiraiya was far more pragmatic than Naruto. Whether dealing with Orochimaru's defection or Nagato's ideology in the original timeline...
While the "Gallant Hero" always tried to reach out initially, he inevitably chose to prioritize the interests of the Hidden Leaf and execute what he believed was the "correct" course of action.
Right now, facing Menma, Jiraiya's core mindset was exactly the same.
We absolutely cannot continue this battle!
This thought slammed into Jiraiya's mind with absolute finality.
The battle had been raging for over an hour, yet there was absolutely zero sign of a conclusion to his duel with Menma. Menma even had the spare capacity to periodically support his summoning beast. In terms of raw combat power, there wasn't a massive gap between them, but the Flying Thunder God and the Adamantine Sealing Chains gave Menma an obscenely high margin for error.
It made it nearly impossible for Jiraiya to find a solid opening.
And Jiraiya could acutely tell that he was entirely unable to exploit any of Menma's flaws. Worse, it felt as though Menma was actively using him as a whetstone, constantly refining his skills—especially his mastery of the Flying Thunder God.
Jiraiya could feel Menma's usage of the jutsu becoming increasingly fluid.
The micro-second delay between jumps was noticeably shrinking.
This wasn't an illusion.
It was happening in real-time right before his eyes.
A true genius always evolved the fastest in the crucible of life-or-death combat.
Initially, Jiraiya had banked on a breakthrough on the flanks, or at least dragging the fight out until the Mist forces delivered a decisive victory.
But based on the current situation...
The Leaf was never going to hear any good news from the Mist.
With the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki now on the field...
Even though Choza had immediately swallowed his clan's secret pill to massively boost his chakra and rally a squad of Leaf shinobi to intercept Fu and halt her rampage...
The sheer power of a Tailed Beast meant Choza absolutely could not hold her off alone.
Unless Choza gambled his life and swallowed the final Red Pill to activate the Butterfly Mode, he couldn't completely suppress her.
And even that was strictly time-limited. Furthermore, their rear command structure had just been violently obliterated.
Dragging this out...
Would be an unmitigated disaster for the Leaf.
"Fukasaku-sama! Shima-sama!"
In a matter of seconds...
Jiraiya finalized his decision.
"Right!"
Having fought alongside Jiraiya for decades...
It only took a single look.
Fukasaku and Shima knew exactly what he intended.
Therefore, the exact moment Jiraiya spoke...
Clap!
Clap!
The two Great Toad Sages of Mount Myōboku slammed their palms together simultaneously.
"Ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit!!!"
Once again, the agonizingly sharp, synchronized sonic blast tore through the air, sending massive, overlapping shockwaves rippling outward.
"!? "
Menma's eyes hardened instantly.
Relying entirely on instinct, he immediately launched himself backward to create distance.
"Bunta!"
Landing squarely on Gamabunta's head, Jiraiya slammed his hands down.
"Get the oil ready!"
"Yeah! I'm on it!"
The next second.
"Sage Art: Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
As Jiraiya finished the seals...
A massive torrent of fire erupted from him, perfectly synergizing with the colossal stream of highly flammable toad oil Gamabunta spewed from his mouth.
The moment they combined...
It created a terrifying, all-consuming tidal wave of blinding fire.
BOOM!!!
The sheer scale and heat of the attack violently forced Menma and Shikkudo to retreat.
Immediately following that...
Swish!
Pop!
A sharp, brilliant flare exploded high in the sky above the battlefield.
Fukasaku and Shima simultaneously unleashed a massive Wind Release jutsu, further amplifying the already apocalyptic firestorm.
The inferno spread violently, completely engulfing the center and pushing outward toward the flanks.
"The retreat signal!?"
"Fall back! Move!"
"Damn it!"
"Let's go!"
Separated by the massive wall of fire...
The moment the Leaf shinobi heard the order, regardless of their personal frustration or anger, they instantly chose to retreat.
They began an incredibly organized, staggered withdrawal.
Firing off defensive jutsu to cover their tracks as they pulled back.
Caught slightly off guard by the sheer scale of the initial counterattack, Menma quickly realized their intent when he saw Jiraiya's follow-up maneuver.
However, the absolute best window to violently press his advantage had already closed.
While he technically could have used the Flying Thunder God to forcefully pursue them...
The chances of actually keeping Jiraiya pinned down and killing him were incredibly low.
"Do not overextend! Focus purely on maximizing casualties against their rearguard!"
Attempting to slaughter the entire retreating Leaf army was an impossible fantasy.
Inflicting as much bleeding and as many casualties as possible was the only realistic and effective strategy.
This war...
Was ultimately just to establish the Hidden Waterfall's absolute deterrence and secure their right to exist. Menma was nowhere near ready to try and conquer the entire ninja world. Neither he nor the Waterfall Village possessed that level of absolute power yet. Knowing when to stop while ahead was the absolute truth of warfare.
BANG!
BOOM!
Issuing the order to retreat was simple and decisive.
Squelch!
"Aaaagh!?"
BANG!
But successfully executing a flawless, casualty-free withdrawal under these conditions was physically impossible.
RUMBLE!
CRASH!
Especially with Satori and the Seven-Tails leading the pursuit for the Waterfall. With two absolute monstrosities relentlessly chasing them, the Leaf forces were guaranteed to pay a heavy toll in blood.
Even with Jiraiya, Guy, Choza, and the rest of the elite Jonin personally acting as the rearguard, the bloody retreat cost the Leaf another two to three hundred casualties.
Menma, alongside Satori, Fu, and the entire Waterfall army, relentlessly drove the surviving Leaf forces completely out of Waterfall territory, forcing them to completely abandon their forward camps before Menma finally called off the pursuit, satisfied with the brutal outcome.
The absolute slaughter marked the temporary, yet definitive, end of this massive stronghold defense battle.