Just as Danzo stood up with a dark expression, another Tailed Beast Ball shot down from the sky.
The trajectory of this one was exactly the same as the first, slamming into the side corridor of the Root base.
Rumble!
An explosion even more powerful than the first blew the remaining surface parts of the Root base.
Root members who couldn't react in time were swallowed by the explosion in the corridor. Their screams were drowned out by the roar of the blast, and the high-temperature shockwave swept past, leaving only a few charred remains in the billowing black smoke.
Some Root members crawled on the ground trying to escape, but were pinned down by rubble on their backs and never moved again.
"All Root members, get out of here immediately!" Danzo gave the order.
Several Root guards hurriedly helped him out of the ruins.
"My experiments, my Ninjutsu library, my Root..." Danzo glanced at the charred ruins behind him.
Research equipment was scattered everywhere, culture tanks soaking Sharingan were shattered into countless pieces of glass, and several unfinished Hashirama cell samples withered rapidly in the high-temperature air.
The elite Root members he had spent over a decade nurturing had suffered over fifty percent casualties in the two consecutive Tailed Beast Ball bombardments.
But that wasn't what angered him the most. What made him most furious was that a third Tailed Beast Ball was coming.
"Again!!!"
But then he noticed that the trajectory of this Tailed Beast Ball was different from the first two.
It was not aimed at the Root base, but towards the outer perimeter.
In other words, was it really a coincidence just now? But why is the target still me?
Boom!
The third Tailed Beast Ball exploded on the mountain road outside the Root base.
Several Root scouts running along the slope were blown up.
Danzo's figure slowly emerged from the dense smoke of the explosion. His cane had been snapped in the blast, his outer robe was burned with several holes, and the bandages wrapped around his right arm and right eye were loose and dragging on the ground, revealing his pale arm.
Before the third Tailed Beast Ball landed, he had used Izanagi to rewrite his own death, causing a Sharingan on his arm to close.
Aiming at me?
"Find out who it is, immediately, right now!" Danzo looked into the distance, his voice filled with rage.
In the ruins behind him, several Root survivors scrambled out of the rubble and knelt on one knee on the ground.
"Yes, Danzo-sama!"
—
On the other side, Naruto withdrew his hands after firing the three Tailed Beast Balls and looked at Shukaku, who was slowly recovering its physical form.
The first and second Tailed Beast Balls were indeed deliberately aimed at the Root base, but for the third one, he wanted to make it look like a coincidence.
Who knew that this stray Tailed Beast Ball would happen to land on Danzo's retreat route?
Danzo just happened to run into it. It's just a pity it didn't kill him.
Naruto sighed inwardly, but didn't dwell on it too much.
Danzo had a bunch of Sharingan in his hands, he wouldn't die that easily.
But his goal had been achieved. The Root base was mostly destroyed, over half the elites were dead or injured, and Danzo didn't even have a decent base of operations for the time being, let alone the ability to come out and stir up trouble.
"Brat, what was the meaning of those three Tailed Beast Balls just now?"
Shukaku's body had mostly re-coalesced. However, its current size was smaller than when it first came out, and its movements were much more sluggish. It seemed the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken from earlier had caused it quite a bit of damage.
"Shukaku, are you planning to let me send you back, or are you going to go back into Gaara's body obediently on your own?" Naruto looked at Shukaku and asked.
"Bastard, don't look down on me! You're just as annoying as Kurama!" Shukaku exploded.
It opened its mouth and fired another Air Bullet at Naruto. Naruto's body flickered and he appeared directly above Shukaku's head.
Several golden Chakra Arms extended from all over his body simultaneously, grabbing Shukaku's head, neck, limbs, and tail, pinning its massive body firmly in place, unable to move.
"Let go of me! You damn fox bastards!"
Shukaku struggled wildly, its tail whipping frantically in an attempt to tear off the Chakra Arms.
"Stop making noise, Shukaku. Go back and take a nap first." Naruto quickly formed hand seals.
Four Symbols Seal!
A sealing rune extended from Naruto's palm, spreading rapidly along the surface of the Chakra Arms onto Shukaku's body.
The moment the rune touched Shukaku's sand body, it lit up with a blue light and began to frantically devour Shukaku's Chakra, compressing its power bit by bit back into Gaara's body.
"Damn human, damn Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, how dare you seal me!" Shukaku let out an unwilling roar.
Its body shrunk at a speed visible to the naked eye under the compression of the sealing rune and was finally all absorbed into a reinforced seal core within Gaara's body.
The final rune of the Four Symbols Seal flashed on Gaara's abdomen, then sank into his skin and disappeared.
Naruto descended from mid-air and deactivated Kurama Chakra Mode. He squatted down to check Gaara's pulse.
Steady, normal. He was just asleep.
Gaara, who had never had a peaceful sleep since childhood, had fallen into a quiet slumber for the first time without the interference of the Tailed Beast.
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
Naruto created five Shadow Clones. He then took out five Kunai engraved with the Flying Thunder God Mark and handed them to the five Shadow Clones.
"Be careful to stay hidden when you leave."
"Okay. Wait for our good news, main body."
The five Shadow Clones nodded, then quickly leaped towards the direction outside of Konoha, carrying the Kunai with the Flying Thunder God Mark.