Roar!
The fire dragon struck true, leaving a scorched patch across the Nine-Tails' massive body. The beast roared in pain, its brewing Tailed Beast Bomb forcefully interrupted.
"This?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyebrows twitched fiercely.
"Fugaku Uchiha!"
Fugaku leaped forward, landing softly beside Hiruzen. "Third Hokage," he said calmly, "the village is facing a great disaster. The Uchiha clan cannot stand idly by. Even if it means violating the ban, we must do our part for the village."
'Ban?' The other Konoha ninjas standing next to Hiruzen were slightly taken aback. Could it be that the Uchiha clan had joined the battle so late because they were acting on a special order from the Third Hokage?
Hiruzen had no intention of exposing the upper echelon's plans to the masses, swiftly cutting Fugaku off. "Clan Head Fugaku's intentions are appreciated. The village is suffering heavy losses; it requires everyone to face this together."
A trace of a sneer flashed across Fugaku's mouth, but since everyone's attention was firmly locked onto the Nine-Tails, it went completely unnoticed.
With Fugaku's addition, the pressure on those fighting the Nine-Tails head-on suddenly dropped. As the clan head, his strength was unquestionable—he was easily among the absolute top-tier fighters in all of Konoha. Even without relying on Sharingan genjutsu, his masterful Fire Release ninjutsu, combined with the efforts of the other Konoha ninjas, forced the Nine-Tails to retreat steadily.
But they could only push it back. Despite enduring countless ninjutsu attacks from the crowd, the Nine-Tails remained essentially unharmed. Even Fugaku's Fire Release only left a bit of surface charring on its fur.
Blocked by a group of ants for so long, the Nine-Tails roared at the sky, another Tailed Beast Bomb rapidly condensing in its maw. This time, the beast moved so fast that the Konoha shinobi didn't even have time to launch an interception; they could only watch helplessly as the sphere of pure destruction took shape.
But at that exact moment, the bright moonlight shining over Konoha was abruptly blotted out. A massive black shadow plummeted from the sky.
Boom!
With an earth-shattering crash, the Nine-Tails was instantly pinned down by the huge shadow, the Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth vanishing into nothingness.
"Minato, you're finally here!"
Looking at the young figure standing atop the head of the giant toad, a relieved smile broke out on Hiruzen's face.
"Thank you for your hard work, Third Hokage. Leave the rest to me!" Minato Namikaze replied with a confident smile, giving a brief nod to Fugaku. During the time he had been missing from the battlefield, Minato had gone to secure the only definitive method to deal with the Nine-Tails. He had needed to make preparations, which was why he had arrived so late.
During their brief exchange, the Nine-Tails furiously bucked, throwing off Gamabunta who was pinning him down. With a furious roar, massive chakra gathered in its mouth once again. Interrupted time and time again, the Nine-Tails was absolutely determined to fire off this attack.
Minato's eyes narrowed. He drew out a Flying Thunder God kunai, ready to use a space-time barrier to teleport the Tailed Beast Bomb away at a moment's notice.
Meanwhile, back in the Uchiha clan compound, Jie Uchiha watched the dense sphere of chakra condensing in the Nine-Tails' mouth. A sharp smile bloomed on his face.
"It's time to wrap this up!"
Jie had received a total of 200,000 explosive tags from the system's beginner gift pack. He had buried half of them outside the Hidden Leaf Village to ambush the newly unsealed Nine-Tails and Obito Uchiha. The remaining 100,000 explosive tags, however, were buried just outside the walls of the Hidden Leaf. More accurately, those 100,000 explosive tags were currently sitting directly beneath the Nine-Tails' feet.
"It wasn't a waste of a thousand points to buy the exact location from the system," Jie muttered to himself. "Now, Nine-Tails, please enjoy a display of true art!"
Jie formed a single hand seal, triggering his internal chakra. "Explosive tags, detonate!"
Boom!
With a deafening roar, a towering mushroom cloud erupted from beneath the Nine-Tails. Struck by the massive payload, the beast cried out in sheer agony. Because of the sudden blast, the Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth hadn't finished condensing, but it still fired off, shooting toward the village packed with a colossal amount of volatile chakra.
The sheer scale of the explosion and the rushing wave of intense heat forced everyone on the battlefield to pause. Even Minato was momentarily distracted by the colossal mushroom cloud lighting up the night sky.
By the time he snapped back to attention, the volatile Tailed Beast Bomb had already bypassed his maximum interception range, plunging straight toward the center of the village.
A violent flash of white light erupted. For a split second, the entire world seemed to lose its color, leaving behind nothing but an ever-expanding shockwave. A mere second later, a world-ending roar—several times louder than the simultaneous detonation of Jie's 100,000 explosive tags—echoed throughout the entire village.
"The village..."
"It's gone!"
Under such an intense explosion, nothing could survive. Both people and buildings were instantly vaporized into drifting ash.
"You beast!" Minato cursed. He hadn't expected that a single moment of distraction would allow the Nine-Tails to inflict such devastating damage on his home.
The tragedy only hardened his resolve. 'I absolutely... absolutely cannot let the Nine-Tails continue this!'
'Therefore...'
"Forgive me, my son!"
"Dead Demon Consuming Seal!"