Chapter 300: War Begins
As the two approached the northern camp, Onoki suddenly stopped in midair.
Several extremely heavy explosions came from ahead.
A moment later, the surrounding trees and even the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.
Onoki’s old face twitched.
"That madman has completely lost it!"
Kaede didn’t slow down.
He pushed off the ground and crossed the remaining distance in several leaps, landing steadily atop the northern wall.
Onoki landed beside him.
One glance downward revealed a plain that had been utterly destroyed.
The Raikage was wrapped in blue chakra and fighting the Eight-Tails head-on with nothing but physical strength.
Gyuki raised its head and roared.
A massive tentacle swept across with a shriek that tore through the air.
Ay’s right arm bulged with muscle as he drove a fist directly into it.
Fist and tentacle collided.
The ground beneath them collapsed into a crater in an instant.
Soil and broken stones were blasted into the air by the shockwave before raining back down like a storm of mud and rubble.
The Eight-Tails’ tentacle was split apart by Ay’s punch.
Half of the severed flesh slammed into the earth, throwing up a huge cloud of yellow dust.
Ay himself couldn’t withstand the terrifying recoil.
He was hurled backward more than ten meters, both feet carving deep trenches across the ground.
When he finally stopped, he breathed heavily.
Across from him, the severed end of Gyuki’s tentacle writhed violently.
A new tentacle regenerated at astonishing speed.
Ay had barely recovered his breath when he ground one heel into the earth and prepared to charge again.
A violent gust came from the flank.
Shukaku opened its enormous jagged mouth, its round stomach contracting sharply.
Dense wind bullets mixed with rapidly rotating sand shuriken and blanketed Ay’s entire position.
On the wall, Onoki snorted.
He floated upward and brought his hands together.
An intensely bright white pillar formed between his palms.
Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu.
The white light swept across the battlefield.
Every sand shuriken that touched its edge vanished without even leaving fragments behind.
All of them were broken down to their most basic particles.
Kaede stood in place and looked through the fading light.
Onoki descended beside Ay.
Floating at roughly waist height, he looked at the broad man surrounded by electricity.
"They have two completely controlled Tailed Beasts and an unknown commander behind them," Onoki said, each word hitting the key point. "Are you planning to die by charging around with brute force?"
Ay clenched his right fist and slammed it into the ground.
Cracks spread outward.
He didn’t argue, nor did he take another step forward.
Those two exchanges had already cooled his overheated head.
The Tsuchikage was right.
Alone, caught between two Tailed Beasts, he couldn’t even reach the masked enemy.
Seeing him finally settle down, Onoki grabbed Ay’s shoulder.
He activated Earth Style: Light-Weight Rock Technique.
The two rapidly withdrew toward the wall.
Shukaku stopped attacking and made several gurgling sounds deep in its throat, obvious mockery in the noise.
Ay landed steadily on the wall beside Kaede.
The Lightning Release Armor around him slowly faded.
The muscles in the right arm that had split the tentacle were twitching uncontrollably.
Kaede withdrew his gaze and looked toward the center of the battlefield.
A masked man stood atop Shukaku.
From above, he looked down upon the allied forces gathered along the wall.
His gaze passed over the Raikage and the Tsuchikage.
Finally, it stopped on Kaede.
Kaede met his eyes.
Who was this person?
He could tolerate the Rinnegan and even use it to control Tailed Beasts.
The real questions were how much of the Rinnegan’s power he could bring out, and how much backlash his body could endure.
Kaede analyzed him quickly.
Their stare lasted only several seconds.
The masked man looked away and returned his attention to the battlefield below.
The earlier exchange had apparently been nothing more than a test of the alliance’s strength.
Kaede’s eyes swept toward the continuous shadows around the battlefield’s perimeter.
No sign of Black Zetsu.
That ancient schemer was absolutely hiding in some blind spot and watching.
At that moment, uniform footsteps sounded beneath the wall.
More than a dozen members of the joint sealing squads lined up below, each carrying specialized scrolls.
Onoki glanced down at them.
Then he turned toward Kaede.
This young man had arranged the war council without leaving a single obvious flaw.
Now, faced with such a disadvantaged situation on the battlefield, the brat was still calmly observing the entire field before doing anything.
He had to have a plan.
Onoki asked first.
"Brat, any ideas?"
Ay shook out his right arm to drive away the aching numbness in his muscles.
Hearing Onoki ask, he also turned toward Kaede.
Kaede withdrew his gaze from the distance.
"I’ll control the Tailed Beasts’ movement."
His voice was steady and precise.
"You two handle the main offense."
Onoki raised a brow.
"You can suppress two Tailed Beasts at once?"
Kaede didn’t waste a word.
He nodded.
"Yes. I’ll also keep watch on the masked man."
The moment Ay heard that, blue lightning erupted around his body again.
The frustration of being forced backward earlier disappeared completely, replaced by surging battle intent.
"Then let’s do it."
The moment he finished, the masked man in the center of the battlefield jumped from Shukaku’s head.
He landed steadily in a safe rear position.
The Tailed Beasts began to move.
Shukaku remained where it was, while Gyuki slowly advanced.
Then an unpleasant sound of earth being torn apart spread across the open ground.
Large sections of soil rolled upward.
Dense white figures crawled from underground.
White Zetsu.
There were so many that the end couldn’t be seen.
The battlefield was rapidly filled with pale monsters.
Their mouths stretched almost to their ears as they released shrill, grating cries.
The creatures followed behind the two Tailed Beasts and surged toward the wall.
Tens of thousands of feet struck the ground.
The shaking was more violent than a landslide.
Kaede walked to the very front of the wall.
His hands came together.
The soil ahead split open across a distance of several hundred meters.
Dozens of enormous vines, each several meters thick, erupted from below.
Sharp wooden spikes covered their surfaces as the vines grew violently to either side.
Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence.
The expanding vines interlocked before the wall, forming a moving half-arc barricade several dozen meters tall.
More than a thousand White Zetsu at the front didn’t even have time to scream before thick wooden spikes pierced straight through them.
Their bodies were lifted high into the air like skewered fruit.
The allied shinobi preparing for close combat stared at the sight.
The charging path of the white flood had been forcibly cut apart by the wall that had erupted from nowhere.
Onoki seized the opening and shot into the sky.
White light once again formed between his hands.
Ay kicked off the wall, crossed the Wood Release barrier, and charged directly at Gyuki.
Along the battlements, shinobi from every village recovered and formed hand seals in unison.
Fire Style. Wind Style. Earth Style.
Multicolored ninjutsu lit up the night.
The battlefield erupted into full-scale war.