At the ritual site, Mito seemed to be at a critical moment. In her hands, there was what appeared to be a blue fox made of energy, and she was slowly dragging this blue fox out of her belly.
The scene was bizarre, to say the least. Yujin was the most surprised; he had no idea how something like this was inside the lady's body.
Everyone watched the ritual in silence, with Hiruzen and his subordinates discussing at a distance. Even amid the situation, the Hokage was paying attention to the progress of the ritual, alert to any problems that might occur.
Even for someone like him, with his vast knowledge of fuinjutsu, he could only superficially understand what was happening. The theory, he had heard from Mito before, but seeing it happen is still impressive in every way.
The legendary Nine-Tailed Fox is being divided into two completely different entities.
The idea of dividing a chakra being is something that could never leave his mind; no wonder Mito is known as the best fuinjutsu specialist from Uzushiogakure, he thought.
Even while watching the ritual, he was coordinating the battle. He was also receiving recurring reports on the location of key individuals from the enemy field such as the Raikage and the Tsuchikage.
As long as the nine-tailed fox is not completely sealed, he did not plan to do anything drastic, just defend.
Inside, however, he was not satisfied. With his normal temperament, he would have gone into battle immediately, not standing still listening and giving orders like this.
Unfortunately, he knew that the fox was the most important thing. The village had the power to defeat the cloud and rock villages even if they joined forces, but if the nine-tailed fox escapes from the seal...
He fears that this will be a catastrophic event for the village.
While he was lost in thoughts about the battle situation, one of his subordinates spoke aloud.
"Hokage-sama, the Raikage and the Tsuchikage have started to move. They are approaching."
Hearing this, Hiruzen's eyes shone coldly. He knew that the time had come for him to move.
"The Nara Clan leader will be in charge of coordinating the battlefield. I will go into battle."
With an expression never before seen by most of his subordinates, Hiruzen quickly left the site, ready to engage in combat.
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Seeing Hiruzen leaving quickly, Yujin frowned, worried. Tsunade was still paying full attention to the ritual, only occasionally hearing a summary of events from Yujin's mouth.
With the Hokage on site, Yujin wasn't so worried, he knew it was the safest place in the village. With his departure, however, it became one of the most dangerous places.
'How powerful are the leaders of the other villages to make him so tense?'
The tension finally began to build up in Yujin with the Hokage's departure. The feeling, however, was not strange.
'It's been a long time since I've been in a battle... I thought maybe I wouldn't need to fight, but my intuition tells me otherwise.'
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Yujin then sat in a lotus position and began to prepare for battle. He didn't know when the village would need his strength, but he needed to be ready for anything.
The ritual was still far from over.
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After leaving the ritual site, Hiruzen moved away a bit, and frowned as he watched the Second Raikage and the Second Tsuchikage approaching.
Without taking his eyes off his enemies, Jiraya, Orochimaru and Sakumo appeared behind Hiruzen. They had everything planned. Hiruzen would take care of the Second Raikage while the three would deal with the Second Tsuchikage.
"Sensei, I want to remake my previous request. It's too good an opportunity to simply let pass."
Hiruzen frowned upon hearing Orochimaru's words. Without averting his gaze, he responded strictly.
"We've already discussed this. Your goal is to hold the Tsuchikage and not engage in an all-or-nothing battle. The Second Tsuchikage is very powerful, you don't have the ability to kill him. If you fight with everything, seeking his death, you will lose quickly, and this will give an opening for them to attack the ritual. Remember, the ritual is the most important thing."
Orochimaru frowned, but didn't respond. He has been having this discussion for days with Hiruzen about how to deal with the attack on the village, and knew he couldn't convince him. In Orochimaru's opinion, the best defense is offense; they should have attacked from the moment the enemies appeared.
Hiruzen, however, has a different thought, and believes it is more important to defend the ritual.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru's opinion failed to convince Hiruzen, who used his authority as Hokage to give orders.
Seeing that he couldn't convince him, Orochimaru told about an alternative plan, where he, along with Jiraya and Sakumo, would try to kill the Second Tsuchikage during the battle.
When he heard about this, Hiruzen was instantly against it. He knew how powerful the Second Tsuchikage was. Although he was confident that the three would not be killed by the Second Tsuchikage, he knew that if they fought with everything, this would end up giving the Second Tsuchikage the opportunity to kill them.
If even one of them dies, the battle will take an unfavorable turn for the village.
Therefore, the goal of the three is, from the beginning, just to buy time, to prevent the Second Tsuchikage from approaching the ritual site.
While they were talking, the enemies arrived, less than a hundred meters away. Present were the Second Raikage, the Second Tsuchikage, the son of the Second Raikage, and B, the host of the eight-tailed beast.
The presence of the Raikage's son, and the eight-tailed host made Hiruzen frown. He didn't know why they were there since they wouldn't help in the battle that's coming. In fact, they will end up becoming a problem, as they will have to protect them.
"A, you came prepared. Isn't it enough the constant defeats you've been having in the war, you came to lose more of your army."
Hiruzen was the first to speak, releasing a provocation.
"Hahaha, Hiruzen, you seem cornered. Normally, you wouldn't say something like that, but given the situation, I understand your concern."
The Second Raikage, A, then looked around, and commented.
"I gave the order for all units to gather here, it seems you had already predicted this would happen."
Hiruzen coldly mocked upon hearing this. He had already predicted that, if they discovered the true location of the ritual, the Raikage would give the order for everyone to converge in the same place to make a total attack.
When he heard about the Raikage's movements, without even needing to say anything, his subordinates already gave orders for everyone to hold the enemies on the battlefield.
If before, the enemies were attacking, and they were defending, now it's the opposite, they are attacking, and the enemies are defending.
An insidious smile appeared on the Second Raikage's face, not at all worried about this. He then looked at the eight-tailed host beside him, which was just a little boy, and extremely quickly, before everyone could react, he pierced young B's shoulder with his fingers, and moved them.
Chakra shone in the spot, and in seconds, before everyone could react, B's body began to writhe and grow in size.
When he saw this, Hiruzen was shocked. He didn't expect this action from the Raikage, not even in his most extreme thoughts.
"Hahaha, you think I came unprepared? If I want to destroy the leaf village, I need to do at least this, bet everything on this battle. Hiruzen, if you expected that you would hold us here so that you could finish the ritual, you are sorely mistaken. I came today determined to destroy the leaf village. An opportunity like this won't appear a second time, after all."
The Second Raikage's eyes overflowed with madness. He was determined to put an end to the leaf village, even if he has to risk everything by releasing the Eight-Tailed Beast, Gyuki.