The words and actions of the Second Raikage, A, seemed incomprehensible to everyone, even his allies. The only one who appeared only slightly surprised was Orochimaru, who mentally evaluated the actions of the leader of the Hidden Cloud Village.
"This is quite an extreme tactic... The Raikage seems determined to deliver a hard blow to the village. The tailed beasts are an unstoppable calamity; in a chaotic battlefield like this, where enemies are scattered, and the tailed beast can cause mass destruction, this move is cruel, but extremely efficient..."
Orochimaru frowned when he reached this point in his reasoning. At the same time, he began to calculate the combat power of both sides and realized that things didn't look good for the Hidden Leaf Village.
"... Have you gone mad?!"
Hiruzen was so speechless that he could only watch, almost in panic, as the eight-tailed beast appeared right in front of him. He never thought the Raikage would make such a drastic decision.
Gyuki, the eight-tailed beast, is necessary to maintain the balance of power between the villages. With growing animosity between the villages, it's because of this deterrent power that the villages don't engage in total battles with the aim of destroying each other.
No matter how powerful a village is, if they try to enter this type of battle, the response will always be to release the tailed beast so they can protect themselves.
Therefore, the Raikage's actions in using Gyuki, not as a deterrent power, but as an attacking power, was beyond the Hokage's imagination.
After all, with Gyuki freed, it will fight to remain free. Without a power as overwhelming as Hashirama's, capable of easily suppressing the tailed beasts, it's difficult to seal the beast again, especially one of the most powerful like the eight-tailed beast.
By freeing Gyuki in the Hidden Leaf Village, the Raikage was risking losing control of the beast, thus losing the deterrent power that the tailed beasts have.
He is literally risking everything in this battle, something unthinkable from Hiruzen's point of view, but which was happening right in front of his eyes at this moment.
Even though he was deeply shocked, however, when he saw Gyuki almost completely transformed, he knew he had no time for this.
Among the allies, the Tsuchikage was also surprised, but quickly adapted to the situation, moving away a bit, and paying attention to the movements of the Hidden Leaf Village side. Even though the Raikage hadn't warned about his plan to release Gyuki, this didn't bring any harm to the Hidden Rock Village.
On the other hand, the Raikage's son seemed tremendously shocked by the situation. He wanted to question his father about what had just happened, but he knew it wasn't the time for that. He was also caught off guard by the situation.
Perhaps no one, not even in the Hidden Cloud Village, knew what he was planning to do.
It was under these circumstances that one of the most powerful tailed beasts, Gyuki, appeared on the battlefield.
With a height of tens of meters, the beast roared as soon as it completely transformed, making the earth and the hearts of nearby people, even allies, tremble.
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"Son, keep the enemies busy with Gyuki."
Without saying anything else, the Raikage disappeared with his lightning armor, once again catching the Hokage by surprise.
"Oh, but you're not going to!"
Hiruzen quickly tried to intercept the Raikage, but the Tsuchikage, as if he had been expecting this to happen, interfered, getting in the way.
Mu, the second Tsuchikage, said nothing, but his intention was clear.
"Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Sakumo, deal with Gyuki."
Resigned to the situation, Hiruzen could only grit his teeth as he watched the Raikage moving away.
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Gyuki's presence alerted the entire village, not just the battlefield. The colossal size of the beast, and its power, which could be felt from a distance, caused panic among civilians. The beast's roar was simply deafening.
On the battlefield, the ninjas of the Hidden Leaf Village were worried, but when they noticed the Hokage's presence at the site, they calmed down and continued with the battle.
The enemies from other villages, however, were in doubt about what was happening.
The ninjas from the Hidden Rock Village began to worry about the Tsuchikage, who was with the Raikage at the place where the beast appeared.
The ninjas from the Hidden Cloud Village, on the other hand, were confused by Gyuki's appearance. They knew about the beast, and they knew that its presence is a bad sign.
Although with different reactions, the battle continued, with people dying at every moment.
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At the ritual site, Yujin slowly got up when he heard the Hokage's subordinates commenting on the events outside. He could feel the presence of enemies approaching, as well as the overwhelming presence of a gigantic creature.
"Tsunade, the enemies are coming."
Yujin could already feel the approach of one of the enemies, who seems to have managed to get rid of the Hokage, making him frown.
As if she were a different person, Tsunade's expression changed drastically. If before she just looked like a simple woman worried about the ritual, now she looked like a fighter ready to face whoever comes.
"Our enemy is the Raikage."
Even while talking about his opponent, Yujin showed extraordinary calmness, surprising Tsunade for a moment.
She had already explained who the Raikage was, and his monstrous strength, but Yujin didn't look like someone about to face a deadly battle.
He seemed calm, very calm.
At the same time, she could also feel a sharpness in him that she had never seen before.
Even though he seemed calm, Yujin was ready, she thought.
"Then let's go outside."
Tsunade led the way, her expression as sharp as a sword, with resolute steps showing no fear of what she was going to face. Yujin followed right behind, observing her back, a mysterious gleam in his eyes.
'This woman...'
...
At the ritual site, Mito calmly observed Yujin and Tsunade's departure.
Even though it seemed that she was completely oblivious to everything that was happening, Mito still maintained some degree of attention to the events outside.
At this moment, Kushina was sleeping on a stone altar in the center of the place. Several ninjas were around assisting in the ritual process, and Mito was extracting the fox from inside her belly.
It's been hours since she started extracting the fox, but it still didn't seem close to finishing.
The ritual she is conducting was something she had thought about and created from scratch. The process is much more complicated and time-consuming than simply transferring the beast to another person.
She had to separate one entity into two; transform one source of chakra into two; thus creating two different beings. With her power, and her ability as a practitioner of fuinjutsu, this was the best she could do.
While many may think that the biggest reason she did all this was so that she could live longer, only she knows the truth.
Only she knows that she was doing everything, in large part, just out of curiosity.
Being one of the best practitioners of fuinjutsu in the world, Mito took great pride in her abilities.
Separating the most powerful tailed beast, the Nine-Tailed Fox, into two different entities, is a feat never before seen, of absurd complexity.
Her curiosity as a practitioner of fuinjutsu guided her to this moment, while her concern for Kushina and Tsunade's future was the driving force for her not to give up.
After all, internally, Mito was already at peace with her eventual death.
...
Seeing the two leaving the place, Mito's eyes slowly closed, and she finally focused completely on the task ahead.
'You can think what you want of me. Just accept your fate, Kyubi.'
Internally, the fox was thrashing about, in panic, with the situation it was going through.
'I don't understand!! There's no way this can pass without consequences for you! Why are you doing this?!'
The beast's screams, however, reached no one's ears.