Yugito's instincts were extremely sharp—though it was also possible that Mitsuki's ultimate move had simply too much of an obvious wind-up.
Either way, before the flaming sword aura could reach her, she reacted instantly. Without hesitation, she once again entered complete Tailed Beast Transformation, grabbing Darui and Cee within the non-ignited blue cat paws.
At the same time, she leapt into the air—
Barely evading the attack at the cost of being bisected at the waist.
Thud—
The massive body of the Two-Tails, now missing its lower half, crashed heavily to the ground.
In that split second of crisis, saving the two closest people to her was all she could manage.
"This is insane…"
Darui stared at the destruction caused by Mitsuki, disbelief filling his eyes.
Was this really something ninjutsu could do?
If it had been a Tailed Beast Ball, he might not have been this shocked—but that attack was unquestionably pure ninjutsu.
They were both users of kekkei genkai, yet his Storm Release wasn't even in the same universe.
"Yugito, are you okay?" Cee asked anxiously.
"I can still fight."
Yugito channeled Matatabi's chakra, rapidly regenerating the lower half of her tailed beast form.
...
A, his entire body wreathed in lightning, burst out of the smoke and leapt into the air, swinging a devastating kick toward Mitsuki's head.
Just before making contact, however, he sharply withdrew the Lightning Release chakra gathered in his leg—
Completing the latter half of this nintaijutsu using pure physical strength alone!
Mitsuki had anticipated this.
With a single activation of the Flying Thunder God Technique, he effortlessly evaded A's carefully prepared ambush from within the smoke.
Reappearing at a pre-marked Flying Thunder God location, Mitsuki immediately found himself surrounded by blue spheres of flame.
The next instant, under Yugito's control, every one of those flames emitted a crimson glow—
And detonated simultaneously.
"Fire Rat!"
BOOM—!
A violent explosion erupted, crimson flames blasting outward from Mitsuki's position.
When the smoke cleared—
Mitsuki stood there completely unharmed.
Yugito frowned.
Recalling how A had been bizarrely repelled earlier when using Lightning Release Chakra Mode, she suddenly realized something.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
Seeing Yugito's attack fail, Darui immediately followed up with his own kekkei genkai ninjutsu.
Countless azure, laser-like beams shot toward Mitsuki's body at extreme speed, twisting along unpredictable trajectories.
"Wait, Darui!" Yugito shouted urgently.
But Storm Release attacks were simply too fast—her warning was doomed to be cut short.
Mitsuki casually swung Mistcutter, instantly deploying the domain of Full Counter around himself.
Dozens of lasers that made contact were reflected back at even greater speed, retracing their original paths!
Darui tried to redirect the lasers—
Only to discover he had completely lost control.
"What… is this?!"
Storm Release was a fusion of Water and Lightning chakra, famed for its unparalleled shape manipulation and directional control.
Yet now—
Darui could only panic, forcibly stopping his technique while desperately rolling sideways to evade the reflected attack.
But it was already too late.
The lasers were terrifyingly fast.
There were very few people in the shinobi world capable of saving Darui from such an attack—
And unfortunately for everyone present, one of them was right there.
A streak of blue lightning tore through the air.
A slammed into Darui with a full-body tackle, knocking him flying.
The reflected lasers narrowly missed, slamming into the ground instead—
Leaving behind a honeycomb of holes so dense it would give anyone with trypophobia an instant heart attack.
"Cough—!"
Darui was sent flying by his own boss's elbow strike, immediately feeling several ribs snap.
A had no choice.
He didn't want to injure an ally — but if he'd been even a fraction of a second slower, the one turned into a sieve wouldn't have been the ground.
"Cee, take Darui and the remaining ninja back to the village."
Facing Mitsuki with full vigilance, A barked the order over his shoulder to Cee, who was already using medical ninjutsu to stabilize Darui.
Cee knew full well that combat at this level was beyond them.
Staying would only make them dead weight.
Still—
The humiliation was unbearable.
Cee hadn't been part of the forces the Third Raikage died protecting, but now — watching history repeat itself—he finally understood what those people must have felt.
"…Understood."
Forcing down the sting in his nose, Cee hoisted Darui onto his back and led the remaining ninja toward Valley of Clouds and Lightning.
"Trying to escape?"
Mitsuki swung Mistcutter repeatedly toward their retreating direction.
As Blaze Release chakra surged, two massive cross-shaped flame sword waves shot out one after another.
From another direction, the fully transformed Two-Tails lunged forward on all fours, intercepting the attacks with both claws.
Dark-purple Blaze Release chakra clung stubbornly to the cat's paws, burning like something alive.
But Matatabi was a master of flames as well.
Within seconds, the fading Blaze Release chakra was forcibly dispersed by the Two-Tails' own blue fire.
Seeing this, Mitsuki lost interest in pursuing the fleeing ninja.
After all, Ruri, Shisui, and the others were already blocking that route.
If they escaped, good for them.
All that mattered was that the real big fish was still here.
…
Deeper within the Valley of Clouds and Lightning—
Minato was commanding Konoha's forces to seize every viable retreat path through the mountains.
This had been part of the plan from the very beginning.
This time, Minato intended to press the advantage—
To kick Kumogakure completely off the table in the Third Great Ninja War.
Mitsuki hadn't sent a signal yet, which meant the situation on his end was still under control.
That meant Minato couldn't afford to fall behind.
As scorching heat waves rolled through the canyon—
A few minutes later, battered and broken Kumo ninja — now reduced to less than thirty percent of their original numbers—retreated toward the rear.
Seeing the vacant, numb expressions on their faces, Minato couldn't help but wonder what exactly Mitsuki had done to them.
Those details could wait until after the war.
The moment the Kumo forces entered the prepared encirclement—
Minato issued the order to attack without the slightest hesitation.