Minato used Body Flicker to appear beside Shisui.
It was not that he did not want to follow up with a finishing blow, but he understood very well that so-called Jinchuriki usually had a second boss phase.
Sure enough, within the smoke created by the Rasengan explosion, eight massive tentacles burst out, followed immediately by a deafening bull's roar that echoed across the battlefield.
"Moo!"
The Kumo ninjas on the battlefield instantly erupted with excitement.
"It's Killer B-sama!"
"That's great, we're saved!"
"Damn you, Konoha. Our Kumogakure isn't that easy to defeat."
"We're going to win!"
Large numbers of ninjas NPCs began enthusiastically raising death flags.
On the battlefield, the actions of elite fighters from the major villages could easily sway the morale of ordinary shinobi.
Several gigantic octopus tentacles swept across the field, their massive coverage clearing out a wide open area.
Minato and Shisui had no choice but to retreat beyond the attack range of the Eight-Tails.
Both of them were specialists against human opponents. Facing a thick-skinned, massive Tailed Beast like this, especially the Eight-Tails that ranked solidly second in combat power among the Bijuu, they really had no particularly good options.
Or rather, there were jutsu capable of dealing with such an enemy, but the price to use them was too high.
Fortunately, Minato and Shisui did not need to defeat the Eight-Tails quickly. With Konoha holding an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield, all they needed to do was keep it tied down.
Using the mobility of the Flying Thunder God, Minato found another opening and slammed a Big Ball Rasengan straight into the Eight-Tails' head.
Boom!
The Eight-Tails merely had its head knocked slightly to the side, then immediately swung a massive fist toward Minato, who was suspended in midair with no leverage.
Whoosh!
Space rippled faintly as a streak of yellow light flashed. Minato struck once and instantly withdrew, vanishing from the spot.
Shisui stayed on the outskirts, occasionally firing off Fire Release jutsu to interfere with the Eight-Tails' vision.
There was no helping it. His Body Flicker Technique was fundamentally different from Minato's Flying Thunder God and was not a speed-focused instant-movement type.
Unless he used that power considered taboo within Konoha, he could only serve as background support here.
And with the current situation between Konoha and the Uchiha clan being extremely favorable, he absolutely would not expose his Mangekyo Sharingan unless there was no other choice.
While Shisui was still thinking, Ruri, who had noticed the situation from nearby, was already preparing to charge in with her "Gundam".
With a casual flick of her hand, she scattered a volley of Chidori Senbon, paralyzing several ninjsa in the area. In the next moment, she formed hand seals and spat out a Great Fireball, incinerating them all.
She had originally been efficiently eliminating ninjas, carrying out the task Mitsuki had assigned her.
But before long, a gigantic monster suddenly appeared on Shisui's side. With that level of commotion, it was impossible not to notice. Judging by its appearance, it had to be the Kumo's Tailed Beast.
"So this was why he sent me over here?"
Ruri's thoughts began to run wild. In reality, Mitsuki simply preferred fighting alone, since it allowed him to freely use large-scale, high-powered jutsu without restraint.
"Moo!"
The Eight-Tails' thunderous roar rang in her ears. Ruri's gaze sharpened as the three tomoe in her Sharingan spun rapidly, finally forming a beautiful and intricate pattern.
She kicked off the ground with both legs, shooting toward the Eight-Tails like a cannonball.
As her ocular power surged, a gigantic skeletal frame emerged. Countless chakra threads wrapped around it, forming muscle, and with a sound like metal locking into place, a chakra giant clad in black Tengu armor appeared on the battlefield.
It was Ruri's Susanoo.
Despite its enormous size, Susanoo was not slow at all. With just a few imposing leaps, it closed the distance to the Eight-Tails.
Facing a fourth-stage Susanoo of comparable size, the Eight-Tails showed no fear and threw a punch, generating violent air currents.
Ruri did not answer with her fists. Instead, she controlled Susanoo to draw a chakra greatsword from its waist. With a nimble shift, she dodged the punch and slashed toward the Eight-Tails' head.
Killer B's follow-up was just as fast. An octopus's natural advantage lay in its many tentacles.
One tentacle shot out and tightly bound Susanoo's sword-wielding arm, while several others wrapped around its body, pinning it in place. The Eight-Tails opened its mouth wide as a Tailed Beast Bomb finished charging in an instant.
However, just as the Tailed Beast Bomb was about to fire, another Susanoo rose up from the shadow on the ground. It delivered an uppercut straight into the Eight-Tails' jaw, snapping its head backward from the unexpected blow.
The Tailed Beast Ball shot into the sky and detonated, the massive shockwave tearing through the canyon and blasting a ring-shaped hole through the thick clouds overhead.
Below, Shisui looked utterly disoriented by the wind.
He had long suspected that Ruri might have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
He even thought that appearances could be deceiving. Although she seemed rather reckless, the fact that she had hidden her Mangekyo awakening suggested she cared deeply about the delicate relationship between the Uchiha clan and the village.
As a senior, he had felt genuinely relieved.
But he never expected that today, in front of thousands of Konoha ninja, she would directly activate Susanoo, and not just one, but two.
In truth, Shisui was simply lacking information. Long before he returned from the Kirigakure battlefield, Ruri had already activated Susanoo once.
She had not used it earlier at the Kirigakure front purely because she was still using transplanted eyes from En and did not wish to rely on power that was not truly her own.
Moreover, the internal situation in Konoha had already changed.
As the saying went, with a gun in hand, the heart remains calm. With a living Buddha like Mitsuki keeping things in check, Hiruzen no longer spent his days worrying about when the Uchiha clan might rebel or whether Konoha could withstand it.
"That said, can her eyes really handle this?"
Shisui knew all too well that the Mangekyo Sharingan's ocular power was limited and would gradually lead to blindness with use. Ever since awakening his own eyes, he had carefully calculated every bit of ocular power he spent.
But Ruri was different. She even had her clone using Susanoo.
Just how much ocular power did she have?