Minato flashed to Shisui's side and sighed in admiration.
"So this is Susanoo. What an incredible power."
He had always been in contact with Hiruzen, so he understood very well why so many Uchiha had been placed under the unit led by Mitsuki.
Aside from the Uchiha clan's intense fighting spirit, there was also the intention of having Mitsuki keep an eye on Ruri.
Shisui was likewise someone the upper echelons of Konoha kept under watch, but as a descendant of Kagami, Hiruzen was still willing to place a certain degree of trust in him.
"Minato-sama, how do you view the Mangekyo Sharingan?" Shisui wanted to know what the man before him truly thought.
Minato understood what Shisui was worried about and laughed openly.
"In my view, power itself has no right or wrong. What matters is whether the person using it is righteous."
As he spoke, Minato shifted his gaze toward the two towering Susanoo fighting the Eight-Tails.
"Trusting your comrades. That is my ninja way."
Shisui felt genuinely moved. Aside from Mitsuki, among the village's high-ranking figures, Minato was probably the only one who truly and sincerely regarded the Uchiha as comrades.
If Mitsuki were here, he would definitely have mocked Minato as some kind of charisma demon.
"B, two against one, we are not their match."
The Eight-Tails' calm voice echoed deep within Killer B's mind.
"That chakra giant is extremely troublesome."
This was the first time Killer B had encountered an opponent capable of matching him head-on in this form.
With so many Konoha and Kumo ninja present on the surrounding battlefield, the clash between Susanoo and the Eight-Tails relied mostly on taijutsu.
Even the earlier Tailed Beast Ball had been released at an adjusted angle by Killer B, while Ruri had deliberately knocked it into the sky.
But as the seconds ticked by, Killer B's emotions began to destabilize.
To him, A was his only family. The moment Killer B thought of the Third Mizukage who had been beaten down and slaughtered in his own village by Mitsuki, his thoughts uncontrollably drifted to his brother.
A chill ran through his body, and Killer B stopped caring about the consequences.
"Killer B goes berserk, power erupts, Eight-Tails' might, cannot be stopped. Bakayaroo! Konoyaroo!."
The Eight-Tails' eight tentacles released the Susanoo they had been tightly binding, wrapping its massive Bijuu body into a sphere and beginning to spin at extreme speed.
Tailed Beast Eight Twists
This was an overwhelmingly destructive taijutsu technique. By rotating at high speed with all eight tails, it dragged the surrounding airflow into a massive tornado that covered a vast area.
Ruri controlled Susanoo to slash downward, but the rotating air currents deflected the blow, shedding most of its force.
As the tornado grew larger and larger, it posed no threat to Ruri inside Susanoo, but the ordinary ninja nearby had no means of surviving such a storm.
Shisui touched his eyes, thinking to himself.
"Do I really have to use that ocular technique here? But if I use it now, what if later in Konoha…"
While he hesitated, Minato's voice rang out.
"Shisui, I'm going to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to transfer the Eight-Tails away. I'll leave things here to you afterward."
It was a good plan, but executing it would be difficult. Shisui frowned.
"But that storm, Minato-sama, how will you enter it?"
"When I struck the Eight-Tails' Jinchuriki with the Rasengan earlier, I left a Flying Thunder God formula on him. I can sense that marker now, and it's inside the storm."
"With the chakra I have left, I can't send the Eight-Tails very far. Be prepared, there may be some aftereffects."
After giving his instructions, Minato wasted no time and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
At the same time, the Eight-Tails Killer B, who was spinning wildly on the spot like he was showing off his street dance skills, vanished from the battlefield along with Minato's action.
Inside Susanoo, Ruri had been considering whether to drag that guy into the shadow space. In the blink of an eye, the massive octopus was simply gone.
Due to inertia, the violent winds held on for a short while before gradually dissipating.
Instead, a distant mountain peak suddenly experienced a tornado identical to the one just now.
But because of the distance, by the time the wind reached the battlefield, it had lost almost all of its destructive power.
Ruri dispelled Susanoo, returned to the ground, and immediately found Shisui.
"That octopus, who transferred it away?"
"Minato-sama."
"Oh."
Looking at Ruri, whose condition seemed completely unchanged, curiosity filled Shisui's face.
"Ruri, when you use the Mangekyo Sharingan, don't you feel an immense strain on your body?"
Uchiha Ruri looked at him strangely.
"What a weird thing to ask. Have you also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?"
When Shisui asked that question, he had no intention of hiding it. He nodded.
"Yes. I awakened mine earlier than you, but unlike you, every time I use my eyes, the side effects are severe. Yet you don't seem to have that problem."
"Hmph."
Ruri turned her head away and did not continue the topic. The fact that she had fused her father's Mangekyo Sharingan and obtained eternal ocular power was something she found difficult to say herself.
After all, that immense power was not something she had earned on her own.
Seeing that Ruri did not want to continue the conversation, Shisui could only drop the matter.
…
At the foot of a distant mountain, after completing Tailed Beast Eight Twists, Killer B unfurled his tentacles and realized that the chakra giant was gone, and there was no one else around.
"Strange, strange. No one's here. Over there, or over here."
"B, it's not that the enemies disappeared. Our position was transferred."
Gyuki' calm voice sounded once more.
Space rippled faintly as Minato and Mitsuki appeared simultaneously behind the Eight-Tails. Each formed the Four Symbols Seal formula and slammed a palm into its body.
Two voices rang out at the same time.
"Eight Trigrams Sealing Style."
As chakra surged, countless sealing formulas spread across the Eight-Tails' body in less than a second, then abruptly began to tighten.
Feeling the suffocating sensation of his body being constricted like a giant python, Killer B suddenly found fresh inspiration for his rap.
"Yo, yo, Killer B ambushed, life on the line, but my fighting spirit burns, I won't give up, baby."
"Bakayarou! Konoyarou."
Using the tiny opening before the seal fully completed, Killer B condensed an enormous Tailed Beast Ball in his mouth and detonated it directly at point-blank range.
At a glance, Mitsuki could tell the guy was trying to trade damage by relying on his absurd durability.
So he formed a sand cloud beneath his feet as a foothold and kicked off, shooting forward like a bullet leaving the chamber, charging head-on toward the Tailed Beast Ball that had already begun to glow red.