Bang!
A massive, spiked-club-like tail swept down from a thousand meters above, crashing down with overwhelming force.
As the tremendous impact surged outward like a tidal wave, the gale it kicked up snapped the surrounding trees cleanly in half.
Sand and stones flew everywhere, while billowing dust engulfed the entire battlefield.
Sarutobi Mirai and the others vanished beneath it in an instant.
At the sight of this earth-shaking scene, everyone's nerves tightened at once.
Their eyes widened as they stared fixedly at the battlefield.
In that brief instant, anyone with sharp enough vision had vaguely seen a ghostlike afterimage appear in front of Hyuga Hanabi a step ahead of everyone else.
More importantly, what happened next was beyond anything they could imagine.
That person seemed to have casually reached out, intending to block that massive tail?
"Haha, those tiny humans must be dead after taking my attack..."
"What? Why can't my tail move...?"
The Shukaku puppet's crimson eyes flashed, only for a humanlike look of shock to appear on its face the next moment.
As the dust scattered in the wind, the sight that first entered everyone's eyes nearly made their eyeballs burst from their sockets.
A slender youth stood there, one hand pressed against a tail as enormous as a spiked club, stretching a full hundred meters long.
The calm indifference on his face etched itself into everyone's minds, carrying an inexplicable, soul-stirring force.
They had all witnessed the sheer power behind the Shukaku puppet's attack just now.
If a small mountain had been struck by it, it would have crumbled apart.
Yet such a terrifying attack had been stopped with one hand.
Was it holding back?
Or had it gone easy on them?
Otherwise, how could the result be so different from what they had imagined?
"Lord... Lord