Tobirama and his guards thought nothing of how easily Kazemori Masaki had killed Ginkaku. Only Sora, who had been confined to the prisoner-of-war camp all this time, was astonished. But that was not the point. What mattered was that Ginkaku's death would push Kinkaku to the brink of losing control, sending him berserk like those jinchūriki.
Tobirama knew this. With everyone's help, he had already placed a Flying Thunder God mark on Kinkaku, but he had held off on using it to avoid revealing it too soon. Only when Ginkaku died did he signal the others to pin Kinkaku down immediately.
The Nine-Tails chakra inside Kinkaku was swelling, about to enter the second stage of Tailed Beast Transformation. Seeing the others attack with all their strength, Kinkaku swiftly retaliated. He did not even need a ninjutsu. Simply detonating his chakra produced a shock wave that forced everyone back.
This was the very instant Tobirama had been waiting for. No matter how skilled someone was, they inevitably needed a moment to recover after unleashing an attack. Even a tailed beast was no exception. However brief that pause, Tobirama would ordinarily have been unable to exploit it. But against the Flying Thunder God Technique, which allowed him to move through space, the brevity of that opening meant nothing.
Tobirama vanished and appeared beside Kinkaku. A bright flash of steel followed, and Kinkaku's eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the blade protruding from his chest.
Flying Thunder God Slash. Tobirama had once used this technique to grievously wound Uchiha Izuna. Even Izuna's Mangekyō Sharingan had not allowed him to evade it. Though the Nine-Tails chakra made Kinkaku's physical strength far greater than Izuna's, that brief moment of recovery left him unable to dodge the strike.
Blood trickled from the corner of