The dust had yet to settle, and the sickening stench of burning still hung in the air.
Just as Chiya finished saying, "Let's add a few more logs," three enormous clouds of white smoke suddenly burst across the horizon, which shimmered in the intense heat.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The commotion was a little less spectacular than Madara dropping a meteor on their heads, but it was still enough to make the fleeing Allied Shinobi stumble.
Then three utterly different chakra signatures, each suffocatingly powerful, forced their way onto the battlefield Chiya had already claimed.
The earth trembled.
On the left stood an enormous red toad with an oversized pipe in his mouth and a short sword at his waist. Built like a small mountain, he gouged a deep crater into the ground upon landing. He puffed out thick smoke and stared at Chiya in midair, his toad eyes as grave as someone who owed eight million ryō.
Mount Myōboku's top dog, Gamabunta.
On the right coiled a purple serpent large enough to wrap around the Hokage Building three times. His cold, slit pupils brimmed with greed and savagery, and his tongue flickered with a hiss. The mere sight of him made people's scalps prickle.
Ryūchi Cave's resident thug, Manda.
In the center stood a gigantic blue-and-white slug who looked soft and squishy but was actually remarkably tough. She lacked their vicious presence, but her terrifyingly vast vitality anchored the center of the battlefield like an immovable pillar.
Shikkotsu Forest's living fossil, the Katsuyu Sage.
The Shinobi World's three highest-ranking summoning beasts had finally gathered, practically enough to fill a mahjong table.
Standing atop their enormous heads were three figures who had once struck terror throughout the Shinobi World.
Jiraiya tossed his wild white hair, his wooden sandals planted on Gamabunta's