I didn't know whether anyone had ever said this before, but if not, then I would be the first: If a missile's power couldn't solve the problem, then strap a nuclear warhead onto it.
Kitahara looked down at the massive Manda below. Chakra continuously compressed and condensed into a black-and-white Tail Beast Bomb... Judging by the density of Chakra within it, perhaps it could no longer even be called a Tail Beast Bomb...
Uchiha Itachi fled as fast as he could... The summoning beast and its master were not of one mind, and Manda had found a new target...
Manda constantly searched for somewhere safe. With its sensory abilities, let alone the super Tail Beast Bomb overhead, even the Tail Beast Bomb energy blasts Kitahara had casually spat out earlier were more than it could withstand.
On the other side of the battlefield, Jiraiya finally found an opening against Orochimaru's attacks... His taijutsu ranked second among Konoha's Three Sannin!
That was right. Orochimaru ranked dead last in taijutsu...
"Summoning Technique!"
Gamabunta of Mount Myōboku appeared out of thin air. The Tail Beast Bomb still compressing overhead instantly caught his attention, so the first thing he did was grab Jiraiya and flee far away...
Jiraiya clung tightly to his summoning beast. "Bunta, you..."
"Don't talk! Look at the sky!" Gamabunta watched his old nemesis Manda continuously change positions and called out, "You and Orochimaru really know how to cause trouble!"
"Hahaha, no..." Jiraiya wanted to explain Orochimaru's defection, but the aura of the Tail Beast Bomb above scared the rest of his words back into his stomach. "What... is that?"
"A Rasengan, a Tail Beast Bomb, who knows!" Gamabunta could not tell what it was, and he certainly was not going to risk his life to identify a ninjutsu...
"Either way, getting as far away as possible is the right move!"
"Hey, Bunta! My disciple is still over there!" Jiraiya spotted Uchiha Itachi still dragging several children along as he ran for his life.
"...Jiraiya!" Gamabunta had no possibility of turning back. He shouted to stop Jiraiya. "There isn't enough time! If that crow in the sky is targeting you and Orochimaru, then he shouldn't be in mortal danger..."
"A... crow?"
Jiraiya broke out in a cold sweat. He could not see who was gathering Chakra up there, but the sensory abilities and eyesight of a Mount Myōboku toad would never deceive him.
And the greatest suspect was undoubtedly that gluttonous, lazy, sleepy, bed-loving, stingy Kitahara... That crow whose flaws could fill a whole list in an instant...
Jiraiya and Gamabunta maintained their excellent partnership as they fled into the distance... Meanwhile, the remaining pair on the battlefield did not seem to trust each other very much.
Orochimaru hid in a corner with a dark expression, watching his summoning beast constantly change positions, terrified that Manda might come looking for him...
The Snake King of Ryūchi Cave had intelligence of his own. He believed that crow would never harm Uchiha Itachi, so he slowly followed behind Itachi. Naturally, he had not shared that information with Orochimaru...
Because of his enormous size, Manda was terrified of accidentally moving his tail and crushing those little brats. What if that enraged crow indiscriminately bombarded the whole area?
The Tail Beast Bomb in the sky finally took shape. It was pitch-black, and its size had been compressed to an astonishing degree. Like the beans crows often liked to peck at, all the aura that had once filled the sky was gone...
It actually looked edible...
"Bunta, looks like that guy failed!"
Jiraiya noticed that the sky had returned to calm and let out a quiet breath of relief. After all, the amount of Chakra that had appeared in the sky just now was already comparable to that of a tailed beast...
Controlling and compressing that much Chakra was not something that crow could possibly do. Only the legendary Sage of Six Paths could probably manage it, right?
"Jiraiya, he didn't fail! Even though I can't sense any threat from it, I... I just feel that if we get too close, we'll definitely die!"
Bunta sensed the bean-sized Tail Beast Bomb from afar. He was not naïve enough to think it was an edible bean!
Kitahara searched for Manda's position. That bastard was glued to Uchiha Itachi's back. If he dropped this bean-sized Tail Beast Bomb, it would take out Manda, but it would inevitably take out the chicks as well.
But how could he not have considered that? Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the rest could leave their fates to chance, but the chicks would definitely survive!
The Tail Beast Bomb silently descended, as light and gentle as falling snow...
Boom!
A scorching light blazed as brilliantly as the sun. The sound was deafening, yet it somehow made everything seem quiet, until a cute mushroom cloud rose into the sky...
To be honest, the mushroom cloud was pretty adorable...
The mountain facing the explosion was flattened in the blink of an eye, with shattered rocks flying everywhere... Every living creature that had once inhabited the forest was utterly destroyed!
Temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees scorched everything at the center...
The shockwave from the Tail Beast Bomb's explosion overturned everything within dozens of miles. Even the earthen wall Jiraiya hastily raised with Earth Style ninjutsu shattered in an instant, and Gamabunta and Jiraiya were sent flying by the blast...
Even though they were far from the center of the explosion, Gamabunta had dutifully shielded Jiraiya, leaving almost no intact skin anywhere on his body. He had no choice but to release the Summoning Technique and return to Mount Myōboku.
w(Д)w... So this was what it meant to brutally beat up your teammate...
Manda, on the other hand, was much smarter. He had neither the need nor the awareness of a summoning beast, so there was no way he would sacrifice his life to protect Orochimaru.
The moment the explosion occurred, Manda suddenly released the Summoning Technique and vanished from where he stood!
No one had expected that move.
Kitahara used Flying Thunder God to land beside Itachi. Chakra surged forth from his body once more, spreading like a tailed beast's cloak and tightly protecting both him and Itachi. This method of using Chakra was not as exquisite as Chiyo's Shield of Mechanical Light, but quantitative change could produce qualitative change!
He just had to keep replenishing the Chakra being eroded away...
The crow and his chick, together with a group of little children, stood within the sealed Chakra protection and watched Manda vanish before their eyes. "Caw?"
"It looks like he released the Summoning Technique..." Uchiha Itachi said weakly.
Kitahara: "..."
Of course. Like master, like summoning beast... Manda had long been selfish and self-serving. To save his own miserable life, abandoning Orochimaru and fleeing was perfectly normal.
Besides, Orochimaru was no good person either... He had found what he believed was a safe location, yet he had not told Manda about it, had he?
Orochimaru's hiding place was indeed relatively safe. It was outside the core attack zone of the Tail Beast Bomb, and the massive boulder serving as cover in front of him could block some of the impact...
Even so, Orochimaru was severely injured by the impact after the boulder shattered. He could only transform into a white snake, shed the dead skin from his body, and silently slither through the cracked earth...
He did not dare stay in this place anymore...
The second update would be in the afternoon or evening... Shamelessly asking for some votes...
Before you continue