The Gale Severing Strike wasn't enough to kill Killer Bee in his Tailed Beast state. Aoba's primary goal was to eliminate the surrounding enemies to prevent them from interfering in this battle.
He had long wanted to personally experience what it felt like to completely kill a jinchūriki, while also taking the opportunity to collect the essence chakra of the Eight-Tails.
Killer Bee, however, seemed to have anticipated Aoba's move. The Eight-Tails' chakra surged wildly, relying on sheer brute force to counter the attack.
The chakra infused in Aoba's technique naturally couldn't compare to that of a Tailed Beast. For a moment, he was unable to overpower Killer Bee.
The violent Tailed Beast chakra stabilized Killer Bee's body, preventing him from being swept into the air by the gale.
As their chakras clashed, a mass of Tailed Beast chakra erupted from Killer Bee's back, forming a small version of the Eight-Tails.
Then, a black sphere of chakra began to form.
Tailed Beast Bombs, akin to nuclear weapons among the Five Great Nations, were rarely used. If the jinchūriki of the Five Nations started firing Tailed Beast Bombs at each other, the entire shinobi world could be destroyed in a single day.
These weapons served more as strategic deterrents—everyone had them, so no one used them.
But this time, Killer Bee directly broke that unspoken rule, showing a determination to kill Aoba at any cost.
Aoba could evade the attack, but behind him were the Konoha forces. If the Tailed Beast Bomb detonated within their ranks, at least half of the thousands of Konoha ninjas would perish. Aoba even noticed that the Cloud Ninja army had already begun retreating.
This was a ploy to force Aoba into taking the Tailed Beast Bomb head-on.
Once again, they were using the tactics Aoba hated most. Clapping his hands together, he activated a technique.
"Earth Style: Moving Earth Core."
The ground beneath Killer Bee's feet suddenly rose, throwing him off balance and causing his body to tilt backward. The Tailed Beast Bomb he had been charging shot straight into the sky.
However, in the next instant, several massive chakra tendrils emerged, sealing off all of Aoba's escape routes.
The hallmark of a perfect jinchūriki, especially one bonded with an octopus-like Tailed Beast such as the Eight-Tails, was unparalleled mastery over chakra manipulation.
In a one-on-one fight, the opponent could manifest multiple arms and attack with overwhelming force.
Aoba's body flickered as he vanished from his position. For someone who possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique, such encirclements were meaningless.
Unexpectedly, Killer Bee didn't seem to care about Aoba's movements. Instead, he charged straight toward the Konoha forces.
Simultaneously, the chakra on his body began to spiral out of control.
Realization dawned on Aoba, he finally understood Killer Bee's strategy. His true target was never Aoba.
From their understanding of Aoba, they knew that without the Raikage present, Killer Bee alone couldn't defeat him.
Thus, the goal of this battle was to annihilate the Konoha forces led by Aoba completely.
To achieve this, they relied on a unique property of the Eight-Tails.
When Aoba turned back, he noticed it, the mass of chakra left on the battlefield no longer contained Killer Bee.
The violent Tailed Beast chakra had disrupted his senses, preventing him from realizing that during their earlier clash, Killer Bee had already escaped.
He had detached a portion of the Eight-Tails' tendrils, using them to flee underground.
The Eight-Tails had concentrated its essence chakra into the severed tendrils, carrying Killer Bee away, leaving behind stored combat chakra.
The chakra on the battlefield began to run rampant, and within seconds, it would form a massive Tailed Beast Bomb.
The Cloud Ninja army had started retreating earlier, taking advantage of their superior speed to put some distance between themselves and the battlefield.
Of course, the explosion's magnitude would still affect them, but the Cloud Ninja, like crazed mad dogs, had adopted a strategy of sacrificing everything to ensure their enemies' defeat.
If this move succeeded, Aoba's first battle as a commander would be a complete failure. Even if he killed the remaining Cloud Ninjas, he couldn't undo the loss of thousands of Konoha lives.
In the blink of an eye, Aoba created over a dozen shadow clones, surrounding the runaway Eight-Tails chakra, and threw several Flying Thunder God kunai.
Transferring an unstable energy mass like a Tailed Beast Bomb was a pinnacle Flying Thunder God technique.
In the original story, only Minato Namikaze and Tobirama Senju could perform it. Aoba had previously failed at this technique.
However, with both the Fourth and Second Hokage revived, Aoba had the chance to seek their guidance.
Minato shared all his insights without reservation. Aoba had practiced the technique but still couldn't guarantee flawless execution.
So, he opted for a brute-force approach.
Each of the shadow clones poured an enormous amount of chakra into the effort. They all simultaneously attempted the Flying Thunder God Transfer Technique on the rampaging Eight-Tails chakra.
As long as one succeeded, the plan would work.
The Eight-Tails chakra finally lost stability and exploded. But in the instant of detonation, spatial ripples flickered briefly.
The massive energy sphere vanished from the battlefield.
A moment later, a blinding white light erupted from the Cloud Ninja's retreating formation.
It was a pity Deidara wasn't present—he would have undoubtedly shouted, "Now this is true art!"
The white light disappeared in an instant, followed by a crimson shockwave. It swept through, carrying flesh, dirt, rocks, and superheated steam.
In the sky, a mushroom cloud rose, eerily similar to a nuclear explosion from Aoba's previous life.
Hundreds of Konoha ninjas simultaneously stepped forward, using Earth Style ninjutsu to erect a towering earthen wall.
The next moment, the shockwave struck.
After a dozen or so seconds, the aftershock dissipated. Aoba stood unharmed at the center of the battlefield. Among his numerous trump cards, he had just used the ability of his other Sharingan—Elysium.
Seemingly unavoidable attacks appeared to hit him, but from his perspective, the chakra blasts and impacts merely grazed by harmlessly.
After all, Elysium always exists in a distant place. You can see it from afar, but you can never truly reach it.
The earlier maneuver of using the Flying Thunder God to transfer the Tailed Beast Bomb had drained a massive amount of Aoba's chakra. He couldn't achieve the perfection of the Fourth or Second Hokage in utilizing the technique, so he relied on sheer force to make it work.
To ensure the shadow clones had enough chakra, he allocated 80% of his chakra to them, guaranteeing the success of the technique.
Afterward, Aoba utilized one of the three chakra cloaks he carried. By consuming one, his body was instantly refilled with chakra.
Turning to look at the Konoha forces behind him, he noticed they were somewhat disheveled but had suffered minimal casualties. On the other hand, the Cloud Ninja army across the battlefield had been utterly annihilated, likely not even a trace remained.
But that wasn't the most important thing. Aoba glanced briefly at the now-decimated Cloud Ninja's position before shifting his gaze to another direction.
Earlier, he hadn't noticed it, but when the Tailed Beast Bomb exploded, a powerful chakra signature emerged from that direction. It wasn't a Tailed Beast, but it felt like one, on that same overwhelming level.
At the same time, Madara Uchiha realized his presence had been exposed.
"Let's go. It's time to meet this young man. At the very least, he is worthy of standing before me."
As the figure appeared within Aoba's line of sight, he felt his blood boiling with excitement.
"Madara Uchiha..."
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Currently on Chapter 230 - Mei Terumī