Yōkō was terrified.
If he didn't do something, he would witness the Senju clan being annihilated.
In the original story, the annihilation of the Senju clan was real. Only the disabled, elderly, and young remained in the clan lands, and the Senju couldn't even protect their ancestral home.
Furthermore, with the Senju clan being wiped out in this manner, the other shinobi clans couldn't say anything about it, not even Tsunade could claim the village leadership was wrong.
Danzo had always insisted that the ANBU complete the Nine-Tails seal; it was the Senju clan themselves who insisted on sealing the Nine-Tails independently.
The annihilation of the Senju clan was something Yōkō was unwilling to see.
So, what could he do?
The Nine-Tails let out a pained roar towards the sky.
Its head, shoulders, and forelimbs were still those of a normal colossal beast.
But from its chest down, it rapidly narrowed, like a funnel, until it connected to Uzumaki Kushina's frail back.
Forcibly stuffing the Nine-Tails into a human-sized container filled its howls with rage.
The Nine-Tails' waist seemed constricted as if by a rope to only about ten centimeters thick—an excruciating experience for a beast dozens of meters tall.
The Nine-Tails lowered its head, its claw swiping fiercely down at Uzumaki Kushina below.
While Senju Rinoki's wife maintained the Combined Sealing Technique, Senju Rinoki himself stood in front of Kushina.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
A tall stone wall blocked the Nine-Tails' claw.
Rocks flew everywhere, some even hitting Uzumaki Kushina.
Yōkō breathed a sigh of relief; it was blocked. Senju Rinoki's Earth Release proficiency was very high.
The Senju Combined Sealing Technique exerted force again. All the Senju shinobi pushed their chakra to the limit.
Sealing script crawled over the Nine-Tails' body. Its movements became intermittently slow and stiff, each swing of its forelimbs requiring its full strength.
The Nine-Tails swung its claw, swatting at a row of Senju shinobi.
With one swipe, over thirty Senju shinobi were crushed to death.
Seeing the sealing script on its body loosen slightly after the Senju shinobi died, the Nine-Tails continued to swipe at them.
In just a minute or two, over a hundred Senju shinobi died under the Nine-Tails' claws.
The Nine-Tails howled at the moon, seemingly finding using its claws too inefficient, and began forming another Tailed Beast Ball in its mouth.
Uzumaki Kushina raised her head with difficulty, murmuring, "Must not let it... use that technique..."
Two Adamantine Sealing Chains shot from her back, binding the Nine-Tails' throat.
The Nine-Tails' head tilted slightly, causing the Tailed Beast Ball to miss the Senju shinobi below and fly into the distance, where it exploded.
The Nine-Tails had too much chakra. One failed attempt, and it immediately began forming a second Tailed Beast Ball.
Uzumaki Kushina was momentarily exhausted and could only watch as the Tailed Beast Ball shot towards the side below.
In the terrifying explosion and the rising mushroom cloud, over three hundred Senju shinobi were instantly vaporized!
The earth trembled.
Every time the Nine-Tails slammed its paw on the ground, it created earthquake-like shocks.
Dozens more Senju shinobi were crushed into pulp.
The faces of the Senju shinobi showed fear, terror, and tears, but no one retreated.
Among the dead were their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, cousins, and childhood friends.
Everyone held their positions, pushing their chakra, using the Combined Sealing Technique to restrain the Nine-Tails.
The Nine-Tails slowly shrank, gradually being pulled into Kushina's body.
After Uzumaki Mito's death, over half of the Senju shinobi had already died or were injured.
The Combined Sealing script on the Nine-Tails grew increasingly sparse.
After Sarutobi Hiruzen had smashed the forest into a mess with his Adamantine Staff, he leaned on the staff and watched the sealing.
Seeing the sealing becoming increasingly difficult, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally raised his hand, then slowly waved it, issuing the attack order.
Even if Sarutobi Hiruzen had other thoughts, he didn't dare go too far. If the Nine-Tails went completely berserk, it would be a disaster.
The four ANBU battalions, seeing the Hokage's signal, quickly led their teams charging towards the Nine-Tails.
Battalion Commander Yellow Dog shouted: "Suppress the Nine-Tails! Use continuous attacks to drain the Nine-Tails! Share the pressure of the sealing technique!"
Yōkō, as a squadron leader, closely followed Yellow Dog as they charged forward.
With the ANBU's entry, Fire Release techniques and explosive tags swarmed in.
Various attacks landed on the Nine-Tails, forcing it to swat away fireballs with its claws.
Some ANBU even leaped into the air, thinking the eyes were the Nine-Tails' weak point, and threw explosive tags at its eyes.
They were met with a swipe of the Nine-Tails' claw.
Puffs of blood mist bloomed in the air—the internal organs of the ANBU.
Fragments of ANBU masks splattered through the air, but there were no heads behind the masks.
It was too brutal.
Yōkō thought, no wonder the Night of the Nine-Tails in the original story created psychological shadows for a generation. The Nine-Tails' attack power was too strong, and its defense far exceeded the limits of shinobi attacks.
Yellow Dog's Fire Release was astonishingly powerful; the size of his Blazing Shot was nearly half the size of the Nine-Tails.
Even the Nine-Tails had to expend effort to deal with such a Fire Release.
After successfully attracting the Nine-Tails' attention, Yellow Dog accelerated forward, drawing its attention beneath it.
The Nine-Tails' claw chased after Yellow Dog, smashing down.
Yellow Dog jumped away, but Senju Rinoki's wife was crushed to death on the spot.
Just as Senju Rinoki had breathed a slight sigh of relief with the ANBU's arrival, he suddenly witnessed his wife's gruesome death.
His eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins, his face a mask of horror and panic.
The ANBU... why didn't they protect his wife? Why didn't they protect the core maintainer of the Combined Sealing Technique?
The Combined Sealing Technique quickly collapsed.
The sealing script on the Nine-Tails disappeared, and its movements became more agile.
Consequently, Uzumaki Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains also became unstable.
A large section of the Nine-Tails' body was pulled out from Kushina, causing her to collapse to the ground, writhing in pain and screaming.
The Nine-Tails seized the opportunity, forming another Tailed Beast Ball and blasting it at the nearby Senju shinobi.
After the explosion, another hundred or so Senju shinobi were killed by the Tailed Beast Ball.
Seeing this, Senju Rinoki shouted: "The Combined Sealing Technique has failed! All Senju shinobi, attack the Nine-Tails! Weaken it!"
He originally wanted to add, "We must hold out until the Third Hokage reinforces the seal," but he didn't say it out loud.
Yellow Dog rushed to Uzumaki Kushina's side, stopped causing trouble, and stood guard nearby.
Yōkō, as a squadron leader, landed in the area around Battalion Commander Yellow Dog.
The massive Nine-Tails loomed overhead, its oppressive presence immense.
Looking up from below, one could only see its wildly swiping, sharp claws.
The Nine-Tails' claws were about the same size as Yōkō's.
A claw came smashing down. Yōkō rolled and scrambled sideways, barely avoiding it.
He quickly formed hand seals.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Rising Spears!"
The earthen spears stabbed at the Nine-Tails' claw. The Nine-Tails' skin was slightly dented, but the spears shattered.
The Nine-Tails' body was too tough.
His several-meter-long earthen spears were like trying to clean dirt from under the Nine-Tails' claws.
Another claw slammed down consecutively.
Yōkō hurriedly formed seals again.
This time, the earthen spears weren't meant to pierce the Nine-Tails' claw, but rather to form a dense, thorny forest to entangle it.
It only held for about a second before the Nine-Tails exerted a little force and broke free from the earthen spear thorns.
Shattered stones flew everywhere.
Annoyed by the meddling fox-masked shinobi wasting its time, the Nine-Tails swatted the dodging Fox ANBU member.
Yōkō's bones were shattered throughout his body, and he died mid-air.
[Detected host death. Mochizuki's Arc System starting up...]
His vision shifted, and Yōkō found himself back on the previous full moon night.
He was outside the Senju clan grounds, monitoring the Senju clan.
Cold sweat covered his forehead. Faced with such a natural disaster, how could he prevent the annihilation of the Senju clan?
System, reward me already. What are you waiting for?
(End of Chapter)