As Neji shouted, it felt as though an Eight Trigrams diagram unfolded beneath his and Gaara's feet. Within this mysterious formation, Neji moved like a butterfly, gracefully weaving through the air.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of Gentle Fist strikes colliding with the sand sphere rang out nonstop. Every punch Neji landed blasted away large amounts of sand.
Before the One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms was even half-finished, the sand sphere Gaara had condensed had completely shattered. Gaara's defenseless body was now fully exposed before Neji.
If Neji had been fighting Naruto or Sasuke, he would probably have stopped at this point. But his opponent was Gaara, a shinobi from another village—so Neji had no intention of holding back.
Every remaining strike landed cleanly on Gaara's body. When the final palm strike fell, Gaara spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying across the arena.
Neji turned around, ready to leave the stage—but before he had taken even two steps, the scene revealed by his Byakugan left him stunned.
Chakra—vast as an ocean—was surging violently out of Gaara's body, spilling forth as if it cost nothing. The raging chakra rampaged through Gaara's body, instantly tearing apart the chakra blockages left behind by the One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms.
Neji spun around sharply and saw Gaara crouched on the ground like a wild beast, glaring at him with murderous intent as he roared:
"I'm going to kill you!"
It was as if Gaara's abdon had been ripped open by invisible hands. Dense chakra, visible to the naked eye, poured out uncontrollably. In the blink of an eye, Gaara entered a state of complete tailed-beast transformation.
Gaara's transformation was the signal for the start of the Destruction of Konoha.
Just as the spectators were still confused about what was happening in the arena, Rasa suddenly made his move:
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Wave!"
Boom!
A massive amount of golden sand burst out from Rasa's sleeves and around his body like a geyser, shooting into the air before crashing toward Minato like a tidal wave.
The sheer volu of gold dust was astonishing—enough to bury over half of the arena. This was Rasa's signal that the operation had begun.
The Sunagakure shinobi planted among the spectators also sprang into action, intercepting the ANBU who were rushing to protect the daimyōs and nobles, deliberately stalling them.
As long as they could delay long enough, reinforcents from the Suna and Kumo would arrive in waves.
At this mont, everything seed to be proceeding exactly according to the plan to destroy Konoha.
But just as Rasa and Baki believed that victory was assured, sothing completely unexpected happened.
The instant the gold dust erupted, a flash of blood-red light appeared in Yugito's eyes below. She was about to act—when she suddenly realized she couldn't move at all. At that mont, her body was already under Tobi's Mangekyō control.
Tobi had already learned that Hoshiyomi was present in Konoha. Naturally, he wasn't about to let Yugito continue with the plan. Without hesitation, he chose to seize control of her and withdraw.
As for their "allies" in the Sunagakure—alliances were ant to be betrayed, after all.
Under Tobi's control, Yugito suddenly pulled out a flare from her waist and fired it into the sky... and then... that was it.
Rasa had originally felt relieved when he saw Yugito launch the signal flare. It seed that Kumogakure was following the plan as well.
But in the very next second, both he and Baki froze in shock.
Yugito drew the ninja blade from her back and charged straight into the surrounding ANBU. In just a few swift exchanges, she carved out a bloody path and, without looking back, fled toward the outskirts of Konoha.
Baki and Rasa, who had originally assud Yugito would release the Two-Tails to wreak havoc alongside the One-Tail, were practically furious enough to vomit blood. They were not naïve enough to believe that Yugito was going to call for reinforcents.
It was obvious Kumogakure had canceled the plan at the last minute. They, Sunagakure, had been tricked!
But at this point, the arrow was already on the bowstring—it had to be fired. Gaara had released the One-Tail, and Rasa had already unleashed his Gold Dust Wave. Even if they surrendered now, Konoha's shinobi would never let them off.
That left only one path: a desperate breakout!
With that thought, Rasa gritted his teeth. Steeling his resolve, he imdiately split the tsunami-like gold dust surging through the arena into two streams.
One continued to crash toward Minato, while the other surged toward the surrounding spectator stands—he intended to carve a path through with gold dust!
Rasa and Baki were prepared to fight to the death to break out, but the Suna and Kumo shinobi outside knew nothing of this turn of events.
Having already completed their assembly, the Suna and Kumo forces saw the signal flare shoot into the sky and broke into excited expressions. Grabbing their weapons, they charged under their commanders' leadership toward Konoha's main gate like a roaring tide.
With attacks coming from both inside and outside, Konoha truly found itself in a situation of internal chaos and external threat.
...
Inside the arena, everything had descended into complete chaos.
The spectators had never witnessed anything like this before. The sudden appearance of the One-Tail alone had already terrified them out of their wits. Screaming in panic, they scattered in all directions—but in such a crowded arena, where could they even run?
Before the One-Tail's attacks even arrived, casualties had already occurred due to trampling.
Among the already panicked crowd, so people instinctively looked up—only to see the raging gold dust crashing down like a tidal wave. At the sight of it, many were scared unconscious on the spot. The entire arena plunged into utter disorder.
The torrent of gold dust aid at Minato was evaded imdiately. After dodging it, Minato shouted loudly:
"All units, enter war-ti status!"
At his command, reserve ANBU who had been hidden in the shadows suddenly erged. Facing the gold dust wave surging toward the spectators, they rapidly ford hand seals:
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart!"
In an instant, massive earthen walls erupted from the ground. Towering and imposing, they forcibly blocked the incoming gold dust wave.
Seeing this, the spectators in the arena breathed a collective sigh of relief. At this ti, the Anbu also played their part, holding off the Suna shinobi while shouting to the huddled crowd:
"Everyone evacuate in an orderly manner! With Konoha's ANBU here, we won't let anything happen to you!"
The Konoha rookies also snapped into action. One by one, they voluntarily took on the task of guiding the evacuation. The spectators had just watched their matches and recognized them, making them far more willing to listen.
Their guidance proved crucial. Under their organization, the once-panicked crowd finally cald down and began to leave the arena in an orderly fashion.
Just as the situation seed about to co under control, Rasa clenched his teeth. He suddenly wrapped himself in gold dust to guard against Minato's sudden Flying Thunder God strike, then shouted fiercely:
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Triangular Prism!"
With Rasa's shout, the gold dust that had been surging toward Minato suddenly condensed into a gigantic, rapidly spinning triangular prism of gold dust, which shot straight toward the Earth-Style Rampart!
...
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