The battle in Uzushiogakure erupted into chaos.
Two thousand elite shinobi from Sunagakure and Iwagakure pressed hard against the Uzumaki defenders, placing immense pressure on the village.
Though the Uzumaki clan's fūinjutsu were powerful—especially their kinjutsu—for many of them, close-range contact was required.
Yet Sunagakure and Iwagakure were clearly prepared. They denied the Uzumaki any chance of approach, opting to bombard them with mid- and long-range ninjutsu while maintaining tight coordination between their forces.
The puppet squads of Sunagakure, likely mobilized under Chiyo's command, kept pressure using long-range chakra-thread puppetry. Even when the Uzumaki managed to destroy the puppets with fūinjutsu, the puppeteers themselves remained unharmed and simply redeployed.
The Iwa shinobi, meanwhile, used coordinated Doton (Earth Release) techniques to erect barriers and obstruct movement. In particular, teams of earth-style users layered earthen walls and launched projectiles, rendering sealing tags ineffective without direct contact.
More troublesome still, a shinobi wielding Yōton (Lava Release)—a kekkei genkai unique to certain Iwa shinobi and the Four-Tails jinchūriki—added overwhelming destructive power to the enemy ranks. His molten attacks melted fūinjutsu arrays and sealed weapon caches alike.
A major issue was the heavy toll from the earlier battle with the Kirigakure forces. To break that encirclement, the Uzumaki had expended enormous amounts of chakra—especially in the deployment of the Five Release techniques and the Bashōsen (Banana Palm Fan)—crippling their reserves now.
"We cannot delay any longer!"
Aloe Uzumaki's expression darkened with grim resolve.
The current battlefield situation was deteriorating fast. The Sand and Rock forces clearly had intel on the prior clash with Kirigakure and avoided allowing the Uzumaki to recreate the large-scale elemental onslaught. They anticipated chakra depletion and were pressing the advantage.
Although chakra quantity remained a traditional strength of the Uzumaki clan, the continuous burden of sustaining the Shisekiyōjin (Four Red Yang Formation) placed enormous strain on the elders holding the barrier.
Aloe Uzumaki could already feel the strain accelerating his aging process—his very life being drained. He knew the formation wouldn't last much longer.
If the barrier collapsed, Sunagakure and Iwagakure would simply retreat to recover, re-enter later with reinforcements and refined strategy. The next wave would be even harder to resist.
But what truly unsettled him was the absence of Konoha's main force. Only Shimura Danzō had shown his face so far; the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had yet to appear.
Konoha's silence was foreboding. If they were to strike, it would likely be decisive and absolute.
This war could no longer be dragged out. A quick and terrible decision had to be made.
Aloe Uzumaki had no choice. He would invoke a death-sealing technique.
"Second Uncle!"
Not far away, Uzumaki Masahiko, still wielding his Kongō Fūsajin (Adamantine Sealing Chains) against Chiyo and her elite ten, gasped in alarm.
He instantly recognized the hand seals. It was Shiki Fūjin, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal—one of the most forbidden jutsu in Uzumaki lore. Invoking it meant having one's soul devoured by the Shinigami, forever erasing any hope of reincarnation. Even Hiruzen Sarutobi would later pay the same price.
"Zi, return at once!"
From the Iwagakure side, commander Xishi Ren's sharp eye caught the movement from the Uzumaki elder. He immediately shouted toward Zi—the Lava Release user who was still bombarding the barrier from afar.
The Uzumaki sealing arts were infamous and steeped in taboo. Facing them required extreme caution.
Zi didn't hesitate. He withdrew from the golden chains' radius, leapt back behind a Doton wall, and watched the Uzumaki elders intently.
But something struck him as strange. The Four-Tails within him—usually agitated by sealing techniques—was unusually calm. Not only did it not rebel, it voluntarily fed chakra into the jinchūriki's body, helping counteract the sealing strain.
Could the Four-Tails also fear the Uzumaki sealing jutsu?
The Uzumaki elders, led by Aloe, all began forming the necessary sequences with solemn expressions.
This jutsu targeted the soul directly. Even the Shodaime Hokage, famed for his vitality and regenerative abilities, would not survive if his soul were torn from his body.
And the effectiveness of Shiki Fūjin scaled with chakra reserves. For chakra-rich clans like the Uzumaki, it was a weapon of mutually assured destruction against even the mightiest of foes.
"Vile spirits of the abyss, follow me into the belly of the death god!"
Aloe's eyes glowed with chilling clarity. The incantation was nearly complete.
Around him, the other elders mirrored his resolve. One of the core reasons they had activated the Four Red Yang Formation to encompass the whole village was to ensure no enemy could escape the reach of this suicidal technique.
Chiyo and her elite guards, observing the ominous chakra and the growing wind around the Uzumaki elders, began to feel dread. Was this… truly a suicidal forbidden technique?
Yet, just before Aloe could clasp his hands in the final seal, black blood gushed from his lips. His body convulsed and collapsed.
One by one, the Uzumaki elders fell, as did shinobi on both sides. Dozens dropped mid-jutsu or mid-strike, clutching their chests and vomiting blood.
"Poison?!"
Masahiko, on one knee, stared in disbelief, his limbs going numb.
They had already accounted for Sunagakure's poison expertise. Antidotes had been pre-distributed. Many wore filtration masks. How had this happened?
"This isn't poison from the Sand!"
Aloe staggered upright, glaring at the battlefield. The Chiyo siblings had retreated and looked equally affected. Even Iwa's commander was keeling over.
If their own forces were also afflicted, then neither Iwa nor Suna could be the source.
"Kumogakure?" Masahiko growled.
Could it be those Hidden Cloud jackals, trying to profit from their destruction and scoop up survivors—especially that manipulative brat?
"Snap!"
Aloe backhanded him, fury in his voice.
"You still don't see? This is Konoha's doing. Compared to Kumogakure's selfish schemes, Konoha wants us completely eradicated!"
He gritted his teeth. "Those three Konoha visitors from this morning—this must've been their work. They somehow bypassed the Four Red Yang Formation's detection. This was planted from within."
The logic fit. There was no warning. The jutsu came silently and lethally.
Across the battlefield, Chiyo trembled with rage.
She and her forces had also been poisoned. Neither Suna nor Iwa specialized in this kind of toxin. Kirigakure had already withdrawn and wasn't known for biological warfare. Kumogakure specialized in lightning—not poison.
That left only one possibility.
"This isn't poison—it's insects," she hissed. "Microscopic chakra-consuming insects—like those from the Aburame clan of Konoha."
"Chief Uzumaki!" Ebizō shouted, staggering. "We've all been tricked by Konoha! This is a technique from the Aburame. I propose we cease hostilities immediately!"
The battlefield had become a deathtrap. Continuing was meaningless. Konoha had just seized the entire initiative.
"I speak on behalf of Iwagakure!" gasped Xishi Ren, blood staining his lips. "We agree to a ceasefire!"
Their shinobi were down to a third—most of their ranks collapsed or dying. The remaining elite were barely standing.
Konoha's trap had succeeded spectacularly.
But before Masahiko could respond, something horrifying occurred.
Chakra began to surge from the corpses. Seals flared, and dozens of explosive tags appeared as if conjured from the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire village erupted in a cataclysmic series of explosions. Buildings, corpses—nothing remained untouched by flame and destruction.
And within the confines of the Four Red Yang Formation, the explosions' shockwaves and flame were intensified—trapped and rebounded within the barrier, amplifying their effects.
The Uzumaki elders, already at death's door, were the last to scream as their chakra wavered, and the grand red barrier—once their village's last bastion—shattered into a thousand searing fragments.