As she left, Mito couldn't help but cast a complicated glance back at the blurry figure in the distance. But with everyone's attention fixed on the battlefield, no one noticed the change in the Uzumaki Princess's eyes.
"Sage Art: Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!"
Izuna opened his right hand. A Rasengan the size of a bowling ball formed rapidly, surrounded by wind blades that emitted a piercing, screeching noise.
With a loud shout, Izuna hurled the Rasenshuriken. In an instant, it pierced through the Rashomon—already half-melted by the Great Fire Annihilation—and charged straight at the two-clan coalition.
"That Wind Release has a massive range! Uzumaki clan members, assist!" Senju Yuma shouted.
Over a dozen red-haired Uzumaki ninja rushed forward in a breath.
"Uzumaki Secret Technique: Spatial Barrier!"
Over a dozen transparent walls, hard to see with the naked eye, stacked together like dominoes. The Rasenshuriken smashed through most of them but finally exhausted its power on the second-to-last defensive wall.
It wasn't over!
Izuna bit his thumb, forming the same seals as the Senju Jonin who had summoned the Rashomon, and slammed his hand onto the ground.
Summoning Technique!
"Come out! Two-Tails!"
ROAR!!!!
A Chakra monster roared. Immediately following was a female voice, tinged with a hint of complaint. "Izuna, you've been calling me frequently lately."
Izuna didn't forcibly control the Tailed Beast with the Mangekyo's pupil power like Madara did with the Nine-Tails. He adopted a more cooperative attitude. If possible, Izuna wanted his relationship with the Tailed Beasts to be like Killer Bee and the Eight-Tails in the future.
Though that level of bond was difficult, his current relationship with the Two-Tails was already quite good.
"Rest assured, Two-Tails. After this, you can have a good long rest."
Izuna stood atop the Two-Tails' head, looking down at the Senju and Uzumaki ninja army.
"It appeared! A Tailed Beast!"
Uzumaki Hiro'umi formed seals rapidly. "Sealing Team, follow me!"
"Secret Technique: Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
More than twenty Uzumaki Jonin formed seals simultaneously. Their hands blurred, and from the soil at their feet, hundreds of chains glowing with pale golden light shot out in a single breath.
Even the Two-Tails' eyes flashed with apprehension. The Uzumaki sealing techniques possessed absolute suppression over Tailed Beasts! This was why, in every battle, the Uchiha army dealt with the Uzumaki while Izuna took the Two-Tails to fight the Senju.
"Don't worry, Two-Tails. Prepare your technique. I will handle the Uzumaki sealing jutsu."
A trace of hesitation flickered in the Two-Tails' eyes, but it chose to trust Izuna. Blue flames began to swell and burn across its body.
The Mangekyo in Izuna's eyes spun madly. Silvery-white chakra erupted from his body and began to spread over the Two-Tails, forming a thick layer of silvery-white armor around its right face and right forepaw.
The Two-Tails glanced at its right forepaw, then swiped, shattering the incoming chains into powder. It felt none of the usual suppression or discomfort. Previously, merely touching an Uzumaki sealing jutsu would induce a wave of nausea, let alone being hit by one.
"What is that?"
Seeing the Two-Tails actually deflect their sealing jutsu, the Uzumaki ninja were astonished.
"Wearing Susanoo on a Tailed Beast?"
"That kid Uchiha Izuna really knows how to think!"
Senju Yuma's eyes were half-lidded. "But the Chakra drain isn't a joke either. Let's see how long you can keep it up."
Chakra poured out of Izuna like water from an unstoppered faucet, surging over the Two-Tails and wrapping Susanoo armor around the entire right side of its body—along with the two tails behind its rear.
Even with Sage Mode easing the Mangekyo's drawbacks, Izuna was drenched in sweat. He knelt on one knee atop the Two-Tails' head, one hand clamped over his eye.
So this is the limit of an ordinary Mangekyo?
He could feel it clearly: as his Chakra ran dry, his vision dimmed with it.
Half·Beast Difficulty—complete!
"His Chakra's burning out! Move!" Senju Yuma roared, charging first. "Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
"Wind Release: Rending Sky Wave!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Pillar Platform!"
More than a hundred people unleashed ninjutsu in a riot of five elements.
Even the Two-Tails, in its normal state, would've struggled to endure that.
But this wasn't normal. It now wore Susanoo like a shell.
"Matatabi, I need a little time to recover my Chakra. It's on you."
Izuna sat cross-legged atop the Two-Tails' head. The markings of Sage Mode at the corners of his eyes had already faded as he rapidly refined Chakra and natural energy again.
"Hurry up," the Two-Tails replied, twisting its body to the right and using the Susanoo-covered side to block the torrential bombardment.
Half a minute later, the Two-Tails let out a long howl. Azure flames surged upward, coalescing into countless small fireballs that fell under its control like a meteor shower.
Mouse Flame Orb!
Senju Yuma wasn't helpless. He shouted at once, "Everyone, cover me!"
In an instant, five Senju jonin formed a wall in front of him, using ninjutsu to fend off the falling rain of flame.
Ten seconds later, Senju Yuma finished his hand seals. The five jonin immediately scattered out of the way.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bite Explosion!"
An unquestionable S-rank Water Release—like an upgraded Water Dragon Bullet. The roaring dragon that burst forth was so massive it didn't lose to the Two-Tails at all.
"The fighting's started."
On another peak at Shirotani Pass, Uchiha Shin and the others stared across the gap.
They couldn't make out the details, but they heard the earth-shaking aftershocks and saw the constant detonations, with thin smoke rising here and there. It all screamed one thing: the battle was brutal.
"Vice-Clan Head... he'll be fine, right?" a Uchiha special jonin asked, a bead of sweat sliding down his cheek.
"If he can't handle it, he has signal flares on him," Uchiha Shin said heavily. "He won't corner himself. Spread out, sweep for stragglers. The moment the Vice-Clan Head fires a flare, we all go in and slaughter our way over."
"Not yet, Izuna?!" Under Senju Yuma's S-rank Water Release assault, the Two-Tails—an elemental beast of fire—was forced back hundreds of meters, and it barked the question over its shoulder.
Izuna still sat cross-legged on its head with his eyes shut in meditation. "Wait a little longer!"
The Two-Tails grit its teeth. The next moment, the azure flames around its body erupted again. "Mouse Flame Orb!"
Fireballs with tracking properties shot out in dense swarms.
The Senju ninja who had just traded blows with it fell back, and the Uzumaki clan stepped in.
"Barrier: Three-Staff Inch Fence!"
Dozens struck together. Iron bars rained down from the sky and lined up into a wall in an instant, completely blocking the azure flames.
Its defensive power surpassed even the Senju's summoning Rashomon!
No wonder, in later generations, the great nations would join forces to wipe them out. They truly were a troublesome clan—capable of stopping ninjutsu at the level of a Tailed Beast.
But the reason they could suppress the Two-Tails so thoroughly also lay in the sharp coordination between the Senju and Uzumaki clans.
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