BOOM! BOOM!
Two muffled explosions echoed through the sky as four Tailed Beast Bombs exploded seventy to eighty meters above the sea.
The massive shockwaves rushed straight toward Kumogakure's ships.
But the Kumo forces hadn't just come to watch. Faced with the sudden attack, they reacted immediately.
Two Kumo shinobi formed hand seals, then spewed out large amounts of mist.
"Water Release: Mist Barrier Technique!"
A vast cloud of white mist surged into the sky.
The descending shockwaves immediately lost much of their force.
The ships rocked up and down, but there was no danger of them breaking apart.
Just as the Kumo shinobi breathed a sigh of relief, a black figure burst out of the sea and shot straight toward the side of the ship.
Crunch!
The ship shuddered as the black figure punched a huge hole through its hull.
Under the bright moonlight, the entire deck suddenly shook as countless bone spears erupted from below.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The dense forest of bone spears pierced through the ship and attacked the Kumo shinobi.
The Kumo shinobi's faces changed as they all jumped onto the surface of the sea.
Then, with a deafening explosion, the Kumo ship was blasted into pieces.
Kyokotsu stood on the rolling sea, staring at the drenched Kumo shinobi with a murderous expression.
"What? You think you can come whenever you want and leave whenever you want?"
Yagura and the Mirror Clone (Rengoku) descended from the sky as well.
The two of them deliberately stood behind Kyokotsu.
The meaning was obvious, they acknowledged him as the leader.
The Raikage wiped the seawater from his face. The salty, metallic, fishy smell lingered on his skin.
He glanced at the ship, which had been reduced to a wreck by the Dance of the Young Fern, and knew there would be no peaceful ending tonight.
"Who are you?"
"You've been chasing us for so long, yet we still don't know your name."
Although Kyokotsu had participated in the battle to surround Master Senku during the previous Great Ninja War, Kumogakure hadn't been involved in that battle, and after it ended, Kyokotsu had disappeared for a time.
So Kumogakure had no idea who this Kirigakure Shikotsumyaku expert was.
Now that Kirigakure had produced another powerhouse like him, they naturally wanted to know his identity.
"Kyokotsu!"
Kyokotsu raised his hands and settled into a fighting stance.
Under Kumogakure's watchful eyes, his skin repeatedly split open before compressing shut again.
He was continuously creating layer after layer of bone membranes.
The Raikage's defense was simply too strong. Ordinary bone blades would have a hard time breaking through, so fists were more practical.
'Kyokotsu?'
The Raikage and the others had never heard that name before.
But now they had firmly remembered it.
Blood surged through Kyokotsu's body as his muscles visibly swelled with blood.
The chakra spilling from his body made it obvious that he intended to leave every Kumo shinobi here.
The Raikage gave a tactical hand signal. His muscles bulged as lightning flickered across his body.
He had already activated Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Splash!
A wave crashed between them.
Kyokotsu and the Raikage charged at each other at the same time.
They threw heavy punches simultaneously.
One was protected by Lightning Release Chakra Mode, while the other relied on Shikotsumyaku's bone armor.
The instant their fists collided, a dull boom echoed through the air!
A piercing pain shot up through the Raikage's finger bones.
He hadn't felt pain like this in many years, and his fighting spirit immediately flared.
As one of the fastest taijutsu shinobi in the ninja world, his reputation wasn't undeserved.
"Hah!"
The Raikage twisted his body into a side kick. Wrapped in Lightning Release chakra, he shone like a light bulb in the darkness.
But as Rengoku's dojutsu clone, Kyokotsu wasn't just incredibly tough. Shikotsumyaku also greatly dulled his sense of pain.
He answered with a spinning side kick of his own, and the two exchanged another direct clash.
Kyokotsu's blood and vitality surged.
The original body transmitted even more vitality into him.
Eight Gates Released Formation, Fifth Gate, Gate of Limit, Open!
The Raikage let out a muffled grunt and was sent flying backward.
For quite some time now, Kumogakure had been constantly hiding and fleeing, leaving the Raikage thoroughly exhausted. He was already beginning to fall behind.
Fortunately, the sea was below him, so he wasn't badly injured.
The next moment, he burst back out of the water.
The two were evenly matched in spirit as they continued exchanging blow after blow across the sea.
Nearby, Killer B also quickly transformed into his complete Tailed Beast form.
The Eight-Tails, Gyuki, was an ox-headed octopus, so after fully transforming, it held the home-field advantage in the sea.
Yagura's Isobu was likewise a tailed beast that thrived in the water.
By comparison, the Two-Tails, Matatabi, wasn't suited to underwater combat after fully transforming. Instead, it shifted into its humanoid flame form.
Splash! Splash!
The four tailed beasts were completely locked in battle.
The two Isobus transformed by Yagura were clearly at a disadvantage.
After all, the Eight-Tails was far stronger than the Three-Tails.
With Darui's Two-Tails assisting from the side, the two Isobus were quickly tied down in the water.
As Gyuki swam through the sea, it used four of its octopus tentacles to forcibly restrain Isobu.
At that moment, Darui, in his flame form, rapidly formed hand seals.
"Storm Release: Scorching Flow Laser!"
He then threw his mouth open, unleashing a powerful torrent of water mixed with a dazzling Storm Release beam.
Held in place by the octopus tentacles, Isobu couldn't dodge and was about to be hit.
Unexpectedly, Yagura (Rengoku) completely ignored common sense. Seeing the Storm Release attack coming, he immediately opened his mouth and began charging a Tailed Beast Bomb right in front of himself.
But charging one at this distance was obviously too late.
The Tailed Beast Bomb had only just formed when the Storm Release struck it head-on.
BOOM!
The already turbulent sea exploded into towering columns of water.
The Tailed Beast Bomb detonated at point-blank range, catching Isobu, Gyuki, and Darui in the blast.
All of them were blown flying.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Gyuki was left completely dazed by the explosion.
Killer B was furious and complained nonstop to Gyuki in his mind.
"Has this Mizukage gone crazy? What's wrong with this guy? Idiot, you idiot!"
The point-blank Tailed Beast Bomb explosion not only blasted Gyuki a great distance away, but also blew off one of his octopus tentacles.
"Damn it! I refuse to believe you're any better off!"
Gyuki was equally enraged.
Had Isobu really done something that cost itself even more than its enemy?
But when Gyuki looked carefully, Isobu was perfectly fine. It hadn't lost any limbs, and it didn't even seem to be injured.
It was as if the Tailed Beast Bomb hadn't exploded right in front of it at all.
"Isobu! Have you lost your mind?"
Gyuki roared angrily.
But Isobu had no intention of responding.
Confusion filled Gyuki's mind as he looked at the one in front of him, then at the other nearby.
With two Isobus present, he couldn't tell which was real and which was fake.
"Damn it!"
Boom!
The Raikage and Kyokotsu exchanged another direct clash, and this time it was the Raikage who was sent flying back.
Killer B quickly reached out and caught his older brother.
The Raikage saw that Killer B's side hadn't gained any advantage.
He himself was already at a disadvantage as well.
They had to leave immediately.