Chapter 170: A Grand Reunion of Familiar Faces for the Three-Tails
The stages of Susanoo.
The stage with only a torso and limbs, the one where Uchiha Madara split into twenty-five Wood Clones in the original story and had them use Susanoo, was roughly the same height and size as an ordinary tailed beast.
The Complete Susanoo, the form Uchiha Hikari was currently using, was already about the same size as the Wood Golem from earlier.
And this increase was not just in size. Both defensive power and offensive power rose proportionally as well.
However, there was something even larger than a Complete Susanoo, and that was Senju Hashirama's Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.
Even a Wood Golem comparable in size to a Complete Susanoo could only sit on top of the Buddha's head. The difference in scale was obvious.
Above that, there was yet another level.
The Eight-Tails was slightly smaller than the Nine-Tails, but not by much. Yet an Eight-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb, in front of the Ten-Tails, was like a fly that could be flicked away with a single finger.
Sasuke's Complete Susanoo was roughly the same size as the Nine-Tails standing upright.
And the Sage of Six Paths' Complete Susanoo was actually a bit taller than the Ten-Tails standing up.
Clearly, Uchiha Hikari's current Complete Susanoo was not her full power, because she had used the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and evenly distributed her strength.
If she were to dispel the shadow clones now and have the power return to her main body, she would definitely be able to open a new, higher-level Susanoo state.
Perhaps it could rival the strength of the Sage of Six Paths' Susanoo.
The Sage of Six Paths had learned senjutsu from Mount Myōboku, and on top of that possessed Six Paths power and Ōtsutsuki bloodline.
On the surface, Hikari seemed to fall short in many areas. The only thing that surpassed Mount Myōboku senjutsu was the natural energy Shiromo had given her.
But in reality, just that one superior point was enough.
Combined with Shiromo's amplification ability, it was sufficient to make up for deficiencies in other areas.
However…
Hikari knew very well what her current task was. Getting a basic grasp of her power was enough.
As long as she could safely perform the "illusion-to-reality" process of the Limited Tsukuyomi, that was sufficient.
The current objective was to capture the Three-Tails.
If she really dispelled the shadow clones and pushed Susanoo's strength and size to another level, it would probably become hard to control.
If she accidentally killed the Three-Tails, then they would have to wait several years for it to slowly revive.
Even at its current size, Hikari already felt it was too large, and searching like this was not very efficient.
So Hikari proactively dismissed the armor of Susanoo.
Yes, don't overthink it. There were no internal details inside the armor, no Susanoo "parts."
Susanoo reverted to the previous stage, and its size shrank considerably. Hikari then used Shadow Clone again, creating twenty clones with Susanoo activated, and began fishing around the lake bottom.
At the bottom of the lake.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, was sleeping.
Suddenly, it felt the surrounding water currents begin to surge, so it opened its eyes.
What kind of nonsense was this?
It even seemed to hear someone shouting things like "Three-Tails, where are you? Come out quickly" and other strange words.
Someone had come to capture it?
The Three-Tails became alert.
Aside from Tailed Beast Bombs, each tailed beast had techniques that best suited them and that they were most accustomed to using.
Using these techniques was as natural and easy as instinct.
Shukaku the One-Tail was like this, which led many people to believe it couldn't use Tailed Beast Bombs and spent all day practicing Air Bullets.
As for Isobu the Three-Tails, its most proficient instinctive technique was Shadow Stroke.
Shadow Stroke involved curling up its entire body, wrapping itself in the shell on its back, and rolling at high speed to crush enemies.
In simple terms, it was the Akimichi clan's "your crotch smells nice" Meat Dumpling… uh, Human Boulder.
Minato had created the Rasengan after observing Tailed Beast Balls. Who knew whether the Akimichi clan's ancestors had also watched the Three-Tails use this move and then developed the Human Boulder technique.
The Three-Tails used Shadow Stroke, spinning at high speed underwater, pulling off a tire-burning acceleration, and then suddenly burst out of the lake surface.
"Oh, there it is~"
When Hikari and her clones sensed the disturbance in the water, they had already surrounded the area.
Just as they closed in, the Three-Tails spun out of the water, making Hikari delighted.
The Three-Tails burst out with rolling momentum, preparing to deliver a fatal blow to the weak ninja coveting its power.
Then, midair, it took a look at the scene on the water's surface.
A sea of crimson Susanoo surrounded it. It was damn near as helpless as a little girl encircled by dark-skinned Kumogakure Village brutes.
What the hell kind of hellscape was this?
I won't disturb you. I'm leaving first.
Isobu fell back into the water, using its high-speed rotation to start digging through the lakebed, preparing to escape.
Seeing this, Hikari immediately became anxious.
The Sharingan could indeed control tailed beasts, but just now, the Three-Tails had been spinning at high speed, leaving no chance to make eye contact. They could only capture it physically.
Five shadow-clone Susanoo vanished, merging into a single Complete Susanoo like the one from before. Hikari drew Susanoo's long blade and thrust it downward.
Hikari's Susanoo weapon was a long sword wreathed in Amaterasu flames.
Splash, crack.
Roar!
As a beast-like howl came from beneath the water, the commotion on the lake surface gradually died down.
Hikari controlled Susanoo to withdraw the blade, bent down, felt around for a moment, fished out the Three-Tails, and placed it on the shore.
As soon as the Three-Tails landed, it saw Senju Hashirama.
Wasn't this an old acquaintance?
Decades ago, it had been in the sea, eating submarine volcano hot pot and singing siren songs, when this guy suddenly captured it and assigned it to Kirigakure.
It had thought it was being assigned a job or even a marriage.
Turned out it was being assigned to prison.
"Um, Three-Tails, hello. Haha, long time no see."
Senju Hashirama laughed awkwardly and greeted it.
From Shiromo, he had already learned that his past attitude toward the tailed beasts had been wrong.
Tailed beasts could also become companions.
So now, seeing the Three-Tails again, he felt rather awkward.
After all, back when he captured it, in order to prevent the Three-Tails from spinning with Shadow Stroke, he had used a Wood Dragon to restrain it, stuffing the dragon's head into one hole, and finding another hole to stuff the dragon's tail into.
"I didn't stab it to death, right?"
After dispelling Susanoo, Uchiha Hikari hurried forward, worriedly checking the Three-Tails' injuries.
She had immediately withdrawn the Amaterasu attached to the stab as soon as she landed the hit, afraid that burning it even a bit longer would cause problems.
"..."
The Three-Tails said nothing.
Because it realized that today seemed to be a reunion of old acquaintances.
It had once been controlled by Uchiha Madara, and now it was seeing the Sharingan again.
It had once been burned by Amaterasu, and today it was burned again, and this time stabbed while burning.
It had once been captured and restrained by Senju Hashirama, and today it saw Senju Hashirama again, and its rear entrance had fallen once more.
As a tailed beast that only eats and doesn't poop, was that part of its design really just meant for you evil ninja to stab?
And finally, it also saw the jinchūriki who had once caused its death, now standing here as well.
(End of this chapter)