On one side was an extraordinarily condensed chakra projectile created by a tailed beast.
On the other was an all-out slash unleashed by borrowing the overwhelming power of nature itself.
The two collided violently in midair.
And yet—
no sound came out.
More precisely…
at the instant those two masses of energy collided and erupted, the surrounding sound itself became distorted. Even the sound waves were shredded apart by the shockwave generated from the collision, temporarily turning the surrounding area into a zone of complete silence.
Everyone facing the battlefield saw nothing but blinding white light.
Their eardrums felt as though they had been struck by a massive hammer.
Only after a brief moment of deafness did the earth-shaking roar and overwhelming shockwave finally arrive, causing blood to trickle from the ears of quite a few people.
Rumble—!!!
A circular shockwave expanded outward as an enormous mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky.
Amid the deafening explosions, the earth undulated like waves.
Dozens of enormous trees were ripped out by the roots and hurled far into the distance. Rocks of various sizes were shattered by the shockwave, then pulverized into dust in midair—or fired outward like bullets, embedding themselves into trees and the ground.
Even the earthen walls of the Shakuka Town stronghold, several hundred meters away, cracked in countless places.
The Konoha ninja standing atop the walls had to cling tightly to the battlements just to avoid being blown away.
"S-So powerful…"
"So this is the strength of a tailed beast… It's terrifying. Ordinary people probably wouldn't even have the ability to fight back against something like that…"
"And Captain Yuu can actually fight it evenly! That's incredible!"
"Gwah! Getting to witness a battle between monsters like this—even if I died now, it'd be worth it!"
"…Shut up! The Kiri ninja are charging again! Get ready to fight!"
Although the explosions in the distance continued,
the battle for the Shakuka Town stronghold had never stopped.
Kirigakure intended to take advantage of Yuu being tied down and use its superior numbers to break through Shakuka Town in a single push, eliminating Konoha's fighting strength.
That way, even if Yuu ultimately defeated the Six-Tails, he would effectively have lost the battle.
Konoha, meanwhile, was fighting with the mentality of—
Killing one means we break even. Killing two means we profit.
They gritted their teeth and held their ground.
However,
both sides still spared some attention to glance toward Yuu's battle with the Six-Tails from time to time.
After all, the outcome of that battle was what would truly determine the direction of the entire battlefield.
A full minute or two passed.
When the blinding light and smoke finally began to fade,
everyone stared in horror.
At the point where the Tailed Beast Bomb and the Thunder-Fire Swords had collided, an enormous crater more than a hundred meters across had appeared.
The soil inside had partially vitrified into glass.
Residual lightning and flames still crackled along the edges.
Whoosh—!
A streak of sword light tore through the smoke.
Before the aftermath of the explosion had even completely dissipated, Yuu had already used the Substitution Technique to flash away, circle around from the side, and reach the Six-Tails' rear flank.
He charged directly toward it.
Before he even arrived, several arcs of blade energy wrapped in lightning were already slashing toward the Six-Tails' massive body!
Although Saiken had been pushed backward some distance by the explosion, the damage it had taken wasn't particularly serious.
It was already mobilizing its enormous chakra reserves to repair itself while turning its body.
Its snail-like antennae locked onto Yuu.
Suddenly,
Yuu's figure blurred.
Then vanished.
Transparent Escape.
By now, Yuu had already raised Transparent Escape's affection above eighty.
The third-stage Phantom Haze had greatly improved its concealment capabilities.
At this point, Yuu estimated that he might even be more proficient with the technique than Jiraiya, the person who originally developed it.
Once activated,
Yuu's entire body transformed into an invisible and intangible stream of Transparent Escape chakra, almost perfectly blending into the surrounding environment.
Even the Six-Tails seemed momentarily confused.
Its pair of antennae swayed back and forth as though searching for Yuu's position.
Of course…
Transparent Escape alone couldn't do anything to the Six-Tails.
At the end of the day, it was still only a support technique.
And in terms of functionality, it was essentially an inferior version of Kamui.
It made him invisible, but large-scale area attacks could still hit him.
Therefore,
while rapidly closing the distance, Yuu took a deep breath.
"Cell Activation Technique…
"Overload Pulse—Activate!!!"
At that instant,
the entire world seemed to slow down.
The wind.
The shouts of battle.
The sound of stones rolling across the ground…
Every sound stretched into a distorted, elongated tone.
Yuu's vision became incomparably clear.
He could see the mucus flowing across the Six-Tails' skin.
The acid dripping from its mouth.
Every tiny movement of its massive body…
Everything within his sight—
every inch, every scale, every feather—
was visible in perfect detail.
This was—
Overload Pulse: Stage Two!
Compared with the first stage unlocked at twenty-five affection, the improvement brought by Stage Two was enormous.
Yuu could feel his body completely "awakening."
Every blood vessel.
Every cell.
Every part of him seemed to be crying out in exhilaration.
Strength and fighting spirit continuously surged through his body and flowed into his limbs.
The sensation was somewhat similar to opening the Third or Fourth Gate of the Eight Gates.
But not exactly the same.
What the two had in common was that they both allowed Yuu's body to break through its original limits and enter an entirely new state.
Tap—!
Yuu suddenly stopped.
The motion created an almost imperceptible ripple in the air.
Then—
he stomped down!
A large section of earth shattered beneath his feet as his body shot into the sky like an arrow released from a bow!
Forty meters.
Twenty meters.
Ten meters—
The height of the leap was astonishing.
In the blink of an eye, Yuu had crossed the distance between himself and the Six-Tails.
Before Saiken could react—
his blade left its sheath.
This time, it wasn't the Lightning Blades: Kiba.
It was the Sword of the Thunder God.
Under the injection of chakra, the originally half-meter-long blade extended even farther, forming a nearly two-meter-long blade of pure light.
Brilliant electricity crackled around its tip, piercing the air countless times in an instant and radiating terrifying pressure.
Yuu exhaled sharply and raised the long blade high.
Then—
swung!
Whoosh—!!
Only now did the Six-Tails seem to finally locate Yuu.
Its antennae turned toward him, and its body instinctively attempted to defend—
but it was already too late.
The blade flashed like lightning.
Just one strike!
One of the Six-Tails' enormous tails was severed cleanly through the middle and fell toward the ground below.
Large amounts of mucus sprayed from the blue-gray stump, mixed with dark-blue "blood" made from chakra.
In terms of actual damage, the slash wasn't particularly serious.
After all, a tailed beast's body was made from chakra rather than flesh and blood like humans or summoned beasts.
There was no true concept of vital organs.
A tail.
A head.
Internal organs…
Lose them, and they could simply be restored with chakra.
However…
the humiliation was enormous.
After all, tails were the very symbol of a tailed beast's identity.
The higher-ranked tailed beasts took great pride in the number of tails they possessed and would even use that number to look down on the others during arguments.
A certain giant tanuki knew that pain better than anyone.
With only one tail, it sat at the absolute bottom of the tailed beast hierarchy and had been mocked by the Nine-Tails more than once.
And now—
the Six-Tails had lost one of its six tails.
It had become the "Five-Tails."
For Saiken, this was a colossal humiliation.
Yuu didn't care.
After completing the slash, his body descended with the momentum and landed on the Six-Tails' abdomen.
Chakra gathered beneath his feet to stabilize himself and keep the corrosive acid from touching him.
Then he kicked off again—
and leapt high into the air.
Second slash!
The Sword of the Thunder God cut into the Six-Tails' flank and swept upward diagonally!
Wherever the blade passed, Saiken's tough outer skin was ripped apart.
As Yuu moved, the slash opened an enormous wound seven or eight meters long.
Dark-blue "blood" poured downward like a waterfall, splashing onto the ground and producing hissing white smoke as it corroded the earth.
Then came the third strike.
The fourth.
Within only a dozen seconds,
dozens of wounds accumulated across Saiken's body.
The smell of flesh being burned by lightning filled the air.
"MOOOO—!!!"
The Six-Tails lowered its head and looked at the wounds across its abdomen.
Then it glanced toward its severed tail lying on the ground.
A roar filled with pain and rage erupted from its mouth.
While using chakra to repair its wounds, Saiken twisted its enormous body and swung its remaining five tails like hands, trying to catch Yuu.
At the same time, it secreted huge amounts of acid across its body and sprayed the corrosive liquid along Yuu's movement routes.
Under those circumstances,
Yuu could no longer casually run across Saiken's body.
Its acid was simply too corrosive.
Even with chakra covering the soles of his feet, prolonged contact would eat through the protection in moments.
Yuu had no desire to test the acid's strength with his own flesh.
However,
with his neural transmission speed increased three or four times and the ability to flash freely within eighty meters,
it was equally impossible for the Six-Tails to catch him.
And because Yuu remained in constant motion around its body,
Saiken could no longer freely fire Tailed Beast Bombs like before.
Its strongest weapon had effectively been sealed.
For a moment,
the battle entered a stalemate.
On the other side,
Yagura Karatachi finally managed to break free from Kazekirimaru's harassment.
After clashing Wind Release against Wind Release and knocking the Kamaitachi away, he rapidly moved toward the Six-Tails, intending to help it deal with Yuu.
But—
at precisely that moment,
from the direction of Shakuka Town—
another extraordinary burst of chakra erupted.
It was accompanied by a thunderous shout.
"Yasaka Magatama!!!"
"Hmm?"
Yagura instinctively glanced back.
Then froze.
What the hell…
was that?!
Above the earthen walls of the Shakuka Town stronghold,
a gigantic dark-green skeletal warrior rose into existence.
It looked like a demonic god torn directly from mythology.
Merely standing there radiated suffocating pressure.
At that moment,
the armor over the giant skeleton's chest suddenly opened.
Countless emerald-green magatama poured out like a torrential rainstorm, tearing through the air with shrill whistles as they bombarded the Kirigakure formation.
"W-What is that thing?!"
"Is that Konoha's tailed beast?!"
"Run!!"
The Kiri ninja's screams were immediately swallowed by the explosions of the magatama.
The emerald projectiles possessed terrifying destructive power.
Many swords and weapons in the Kiri ninja's hands were effortlessly shattered, fragments scattering in every direction.
A small number of stronger jōnin managed to block them with ninjutsu or use Body Flicker to avoid the main impact.
But most chūnin and genin were quickly torn apart by the emerald storm.
Limbs separated.
Blood exploded into the air.
People fell like wheat being harvested.
For a moment,
Kirigakure's fierce offensive in front of Shakuka Town came to a halt.
The battlefield was instead filled with screams and wails.
"This is…"
The power of the Uchiha clan?!
Yagura's pupils contracted.
He stared in disbelief at the young figure standing beneath the green giant.
As a high-ranking member of Kirigakure, he knew a little about the Uchiha clan's secrets.
But actually witnessing it was another matter entirely.
That scale—
that power—
had already exceeded the scope of ordinary ninjutsu!
It was practically a monster!
On the other side,
Kakashi forced back a Kiri ninja with a slash and turned toward Shisui together with Kurenai, Obito, Gekkō Shigure, and the others.
Their expressions were every bit as shocked as Yagura's.
Even Obito, another Uchiha, looked completely dumbfounded.
So this is… the true power of the Uchiha clan?
That was what Kakashi and Kurenai were thinking.
Terrifying…
That was Gekkō Shigure's thought.
That bastard Shisui! He secretly learned a new technique, and it looks this cool?! Damn it! I'm definitely going to interrogate him afterward and learn this move too!
That was Obito.
Shisui had no idea what they were thinking.
Nor did he care.
From the moment he judged that Shakuka Town's defenses were on the verge of collapse and decided to reveal this trump card, there had been no turning back.
At once,
Shisui endured the intense pain caused by activating Susanoo.
One hand covered his bleeding eye while he controlled the emerald skeletal giant.
After finishing one barrage of magatama, Susanoo raised its right arm.
Chakra condensed into a long spiral sword.
Then—
it swung violently toward the densest concentration of Kiri ninja!
Boom—!!!
The earth along the spiral blade's trajectory rolled upward as though it had been plowed.
The tremendous impact sent an entire row of Kiri ninja flying.
Some were critically injured immediately.
Others crashed into the comrades behind them, creating even greater chaos.
After only two attacks,
Kirigakure had already suffered dozens of casualties.
A significant portion of their numerical advantage disappeared in an instant.
And the blow to their morale was even worse.
Seeing this,
Ao, who was commanding the assault, flashed a fierce look.
"We can't let that thing continue!"
He shouted.
"Everyone, concentrate your attacks on that green giant!
"Kurokawa, you and the others come with me!
"Prepare the sealing formation—we're going to lock down its movements!"
~~~
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