Chapter 279: No Passage Ahead, Lady Tsunade
In the boundless desert filled with billowing yellow sand.
The terrifying pressure brought by that Ten-Tails, resembling a moving mountain, made everyone in the merchant caravan tremble with fear.
The four Sand Village patrol ninjas who were just preparing to leave had long lost their previous arrogance and composure.
“Th-that… what kind of monster is that?!” A young Sand Ninja’s voice trembled, his face pale as paper.
The other two slightly older Sand Ninjas, who had experienced the Shukaku rampage incident, felt their legs go weak and directly collapsed onto the scorching sand, their eyes filled with fear deep from their memories.
“N-no… not Shukaku… this… this is even more… terrifying than Shukaku!” One of them shouted incoherently.
The leading Sand Village small captain, though also shaken, still retained a shred of reason.
He forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and roared hoarsely: “Retreat! Retreat immediately! Take the intelligence back to the village! Hurry!”
He pulled up his limp companion, and the four of them fled like frightened rabbits, scrambling toward the direction they came from, even using the Body Flicker Technique, just to get away from this desert that was about to turn into hell as quickly as possible.
Before fleeing, the small captain glanced back at the chaotic merchant caravan one last time, a complex look flashing in his eyes, but it was soon drowned by the instinct for survival. He could only silently wish them “good luck” in his heart before disappearing behind the sand dune without looking back.
The merchant caravan side had already descended into chaos.
“Mon… monster!!”
“It’s the desert demon god! We’ve angered the spirits!”
“Run!”
Terrified screams, cries, and the camels’ neighs mixed together.
Many caravan attendants and hired wandering samurai were directly scared witless by the Ten-Tails, collapsing on the ground without even the strength to stand.
Leader Shara was even thrown off his startled mount, falling into the sand and eating a mouthful of yellow sand.
Ignoring the pain, he scrambled to his feet, his voice distorted by extreme fear: “Turn around! Turn around now! Run in the opposite direction! Run as far as you can!”
However, the panicked camels ignored commands, crashing and trampling into each other, making the chaotic scene even more out of control.
The camel carrying Tsunade and Shizune also reared up, letting out terrified whinnies.
Tsunade unhesitatingly grabbed Shizune, and the two lightly leaped off the camel’s back, landing steadily on the sand.
“Lady Tsunade! Miss Shizune! Hurry… hurry with us…” Shara saw them and wanted to call them to escape together.
Tsunade deeply gazed at the roaring colossal beast in the distance.
Then she saw a dark red Nine-Tails Fox Demon suddenly descending from the sky, biting and tearing at the giant beast.
“Nine-Tails?!” Tsunade’s eyes widened in surprise, her pupils contracting slightly.
“You go first!” Leaving only these words, she fiercely kicked off the ground, her figure shooting toward the battle between the two terrifying giant beasts like an arrow off the string!
The sand under her feet was stomped into a deep pit.
“Lady Tsunade!” Shizune exclaimed, unhesitatingly hugging the trembling Tonton in her arms and using the Body Flicker Technique to closely follow.
She knew the front was extremely dangerous, but she absolutely could not let Lady Tsunade go alone.
The two sped across the undulating sand dunes, wild winds blowing their hair and clothes.
While running, Tsunade asked in a deep voice: “Tonton, can you sense the chakra of those two monsters? What’s the specific situation?”
The pink-white little pig Tonton, tightly held by Shizune, was scared with its fur standing on end, small eyes wide round, emitting trembling “Oink~ Oink~” sounds.
It possessed sensing abilities far superior to ordinary ninja hounds.
While dashing, Shizune focused on interpreting Tonton’s squeals, her face growing even paler: “Lady Tsunade, Tonton says… it’s never felt such massive, such brutal chakra! Especially that Ten-Tails tailed beast, its chakra amount is immeasurably deep, filled with an aura of destroying everything!”
“That dark red Nine-Tails… its chakra nature is very strange, equally terrifyingly powerful, but carrying a sense of… void!”
Hearing this, Tsunade’s expression turned grave as water.
The Nine-Tails should not be here!
Her gaze locked firmly on that dark red Nine-Tails, especially when it agilely dodged the Ten-Tails’ violent swipe, countering by viciously biting into the Ten-Tails’ pale body, eliciting a heaven-shaking roar of pain from the Ten-Tails. Tsunade keenly noticed that on the head of that Dark Nine-Tails, there seemed to be… a tiny but clear human figure standing!
“Someone… is manipulating that Nine-Tails?!” This discovery stirred massive waves in Tsunade’s heart.
To stand on a tailed beast’s head and seemingly direct the battle was absolutely impossible for an ordinary ninja!
Shizune also finally made out the outline and tail count of that dark red giant fox, her voice trembling with disbelief: “N-Nine… nine tails?! That’s the Nine-Tails?! But… isn’t the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki supposed to be in Konoha?!”
The scene before them completely overturned their understanding.
…
On the distant battlefield, the battle had entered a white-hot phase.
The Dark Nine-Tails, drawing massive Ten-Tails chakra absorbed from Jigen’s other dimension, had its form seemingly more solid, its fur’s dark red hue deeper, faintly emitting a black glow.
Like the slyest hunter, it used its relatively “petite” body compared to the Ten-Tails to weave and leap between the Ten-Tails’ frenziedly swinging ten giant tails, tearing chunks of chakra energy from the Ten-Tails with every pounce.
The Ten-Tails, having just broken free from its seal and partial black rod restraints, had fully fallen into rage.
In its enormous single eye, the six-tomoe Rinnegan spun madly, filled with primal anger and pain.
【PS: Previously misread as seven tomoe, fixed it.】
Ten pillar-like tails whistled down from the sky, madly whipping and slamming everything around, kicking up billowing yellow sand that turned the sky dim yellow.
Menma stood on the Dark Nine-Tails’ head, wild winds making his miko robe flap loudly.
His eyes calm, he continuously drew special Flying Thunder God Kunai from his ninja tool pouch, seemingly casually scattering them to various corners of the battlefield, laying down an invisible spatial coordinate network.
“Little Nine, dodge left, right-front sand dust area, Tailed Beast Bomb ready!” Menma issued the command via mental link.
The Dark Nine-Tails let out a low roar, its massive body displaying astonishing flexibility, sidestepping two giant tails’ pincer attack while charging into a thick sand dust cloud raised by the battle.
“Roar!”
The Ten-Tails’ enormous Rinnegan instantly locked onto the chakra fluctuation in the sand dust. It opened its giant maw, several Tailed Beast Bombs of varying sizes containing terrifying energy instantly condensing, firing like chain cannon toward the Dark Nine-Tails’ position!
Almost simultaneously, the Dark Nine-Tails burst from the sand dust, a refined dark red Tailed Beast Bomb screeching upward to meet them!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom——！！！
Unceasing, nuclear-explosion-like massive blasts erupted in the desert!
Tailed Beast Bombs collided and detonated, their blinding glare instantly engulfing everything around, huge mushroom-shaped smoke clouds mixed with sand dust soaring skyward!
The shockwaves from the explosions spread outward layer by layer, scraping the underlying sand sea down several meters, forming massive ring-shaped craters!
Seizing the chaos and visual obstruction from this earth-shaking exchange, a sharp glint flashed in Menma’s eyes.
He clasped his hands in front of his chest, massive chakra rapidly gathering. A chakra black rod over ten meters long, pitch black throughout with eerie light flowing on its surface, quickly formed in his hands!
Spotting a temporary opening in one of the Ten-Tails’ tails from its attack, Menma leaped from the Dark Nine-Tails’ head, his figure diving like lightning!
He gripped the giant black rod with both hands, pouring all his strength and chakra into it, ruthlessly and precisely stabbing into the root of one of the Ten-Tails’ frenziedly dancing giant tails!
“Awoooo——！！！”
The Ten-Tails emitted an extremely shrill wail, the pierced tail instantly stiffening, intense pain making its colossal body convulse!
It abruptly turned its head, that enormous six-tomoe Rinnegan locking dead onto the tiny Menma in the air, filled with bone-deep hatred and savagery!
It opened its mountain-devouring maw, carrying a stinking gale, snapping fiercely toward Menma!
Menma’s expression unchanged, at the instant the giant mouth was about to close, his figure blurred!
Flying Thunder God Technique!
The next moment, he appeared beside a kunai he had just thrown not far away.
Without pause, he condensed another giant chakra black rod, seeking the next target.
Thus, Menma like a calm and lethal assassin, used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear and vanish unpredictably, narrowly dodging the Ten-Tails’ counterattacks time and again, hammering giant black rods imbued with sealing power into its rampaging tails one after another!
At the same time, behind him, five incredibly thick, purely highly condensed chakra-formed, golden-glowing Adamantine Sealing Chains whistled out!
These chains contained the Uzumaki Clan’s powerful sealing power, agilely wrapping the Ten-Tails’ tails temporarily pinned by the black rods, complementing the black rods’ power to further restrict the Ten-Tails’ movements.
Under Menma’s precise tactics and powerful sealing jutsu coordination, the Ten-Tails’ violent struggles were finally gradually suppressed.
Its colossal body was firmly bound by several giant black rods and five Adamantine Sealing Chains, still roaring unwillingly and twisting madly, but its range of movement greatly restricted.
Menma hovered in midair, looking down at the temporarily subdued prehistoric behemoth below, lightly humming and muttering to himself: “Looks like the Adamantine Sealing Chains have a decent effect on this not fully matured Ten-Tails juvenile body.”
With his pure Uzumaki Clan bloodline and the Dark Nine-Tails’ massive chakra supply, the Adamantine Sealing Chains he unleashed far surpassed ordinary Uzumaki clansmen.
Even this juvenile-stage Ten-Tails found it hard to break free.
The long-impatient Dark Nine-Tails, seeing the Ten-Tails controlled, immediately let out a joyful low roar, pouncing fiercely, mounting the Ten-Tails again, opening its maw to even more frantically devour and absorb that vast sea-like pure chakra.
The Ten-Tails emitted pained and angry wails, yet powerless to resist.
Menma watched the Dark Nine-Tails’ greedy appearance, a pampering helpless smile on his face as he softly said: “Eat slower, Little Nine, no one’s robbing you.”
Just then, his right Byakugan slightly focused, eye power gathering, his vision instantly piercing the distant distance and pervasive sand dust, spotting two figures rapidly approaching.
Tsunade with the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead and Hundred Strength Seal activated, and Shizune closely following.
“Hm?” Menma slightly raised a brow, somewhat surprised.
“Why are they here?” Menma recalled; if he remembered correctly, Tsunade at this time should be lingering in gambling dens across countries. How could she appear in this uninhabited desert in the Land of Wind, and just happen to run into him?
This desert was one of the locations he had secretly deployed Flying Thunder God coordinates across the Ninja World using shadow clones a few years ago, precisely because it was an uninhabited zone for over a hundred kilometers around, with the nearest oasis nearly two hundred kilometers away—sufficiently concealed.
He hadn’t expected that shortly after transferring the Ten-Tails here, uninvited guests would arrive.
To ensure the Dark Nine-Tails could undisturbedly complete absorbing the Ten-Tails’ chakra, Menma’s eyes shifted, making a decision.
His figure instantly vanished from the spot, reappearing the next moment atop a sand dune ahead of Tsunade and Shizune’s path, quietly awaiting their arrival.
In the scorching desert, Tsunade and Shizune moved like two gusts of wind, swiftly traversing the continuous sand dunes.
Their gazes locked firmly on the distant battle of giant beasts beyond mortal comprehension.
When they saw several enormous chakra black rods like hellish punishment pillars ruthlessly nailing into the Ten-Tails’ wildly dancing tails, forcibly restricting its movements, shock and doubt filled Tsunade’s eyes.
The aura from those black rods was cold and eerie, a power form she had never seen, yet able to produce such powerful binding on tailed beast-level existence?
However, when five brilliantly golden, purely condensed chakra-formed thick chains whistled out, agilely and precisely wrapping the Ten-Tails’ tails pinned by the black rods, further securely binding its colossal body, Tsunade could no longer stay composed, sharply inhaling and exclaiming in shock:
“That’s… Adamantine Sealing Chains?!”
Her voice distorted from extreme shock.
Though she had never seen it with her own eyes, as the princess of the Senju Clan and distant relative of the Uzumaki Clan, she had heard her grandmother mention the Uzumaki Clan’s various secret techniques since childhood, especially one of their supreme secret techniques capable of sealing tailed beasts: Adamantine Sealing Chains!
The gleaming golden chains brimming with powerful sealing power before them matched the legendary descriptions perfectly!
Shizune following closely behind heard the exclamation and hurriedly asked: “Lady Tsunade, what are those golden chains?!”
While running, Tsunade stared fixedly at the five Adamantine Sealing Chains pulsing like living things, her face grave as if water could drip from it: “That’s the Uzumaki Clan’s hereditary secret sealing jutsu, Adamantine Sealing Chains! Only ninjas with pure Uzumaki bloodline can use it— a powerful sealing jutsu that can bind even the Nine-Tails!”
“Uzumaki Clan?!” Shizune paled, immediately associating it with the intelligence Lord Jiraiya had passed earlier: “Could it be… the Uzumaki Clan one in the Land of Stars that Lord Jiraiya mentioned?”
Tsunade shook her head, brows furrowed tightly, sweat sliding down her cheeks: “I don’t know… but the answer is likely right ahead!”
She hesitated no longer, forming a seal with her hands in front of her chest. The diamond-shaped mark on her forehead serving as the Yin Seal’s vessel suddenly glowed blue, rapidly spreading like an exquisite pattern toward both cheeks!
“Yin Seal: Release! Hundred Strength Seal!”
Massive chakra instantly released from the seal, filling her limbs and body.
Her speed surged, like a bolt of lightning leaving afterimages on the sand as she raced toward the battlefield center!
Shizune gritted her teeth, gathering chakra in her feet, desperately keeping up, but clearly straining.
As the distance closed, the battlefield center’s scene became ever clearer and more heart-palpitating.
That terrifying giant beast with ten tails, firmly bound by Adamantine Sealing Chains and giant black rods, was emitting unwilling pained roars. Its vast sea-like pure chakra was being frenziedly sucked and devoured by that dark red Nine-Tails Fox Demon like a bursting flood!
The chakra so dense it nearly substantialized, forming visible dark red energy streams continuously surging into the Dark Nine-Tails’ body.
As top medical ninjas, Tsunade and Shizune had far superhuman sensitivity to life energy and chakra.
They could clearly “feel” that the Dark Nine-Tails’ aura was climbing and expanding at a terrifying speed!
If it fully absorbed this Ten-Tails’ chakra, to what level would it evolve?
Simply unimaginable!
As Tsunade weighed in her mind whether to risk stopping this unknown evolution, her gaze suddenly sharpened, fixing on the top of a sand dune ahead.
There, at some point, a figure stood quietly.
Tsunade immediately halted, powerful inertia plowing two deep furrows in the sand under her feet.
She stood at the base of the sand dune, slightly tilting her head up to face the figure above in confrontation.
Shizune panted to her side, also spotting the person on the dune.
It was a boy who looked only fifteen or sixteen, handsome-faced with short ink-black hair, wearing a black-based red-trimmed miko robe, holding a pitch-black short rod matching those binding the Ten-Tails.
Most shocking were his eyes.
His left eye was a scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan swirling like a vortex; his right a pure white, with meridians slightly bulging around the pupil—clearly the Hyuga Clan’s Byakugan!
“Sharingan and… Byakugan?!” This bizarre dojutsu combination instantly sent a chill up Shizune’s spine.
Menma stood atop the sand dune, looking down, casually pointing his chakra black rod toward Tsunade and Shizune, his voice calm yet carrying unquestionable authority:
“No passage ahead.”
“Lady Tsunade, Miss Shizune, please turn back.”
His words made Tsunade furrow her brows, Shizune startled inwardly.
The opponent had instantly identified them!
But Shizune racked her memory and had no recollection of ever seeing this boy with the peculiar eyes.
Tsunade suppressed her inner shock and doubt, speaking deeply and firing off a series of questions: “Are you an Uzumaki Clan member? But why isn’t your hair red? And… why do you possess both Sharingan and Byakugan?”
Her gaze passed over Menma to the two colossal beings “transferring” chakra in the distance, pressing: “And what exactly are those two tailed beasts? That dark red demon fox absolutely isn’t Konoha’s Nine-Tails!”
Facing Tsunade’s barrage of questions, Menma lightly shook his head, tone still flat: “I am indeed an Uzumaki clansman. Speaking of which, you’re a distant relative.”
He paused, continuing: “So, some things aren’t impossible to explain to you. But I hope after hearing the explanation, you’ll leave here.”
Menma raised his hand, pointing to his peculiar eyes: “These two eyes have legitimate origins, no theft or robbery.”
Then, he pointed to the Dark Nine-Tails feasting in the distance: “That one isn’t Konoha’s Nine-Tails either; it’s my companion. I call it ‘Little Nine’.”
“Companion? Little Nine?” Tsunade’s doubts deepened.
Besides the known nine great tailed beasts, did other tailed beasts exist in this world?
Moreover, he mentioned “distant relative”—the Uzumaki and Senju Clans did have generations of marriages and close ties in the Warring States Period. His ability to use Adamantine Sealing Chains proved his bloodline purity beyond doubt.
But this Sharingan and Byakugan…
It was simply too outrageous.
Menma seemed unwilling to explain further, slightly raising his head to Tsunade: “Alright, I’ve answered your questions. Now, please accept my request.”
“Leave here; I don’t want to fight.”
His tone carried a faint, barely perceptible softening.
After all, based on his mother Kushina’s usual nagging, Tsunade was one of her few decently related relatives in Konoha.
Deep down, Menma didn’t want to clash with this nominal “distant cousin.”
With that, he casually swung his chakra black rod forward, drawing a clear line in the sand at his feet.
As the black rod cut through the air, the cold, obscure aura that seemed to disrupt chakra made Tsunade and Shizune both feel heart palpitations—a completely unfamiliar power level.
Tsunade hesitated.
Reason told her this boy before her was extremely dangerous, and the Dark Nine-Tails’ ongoing evolution was full of unknowns.
But emotionally, the other party showed no immediate malice, even proactively mentioning the Uzumaki Clan and distant relations, extending goodwill…
As she weighed pros and cons, unable to decide, a desert hot wind happened to blow head-on, carrying a faint bloody scent from the boy opposite.
The scent was very faint, but to Tsunade with severe hemophobia, it was like the fiercest poison!
Her gaze instantly locked on the cuffs and hem of Menma’s miko robe.
There, stained with patches of long-dried, turned dark red bloodstains!
Tsunade’s pupils contracted sharply, her face instantly paling as paper!
The power filling her body from the Hundred Strength Seal rapidly receded like the tide!
The blue mark on her forehead dimmed and vanished rapidly.
She felt the world spin, intense nausea and dizziness assaulting her. Her legs went soft, and she directly collapsed onto the scorching sand, her body uncontrollably trembling slightly, not even daring to focus her sight on the bloodstained spots on Menma.
“Lady Tsunade! What’s wrong?!” Shizune cried out in alarm, rushing forward to support the nearly fainting Tsunade, anxiously calling.
She immediately realized: hemophobia had flared up!
Menma on the dune, seeing Tsunade below lose combat ability instantly from just some battle-residual bloodstains on him before the fight even started properly, was slightly stunned, then shook his head somewhat helplessly.
He dispersed the chakra black rod in his hand, turning it into black flecks that vanished in the air.
“Looks like… no need to fight.”
He muttered softly to himself.
【PS: Originally wanted to find some Tsunade pics, but all the good ones on P-site were lewd, whatever, here’s a Hinata one instead.】
