Chapter 206: Lava Release And The Three-tails!
On the scorched, cracked ground where lava flowed, the thick black smoke and choking dust permeated were slightly dispersed by an invisible airwave, making the view a bit clearer.
Juzo Biwa narrowed his eyes, straining to look toward the edge of the explosion’s center.
The next second, his pupils suddenly contracted slightly!
Beyond the gradually thinning smoke and dust, an enormous deep gray shadow like a mountain loomed faintly!
The oppressive feeling from that outline made the air seem to solidify, and it also reminded Juzo Biwa of something.
Juzo Biwa couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air; the sulfur smell and scorched odor mixed in the air seemed to turn icy and piercing.
He muttered to himself: “Three-Tails… Isobu… So the Mizukage finally released you?”
Beside him, Uchiha Izumi strained to open her eyes wide, gazing curiously yet instinctively warily into the distance.
Hindered by the smoke and dust, she could barely make out a huge, mountain-like turtle-shaped outline.
Her first impression of that outline was of a giant turtle magnified thousands of times and filled with an ominous aura!
That colossal entity seemed to be in a state of extreme rage.
Every breath was like a howling gale, carrying a muffled, thunderous, heart-palpitating strange sound!
Even from such a great distance, Izumi could clearly feel the slight vibrations transmitted from the ground under her feet.
As well as the pure savagery and desire for destruction contained in that sound.
“This is… the same as the Nine-Tails Demon Fox that attacked the village… a Tailed Beast?”
Izumi whispered softly, her palms involuntarily sweating slightly.
When the permeating smoke and dust were blown away even more by a gust of hot wind, the intimidating true form of the Three-Tails Isobu was finally fully exposed to everyone.
Its form did indeed resemble a giant turtle, but it was a shape twisted by the creator’s hand with no sense of aesthetics.
Covering its massive body was not ordinary turtle shell, but a layer of thick, heavy armor with a grayish-white metallic cold sheen; the armor was covered in enormous hard spikes standing like mountain peaks, appearing ferocious and terrifying.
Its head was abnormally huge, with the top and lower half of its face covered in highly disordered grayish-white sharp spikes; one eye seemed blind, while the other was filled with primal ferocity.
It gave an indescribable sense of ugliness and ferocity!
Behind it, the three tails swinging wildly like giant pythons were each covered in hard bone segments and barbs, whipping through the air with shrill whooshing sounds.
The parts of the Three-Tails Isobu’s body not covered by armor presented a dark red color like living muscle.
It also had stripe-like textures resembling biological muscle fibers, seemingly wriggling slightly, emanating a startling vitality.
And what drew even more attention was—on top of that ugly massive head, the upper body of the Fourth Mizukage Yagura Karatachi was strikingly present!
His lower body seemed completely fused with the Three-Tails’ body; his eyes were tightly closed, his face an unnatural pallor.
As if he had fallen into a deep sleep state; this did not resemble the rumored perfect Jinchuriki, as he was not perfectly controlling the Tailed Beast’s power right now.
It seems…
This Fourth Mizukage was indeed being controlled by someone.
Izumi was not seeing a Tailed Beast for the first time.
The horrific scene from that Night of the Nine-Tails remained an indelible nightmare for her—the orange-red giant Demon Fox rampaging and roaring, her father’s figure forever buried under the ruins after that moment…
“Hoo…”
She exhaled a heavy breath of turbid air, trying to suppress the surging emotions, and murmured: “Releasing the Nine-Tails Demon Fox in Konoha, controlling the Three-Tails in Hidden Mist Village… Uchiha Obito truly is as Senior Ikeizumi said, not even dying ten thousand times could atone for his sins.”
Kijiro standing on her shoulder had its cat eyes wide round, finally blurting out a sigh: “What a huge turtle, meow…”
It paused, then couldn’t hold back an heartfelt quip.
“Meow, it’s uglily unique!”
……
“Mizukage… Mizukage… He… he unleashed the Tailed Beast’s power!!”
In the distance.
A severely injured Kirigakure Anbu Ninja struggled to prop up his upper body with one arm, his other hand clutching his painfully throbbing chest.
When he looked up and clearly saw the colossal entity in the smoke and dust, his face was filled with shock and disbelief.
He tried to stand up, wanting to rush over to provide support.
But waves of tearing pain from his body made his legs give out, and he knelt heavily on the ground again!
“Pfft—”
Several more mouthfuls of bright red blood sprayed from his mouth, splattering onto the scorched ground.
His face grew even more pallid, his breathing like a flickering candle in the wind.
“Damn it…”
He gritted his teeth unwillingly, his nails nearly digging into the scorched earth.
At that moment—
A large hand clearly blistered from burns, with reddened skin, silently reached out from behind him.
With irresistible force, it firmly pressed down on his shoulder.
Pressing his body, which he had just tried to lift, back down!
This Anbu Ninja’s pupils contracted sharply!
His long-trained combat instincts made him instinctively reach for a kunai from his ninja tool bag at his waist without thinking.
Without looking, he stabbed viciously backward!
However, his wrist was precisely seized mid-air by another hand like an iron vise.
No matter how hard he strained, it could not advance a fraction further!
“It’s me.” Only when an icy yet familiar voice sounded from behind did his taut nerves slightly relax.
This Mist Ninja turned back in astonishment, seeing a face similarly covered in dust, bloodstains, and a touch of dishevelment, yet still carrying a fierce aura—Momochi Zabuza!
“…Demon?” The Kirigakure Anbu Ninja was stunned, clearly not expecting it to be him.
Momochi Zabuza released his hand, but his gaze never left the monstrous Three-Tails Isobu in the distance.
Bloodstains still lingered at the corners of his mouth, and he said in an extremely cold voice: “Since the Mizukage has already resorted to the Tailed Beast’s power, that means… he has decided to handle all enemies alone. For us half-crippled guys to go now…”
He paused, his tone carrying a barely perceptible sarcasm: “…would not be helping him, but burdening him, becoming his liability. Do you want the Mizukage to deal with strong enemies while also diverting attention to protect a useless waste who can’t even stand steadily?”
These words stung the Anbu Ninja’s heart.
He opened his mouth, but in the end could only lower his head unwillingly, smashing a fierce fist into the ground: “Damn it! That Konoha Lava Release monster… how is he so strong?!”
“In just one clash, we suffered heavy casualties. The Mizukage was even forced to release the Tailed Beast’s power… Normally, a trump card like a Tailed Beast would only be played by the Mizukage at the very last moment…”
Momochi Zabuza did not answer.
He merely silently stared at the destructive scene in the distance, feeling the stinging pain from his burns.
He had stopped this Anbu out of his own selfish motives.
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s strike like a natural disaster, instantly crippling over thirty Kirigakure Anbu elites’ terrifying power… made Momochi Zabuza see a glimmer of light in the endless bloody mist darkness that he had never seen before.
That was a hope for overthrowing the existing order.
That man…
Was terrifyingly strong!
Unreasonably strong!
Perhaps… he was the only one among everyone present capable of not through conspiracy or assassination, but with absolute power to outright crush the nightmare-like Mizukage who loomed over Hidden Mist!
Even if…
He was a ninja from another village.
……
“Konoha Lava Release Ferocious Beast, the man rumored to have assassinated the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, the most dangerous and unpredictable ninja in the entire Ninja World—Uchiha Ikeizumi!”
On the other side.
Mei Terumī’s beautiful eyes held deep solemn wariness as she recalled the rumors about Uchiha Ikeizumi circulating in the Ninja World; she took a deep breath of the air that seemed to carry a hint of sulfur smell.
Also possessing dual Bloodline Limits, Mei Terumī could more clearly feel the despairing gap between herself and him!
Her Boil Release and Lava Release were powerful, but absolutely incapable of causing this kind of terrifying destructive power like a natural disaster!
What puzzled her even more was—why?
Why had Konoha’s Uchiha Ikeizumi suddenly appeared in the Land of Water?
Shouldn’t the Mizukage be pursuing the rogue ninja Juzo Biwa?
How did such an intense conflict erupt with this Konoha scourge?
To the point of needing to deploy a Tailed Beast?
“The key is…” Mei Terumī’s expression wary and cautious: “The most dangerous man in the Ninja World has come to the Land of Water; for the Land of Water, it is absolutely an unforeseen catastrophe.”
Probably…
Those nobles in the Land of Water, and Lord Daimyo of the Land of Water, would have trouble sleeping for a while.
This was a ninja who truly dared to kill “those above others”!
Normally.
As a ninja of Hidden Mist Village, Mei Terumī should hurry to support Yagura Karatachi as the Mizukage.
However.
She held back.
Her intuition told her that the current Mizukage was extremely abnormal. Perhaps, she could discover something amiss in the battle between the Mizukage and Uchiha Ikeizumi.
……
“Hoo—!!!”
The Three-Tails Isobu fiercely exhaled a breath thick with chakra; that aura spread outward like tangible thick fog.
Everywhere it passed, even the black smoke drifting in the air was dispersed.
One of its eyes was tightly closed, with strange burn or scratch marks on the eyelid; the other wide-open giant eye was filled with violent, cruel madness!
That gaze full of destructive desire locked firmly on the tiny yet extremely dangerous Uchiha Ikeizumi below.
If observed closely, an extremely subtle, ominous red glow could be seen flashing in the depths of that pupil.
Isobu’s ugly giant face had its muscles twitch and distort fiercely, flashing with extreme pain and struggle.
As if something was fiercely clashing deep in its consciousness.
But soon, that struggle was completely crushed by a stronger, external will.
Replaced by even purer, more frenzied ferocity!
Boom—!!!
Suffocatingly violent Tailed Beast chakra erupted unrestrained from its body like a flood bursting a dam; the dark red Tailed Beast chakra flames enveloped its form.
Making the already scorching surrounding air distort and tremble violently, emitting a buzzing resonance!
Bang!!!
Isobu’s two pillar-like sturdy forelimbs brutally shattered the already ravaged ground beneath its feet!
It suddenly raised its ugly head, its cheeks inflating exaggeratedly like air sacs, massive chakra converging madly into its mouth!
Pfft!!!
The next moment, a gigantic water ball tens of meters in diameter, highly compressed and containing terrifying impact force—”Water Release: Water Bullet Technique”—shot from its mouth like a cannon from the barrel!
The “Water Bullet” tore through the air with lightning speed.
With a shrill whistle, it violently dove toward Uchiha Ikeizumi’s position!
Everywhere it passed, even the air was distorted!
At this moment, Uchiha Ikeizumi still stood quietly on the scorched ground where lava flowed.
Behind him was that hundreds-of-meters-wide, bottomless terrifying crater, like the entrance to an abyss.
Facing this Tailed Beast-level Water Release attack that could easily destroy an ordinary village, his expression showed no change.
His right hand had already fully elementalized into scorching, viscous crimson lava!
Moreover, that lava arm was violently expanding, compressing, expanding, and compressing again at an astonishing frequency!
With each cycle, the arm’s color grew deeper crimson, the accumulated molten energy inside becoming even more terrifying!
As if all the energy of a volcano on the verge of eruption had been compressed into this one arm!
Just as that massive “Water Bullet” was about to engulf him within inches…
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s molten fist suddenly clenched tight!
Lava Release: Great Eruption!!!
Boom—!!!
A lava giant fist far larger and more violent than the “Water Bullet” erupted like a volcano suppressed for millennia!
Carrying extreme heat to incinerate all directions and terrifying impact to pulverize everything, it blasted out fiercely!
The expanding lava arm instantly reached its limit, that crimson glow even overshadowing the sky’s color!
Sizzle—!!!
Boom!!!
At the moment of their fierce collision, the extreme heat and the icy high-pressure water ball clashed most intensely! The piercing sound was like ten thousand red-hot branding irons plunged into an icy sea!
That massive “Water Release: Water Bullet Technique” was rapidly evaporated by the terrifying heat on the lava giant fist’s surface almost the instant it touched.
Turning into a sky full of scalding white steam exploding outward!
The surface of the lava giant fist was also blasted with a huge gap by the ferocious water cannon’s impact.
Crimson lava splattered everywhere!
But!
This bit of damage could not halt the unstoppable destructive momentum of “Great Eruption”!
The remaining lava giant fist still carried unmatched power, smashing ruthlessly toward the Three-Tails Isobu’s main body!
In the Three-Tails Isobu’s frenzied giant eye, the pupil suddenly quaked, clearly not expecting its attack to be so easily dismantled.
“Roar!!!”
It let out an urgent roar, its three barbed giant tails whipping almost simultaneously like three enormous steel whips, carrying mountain-shattering force toward the incoming lava giant fist!
Trying to intercept it!
However…
Splat!
Sizzle—!!!
The moment its tails touched that scorching lava…
“Roooaaarrr—!!!”
The Three-Tails Isobu suddenly emitted a earth-shaking, piercing wail filled with extreme agony!
That sound even made the watching ninjas in the distance feel their scalps tingle!
Its three incredibly hard giant tails were, in the instant of colliding with the lava giant fist, sliced off more than half like wax figures cut by a hot knife!
The breaks were perfectly smooth, even revealing the boiling, dissipating Tailed Beast chakra inside!
Only three bald half-tails were left dangling powerlessly!
The breaks showed no blood, only massive Tailed Beast chakra leaking wildly out of control, dissipating, and traces instantly carbonized by the heat!
The intense pain filled the remaining single eye of the Three-Tails Isobu with ferocious bloodshot veins.
Frenzied violent aura erupted from its body like a tangible substance!
……
……
PS: Still coding in Kuku, working hard to make up for yesterday’s hospital leave update（ Damn yellow spicy ding!!!）
