Chapter 207: Do You Really Think The Mizukage Is Innocent, Meow?
At the severed ends of the Three-Tails Isobu’s three tails that had been forcibly melted off, tailed beast chakra sprayed out and dissipated like an out-of-control waterfall.
Accompanied by its earth-shattering wail of extreme pain, it formed an extremely impactful scene.
It made every Kirigakure Anbu ninja who heard it from afar feel their scalp tingle and their back run cold.
Momochi Zabuza stood stunned in place, his eyes that were always filled with killing intent and indifference now occupied by thick shock and incredulity.
Although he had anticipated that this Konoha “Lava Release monster” Uchiha Ikeizumi might be the only one capable of directly clashing with the Fourth Mizukage.
But he never imagined that their first ninjutsu clash would end in such a crushing manner!
The one gaining the upper hand was actually that Uchiha ninja relying solely on his own power!
The Fourth Mizukage plus the tailed beast’s power could even be called two against one! Yet, in the face of the opponent’s Lava Release bloodline limit that was like a natural disaster, it seemed so vulnerable?!
A drop of cold sweat involuntarily slid down from Momochi Zabuza’s temple, tracing across his ferocious cheek.
By normal reasoning, with his “Demon Human” mentality, he had long been accustomed to life-and-death fights.
Facing even the strongest enemies, what should surge up was bloodthirsty fighting spirit, not fear.
However, at this moment, an emotion called fear that he hadn’t experienced in a long time quietly coiled around him like an icy venomous snake.
There was even a brief instant when his body instinctively warned him—flee!
—Flee from here immediately!
Although he suppressed this momentary impulse with his strong willpower.
But he couldn’t deny the cowardice quietly breeding deep in his heart.
“…The Fourth who can perfectly control the tailed beast is already a monster beyond reason.” Momochi Zabuza’s voice was dry and hoarse, carrying a trace of horror he himself hadn’t noticed.
“That man… Uchiha Ikeizumi… he’s even more of a monster than a monster! Without a tailed beast’s near-infinite chakra source, can an ordinary ninja really reach that… inhuman level through training?”
…
On the other side, Mei Terumī also felt the scorching hot wind aftershock mixed with sulfur smell and scorched smell rushing at her face.
She had to squint her eyes to barely make out the distant battle situation.
Her beautiful long hair was blown into a messy dance by the wild wind, making her look somewhat disheveled.
Her delicate face was now filled with shock, and her fine skin was already covered with dense sweat beads.
She couldn’t even tell whether these sweat drops were baked out by the terrifying high temperature or scared out by the scene before her eyes.
“This… is this the ultimate weapon that Konoha has been hiding until now?”
Mei Terumī couldn’t help but clench her fist, murmuring, “Konoha letting such an extremely dangerous existence barge into the Land of Water. Are they… formally declaring war on the Land of Water?”
This thought sent a bone-chilling cold through her.
She found that her clenched fist was already drenched in sweat, slick and wet.
…
Drip—
Drip—
Viscous, scorching lava droplets slowly slid down from Uchiha Ikeizumi’s elementalized body, smashing onto the scorched ground, making slight sounds and burning small pits.
His face was expressionless as he walked forward step by step.
With every step, the ground under his feet instantly melted, leaving a footprint burning with raging flames.
Billowing thick smoke rose from his body like beacon smoke, and the extreme high temperature scorched the surrounding air into violent distortion and trembling.
Making his figure appear especially illusory and flickering in the single eye of the distant Three-Tails Isobu.
Like a ghost shadow from purgatory, impossible to lock onto a specific position.
The intense pain from the tail still continuously stimulated the nerves, and the fatal danger premonition from the tailed beast instinct brought by the opponent’s constant approach made Three-Tails Isobu feel a strong heart palpitation!
Its single eye’s pupils trembled violently because of this!
“Roar!!!”
It let out a deafening roar, and the massive tailed beast chakra in its body erupted at an unprecedented speed. At the severed ends of those three melted tails, flesh buds and chakra writhed wildly.
They actually recombined and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye!
At the same time, it made its most instinctive defensive reaction—those two thick forelimbs suddenly retracted into the thick armor shell covered with spikes, and that ugly massive head also quickly pulled back!
The enormous body curled up as much as possible, ultimately forming a giant sphere completely wrapped by an indestructible gray-white armor shell covered with huge spikes!
Just like a steel giant turtle protecting all its vulnerable parts.
This was its proudest absolute defense posture!
Facts proved…
Its danger sense was not wrong!
The next second after it curled up—
Boom!!!!!
The scorched ground under Uchiha Ikeizumi’s feet suddenly exploded! Beneath his feet was like a volcanic eruption, bursting with unparalleled powerful impact force!
His fully lava-elementalized body was dragged by this force into a crimson torrent of destruction at this moment!
In the eyes of all distant onlookers, they only saw a dazzling red glow flash by, fast beyond the limit of visual capture.
The next instant!
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s figure had already appeared like a ghost right above the curled-up spherical Three-Tails Isobu.
Below him was the Three-Tails’ so-called absolute defense, the thick spiked “turtle shell”!
Uchiha Ikeizumi in mid-air, his right arm that had already charged to the extreme, had now swollen into an enormous lava sphere like a small sun!
The internally compressed destructive energy made the surrounding space tremble slightly!
Without any hesitation, his action was simple and brutal, slamming the lava giant fist containing the power to burn mountains and boil seas down toward the back of the Three-Tails Isobu below!
—This was clearly the Three-Tails Isobu’s strongest defensive position, but Uchiha Ikeizumi attacked right here!
Boom!!!
The instant the fist collided with the armor shell, it erupted in a terrifying roar like a meteor crashing into the ground.
The extremely fierce impact force actually made the Three-Tails Isobu’s proud and indestructible back armor shell emit a teeth-grinding “crack”!
One crack after another spread rapidly from the point of impact like a spider web!
Even more terrifying, the scorching extreme lava energy seeped madly through those cracks into the armor shell’s interior, burning the chakra-composed flesh and organs of Three-Tails Isobu.
“Roooaaarrr—!!!”
The Three-Tails Isobu curled inside the armor shell once again let out a deafening shrill wail, the sound filled with unprecedented pain.
But this was far from over!
The shoulder of Uchiha Ikeizumi’s right arm that had struck began to swell and compress violently again.
Even more violent lava energy was madly injected into the arm.
Rumble—!!!
An even stronger, volcanic full-eruption-like terrifying impact force followed his right arm, slamming fiercely into Three-Tails Isobu’s armor shell again!
Pfft—!!!
This time, a beam of extremely condensed crimson lava pierced through the thick armor shell defense of the Three-Tails as easily as a red-hot steel needle through leather!
And tore through layers of tough flesh tissues composed of tailed beast chakra with unstoppable force.
And then…
It brazenly pierced out from the underside of Three-Tails Isobu’s abdomen!!!
This lava beam had actually pierced straight through its enormous body!
Forming a front-to-back transparent, edges still continuously melting horrific burn hole!
“Roooaaawwww—!!!”
Indescribable intense pain instantly swept through every inch of Three-Tails Isobu’s consciousness.
It could no longer maintain the curled defense posture and began rolling madly like crazy.
Its massive body like an out-of-control giant millstone burning with tailed beast chakra flames, charging and crushing aimlessly in all directions!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One raised dirt mound after another, small hillsides were easily smashed to pieces by it.
The ground was plowed by it into terrifying gullies tens or twenty meters deep.
It tried to use this carpet-style, indiscriminate destructive rolling to crush that tiny human bringing it endless pain into powder!
However, this irrational mad behavior, besides making the already messy battlefield even more thoroughly destroyed and scaring those distant heavily injured Kirigakure Anbu ninjas into scrambling further back in desperate flight…
Did not pose even the slightest threat to Uchiha Ikeizumi.
His figure had long disappeared from the spot, coldly overlooking this pained tailed beast.
…
The oncoming heatwave made breathing almost impossible, and Kijiro couldn’t help but squint his eyes, only this way could his eyes feel a bit better.
It looked at the distant wretched, madly rolling tailed beast and said, “Meow, Lord Ikeizumi once explained the intelligence on the nine great tailed beasts to me. I remember the Three-Tails is named Isobu, most skilled in various powerful Water Releases. But…”
It paused, cat paw pointing at the purgatory-like surroundings: “Lord Ikeizumi’s Lava Release has baked the surrounding environment almost completely dry of moisture. The ground is cracked, the air is scorching, water vapor largely evaporated, meow.”
“This makes the Three-Tails, which extremely relies on water sources, unable to borrow the power of the natural environment, its Water Release power greatly weakened invisibly, meow.”
“Although theoretically, water counters lava. Lord Ikeizumi did fear ninjas skilled in Water Release a long time ago.”
Kijiro licked his baked-dry nose and continued, “But when the water in the surrounding environment is far less than the lava… it’s no longer a counter. Instead, the lava counters the remaining scant water, meow.”
“Just like a cup of water can’t pour into a volcano crater.”
Listening to Kijiro’s words and looking at the distant Three-Tails’ miserable state, Juzo Biwa took a deep breath of the scorching air.
He spoke with complex mood, “I suddenly have a question… The Three-Tails, and Mizukage, they are both puppets controlled by Uchiha Obito’s Sharingan.”
“Their behavior is completely out of their own control. In this case, can everything they do really be considered their ‘sin’?”
Kijiro stopped licking its paw, tilted its head looking at Juzo Biwa, and countered, “What made you have the illusion that the Fourth Mizukage was an ‘innocent good person’ before being controlled, meow?”
Its words were like icy needles, piercing Juzo Biwa’s subtle emotion: “Didn’t you say it yourself? Before Uchiha Obito controlled the Mizukage, the Hidden Mist Village had already begun implementing the cruel ‘Bloody Mist Policy’, meow.”
“Meow, as the shadow of a village, wouldn’t he know how much harm such a self-destructive policy would cause to the village’s future? Did Yagura Karatachi, during his tenure, ever try to stop or reform the Bloody Mist Policy?”
“If he did, even if it failed, it might show his sin doesn’t warrant death, meow.”
It paused, tone sharpening: “But… did he? Or was someone holding a knife to his neck, forcing him to carry out the Bloody Mist Policy to the end?”
“Meow, in your Hidden Mist Village, is there anyone who could command a Mizukage wielding tailed beast power to make him do something?”
Kijiro’s series of questions hammered down on Juzo Biwa’s heart like heavy blows.
Making him once again fall into speechless silence.
At the same time, it was like a sudden enlightenment, making him abruptly wake up.
“…Hoo!”
Juzo Biwa let out a long breath of turbid air, a self-mocking bitter smile on his face: “Probably… because I’m also from the Hidden Mist, I felt a bit of unrealistic pity for the Fourth.”
This sentence of his had already indirectly answered Kijiro’s questioning.
—No!
The Fourth Mizukage Yagura Karatachi did not try to stop or reform the Bloody Mist Policy.
On the contrary, he might have been its firm promoter.
Although he wasn’t the originator of the Bloody Mist Policy, he was a key pusher for its continued execution and intensification.
This point…
Was enough to explain many problems.
Thinking of this, the last trace of hesitation in Juzo Biwa’s eyes completely dissipated, replaced by icy clarity.
He said in a deep voice, “You’re right. Yagura Karatachi… he himself is absolutely not innocent!”
…
“This… what exactly happened here?!”
A figure finally rushed to the scene hurriedly, it was Ao with the Byakugan.
However, the scene he expected of surrounding and trapping the rogue ninja Juzo Biwa, putting Juzo Biwa in desperation, did not appear.
What entered his eyes was a scene like the end of the world.
And a massive tailed beast madly rolling and emitting painful roars!
He sucked in a cold breath, nearly scorched by the oncoming heatwave.
Ao hurriedly cast his gaze toward the familiar graceful figure not far ahead, asking urgently, “Lady Mei Terumī! What happened to Mizukage?!”
Mei Terumī didn’t turn back; her gaze still desperately locked on the distant figure much smaller than Three-Tails Isobu but impossible to ignore.
Mei Terumī’s voice carried complex emotion, slowly saying, “Mizukage… he’s probably about to be killed by that Lava Release Ferocious Beast from Konoha.”
“What?!!”
Ao instantly widened his eyes, the Byakugan under his eyepatch seeming to tremble slightly.
No!
What does this have to do with the Lava Release Ferocious Beast?
What exactly happened?
Ao was completely dumbfounded.
…
…
PS: Ah! Made it!
