Chapter 69: This is the Second Stage of the Void Realm!
Thunder shook the sky as the rising heat and moisture eventually turned into a downpour.
"I'm already beyond saving, you shouldn't do such unnecessary things."
Kato Dan reopened his eyes, speaking while spitting blood, the light in his eyes growing weaker and weaker. His blood rapidly drained away with the rain, and much of his shredded flesh was washed away completely.
Kato Dan actually understood Tsukasa Kaede's actions; it was a persistent refusal to give up saving a comrade, even in desperate circumstances. He respected the sentiment, but didn't agree. If these last few seconds were left to him, perhaps he could inflict greater damage on Roshi, forcing him to spend exponentially more time and effort to recover. Opportunities to injure an enemy nation's jinchuriki were rare. If he could achieve that, Kato Dan felt his sacrifice would be worthwhile. He was no match for a jinchuriki anyway.
"I told you, it's not time to give up yet. The war hasn't ended. Do you really want it to end here? Death is easy, but enduring various pains to live on is difficult. Lady Tsunade is still waiting for you."
Tsukasa Kaede raised a hand to point. Kato Dan looked with his fading peripheral vision, and saw Tsunade also rushing desperately, and the extremely terrified look on her face.
"Tsunade... I'm truly sorry for letting you see me like this. It's a pity I won't be able to become Hokage..."
"Shut up, don't say such disheartening words! I'm the strongest medical ninja. Kaedence I'm here, I will save you! Let me see... The injuries are very serious, but they can still be treated!"
Tsunade knelt on the ground, frantically generating chakra, trying to heal Kato Dan's body, which indeed slightly improved Kato Dan's condition. But everyone knew this was futile; medical ninjutsu could heal injuries and regenerate flesh, but it couldn't spontaneously grow organs and bones within the chest cavity. When Tsunade's chakra was completely exhausted, and she could no longer sustain Kato Dan's life, that would be the moment Kato Dan's soul completely left the Living World.
"Save your chakra. Why not take this opportunity to help more comrades retreat..." Kato Dan gently looked at Tsunade's face, which was filled with fear. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet become Hokage, nor had he publicly married Tsunade, and now it would all end here... What a pity.
Frenzied roars suddenly echoed.
"Oh? That guy's body is expanding, and he's finding it hard to even maintain human form. I'm not very knowledgeable and don't know much about jinchuriki. Is this the legendary full Tailed Beast Transformation?"
Tsukasa Kaede turned his head and frowned.
Apparently, Roshi's spirit was severely wounded, his self-consciousness sinking at an accelerated rate, about to be taken over by the Four-Tails. Not being a perfect jinchuriki, once entering full Tailed Beast Transformation, meant the Tailed Beast had taken control of the human. The Tailed Beast would seize the opportunity to rampage, frantically retaliating against humans and causing unimaginable casualties. However, for Roshi in his current state, perhaps being controlled by the Four-Tails wasn't a bad thing.
"Lady Tsunade, the situation is urgent. You first maintain Lord Kato Dan's life signs, and I'll take you both and we'll retreat." Tsukasa Kaede said in a deep voice.
Tsunade was beyond caring about anything, flustered and distraught; all her thoughts were on Kato Dan. She had already lost her younger brother; she couldn't lose her lover again!
Tsukasa Kaede placed one hand on Tsunade's shoulder and gripped one of Kato Dan's hands, activating his Void Realm Jutsu to transfer them to the back of a rock six hundred meters away. This distance wasn't particularly long; if they were lucky, they could briefly avoid the Four-Tails' sight.
"You are responsible for maintaining Lord Kato Dan's life signs. I will engage the enemy and try my best to prevent him from entering full Tailed Beast Transformation." Tsukasa Kaede gently steadied their figures and said quickly.
"Are you crazy, this is suicide! What strength do you have to face a jinchuriki about to go berserk? Rely on those corpses you've summoned? You don't have enough chakra to control so many corpses simultaneously. I can tell that many of your corpses are actually behaving erratically, mostly acting on instinct." Tsunade was exasperated, but soon stopped speaking.
She realized one thing—even she, in fact, had no good way to deal with such an enemy. Use what? Her Super Strength? Or medical ninjutsu? At most, these could stall the enemy, but not truly defeat them.
"Can you perform longer-distance spatial transfer? Dan Kato needs better treatment. If we could return to the Village, I'd gather all medical ninja to set up a large-scale jutsu formula, and it would definitely be possible..."
"No, I cannot. Perhaps I can do it in the future, but not now," Tsukasa Kaede replied. To instantly complete an ultra-long distance transfer from the northernmost part of the Land of Hot Water to the Hidden Leaf Village, just sensing the zombies located in the Hidden Leaf Village would consume enormous chakra, let alone the consumption of transferring two living humans. With Tsukasa Kaede's existing life force, it might not be enough, and it wasn't convenient to replenish life force on a larger scale right now. Moreover, Tsukasa Kaede had other more important matters to attend to, chief among them being the Four-Tails' chakra.
"The Four-Tails Jinchuriki... This is a good opportunity to obtain Four-Tails' chakra. Even if it's just a little, it will be very useful in the future."
Tsukasa Kaede thought to himself, then completed a position swap with a zombie and quickly rushed towards the expanding figure of Roshi. Roshi still had a tiny bit of consciousness left. Catching a glimpse of Tsukasa Kaede in his daze, he immediately became extremely frenzied, letting out a furious roar. One hand suddenly enlarged into a giant chakra hand, fiercely grabbing towards Tsukasa Kaede.
Summoning Jutsu!
Tsukasa Kaede summoned Araki of the Sand and a group of Explosion Release Zombies, along with the last ten-plus ordinary zombies without bloodline limits. The current force was already the strongest zombie army he could summon.
Under Tsukasa Kaede's command, the zombies, Araki of the Sand, and Explosion Release Zombies swarmed forward, using various ninjutsu to attack Roshi. In an instant, various violent bombardments and explosions appeared one after another, but Tsukasa Kaede didn't expect to stop Roshi's full Tailed Beast Transformation with such a crude method.
"Next, I'll try that jutsu, even though it's still far from perfect."
Tsukasa Kaede retreated among the ordinary zombies, clapping his hands together forcefully at the moment Roshi threw out large numbers of Lava Spheres, clashing with Araki of the Sand's sandstorm. More than ten zombies, serving as expendables, moved quickly through the gaps torn out by the sandstorm. Many of them were torn to shreds by the increasingly berserk Roshi, but eventually one zombie managed to get close to Roshi. Conventional attacks could no longer inflict damage on Roshi, but Tsukasa Kaede had never placed his hopes on these expendables.
The ordinary zombie immediately performed hand signs and activated the Summoning Jutsu. Wisps of smoke rose as the Explosion Release Zombies appeared simultaneously in front of the Four-Tails, using their Explosion Release Bloodline Limit to unleash a zero-range explosion attack, transforming themselves into super bombs and completely detonating!
An explosion on a scale far exceeding an Explosive Tag suddenly erupted, instantly engulfing Roshi's figure.
"This is the Second Stage of the Void Realm. Allowing transferred zombies to mass-summon other zombies is truly a very difficult thing, but it does bear a trace of the Mutual Summoning Zombies."
Tsukasa Kaede acted immediately. Many zombies moved out simultaneously, rushing into the aftermath of the explosion, risking taking damage to snatch the Four-Tails' chakra.
"It would be best if we can snatch it. If not, or if the opponent even completes full Tailed Beast Transformation, then I'll have to summon Might Dai over..."
(end of chapter)