While Yasuo's Susanoo was using Fire Release against the Root shinobi, suddenly, from a blind spot, a pitch-black shadow sprang out like a venomous snake, cleverly using the shadows cast by the flames as cover, and silently pounced toward Uchiha Yasuo.
It was Ino–Shika–Chō and the others who had already rushed nearby and begun to make a covert move against him.
However, Uchiha Yasuo had long been on guard against these people. Under the dynamic vision of his Mangekyō Sharingan, a sneak attack of this level had almost no chance of success.
"Tch, birds of a feather—so you did join up after all!"
He turned his head aside, and the jet of flame shifted slightly in direction. The searing firelight blew that slender shadow into nothing.
But his footing suddenly went soft. A whirlpool of sand and mud appeared, like quicksand, dragging Susanoo's body straight down.
It was that Earth Release shinobi from before exerting himself again.
'This Susanoo has no legs—truly inconvenient!'
Uchiha Yasuo complained inwardly, swung up his scepter, and brought it down in a full arc to smash directly at that shinobi's head.
Any ninjutsu had to be sustained by its caster. Once he dodged, the subsequent effect would naturally cease.
Who would have thought that, facing this sure-kill strike, the Root shinobi did not move at all. A resolute glint flashed in his eyes as he completely abandoned defense, stubbornly maintaining the hand seal unchanged. Chakra poured out frantically, pushing the Earth Release technique to its utmost.
The scepter fell with a "squelch," easily pounding that Root shinobi into pulp, blood and flesh smeared across the ground.
But in the time he delayed, even more ninjutsu fell upon Susanoo.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Split!"
"Earth Release: Earth Dome Prison!"
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!"
Perhaps due to leaked information, Konohagakure already knew that Susanoo's weakness lay in having no lower body. Thus, among the Root shinobi who came this time, fully half were Earth Release shinobi.
Just as the quicksand trap restraining Susanoo began to solidify, the ground suddenly split to both sides, cracking open into a huge chasm several meters wide, its depth bottomless.
Another tactic designed specifically against him!
Uchiha Yasuo's footing suddenly gave way, and he and Susanoo both fell downward together.
At the same time, the ground surrounding the fissure abruptly rose upward. Chunks of rock crawled up on their own and quickly converged toward the center, sealing the top and forming a massive earthen prison that trapped him and Susanoo inside, beginning to absorb his chakra.
Then, rippling waves like water suddenly spread across the ground beneath him, and a shinobi leapt up from underground. Beneath his clothes, the glow of numerous explosive tags flickered as he lowered his head and charged straight at Yasuo.
It was a human bomb!
Whether he lived or died, the countless explosive tags on his body would inevitably detonate within this confined space.
"Petty tricks—and you dare show off before me!"
Suspended in midair, Uchiha Yasuo roared furiously. The Mangekyō in his eyes spun wildly, and Susanoo's energy body suddenly surged upward. Two thick, sturdy legs grew beneath it, planting firmly on the ground and shielding Yasuo completely. With a sweep of its arms, it swung as if playing golf, striking the charging Root suicide soldier and sending him flying.
But at the very moment of impact, all those explosive tags detonated simultaneously.
The violent shockwave from the self-detonation spread outward, colliding against the surrounding earth and stone. Within that narrow space, the impact rebounded multiple times in an instant, greatly amplifying the destructive power at the explosion's center.
From outside, the others saw that the earthen prison, just as it finished forming, suddenly swelled outward. After being barely sustained for a moment by several Earth Release shinobi, it exploded with a thunderous roar.
Flames burst skyward from within like a pillar of smoke, spiraling upward from the breach in the stone prison and shooting straight into the heavens.
The flying fragments of rock and gravel were even more dangerous than kunai. Even the Root shinobi could not help but retreat and dodge in fear.
Did it work?
Aburame Torune stared intently into that column of smoke, ready to rush in at any moment to deliver the finishing blow.
Within Root, the mission took precedence over everything. Life or death—such things were secondary.
They did not even care about their own lives, let alone those of others.
In his heart, Aburame Torune regarded only Yamanaka Fū as his friend. As for the other Root shinobi—they were tools. Without hesitation, he let those shinobi use their lives to create an opening.
Traps, fissures, stone prisons, human bombs—a succession of killing moves followed one after another, forming an inescapable net of attacks.
Under circumstances where the Rinkaichū were ineffective, this was already the most efficient method of attack he could execute.
As the flames gradually died down, amid the billowing smoke and dust, a towering shadow once again revealed its form.
It was Susanoo's silhouette!
Uchiha Yasuo hovered at the position of Susanoo's chest, breathing lightly. His left eye was half-closed, and a line of blood-tears slowly flowed down from there, tracing across his cheek.
He stuck out his tongue and gently rolled the blood-tears that had flowed down into his mouth.
Once again tasting the flavor of his own blood only made his already frenzied heart grow even more deranged.
"Haha…"
"You're not bad—not bad at all!"
He threw back his head in wild laughter, his hands forming seals at lightning speed. Then, the Konohagakure shinobi were horrified to see a glow of explosive tags light up beneath the clothes of the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki in their hands.
The previous battle had been far too intense. Although they had rescued the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, they had not had any time to check his condition—unaware that Uchiha Yasuo had long since planted explosive tags in a concealed spot on Naruto's body.
Now that Uchiha Yasuo triggered them, the explosive tags immediately detonated.
In the next instant, accompanied by the deafening sound of an explosion, a massive, flame-red fox appeared out of thin air in the midst of the Konoha squad.
"Roar…"
After the Nine-Tails appeared, it immediately raised its head and howled to the heavens. The sound shook the land, and the sound waves spread like tangible ripples through the air, making everyone's faces turn pale.
The Konoha shinobi who had been protecting the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki were the unluckiest—those nearest to it instantly bled from their ears and noses, collapsing to the ground in agony, becoming the first victims of the Nine-Tails' fury. In just moments, they were wiped out.
The nine tails behind the Nine-Tails were like colossal pillars piercing the sky, sweeping wildly in all directions. Whether trees or rocks, everything was torn apart like fragile paper.
Amid the flying debris, everything within a hundred meters around was completely destroyed.
Because it had been repeatedly tormented by the Sharingan before, what the Nine-Tails hated most in its heart was the Uchiha. So, the instant it appeared and caught sight of a familiar Susanoo, it immediately flew into a rage. The crimson beast pupils burned with boundless fury; opening its enormous mouth, a black sphere began to rapidly condense.
Around the sphere radiated suffocating waves of energy; the surrounding space itself warped slightly from the overload, striking terror into anyone who looked upon it.
But before it could fire the Tailed Beast Ball, tens of thousands of explosive tags poured down from the sky like a blizzard. Each one glimmered with a dangerous cold light, and in an instant, they completely covered and wrapped the Nine-Tails' massive body.
[Boom! Boom! Boom!]
A series of violent explosions resounded. The successive detonations on the Nine-Tails shook the ground; flames shot skyward, and thick smoke veiled half the heavens.
The shockwave from the explosion blasted back the Tailed Beast Ball before it could be completed.
"Raaahhh!"
Enraged to the extreme, the Nine-Tails lifted its head—and there, hovering high above it, was Konan. Her wings of paper were spread wide, glinting with a cold luster under the sunlight, like a divine angel of judgment descending to the mortal world. Feather-like white paper continued to drift downward from her body.
"This is the Land of Rain! No one is allowed to rampage here—not even a Tailed Beast!"
Konan's cold voice carried an authority that allowed no defiance. As her words fell, even more explosive tags surged from her sleeves, once again descending to blanket the sky.
She did not know that the Tailed Beast Ball the Nine-Tails had just gathered was aimed at Uchiha Yasuo—but she did not dare take that gamble. If the Tailed Beast Ball were to be fired toward Amegakure, stopping it afterward would be far more difficult.
Although her bombardment interrupted the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball, it also incurred the Nine-Tails' enmity.
It immediately disregarded the nearby Uchiha Yasuo, lifted its head, and fixed its sights on Konan. Its massive body crouched slightly, the muscles of its hind legs tensed, and it suddenly sprang, pouncing toward Konan in the sky.
But Konan merely gave a sudden upward burst with her body and dodged the Nine-Tails' attack.
After clawing and flailing for a while, the Nine-Tails found that with its short forelimbs it could not reach Konan in the sky; under gravity its body slammed back heavily to the ground, gouging out a deep pit. The moment it landed, it opened its mouth again, and a new Tailed Beast Ball once more rapidly condensed.
Konan's expression chilled, and even more explosive tags were launched, fluttering down like snowflakes, as if to bury the Nine-Tails within.
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