The Five-Tails let out an agonized scream!
Just like the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails on the Kumogakure battlefield, one of its tails was reduced to a bare stump.
Shio's eyes lit up. All of her Adamantine Sealing Chains shot out at once, piercing the severed Five-Tails tail. She hurled it heavily toward the rear, securing it as spoils of war...
Before the battle began, Shio and Tomie had received orders to collect as much tailed-beast chakra as possible, provided they didn't put themselves at risk...
The Hokage had a use for it!
At this point, the defensive line had been held and their strategic objective had been accomplished...
The Five-Tails seemed to go berserk, but instead of attacking Shio and Tomie, it leaped away and charged into the distance.
It was actually fleeing!
This wasn't because Han was afraid to fight. It was part of the overall strategy Iwagakure had established beforehand.
If a jinchūriki died on the battlefield, the blow to their own side's morale would be devastating. Cruelly speaking, even the deaths of several hundred Iwa shinobi could hardly compare to such a loss.
At that moment, Gari—an elite jōnin of Iwagakure and commander of the Explosion Corps—let out a long sigh.
Han, having undone his tailed-beast transformation, was covered in wounds. His thigh, waist, and arms all bore injuries deep enough to expose bone, clearly severe enough to have damaged him at a fundamental level.
This couldn't be considered desertion. It was a contingency strategy the Tsuchikage had established before the battle even began.
Under normal circumstances, Iwagakure maintained its system by 'suppressing' its highest-level combatants, trading their individual autonomy for greater organization and obedience among the majority of Iwa shinobi.
But that approach didn't work on the battlefield. They had to ensure the jinchūriki survived...
Even if the shinobi who stepped in to cover for them would most likely die.
Strategy in war had no room for sentiment.
Shio frowned. "Do we pursue him?"
"No. What's the point of chasing a cripple?" Tomie gave a cold smile.
"One wounded shinobi needs two others to look after him. How many will a severely wounded jinchūriki need? And that's before considering what the Tsuchikage will have to do with him once he makes it back to Iwagakure's main force..."
"Iwagakure isn't Konoha. They don't have the Will of Fire, nor do they have a Research and Medical Department capable of working miracles."
A jinchūriki had to be able to fight. A jinchūriki who couldn't fight had no value.
But jinchūriki were still human. Forcibly extracting a tailed beast from one would kill them. Once the balance between the jinchūriki's strategic value and the burden they represented broke down, a whole series of troublesome problems would inevitably arise.
And given the conflicts Iwagakure had historically experienced with its high-level combatants, there was a very real chance this could trigger an internal implosion...
"You and Seisui were right..."
Tomie looked toward the Iwa shinobi covering Han's retreat and brushed back her hair.
"The Will of Fire really is what saved me. I know better than anyone what it feels like to be a cripple, but the village didn't abandon me. Instead, it found a way to make me whole again and even gave me honor..."
"You're awfully sentimental for someone in the middle of a war..." Shio rolled her eyes at Tomie.
"That Explosion Release shinobi, Gari—his Kekkei Genkai is pretty good. There are also some Lava Release shinobi here. Let's kill them all!"
"Orochimaru-sama and Hiruko-sama told us..."
"Yeah, I know!" Tomie nodded.
At that moment, the two began to dance through the Iwa battle formation. The Konoha shinobi behind them charged forward in their wake, rapidly annihilating the enemies who had invaded this front...
Meanwhile, on another front.
The situation had taken a rather interesting turn.
Fugaku, Head of the Konoha Military Police Force and a Konoha Council Member, was leading Yashiro, En, and a group of other Uchiha in a bitter struggle against Rōshi, the Four-Tails' jinchūriki, and Iwa's elite shinobi.
Unlike Shio and Tomie, with their shameless combination of Susanoo and tailed-beast chakra, most of the Uchiha were still flesh and blood. Even if those with three-tomoe Sharingan effectively had three lives...
Although Fugaku had acquired Magnet Release, he still only possessed a three-tomoe Sharingan. Against the perfect jinchūriki Rōshi in Lava Release Chakra Mode, even their numerical advantage wasn't producing much of an effect.
The violent tailed-beast chakra resonated with Rōshi's own chakra, making ordinary genjutsu nearly impossible to impose on him, while the properties of Lava Release also rendered some of the Fire Release techniques favored by the Uchiha ineffective.
Even so, Fugaku and the Uchiha were still holding the line firmly overall.
Their casualties were simply somewhat higher than on the other fronts...
Lava Release: Granite!
Chunks of solidified magma appeared across Rōshi's body, strengthening his defenses. His taijutsu was also enhanced in this state.
Every punch and every kick carried the power of molten rock!
Compared to Han, although Rōshi had a poor relationship with the Tsuchikage, Ōnoki had assigned him a relatively more elite contingent of Iwa shinobi, because Lava Release had greater destructive potential on the battlefield than Boil Release...
With a solemn expression, Rōshi commanded the Iwa shinobi while continuously using magma to reshape the terrain, steadily and methodically pushing Iwa's battle line forward.
"Kazuya!"
Fugaku shouted, "Fall back! You've already used Izanagi once... Let someone else take your place!"
Uchiha Kazuya was a friend of Fugaku's and was well liked within the clan. He possessed a three-tomoe Sharingan.
"No need. Since when does an Uchiha retreat on the battlefield?"
But before he had even finished speaking, several earthen spears suddenly erupted from the ground and pierced straight through Kazuya's body!
Fugaku's eyes flew wide open.
He had just tried to use Magnet Release to help his friend deflect the attack, but he had been one step too late.
Fugaku was deeply frustrated with himself, but he didn't lose control of his emotions.
Kazuya still had one use of Izanagi left. Once the now-blind Kazuya returned to Konoha, the Research Department could find a replacement pair of eyes for him, or they could see whether the clan still had any in reserve.
The chances of there being any left were relatively low, however. This war had already consumed quite a few, and Fugaku and Isshin knew that when Uchiha Madara had left the clan all those years ago, he had taken a considerable number of Sharingan with him...
There was nothing they could do about that.
"Kazuya, revive somewhere farther away and retreat behind our lines immediately! Your battle is over!" Fugaku quickly told his impaled friend, waiting for him to activate Izanagi.
"I'll give this power to you, Fugaku..."
Uchiha Kazuya swayed with a gaping hole through his chest and smiled.
"I couldn't stand living without my three-tomoe Sharingan. But if I took someone else's eyes, wouldn't that basically mean stealing the legacy our own clansmen left behind?"
"People die in war. If I die, I die. I traded my life for a dozen or so Iwa shinobi—that's worth it. My wife died a long time ago, and I don't have any children. I guess chatting with you about culture from time to time was pretty interesting. I learned quite a lot..."
"If I die on the battlefield now, I suppose that makes me a hero of Konoha. My story..."
Kazuya drew a deep, ragged breath. With a sudden final surge of vitality, he gave Fugaku his last request: "You bastard... make sure you embellish my story a little and put it properly into the propaganda!"
"Even better if you can get me into the Ninja Academy textbooks..."
Kazuya's three-tomoe Sharingan rapidly went blind, its ocular power invisibly flowing into Fugaku as his body slowly collapsed.
"What a shame. Sasuke-chan was only just born... I never even got the chance to hear him call me ojisan..."
Fugaku's entire body trembled.
Regret surged backward like a raging current, swallowing his emotions whole!
Why hadn't he trained harder with the Magnet Release he'd worked so hard to obtain...?
Why hadn't he managed to deflect that damned earthen spear?!
In the next instant, under the influence of Kazuya's ocular power and his own intense negative emotions, Fugaku thought again of Tomie awakening the Mangekyō and then soaring through the ranks of Konoha's Research Department...
"Weak... I'm still too weak!"
Streams of bloody tears ran from Fugaku's eyes. The tomoe within them melted away, rapidly transforming into an intricate, mysterious pattern...
Konoha had gained another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan!
The dōjutsu engraved within them flowed into Fugaku's mind, revealing the nature of this bloodline power to him.
It had been born from his intense fixation on Magnet Release and his bitter dissatisfaction with his own strength.
Mangekyō dōjutsu: Takeminakata!
The ability of Takeminakata was simple. Born from Fugaku's obsession, it freed him from the shallow application of merely "controlling metal" and vastly expanded the limits of what he could develop with Magnet Release.
To a certain extent, its effects were driven by his own will.
It also greatly reduced the chakra consumption of Magnet Release.
It was a dōjutsu that tightly integrated the Mangekyō with Magnet Release...
"You bastard..."
Fugaku was like a human volcano on the verge of eruption. He had only just obtained this new ocular power, yet he couldn't be bothered to think about the limits of the Mangekyō.
All he wanted was to slaughter!
The Mangekyō spun rapidly as blood and tears mingled together.
The patterns in Fugaku's eyes, resembling magnetic cores, rotated furiously.
The air behind him began to distort. A skeletal frame resembling black iron rapidly emerged, then grew flesh at tremendous speed as his Susanoo entered its second stage...
But that still wasn't enough. Fugaku continued pouring in ocular power, and the already enormous warrior Susanoo strengthened even further. Karasu Tengu armor appeared over its body, bringing it into its third stage in an instant!
Isshin, standing nearby, stared dumbfounded.
Uchiha Kazuya's death was certainly heartbreaking, but gaining another Mangekyō wielder was undeniably a good thing...
The problem was, this was the first time he'd ever seen someone burn through ocular power the way Fugaku was doing!
Couldn't he at least pay a little attention to the strain?
Konoha's Research Department had already confirmed that they'd found a possible way to restore ocular power, something Isshin himself was very interested in. If it worked, perhaps even his own ruined Mangekyō could be used again...
But they hadn't actually made it work yet!
Until then, shouldn't Fugaku at least be a little careful?!
Clearly, Isshin had forgotten about the time he'd poured all of his ocular power into 'Seisui' in one go. That very incident had hammered Tobirama—whose soul and body had previously existed with a gap between them—into a genuine Uchiha with a perfectly seamless fit...
So seamless that even Mito couldn't tell.
If there were a competition for who could go from awakening the Mangekyō to completely exhausting its ocular power the fastest, this rare Uchiha intellectual might actually rank first in the clan's entire history...
The whole process had taken less than a few minutes.
"Die!"
Fugaku drove his Karasu Tengu-armored Susanoo forward like a God of War, smashing apart the elite Iwa defensive line with overwhelming force and cleaving through every enemy before him in an instant!
Rōshi stared at the scene, dumbfounded.
He had heard Ōnoki talk many times about how wary he was of the Uchiha Clan...
Things like a 'new Madara,' 'the Hokage being controlled,' and 'the hawkish Uchiha are too dangerous'...
Rōshi had even mocked Ōnoki over it, thinking he was far too paranoid about the Uchiha. Worse, the man seemed to be fighting with himself—wanting to come down hard on them while simultaneously worrying that doing so would awaken their potential...
Wasn't that just mental illness?
But at this moment, Rōshi finally realized that the Tsuchikage really did seem to possess some unique insight into the Uchiha!
They could actually break through in the middle of battle like this?!
Was there no logic to this at all?!
Rōshi immediately entered full tailed-beast transformation. The Four-Tails appeared on the battlefield, beating its chest and roaring amid erupting magma!
But Fugaku merely gave a cold smile. Two enormous gears appeared in the hands of his Karasu Tengu Susanoo and began spinning at tremendous speed!
They were the specialized weapons of his Susanoo, as well as one of the applications of Magnet Release developed through Takeminakata.
By combining ocular power with Magnet Release, he created spinning discs of light with tremendous cutting power!
"Any living creature feels pain and fear when it's attacked..."
"I wonder if tailed beasts are the same! Can you feel pain?!"
Fugaku let out a tiger-like roar. Layer after layer of invisible ripples spread across his Karasu Tengu Susanoo, actually repelling the Four-Tails' magma with an unseen barrier!
Magnet Release: Takeminakata: Susanoo Field!
The enormous light disc slashed into the Four-Tails!
At that moment, Lava Release: Granite ground violently against Fugaku's Magnet Release light disc, producing a tremendous screech of friction across the battlefield that set everyone's teeth on edge!
Crack!
The Magnet Release light disc broke through the Lava Release defense, carving a deep bloody gash across the Four-Tails' chest!
"Not bad, beast! You've got some strength!"
Fugaku's eyes were blood-red. "I'm going to tear you apart alive today!"
The Four-Tails repeatedly spewed magma at him, but it was clearly suffering from an information disadvantage. Unable to understand how Fugaku's Magnet Release field worked, it only ended up having its own magma deflected back onto itself...
The Karasu Tengu Susanoo's light discs slashed into the Four-Tails again and again. Its prized Granite Lava Release failed to provide any effective defense against the destructive power of Magnet Release.
Even more terrifying was the Magnet Release field Fugaku had created by unleashing his full power without regard for the drain on his ocular power. For the moment, the Four-Tails couldn't even figure out how to counter it.
Bloody tears continued dripping from Fugaku's eyes as his ocular power steadily waned, but he didn't care in the slightest.
Part of that came from Fugaku's trust in Konoha's Research Department. He even somewhat blindly believed that Orochimaru and Hiruko would definitely find a way to solve the problems of the Mangekyō for the Uchiha...
But it was also an expression of Fugaku's anger and his Nindō.
That was simply the way of a warrior...
He wasn't using Water Release to counter Lava Release.
He was answering violence with even greater violence!
The Four-Tails' tails and chunks of flesh from its shoulders were severed and torn apart by Fugaku's Magnet Release light discs.
Isshin's eyes flashed, and he quickly ordered the Konoha shinobi to secure these valuable materials.
At that moment—
Kitsuchi finally arrived. The Tsuchikage's son exhausted nearly all of his chakra to create enormous walls of stone!
Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique!
An Earth Release technique Iwagakure had specifically developed for powerful Earth Release users to deal with tailed beasts!
In that instant, Fugaku's Karasu Tengu Susanoo was trapped between them.
Kitsuchi's expression was extremely grim.
Han was finished, and Rōshi wasn't much better off...
Bringing them back to Iwagakure would, at most, ensure that the tailed beasts weren't lost. But replacing their jinchūriki would bring another enormous set of problems. And with the war having reached this point, their strategy had already failed completely...
His father, Ōnoki, had wanted to target the Uchiha, only to end up giving Konoha another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan!
"The center has been breached too..."
"Jiraiya entered some terrifying form. His ninjutsu are incredibly powerful, and our human-wave tactics don't work against him!"
"Every single one of these Konoha shinobi can transform!" Kitsuchi said darkly.
After entering Sage Mode, Jiraiya had driven back more than half of Iwa's offensive with a single Senjutsu: Goemon.
When Iwa finally managed to defend themselves with war ninjutsu, Jiraiya started summoning.
First, he had Gamabunta sweep across the battlefield. Then, in an ingenious move, he made use of the layers of earthen walls the Iwa shinobi had erected, exploiting a principle similar to an echo chamber to unleash Senjutsu: Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant!
In a single stroke, he broke through Iwa's center and killed an unknown number of enemies...
"The vanguard becomes the rearguard. We have no choice but to retreat!"
Kitsuchi hoisted Rōshi onto his shoulder. "Fall back to the main formation. Tsuchikage-sama will cover us there. If Sunagakure can't break through on their front, then this war against Konoha is completely over..."
"After that, we'll either have to face their counterattack or enter a situation where all the villages are fighting one another!"
Kitsuchi looked back at the Iwa shinobi with reluctance.
There were many of Iwagakure's elite among them...
This single battle had carved away a huge portion of the strength Iwagakure had spent twenty years building up!
Both the Explosion Release and Lava Release units had suffered devastating losses...
And with that—
Konoha had held against Iwa's concentrated breakthrough and made the enemy pay a terrible price!
The Konoha shinobi quickly began clearing the battlefield, collecting valuable materials and spoils while killing the Iwagakure shinobi who were still resisting.
At the same time, they treated their comrades' wounds or endured their own pain as they gathered the bodies of the fallen.
Uchiha Kazuya, who everyone had assumed was as dead as anyone could possibly be, somehow still clung to a thread of life despite the gaping hole in his chest, sustained by a medical chakra scroll.
At some point, Kakuzu had arrived as well.
As Kakuzu stitched Kazuya's wounds back together, he sighed. "Fine. I'll give you a heart..."
"We're all on the same side. This one's free!"
Fugaku took a deep breath.
Being a Konoha shinobi really was great...
He was a monster, and his comrades were all as monstrously capable as he was...
...
At that moment.
The Four Kage were watching Konoha's battlefront with serious expressions when Kinkaku commented: "Iwagakure lost, and Kumogakure couldn't do it either. Does Sunagakure still have a chance?"
They all laughed.
Sunagakure...
Tobirama-sama already had a piece in place there!
Their only hope was that Amegakure lacked sufficient reserves and had no high-level combatants...
At least there was still some room for hope on that front.
"Oh..."
Ashina's ears twitched. He turned toward Obito, who had been wrapped up like a rice dumpling, and smiled.
"You're awake?"
Obito stared blankly at the faces he had only ever seen in Ninja Academy history lessons and murmured: "So it really is an illusion? This is the world after death, right?"
Ashina and the others exchanged glances before breaking into cheerful laughter.
Still thinking about going to the Pure Land?
No such luck!
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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
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