"Roar—!!!"
The Three-Tails let out a fierce exhalation of turbid breath infused with dense chakra, the vapor spreading outward like a tangible, heavy mist.
Wherever it passed, even the drifting black smoke in the air was blown apart.
One of its eyes was tightly shut, with strange burn or scratch marks along the eyelid, while the other, wide-open giant eye was filled with a violent, cruel madness!
That gaze, brimming with a desire for destruction, locked firmly onto Uchiha Keizumi below—a small figure emanating an aura of extreme danger.
If one looked closely, a faint, ominous flash of red seemed to flicker deep within its pupil.
On Isobu's grotesque, enormous face, the muscles suddenly twisted and spasmed, flashing with an expression of extreme pain and struggle.
It was as though something deep within its consciousness was fiercely resisting.
But soon, that momentary struggle was utterly crushed by a stronger, foreign will.
What replaced it was an even purer, even more frenzied savagery!
[Boom—!!!]
A torrent of violent, suffocating tailed beast chakra burst forth from within it like a flood breaking through a dam. The dark-red flames of tailed beast chakra engulfed its massive body, making the already scorching air around it distort and tremble violently, resonating with a deep humming sound!
[Bang!!!]
Isobu's two massive forelimbs, thick as colossal pillars, slammed down and shattered the already devastated ground beneath them!
It suddenly raised its hideous head high, the sides of its cheeks swelling like air sacs, as an immense amount of chakra wildly converged within its mouth!
[Whoosh!!!]
The next instant, a gigantic water sphere—compressed to an extreme degree and measuring some 20 to 30 meters in diameter—burst from its mouth like a cannon shot.
The "Water Cannon" tore through the air with blinding speed, whistling sharply as it hurtled down toward Uchiha Keizumi's position!
Wherever it passed, even the air itself twisted!
And at that very moment, Uchiha Keizumi still stood calmly upon the scorched ground where magma flowed.
Behind him yawned that terrifying crater several hundred meters across, bottomless as if leading into an abyss.
Facing a tailed beast–level Water Release attack powerful enough to annihilate an ordinary village with ease, his expression did not change in the slightest.
His right hand had already completely elementalized, transforming into scorching, viscous crimson magma!
Moreover, that magma arm was violently expanding and compressing at a shocking frequency!
With every cycle, the color of the arm deepened further into crimson, and the molten energy accumulating within it grew even more terrifying and immense!
It was as if all the energy of a volcano on the verge of eruption had been compressed into that single arm!
At the very instant when that enormous "Water Cannon" was about to engulf him—
Uchiha Keizumi's magma-formed fist suddenly clenched tight!
Lava Release: Great Eruption!!!
[Boom—!!!]
A gigantic, far more massive and ferocious fist of molten lava erupted forth—like a volcano that had been suppressed for ten thousand years finally unleashing its fury!
Carrying the ultimate heat capable of incinerating all creation and the devastating impact force to shatter everything, it blasted out with unstoppable might!
The swelling magma arm reached its limit in an instant, its crimson brilliance even outshining the color of the sky!
[Sizzle—!!!]
[Boom!!!]
At the moment of impact, the extreme heat collided with the icy, high-pressure water sphere in a violent clash! The sound was like ten thousand red-hot branding irons plunging into a frozen sea!
The enormous "Water Cannon Technique" was almost instantly vaporized by the searing heat radiating from the surface of the magma giant fist.
It exploded into a storm of blistering white steam!
The surface of the magma giant fist was also blasted open by the violent impact of the water cannon, leaving a huge gap.
Crimson magma splattered in all directions!
However—
This degree of loss was utterly incapable of stopping the unstoppable, destructive advance of the "Great Eruption"!
The remaining magma giant fist still carried unstoppable power as it smashed fiercely toward the body of the Three-Tails!
In Isobu's frenzied giant eye, the pupil suddenly trembled—it clearly had not expected its own attack to be so easily destroyed.
"Roar!!!"
It let out a sharp, furious roar, and the three massive barbed tails behind it lashed out almost simultaneously, like three enormous steel whips, striking toward the incoming magma giant fist with mountain-shattering force!
It tried to block it!
However—
[Squelch!]
[Sizzle—!!!]
The instant its tails made contact with the blazing magma…
"Raaahhhhhhh—!!!"
The Three-Tails suddenly let out an earth-shaking, agonized scream filled with unbearable pain!
That sound alone made the watching shinobi in the distance feel their scalps go numb!
Its three supposedly indestructible giant tails, at the moment of impact with the magma giant fist, were sliced cleanly in half—like wax figures cut through by a heated blade!
The severed surfaces were unbelievably smooth, and one could even see the boiling, leaking tailed beast chakra within!
Only three bare, half-severed tails now hung weakly in the air!
There was no blood at the break points—only vast amounts of tailed beast chakra wildly overflowing and dissipating uncontrollably, along with traces of instantaneous carbonization caused by the extreme heat!
The intense pain made the single remaining eye of the Three-Tails Isobu instantly fill with hideous blood vessels.
A surge of crazed, violent aura erupted from its body, almost tangible in its ferocity!
...
Momochi Zabuza stood frozen in place; those eyes of his, always filled with murderous intent and indifference, were now overtaken by deep shock and disbelief.
Although he had already sensed that this "Lava Release monster" from Konohagakure, Uchiha Keizumi, might be the only one capable of facing the Fourth Mizukage head-on—
He had never imagined that the very first clash of ninjutsu between the two sides would end in such a one-sided, crushing fashion!
The one holding the advantage turned out to be that lone Uchiha shinobi!
The Fourth Mizukage, even with the power of a Tailed Beast added in, could practically be considered two against one—yet before that calamity-like Lava Release kekkei genkai, he was rendered utterly powerless?!
A bead of cold sweat slid involuntarily from the corner of Zabuza's forehead, tracing down his grim face.
By reason, with his "Demon" nature, he had long grown accustomed to battles of life and death.
No matter how strong the enemy, what should have arisen within him was bloodthirsty fighting spirit, not fear.
Yet at this moment, a feeling he had not experienced for a very long time—a feeling called fear—silently coiled around him like a cold, venomous serpent.
For an instant, his body's instincts even issued a warning—Run!
—Run away from here immediately!
Although he forcibly suppressed that fleeting impulse with sheer willpower, he could not deny the faint cowardice sprouting quietly in the depths of his heart.
"…To perfectly control a Tailed Beast—the Fourth himself is already a monster beyond reason," Zabuza's voice came out dry and hoarse, carrying a trace of horror even he failed to notice.
"That man… Uchiha Keizumi… he's an even greater monster than a monster! Without the nearly infinite chakra source of a Tailed Beast, could an ordinary shinobi truly, through training alone, reach that kind of… inhuman level?"
…
On the other side, Terumi Mei likewise felt the scorching gust's aftershock sweeping toward her, laden with the mixed stench of sulfur and char.
She had to narrow her eyes just to barely make out the battle in the distance.
Her long, beautiful hair was whipped wildly by the fierce wind, leaving her looking somewhat disheveled.
Her face was now filled with shock, and fine beads of sweat covered her skin.
She could no longer tell whether that sweat had been drawn out by the unbearable heat or by the terror of what she was witnessing.
"This… could this be the ultimate weapon that Konohagakure has kept hidden all this time?"
Terumi Mei clenched her fists slightly, murmuring, "Konohagakure allowed such an extremely dangerous being to enter the Land of Water. Are they… intending to officially declare war on the Land of Water?"
That thought sent a chill piercing deep into her bones.
She realized that the fists she had clenched so tightly were already drenched with sweat, slick and clammy.
…
[Drip—]
[Drip—]
Thick, scorching drops of magma slowly slid down from Uchiha Keizumi's elementized body, splattering onto the charred ground below with faint sounds, burning out one small pit after another.
Expressionless, he walked forward step by step.
With every step that fell, the ground beneath him instantly melted, leaving behind a footprint blazing with fierce flames.
Billowing black smoke surged upward from his body like a beacon of war; the extreme heat scorched the air around him until it writhed and shimmered violently.
To the single eye of the distant Three-Tails Isobu, his figure appeared especially unreal and flickering, like a specter from hell itself—utterly impossible to lock onto precisely.
The excruciating pain coming from its tails still tore at its nerves, and that ever-intensifying sense of mortal danger, born from pure tailed beast instinct as the enemy drew near, made the Three-Tails' heart pound violently!
The pupil in its lone eye trembled uncontrollably!
"Roar!!!"
It let out a deafening roar; the enormous tailed beast chakra within its body erupted in a frenzy at a speed never seen before, and at the stumps of its three melted tails, flesh buds and chakra writhed madly.
They rapidly reformed and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye!
At the same time, it made the most instinctive defensive move—it abruptly drew its thick forelimbs into the heavy, spike-covered carapace, and that massive, ugly head quickly retracted as well!
Its colossal body curled inward with all its strength, finally forming a gigantic sphere completely encased in an extremely hard, gray-white shell bristling with enormous spikes!
Like an iron giant turtle shielding every vulnerable part of its body.
This was its most prideful, absolute defensive stance!
And as it turned out…
Its danger sense had not been mistaken!
In the very next second after it curled up—
[Boom!!!!!!!]
The scorched ground beneath Uchiha Keizumi's feet suddenly shattered apart!
It was as if a volcano erupted beneath his soles, unleashing an incomparably powerful surge of force!
His fully lava-elementalized body was, in that instant, drawn out by that power into a crimson torrent of destruction!
In the eyes of all onlookers from afar, they saw only a blinding flash of red streak across the air, faster than sight could track.
The next moment!
Uchiha Keizumi's figure had already appeared ghostlike above the Three-Tails, which had curled itself into a massive sphere.
Beneath him lay that so-called absolute defense—the thick, spike-covered "shell" of the Three-Tails!