"Wow! Chōmei-sama takes another victory!"
"Isobu, when you revive, you better remember how awesome I am! Hahahahaha!"
"Who's next! Here I come!"
With a single blast, Chōmei wiped out the Three-Tails Isobu. His mood was incredibly jubilant, and the aura radiating from his massive body grew increasingly violent.
His feat also made Nagato and Uchiha Makito feel a trace of danger.
Susanoo retreated to the side of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, one Mangekyō and one Rinnegan aligned on the same line.
"That attack just now… it's already beyond the scope of a Tailed Beast Bomb, isn't it?"
"The power was too overwhelming."
A Tailed Beast Bomb was terrifying enough, but turning it into a laser-like attack was beyond anyone's imagination.
"Hey, hey, the battle isn't over yet."
"Getting distracted on the battlefield—are you tired of living?"
Gekko Chizan's icy voice rang out repeatedly as the Titan Python and the Red Serpent had already arrived before them.
With this shift in offense and defense, Gekko Chizan directly targeted the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, while Tagitsuhime confronted Uchiha Makito.
"It's just the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!"
"Giant Python Strangle!"
"Just smash it!"
The Naraka Path had already been destroyed, the Preta Path had been blasted away, and the Animal Path's summoned beasts were useless in a battle of this level.
So Gekko Chizan had no reservations and directly launched an attack at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
"Hmph!"
"You don't really think the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path only has this much strength, do you?!"
"Gekko Chizan, even if I die today, I'll drag you down with me!"
The Rinnegan in Nagato's eyes gleamed with terrifying cold light as he clasped his hands together, chakra surging wildly throughout his body.
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path also began to move. Even though it was tightly bound by the Titan Python, just as Nagato said, its strength was far from simple.
"Crack!"
Thunder roared, and Gekko Chizan froze for a moment.
He seemed to have forgotten—though the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was merely the husk of the Ten-Tails, it still possessed several methods of attack.
Lightning was one of them.
"What the hell!"
"Are you trying to make me undergo a tribulation?"
"Giant Python facing a lightning tribulation? Nagato, let me see if your lightning is the real deal!"
Thunder exploded as the protrusions on the Demonic Statue's back released massive bolts of lightning.
"Boom!"
The lightning struck directly onto the Titan Python. Even with a body condensed from senjutsu chakra, it found the thunder difficult to withstand.
Gekko Chizan was positioned at the center of the Titan Python, so the lightning itself would not harm him. However, every time a bolt struck, his chakra trembled violently.
"As expected of the Ten-Tails' lightning. It's truly formidable!"
"But you always think you control the battlefield, never realizing that from the very beginning, it was never in your hands."
Enduring the Demonic Statue's lightning head-on, Gekko Chizan instead said something that left Nagato puzzled.
But the next second, he understood what Gekko Chizan meant.
"Sage Art, Rasengan!"
"Boom!"
The sudden shout and the violent collision drew Nagato's attention.
At some point, Gekko Chizan had already targeted Kakuzu. Still continuously releasing combined ninjutsu to attack Chōmei, Kakuzu had not sensed anything at all.
Only when a Rasengan smashed into one of his masks did he react under the heavy blow.
"Damn it, when did this happen?"
"This is… Transparent Release?"
With Transparent Release, Gekko Chizan could move freely across the battlefield.
This attack had come from the clone Gekko Chizan left earlier. A single Rasengan directly destroyed one of Kakuzu's heart masks.
Injured, Kakuzu instantly clutched his chest. Even as an immortal, having his heart destroyed still brought pain.
"When did he release a clone?"
Nagato saw this as well. After all, the Rinnegan's vision was shared, and his other bodies were still on the field.
They could provide him with shared sight.
"Hey, mummy, can you handle it or not?"
"Need me to help you out?"
Kabuto mocked Kakuzu while manipulating his puppets and iron sand.
But the next second...
"Boom!"
"A little bug controlling a bunch of little bugs. Hey, don't I love bugs the most?"
"Too bad your bugs are just wooden scraps. I'm not interested!"
Chōmei's teasing voice echoed through the sky as his massive tail swept in a divine dragon's swing.
Kabuto, along with his puppets, didn't even have time to react before being sent flying.
He became the second unlucky soul in this battle to be swept away by a tail.
"Hmph! It's just one heart. Kill you, and I can just replenish it!"
"Fire Release, Intelligent Hard Work!"
"Earth Grudge Fear!"
With one heart destroyed, Kakuzu was furious. Though his chakra fluctuated, it did not affect him much.
He continued releasing Fire Release. Unfortunately, the heart shattered by Gekko Chizan's clone had been the wind-attribute heart—the one Kakuzu had previously taken from Saibon. Without wind to amplify it, the power of Intelligent Hard Work was greatly reduced.
"Hmph, you stitching freak."
Gekko Chizan's main body and clone fought simultaneously. The main body was still firmly restraining the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Meanwhile, the clone attacked again, beams of light formed from Crystal Release shooting toward Kakuzu.
The tendrils of Earth Grudge Fear were pierced one after another by the beams.
At that moment, Kakuzu felt unprecedented pressure—pressure so intense it made him think of one person.
The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
He could hardly believe that the brat before him could be compared to the God of Shinobi.
"Hmph! Don't think this is enough to defeat me!"
"Die!"
In his rage, Kakuzu went completely berserk.
All kinds of elemental techniques erupted wildly from his masks, while he himself poured even greater strength into Earth Grudge Fear, attempting to tear Gekko Chizan apart.
Unfortunately, his efforts were destined to be futile.
"Lost control?"
"Then aren't you finished?"
"For example..."
"Whoosh!"
Unlike other clones, a Shadow Clone was powerful precisely because it could act independently.
Flying Thunder God activated instantly.
Before Kakuzu could react, a crystal longsword had already pierced through his second mask.
"Impossible!"
"When did that happen?!"
The intense pain struck again, and Kakuzu was stunned.
"Hehe… even a body made of Earth Grudge Fear can have the Flying Thunder God formula engraved upon it once I touch it."
"Kakuzu, you so-called immortal… today you might truly die."
The clone waved the crystal longsword in his hand, then used Flying Thunder God once more to widen the distance, returning to his original position with a faint smile curling at his lips.
In just two exchanges, Kakuzu had already lost two hearts.
That meant that out of his five lives, only three remained.
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