A dark red chakra formed a raging hurricane, spiraling around Yagura Karatachi's body.
The sheer weight of the chakra caused the ground beneath him to collapse.
Uchiha Raizen's expression grew serious.
Even though it felt great to curse out that bastard Obito earlier, the current situation was clearly not in his favor.
Yagura was nearly a perfect Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, able to use the Tailed Beast's power.
Under Obito's control through his Mangekyō Sharingan, it wasn't impossible for Yagura to fully transform into the beast.
The power of the Three-Tails was not something to take lightly.
On top of that, Obito—posing as Madara—even with just one Mangekyō Sharingan, had extremely troublesome abilities like phasing and absorption.
Without a teleportation technique like Flying Thunder God or something as insane as Konan's six hundred billion paper bombs, it was nearly impossible to deal real damage to Obito.
Even if someone managed to injure him, Obito's left eye hidden beneath his mask likely still held a normal Sharingan.
He could activate Izanagi at any moment in a critical situation.
All of this spelled trouble for Uchiha Raizen.
He had to be extremely cautious in the coming battle.
He pulled out his spiked club and locked eyes with the semi-transformed Yagura standing across from him.
Boom! Boom!
The mini Three-Tails, now with three tails stretched out behind it, charged at Uchiha Raizen like a raging beast.
"Faced with such a reality, what can you possibly do, you ignorant and overly confident Uchiha brat?"
Obito stood by with a mocking gaze, as if watching a show.
He wanted to see Uchiha Raizen's expression twist in despair under the crushing weight of reality—proof that his belief in nothingness was justified.
The former Madara, then Nagato, the tragedies of the Three Great Ninja Wars, and even his own pain—all of them, to him, proved that the world was nothing but a giant hell.
What is there to hold onto in such a cruel and false world?
Only the Infinite Tsukuyomi can truly save it.
Only the Infinite Tsukuyomi can create a world where Rin is still alive, where everything beautiful remains unchanged.
With this belief in his heart, Obito's expression suddenly shifted.
Because Uchiha Raizen had blocked the charge of the half-Tailed Beast form of the Three-Tails head-on.
"His physical strength... it's on par with a Tailed Beast?!"
Obito's pupils trembled.
He had never seen a human who could match a Tailed Beast in raw power—and this one was a fellow Uchiha.
"That armor… it looks like fish scales, and those horns on his forehead—dragon horns? Where does his power even come from?"
Obito's curiosity about Uchiha Raizen grew stronger.
And with it, a deeper desire to see the same despair in Raizen's eyes that once consumed him.
"But the Three-Tails has more than just brute strength!"
As if responding to Obito's thoughts, the Three-Tails suddenly pushed forward with its claw, forcing Uchiha Raizen to retreat.
At the same time—
Coral began to grow along Raizen's arm.
It was the Three-Tails' unique ability—Coral Palm.
Raizen glanced at his arm.
The coral had grown on the surface of his dragon scales, but it hadn't fused with them.
It posed little threat to him.
Lifting his spiked club, he smashed the coral clean off his arm.
It shattered and fell away.
"You try this move of mine too."
Uchiha Raizen leapt into the air, his spiked club wrapped in purple lightning.
His biceps bulged like mountains, and combined with his four-to-five-meter-tall draconic form, he looked even more ferocious than a small Three-Tails.
"Raimei Eight Trigrams!"
Boom!
The earth trembled violently.
The miniature Three-Tails was blasted back over a hundred meters, crashing through more than a dozen trees.
Obito instantly used Kamui with his right eye to teleport to a safer distance, his brows furrowing.
He could tell now—Uchiha Raizen's strength and physique were far beyond human, practically a humanoid Tailed Beast.
"No wonder he's so confident about protecting his family."
Obito suddenly formed hand seals and cast a genjutsu to control the Three-Tails.
"But even that means nothing before the despair of reality."
"Tailed Beast Bomb!"
Buzz~
The Three-Tails began gathering yin-yang chakra in its mouth, forming a football-sized blue-black Tailed Beast Bomb.
Despite its small size, the mass was incredibly dense, and its destructive power was far beyond that of ordinary ninjutsu.
Seeing this, Uchiha Raizen also began to gather heat breath in his mouth.
The air suddenly turned scorching hot.
In the next instant—
The Tailed Beast Bomb and the blazing heat breath were launched at the same time.
The searing pillar of flames surged like molten lava, while the football-sized Tailed Beast Bomb carried a force powerful enough to pierce through anything.
As the two collided—
The Tailed Beast Bomb tore through the center of the flame pillar and continued flying toward Uchiha Raizen.
It was the first time the heat breath had been overwhelmed—no wonder it was the Tailed Beast Bomb.
But Uchiha Raizen remained calm, steadily increasing both the temperature and density of his flames.
The Tailed Beast Bomb slowed more and more, until it finally lost all momentum and exploded with a thunderous boom.
The ground trembled violently as endless smoke and shockwaves spread out.
From a distant boulder, Tobi stood observing the scene, surprised.
He hadn't expected even the Tailed Beast Bomb to fail against that brat.
It seemed full Tailed Beast Mode was the only option left.
Just as he was about to act, a thick spiked club suddenly smashed toward the back of his head.
Tobi didn't move at all, as if he hadn't noticed.
But the club passed straight through his head.
"You're too naive. Did you really think I'd lower my guard?"
The moment the club missed, Tobi reached his hand toward Uchiha Raizen.
"This is the end, you surprising little runt. Let me see what secret you're hiding."
He activated the Kamui in his right eye, attempting to pull Uchiha Raizen into the other dimension.
Space began to ripple, and a swirling vortex emitted a strong suction force.
As his body began to shift, Uchiha Raizen reversed his grip and swung the club once more.
During absorption, Obito couldn't become intangible—that was his weakness!
"You bastard! You actually know how my ability works?!"
Obito immediately stopped absorbing and turned intangible again.
He stared at Uchiha Raizen with disbelief in his eyes, mixed with shock and a hint of menace.
This brat was far more dangerous than he had expected. He had to be eliminated here today—otherwise, he would become a serious obstacle to the Eye of the Moon Plan.
Uchiha Raizen responded with a cold smirk.
There was no need for him to reveal his full strength. Wouldn't it be better to let Obito keep guessing?
Sure enough.
Obito's gaze turned completely dark, filled with killing intent.
"No matter who you are or how you know about my abilities, today—you must die here!"
"Come forth, full form Three-Tails!"
Roar!
A thunderous roar echoed through the forest.
A giant turtle with three massive tails appeared in the center of the woods—it was the fully manifested Three-Tails, Isobu.
The complete form of the Three-Tails was on a whole different level compared to a half-tailed transformation.
Even Uchiha Raizen, in his Human-Beast Form, looked no bigger than a bug in front of it.
With a hand as huge as a mountain, the Three-Tails slammed its palm down toward Raizen and Obito's location.
Any ordinary shinobi hit by that would be lucky not to be turned into a bloody smear.
Obito snorted coldly. "You're pretty bold, huh? Then go have fun with this beast."
With that, he disappeared using Kamui.
Uchiha Raizen gave Obito a sidelong glance as he vanished, then looked up at the Three-Tails' palm rapidly falling from above.
He gently touched the dragon-shaped mark on his chest.
He closed his eyes.
And focused, feeling the power deep within.
While still in the Land of Hot Water, he faintly felt that the step to becoming a dragon was near.
Earlier, to protect his sister, he had fully taken the hit of the Lightning Release: Thunder Dragon attack with his body, meaning every cell in his body was purified by the power of nature's thunder.
Although this caused him unprecedented injuries, after recovering, his cells became more resilient and his physical condition greatly improved.
In other words, at this moment, Uchiha Raizen had fully adapted to the Azure Dragon Curse Mark, which did not belong in the world of the Hokage, and could fully activate the power of the mythical beast contained within it!
Now was the time to transform into a dragon!
Now was the moment for the Azure Dragon to soar across the universe!
Uchiha Raizen dropped the wolf-tooth club, clenched both fists, opened his eyes, and his terrifying golden dragon eyes emitted two powerful beams of light, accompanied by a thunderous dragon roar.
Uchiha Raizen began transforming into the complete form of the Azure Dragon!
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