Chapter 575: Death and Enlightenment
Crack!!
Iwakura's condensed chakra finally took effect, allowing him to break through the hard ice.
"Hoo, hoo..." Iwakura gasped, his expression ugly.
Although he had managed to escape the ice prison, the worst damage caused by Ice Age was not the freezing itself, but the bitter cold that had already seeped into his body.
If one looked closely, it was easy to see that both his hands and feet were still trembling uncontrollably.
Drip.
The thick ice encasing Roshi quickly began to melt. A large amount of white steam rose as terrifying heat erupted from his body, gradually dissolving the frozen shell around him.
Mugetsu was not surprised by this.
The Four Tails' chakra carried an intense scorching heat, so breaking out of the ice was not especially difficult.
After all, although Ice Age was a powerful technique drawn from an S rank scroll, Mugetsu's Ice Release was still far behind his proficiency in the five basic chakra natures.
More importantly, he had not developed any Breathing Technique that specifically enhanced Ice Release.
Without the many stacked boosts that empowered his other elemental techniques, Ice Age had a hard time instantly killing experts on Roshi and Iwakura's level.
Of course, that only applied to top tier opponents.
For ordinary Jonin and anyone below that, the fatal cold was enough to kill them on the spot.
Someone like Iwakura might survive, but only after suffering severe injuries.
"You worthless trash, Iwakura!" Roshi glared at him, his eyes wide with fury.
He had already been injured before, and the cold had further invaded his body, worsening his condition even more.
The most infuriating part was that Iwakura, who had confidently claimed he would lead a squad to kill Mugetsu, had failed so miserably.
At this moment, Roshi honestly wanted to kill him.
Still, impulse was one thing. Roshi immediately spat a massive lava fireball toward Mugetsu, who was charging straight at Iwakura.
Whoosh!
Mugetsu abruptly changed direction, vanishing with the Body Flicker Technique.
Iwakura was already at the end of his rope. There was no need to waste extra effort or risk worsening his own condition just to secure the kill. One way or another, Iwakura was not getting away.
"Sigh..." Iwakura let out a long, heavy sigh.
Only a short while ago, at the end of the war council, he had imagined himself becoming a great hope famous throughout the Ninja World.
Now, after the failed encirclement, he was staring directly at a life or death crisis.
In just a few hours, he had gone from heaven to hell.
At this moment, he almost wished that it had been him who was injured that day instead of Retsuishi. Then he could have been lying safely in Iwagakure, recovering in peace.
But there was no point thinking about that now.
The Iwa Ninja Force was certain to suffer a crushing defeat in this battle, and whether he could survive it was already uncertain.
"At the very least, we cannot be wiped out completely..." Iwakura muttered to himself.
Although he had already thought about ways to shift responsibility and minimize the punishment for defeat, most of the time, Iwakura still thought first about Iwagakure.
After all, it was the village he had vowed to protect since childhood.
"Use a Tailed Beast Ball. Don't worry about anything else. Fire it with everything you have, then take whatever Iwagakure Ninja survive and retreat!" Iwakura shouted with a fierce expression.
This was his last and most desperate plan.
The Tailed Beast Ball had terrifying destructive power and an enormous blast radius. As long as Konoha did not want to die along with them, they would have no choice but to retreat the moment Roshi used it.
Roshi looked at Iwakura in disbelief. He had not expected this bastard to be even more deranged than when he was under the influence of Tailed Beast chakra.
One Tailed Beast Ball here would likely put him at the very top of the kill count for the entire war.
After all, everyone else could only kill the enemy. His Tailed Beast Ball would kill large numbers of both Konoha and Iwagakure Ninja at the same time.
Before Roshi could respond, Iwakura had already begun condensing chakra and launching another attack at Mugetsu.
Unleashing a Tailed Beast Ball required time. Given Mugetsu's current distance from Roshi, Mugetsu was fully capable of interrupting it before it was completed.
Whoosh!!
Five stone projectiles imbued with Explosion Release shot toward Mugetsu.
Mugetsu, aided by both the Byakugan and the Transparent World, calmly ignored them and wove through the barrage with perfect precision, dodging every last one.
As he moved, he drew several Kunai from his ninja pouch. Three were thrown toward Iwakura, and one toward Roshi.
Roshi silently opened his mouth. A large amount of chakra gathered in front of it, rapidly condensing into a dark purple sphere.
Although Iwakura's method was insane, it really was a solution.
Otherwise, if the battle continued like this, the most likely outcome was that both he and Iwakura would die at Mugetsu's hands, and the Iwa Ninja Force would still fail to break out.
"Damn it, it's a Tailed Beast Ball!" Kakashi's brows furrowed the moment he saw Roshi beginning to condense one.
He wanted to stop it, but they were still surrounded by a large number of Iwagakure Ninja.
Iwagakure still outnumbered Konoha by eight hundred men. If Konoha had not set up this ambush first, then in a straight battle, they would likely have suffered heavy losses by now.
"He's actually going to use a Tailed Beast Ball?" The Iwagakure Ninja farther away were equally stunned.
If Roshi fired a Tailed Beast Ball here, he would be taking them along with the Konoha Ninja.
Both Konoha and Iwagakure shinobi instinctively began pulling away from Roshi.
If he really launched it, at least they might still have enough distance to escape in time.
Boom!!
The three Kunai were incredibly fast. In his current condition, Iwakura could only throw out an Explosion Release stone and detonate it midair. That interfered with two of the Kunai, but one still slipped through and continued straight toward him.
Whoosh!
The instant the Kunai grazed past Iwakura's right side, Mugetsu appeared beside him through the Flying Thunder God Technique. Gripping the Kunai in his hand, he thrust it directly toward Iwakura.
But strangely, instead of panicking, Iwakura's eyes lit up with delight.
He had never believed he could actually kill Mugetsu in a one on one fight. He could not have done it at his peak, much less now, after being badly weakened by Ice Age.
But he was an Explosion Release Ninja.
And Explosion Release Ninja had one method of attack that ordinary shinobi would never think to guard against: self detonation.
Unless someone knew Explosion Release extremely well, there was no way they would predict something like this.
Not every Explosion Release user could blow themselves up, and not every one of them had the courage to do it.
"If I can die together with Hayate Mugetsu, then I will not have failed Lord Onoki's expectations," Iwakura thought.
At this distance, Mugetsu could not possibly have anticipated self detonation. There would not be enough time for him to use Flying Thunder God to escape.
If Mugetsu had no other extraordinary defensive ability, then Iwakura should be able to force a one for one exchange.
"Explosion Release: Self Detonation!"
Violent Explosion Release chakra burst from Iwakura's body, and an intense white light surged out from within him.
Just as Iwakura thought he had succeeded, Mugetsu's body vanished.
Bang!
Mugetsu instantly appeared beside Roshi, then drove an exploding punch into him. The sudden heavy impact nearly knocked Roshi flat and disrupted the Tailed Beast Ball just before it could fully form.
Iwakura stared blankly at Mugetsu, utterly unable to understand what had happened. Had Mugetsu somehow read his mind from a distance?
The next moment, there was no more time for doubt.
Because Iwakura exploded.
Actually exploded.
Boom!!
A terrifying blast shook the battlefield. The glaring white flash swallowed everything nearby, and when it faded, there was no trace of the vice captain of the Explosion Corps left, only a massive charred crater.
He had never imagined that behind Mugetsu's glasses were a pair of Byakugan capable of seeing straight through chakra, nor that Mugetsu only needed a glance to understand most of his opponent's abilities.
Mugetsu had already seen through Iwakura's intentions from the start. That was why, in addition to throwing three Kunai at Iwakura, he had also thrown one Flying Thunder God Kunai toward Roshi.
His plan had been simple from the beginning: force Iwakura into self detonation, then interrupt Roshi's Tailed Beast Ball at the same time.
Kakashi, who had been tense the entire time, finally let out a quiet breath of relief.
If Roshi had successfully fired that Tailed Beast Ball, Mugetsu might still have protected them, but the Konoha Ninja Force would definitely have suffered serious casualties.
"Iwakura sama!"
Some Iwagakure Ninja stared at the crater in disbelief. They had not expected Iwakura to actually blow himself up.
"That trash... that bastard..." Roshi stared at the scorched crater as a complicated emotion rose in his chest.
Although Iwakura truly had been incompetent, dragging the Iwa Ninja Force straight into disaster, that did not mean he had been completely worthless.
At the very least, in the end, he had been willing to blow himself up in an attempt to carve out one final path for the Iwa Ninja Force.
So then... what about him?
Roshi could not help asking himself that question.
Like many Jinchuriki whose Tailed Beasts had been sealed into them while they were still children, Roshi had grown up in misery, feared, discriminated against, and looked down upon.
Because of that, even though the Four Tails acknowledged him, Roshi had never been willing to communicate with it.
In his heart, he believed that if not for the Four Tails, his childhood would never have become so tragic. He hated the very fact that he was a Jinchuriki.
Even though he knew that if he communicated with the Tailed Beast, his power would increase dramatically without much effort, Roshi still refused.
He simply could not get past that knot in his heart.
But after seeing Iwakura blow himself up, Roshi's thoughts finally began to shift.
Even now, he still believed Iwakura was a terrible person.
After all, Iwakura had actually told him to use full Tailed Beast transformation in the middle of a battlefield packed with Iwagakure Ninja. That was no different from disregarding the lives of his own comrades.
Yet even such a person had been able to choose death for the sake of the village and the force.
If that was true, then why could he not take one step past his own grudge, if doing so might give him the strength to turn everything around?
Roshi's consciousness stirred, and in an instant, he found himself standing in a dark inner space.
Before him stood a tall, red haired great ape, the Four Tails.
The Four Tails silently looked down at him without speaking.
Roshi looked at the beast and forced himself to open his mouth. He was afraid that if his voice faltered even slightly, he would not be able to say the words.
"Son... please help me. Lend me a little more power," Roshi said, his expression complicated.
This was the first time he had ever called the Four Tails by its name.
He had never been willing to speak to it before. Naturally, he had never once addressed it as a companion.
At that moment, Roshi was incredibly nervous.
He was afraid the Four Tails would refuse him. Worse, he feared it would mock him before turning him away. After all, he had ignored it for years.
Yet the Four Tails simply looked at him and smiled.
The stubborn man before it had finally managed to break through his own stubbornness, and the Four Tails found that genuinely gratifying.
"As you wish, Roshi," the Four Tails said, generously pouring a massive amount of its chakra into Roshi's body.
That response genuinely surprised Roshi.
He had not expected the same being he once blamed for ruining his childhood to agree so easily.
He had already prepared himself to be humiliated and sent away empty handed.
"...Thank you."
After leaving behind that soft word, Roshi's consciousness disappeared from the inner space.
.....
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