Thunder shook the sky, and the rising heat and steam finally turned into heavy rain.
"I'm beyond saving. You shouldn't be doing this unnecessary thing."
Dan reopened his eyes, coughing up blood as he spoke, the light in them growing ever fainter.
The blood in his body quickly washed away with the rain, carrying away much of the shattered flesh.
Dan understood Kaede Tsukasa's actions—this was the kind of resolve that would never abandon a comrade, even in the direst situation.
He respected that mindset, but did not agree with it. If these last few seconds were left to him, perhaps he could inflict greater damage on Roshi, forcing him to spend exponentially more time and effort to recover.
Opportunities to harm an enemy nation's jinchūriki were rare, and if he could succeed, Dan felt his sacrifice would be worthwhile.
After all, he was never a match for a jinchūriki anyway.
"I said it's not time to give up. The war isn't over yet! Are you really going to stop here? Dying is easy, but surviving through all the pain is hard. Tsunade-sama is still waiting for you."
Kaede Tsukasa raised a hand and pointed. Using the last of his vision, Dan looked and saw Tsunade desperately rushing toward them, her face full of extreme terror.
"Tsunade… I'm so sorry you have to see me like this… it's a pity I can't become Hokage…"
"Shut up! Don't say such defeatist things! I am the strongest medical ninja—since I'm here, I will save you! Let me see… your injuries are severe, but I can still heal you!"
Tsunade knelt, unleashing chakra like a madwoman, trying to heal Dan's body. It did improve his condition slightly.
But everyone knew it was futile. Medical ninjutsu could heal wounds and regenerate flesh, but it couldn't make the organs or bones in the chest magically regrow.
When Tsunade's chakra was finally depleted, unable to sustain Dan's life any longer, that would be when his soul completely departed the living world.
"Save some chakra… better to use this chance to help more comrades retreat…" Dan looked gently at Tsunade's terrified face.
Sadly, he had not become Hokage, had not publicly married Tsunade, and now it was all ending… truly regretful.
Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!
A furious roar echoed.
"Oh? That guy's body is expanding, it's even hard to maintain a humanoid form. I don't know much about jinchūriki… could this be the legendary full tailed-beast transformation?"
Kaede Tsukasa turned to look, frowning.
Clearly, Roshi's spirit had suffered severe damage, his self-awareness sinking rapidly, about to be exploited by the Four-Tails.
An imperfect jinchūriki, once entering full tailed-beast transformation, meant the tailed beast controlled the human. It would wreak havoc, taking revenge on humans and causing unimaginable casualties.
But for Roshi in his current state, being controlled by the Four-Tails might not be entirely bad.
"Tsunade-sama, the situation is urgent. Keep Dan's vitals stable. I'll lead you all in retreat," Kaede Tsukasa said in a serious tone.
Tsunade had nothing else on her mind. Panic-stricken, all her focus was on Dan. She had already lost her brother—she couldn't afford to lose her lover too.
Kaede Tsukasa placed one hand on Tsunade's shoulder and grabbed Dan's hand with the other, activating Space-Time Technique to transport them behind a rock six hundred meters away.
The distance wasn't long, but if luck favored them, it might briefly put them out of the Four-Tails' line of sight.
"You maintain Lord Dan's vital signs. I'll deal with the enemy, try to prevent him from entering full tailed-beast transformation," Kaede Tsukasa said quickly, gently stabilizing both of them.
"You're insane! This is suicide! What strength do you have to face a jinchūriki on the verge of losing control? Relying on those corpses you summoned? You don't have enough chakra to control so many at once. I can see it—many of them are acting chaotically, mostly driven by instinct." Tsunade was furious, but quickly fell silent.
Because she realized something— even she didn't really have a good way to deal with an enemy like this.
What could she use? Super strength? Medical ninjutsu? At best, it would only buy time, not truly defeat the enemy.
"Can you do long-range space-time transfer? Dan needs proper treatment—if he could get back to the village, I could gather all the medical ninja and set up a large-scale technique, surely it would…"
"No. Maybe one day, but not now," Kaede Tsukasa replied.
Completing an ultra-long-distance transfer from the northernmost part of the Land of Hot Springs to Konoha in a single instant would already consume massive chakra just sensing the zombies there, not to mention transferring two living people along with it.
With Kaede Tsukasa's current life energy, it might not be enough, and now was not a convenient time for large-scale life energy replenishment.
Moreover, Kaede Tsukasa had more important matters to attend to—first and foremost, the Four-Tails' chakra.
'The Four-Tails' jinchūriki… this is a good chance to acquire some of its chakra. Even a little could be valuable in the future,' Kaede Tsukasa thought quietly, swapping positions with a zombie and charging toward the rapidly expanding Roshi.
Roshi still had a tiny fragment of awareness left. In a daze, he saw Kaede Tsukasa and immediately went into extreme rage, roaring as one of his hands suddenly enlarged into a massive chakra hand, slamming toward Kaede Tsukasa.
Summoning Technique!
Kaede Tsukasa called forth Araki and the Explosive Release zombies, along with the last dozen or so ordinary zombies without Kekkei Genkai. This was now the strongest zombie squad he could summon.
Under Kaede Tsukasa's command, Araki and the Explosive Release zombies swarmed forward, using various ninjutsu to attack Roshi.
In an instant, violent explosions and bombardments erupted continuously, but Kaede Tsukasa did not expect to stop Roshi's full tailed-beast transformation with such crude attacks.
"Next… try that technique, even though it's far from perfected."
Kaede Tsukasa fell back into the mass of ordinary zombies, slapping his hands together forcefully just as Roshi hurled a barrage of lava spheres, clashing with Araki's sandstorm.
A dozen expendable zombies quickly moved through the gaps torn open by the sandstorm. Many were shredded by Roshi's increasingly frenzied attacks, but one finally made it close to him.
Conventional attacks could no longer harm Roshi, but Kaede Tsukasa had never pinned his hopes on these expendables.
The ordinary zombie immediately formed hand seals, activating Summoning Technique.
Smoke surged as the Explosive Release zombies appeared before the Four-Tails, simultaneously launching point-blank explosive attacks with their Kekkei Genkai, turning themselves into super bombs and detonating completely!
The scale of the explosion far exceeded any detonating talisman, instantly engulfing Roshi's form.
"This is Space-Time Stage Two! After transferring the zombies, mass-summon other zombies. Truly a very difficult maneuver, though it does show traces of zombie multiplication."
Kaede Tsukasa immediately acted. Numerous zombies surged into the blast aftermath, enduring damage to snatch the Four-Tails' chakra.
"Best case, we grab some. If not, and the opponent completes full tailed-beast transformation, I'll have no choice but to summon Maito Duy…"