Roshi had never felt so frustrated in his life.
His entire body was covered in a blazing crimson chakra cloak that resembled flowing magma. Every step he took melted the ground beneath him, leaving behind charred black footprints.
Yet this brat from Konoha is like a slippery fish, constantly weaving around him. What infuriated him the most was that the boy refused to use the Lightning Release and Fire Release techniques he excelled at. Instead, he relied solely on those damned Water Release techniques.
Kiyohara's figure flickered in and out along the edge of the battlefield.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Another enormous water dragon rose behind him, baring its fangs as it lunged toward Roshi.
Wherever the dragon passed, the surrounding air instantly turned into vast clouds of steam. Thick mist spread across the battlefield, obscuring everyone's vision.
Roshi had no choice but to evade once again.
His Lava Release could melt steel itself, but facing an endless stream of Water Release techniques forced him to expend tremendous amounts of chakra with every collision. Even worse, the spreading mist was gradually lowering the temperature of the lava covering his body.
"Brat!"
Roshi gritted his teeth. His red beard had begun curling slightly under the intense heat.
"Is running all you know how to do?"
Kiyohara did not answer.
After releasing another Water Release technique, he merely swept his gaze across the battlefield from the corner of his eye.
Kakashi was being surrounded and attacked by three Iwagakure jonin. The flashes of Yamamaru's blade darted rapidly through the crowd.
Meanwhile, Rin had just finished treating an injured Konoha shinobi. The moment she raised her head, two stone shinobis rushed toward her.
Her hands immediately formed seals.
A wall of water rose from the ground, temporarily blocking their advance.
The number of casualties was increasing.
Even with medical shinobi constantly treating the wounded, more and more people continued to get injured.
'We need to move the battlefield as soon as possible.'
Kiyohara thought silently.
There were simply too many people here.
Fighting Roshi in this location would affect far too many others.
Whether it was himself or Roshi, both possessed terrifying destructive power at this point.
That was one of the reasons wars between shinobi rarely took place within their own countries.
Because after a major battle, the landscape itself could be permanently altered.
With that thought, Kiyohara made his decision.
He bit the tip of his right index finger and rapidly formed hand seals before slamming his palm against the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
Bang!
A cloud of white smoke exploded outward.
A gigantic slug appeared on the battlefield.
"Lady Katsuyu."
Kiyohara's voice sounded from above.
"Please heal the Konoha shinobi."
Katsuyu raised her head slightly, the antennae atop her head gently swaying.
"Certainly."
Her voice was soft and gentle.
The moment she finished speaking, her enormous body began to divide.
Splurt... splurt...
Countless miniature slugs separated from the main body and spread throughout the battlefield like a tide of milky-white water.
The blue-and-white-striped slugs crawled onto the bodies of injured shinobi. Their soft forms covered wounds as green medical chakra began to glow.
A Konoha chunin who had been clutching his severed arm and screaming suddenly froze.
A warm sensation spread from the wound.
The excruciating pain was fading.
Looking down, he saw a palm-sized slug attached to his injured arm, green light flowing from its body into his wound.
"This is..."
"Tsunade-sama's summoned beast?"
Someone cried out in surprise.
"No! Kiyohara-sama summoned Katsuyu!"
"My wounds are healing... I feel so much better!"
The morale of Konoha's forces surged instantly.
Meanwhile, the expressions of the Iwagakure shinobi became increasingly ugly.
They could clearly sense it.
The battle, which had originally been tilting in their favor, was beginning to change.
Those leaf shinobi who had been on the verge of collapse moments ago were now standing back up.
Roshi's brows furrowed even tighter.
Just as he was about to say something, he saw Kiyohara bite his finger again.
Bang!
A second cloud of white smoke exploded.
This time, the summoned creature was nothing like the gentle Katsuyu.
A graceful figure emerged from the smoke.
She wore a white robe.
Her long black hair flowed down her back.
Her features were exquisite.
But her eyes were golden vertical pupils.
Tagorihime glanced around her surroundings.
The sounds of slaughter, screams, and the thunderous collisions of ninjutsu filled the battlefield. The air was thick with the scent of blood and burning earth.
"Kiyohara?"
She raised an elegant eyebrow as her golden slit pupils shifted toward the young man who had summoned her.
"What is this—"
"Help me deal with them."
Kiyohara's gaze swept over the stone shinobi.
Tagorihime looked at him for a moment.
"Very well."
In the next instant, her body began to expand.
Bang!
The white smoke dispersed.
The graceful feminine figure vanished.
In her place appeared a gigantic crimson serpent.
Its massive body stretched dozens of meters in length, coiling like a small mountain.
Crimson scales gleamed with a metallic luster beneath the sunlight. Its enormous head rose high into the air as golden slit pupils looked down upon the tiny humans below.
Tagorihime opened her mouth.
Deep within her throat, blazing red flames began to gather.
BOOM!
A pillar of fire erupted forth.
The temperature of the flames was astonishing.
Wherever the fire passed, even the air itself seemed to burn.
Three stone shinobi failed to dodge in time and were instantly swallowed by the inferno.
Brief screams rang out before being drowned by the roaring flames.
Swinging her massive body, Tagorihime surged toward the heart of the Iwa formation.
She moved with incredible speed. Her crimson body left behind afterimages across the battlefield.
Wherever she passed, flames erupted and molten lava flowed.
The Iwagakure shinobi scattered in panic.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
"It's a snake! A giant snake!"
"Get out of the way!"
Even the Konoha shinobi were stunned.
Watching the enormous crimson serpent rampage through the enemy ranks, many momentarily forgot how to react.
"What are you all standing around for?!"
Someone finally snapped out of it.
"Captain Kiyohara bought us time! Charge!"
"Attack!"
The Konoha shinobi regained their fighting spirit and followed behind Tagorihime, launching a fierce assault against the Iwagakure formation.
The tide of battle was beginning to reverse.
Meanwhile, Roshi stood where he was, watching everything unfold.
His gaze settled on Kiyohara.
At this moment, Kiyohara was still forming hand seals, preparing another technique.
You're fighting me, and you still have the leisure to summon two creatures?
Roshi clenched his fists.
The lava covering his body suddenly flared even hotter.
"Brat."
His voice was low and heavy.
"Are you looking down on me?"
Without hesitation, Roshi charged forward.
He intended to close the distance and prevent Kiyohara from having any opportunity to form hand seals.
Seeing this, Kiyohara stopped his own hand seals.
The two immediately entered close-quarters combat.
However, during the fight, Kiyohara continuously repositioned himself, gradually luring Roshi farther away from the battlefield.
The lava-covered figure moved rapidly through the forest, relentlessly chasing after Kiyohara.
Wherever he passed, trees ignited under the intense heat, leaving a burning trail behind him.
Kiyohara glanced back toward the battlefield.
The Katsuyu clones were healing the wounded with all their strength.
Tagorihime had completely suppressed Iwagakure's offensive.
The morale of Konoha's shinobi was soaring.
'A different battlefield will let me fight without restraints.'
Kiyohara thought to himself.
The two figures continued racing through the forest.
One crimson.
One dark green.
Roshi in front.
Kiyohara behind.
They ran farther and farther away, leaving the chaotic battlefield completely behind.
After an unknown amount of time, the terrain ahead suddenly opened up.
It was a basin.
Mountains surrounded it on all sides, while a flat woodland occupied the center.
Roshi finally stopped.
Turning around, he faced Kiyohara.
Standing in the center of the basin, molten lava flowed around his body. The grass beneath his feet had already blackened and begun burning.
Kiyohara landed twenty meters away.
He removed his dust-covered shinobi flak jacket and casually tossed it aside.
Only the black chainmail underneath remained, outlining the muscles across his shoulders and back.
"Finally."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
"Finally what?"
Roshi frowned.
A vague sense of danger rose within him.
Only now had he fully realized it.
This brat had deliberately lured him away.
But so what?
Now he no longer had to worry about harming Iwagakure's shinobi.
He could unleash even more of his techniques without restraint.
He simply refused to believe that Kiyohara, a mere Uchiha, could outlast a Jinchūriki like him in a battle of chakra consumption.
"We've arrived at a perfect burial ground."
Kiyohara formed hand seals with both hands, extracting chakra from within his body.
"A place worthy of becoming your grave."
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
BOOM!
A tremendous volume of water erupted from around him.
The surging torrent even drew in nearby streams, causing its size to increase even further.
The deep blue water spread outward like a tsunami.
Trees were uprooted and swept away.
Boulders disappeared beneath the flood.
In a single instant, the entire basin transformed into a vast inland sea.
Roshi had no time to evade.
The water was simply too fast.
The area it covered was far too large.
In the blink of an eye, he was swallowed by the ocean.
Yet even beneath the water, the magma covering Roshi's body continued to burn.
This was the effect of his Lava Release Chakra Mode.
Even underwater, his molten armor would not be extinguished.
However, his movements were noticeably slower, and his actions became somewhat sluggish.
Kiyohara was submerged as well.
Dark green chakra flowed from his body, gathering around him to form a cloak.
The cloak rippled slowly, and behind him it gradually took the shape of a phantom serpent.
Distinct scales covered its body, and it flicked a forked tongue that was the same dark green color.
His pupils transformed into golden vertical slits.
Green markings appeared around his eyes.
On his forehead, a single horn seemed to emerge and fade intermittently.
The Sage Mode of Ryuchi Cave!
Snake Sage Mode!
But that was not the end.
Black markings also slowly spread across Kiyohara's skin.
Curse Mark Transformation!
The two powers surged through his body simultaneously.
Yet instead of conflicting with one another, they achieved a delicate balance.
Dark green flames intertwined with black curse markings, giving him an increasingly mysterious and sinister appearance.
Roshi's pupils contracted slightly.
What was that?
Nothing in the intelligence reports had mentioned such a form.
But he had no time to think.
Because Kiyohara had already moved.
His figure shot through the water like a beam of light.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared directly before Roshi.
His right fist crashed forward.
Instinctively, Roshi raised an arm to block.
Bang!
A dull explosion echoed through the water.
Roshi was blasted backward by the overwhelming force, tumbling dozens of meters across the seabed before finally managing to stabilize himself.
Pain exploded through his forearm.
Looking down, he discovered that the magma covering his arm had been split apart by the impact.
A massive crack had formed.
Beneath it, charred flesh was exposed.
Part of a bone had even pierced through the flesh.
The force behind that punch...
Roshi raised his head and stared at the approaching figure.
So powerful.
Gritting his teeth, Roshi forcibly pushed the protruding bone back into place.
The wound immediately began healing.
This was one of the advantages of being a Jinchūriki.
A Jinchūriki possessed vast reserves of chakra as well as astonishing vitality.
That was why every Jinchūriki was regarded as a living weapon of war.
Roshi quickly formed hand seals.
The magma covering his body began gathering toward his right hand.
The crimson molten substance became thicker.
Hotter.
Denser.
Eventually, a massive lump of molten rock condensed around his right arm.
Lava Release: Subterranean Needle!
This was an ultra-high-temperature technique that Roshi could only use by borrowing the chakra of the Tailed Beast.
By concentrating all of his magma into a single point, he created an attack capable of piercing through virtually anything.
Roshi charged toward Kiyohara.
The speed of this strike was astonishing.
Wherever it passed, seawater was instantly vaporized by the heat, leaving behind a vacuum-like trail.
Kiyohara raised his right hand.
His five fingers spread open as he met the incoming attack head-on.
Within his palm, a pitch-black sheen emerged.
Steel Release!
Earth Release: Earth Spear!
Sizzle.
The molten strike slammed into Kiyohara's palm.
The terrifying heat instantly turned his hand bright red, like black metal being heated in a furnace.
But Roshi's eyes widened.
He clearly saw Kiyohara's palm becoming red from the heat.
Yet the injuries there were healing almost as quickly as they appeared.
This brat had regenerative abilities too?
At that moment, Kiyohara's left hand clenched into a fist.
Then he struck.
Hard.
Bang!
A muffled cracking sound echoed from Roshi's chest.
His ribs shattered.
The entire man shot backward like a cannonball, tumbling dozens of meters along the seabed before smashing into a gigantic boulder.
The rock exploded apart.
Roshi became embedded within the shattered stone as blood poured from his mouth.
Blood flowed from the corner of his lips, staining his purple robes and slowly spreading through the surrounding water.
The pain in his chest was so intense that he could barely breathe.
How many ribs had broken?
Three?
Four?
Roshi did not know.
But he knew one thing.
A single punch had left him severely wounded.
Under absolutely no circumstances could he take Kiyohara's punches head-on while relying solely on his physical body.
Roshi finally realized this.
Immediately afterward, more Tailed Beast chakra surged into his fractured bones, rapidly repairing the damage.
Raising his head, he looked toward the approaching figure.
Behind Kiyohara, the ocean began to churn violently.
"Water Release: Thousand Feeding Sharks."
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom-
The sea exploded.
One shark.
Two sharks.
Ten sharks.
A hundred sharks.
A thousand sharks!
Countless sharks formed entirely from seawater emerged from every direction.
Their bodies were a deep azure blue.
Some measured only a meter long, while others exceeded three meters.
Every single one opened its enormous jaws, revealing rows of sharp fangs.
The sharks surged toward Roshi.
Like a tidal wave.
Like a tsunami.
Like an unstoppable flood.
Roshi's eyes widened.
A thousand?
He melted one shark.
Then two.
Then ten.
But more continued to arrive.
The sharks charged forward relentlessly.
One after another.
Without end.
No matter how many he destroyed, there were always more.
Soon, Roshi was completely engulfed by the shark swarm.
His Lava Release continued melting shark after shark.
But for every one he destroyed, three more rushed in.
Their sharp teeth bit into the magma covering his body.
Although they could not truly injure him, they pinned him firmly in place.
At the same time, within the Konoha camp.
Inside the command tent, Tsunade sat on a small stool.
Her hands rested on her knees.
Her fingers were clasped tightly enough that her knuckles had begun turning white.
The sounds of battle filtered through the tent walls.
Faint, yet unmistakable.
The clash of kunai.
The thunderous explosions of ninjutsu.
The agonized screams of the wounded.
But she could not go outside.
The moment she imagined the bloodshed beyond the tent, her stomach began to churn violently.
Her breathing became rapid.
Cold sweat formed in her palms.
Damn it.
Tsunade gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.
"So that brat lured the Four-Tails Jinchūriki away..."
She could sense what Kiyohara was doing.
Yet as his teacher, she could not stand beside him and fight.
Thinking of this, Tsunade decided to do whatever she could.
Although Kiyohara had already summoned Katsuyu to heal the wounded, the process could still be improved.
The diamond-shaped violet mark on her smooth forehead began glowing.
Strength of a Hundred Seal: Release!
A massive quantity of chakra poured from the seal and flowed through her entire chakra network.
Then Tsunade performed a summoning as well.
She summoned another portion of Katsuyu from Shikkotsu Forest.
She ordered the slug to assist everyone on the battlefield.
Katsuyu's true body was unimaginably enormous.
Tsunade had never once summoned her complete form.
Every time, she could only summon a portion of Katsuyu's body.
Even with Kiyohara summoning part of her and Tsunade summoning another part, they still had not brought forth Katsuyu's full body.
However, the additional slugs would greatly improve Konoha's situation.
In the blink of an eye, countless tiny Katsuyu clones crawled out through the gaps in the tent and spread across the battlefield.
Katsuyu: Immense Network Healing!
Tsunade immediately activated another technique.
Through this technique, she could channel her chakra to every injured shinobi and use the Mystical Palm Technique to heal them.
At the same time, Katsuyu could protect the wounded by covering them with her body.
The range of this protection was extraordinarily vast, allowing casualties to be reduced as much as possible.
Furthermore, while using Katsuyu: Immense Network Healing, Tsunade could share vision and hearing through Katsuyu, transmit chakra, and relay information and intelligence.
At this moment, she could sense the conditions of the wounded.
She knew their injuries were healing.
But she had not activated shared vision.
She did not want to see blood.
Taking a deep breath, Tsunade raised her right hand.
Her chakra flowed continuously through Katsuyu and into every injured shinobi.
With her eyes closed, she maintained the flow of chakra.
Fine beads of sweat appeared at her temples.
Her breathing had become steadier than before.
At the very least, while Kiyohara was away, she would protect what lay behind him.
As his teacher, this was something she could still do.
On the battlefield, a Konoha chunin clutched a deep wound in his abdomen.
His face was pale as paper.
The injury was so severe that parts of his intestines could almost be seen.
He thought he was about to die.
But in the next moment, something warm and soft pressed against the wound.
Looking down, he saw a palm-sized Katsuyu resting on his stomach.
Green light flowed from the slug's body into his injury.
The wound began to heal.
He could clearly feel torn flesh reconnecting.
The internal bleeding was stopping.
"This is..."
"It's Tsunade-sama!"
Someone nearby cried out in excitement.
"Lady Tsunade is healing us!"
"I can feel it too! My wounds don't hurt anymore!"
"Tsunade-sama!"
The morale of Konoha's shinobi soared.
Meanwhile, the expressions of the Iwagakure forces became increasingly grim.
They watched helplessly as leaf shinobi who had clearly been critically injured stood back up under Katsuyu's treatment and threw themselves back into battle.
It felt as though they were fighting an army that simply could not die.
"Damn it..."
An Iwagakure jonin gritted his teeth.
For the first time, he truly understood the value of an advanced medical system.
Unfortunately, Iwagakure's medical capabilities were painfully mediocre.
"These damn medical leaves..."
He never finished his sentence.
Because a gigantic serpent tail swept toward him.
Tagorihime's massive body moved through the forest like a natural disaster.
Wherever she passed, stone shinobi scattered in terror.
She breathed fire.
Her tail swept across entire groups of enemies.
Her fangs tore through anything in her path.
Before this colossal serpent, the shinobi of Iwagakure seemed no different from ants.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
The basin had completely changed.
The forest was gone.
In its place stretched a boundless sea.
And at the center of that sea, Roshi was being besieged by more than a thousand sharks.
His Lava Release continued melting them.
But there were simply too many.
His chakra was being consumed at an alarming rate.
Within his body, the Four-Tails, Son Gokū, was growing increasingly agitated.
"Roshi."
"You can't hold on much longer."
"Shut up."
Roshi growled through clenched teeth.
(End of Chapter)