Roshi smashed another shark apart with a single punch.
But in the next instant, three more sharks lunged at him.
Although the lava coating his body continued melting them away, the destruction was becoming slower and slower.
Roshi knew he could not drag this out any longer.
Taking a deep breath, he drew out even more of the Tailed Beast's chakra from deep within himself.
Boom!
A terrifying wave of heat erupted outward from his body.
His form began to change.
Behind him, four tails made entirely of molten lava slowly emerged, swaying beneath the water.
At the same time, the phantom silhouette of the Four-Tails appeared behind him.
Partial Tailed Beast Transformation!
"Lava Release: Flower-Fruit Mountain!"
He slammed both fists into the ground.
Rumble!
The entire floor of the basin began to tremble and crack apart.
Countless fissures spread outward from beneath Roshi's feet, and blazing crimson lava burst from the cracks.
More and more lava poured forth.
Hotter and hotter.
Like a volcano in the midst of a violent eruption.
Under the extreme temperatures, the seawater began to boil and evaporate.
White steam shot skyward, covering the entire basin.
Kiyohara stood upon the water's surface, watching everything unfold.
He could clearly sense the seawater beneath him rapidly disappearing.
Roshi's Lava Release was evaporating the vast ocean he had created.
The steam grew thicker and thicker.
Visibility became lower and lower.
Through the haze, he could vaguely see Roshi's figure moving within the steam, four molten tails swaying behind him.
Then he saw the lava.
It surged endlessly from the cracks in the earth.
More.
Hotter.
Brighter.
The sea of lava created by Roshi spread outward from its center in every direction.
Wherever the lava passed, seawater evaporated instantly, exposing scorched and cracked riverbeds beneath.
The area of water beneath Kiyohara's feet grew smaller and smaller.
Steam blanketed the heavens.
And in the center of that sea of lava, Roshi raised his head and looked toward Kiyohara.
His eyes had already become a pure crimson color.
Within those pupils, the shadow of the Four-Tails could faintly be seen.
"Brat."
His voice was low and heavy, like flowing lava.
"This ends here."
He raised both hands.
The four lava tails behind him lifted simultaneously as chakra surged wildly.
"Lava Release: Scorching River Great Eruption!"
His fists crashed into the ground.
BOOOM!
With him at the center, the entire basin floor completely collapsed.
A temporary volcano rose from the fissures.
From its crater, blazing crimson lava erupted violently.
The lava was not merely flowing.
It shot upward like a genuine volcanic eruption.
Columns of molten rock rose dozens of meters into the sky, covering the entire basin.
Then they surged toward Kiyohara.
Like a gigantic wave of lava dozens of meters tall.
Wherever it passed, the air ignited.
The rocks melted.
Everything was reduced to ashes.
Kiyohara stood where he was, looking up at the towering wall of molten destruction.
In the next second, the diamond-shaped violet mark on his forehead suddenly lit up.
Strength of a Hundred Seal: Release!
The enormous quantity of chakra he had accumulated within the seal over countless days, even greater than Tsunade's own reserves, burst forth and instantly flooded his entire body.
Without hesitation, Kiyohara directly mixed that chakra with the natural energy stored within his Curse Mark, refining even more Senjutsu Chakra.
"Sage Art: Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
BOOOOOM!!!
An unimaginable quantity of water erupted forth from around him once again.
A gigantic crack appeared high in the sky.
From that opening poured a boundless torrent of water.
The amount of water was so immense, so vast, so overwhelming, that it seemed as if the entire sky itself were collapsing downward.
A waterfall.
This technique already excelled at creating water.
Now, with Kiyohara possessing chakra reserves at least ten times greater than those of an ordinary elite jōnin, coupled with the enhancement of Sage Art, the volume of water he could generate had reached an entirely new level.
Even if Kisame himself came here and used the same technique, he still would not be able to create as much water as Kiyohara.
Everyone on the battlefield stopped what they were doing.
The shinobis raised their heads and stared at the torrents descending from the heavens.
Even Tagorihime halted her raging.
Raising her head, the scene reflected in her golden vertical pupils.
"That is... what exactly...?"
Someone muttered in disbelief.
"The sea... the sea is falling from the sky..."
Rumble...
The heavenly waterfall crashed into the basin.
It collided head-on with Roshi's gigantic lava wave.
Water and fire.
At this moment, they engaged in the most primitive and fundamental clash imaginable.
Ssssshhh!
Steam exploded outward.
A white shockwave surged into the sky, blotting out the sun.
The temperature of the expanding vapor was so extreme that nearby trees were instantly scorched black.
But there was far more water than fire.
The heavenly waterfall continued endlessly.
It poured down without pause.
Under the relentless impact of the floodwaters, Roshi's lava wave began cooling and solidifying.
Layer after layer, the glowing crimson lava darkened.
Layer after layer, it hardened.
Eventually, it became nothing more than black volcanic rock.
The sea of lava rapidly receded beneath the overwhelming flood.
Roshi stood at the center of the molten sea, his eyes wide open.
His hands trembled.
The lava covering his body fluctuated violently.
His chakra was being consumed at a terrifying rate.
Yet the heavenly waterfall continued pouring down without end.
How is this possible...?
The thought flashed through his mind.
Within his body, the voice of the Four-Tails, Son Gokū, rang out, unable to conceal its shock.
"This brat... has an absurd amount of chakra..."
The Four-Tails frowned.
Throughout its thousand-year lifespan, it had encountered countless shinobi.
Naturally, it knew of the Senju Clan and the Uzumaki Clan.
Yet even among those bloodlines, there were very few individuals who possessed chakra reserves on Kiyohara's level.
Could this person be...
The reincarnation of Indra?
The Four-Tails only knew that Indra continuously reincarnated within the Uchiha bloodline.
It had no idea who the current reincarnation was.
All the Tailed Beasts were still waiting for the fulfillment of the Sage of Six Paths' prophecy.
"The moment when the blue-eyed youth who laughs while calling the names of the nine beasts changes the world."
However, Kiyohara's eyes were black.
No matter how it looked at him, he had nothing to do with blue eyes.
Could it be Namikaze Minato instead?
The Four-Tails immediately thought of another famous blue-eyed shinobi.
The legendary Yellow Flash.
"Hurry and lend me more chakra!"
Roshi had no idea why the Four-Tails had suddenly fallen into a daze.
He urgently demanded more chakra from it.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The sea of lava was completely extinguished.
The endless waterfall submerged the entire basin.
It submerged the cooled volcanic rock.
And it submerged Roshi himself.
Roshi was swept into the depths.
His body tumbled through the water.
He struggled desperately, trying to return to the surface.
But the currents were too violent.
Too powerful.
He could no longer control his own body.
Then he felt an intense pain erupt from his right arm.
Looking down, he froze.
His right arm was gone.
It had been severed cleanly at the elbow.
Dark red blood mixed with the Four-Tails' crimson chakra poured from the wound.
When did this happen...?
The thought surfaced blankly in his mind.
Was it during that collision just now?
Fresh chakra from the Four-Tails began flowing out through the seal once more, restoring some clarity to his consciousness.
He looked toward Kiyohara, who stood calmly upon the water's surface.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, he turned around and fled, swimming toward the distance.
At the same time, before leaving, he created a shadow clone and ordered it to notify the other Iwagakure shinobi to retreat.
Roshi endured the intense pain radiating from his severed arm.
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand why Kiyohara possessed such an enormous quantity of chakra.
Or was Senjutsu truly this miraculous?
Could it really amplify the power of every technique severalfold?
Meanwhile, standing atop the water, Kiyohara watched Roshi flee farther and farther away.
After thinking about it for a moment, he chose not to pursue him.
The Four-Tails still had not used a Tailed Beast Ball.
Severing one of Roshi's arms was already enough to force him to behave for quite some time.
Even if Roshi wanted revenge in the future, Kiyohara estimated that he would have become even stronger by then.
When that time came, defeating him would be even easier than it was now.
With that thought, the patterns formed by the Strength of a Hundred Seal and the Curse Mark gradually receded across Kiyohara's body, returning to normal.
The dark green chakra cloak covering the surface of his skin slowly dissipated as well.
The effect of combining Senjutsu with the power of the Curse Mark was far better than Kiyohara had imagined.
He wondered whether his bloodlines had something to do with it.
Kiyohara thought silently to himself.
Yotsuki, Toad, White Snake, Uchiha, Steel Release, Storm Release, and many others.
The bloodlines within his body were simply too mixed.
Moreover, because they had all been inherited, it felt as though he had been born with them naturally.
Those bloodlines were constantly merging together and adapting to one another.
As for what they would ultimately become, even Kiyohara had no idea.
After all, even a normal Ōtsutsuki did not possess as many bloodlines as he did.
In the distance, several stone shinobi stood at the edge of the basin.
They had arrived as reinforcements.
Yet now they merely stood there and stared, completely motionless.
At the center of the basin, the waterfall that had descended from the heavens had finally stopped.
In its place lay a vast lake.
The water was clear and sparkling.
And in the center of the lake stood only a single figure.
The young shinobi from Konoha was standing at the lakeshore, bending down and retrieving something from the water.
The severed object was still leaking crimson chakra from its wound.
It was Roshi's severed arm.
"What... is he doing?"
One of the Iwagakure shinobi muttered.
No one answered.
Everyone simply watched as the young man took out a specially made container from a sealing scroll, placed the severed arm inside, sealed it carefully, and stored it away.
"He..."
Another Iwagakure shinobi swallowed nervously.
"Is he collecting... the Four-Tails' chakra?"
"Retreat."
Someone suddenly spoke.
"What?"
"Retreat!"
The man's voice suddenly rose, unable to conceal the fear within it.
"That leaf shinobi... is not someone we can fight!"
"But Lord Roshi..."
"Even Lord Roshi was defeated! Do you want to throw your life away?"
No one argued.
Because all of them had seen the signal flare rising into the sky in the distance.
It was the signal to retreat.
An order from Roshi himself.
The remaining shinobi looked at the young man who was storing away the severed arm.
In the end, one after another, they turned around and fled into the distance.
While escaping, some could not help looking back.
"That leaf shinobi..."
An Iwagakure shinobi muttered.
"Is he the one who killed the Third Mizukage?"
"That's him."
"...A monster."
They ran away without looking back again.
On the distant battlefield, the Iwagakure forces finally broke.
Roshi's defeat and retreat became the final straw that shattered their resolve.
"Retreat!"
"Fall back!"
The Iwagakure formation completely collapsed.
Shinobi scattered in every direction, abandoning corpses and wounded comrades across the battlefield.
The Konoha forces pursued them for a while, but after confirming that the enemy had been completely routed, they finally stopped.
"We won!"
Someone shouted joyfully.
"We won!"
Cheers erupted across the battlefield.
The wounded were still covered by Katsuyu's clones as their injuries rapidly healed.
The surviving shinobi embraced one another and patted each other's shoulders, smiles of relief spread across their faces after surviving the battle.
Tagorihime transformed back into her human form and stood at the edge of the battlefield with her arms folded, watching the celebrating Konoha shinobi.
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
"Interesting."
As far as Tagorihime remembered, the Sage Art of Ryuchi Cave was not supposed to be this powerful.
Furthermore, this was certainly not strength that a beginner should have been capable of displaying.
It seemed that Kiyohara truly was worthy of being favored by the White Snake Sage.
He possessed the potential to become a dragon.
Soon afterward, her figure dissolved into a cloud of white smoke and disappeared.
The Katsuyu clones also began to withdraw.
The small slugs crawled off the wounded, gathering together before merging back into one enormous slug.
"Lady Tsunade, the conditions of the injured have stabilized."
Katsuyu's gentle voice echoed softly.
"Thank you for your hard work, Lady Katsuyu."
Tsunade's relieved voice came from inside the command tent.
Katsuyu nodded before vanishing in a puff of white smoke.
The cheers on the battlefield continued.
Yet everyone's gaze drifted toward the same direction from time to time.
There, a figure was walking toward them from afar.
It was Kiyohara.
He wore black chain armor, with several traces of blood and burn marks staining his clothing.
The Konoha shinobi looked at him with expressions of astonishment.
Someone suddenly remembered the scene from earlier.
The waterfall descending from the heavens.
The enormous lake formed in an instant.
That seemingly endless supply of chakra.
"Captain Kiyohara..."
Someone muttered.
"Can a human really do something like that?"
No one answered.
Because everyone was thinking the exact same thing.
Kiyohara reached the edge of the battlefield and stopped.
His eyes swept across the injured shinobi, the recovering wounded, and the comrades who were celebrating their victory.
Then he nodded slightly.
"Everyone did well."
His voice was not loud.
Yet it reached every person's ears clearly.
After a brief silence, an even louder wave of cheers erupted.
"Captain Kiyohara!"
"Long live Captain Kiyohara!"
"Long live Konoha!"
Kiyohara nodded lightly.
"Kiyohara!"
Kurenai and Rin ran over as well.
The commotion from earlier had been impossible to miss.
Even though Kiyohara had deliberately lured Roshi away from the battlefield, everyone had still witnessed the ninjutsu he unleashed.
It was practically as if he had artificially created an entire lake.
A lake that had fallen from the sky.
Many shinobi had never witnessed anything remotely similar in their entire lives.
"What technique did you use just now?"
Kakashi approached as well, curiosity written across his face.
Roshi had obviously used Lava Release.
That meant the enormous Water Release technique could only have come from Kiyohara.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave."
Kiyohara answered.
This technique was an advanced version of Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave.
Only Kisame and the Second Hokage had ever been known to use it.
Very few Water nature users practiced it.
The reason was simple.
It consumed an enormous amount of chakra.
When Kisame used the technique, he could transform an ordinary wasteland into a lake.
Kiyohara, however, could create a lake several times larger than anything Kisame could produce.
"Then... did you defeat him?"
Rin asked.
"Of course."
Kiyohara nodded.
If the battle had continued, he still would not have run out of chakra before Roshi did.
But Kiyohara also had the Sharingan as a hidden trump card.
If Roshi became careless even once, Kiyohara could directly interfere with him using Sharingan genjutsu, dramatically increasing his chances of victory.
"Alright, I'm going to see my teacher."
After chatting briefly with them, Kiyohara headed toward the command tents.
Earlier, he had noticed that the number of Katsuyu clones on the battlefield had increased.
The only possible explanation was that Tsunade had summoned them.
Before long, Kiyohara found her.
Tsunade stood with her arms folded, her brown-gold eyes fixed on him.
" Sensei, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki escaped after being severely injured. I severed one of his arms. I doubt he'll be able to recover it."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
The regenerative abilities of a Jinchūriki were indeed terrifying.
However, they could not regrow severed limbs.
In truth, even in the current shinobi world, limb regeneration remained an extremely rare medical achievement.
Kiyohara did not believe Roshi possessed any method capable of restoring a missing arm.
On the contrary, the Four-Tails chakra he had obtained could eventually be used in synthesizing the Ten-Tails.
After all, creating the Ten-Tails did not require complete Tailed Beasts.
Only a portion of chakra from each of the nine Tailed Beasts was necessary.
"If he escaped, then he escaped. You're not injured, are you?"
Tsunade walked around Kiyohara twice, inspecting him carefully.
"I'm fine. I just used up quite a bit of chakra."
Kiyohara shook his head.
His Strength of a Hundred Seal would need time to accumulate chakra again.
Fortunately, his recovery speed was incredibly fast.
By tomorrow, it would probably be nearly replenished.
What concerned him more now was Hyuga Kiyohara's Last Wills.
Compared to defeating Karatachi Yagura, whose whereabouts were still unknown, fusing Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm with Daytime Tiger was clearly a much easier objective.
"As long as you're alright."
Tsunade reached out and rubbed his forehead.
This time, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki had led his forces aggressively in an attempt to rescue the Tsuchikage's son.
Instead, he had been beaten back by Konoha.
The impact on Iwagakure's morale would be devastating.
Tsunade could already imagine Ōnoki's face turning green with rage.
The thought made her smile.
"Alright. Don't let your guard down."
"I know, Sensei."
Kiyohara nodded.
After leaving the tent, he saw Konoha's shinobi cleaning up the battlefield.
Several kilometers away, the enormous lake was gradually shrinking as well, leaving behind only the portion of water that Kiyohara had diverted from nearby streams.
"Continue teaching me Gentle Fist."
Kiyohara arrived at a secluded area and spoke.
As soon as his words fell, the spirit of Hyuga Kiyohara floated out.
With Hyuga Kiyohara personally possessing and guiding him, Kiyohara's training speed in Gentle Fist was astonishingly fast.
"Very well. Today I'll teach you Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms."
Hyuga Kiyohara said.
This palm technique progressed from Two Palms, to Four Palms, Eight Palms, Sixteen Palms, Thirty-Two Palms, and eventually Sixty-Four Palms.
Members of the branch family could only learn up to Thirty-Two Palms.
"Okay."
Kiyohara nodded and immediately began training.
In truth, he had already learned Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
However, he wanted to first master all the inherited Gentle Fist techniques.
Doing so would deepen his understanding of the style as a whole.
For someone with talent, Gentle Fist could be continuously expanded upon.
Hyuga Neji had comprehended Sixty-Four Palms from Thirty-Two Palms.
Afterward, he had even developed Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms.
His talent had truly been extraordinary.
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
"Obito, I heard Kiyohara defeated another Jinchūriki again. By the way, wouldn't it be better if Kiyohara played the role of Madara instead?"
White Zetsu said with a grin.
His intelligence network was exceptionally efficient, allowing him to learn about the battle almost immediately.
"Hmph."
Obito snorted coldly.
Madara's plan required him to impersonate Madara, gather all nine Tailed Beasts, and obtain the Ten-Tails.
Yet up to this point, he had not even made contact with a single Jinchūriki.
"For now, I'll take control of Kiri first. Only then will I have time to deal with the Tailed Beasts."
Obito said.
He intended to use Kirigakure as a breeding ground for the future Akatsuki.
The ideological conflict between Nagato and Yahiko had already grown larger and larger.
Large enough that Nagato might eventually choose to follow Obito.
In that regard, Obito genuinely admired Black Zetsu.
He had no idea how Black Zetsu's mouth was so incredibly good at manipulating people.
(End of Chapter)