Chapter 262 : I'll be the bait.
When Naraku turned around, an orange-red Chakra cloak had already enveloped Rin's entire body, emitting a strange and violent aura.
The gentle girl, who had been perfectly normal just moments ago, was now on all fours like a beast, snarling at Naraku, who was blocking her path.
At the same time, her smooth, clear eyes had narrowed into vertical slits, her canines grew, protruding past her lips, and her fingernails became long and sharp like iron thorns.
"Rin...?"
Kakashi had never seen a Jinchuriki go berserk, but he had a hunch that this situation was extremely bad.
No sooner had he spoken to test the waters than Rin, like a fierce beast startled into a rage, immediately turned her head to glare at him with murderous intent, quickly rushing towards him.
"Kakashi! Watch out!"
Naraku's anxious warning rang out, and in the blink of an eye, Rin darted in front of Kakashi, her right hand raised high, swinging five blade-like nails.
He quickly raised his sword to block, but an unimaginable force surged through the blade, sending his entire body flying backward.
This wasn't the end; Rin, who was further Tailed Beast-transformed and whose form was starting to blur, seemed to have fixated on Kakashi as her enemy. Before he even landed, she immediately pursued him, intent on killing him.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"
At the critical moment, Naraku arrived with a Body Flicker, unleashing a Fire Release from the side that enveloped Rin in a wave of flames, giving Kakashi a chance to breathe.
"Cough, cough..." Kakashi spat out a mouthful of blood, asking with a bewildered expression, "What's going on?"
Naraku looked as if he hadn't fully recovered from the impact of the Genjutsu, and after two breaths, he hesitated before replying, "...The Tailed Beast probably lost control and went berserk."
"Could it be Kirigakure's doing?"
"..."
Naraku tilted his head ambiguously, neither confirming nor denying.
"Roar—!!"
A violent roar formed layers of sound waves, breaking through the fiery siege and revealing the frantic and restless "Rin" in the center, crouched on the ground.
By this point, she was close to half-Tailed Beast-transformed, her size growing even larger than before. Two thick, powerful tails whipped the ground, kicking up dust and碎stones.
Beneath the dark red Chakra cloak, her once slender limbs and delicate features were no longer visible, only sharp and terrifying claws and fangs, and a pair of round eyes glowing like熾lamps.
The moment those eyes slightly shifted, Naraku decisively activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and used Body Flicker to block in front of Kakashi.
Clang!
The next instant, a Susanoo skeleton appeared out of nowhere, enveloping Naraku and Kakashi, and collided fiercely with the beast's claw, emitting a bone-jarring screech.
Immediately, a blast of air erupted from their clash, rolling and surging outwards.
The storm caused the surrounding trees and bushes to sway and fall, and some smaller trees were directly snapped in half.
—A full-power blow from a half-Tailed Beast-transformed Jinchuriki; the sheer force was indeed extraordinary.
Naraku secretly clicked his tongue. If he hadn't activated Susanoo just now, he and Kakashi would probably have been sent flying directly.
But Susanoo couldn't be used continuously.
Even with the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power) was not truly infinite. Once the existing Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power) was exhausted, it would require a long time to recover before Susanoo could be used again.
And during that interval for recovering Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power) and Chakra, "Rin" would have enough time to kill him and Kakashi many times over.
Many light points within the range of Sensing Ninjutsu began to move away, likely Kirigakure sensing the Tailed Beast's rampage and choosing to temporarily retreat to observe.
Seeing her attack fail, "Rin" quickly jumped back two steps, creating a distance of nearly a hundred meters, and opened her now serrated mouth to condense Chakra.
The red and blue Tailed Beast Chakra instantly condensed into a pure black sphere. The high-density energy vortex swirling on its surface made Naraku's scalp tingle, and he immediately increased his Dōjutsu Power (Pupil Power) output to evolve Susanoo.
The moment Susanoo entered its second stage, the Tailed Beast Ball also formed at the same time. The intense Chakra fluctuations caused the surrounding air to twist and distort.
"Roar—!!"
"Rin" let out a sharp roar of rage, and the giant black sphere immediately shot out like a cannonball, flying menacingly towards Naraku.
Naraku quickly manipulated Susanoo to dodge to the side, barely evolving Susanoo to its third stage before the Tailed Beast Ball hit the ground.
Boom—!!!
The falling Tailed Beast Ball exploded instantly, emitting a tremendous roar like thousands of thunderclaps sounding at once.
Beams of white light burst from the black core, then rapidly expanded into a giant fireball.
Wherever the fireball expanded, grass, trees, soil, and rocks were all reduced to dust. Everything was annihilated, and even Susanoo, which couldn't escape the explosion's range in time, was completely swallowed.
The Kirigakure observing from afar saw a "sun" rise from the mountains. A faint tremor came from beneath their feet, and blinding light covered the sky, the energy so hot it almost boiled the entire mountain.
When this "sun" gradually extinguished, they used the lingering light to see a truly horrifying scene—within the continuous mountain range, a vast and empty crater had appeared.
In the center of this scorched giant pit, the only thing remaining besides the Three-Tails Jinchuriki was a pure white Susanoo.
Even though Susanoo had reached its third stage, taking a Tailed Beast Ball head-on was enough to cause it to collapse and shatter.
Kakashi awoke from the explosion's tremor, lowered his arm, and opened his eyes to find Susanoo gradually disappearing. Anxious and forgetting everything else, he immediately scrambled up, searching for Naraku's whereabouts.
"Naraku! Naraku!"
He quickly found Naraku not far from him. As he got closer, he saw that Naraku was half-kneeling on the ground, struggling to breathe, blood and tears streaming from his eyes, which were overwhelmed by the strain.
Even in such a disheveled state, when he sensed Kakashi approaching, Naraku's first reaction was to ask about him: "Kakashi, are you alright?"
"I'm fine! What about you?"
Before he could hear Naraku's reply, Kakashi saw "Rin" reappear in his field of vision.
After releasing that Ninjutsu once, she also seemed to need time to accumulate power again, so she didn't attack immediately, but instead paced back and forth in the distance.
Kakashi looked down at Naraku's abnormally pale face, and in a brief moment, many thoughts crossed his mind. Finally, his gaze firmed, and he made a resolute decision.
—If there's no way to stop the Three-Tails, at least I have to let Naraku leave...!
"Naraku, that Ninjutsu, it seems she can't use it a second time in a short period."
Kakashi tightened his grip on his sword hilt, his face filled with the calm resolve of one ready to die: "I'll be the decoy; you get out of here and go back to Konoha."
"No." Naraku shakily stood up, pulling Kakashi's wrist and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him: "I won't leave you behind."
"Don't be stubborn! Go!"
Kakashi sternly reprimanded him, and in a trance, he felt as if he had returned to that night when he almost died.
Back then, it was Naraku urging him to leave, but he refused to go.
Now, the roles had been reversed.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Read Ahead & Support
Read up to 650 chapters ahead with daily updates at 02radnovel.com
Connect & Updates:
(Twitter) • x.com/02IsmetHQ
Instagram • instagram.com/02novelofficial
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯