At that moment, the lower leg of Akashō that stood on the ground felt a faint chill. Looking down, he saw countless venomous snakes and pythons crawling upward in a dense swarm.
Orochimaru, huh.
Akashō glanced around, but all he could see was trouble everywhere—there was no sign of where Orochimaru himself was hiding.
In the brief moment of distraction, the snakes had already climbed up to his calf and were still moving higher.
Akashō let out a cold snort inwardly. So starting with the Stone Village made you uncomfortable, huh?
"Buzz—"
Akashō controlled the steam ability that came with the Colossal Titan. The faint vapor around his lower leg instantly thickened, and the intense heat immediately scalded all the snakes clinging to him to death. They fell to the ground in a clattering cascade like rain.
Then Akashō lifted his leg, swung it back for momentum, and with a roaring whoosh of air, kicked toward the direction of the Konoha shinobi.
This scene made Orochimaru, who had been observing in secret, change his expression instantly.
That bastard—if that kick lands, at least dozens of Konoha ninja will die!
Gritting his teeth, Orochimaru dashed out at high speed toward Akashō's incoming leg, forming hand seals as he ran.
"Summoning Jutsu: Triple Rashomon!"
With Orochimaru's furious shout, three demonic-faced gates rose from the ground right in front of Akashō's leg, perfectly blocking the path of the kick.
"Boom!!!"
A thunderous roar echoed again and again. The first Rashomon gate summoned by Orochimaru didn't last even a second before being shattered to pieces. But to Akashō's surprise, when it reached the second gate, his kick was actually stopped—though the gate itself was already covered in cracks.
Orochimaru let out a breath. No matter what, it was blocked.
Akashō frowned inwardly, retracting his leg and glancing at it. On the side that struck the gate, flesh and blood were already torn apart.
That gate's pretty tough. But most of this damage came from the recoil—otherwise, could Han's light punches and Orochimaru's pathetic sea of snakes really hurt him?
This Colossal Titan… unexpectedly useful.
Akashō looked at the Rashomon gates Orochimaru had summoned and swung his leg back again.
He wanted to see just how many hits that broken gate could withstand.
But just as Akashō raised his leg, a red figure suddenly shot over from afar, crashing straight into his head like a rocket. The sheer force nearly shattered half of his face.
At the same time, because he was standing on one leg, the leverage made it impossible for him to control his massive body. With a loud crash, he toppled over, kicking up a cloud of dust.
And that fall crushed quite a few Konoha and Stone Village shinobi alike, regardless of side.
Damn it—when I attack the Stone Village, Orochimaru steps in; when I attack Konoha, Han steps in. Are you two secretly spies for each other or what?
Of course, Akashō understood that once he transformed into the Colossal Titan, both sides had already tacitly entered a temporary alliance. Still, he couldn't help but complain.
"Ahhhhh!!"
Han, cloaked in a dense tailed beast chakra shroud, had already entered a half-tailed beast transformation.
He roared wildly, like an enraged ox plowing a field, throwing punch after punch at Akashō's head in rapid succession.
Akashō reached out to grab Han, but Han nimbly flipped between his fingers, then ran along Akashō's forearm while unleashing a barrage of strikes. The hand that failed to catch Han ended up slapping Akashō's own face.
Akashō frowned inwardly. In truth, the Colossal Titan wasn't slow—compared to its size, it only appeared slow visually.
But that "not slow" was only relative. When it came to size, there had always been trade-offs.
A larger body meant greater strength, while a smaller one meant greater agility.
The Colossal Titan's sixty-meter body granted power far beyond Han's, but in terms of agility, it was painfully sluggish compared to him.
And this sluggishness wasn't just about attack speed—it was about overall body control and coordination.
For example, that earlier kick against Orochimaru's Rashomon: kicking out was easy, but stopping it afterward was impossible.
Of course, Akashō hadn't intended to stop it anyway.
But not being able to catch you only applies in a one-on-one fight. Don't forget—this is a battlefield.
Akashō stopped paying attention to Han, who was jumping all over him, and instead swung a massive hand toward Stone Village shinobi who were fleeing in the distance.
As expected, this move worked perfectly. Han immediately abandoned his attack on Akashō and turned to rush toward the descending giant hand.
"Boom!"
The massive palm slammed down onto Han, who raised his arms like iron spikes to block it. The ground beneath his feet shattered instantly, and a shockwave burst outward, sending countless Stone Village ninja flying.
Han's lower legs were driven straight into the ground. Blood burst from his raised arms under the immense pressure, yet he kept his back straight and forcefully held the blow.
But Akashō had never expected that strike to kill Han. What he wanted was for Han to walk right into the trap.
Akashō suddenly clenched his hand, trapping the half-tailed beast-transformed Han within his palm. Steam began to pour out, and as the muscles contracted, it was as if Han had been thrown into molten lava inside a volcano. Even through the tailed beast chakra cloak, his skin began to sting with searing pain.
After all, a cloak was just a cloak. If it were cold, Han could block it—but against heat, he had no solution at all.
In just a few seconds, the heat from the steam penetrated through the chakra cloak and invaded Han's body. For a moment, he was like food in a steamer—pain surged from the inside out across his entire body.
At last, even this hardened warrior couldn't hold back and let out a scream.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+100 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo