"Cough, cough!"
Bloody foam spilled from the corner of Hiruko's mouth, staining half of his pale face red.
But even more unbearable than the physical pain was the humiliation.
As a shinobi of the same generation as the Sannin, as a scholar who had devoted himself to researching the fusion of bloodline limits, Hiruko was actually being suppressed like this by a mere junior.
"Chimera Technique!"
Boom!
The shattered body of the ultimate summoning beast suddenly trembled violently. From the wounds that Kiyohara had blasted open, countless dark purple, flesh-like tentacles abruptly extended outward.
These tentacles writhed like living creatures, instantly wrapping around Hiruko's body, binding him tightly and dragging him inward.
Flesh fused with flesh, bones aligned with bones, meridians connected with meridians.
Hiruko's body seemed to melt as it seeped into the torso of the ultimate summoning beast, while the beast's grotesque, fish-like head split apart from the middle, and Hiruko's upper body grew out from within.
The scene was nauseating to the extreme.
"He… he's merging with that monster!"
Shizune covered her mouth, her face turning pale.
Kurenai's genjutsu was completely ineffective in this situation. All she could do was prepare to unleash Wind Release techniques at any moment.
Inside Rin, the Three-Tails' chakra surged violently in response, a red aura coiling around her body.
She instinctively wanted to step forward to help, but Tsunade raised her hand to stop her.
"Don't go."
Tsunade shook her head.
In this situation, Rin stepping in might help, but it might also further agitate the tailed beast within her.
She had not expected that Hiruko would truly complete the Chimera Technique.
He had once shared the concept of this technique with them before.
But it would inevitably require a large number of human experiments, so Tsunade had directly rejected him at the time.
And now that the technique had been completed, what it implied needed no explanation.
"Hiruko… you really went down this path in the end."
She recalled the man from many years ago, that colleague who had buried himself in research inside the laboratory.
Back then, Hiruko had been quiet and reserved, but there had been light in his eyes.
Now, that light had long since been devoured completely by obsession.
"Sensei…"
Kiyohara's voice suddenly sounded.
At some unknown point, he had already retreated back beside the others. The massive tail behind him swayed slowly, and the orange-red markings at the corners of his eyes appeared strangely eerie under the dim light.
"Please take everyone and retreat."
Kiyohara did not turn his head. He intended to end everything here.
There were still many things waiting for him afterward. The shinobi war was not over yet.
"The battle between me and him next may affect a wide area."
Tsunade opened her mouth, but in the end, she simply nodded heavily.
"Be careful."
"I understand."
Kiyohara turned around and walked toward Hiruko once again.
After the fusion, the creature's body stood ten meters tall. Hiruko's upper body protruded from the monster's chest, while his lower half was completely fused with the lizard-like torso of the ultimate summoning beast.
The most horrifying part was his face. Hiruko's originally delicate features had become twisted and distorted. The right half still retained human characteristics, while the left half was covered in green scales.
His eyes had multiplied into three, their murky yellow pupils rotating in different directions.
"Do you see it… Kiyohara…"
Hiruko spoke, his voice sounding as if his vocal cords had been twisted.
"This is… the form of evolution!"
He raised his right arm, a bone blade slicing through the air with a deafening tearing sound.
"As I am now, I possess the infinite evolutionary potential of the ultimate summoning beast, while still retaining my intelligence and bloodline limits…"
Kiyohara looked up at the grotesque creature.
Then he said flatly, "Ugly."
"… "
In the shinobi world, the stronger one was, the higher their sense of style.
Even becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki came with a brand new outfit adorned with magatama patterns.
Hiruko's smile froze on his face.
"What… did you say?"
"I said, very ugly."
Kiyohara continued.
Hiruko was indeed intelligent, but relying solely on the Chimera Technique to reach the peak of the shinobi world was far too difficult.
Either you committed fully to taijutsu like Might Guy, or you pursued senjutsu like Kabuto.
Hiruko, who did neither, could be considered obsolete.
Because his Chimera Technique could not allow him to revert to the ancestral Ōtsutsuki lineage.
In the next moment, a repulsive force burst out beneath Kiyohara's feet.
Hiruko's three eyes widened at the same time, yet even with his current fusion of Swift Release and the dynamic vision of the ultimate summoning beast, he could only catch a fleeting afterimage.
Where?
Left?
Right?
Above?
He had misjudged.
Kiyohara appeared directly in front of him, less than three meters away.
His right hand clenched into a fist, drawn back at his waist.
Yet this simple punch made Hiruko feel a sense of danger.
"Steel Release: Complete Steel Transformation!"
Hiruko's entire upper body instantly turned into a dark metallic color, even the texture of his skin becoming as cold and rigid as steel.
Almost at the same time, Kiyohara's fist moved.
The punch struck Hiruko's crossed arms.
Bang!
A spherical shockwave exploded outward. With the point of impact as the center, the ground within a radius of thirty meters sank by half a meter!
Shattered rocks, dirt, and broken trees were swept up by the shockwave and blasted outward. Even Tsunade and the others hundreds of meters away had to raise their hands to shield themselves from the violent gust.
As for Hiruko,
it was as if he had been struck head-on by a high-speed train, his entire body sent flying backward.
On his fully steel-transformed arms, cracks spread like a spiderweb from the point of impact, accompanied by the sound of metal fracturing.
"No… impossible…"
Hiruko tried to adjust his posture midair, but the force was too overwhelming. It pierced through his steel defense and slammed viciously into his chest.
Crack!
Crack!
At least four ribs were broken.
He slammed heavily into the ground and rolled for more than ten meters before barely stopping, carving a deep trench into the earth.
"Cough…!"
A large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs spewed out.
Hiruko struggled to prop himself up, his three eyes fixed tightly on Kiyohara, who was slowly approaching.
"Why… why is your strength…"
"Your purity is too low."
Kiyohara shook his head.
He had already copied most of the techniques on Hiruko's body.
And so, he was starting to feel bored.
If there was nothing new left, then death would suffice.
"Storm Release: Thunder Cloud Void Wave!"
Seeing this, Hiruko immediately unleashed Storm Release.
The sky suddenly darkened as cumulonimbus clouds formed out of thin air under the pull of chakra, lightning flickering within the clouds.
The next second, countless fine lightning spikes poured down like a torrential rainstorm.
"Kiyohara!"
In the distance, Rin cried out in alarm.
But Kiyohara did not even look up.
He simply raised his left hand, palm facing upward.
Sage Art: Magnet Release: Gold Shield.
Golden grains surged from the ground and from the gourd at his waist, instantly forming a curved shield above his head.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
The lightning struck the dome like steel feathers, producing an unending series of metallic collisions, yet not a single one could penetrate it.
"Is that all?"
Kiyohara said.
Hiruko gritted his teeth and poured all his remaining chakra into the technique.
"Storm Release Secret Art: Storm Demon Dragon!"
The cumulonimbus clouds churned violently, expanding in an instant to cover the entire sky.
Within the clouds, the lightning shifted from blue to a blinding white. A massive dragon formed from lightning flickered in and out of view, letting out a deafening roar.
The power of this attack was even greater than the future Lightning Release: Kirin developed by Sasuke!
The giant dragon plunged downward with overwhelming momentum.
Opening its massive jaws, it completely swallowed Kiyohara's figure.
A burst of white light exploded, so bright it forced everyone to shut their eyes.
The roaring explosion shook the earth, and the shockwave flattened everything within a hundred meters.
Was it over?
Hiruko panted heavily, his three eyes staring at the center of the explosion.
The dust and smoke gradually dispersed.
A figure still stood there.
Kiyohara remained in place, his entire body wrapped in crackling arcs of electricity.
But he was not injured. He had dodged the attack just now and returned to his original position.
The speed granted by the combination of sage techniques, Magnet Release, Lightning Release, and the Body Flicker Technique made Kiyohara slightly faster than Hiruko's Swift Release.
Hiruko's development of Swift Release simply could not compare to those who specialized in it.
"Then, it's my turn."
Kiyohara's figure vanished once again.
This time, Hiruko could not even catch an afterimage.
He only felt a cold hand press down on the top of his head.
"Sensei, take everyone one kilometer away."
Kiyohara's voice came from above.
"It's about to get a bit loud."
Before Hiruko could react, the hand pressing on his head suddenly exerted force.
Boom!
Kiyohara grabbed the head of Hiruko's fused form and stomped down on the ground with both feet.
With an explosive burst of strength, the two of them shot into the sky like a cannonball, instantly breaking through the treetops and soaring straight into the clouds.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Hiruko's miserable scream quickly faded into the distance.
On the ground, Tsunade and the others looked up at the sky, only able to see two figures flying higher and higher until they became tiny black dots at the edge of their vision.
High above, the air currents were biting cold.
After the initial shock, Hiruko finally came to his senses.
The hawk-like wings on his back beat frantically as he tried to break free from Kiyohara's grip.
His bone blades slashed wildly, cutting toward Kiyohara's arm.
Clang!
The blade struck Kiyohara's arm, but only a few sparks flew.
At some point, Kiyohara's arm had already been covered in a layer of pitch-black metallic sheen.
Steel Release.
And it was a purer, more refined Steel Release than Hiruko's.
"You… how can you use the same…"
"I watched you use it so many times just now. I more or less figured out the principle."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
At such close range, Hiruko realized that Kiyohara also possessed Steel Release.
And Steel Release had many possible applications, allowing for the development of numerous techniques.
What Kiyohara had just used was clearly the same jutsu as his own.
The only difference was that it had an added layer of Earth Release: Earth Spear.
If he had not been a Steel Release user himself, he likely would not have noticed at all.
This realization nearly made Hiruko cough up blood.
The power he had obtained by turning himself into a monster had been replicated by Kiyohara so effortlessly.
In that instant, the pressure Kiyohara exerted on him far surpassed even that of the Sannin from back in the day.
But he had no time to be angry.
Because Kiyohara was accelerating.
Kiyohara was dragging him downward, accelerating in a free fall!
"You… what are you trying to do?!"
Hiruko screamed in terror.
"I want to see whether falling from two thousand meters, plus my added momentum, is something your Steel Release can withstand."
Hiruko felt a chill run through his heart. He tried to struggle, but Kiyohara's grip was like an iron vise, completely immovable.
He attempted to use Swift Release, but at such a high falling speed, any movement in any direction might cause him to smash into the ground first and turn into a paste.
The ground rapidly expanded in his field of vision.
Three hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
Now!
Kiyohara formed a one-handed seal with his left hand, while his right still gripped Hiruko's head.
Sage Art: Fire Release: Microwave Bullet.
Kiyohara exhaled a fireball, which turned incandescent white under microwave heating.
Then he pressed the fireball onto Hiruko's chest.
"Farewell."
Kiyohara spoke, then kicked off from Hiruko's body, his figure drifting backward.
Hiruko, however, carried that fireball as he crashed toward the ground at even greater speed.
First came the flash.
Then an orange-red fireball expanded from the point of impact, turning white.
Then came the shockwave.
A ring-shaped white blast swept outward from the explosion, uprooting trees and grinding rocks into powder wherever it passed.
The earth rippled like water, splitting open into countless bottomless fissures.
Even one kilometer away, Tsunade and the others covered their ears, yet still felt their eardrums ache from the shock.
A mushroom cloud slowly rose, casting a massive shadow under the evening sky.
Dust and smoke spread everywhere, obscuring the entire battlefield.
After a moment of silence, the sound of footsteps slowly emerged from within the dust.
A figure walked out.
It was Kiyohara.
He had already returned to his normal state and descended from the sky.
As the smoke gradually dispersed, the scene at the center of the explosion was revealed.
A massive crater over one hundred meters in diameter had formed, with a depth of ten meters.
At the bottom lay a charred mass barely maintaining a human shape, twitching faintly.
It was Hiruko.
Or rather, what remained of him.
He had already separated from the ultimate summoning beast.
"… …"
Each breath he took brought out bloody foam.
Kiyohara walked to the edge of the crater and looked down.
"Still alive? As expected of a body fused with multiple bloodline limits. Your vitality is indeed tenacious."
He jumped down into the crater and landed beside Hiruko.
Hiruko's one remaining intact eye turned to stare at him.
"Why… why are you…"
"Why am I stronger than you?"
Kiyohara finished the sentence for him.
"Because my effort surpasses yours."
Kiyohara shook his head.
Hiruko relied on fusing all sorts of chaotic things together, while Kiyohara only fused himself.
One was pure, the other was a patchwork mess. The difference was obvious.
He crouched down and placed his hand on Hiruko's charred left shoulder.
Then his hand suddenly exerted force.
Crack!
Hiruko's left arm was torn off directly from the shoulder!
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
Hiruko's body convulsed violently, dark red blood gushing from the severed limb.
Mixed within the blood was green mucus, clearly the fluid of the ultimate summoning beast.
"My… my Dark Release power!"
Hiruko roared, his remaining eye nearly bulging out of its socket.
The seal of Dark Release was primarily engraved on his left arm. Losing it meant permanently losing the ability to use Dark Release!
"I need to reclaim this arm."
Kiyohara stored the severed limb away.
And then his hand reached toward Hiruko's right shoulder.
"Wait… wait!"
Hiruko tried to retreat in terror, but his body no longer obeyed him.
"You can't… Steel Release… my Steel Release…"
"Don't worry. The Steel Release bloodline is distributed across your entire skin. As long as you're alive, it can slowly recover."
Kiyohara reassured him, though his actions did not slow in the slightest.
However, Hiruko continuing to live after this was no longer a possibility.
"But I need this arm as well."
"No!!!"
A second scream.
The right arm was torn off.
Hiruko collapsed at the bottom of the crater like a worm that had lost its spine.
Both arms gone, blood pouring out like a fountain.
"Kill me… kill me…"
He muttered.
"Please… kill me…"
"Not yet."
Kiyohara shook his head.
"There are still many valuable things in your mind, like the complete formula of the Chimera Technique, and your years of research on bloodline fusion."
A red glint flashed in his eyes.
The three-tomoe Sharingan began to rotate slowly.
The genjutsu activated.
Hiruko's dilated pupils suddenly shrank, then quickly expanded again.
In his weakened state, he had no strength left to resist.
It had to be said that Hiruko's experiments were insane.
He had stitched together countless humans and summoned beasts, then attempted to fuse them.
Even merging a little girl with a dog was considered mild.
The sheer grotesqueness of his experiments made even Kiyohara feel uncomfortable.
However, the Chimera Technique he developed did have some merits.
"That's enough."
Kiyohara released the genjutsu.
Hiruko's empty gaze regained a trace of clarity.
He could only watch as Kiyohara placed his severed arms into a sealing scroll. As he struggled weakly to escape, Kiyohara's fist was already coming toward his head.
Bang.
Flesh and blood scattered across the ground.
And with that, Hiruko's life of sin came to an end.
Kiyohara felt that he had done a good deed. Compared to this, even Orochimaru's research seemed less sanity-draining.
"Hm, this sealing scroll actually survived."
Kiyohara noticed that one sealing scroll remained intact.
After thinking about it, he guessed that Hiruko had embedded the scroll into his own flesh, which was why it had been preserved.
Kiyohara had just left the bottom of the crater and walked a few dozen meters, not yet having the chance to open and inspect it, when Tsunade and the others arrived.
"Kiyohara!"
Tsunade rushed over first, grabbing his shoulders and looking him up and down.
Her ample chest swayed noticeably.
Sensei, you are practically tackling me with those.
Kiyohara very much wanted to say that.
"Are you alright?"
Tsunade asked.
"I'm fine, Sensei."
Kiyohara shook his head and looked toward the center of the explosion.
"But Hiruko is dead…"
Tsunade fell silent for a moment upon hearing this.
Everything today had happened far too quickly.
But Hiruko was a missing nin. Killing him would not cause any trouble.
Whether it was attacking comrades or conducting human experiments, either was enough to classify him as a traitor.
"Sensei, I will go deal with the remains of the ultimate summoning beast."
He was referring to the lower half that had been fused with Hiruko and then destroyed in the explosion.
"Go ahead."
Tsunade nodded. She disliked the sight of blood, so she would not go.
"Kiyohara, I will go with you."
"And me."
Kurenai and Rin spoke at the same time.
Shizune did not say anything, but she quietly stood up as well.
Kiyohara looked at them, then finally nodded.
"Alright."
The group returned to the bottom of the crater.
All around, there were scattered chunks of charred flesh and shattered bones, the remains of the ultimate summoning beast.
"The vitality of this thing is really terrifying."
Kurenai nudged a piece of twitching flesh with her foot, frowning.
"It has clearly been blown apart, yet its cells are still active."
"It was an experimental body with infinite evolutionary potential after all."
Kiyohara crouched down and placed his hand on a larger fragment.
He formed hand seals.
"Sage Art: Magnet Release: Gold Sand Furnace!"
Golden grains surged in from all directions, condensing in the air into a massive furnace-like structure.
At the base of the furnace, Kiyohara infused fire nature chakra, rapidly raising the temperature.
"Throw the fragments in."
Everyone began to act.
In the end, only the largest piece remained.
It was the heart of the ultimate summoning beast.
Even after being separated from the body, the heart was still beating slowly.
It was about the size of two human heads, covered in green scales, with veins coiling around it like tree roots.
"This is the core."
Kiyohara walked toward the heart.
The spiritual form of Toad Kiyohara appeared behind him, its horizontally slit pupils staring at the heart.
"That's it… the one I killed in the past. Destroying it will fulfill my last will."
Kiyohara could hear the excitement in its voice.
"I know."
He raised his hand, condensing highly compressed wind attribute chakra in his palm.
Wind Release: Rasengan.
A brilliant blue sphere formed in his hand, and he pressed it against the heart.
Ssshhh!
The spinning wind blades acted like countless scalpels, shredding it at the cellular level.
In the end, it completely dissolved into a pool of blood, slowly dripping onto the ground.
Now, whether it was the ultimate summoning beast or Hiruko, both were dead beyond any doubt.
Even with their regenerative abilities, they could not recover from such damage.
"That means I have fulfilled one of your last will, right?"
Kiyohara asked.
"More or less. But I feel like I am dissipating a bit too quickly."
Toad Kiyohara looked at its own spiritual form, which was already beginning to break apart into countless particles of light.
This meant that Kiyohara had completed two last wills at once.
It seemed that, deep down, it had already acknowledged Kiyohara's mastery of sage techniques.
In truth, by borrowing its sage chakra, Kiyohara had already achieved a very high level of proficiency in the Mount Myoboku Sage Mode.
And once he inherited its complete sage techniques, he would likely ascend to an even higher level.
(End of Chapter)