Five Minutes Later
During the past five minutes, Sagittarius had perfectly dodged most of Yggdrasil's attacks while destroying hundreds of its branches. Finally, fed up with this game of cat and mouse, Yggdrasil decided to escalate the battle.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH
The next moment, hundreds of millions of house-sized sharp leaves shot toward Sagittarius, who was standing on one of Yggdrasil's major branch.
Seeing this, Sagittarius fired thousands of pencil-sized spears in response, but they were far too few compared to the overwhelming number of leaves.
Each leaf was capable of killing a Jonin, and a hundred or two together might even be enough to take down a Kage.
Realizing the danger, Sagittarius curled up as black gas covered its body. But even that defense could only hold on for a few minutes.
"ROARRRRRRR!!!"
A few minutes later, Sagittarius's defense finally collapsed and it was instantly greeted by millions of leaves piercing through its body. Even when Sagittarius regenerated, the leaves tore through it faster than it could heal.
Finally, when the storm of leaves ended, a heavily mutilated panther was left lying on the ground, desperately trying to regenerate.
Before it could fully recover, Yggdrasil slammed Sagittarius away, sending it crashing into a mountain several kilometers away and destroying it completely.
'Tsk, tsk, tsk... that concludes the second round with Sagittarius's defeat and Yggdrasil's second consecutive victory!!!'
"Sagittarius lost... But Father, why are they fighting?" Sasuke asked Fugaku in confusion as he looked at the tragic scene of Sagittarius's defeat. Was his big brother really so idle that he was fighting himself?
"Your big brother created Sagittarius using the souls of Konoha's people, but it was corrupted by their evil souls. Itachi is now trying to seal it with the help of Yggdrasil."
Hearing this, Shisui shook his head in pity. Not only had the souls of Konoha's people been devoured, but even after death they were still cursed for being useless.
"Sagittarius will win."
Naruto, seeing Sagittarius lying within the ruins of the mountain, spoke with conviction.
It wasn't that he supported the people of Konoha; he simply wanted to oppose Sasuke. And Naruto always sided with the weaker party. Watching Sagittarius fight relentlessly against the gigantic Yggdrasil without ever backing down made Naruto's blood boil.
Neji, on the other hand, remained in a daze.
Seeing a battle on this scale—where hundreds of meters were erased like nothing, kilometer-long branches fell and regrew endlessly, and mountains were destroyed as easily as kicking sand—Neji finally understood why the Hokage faction feared the Uchiha so much.
"Not every Uchiha is this strong."
"Shisui-sama..."
"You can call me Big Brother just like everyone else," Shisui said with a smile.
"Is Big Brother Itachi the strongest ninja?"
"Indeed. Itachi is the strongest in the ninja world."
"Stronger than the First Hokage?"
"Yes, many times stronger."
"Can my Byakugan, which is said to be on the same level as the Sharingan, become as strong as Big Brother Itac—no, you?" Neji, who was about to compare himself to Itachi, paused before changing it to Shisui.
"Well, with the Byakugan alone, it might not be possible. But I heard from Itachi that the Byakugan has a superior form, just like our Sharingan does, called the Tenseigan. If you awaken that, you might reach the same level as Itachi."
"Ten...sei...gan. Thank you for informing me, Big Brother Shisui." Finally hearing of a way to take revenge on Kumogakure, Neji smiled happily and thanked Shisui.
"ROARRRRR!!!!!!"
Just then, Sagittarius finally recovered, and the next moment a Nine-Tailed Fox more than a kilometer tall appeared in front of Yggdrasil.
However, unlike Kurama, a snake head emerged from the end of each tail, and its entire body was colored purple-black, making the creature both beautiful and strange.
Kurama, inside Naruto, looked at the creature with amazement and astonishment. A few seconds later, he finally made a difficult decision.
Sagittarius, however, didn't care about Kurama's thoughts and immediately rushed toward Yggdrasil.
This time, Yggdrasil changed its tactics. Instead of attacking directly with branches and roots as usual, it used them to create countless lightning beasts before severing their connection to itself, making them independent.
The next moment, tens of thousands of lightning beasts—ranging from as small as rats to as large as Tailed Beasts—charged toward Sagittarius.
Like a wolf entering a flock of sheep, Sagittarius rampaged freely through them, devouring one creature after another with ease.
Naruto, seeing this, became excited.
"Look, Sasuke! Do you think that rat can even damage Sagittarius? Even I can defeat i—"
Suddenly, the rat Naruto pointed at exploded into a lightning sphere hundreds of meters wide, engulfing Sagittarius.
"Right, right. You can definitely defeat that rat," Sasuke replied with complete seriousness, which only made the humiliation even worse for Naruto.
Naruto immediately distanced himself from Sasuke, waiting for the moment Sagittarius won so he could brag about it later.
As if the rat's self-destruction had triggered a chain reaction, all the lightning beasts rushed toward the temporarily paralyzed Sagittarius and began blowing themselves up one after another.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
"ROAARRRRRR!!!"
Trapped within the continuous lightning explosions, Sagittarius roared in anger. Then, suddenly, its body began to shrink.
Seeing this, Yggdrasil immediately sent roots shooting from underground to pierce Sagittarius, but the shrinking didn't stop.
Football size...
Cricket ball size...
Marble size...
And finally—
Nothing.
"Is Sagittarius defeated...?" Naruto looked around desperately for any sign of it.
BOOOMMMMMMM
The next moment, Sagittarius suddenly reappeared directly in front of Yggdrasil's trunk as its tails rapidly expanded.
Within seconds, each of Sagittarius's nine tails grew to more than a kilometer long and nearly a hundred meters wide.
Then, strangely, the tails began wrapping around Sagittarius's main body along with a portion of Yggdrasil's trunk, forming a massive cocoon that prevented branches, roots, and leaves from reaching the main body.
Freed from outside interference, Sagittarius grinned cruelly before biting into Yggdrasil's trunk and injecting black-purple energy into it.
Sensing the danger, Yggdrasil instantly reacted.
Hundreds of branches, thousands of roots, and millions of leaves rushed toward Sagittarius, desperately trying to break through the thick barrier formed by the Nine Tails.
The other nine heads held back Yggdrasil's attacks, forming a complete deadlock.
Three Minutes Later
By now, seven of the nine heads had already been destroyed, but Sagittarius had accomplished its goal.
Nearly a kilometer of Yggdrasil's trunk had turned black.
The next moment, Sagittarius self-destructed once again, but unlike before, it didn't expand outward. Instead, its body rapidly shrank into a tiny black hole no larger than a marble.
In the next instant, the immense attractive force of the black hole began pulling in Yggdrasil's trunk.
Yggdrasil immediately tried to use its holy light power in response, but the corrupted section of the trunk could no longer be covered by it.
Within seconds, the entire corrupted portion shattered apart before being sucked into the black hole. Even the nearby roots and branches were annihilated into nothingness.
'This move is also extremely strong, and the tactics behind it were perfect. First, Sagittarius corrupted a part of Yggdrasil so it could no longer remain immune to its attacks. Then it formed a miniature black hole, absorbing nearly twenty percent of Yggdrasil's total mass.
Though honestly, these two are like cockroaches. To truly kill them, you need overwhelming strength and attacks that deal absolute damage. Otherwise, they'll just regenerate endlessly.
For Sagittarius, the Priestess's power acts as true damage. But the current Yggdrasil still isn't strong enough to completely vaporize Sagittarius. It would probably need to use its final form for that... though there isn't any need yet.'