Chapter 172 Konoha Reinforcements
As Mei Terumi finished speaking, the surviving sealing team ninjas on the scene began to move in unison. Several purple pillars of light shot into the sky, enveloping Yagura and the three others.
"Yagura, surrender!" Mei Terumi roared.
In the center of the battlefield, the three-tailed giant turtle watched the barrier gradually forming around it, saying nothing. It simply opened its massive maw, and violent chakra gathered before it, slowly forming a black sphere compressed with terrifying chakra.
"Tailed Beast Ball? Are you crazy?" Utakata, inside the Six-Tails Saiken, said in disbelief. Then, Utakata shouted to those maintaining the barrier, "All members of the barrier team, stop what you're doing and retreat! Retreat as far as possible!"
Utakata himself was a Jinchūriki of a Tailed Beast, so no one knew its destructive power better than him. Although Tailed Beasts possessed various wondrous abilities, the most destructive technique of all Tailed Beasts was always the Tailed Beast Ball.
Compared to other flashy ninjutsu, the Tailed Beast Ball is pure numerical power and the most violent destructive force.
The barriers cast by the rebels, who are at most Special Jonin, are absolutely incapable of surviving the impact of the Tailed Beast Ball.
However, after Yutaka finished speaking, the surrounding barrier team all looked up blankly at Mei Terumi and Zabuza above Saiken's head.
"Everyone, retreat!" The two, experiencing the power of the compressed Tailed Beast Ball up close, repeated Yutaka's words.
Only then did the barrier team begin to retreat. Seeing this, Yutaka, along with the Six-Tails Saiken, began to condense a Tailed Beast Ball.
The next moment, the Tailed Beast Balls in front of the Three-Tails and the Six-Tails shot out together, colliding in mid-air.
"Boom!" A massive explosion rang out, and a huge mushroom cloud slowly rose above the Hidden Mist Village. The houses in the area were reduced to dust almost instantly. The barrier team, who had hesitated and retreated somewhat late, only managed to escape the epicenter of the explosion. The shockwave sent them flying, and a few of the weaker ones were instantly injured by the shockwave, coughing up blood.
"This...is this the destructive power of a Tailed Beast?" Mei Terumi, though unharmed under the protection of Utakata and Saiken, couldn't help but show a look of horror as she looked at the vast, barren land around her.
When Hashirama Senju distributed the Tailed Beasts to various villages, although it didn't bring lasting peace to the ninja world as he had envisioned, it did play a role in curbing the intensity of war. While all the five great nations' ninja villages possessed Tailed Beasts as powerful weapons, the actual number of Tailed Beasts and Jinchuriki deployed in the four Shinobi World Wars was very limited. Therefore, aside from Konoha, which had been truly devastated by the Nine-Tails, most ninjas had little concrete understanding of the destructive power of the Tailed Beasts.
Now, witnessing the destruction unleashed by the Tailed Beast Balls of two Tailed Beasts, everyone remembered why Tailed Beasts were often described as natural disasters in ancient texts.
"We can't possibly intervene in a battle like this," Zabuza murmured, swallowing hard.
Mei Terumi was alright; her two bloodline limits didn't lack large-scale destructive capabilities, allowing her to contribute somewhat in a clash of such behemoths. However, Zabuza's skills lay solely in assassination; he was utterly powerless in the face of such a battlefield.
"Zabuza, go help the others first. Leave this to me and Utakata," Mei Terumi said after taking a deep breath.
"Okay, then be careful." Zabuza nodded. Utakata then escorted him to the edge of the battlefield. Zabuza didn't hesitate much and turned to head towards the battlefield between the rebels and the Hidden Mist ninja.
...
"Looks like it's started over there too." Uchiha Touko looked calmly in the direction of the explosion. He wasn't far from the area where the two tailed beasts were located, and he could easily see their figures by looking up.
At this moment, a Jonin from the Hidden Mist village, seeing that Uchiha Touko was somewhat distracted, immediately drew his sword and rushed forward, wanting to take this opportunity to kill Uchiha Touko. However, Uchiha Touko simply turned slightly to the side, dodging the fatal blow, and then beheaded the attacker with a single strike.
Then, Uchiha Touko casually tossed aside his newly dulled standard-issue ninja sword, kicked the attacker's weapon into the air and caught it. In just a short while, Uchiha Touko had already changed swords three times.
"Not bad, but you should still concentrate in battle." At this moment, a somewhat cold voice rang out behind Uchiha Touko. Uchiha
Touko turned around and saw Zabuza, wielding the Executioner's Blade, who had saved one of his teammates and killed his opponent in one strike. Zabuza looked at Uchiha Touko with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
"Lord Zabuza." Uchiha Touko nodded and bowed.
"With your skills, after we succeed this time, you might become one of the new Seven Ninja Swordsmen." Zabuza said.
"Then I'll take Zabuza-sama's auspicious words into consideration," Uchiha Touko said. But after Zabuza left, Uchiha Touko frowned, thinking to himself, "It's already this late, why haven't they arrived yet?"
Although it was night, as the battle intensified, the thick fog that lingered over Kirigakure took on an eerie pinkish-bloody hue under the dim light. The stench of blood in the air grew stronger; the Village of Blood Mist truly lived up to its name tonight.
Uchiha Touko wasn't aware of the situation on other battlefields, but on his own, the resistance had gained a significant advantage.
Most of the Kirigakure ninja who came to resist were Chunin and Genin, lacking the will to fight strongly against the overwhelming force. They usually offered only token resistance before surrendering. Only the powerful Jonin and Anbu were still fighting desperately; they were all beneficiaries of the Blood Mist policy and staunch loyalists of Yagura. Boom
! Another earth-shattering tremor erupted as two Tailed Beast Balls collided once more on the Tailed Beast battlefield.
At the same time, high-temperature steam rose up after the explosion, and the three-tailed iso, enveloped in this steam, let out a low, angry roar, seemingly having completely lost its mind.
"Karagi Yagura! Do you still want to resist?" Terumi Mei shouted angrily, "You have no chance of winning. Continuing to resist will only increase the casualties in our village!"
Inside the Three-Tails' body, in Yagura's eyes, the Mangekyou Sharingan's genjutsu was slowly disintegrating. However, as the genjutsu faded, the Three-Tails' chakra became increasingly violent, and Yagura's life force was also draining away.
On the other battlefields, the resistance forces held a significant advantage, especially Nanmon, whose forces were personally led by Kisame Hoshigaki, who had never intended to participate in the fight against the Three-Tails. The battle was nearing its end, with only a dozen or so Jonin and Anbu remaining, desperately holding on under Kisame's relentless bombardment of Water Shark Bullets. However, their defeat was only a matter of time.
However, just as they were about to perish under Kisame's Water Shark Bullet, a figure engulfed in blue flames flew in from afar, cleaving through the large area of water created by Water Release ninjutsu. Then, with a single kick, he shattered the enormous shark-shaped water bullet in mid-air—a giant shark formed from water-style chakra—into tiny droplets that fell to the ground. The
suddenly appearing figure landed gracefully, using Water-Treading Technique to stop on the small lake formed by the battle. The water droplets from the shattered Water Shark Bullet landed on the newcomer, but were quickly evaporated by his aura, rising as mist.
"Who goes there?" Kisame Hoshigaki stared intently, noticing the newcomer dressed in a green bodysuit. In the dim light, his bowl-shaped hair gleamed almost blindingly. Hearing Kisame's question, Might Guy grinned, giving a thumbs-up: "Konoha, Might Guy!"
"It's...it's him?" The surrounding resistance ninjas looked on incredulously. Some of them had participated in the previous operation to invade Konoha's border. Last time, this man had forced their commander to retreat simply by training on a cliff by the sea on the Land of Fire's border. Some of them had investigated the reason behind it, learning that their village's proud Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had been defeated by a man dressed like this during the Third Shinobi World War, killing four of them single-handedly. And now, he was here.
"A Konoha ninja? What are you doing here?" Kisame Hoshigaki asked, frowning.
Just then, the space around Might Guy began to distort, and a white-haired man wearing a headband appeared from the void. His eyes gleamed with a pair of scarlet Mangekyou Sharingan. Kakashi arrived and said somewhat helplessly, "Guy, you ran too fast."
"Wasn't it because I was seasick and wasted too much time? I was afraid of delaying important matters," Might Guy replied.
"Your Konoha are entering our Land of Water at this time. Do you intend to start a war?" Kisame Hoshigaki narrowed his eyes, drawing his greatsword Samehada from behind his back. With a slight flick of his wrist, the bandages wrapped around Samehada broke inch by inch, revealing the somewhat ferocious-looking blade.
"We received a plea for help from the Mizukage, requesting Konoha to send troops to help Kirigakure suppress the rebellious rebels." Kakashi glanced at Kisame's greatsword Samehada and said coldly, "So, you are the rebels causing trouble in Kirigakure?"
"A plea for help from Konoha? How could he do this? Has he forgotten how many of our comrades died at the hands of Konoha ninjas?" A rebel ninja in the crowd spoke angrily, "Konoha ninjas! Get out of our village! This is Kirigakure's own business!"
Kakashi turned coldly to look at the speaker, a flash of red light in his eyes. The man who had just spoken felt dizzy, and when he came to his senses, he found that his upper and lower body had been strangely separated. The next moment, blood gushed out, and his legs, which were still on the ground, swayed and fell.
"Many of our Konoha ninja have died at the hands of your Kirigakure in the war," Kakashi said coldly. "So, if it weren't for your Mizukage promising such a huge reward, Konoha wouldn't have bothered getting involved in your affairs."
With that, the Mangekyou Sharingan tomoe in Kakashi's eyes spun rapidly, and a Kirigakure ANBU who had just been in grave danger from Kisame's Water Shark Bullet vanished into thin air. The next instant, the man appeared beside Kakashi. Kakashi grabbed the man by the collar and asked, "Where is your Mizukage? He's not dead, is he?"
"Lord Mizukage…Lord Mizukage is fighting the rebel leader," the Kirigakure ANBU said with difficulty, his legs thrashing as Kakashi grabbed him by the
collar. "Is this the kind of trash Kirigakure ANBU are? No wonder you can't handle these rebels," Kakashi said, tossing the ANBU aside like trash.
A commotion arose not far away; Konoha's army had arrived at the outskirts of Kirigakure and begun fighting the rebel ninja.
The previous battles had exhausted the rebels, leaving them weakened and quickly overwhelmed by the sudden arrival of the Konoha ninja.
"Guy, I'll leave this to you. I need to help that Mizukage; if he dies, we won't get paid for our service," Kakashi said to Guy.
"Alright, I'll take care of this!" Might Guy stretched, his blue aura erupting once more, and turned to Kisame Hoshigaki. "By the way, you're their leader, right? What's your name?"
"Kisame Hoshigaki." Kisame gripped his Samehada, sensing Might Guy's astonishing aura, and licked his lips. "Are you the legendary Konoha Beast? Or... Pressure Masne?"
With that, the two charged at each other.
The next instant, the Samehada sword, carrying a foul stench, slashed down, and Kai leaned back, the blade grazing his nose, the resulting wind carving a ten-foot-deep furrow into the water.
"As expected of Konoha's prized beast," Kisame emerged from the water curtain, his shark-like fangs gleaming coldly. "But in the water… this is my home turf!"
Kisame's hands formed hand seals so fast they were mere afterimages. "Water Release: Great Exploding Water Wave!"
The entire lake seemed to be lifted by an invisible hand, a hundred-meter-high wall of water blotting out the sky.
Kai's pupils constricted; this scale of water release was beyond the realm of ordinary ninjutsu.
As the giant wave crashed down, he clasped his hands together in front of his chest, chakra surging through the meridians of the Eight Gates.
"Sixth Gate of View, open!"
Emerald steam shot into the sky, the violent airflow forcefully tearing open the waterfall-like water curtain. Kai walked on air, each step creating a circular shockwave on the water's surface. Kisame grinned, and his Samehada suddenly disintegrated into thousands of scales, each transforming into a man-eating shark that lunged forward.
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(End of Chapter)