To describe the creature before them as merely a cockroach felt somewhat inaccurate. At most, it resembled a colossal moth, and in terms of sheer visceral repulsion, it still fell far short of an actual cockroach.
But one thing was undeniable: the monster's skin, a shifting palette dominated by purples, blues, and greens, screamed power. An ordinary shinobi wouldn't stand a chance against it.
"What... is that..."
The sudden appearance of the Seven-Tails' massive form in the outer forests of Konoha delivered such a visual shock that nearly everyone present was momentarily stunned into inaction.
The strain of peering into a Tailed Beast's seal had placed immense mental pressure on Kakashi, yet the sense of déjà vu allowed him to instantly grasp the creature's true nature.
"A Tailed Beast..." he murmured, covering his left eye with one hand.
The scene unfolding irresistibly reminded Kakashi of the Nine-Tails Incident...
"To be precise," Habara interjected, "it should be Takigakure's Seven-Tails."
Although Habara had no idea why this was happening, he at least knew what needed to be done next.
"Ku— Sealing Team! Call the Sealing Team, now!" he shouted at the ANBU operative behind him.
If Kushina Uzumaki were currently in Konoha, this situation would be considerably easier to handle. She could suppress the Seven-Tails while the remaining Konoha shinobi swarmed it. The problem was, Kushina wasn't here.
Besides calling the Sealing Team, the Third Hokage needed to be informed immediately. Considering the forces deployed within the Forest of Death, even including Habara himself, they probably couldn't truly defeat a Tailed Beast... This time, Habara wouldn't be able to just toss a shuriken and retreat gracefully. Given the circumstances, he might have to act as the primary combatant against the Seven-Tails.
Facing a Tailed Beast head-on was an entirely different battle compared to providing support from the sidelines with a few powerful jutsu.
Fortunately, the Seven-Tails had appeared in the outer Forest of Death, not within Konoha proper. Unfortunately, the Seven-Tails was a highly mobile Tailed Beast... It truly was a giant moth, complete with wings. It could fly.
"First, we need to draw its aggro."
As he spoke, dark crimson markings already crawled across Habara's skin—since this world lacked dedicated tanks, drawing threat was also the DPS's job.
A unique hum, rapidly spinning blades of wind, a sphere of white light—Habara instantly formed a Rasenshuriken and hurled it directly at the Seven-Tails, which was just flexing its wings, preparing for takeoff.
While the Rasenshuriken wasn't incredibly fast, its accuracy against large targets like this was usually high. However, Chomei, the Seven-Tails, possessed six wings. Facing the incoming ball of high-density chakra, it rapidly beat the wings on its right side. The massive creature performed an incredibly nimble barrel roll, effortlessly dodging Habara's attack.
"..."
Without even glancing at the shinobi below, the Seven-Tails continued its ascent. Once airborne, its target was, predictably, the nearby village of Konoha.
Just then, however, something resembling a giant, circular pot lid materialized directly above the Seven-Tails. The hovering "lid" suddenly lost its unseen support and plummeted from the sky... The sight strongly evoked a fly swatter slamming down on a moth.
Earth Style: Falling Lid!
Habara tilted his body slightly and, sure enough, spotted the ANBU captain forming hand seals nearby.
It proved his point: drawing aggro was best done with large-area attacks. Getting dodged like that was just embarrassing.
Habara's Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, thrown at a steep upward angle, flew a considerable distance before violently exploding mid-air. The Earth Style: Falling Lid slammed the Seven-Tails beneath it into the ground. A tremendous, muffled boom echoed, followed by a blast of wind and a thick cloud of dust rushing towards them.
Of course, for a Tailed Beast, such a blow to the head served merely to momentarily restrict its movement. Could a technique like this actually injure the Seven-Tails? Impossible.
Regardless, its attention was definitely drawn now. After all, even a normal person would fly into a rage after being smacked upside the head, let alone a creature as inherently volatile as a Tailed Beast.
"Fall back! Get out of this area!"
Kakashi caught sight of pale yellow, scale-like powder spreading with the dust cloud and immediately issued the warning. He had been on high alert all day, but he was also starting to feel like nothing was going right.
First poisonous gas, now powder attacks – why were all the enemies using wide-area assaults? Everyone today seemed determined to lower Konoha's air quality.
The Seven-Tails threw off the earthen lid, releasing even more powder into the air. The Seven-Tails' Scale Powder Jutsu not only obscured vision but, more importantly, the dispersed scales possessed a unique paralytic property, capable of quickly immobilizing any enemy caught within its range.
"Don't get close! Use long-range attacks!" Habara added.
The Seven-Tails had its own poisonous aura; shinobi lacking long-range capabilities couldn't even approach it. Even typical ranged fighters would struggle... their definition of 'long-range' simply wasn't long enough.
Clang!
Habara drew his bow and fired. The speeding iron arrow struck the Seven-Tails' torso, but it seemed to hit squarely on its carapace. Instead of piercing through, the arrow ricocheted off harmlessly.
By now, the Seven-Tails was airborne again. If left unrestricted, it didn't even need a devastating technique; simply circling above the Forest of Death while continuously spreading its scale powder would be enough to neutralize all the shinobi here.
"Tenzo!" Kakashi called out.
Kakashi himself had few ways to deal with flying targets, but that didn't mean he was helpless. He needed Tenzo's cooperation for his next move.
Tenzo, behind Kakashi, nodded in understanding. Instantly, thick branches surged from the ground beneath Kakashi, rapidly lifting him high into the air. Then, holding his breath and steadying himself, Kakashi leaped forcefully into the spreading cloud of scale powder, and...
Unleashed a Fire Style jutsu.
After the single strike, gravity quickly pulled Kakashi out of the powder's range. Another rapidly grown wooden pillar rose to catch him safely.
The wide-area fire attack washed over the Seven-Tails, but what effect could a fleeting burst of flame have on a heavily armored Tailed Beast...? Judging by appearances, among the Tailed Beasts, the Seven-Tails' physical defense was perhaps second only to the Three-Tails; both were shelled creatures.
"Kakashi-senpai, that's all you did?"
Such a feeble attack inevitably drew a scornful thought from Tenzo, who was coordinating with Kakashi. He finally gets close to the Tailed Beast, and this is what he does? You had your chance and blew it!
"Cut the chatter, this is a Tailed Beast," Kakashi retorted.
It wasn't fair to call Kakashi useless; he also lacked truly long-range attacks. If not for the scale powder, he surely could have at least inflicted a scratch.
Alright, Habara now felt he really couldn't rely on his teammates. He sighed. Maintaining Blood Revelry Mode, activating his Technique of Six Rens to its maximum, and pushing the Arc Gradient Sevenfold Amplification to the third rotation, he stacked buffs upon himself. Then, he rapidly scaled the vertical wooden pillars Tenzo had created, ascending high into the air.
Reaching the very top of the highest pillar, he leaped without hesitation.
He stretched his limbs mid-air, then... began to fall.
It looked like an incredibly amateurish mistake. Habara seemed to have completely misjudged the distance to his enemy, botching the attempt. But just as the Seven-Tails shifted its attention away from the ninja about to splatter himself on the ground, Habara moved his arms and legs in a motion resembling a breaststroke. Suddenly, he shot forward, rapidly closing the distance to the Seven-Tails... Acting like I can't fly?
Such a simple trick would hardly fool a shinobi with high combat intelligence, but deceiving a Tailed Beast? The Seven-Tails clearly seemed to be lacking in the brain department.
The Mercury Sword in Habara's left hand began to rapidly extend, transforming in an instant into a true "absurdly long forty-meter blade."
The Seven-Tails' wings looked thin as a cicada's, though realistically, wings capable of supporting such a massive body couldn't possibly be so fragile. However, compared to the rest of its exceptionally well-defended body, its wings were clearly a weak point.
And indeed they were. Habara's chilling Mercury Sword, moving with extreme speed, struck the upper spar of the topmost wing on the Seven-Tails' right side. With a secondary surge of strength, the sword pierced through the bone.
The Seven-Tails, which had been happily scattering its powder, let out a sudden, piercing shriek, as if Habara's blade had struck a major nerve cluster.
Logically, Habara should now perform a 'mountain-splitting cleave' and sever the wing entirely. Yet, no matter how much force he applied with his left hand, the downward slash wouldn't follow through... His forty-meter blade seemed snagged on the Tailed Beast's bone.
"Damn it, are you kidding me?!"
Habara gritted his teeth. Next, exerting effort with his previously injured right arm, he flung another Rasenshuriken towards the Seven-Tails.
Pinned by the elongated sword and reeling from the sharp pain, the Seven-Tails couldn't react to anything else. Without evasion, the Rasenshuriken accurately struck the exact spot Habara intended – still the topmost wing on its right side.
The high-density chakra sphere exploded violently. Billions of instantaneous microscopic blades assaulted the target; the supreme Wind Style jutsu immediately compromised the Seven-Tails' physical integrity in that area. Under the kinetic impact of the wind attack, as Habara slowly pressed down with his left wrist, the Mercury Sword in his hand finally began to cut downwards again. Once the blade severed the upper wing spar, slicing through the wing membrane itself was disgustingly smooth, like cutting through butter.
From Habara's initial leap to this moment, only seconds had passed, yet he had already separated the Seven-Tails from one of its wings. It looked simple, but it truly wasn't – not just anyone could pull out a forty-meter longsword.
What should have been a standard ninja-versus-Tailed-Beast battle had somehow been turned into an aerial dogfight, courtesy of Habara.
The loss of a wing sent the Seven-Tails spiraling out of control. It wasn't that it couldn't fly with one less wing, but it couldn't adapt to the imbalance instantly, let alone correct its flight path. It began to plummet towards the ground.
As it fell, the Seven-Tails finally registered who its attacker was. Its tail whipped towards Habara like a giant's flail. Habara only had time to cross his arms in front of him before he was violently smashed back down to earth.
BOOM!
Like a cannonball, Habara slammed diagonally into the Forest of Death, carving a massive crater and sending spiderweb cracks across the ground. He tumbled end over end, crashing through countless trees before finally skidding to a halt.
For a split second, Habara felt consciousness slip away. Then, a searing pain flared in his chest, like plunging into lava, snapping him back to awareness... It felt like he'd been hit by a siege ram.
"Cough... cough cough..."
With deep, ragged coughs, copious amounts of blood spilled from his mouth, soaking the front of his attire.
Breathing felt like operating a broken bellows, the agony in his lungs telling him he'd suffered severe internal injuries.
He had to thank his past self for focusing on reinforcing his upper body defense early on. His "Iron Armor" was never off, and the passive enhancement to his physical toughness from absorbing the Ryumyaku had saved him. Otherwise, he might have met his end right here.
Yet, even after taking such a heavy blow, Habara's first thought was neither worry over his injuries nor hatred for the Seven-Tails, but rather...
This Seven-Tails' tail whip... packs more punch than the Nine-Tails'..."
Alright, so he was making comparisons now.
It was a reasonably accurate assessment, though. The Nine-Tails' tails were the fluffy, relatively short type, while Chomei's actual tail was long and whip-like... The so-called "Seven Tails" were actually six wings plus one tail. Strictly speaking, the Seven-Tails was also a One-Tail.
CRASH! BOOM! More massive impacts sounded nearby.
Habara had watched the Seven-Tails begin its uncontrolled descent, yet he himself had made intimate contact with the ground first. Only then did the Tailed Beast finally crash land. Wasn't that just fantastic?
After hitting the ground, perhaps due to the extreme pain of losing a wing, the Seven-Tails began thrashing wildly, tearing up trees, rocks, and earth across a wide area.
Habara struggled to his feet. Kakashi quickly appeared at his side.
"Habara, are you alright?"
"Do I look alright?"
In truth, Habara's arms were still highly numb; he couldn't feel anything in them at all.
"You..." Kakashi started to say something more, but his words were cut off. Because...
After thrashing for a while, the Seven-Tails seemed to calm down slightly, becoming quieter. The ground stopped trembling. However, this was not a good sign. Because...
Everyone saw the "black sphere" materializing near its mouth.
This thing... it's charging its ultimate.
"A Tailed Beast Bomb! We need to get out of here, fast!" Kakashi urged.
Habara glanced at the direction the Tailed Beast Bomb was aiming. He bit his lip, silent for four or five seconds, then seemed to reach a decision.
When your side is critically injured, the boss is stunned but charging a map-wide ultimate attack, what do you do?
Habara gritted his teeth, making a judgment completely opposite to Kakashi's:
"No...
Prepare to force the kill."