Chapter 172: Armored Three-Tails, the Sudden Arrival of Pain
"Are you the leader of the Kirigakure rebel army?" Kakashi looked up at Terumi Mei atop the Six-Tails Saiken and said coldly.
"Hatake Kakashi?" Terumi Mei gritted her teeth, looking at Kakashi hovering in the air. "Why are you here?"
Kakashi glanced back at the Three-Tails' injuries, then said to Terumi Mei, "To be able to force a Tailed Beast to this extent, no wonder your Fourth Mizukage put down his pride to request aid from our Konoha."
"What?" Terumi Mei looked in disbelief at the Three-Tails behind Kakashi, which had already shaken off the acid and regrouped. Although in her eyes, Yagura Karatachi was already an inhumane fellow, she hadn't expected his lower limit to be this low.
Konoha and their Kirigakure had a life-and-death feud from the war. Currently, in Kirigakure, almost everyone had relatives who died at Uchiha Douhuan's hands. Yet now, Yagura Karatachi, for his Mizukage position, to continue his tyrannical rule of the Bloody Mist, actually sought help from their enemy?
"Since we have arrived, your rebellious activities should end here," Kakashi stated.
As Kakashi's voice fell, the Six-Tails Saiken's figure slowly dissipated. Terumi Mei and Utakata landed back on the ground.
"Utakata?" Terumi Mei looked at Utakata, puzzled.
Utakata, having exited Tailed Beast mode, looked gravely at Kakashi: "Those eyes of his are Mangekyou Sharingan."
"What?" Terumi Mei was aghast. She then understood why Utakata had exited Tailed Beast mode. Facing a Mangekyou Sharingan wielder, a Tailed Beast's power was completely suppressed; it was better to rely on the Jinchuriki's own strength. "Did Uchiha Douhuan also bestow this power upon you? He truly is generous."
"No, this is merely a gift from a friend," Kakashi replied.
"What do we do now?" Utakata said with a grave expression. After the great battle just now, he still had the strength to fight again thanks to the Tailed Beast, but as a Jinchuriki, he was little more than a free offering in front of a Mangekyou Sharingan wielder. And Terumi Mei, who could have been the main force against Kakashi, had nearly exhausted her chakra during the siege on the Three-Tails.
If it were only Kakashi alone, it might be manageable, but behind him, a Three-Tails was still eyeing them covetously.
"As things stand now, we can only retreat and plan for the long term," Terumi Mei looked at the battle situation on the surrounding fields. Though extremely unwilling, she could only grit her teeth and say this.
"All units, listen to my command! Take the injured comrades and retreat!" Terumi Mei and Utakata quickly fell back, then shouted to the surviving rebel ninjas on the battlefield.
"Hmph, trying to escape?" Kakashi sneered, then looked towards the Three-Tails behind him.
Seeing this, the Three-Tails once again began to gather the power of a Tailed Beast Bomb. And this time, it aimed at the rebel ninjas on the other side of the battlefield who were gradually regrouping and preparing to retreat.
Utakata, seeing this, gritted his teeth, re-entered Tailed Beast mode, and also began to condense a Tailed Beast Bomb. After all, if he allowed the Three-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb to land among their remaining ninjas, absolutely less than a tenth of their men would survive.
Two Tailed Beast Bombs collided in mid-air. The aftershock of the explosion overturned a squad of rebels who had just managed to regroup after Konoha's elites pursued them. The next instant, the Three-Tails suddenly roared and charged towards the Six-Tails on its four short legs.
"I'll hold him off! You take the men and retreat first!" Utakata roared. The Six-Tails Saiken squirmed its body and blocked the Three-Tails' path.
The two Tailed Beasts thus began a physical brawl. The Three-Tails was injured, after all, and was soon suppressed by the Six-Tails. Terumi Mei, taking this opportunity, gathered her subordinates and found the heavily injured Zabuza.
"Lady Terumi Mei, on the south gate side, Lord Kisame is currently entangled with a Konoha ninja! And on our side, the losses are quite severe," a ninja who had rushed from the southern battlefield reported to Terumi Mei.
Because Konoha's ninjas had joined the battlefield from the south, the South Gate forces, which originally had the least pressure, now became the side with the most severe losses. Even their captain was tied down by a Konoha powerhouse and hadn't been able to disengage from the battlefield until now.
Terumi Mei glanced at the Six-Tails brawling with the Three-Tails, took a deep breath, and then ordered, "Break through from the South Gate! Support Kisame along the way!"
"Yes!"
Kakashi just floated in the air, watching Terumi Mei lead the remnants of the rebel army towards the south. Subsequently, Kakashi took out a radio and issued orders to his subordinates.
"Let them leave from the south."
"Yes!"
After receiving the response, Kakashi hung up the radio, then looked at the increasingly fierce Tailed Beast battlefield and sneered.
"The people can go, but the Tailed Beast stays," Kakashi finished speaking, then floated behind the Three-Tails, which was being beaten back by the Six-Tails' acid. The two Mangekyou Sharingan in his eyes spun rapidly. Pupil power and chakra converged into a ghostly blue skeletal frame. The skeleton attached itself to the Three-Tails' body. After repairing the cracks on the turtle shell, which had been riddled with holes by Terumi Mei's Lava Release ninjutsu, the remaining parts of the skeleton formed a suit of armor on the Three-Tails' head and forelimbs.
The Three-Tails' power suddenly surged. It ferociously bit down on the Six-Tails, tearing off a large piece of chakra-formed flesh.
The Six-Tails let out a mournful cry, and Utakata within its body also suffered.
At this moment, Kakashi had already arrived within the Three-Tails' Tailed Beast space.
Kakashi frowned as he looked at the vacant-eyed Yagura Karatachi before him. The Mangekyou Sharingan imprint in the other's eyes, identical to his current one, made him sigh inwardly.
He finally understood why Kirigakure had become increasingly chaotic these past few years.
"Obito, so all these years, you've already taken revenge on Kirigakure for Rin?" Kakashi mused. "Then, leave the rest to me."
As Kakashi spoke, he used his pupil power to connect with the Mangekyou imprint on Yagura Karatachi.
During this process, Yagura Karatachi's consciousness briefly returned for an instant. Looking at Kakashi before him, Yagura Karatachi's eyes looked ready to split with rage. But before he could speak, the Mangekyou's pupil power once again submerged his will.
Tears of blood gurgled from Kakashi's eyes. He lacked Uchiha blood, after all. Continuously activating the Mangekyou Sharingan caused more damage to his body than he had anticipated. However, Kakashi still forced himself to endure, manipulating Yagura Karatachi to begin burning his own life force to augment the Three-Tails.
The Three-Tails, under Kakashi's control, went completely berserk, its attack methods all fearlessly suicidal. This made Utakata, who was planning to retreat after seeing Terumi Mei and the others successfully depart, feel extremely troubled.
The close-quarters brawl between the two Tailed Beasts grew increasingly fierce. The two constantly moving giants successively knocked down a large swath of houses. At this moment, the surviving Kirigakure residents could only kneel powerlessly on the ground, their hearts completely filled with the fear and helplessness humans feel when facing a natural disaster.
Conversely, Konoha's ninjas reacted rather calmly to this situation. A few bolder ones even complained internally, "This commotion is far worse than what the Nine-Tails caused back then."
On the other side, by the time Terumi Mei led the rebel survivors to the battlefield near Kirigakure's South Gate, the battle between Might Guy and Hoshigaki Kisame was already nearing its end.
"Kisame! Retreat!" Terumi Mei looked at Kisame, who was still using ninjutsu to contend with Might Guy, and couldn't help but urge.
"Youth cannot flee in the face of battle!" Might Guy roared upon hearing this. Red flames ignited under his feet. After stomping through the water waves beneath him, he launched a flying kick towards Kisame in the air.
Kisame, already merged with Samehada, faced this unavoidable kick and also used his strongest ninjutsu. The accumulated water beneath his feet began to converge towards the sky. A massive shark stood tall in mid-air, roaring as it shot towards Might Guy.
Seeing this, Terumi Mei could only squeeze out the last bit of chakra in her body and spit out a ball of orange acid, hoping to somewhat hinder Might Guy's offensive.
However, before the acid she spat could even touch Might Guy, it was evaporated by the high temperature generated from air friction around him.
"Is this the power taijutsu can achieve?" Terumi Mei stared in astonishment at Might Guy, who shot upwards from below like a meteor towards Kisame, and said in disbelief.
For Terumi Mei, the shock her worldview received tonight was greater than in the past nearly twenty years combined. The last time she encountered such a situation was on the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War, when she, as part of Kirigakure's reserve forces, heard that Uchiha Douhuan alone had annihilated nearly a hundred of their Kirigakure troops.
Might Guy in mid-air collided with the giant water shark roaring towards him.
An explosion no less powerful than the clash of Tailed Beast Bombs sounded. The giant shark in the air shattered violently in the explosion, scattering into a mist of water. When the water droplets landed on the faces of those below, almost everyone was startled by the scalding heat.
Might Guy and Kisame in the air were simultaneously exhausted and fell downwards. Ninjas from Konoha and the rebel army, seeing this, quickly rushed forward to catch their respective leaders. However, after Might Guy landed, he merely panted for a few breaths and then shakily stood up. But Kisame had blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and had completely fainted.
"Retreat!" Terumi Mei gritted her teeth and ordered.
Tonight's operation, they had originally been close to success, but the sudden appearance of Konoha ninjas had made them fail completely at the brink of success. Two of the rebel army's powerhouses were heavily injured, and Utakata, who was covering the rear, it was unknown if he could even escape.
As Terumi Mei and her group departed, Konoha's ninjas made no attempt to stop them, allowing this routed band of rebel remnants to flee Kirigakure.
At this time, the battle between the two Tailed Beasts had also reached its conclusion.
The Three-Tails and Six-Tails, each using their final strength, unleashed a Tailed Beast Bomb point-blank at each other. A violent explosion completely enveloped the bodies of both Tailed Beasts.
After the dust from the explosion dissipated, the figures of both Tailed Beasts had vanished. Only the bodies of Yagura Karatachi and Utakata remained on the ground, both collapsed and their conditions unknown.
Kakashi emerged from the void, came beside the two, and looked at them, who were barely breathing.
"This way, this trip can be considered worthwhile."
However, just as Kakashi was about to place seals on these two Jinchuriki, the sound of something rushing through the air suddenly came from afar.
Kakashi frowned, entering his phased state. Countless summoning beast attacks passed right through his body.
Kakashi turned his head to look. Six figures clad in red cloud robes were rapidly flying towards him.
"Akatsuki?"
"Leave the Tailed Beasts. Take your people and leave here. Otherwise, die," the orange-haired man leading the six said expressionlessly.
"And if I say no?" Kakashi touched the mechanism on his wrist and said, his eyes focused.
"Before God, your resistance is futile." Deva Path Pain raised his hand, a purple light flashing in his Rinnegan. "Bansho Ten'in."
An immense attractive force appeared out of thin air beside Kakashi. Caught off guard, Kakashi instantly lost his balance, his body uncontrollably flying towards the opponent.
Fortunately, Kakashi quickly reacted, using Kamui to enter a phased state. His intangible body escaped the gravitational pull and stopped in mid-air.
"Hmm?" Deva Path Pain also noticed the abnormality and frowned. "An ability to make the body intangible? How long can you maintain it?"
As his voice fell, the five figures in red cloud robes beside him each launched their attacks. An overwhelming barrage of ninjutsu, ninja tools, and exploding tags enveloped the area where Kakashi was.
"This is troublesome," Kakashi gritted his teeth, looking at the sky-obscuring attack. Kamui's phasing could only last five minutes, but the opponent's attacks were clearly more than just that.
Kakashi thought for a moment, then turned and ran towards the two Jinchuriki collapsed on the ground not far away. Since the opponent appeared at this juncture, they were likely targeting Kirigakure's two Jinchuriki. Getting closer to them might make the Akatsuki members hesitate to attack.
However, just as Kakashi was about to reach the two collapsed individuals, two giant eagles with black rods embedded in their bodies descended from the sky, grabbed the two on the ground with their talons, and flew into the air.
"Damn it!" Kakashi gritted his teeth. If the Jinchuriki were taken away by the opponent, then all their actions tonight would have been completely for the other party's benefit.
"Your Akatsuki provoked Iwagakure, and that wasn't enough? You want to start a war with Konoha too?" Kakashi, seeing the summoning beasts already carrying Yagura Karatachi and Utakata into the sky, turned back and said to Deva Path Pain.
"This is just a small warning. Akatsuki and your Konoha will have a battle sooner or later," Deva Path Pain said expressionlessly. "At that time, you major powers will also taste the pain of war."
Just then, a bolt of lightning cut through the night. The summoning beast eagles holding the two Jinchuriki were blasted into a bloody mist by this lightning descending from the sky. Simultaneously, jet-black pupil power began to gather around Kakashi.
Seeing the Susanoo gradually forming beside him, Kakashi also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't know how Uchiha Douhuan had arrived here from thousands of kilometers away, as long as he was here, he could feel at ease.
(End of Chapter)
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