"Huff… roar…"
The Three-Tails, restless and agitated, clawed furiously at the ground ahead with its strong forelimbs, flinging rocks and soil effortlessly into the air.
It panted heavily, the scorching white vapor it exhaled forming miniature whirlwinds that blew the dust below into a sky of flying ash.
As if only in doing so could it ease that omnipresent agony.
Just then—
The Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, who had been embedded atop the Three-Tails' head, seemed to share that extreme pain with the Tailed Beast. At this moment, his brows furrowed deeply in anguish, his eyelashes trembled slightly, and he hazily opened the eyes that had long been tightly shut.
A faint, unconscious groan escaped him.
His gaze appeared somewhat vacant as he instinctively looked around this hellish battlefield, then lowered his head to look at his own lower body, fused with that of the Tailed Beast.
Karatachi Yagura's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, as though realizing something.
Suddenly!
His spirit and will were struck hard by an invisible heavy hammer!
With a buzz, his consciousness became utterly dazed.
The real scene before his eyes instantly distorted and shifted.
The sky seemed to be splashed with a layer of thick blood-red, and an enormous, round blood moon, radiating ominous crimson light, hung inverted in the heavens.
No! That was not the moon at all!
Looking closely, it was clearly a gigantic, kaleidoscopic Mangekyō Sharingan pattern, so vast it covered the entire sky, slowly rotating in an eerie and complex formation!
That enormous eye was gazing down upon him coldly and indifferently.
As if scrutinizing a tiny insect!
"Damn it… it's the Sharingan's… genjutsu…"
Karatachi Yagura clutched his head as though it were about to split apart. Pain flashed across his young, delicate face, and he let out a hoarse, resentful murmur.
A fierce struggle surfaced on his face as he tried to resist the spiritual control that had penetrated to his very bones.
However, all such struggle was futile.
The next second, the pain and struggle on his face vanished abruptly, as if wiped away by an eraser, and his gaze once again turned hollow and frenzied.
At the same time, both his eyes and the single eye of the Three-Tails below seemed to be controlled by the same invisible thread, moving stiffly and in perfect unison as they looked far off in the same direction.
There—
In that distant direction, a massive column of thick, rolling smoke rose skyward like a black dragon linking heaven and earth.
Beneath the smoke, a crimson figure stood tall upon a scorched, elevated stretch of ground.
That figure was surrounded by a heat so intense it made one's heart tremble, distorting the air violently, making him appear as though seen through a wavering curtain of flames.
He was gazing coldly from afar, overlooking the battered and wretched Three-Tails.
"Roar!!!"
The pupil of the Three-Tails' single eye suddenly contracted into a needlepoint!
It was utterly stunned and furious to see Uchiha Keizumi standing there unscathed!
The Tailed Beast's feral rage completely overwhelmed all reason in an instant.
Its two colossal legs, like heavenly pillars, stomped fiercely upon the ground!
[Boom—!!!]
The earth let out a wailing groan under the strain, and cracks spread outward like a spiderweb.
Stones larger than human heads were jolted several meters into the air, then trembled and hovered slightly amid the terrifying fluctuations of chakra!
[Buzz—!!!]
An immense, suffocating surge of Tailed Beast chakra erupted unrestrainedly from within the Three-Tails' body, like a tidal wave!
Its Yin-nature and Yang-nature chakra began converging and compressing madly before its massive jaws!
Soon, an extremely dangerous black sphere radiating an aura of destruction appeared in an instant!
The Three-Tails' single eye was filled with manic rage and the desire for annihilation.
It was releasing all the chakra in its body almost to the point of overdrawing.
Pouring it without reservation into that Tailed Beast Ball!
As the massive amount of chakra was frantically infused, that black sphere, which had initially been only the size of a human head, began expanding at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye!
Twice… five times…
Tenfold… twentyfold…
In the blink of an eye, it had swollen to a size comparable to the Three-Tails' own grotesque head! And it showed no sign of stopping, continuing to grow larger still!
[Crack…]
[Crack…]
The fragments of stone trembling and floating around it, under the invisible force field radiating from this ultra-high-density energy sphere, were all crushed as if by an unseen giant hand, shattering into powder!
The entire mountain range behind the Three-Tails was shaking violently.
The earth beneath its two massive feet split open into even more ferocious and gaping chasms.
The violently distorted and trembling air made the enormous body of the Three-Tails appear blurred and flickering!
Waves of destructive energy spread outward in all directions like tangible tides.
Even creatures several kilometers away felt a chill of dread!
…
In the distance, the ninja cat Tachibana Jirō, who had until now been calmly watching the battle, suddenly had all his fur stand on end.
His plump body went rigid in an instant, and his feline face was filled with horror.
"Meow!!!"
He let out a sharp cry, then without hesitation jabbed his paw hard against Izumi's cheek, his voice turning frantic: "That Tailed Beast's gone mad! This is the Tailed Beast Ball Keizumi-sama once told me about, meow! It's said to be the Tailed Beasts' strongest attack!"
"Rookie! Run!! Run with all your strength! As far as you can! Don't look back! Don't hesitate, meow!"
He suddenly recalled something and hurriedly added, "Meow! Don't run in a straight line! Don't run toward the direction its head is facing! Go to the sides! Left or right—either way! Hurry, meow!!!"
It was the first time Izumi had ever seen the usually lazy and sarcastic Tachibana Jirō showing such a panicked expression.
She didn't even have time to think.
The intense sense of danger and her trust in Tachibana Jirō made her turn around in an instant.
Chakra poured unreservedly into her feet.
She dashed desperately toward the rear side!
At her side, Biwa Jūzō's expression also changed drastically! As a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, he understood far better than Izumi what a Tailed Beast Ball meant!
"This is… tsk!"
He drew in a sharp breath, yet the scorching air at this moment could not dispel the chill in his heart.
Without the slightest hesitation, he hefted the heavy Kubikiribōchō onto his shoulder and pushed his speed to the limit.
He frantically fled, closely following Uchiha Izumi's figure!
As Izumi sprinted madly forward, Tachibana Jirō, clinging tightly to her shoulder, hastily turned his head for a glance back.
When it saw that pitch-black Tailed Beast Ball in the distance—already swollen to a horrifying size and radiating an aura of utter annihilation—it nearly leapt up in shock!
"Too slow, meow! Rookie! Running like this, you'll never escape the Tailed Beast Ball's blast range!"
Tachibana Jirō suddenly leapt down from Izumi's shoulder.
In midair, his originally plump and adorable body swelled rapidly as if inflated.
In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a gigantic beast as large as an elephant, with bristling fur and claws gleaming coldly.
Tachibana Jirō clamped his jaws around Uchiha Izumi's collar.
All four legs exerted force at once.
[Whoosh—]
An orange streak of light split across the ground, so fast it left afterimages trailing behind.
In almost an instant, he had flung far behind Biwa Jūzō, who was straining with all his might to keep up.
He didn't even have the right to eat their dust.
While carrying his great blade and sprinting desperately, Biwa Jūzō felt a violent gust sweep past him. Then, before his eyes, only an orange back fading swiftly into the distance and a cloud of billowing dust remained.
Biwa Jūzō: "???"
No!
Wait for me!!!
…
On another side, Terumī Mei's pupils likewise contracted sharply at that moment.
Even though her position was to the rear side of the Three-Tails, not in the direct line of the Tailed Beast Ball's aim, the sheer destructive energy contained within that black sphere made her involuntarily retreat several steps in fright.
Beside her, Ao had already torn off his eyepatch, revealing the Byakugan with veins bulging at the corner of his temple.
He strained to look into the distance, cold sweat beading on his forehead from shock and tension.
"This… this is within the borders of the Land of Water!"
Ao's voice quivered slightly, filled with confusion and anxiety. "For the Mizukage-sama to unleash such… such a catastrophic power—does he not fear the surrounding towns will be caught in it? What about the civilians there?!"
A strong sense of dissonance welled up in his heart.
This was completely different from the Fourth Mizukage he remembered—who, though he had enforced the Bloody Mist policy, had at least still cared for the village's fundamental interests and the safety of the Land of Water's people!
It was completely as if…
He had become a different person!
Unfortunately, the distance was simply too great. Even with the penetrating vision of the Byakugan, it was difficult to clearly perceive the exact state of the Mizukage atop the Three-Tails' head through that raging Tailed Beast chakra and the distorted air.