Inside Hagoromo's Ship, racing at maximum speed toward the southern border of the Land of Earth.
Orochimaru wore an expression of extreme urgency, a strange sense of unease creeping over him.
Tsunade paced back and forth restlessly. When the cabin jolted slightly, she rushed immediately to the cockpit. "What happened? Did something come up?"
Covering her mouth, she caught sight far ahead on the landmass of a deep crimson figure.
"Is that the Four-Tails?" Jiraiya, who had followed over, roughly calculated the distance. "We're still at least ten kilometers away."
"This is already the maximum speed," Orochimaru muttered regretfully. Why hadn't he pushed the Third Hokage harder back then to just throw more cash at upgrading Konoha's Hagoromo's Ship with an [Overclock] edition?
He thought darkly—if Shen were gone, it'd be damn near impossible to find another rich patron that eager to spend again.
"Nawaki will be fine," Jiraiya reassured Tsunade, whose body trembled uncontrollably.
"Yeah, and Nayou too—I was gonna rank her second this year!" A sharp elbow to the ribs cut those inappropriate words short before they could fully escape.
Orochimaru shook his head, forcing the worst-case scenario from his mind. "Right, Shen will be fine."
Just then, eight or nine kilometers away, the deep crimson figure suddenly got engulfed by a fiery orange explosion.
Its scale was even larger than the Four-Tails itself—over fifty meters tall.
Seconds later, the continuing surging aftermath formed a massive mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke rising into the sky.
"What in the world is that?" x2
Stunned beyond words, both Jiraiya and Tsunade desperately wished for someone to explain this mystery.
"A mushroom cloud… Could it be that Shen actually…" Orochimaru's face bore shock, and the next moment, a mad gleam sparkled in his eyes.
"This isn't scientific at all! Water created purely from chakra doesn't contain hydrogen!"
"And even if there were hydrogen, how exactly could someone collect it?!"
"[Wind Release]? Impossible! Nothing that massive could be pulled off that fast!"
Bursting out self-directed questions, Orochimaru began doubting the authenticity of reality itself.
"No, no way—it might make sense theoretically, but practically speaking, achieving this scale should be impossible!"
Gulp. x2
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchanged uneasy glances, each swallowing hard, feeling as though the Orochimaru currently locked in intense self-dialogue had probably been driven mad by the still-expanding mushroom cloud.
Several kilometers away, visually measuring at least two hundred meters high, the mushroom column completely overturned the three travelers' understanding of the world.
Sometimes, the more you know, the less happy you actually are.
Compared to the murmuring Orochimaru lost in his own thoughts, clueless Jiraiya and Tsunade—who understood absolutely nothing—were arguably quite fortunate indeed.
Moments earlier, Son Goku—the Four-Tails—had once again been obscured by a thick mass of water mist.
"You brat! Do you really think the same trick will work twice?" It spun around in fury, lashing its four massive tails wildly.
Indeed, dispelling the mist seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan.
However, it acted just a little too late.
Once again bringing his palms together in the familiar seal, Shen gathered all the hydrogen produced, channeled it through [Sage Art], and compressed it into a translucent oval pillar nearly one meter high.
This pillar appeared like a thin membrane encapsulating compressed hydrogen inside, condensed into liquid form.
"Phew," he exhaled sharply while channeling Fire Chakra into the column.
Son Goku, whose vision had become crystal clear, spotted a tiny black figure over one hundred meters away.
He narrowed his eyes cautiously, staring at the small pillar gradually turning red.
"Brat, do you really think performing sorcery can scare me?" Son Goku's tone grew increasingly irritable as he stomped forward.
"Don't assume I'm afraid of something like this!" It shouted while sprinting, though its voice betrayed slight fear.
Shen, fully concentrated on infusing Sage Chakra, remained completely unfazed.
After completing the third step, he released the Fire Chakra previously stored in his leg cells just before exiting Sage Mode.
The black figure shot upward like a rocket, swiftly soaring past the giant teal-green hand formed by [Harness].
Shen aimed the oval-shaped pillar downward toward the massive body covered in deep red fur and roared at it fiercely: "Taste my Dongfeng Express Technique—fast and deadly!"
The small pillar dragged a trail of flame behind it as it flew straight toward Son Goku's forehead.
"Shen!" Below, near the Indra's Ship marked with the Uchiha clan symbol, a white figure tied with ropes dropped from an opened hatchway.
Shen, looking pained, stretched out his left hand with great effort toward the falling figure.
Nayou, her long black hair wildly fluttering, focused her gaze upon the hand extending from the trench coat.
Down below, Son Goku was soon struck right on the forehead by the small pillar.
"What?" He felt an intense surge of scorching energy stirring on his forehead.
At the moment of impact, the Fire Chakra film violently reacted with the liquid hydrogen.
Chakra far hotter than magma instantly ignited the sealed hydrogen.
Inside the semi-transparent small pillar, blinding white light burst forth intensely.
"Clap!" Nayou's small hands tightly gripped Shen's big hand.
Then she wrapped her free arm tightly around his waist.
"Crunch."
Shen, grimacing in pain, couldn't utter a word.
"I won't let go of you. It's okay." Nayou held tightly onto Shen, who already had several broken ribs.
On Hagoromo's Ship, Nawaki saw the glow beneath and immediately pressed the Overclock button.
Pulled by the rope, Nayou buried her head directly into the chest of the person she hugged tightly.
The force she used instantly sent waves of searing pain through Shen's body.
He lowered his head with tears threatening to spill but found the rope seemed pulled too tight.
"Just a little more—I'll get you this time!" Trembling, he tried several times before finally grasping the tightening rope.
Nayou, her face buried against his chest, felt the pressure around her waist suddenly disappear and a faint smirk tugged at her lips.
Without even activating her Byakugan, she could tell exactly what was happening.
Shen once again froze in unbearable agony.
He had hoped that easing some of her weight would also relieve the pressure on his chest and waist.
Obviously, he was still too naive.
No one knew how sweet Nayou's smile could be, but many men in Konoha had experienced the pain that Shen endured.
As Hagoromo's Ship flew past the half-kilometer mark in [Overclock] mode, the glowing little pillar began to swell.
Once the sealed membrane expanded to double its size, it suddenly seemed to give out and started to vanish bit by bit into the air.
"BOOM!!!"
Blazing orange flames instantly engulfed Son Goku's colossal frame.
His form, towering over fifty meters tall, slowly disintegrated into a swirling mass of crimson chakra.
The smoke from the blast rose and rolled skyward, soon taking shape into a breathtakingly magnificent mushroom cloud.
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