Chapter 21: Nine-Tails
Aburame Torune's Rinkaichū differed from ordinary Aburame insects—they were nano-sized, incredibly tiny, with lethally potent toxicity. A single touch meant death.
But similarly, these nano-sized insects were difficult to control and didn't distinguish between friend and foe.
During combat, Aburame Torune typically covered his body surface with these nano-insects, charging directly at enemies for close-quarters combat.
If an opponent didn't know his abilities beforehand and rashly engaged, landing even one punch would immediately attract the nano-insects, causing instant death through ambush.
Against him, the best tactic was long-range attacks using various jutsu and secret techniques. Under no circumstances could he be allowed to close in.
However, Yasushi perfectly countered the Aburame clan. Once Susanoo manifested, its chakra energy became the ultimate barrier.
"Hahahaha..." He roared with laughter, wielding his staff and smashing it down toward Aburame Torune without mercy.
"You like close combat so much?"
"Come on then!"
"Come take my attacks!"
Aburame Torune's feet never stopped moving, jumping and dodging with difficulty. But when the massive staff hammered the ground, the scattered stones shot out like buckshot, their speed and power rivaling kunai. Each strike sent a massive spray, impossible to evade completely.
Within moments, stones had carved bloody lines across his body. Blood seeped from the wounds, immediately devoured by the nano-insects.
Aburame Torune's face remained grave. After circling Susanoo several times without finding an opening, he made a hand signal.
The Root ninja in the distance immediately abandoned their previous plague-avoidance attitude and rushed over.
Upon approaching, one ninja's hands flew through rapid seals.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear!"
After catching sight of the hand seals, Yasushi immediately leaped backward, taking Susanoo away from his previous position.
A slight tremor rolled through the ground. Several sharp stone spears suddenly burst forth like bamboo shoots, thrusting diagonally upward, covering the area where he'd just stood.
"This level of jutsu can't harm me!"
Yasushi formed equally rapid seals. Susanoo opened its mouth, and overwhelming flames swept toward the ordinary Root ninja like a tidal wave.
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
The blazing light reached skyward, scorching the air until it visibly distorted.
Suddenly, from a visual blind spot, a pitch-black shadow surged out like a venomous snake from the darkness, cleverly using the flames' shadows as cover, silently lunging toward Yasushi.
"Secret Technique: Shadow Bind!"
The Ino-Shika-Cho trio and their forces had reached the vicinity, beginning their covert assault.
However, Yasushi had maintained vigilance against them all along. Under the Mangekyo Sharingan's dynamic vision, this level of ambush had virtually no chance of success.
"Tch, birds of a feather after all—so you've joined forces!"
He turned his head slightly. The flame spray's direction shifted minutely, and the scorching fire scattered the flimsy shadow into nothingness.
But the ground beneath softened. A sand vortex suddenly appeared, like quicksand, continuously pulling Susanoo's body downward.
"Earth Style: Antlion Technique!"
The previous Earth Style user had struck again.
'This Susanoo without legs really is inconvenient.'
Yasushi grumbled internally, raising his staff and swinging it in a wide arc down toward that ninja's head.
Any jutsu required its caster's control. Once forced to dodge, the subsequent effects would naturally dissipate.
But facing this lethal attack, the Root ninja didn't move an inch. His eyes flickered with the light of certain death. Completely abandoning defense, he maintained his hand seals unchanged, chakra output at maximum, amplifying the Antlion Technique's power to its limit.
The staff descended with a wet thud, easily crushing the Root ninja into pulp, painting the ground with blood and flesh.
But the time he'd bought allowed more jutsu to strike Susanoo.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Divide!"
"Earth Style: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness!"
"Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!"
Perhaps due to leaked intelligence, Konoha already knew Susanoo's weakness lay in its absent lower half. Half the Root ninja who'd come this time were Earth Style users.
The quicksand trap imprisoning Susanoo had just begun solidifying when the ground suddenly split violently in both directions, opening a massive fissure several meters wide and bottomlessly deep.
Another tactic specifically designed to counter him!
Yasushi lost his footing, immediately plummeting downward along with Susanoo.
Simultaneously, the ground surrounding the fissure suddenly rose upward. Shattered stones automatically climbed, rapidly converging and sealing overhead, forming a massive earthen prison that trapped both him and Susanoo inside while beginning to drain his chakra.
The ground below suddenly rippled like water. A ninja burst forth from underground, explosive tags flickering with light beneath his clothing as he charged forward with singular determination.
A human bomb!
Dead or alive, the massive quantity of explosive tags on his body would inevitably detonate in this confined space.
"Cheap tricks dare show themselves!"
Yasushi hung in midair, roaring furiously. The Mangekyo in his eyes spun wildly. Susanoo's energy body suddenly surged upward, growing two thick legs that planted firmly on the ground, protecting his entire body thoroughly. Both arms swung like a golf club, batting the charging Root suicide operative away.
But upon impact, all those explosive tags detonated simultaneously.
The violent shockwave from the suicide explosion expanded outward, striking the surrounding earth and stone, instantly rebounding multiple times within the cramped space, drastically amplifying damage at the blast's epicenter.
From outside, everyone watched as the earthen prison had barely formed before it suddenly expanded outward. After multiple Earth Style users briefly maintained it, it exploded thunderously.
The internal firelight shot skyward like a pillar of smoke, spiraling upward from the prison's breach, reaching toward the heavens.
The scattered stone fragments proved more dangerous than any kunai. Even the Root ninja found themselves retreating and evading.
Had they succeeded?
Aburame Torune stared intently at the smoke pillar's interior, ready to pounce and deliver the finishing blow at any moment.
Within Root, the mission came first. Lives were secondary matters.
They didn't care about their own lives, much less the lives of others.
Aburame Torune only considered Yamanaka Fu his friend. As for other Root ninja, they were merely tools. He'd sent these ninja to create opportunities with their lives without hesitation.
Traps, fissures, stone prisons, human bombs—a series of killing moves followed in rapid succession, forming an overwhelming siege net.
This was the most effective attack method he could devise with the Rinkaichū proving ineffective.
As the firelight gradually extinguished, a tall shadow emerged once more from the billowing dust.
Susanoo's form.
Yasushi floated at Susanoo's chest level, breathing slightly heavily. His left eye was half-closed, a line of bloody tears slowly flowing down from it, tracing across his cheek.
He extended his tongue, gently licking the bloody tears into his mouth.
Tasting his own blood again made his already manic heart grow even more deranged.
"Hahahahahahahaahah. You're all excellent, truly excellent!"
He threw his head back in wild laughter, hands rapidly forming a seal. Then the Konoha forces watched in horror as explosive tags beneath the Nine-Tails jinchuriki's clothing began glowing.
The previous battle had been too intense. Though they'd rescued the Nine-Tails jinchuriki, they'd had no time to examine him properly, unaware that Yasushi had already planted explosive tag traps in hidden locations on Naruto's body.
Now that Yasushi triggered them remotely, the explosive tags immediately detonated.
The next moment, accompanied by a violent explosion, a massive fire-red fox appeared out of nowhere in the midst of Konoha's formation.
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