Boom!
When Chakra reaches a certain volume, it becomes destructive even without being shaped into a specific Ninjutsu.
Hiruko demonstrated this perfectly.
The chimera under his control opened its massive maw and fired a raw Chakra Blast, a laser-like beam of concentrated energy aimed straight at Jiraiya.
Unfortunately for him-
He wasn't the only one who could attack that way.
Killer B, Roshi, and Yugito shifted into their partial Tailed Beast States almost simultaneously.
In that brief moment, Roshi and Yugito could only manage their standard elemental attacks, but B was different.
He was the one among them who had truly achieved perfect sync with his Tailed Beast, allowing him to wield the Eight-Tails' power with far greater finesse.
For instance, even in this state, he could fire a miniature Tailed Beast Bomb.
Its smaller size and energy payload meant a drastically faster firing speed.
While Roshi and Yugito's attacks were still clashing with the opponent's beam, the mini Tailed Beast Bomb pierced through the Chakra struggle and struck the chimera directly.
A terrifying explosion instantly consumed the chimera's upper body.
"Ya see? I'm the MVP! Yo!"
As the smoke cleared, most of the chimera's body had simply vanished, leaving behind a mess of viscous, dark purple blood and pulped organs.
"Is that it?"
Roshi scoffed, feeling this so-called Akatsuki's member wasn't so impressive after all.
'Maybe that Uzumaki Naruto had been exaggerating.'
But Hiruko was about to personally demonstrate a crucial fact to Roshi.
You might underestimate Akatsuki's teamwork, but you should never underestimate their recruitment standards.
"You... you DARE...!"
From within the shattered remains of the giant carcass, a heavily wounded Hiruko clawed his way out.
The bandages on his face were gone, revealing the inhuman, jagged maw beneath.
Finally, Jiraiya seemed to recognize a faint, familiar outline in the other's features.
"Hiruko!?"
"Jiraiya... You finally remember me?"
A savage grin split Hiruko's face at Jiraiya's shocked cry.
"What happened to you? How did you end up like this?"
Jiraiya scratched his head, genuinely confused.
They had gotten the new member's name from Konan, but his appearance and build were so altered from the person in Jiraiya's memory that he hadn't made the connection.
Besides, Konan's information wasn't necessarily complete.
After all, Obito might have recruited others since then.
All these factors combined had made Jiraiya hesitant to identify him.
"Still so arrogant! Just like always! You 'geniuses' probably forgot I even existed!"
As he spoke, the mound of flesh beside him writhed. A fleshy tendril emerged, retrieved the gourd containing the Hero Water, and delivered it to his hand.
He ripped out the stopper and guzzled the entire contents without hesitation.
"I planned to come for you and Orochimaru... after completing my ritual..."
A terrifying pressure began radiating from Hiruko's body. His limbs and torso swelled intermittently, like overfilled balloons.
"But it seems I'll have to use you as the first sacrifice for my rebirth!"
A final roar erupted from him, and a pillar of Chakra shot skyward, obscuring everyone's view.
Originally, Hiruko possessed a frail body and weaker-than-average Chakra Reserves.
But after using the Chimera Technique to steal the physical aptitudes of countless Ninja, the Chakra within him had long since reached an astonishing level.
It couldn't rival a full Tailed Beast's Jinchuriki, but it far surpassed any ordinary Ninja.
He'd been confident that after completing his immortality ritual, he could challenge the entire Ninja World!
Amplified by the Hero Water, this already vast Chakra Reserve doubled once more.
A single small sip of Hero Water could multiply an ordinary person's Chakra nearly tenfold.
This multiplier diminished with higher base Chakra Levels, but Hiruko had just chugged the entire remaining supply.
The colossal amount of Chakra was now exceeding the capacity limits of his modified body.
His bloated, distended form was the clearest proof.
"This is bad... Karin, help me get these villagers out of here! Now!"
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed, and he immediately grasped the situation.
The issue was no longer just how many Hiruko might kill.
Even if he did nothing, the imminent Chakra Explosion was likely to obliterate the entire area.
"Sasuke! Can you hold things down here?"
Jiraiya glanced back at Sasuke, who responded by shifting back into his hybrid form, his back to Jiraiya… an answer in itself.
Accepting it, Jiraiya used his ink creation to create thick black ropes, quickly bundling the stunned villagers onto the giant bird formed by Karin.
Time was critical. There was no luxury for individual evacuations, so this would have to do.
Once the last villager was secured, Jiraiya gave Karin the signal.
"Fly carefully! They're just civilians!"
"I know!"
The giant bird conjured a protective barrier of swirling winds around the villagers, then beat its powerful wings, lifting off.
"Don't... you... DARE... FLEE...!"
Hiruko's body was now grotesquely swollen, barely recognizable. His words were a distorted, guttural roar.
The Chimera's flesh around him lashed out like extensions of his own will, shooting tendrils towards the ascending Karin.
But he was too slow.
Three Tailed Beast Bombs of varying sizes intercepted the attack.
In the time it had taken Hiruko to transform, Roshi, B, and Yugito had achieved full Tailed Beast Transformation.
Boooooom!!!!
These were not the hurried, miniaturized versions from before.
These were three full-powered, undiluted Tailed Beast Bombs.
The resulting detonation was cataclysmic. The concussive force ripped trees from the ground around Takigakure's perimeter.
Most of the villagers' houses were instantly vaporized by the peripheral blast wave.
Jiraiya had already summoned the two Great Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima, onto his shoulders and was rapidly gathering Natural Energy.
"He's not finished! He's still alive!"
Jiraiya's perception, heightened by Sage Mode, detected the lingering life force within the pulverized, scattered mass of Hiruko's flesh.
Sure enough, as he spoke, the dismembered chunks of meat and bone began slithering back together, pulled by the viscous, living mucus of the Chimera Technique.
A moment later, a monster even larger than the previous chimera stood before them.
Where the chimera had at least retained some animalistic features, Hiruko's new form was a chaotic, disorderly fusion of traits.
Claws, scales, feathers, fangs, and bony plates sprouted haphazardly across the colossal monstrosity.
Hiruko seemed to have lost all reason.
But in exchange, he had finally obtained the power he had coveted for so long.
"He's a lost cause now."
Deep within the forest, Zetsu's figure emerged from a tree trunk.
He didn't need to get closer. The monster, standing nearly eighty meters tall, was impossible to miss.
'This Hiruko... he's more trouble than he's worth,' Black Zetsu thought, 'But I can't entirely blame him. Those Jinchuriki showing up was an unforeseen variable.'
'But why were they all gathered here together?'
"Why indeed..." A deep sense of foreboding settled in Black Zetsu's core… the unsettling feeling of a plan veering dangerously off course.
"Yeah. Why indeed?"
A voice spoke up, calm and clear, directly behind him.
Black Zetsu knew that voice all too well.
It was the voice of the one whose very existence had introduced chaos into the plan he had nurtured for centuries.
Uzumaki Naruto!!