Under the burning of his life force, Shura's body swelled further—his height surging to nearly six meters.
Despite his increasingly bloated frame, his speed didn't diminish at all. Instead, it skyrocketed. He unleashed a storm of punches, each one a blur.
Jiraiya's figure flickered like an afterimage as he intercepted every blow.
Senju Hashirama watched with interest.
A battle fought with such reckless resolve reminded him of his old clashes with Madara—when every strike carried lethal intent, and neither side held back even a shred of mercy.
But unlike those battles filled with Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and layers of deception, this was a pure Taijutsu deathmatch, raw and visceral.
Meanwhile, hidden deeper in the facility, Katsumura Yota was observing everything through his swarm of mechanical flies.
"He can't even defeat Jiraiya? Pathetic. A failed product fit only for disposal," Katsumura Yota sneered coldly.
He turned to the enormous figure standing behind him—a three-meter-tall man in a black robe.
"Wouldn't you say so, Shura?"
"Yes, my lord. Such a failure is unworthy of your use."
The robed figure lowered his head. Despite the shadows beneath the hood, glimpses of striking red hair were visible.
Just as Katsumura Yota continued watching, the screen abruptly went dark—the feed severed by the intensity of the battle.
"Tch. If that's the case, it's useless now. Blow up the entire base."
"Senju Hashirama hasn't even stepped in. And in that state, the failed test subject can't even handle Jiraiya, much less the former God of Shinobi."
"These shinobi are terrifying. To think they achieved this level of strength without any scientific modification…"
"And that Uzumaki Naruto, who established an empire… he must be even stronger."
"I want to study him…" Katsumura muttered excitedly, never noticing how the robed figure behind him trembled subtly upon hearing the name Uzumaki.
On the battlefield, Shura's body continued to burn its life force away.
His skin glowed scarlet, his muscles strained to the limit.
His strength, speed, regeneration—everything was skyrocketing.
Jiraiya saw it instantly.
"At this rate, he'll be dead within a day… and with this pace, he can only maintain it for an hour at most."
Even while burning himself alive, his regeneration had risen to the level of Hashirama's instant healing and Naruto's super-accelerated regeneration, far beyond normal High-Speed Healing.
His instincts sharpened alongside his power. Despite losing rationality, his combat intuition became beastlike, deadly.
Forcing a direct victory was possible only after Shura's life force burned out—but Jiraiya considered other strategies. As a ninja, he had no shortage of ways to break a stalemate.
Just as he began forming plans—
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted beneath them.
The ground quaked violently.
Hashirama and Jiraiya's faces changed at the same moment.
"Not good!"
A massive shockwave surged through the passageways.
Outside, the mountain itself began collapsing.
Inside the base, ceilings shattered. Corridors crumbled. Tons of earth and concrete cascaded downward.
Villagers from the nearby town saw the mountain sinking and panicked.
"What happened? Isn't that Mr. Katsumura's land?"
"The mountain just collapsed!"
"Was there an earthquake!?"
Chaos spread among them—but fortunately, the collapse occurred outside the town itself.
Deep beneath the ruins, buried under crushing debris—
Two figures slowly emerged.
Jiraiya and Senju Hashirama.
As for Shura… no sign remained.
Most likely, he had been pulverized by the collapse.
The only reason Jiraiya and Hashirama survived unharmed was because Hashirama had acted in time.
He had used one of his strongest Wood Release defensive techniques—Wood Golem Technique—the same one that once withstood the strike of Madara Uchiha, who had cloaked the Nine-Tails within his Susanoo.
Jiraiya let out a bitter breath.
"Damn it… he blew up the whole base. Are they burning money just to annoy us?"
Hashirama chuckled lightly.
"Your strength still needs refining. You're far from the level Madara and I reached back then."
Jiraiya froze.
How was anyone supposed to compare themselves to the Shura of the Ninja World and the God of Shinobi?
Still… despite his words, Hashirama was satisfied with Jiraiya.
Crude humor aside, his character and reliability were things Hashirama truly appreciated.
"Let's get out of here quickly! We're running out of oxygen!" Jiraiya barked, his tone urgent.
Before reaching the Six Paths level, even the strongest shinobi still needed to breathe.
Oxygen remained the most basic requirement—and the first threshold for surviving the void.
Whether crossing the void, traveling through space, or surviving beyond the atmosphere, the rule was the same:
If one couldn't resolve the problem of breathing, survival was impossible.
Of course, the universe offered only a few solutions—traveling by spacefaring vessels, relying on specialized treasures or tools, or possessing overwhelming personal power that allowed one to ignore the limitations entirely.
At this moment—
Hashirama activated his Sensing Ninjutsu.
A wave of pure sensory chakra rippled outward, covering the entire town in an instant.
Within seconds, he located a path to the surface.
Without hesitation, Hashirama grabbed Jiraiya by the shoulder.
A surge of powerful chakra erupted from his body, blasting through layers of debris. Hashirama was never proficient in Earth Release, but with such overwhelming chakra, it didn't matter. Obstacles simply disintegrated.
Moments later—
Boom!
The two emerged onto the surface.
Jiraiya exhaled, patting the dust off his clothes. Just as he turned to leave, he noticed Hashirama suddenly freeze mid-step.
"What's wrong?" Jiraiya asked.
Hashirama folded his arms, expression unusually serious.
"I'm wondering whether this mission counts as a success or a failure," he said slowly.
"If it's a failure… and Madara finds out… he's definitely going to mock me. Imagine—the great God of Shinobi takes action and still fails to complete the mission. Isn't that a little embarrassing?"
Jiraiya almost tripped over his own feet.
"This kind of reconnaissance mission isn't evaluated by success or failure! As long as we gather intel—any intel—it counts as completed," he said helplessly.
Even if they found nothing at all, such missions were rarely marked as failures.
At this moment, far away in Konoha, on Naruto's desk—
A thick stack of gathered intelligence had already been placed.
Based on the information Jiraiya and Hashirama had brought back, Naruto immediately began reviewing and cross-checking everything.
Every report concerned Katsumura Yota.
Katsumura Yota's history was extensive. In his early years, he was a talented biologist. However, his questionable character, shady ethics, and unsavory actions caused him to be rejected by academic circles.
But despite his rotten personality, his research ability was undeniable. His company's achievements had benefited many civilians, earning him significant public support and enormous funding.
It was ironic—laughable, even.
Who would have imagined that behind such a polished façade, Katsumura Yota was secretly a member of Kara, conducting inhuman experiments?
And worse—
He had been using the scraps of those experiments to exploit the people of the ninja world.
A gleaming image on the surface—
A monster in the shadows.