A dull rumbling rose from beneath the lake's surface as the water began to tremble violently.
Kisame stood atop a black rock at the shore, his hands having long since finished weaving seals.
The chakra in his body seeped through the soles of his feet into the earth, establishing a link with the entire flow of water within the lake.
A massive force surged upward from the depths, the lake's surface being violently pushed aside, like Moses parting the sea.
A colossal creature covered in gray carapace was forcibly driven out of the water.
Its back was bristling with sharp bony spikes, and three thick tails thrashed madly against the surface of the lake.
Isobu, the Three-Tails, had been enraged.
It opened its gigantic mouth and roared.
Sound waves wrapped around tangible chakra shockwaves, instantly blowing away the dense fog that had shrouded the lake for days.
"Found you," Kisame muttered, the corners of his mouth splitting into a grin that revealed two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
On his back, the greatsword Samehada squirmed restlessly beneath its bandages, the cloth at the hilt quivering with a faint, buzzing tremor.
This living weapon had sensed the massive energy ahead and was radiating greedy hunger.
"Kisame-senpai is really amazing," a strangely pitched voice sounded beside him.
The orange spiral-masked Tobi clapped his hands. "Let's hurry up and catch it. Pain is probably tired of waiting."
Kisame didn't respond to his partner.
All of his focus was locked onto the tailed beast in the lake.
The Three-Tails had tremendous raw power, but its movements were slow.
As long as he used a few large-scale Suiton (Water Release) techniques to wear down its stamina, he could then close in and use Samehada to drain its chakra. Once that happened, this wild beast would have no strength left to resist.
Several kilometers away, atop a sheer cliff, four figures had melted into the surrounding rock and shadows.
Their presence had been completely wiped away by a special jutsu, and even the flow of their chakra was fully sealed.
The rampaging Three-Tails didn't notice them at all, and neither Kisame nor Tobi, focused entirely on the combat before them, sensed the slightest anomaly.
Tobirama stood with his arms folded across his chest, eyes closed.
His sensory perception had already reached into every corner of the water domain.
The flow of every droplet in the lake, the pulsing of the chakra core inside the Three-Tails, the circulation of energy as Kisame activated his Suiton, and even the hollow ripples unique to jikū ninjutsu (space-time ninjutsu) within Tobi's body—all of it was mapped out in Tobirama's mind as a precise, dynamic diagram.
Uchiha Shisui's eyes had turned a deep crimson, three tomoe slowly revolving within them.
His gaze possessed an astounding penetrative power, seeing straight through mist and chakra interference. Every detail of the battle raging at the center of the lake was laid bare before him.
The shifts of Kisame's fingers as he formed seals, the gathering points of chakra on Sanbi Isobu's body—every scrap of information was captured clearly.
Hatake Sakumo stood silently to the side, his right hand resting on the hilt at his waist.
His aura was suppressed to the extreme; his whole being was like a weathered rock.
He was simply waiting for the signal to strike.
Namikaze Shinju stood at the front of the group.
A tiny communicator sat snugly in his ear, streams of data processed by the command center in the rear continuously flowing into it.
At the same time, he was integrating real-time battlefield information being sent back through a mental link by the three legendary ninja at his side.
Down on the lake, the Three-Tails had been completely provoked by Kisame's harassment.
Its massive tails whipped up towering waves, smashing them toward the shore.
The crest of the wave rose dozens of meters high, its shadow swallowing Kisame's body whole—but he didn't dodge. His hands flashed through a rapid sequence of seals in front of his chest.
"Suiton: Daikodan no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Shark Bullet Technique)."
Under his control, the lake water condensed and took shape.
A gigantic water shark, its size comparable to that of the Three-Tails' tail, burst forth from the water, jaws lined with rows of fangs as it lunged ferociously into the oncoming wave and tail.
The instant the water shark collided with the tail, it bit down into solid mass and triggered its special effect, violently draining the Three-Tails' chakra.
Isobu let out a howl of pain. The sensation of its chakra being stolen only drove it even more berserk.
Ominous red light began to seep from the gaps in its carapace. Deep within its maw, Yin and Yang chakra surged together at high speed, condensing into a highly dense sphere of energy.
A Bijudama (Tailed Beast Bomb) was forming.
"The timing's right," Shinju's voice sounded through the communicators, directly in the minds of his three teammates.
"Lord Tobirama, seal off the entire water domain. We can't let a single target escape. Shisui, Sakumo-san, be ready to cut off every possible spatial retreat route. Once Akatsuki's pair and the Three-Tails wear each other down enough, we start closing the net."
On the cliff, Tobirama opened his eyes.
There was no ripple of emotion in the red depths of his pupils.
He lifted his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together, then made a downward pressing motion toward the distant lake.
At the center of the lake, where he was locked in contest with the Three-Tails, Kisame suddenly sensed something was wrong.
He could feel his connection to the lake being forcibly severed by some external power.
A force far greater than his own had snatched away control.
Every current in the lake came to a halt.
One second, towering waves were still rolling forward; the next, they froze in midair, then fell silently back down. The surface of the lake became mirror-flat.
This absolute stillness was far more unsettling than any storm.
A moment later, a small depression appeared in the middle of the placid surface.
It expanded rapidly, and the entire lake began to whirl violently around that center.
In an instant, a massive whirlpool over a kilometer wide formed.
The suction force it generated was unimaginably terrifying; even the mountain-like body of Sanbi Isobu began to sway unsteadily, unable to keep its footing.
"What the hell is this?!" Kisame's grin vanished from his face.
This scale and level of Suiton manipulation was completely beyond his understanding.
This wasn't any kind of Water Release ninjutsu he knew of—it was more like someone had directly rewritten the terrain itself.
Not even if the Second Hokage came back to life would he necessarily be able to pull off something like this, Kisame thought with a chill.
Tobi also stopped all unnecessary movement.
The anomaly was far from over.
At the edges of the massive whirlpool, the lake water began to peel away from the main body, rising into the sky under an invisible force.
In the east, south, west, and north, four towering walls of water rose straight up, their height swiftly surpassing a hundred meters.
The water walls inclined inward in midair, gradually leaning toward the center before finally joining together, forming a gigantic blue dome that sealed this entire water region off from the outside world.
Sunlight could no longer penetrate the walls; the entire space was bathed in an eerie, bluish glow.
On the inner surface of the water dome, countless blue runes formed from chakra lit up, swimming through the water like chains and radiating a powerful sealing force.
Kisame tried to move his chakra again, attempting to activate another Suiton.
He failed.
The water around him reacted with intense rejection, as if he was the foreign object that didn't belong there at all.
The "tailless tailed beast" of the Mist, the bizarre monster of Kirigakure who reigned supreme near water, felt complete powerlessness at the water's edge for the first time.
The two Akatsuki members, along with their target Sanbi Isobu, had all been trapped inside this suddenly formed giant water prison.
They had gone from hunters to prey.
Kisame and Tobi raised their heads at the same time, gazing up at the blue dome that had sealed the sky.
At four compass points atop the water dome, four silhouettes appeared without a sound.
They stood on the endlessly flowing water wall as if it were solid ground.
Their gazes fell from on high, coldly looking down at the three beings in the heart of the water prison, as if examining creatures in a cage.
(End of Chapter)
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