"Elder Hiro'umi, this young lady is..." Yuma's gaze shifted to Mito.
"Mito is my eldest granddaughter, and the one intended to be married to your esteemed clan's Vice-Clan Head..."
Yuma heard this and thought, *So it's true.*
From the sensory abilities this girl had just displayed, her skill in that area alone was no less than that of the Senju clan's current number one sensory ninja, Senju Tobirama.
If she could marry Hashirama, it would be a union of powerhouses.
As for her grandfather defining her as Hashirama's fiancée, Mito merely raised her slender eyebrows.
Like Hashirama, Mito knew full well that as the next-generation leader of her clan, she had no choice in her own marriage.
Everything they did was for the benefit of their clan first and foremost.
***
Dozens of miles from Uzushiogakure, in the southern sea of the Land of Whirlpools.
Izuna stood on the surface of the water, his body completely soaked.
Before him was a creature no smaller than the Eight-Tails, shaped like a giant turtle.
Its entire body was covered in a grayish-silver shell. Spikes on its body covered its right eye, and the left half of its face revealed an eye glaring at Izuna with fury. The three flat, armored tails trailing behind it proclaimed its identity.
The Three-Tailed Isobu!
Until this moment, Izuna and the Three-Tails had been fighting for some time.
Facing the enraged Tailed Beast, Izuna, his hair dripping with seawater, cracked a smile. "Three-Tails, the peaceful days for you Tailed Beasts won't last much longer. Instead of waiting to be chained up later, why not sign a contract with me now? You'll be guaranteed relative freedom. It's a very good deal."
However, the only response Izuna received was an even more furious glare from the Three-Tails, along with its vast, near-infinite chakra.
Water Release: Isobu Great Waterfall Technique!
The sea surged into the sky, seemingly blotting out the heavens!
The scale of the attack was like a water-style enhanced version of the future Gaara's Sand Waterfall Flow!
"The sea is your home turf, and you have the terrain advantage. I have no intention of continuing this fight here."
Facing the oncoming tsunami, Izuna chose not to counter, but to retreat.
Unlike his battle with the Eight-Tails, this time Izuna had made ample preparations between finding and capturing the Three-Tails.
He leaped into the air, bit his finger, and quickly formed hand seals, pressing his palm against the empty air.
As tadpole-like runes spread through the air, a black hawk emerged from a cloud of white smoke.
"Summoning Technique!"
After being summoned, the black hawk performed a flip in mid-air, allowing Izuna to land on its back.
It shot upwards at maximum speed, avoiding the massive tsunami created by the Three-Tails.
"Earth counters water. Too bad I don't use Earth Release," Izuna muttered, standing on the hawk's back. He touched his index fingers together and puffed out his cheeks. "Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
*FWOOOSH—*
A sea of fire rained down from the sky onto the Three-Tails' shell, but for a water-attribute Tailed Beast, it was little more than a nuisance.
Still, the searing pain on its back enraged the chakra monster.
"ROOOOAR!!"
Its furious roar churned the sea's surface into waves.
Izuna steered the ninja hawk toward the Land of Whirlpools, glancing back at the roaring Three-Tails with a sinister smile. "That's right. Come on to the land, Three-Tails."
As expected, the enraged Three-Tails didn't consider that Izuna was luring it to terrain where it was at a disadvantage. It lifted its claws and gave chase, continuously controlling the seawater to launch long-range attacks at Izuna in the sky.
But the ninja hawk, under Izuna's control, dodged them all, narrowly avoiding disaster.
*BOOM!!!*
The Three-Tails' massive body crashed into the coastal forest of the Land of Whirlpools. The rocks and trees in its path were like paper, instantly shattered to pieces by its charge.
"This distance should be about right," Izuna murmured from the hawk, observing the distance from the coast.
Just then, one of the Three-Tails' long, scale-covered tails whipped toward him.
Izuna leaped from the hawk's back, allowing it to return to the summoning realm to avoid the lash.
In mid-air, he took out a Flying Thunder God kunai and threw it at the Three-Tails' tail.
*Ping!*
However, when the kunai struck the tail, it didn't pierce the skin as it had with the Eight-Tails. Instead, it was as if it had hit metal, letting out a crisp sound before falling into the jungle below.
Landing atop a large tree, Izuna remarked, "That shell is seriously hard. A turtle, through and through."
"Water Release: Raging Sea Spray!"
From the Three-Tails' body as the epicenter, a massive amount of seawater began to spread from its feet, instantly turning the land into a swamp.
Seeing this, Izuna couldn't help but grin.
He had underestimated the power of the Tailed Beasts. Just like that cheat Senju Hashirama, even when lured into an unfavorable environment, they could use ninjutsu to instantly change it to their advantage.
After turning the land into a wet swamp, the Three-Tails' massive body moved even faster than before, rushing in front of Izuna in an instant.
He threw a three-pronged Flying Thunder God kunai and appeared directly above the Three-Tails. Just then, the scale-covered tail whipped at him again with enough force to shatter an army.
The three tomoe in Izuna's eyes spun rapidly, forming the shape of a pinwheel.
Silver ribs grew out from the surface of his body.
*CRACK!*
The iron tail slammed into the Susanoo's shell. With a sharp crack, fractures appeared on its surface.
Izuna caught the Flying Thunder God kunai in mid-air and threw it downwards again. He teleported to a position about ten meters directly above the Three-Tails' shell, a cerulean sphere of chakra in his hand growing larger and larger.
"Great Ball Rasengan!"
When the Rasengan hit the Three-Tails' back, even Izuna could feel the creature's body tremble beneath him.
However, it still didn't break through the Three-Tails' shell defense!
The anger in the left eye visible beneath the spikes intensified, and its chakra surged even more violently.
Water Release: Coral Sea Technique!
Like Kimimaro's Dance of the Seedling Fern, countless coral spikes shot out from the shell on the Three-Tails' back, stabbing toward Izuna.
Izuna's brows furrowed. As he rapidly retreated, his hands flew through hand seals.
-----
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