WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch⏰ Resets Monday!
--------------------
As the enormous Water Pillar lifted the Susanoo into the sky, Kisame, hidden underground, shifted his hand seals.
— Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Technique!
BOOM!
A mass of water shaped like a shark erupted from the ground, carrying Kisame himself. It soared upwards, reaching the Susanoo in a blink.
The water shark spat Kisame out and crashed against the skeletal giant.
Kisame flipped mid-air, Samehada cleaving down with crushing force!
Below: the immense upward thrust of the Water Pillar. Above: Kisame's mountain-toppling slash. This combined assault exploited the same principle Danzo used with his Wind Style to tear a Susanoo's defense—pitting two opposing forces against its structure!
CLAAAAAAAAANG!
Samehada struck the Susanoo's head… but the ribcage, now layered with spectral muscle, held firm!
"Is this chakra giant… a Mangekyō Sharingan technique? Damn, it's hard. Itachi hid this move too? But…"
— Samehada: Devouring Air Slash!
Veins bulged on Kisame's arms. He channeled monstrous strength, driving Samehada's spines down in a vicious scraping motion!
SCREEEEEECH!!
The Susanoo's muscular surface… was actually gouged. A ragged scar appeared.
Then… Sasuke noticed. The scraped-off fragments of the Susanoo… dissolved into raw chakra… and were swallowed by Samehada!
Kisame grinned inwardly. Solid-form chakra can't be absorbed directly. But break it down, turn it fluid… that's a different story.
Thump.
Kisame landed atop the Water Pillar. Having ingested Susanoo chakra, Samehada's blade was now sheathed in purple, armor-like plating.
Sasuke's eyes widened. "It can do that…!?"
Kisame roared. "That's right! This is—!"
— Samehada: Susanoo Devouring Slash!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
From the rising pillar's peak, Kisame unleashed a relentless barrage. Each swing of the Susanoo-plated Samehada tore more fragments, which were absorbed, making the blade's armor thicker, its edges sharper!
Ten strikes. Twenty. Each heavier than the last.
The Susanoo's muscular form cracked, strained… and was battered back into its skeletal frame!
"GRAAAAAAAAH!"
Kisame gathered himself for the finishing blow. He swung Samehada, now swollen to the size of a Susanoo's greatsword, to shatter the defense completely.
He never expected Sasuke's next move.
The Susanoo vanished. Just… disappeared.
Swish!
Kisame's full-power strike met only air. He tried to pull back, muscles screaming—but the overextension left him wide open.
This kid…! He pretended to be pressured just to bait this opening!?
Sasuke's gaze was ice. Know this, Kisame Hoshigaki. A strength can become a weakness. The Susanoo isn't just a final trump card.
It can also be… a feint.
— White Spiral!
Sasuke dropped his stance, torso leaning forward. A white Rasengan materialized in his right palm—clean, lethal—and slammed into Kisame's abdomen.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Spiraling wood, vicious and blood-tipped, erupted from the impact point. It tore out from Kisame's body, from his limbs, his chest.
Kisame plummeted from the pillar, hitting the threshold of death.
Crack!
Sensing its master's crisis, the Susanoo chakra coating Samehada shattered. The weapon writhed forward urgently. Its handle, adorned with a skull, softened and coiled around Kisame's wrist. Red chakra—lingering power absorbed from a tailed beast—flooded into Kisame's veins.
"RROOOAAAAGH!"
Kisame bellowed, using sheer muscular tension to force the wooden spikes from his body. The borrowed chakra knitted flesh, repaired organs.
He stood. The healed portions of his skin were a dull, ashen gray, stark against his usual pale blue. Patches of this deathly gray now mottled nearly a third of his body—the aftermath of the White Spiral.
A cold dread settled in his gut. If Samehada hadn't retained some of the Two-Tails' chakra from our last fight… I'd be dead. Uchiha Sasuke. No matter your past accolades, I never truly put you in Itachi's league. But that moment… I understood. Your combat instincts, your clarity of mind… they are no less than his.
"No more chances." His voice was a gravelly vow. "I'll create the battlefield that suits me best… and crush you in one go."
Clap!
He released Samehada, bringing his hands together before his chest.
To unleash his ultimate art at the very outset—only a man called the Tailed Beast Without a Tail had such audacity.
— Water Style: Great Exploding Water Shockwave!
At the mountain's base, Orochimaru's expression turned grave. "It's coming. Kisame Hoshigaki's most terrifying, nearly foolproof battle tactic."
BOOOOOOM!
In an instant, a tsunami erupted from Kisame's mouth. It swallowed the battlefield, Sasuke and all, swelling into a massive, elliptical water prison that engulfed the surrounding forest.
Sasuke's vision swam. One moment solid ground, the next—trapped in an inescapable sphere of water.
"A water prison of this scale… generated instantly."
He held his breath, mind racing.
He looked up. Faint light filtered through the water's surface high above.
"Light still penetrates. So its scale, while immense, isn't boundless."
"But this… this immersion. The water pressure is dozens of times greater than a normal Water Prison. Movement is crippled. Drowning alone would kill anyone trapped here. Priority: escape."
BOOM! He activated the Susanoo again. Its weight countered buoyancy, letting his feet find the 'ground' at the sphere's bottom. He pushed against the crushing pressure, moving toward the edge. But the distant light never drew closer.
A dynamic sphere? It moves with the caster?
Swish—!
A figure shot through the dark water and slammed into the Susanoo.
His MangekyĹŤ's perception pierced the gloom.
A half-man, half-shark.
His appearance and chakra were altered, but it could only be Kisame Hoshigaki.
The Susanoo wasn't perfectly sealed. Under the terrifying pressure, water constantly seeped in.
Sasuke covered his nose and mouth. I've heard. Samehada can fuse with its wielder. This must be it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Fused with Samehada, Kisame moved through the water with impossible speed. He slammed into the Susanoo again. And again. And again.
He knew he couldn't break it. He didn't care. He just kept charging.
"Sasuke…!"
At the mountain's base, Karin watched the crystal ball, knuckles white.
Kabuto, having witnessed greater spectacles, was calmer. "The tactic Kisame's using now… it's the same as Sasori's."
Orochimaru nodded. "Correct. He's forcing Sasuke-kun to maintain the Susanoo. On the brink of drowning, his stamina will drain exponentially faster."
"Remember, the Yang Seal only removed the ocular strain from overusing the MangekyĹŤ. The physical exhaustion remains."
"Fortunately, the Susanoo temporarily blocks Kisame's most fearsome ability in this fused state: direct chakra absorption through physical contact. Even a perfect Jinchūriki struggles against that."
"The Eight-Tails' host only escaped because Samehada betrayed Kisame mid-fight…"
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "However… maintaining a Susanoo is tied to the user's condition. Kabuto, just as your Sage Art: White Extreme Technique caused sensory agony that broke Susanoo control… prolonged suffocation does the same."
Inside the sphere, the need for air became a fire in Sasuke's lungs.
The Susanoo flickered. His concentration wavered.
The water pressure pinned him. Kisame's ramming attacks grew more ferocious.
Ngh… My chakra… it's draining at a horrifying rate!
Chakra loss accelerated physical fatigue. Fatigue worsened the suffocation. A vicious cycle, tightening its grip.
Watching the one-sided struggle in the crystal ball, Kabuto adjusted his glasses. "Is there no way to break that Water Style technique?"
"Of course there is. Excluding Six Paths-level methods, there are clever breaks and brute force breaks."
Orochimaru laid it out clearly. "Clever breaks: the Preta Path of the Rinnegan, space-time ninjutsu, powerful sealing techniques. Sasuke-kun possesses none of those currently. Brute force: a Perfect Susanoo, full tailed beast transformation—that level of raw power."
Kabuto's heart sank. "But Sasuke… he doesn't have those either right now."
"Not necessarily…"
Orochimaru shook his head. "Sasuke-kun has mastered and created many powerful jutsu. But they require chakra. His only way out now… is to release the power he's been hiding. If I guess correctly, it's a state he's been reserving… for his fight with Itachi."
A smile touched Orochimaru's lips. "But these ten battles… are about breaking limits."
...
Gurgle… Gurgle…
My consciousness… fading!
I underestimated him. Kisame Hoshigaki. No choice. The state I saved for Itachi… I'll release it now. Intel leakage doesn't matter.
All that matters… is breaking through to a new limit in this third battle!!!
Zzzzzt—!
During the second battle, when Hidan's ritual wounded him, Sasuke had fully absorbed the power of his White Cursed Seal's First State. What he absorbed became his own. He could now release the White Cursed Seal externally while possessing a greater tolerance for it.
Release power. Absorb it, making it part of oneself. Then release an even greater power. Absorb that. Repeat.
This was the White Cursed Seal's monstrous method of growth.
And now… he would release…
— White Cursed Seal: Second State!
--------------------
[FULL STORY ACCESS]
🚀 Why wait? Unlock (120+ Chapters) ahead of the public release!
Join Binge Ink on Patreon to access the full archive and read until the very last page today.
✨ Support the author:Patreon.com/BingeInk