After activating the Storm Fang Wolf Fang, a massive sunken crater appeared where Ryou stood.
Ryou stopped spinning, his head a bit dizzy; he was still somewhat unskilled in performing this technique for the first time.
Immediately after, he looked toward Jiraiya and Gamaken's position, turning into a gray shadow and quickly arriving before them.
Gamaken raised his shield to block.
Ryou extended his sharp claws, and with a full-force strike, Gamaken's shield was torn directly in half.
Just as Ryou's claws were about to split Gamaken in two, countless glowing scales flew in front of Ryou, followed by a burst of dazzling white light.
"Who... who threw a flash?"
The glowing scales had a blinding effect, along with a layer of paralysis and dizziness; Ryou felt as if he had been hit by a flashbang.
Jiraiya took the opportunity to lead Gamaken away from Ryou's attack range, then looked up at the mountain-and-sea behemoth in the sky, which was the same size as Ryou's current Demon Cat form.
Seven-Tails Chomei!
It was Shisui who had the Seven-Tails Chomei take action.
These were the scales from the Seven-Tails Chomei's wings, its special ability—Scale Powder Hidden Mist Technique.
Ryou used Wood Release to heal his eyes, then looked gloomily at the Seven-Tails Chomei in the sky and Shisui on its back.
"Shisui, who told you to throw a flash? What if you hurt my eyes?"
Shisui didn't answer Ryou's question; seeing Ryou like this, he had already fallen into evil ways and there was no turning back.
He looked at Jiraiya, waiting for Jiraiya's command.
Jiraiya knew that Ryou was currently an unstoppable force; their most important task was to protect the Seven-Tails Chomei.
Jiraiya shouted to Shisui, "Shisui, Senior Kakuzu and I will hold him off. You take the Seven-Tails Chomei back to Konoha."
Receiving the order, Shisui had the Seven-Tails Chomei fly high and prepare to withdraw toward Konoha.
Ryou snorted coldly, "Trying to escape!"
Ryou's Futamata-no-O-no-Mikoto couldn't fly; after all, its essence was a cat, and it lacked the ability to fly.
But that didn't mean Ryou had no flying Ninjutsu; the Wood Dragon Technique summoned a giant dragon that could soar into the sky.
"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"
Ryou's claws came together, and majestic chakra was poured into the earth. Soon, a hundred-meter-long Wood Dragon burst through the ground and surged out.
This Wood Dragon had a short, thick elephant-like trunk, its entire body covered in wooden spikes, its winding form draped in rough wooden scales.
"Damn it, it's that technique!"
Seeing the Wood Dragon, the Seven-Tails Chomei was startled, its six wings flapping desperately.
The Seven-Tails Chomei had suffered at the hands of the Wood Dragon before.
Back then, when facing capture by Hashirama, if the Seven-Tails Chomei couldn't win, couldn't it at least hide?
Its combat power might not match the Eight-Tails or Nine-Tails, but the Seven-Tails Chomei could fly, its speed was agile, and it could both fight and run.
Once it flew into the sky, what could Hashirama do?
Unexpectedly, Hashirama had directly summoned a Wood Dragon that soared into the air and dealt with the Seven-Tails Chomei in just a few moves.
The Seven-Tails Chomei had a deep-seated fear of the Wood Dragon.
Not just the Wood Dragon, but any Wood Release with the property of absorbing chakra was like a strict father to the Tailed Beasts.
Because Hashirama's Wood Release possessed the characteristics of the Ten-Tails God Tree.
Wood Release is the power of the father.
The Wood Dragon flew very fast; if the Seven-Tails Chomei's flight followed science, then the Wood Dragon's flight was pure fantasy.
Seeing the Wood Dragon closing in, the Seven-Tails Chomei dove down, using its agile flying skills to try and evade the Wood Dragon's pursuit.
But it couldn't escape.
The Seven-Tails Chomei's flight required the flapping of wings, but the Wood Dragon didn't bother with such fancy tricks.
It was like a sea snake, and the sky was the ocean in which it swam freely; the Wood Dragon's flight was even more agile than the Seven-Tails Chomei's.
Jiraiya and Kakuzu weren't idle either, simultaneously releasing long-range Ninjutsu to intercept the Wood Dragon.
Jiraiya and Gamaken released a combination Ninjutsu.
Jiraiya released wind, and Gamaken released a water cannon.
"Wind Release: Toad Gun!"
Jiraiya's most proficient Ninjutsu was still the Toad Oil Flame Bullet; he would release the oil, and the Summoned Beast would be responsible for the fire.
But the Wood Dragon was flying in the sky, far from Jiraiya and Gamaken, and the Toad Oil Flame Bullet was a mid-to-short-range area attack.
They had to use long-range, high-reach Ninjutsu to attack the Wood Dragon.
The spiraling Toad Gun composed of wind and water was immensely powerful; hitting a section of the Wood Dragon's body, it directly shattered a part of its form.
Kakuzu mimicked Jiraiya's attack, his wind mask releasing Wind Release: Pressure Damage and his water mask releasing a water cannon to attack the Wood Dragon from a distance.
The Wood Dragon's attack power was exaggerated, but the exaggerated part lay in close-quarters contact; if a Tailed Beast was touched by it, it would face a "death suction," and a human would be directly sucked dry.
However, compared to its attack power, its defense was not as extreme.
With Jiraiya and Kakuzu's long-range attacks intercepting it, the Seven-Tails Chomei managed to escape far from the Wood Dragon's pursuit.
Looking at the Wood Dragon eating its dust behind it, the Seven-Tails Chomei snorted, "Brat Ryou, you're still a far cry from Hashirama!"
"Brat Chomei, don't you dare leave!"
Chakra erupted from Ryou's limbs as he was about to give chase, when he suddenly saw the Seven-Tails Chomei flying toward the Great Tree of Takigakure.
The Seven-Tails Chomei had previously intended to use the Great Tree of Takigakure to play a game of cat and mouse with the Wood Dragon, thereby evading its pursuit.
This idea wasn't wrong, but the current Great Tree of Takigakure was dominated by Ryou's spore and had already become a mini Ten-Tails.
Ryou stopped, a sinister grin appearing on his face; he hadn't expected his previous unintentional action to be such a big help.
"Something's not right!"
Shisui looked back and saw Ryou stop; as a high-IQ Genjutsu-style Shinobi, he easily noticed Ryou's odd behavior.
According to Ryou's usual behavior, now that the Seven-Tails Chomei had escaped the Wood Dragon's pursuit and was about to flee, Ryou should have been chasing them like a mad dog.
But instead, Ryou had stopped!
In an instant, many thoughts flashed through Shisui's mind.
"Chomei, stop!"
The Seven-Tails Chomei was very obedient and stopped immediately.
But it was too late; it was only a few dozen meters away from the Great Tree of Takigakure.
At this moment, the Great Tree of Takigakure seemed to come to life, its branches transforming into thick vines as wide as water vats, flying toward the Seven-Tails Chomei.
"What is this?!"
Shisui's face was filled with bewilderment and shock.
The Seven-Tails Chomei above him was just as shocked as Shisui; the Great Tree of Takigakure's attack method seemed to remind it of its strict father.
The Ten-Tails, the Ten-Tails in God Tree form.
Just like Muzan's fear of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, this fear was etched into the inheritance of chakra.
Out of fear, the Seven-Tails Chomei momentarily forgot to launch an attack to stop the Great Tree of Takigakure's vine assault.
Even if it wanted to attack, it was too late; the Great Tree of Takigakure was nearly two hundred meters tall, and the vines it launched almost completely covered the Seven-Tails Chomei.
Against such a range, the Seven-Tails Chomei could only rely on a Biju Bomb to blast it away.
But the Biju Bomb had a long wind-up time; in the time it would take for the Seven-Tails Chomei to release one, the Great Tree of Takigakure would have already controlled it ten times over.
Countless vines flew onto the Seven-Tails Chomei like dragons and snakes, covering its entire body.
The head armor, the back, the wings...
Soon, the vines of the Great Tree of Takigakure firmly shackled the Seven-Tails Chomei; it could only freeze in place, unable to even lift a claw, completely losing its strength to resist.
Even more terrifyingly, the Great Tree of Takigakure was rapidly devouring the Seven-Tails Chomei's chakra.
With every bit it devoured, it grew a little taller.
Shisui drew his Shinobi blade and, like a moth to a flame, went to hack away at the vines shackling the Seven-Tails Chomei.
"Damn it!"
No matter how Shisui hacked at them, the vines of the Great Tree of Takigakure continued to surge forward relentlessly to control the Seven-Tails Chomei.