"This Tailed Beast Bomb is far too large. Even if I strike with Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm at full power, I could only barely alter its trajectory a little. But considering the explosion radius of a Tailed Beast Bomb…"
Hizashi Hyūga assumed a stance, staring intently at the rapidly approaching sphere of destruction. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Halfway through his sentence, he found himself unable to continue.
The reason Tailed Beasts were treated as ultimate weapons by the great shinobi villages was precisely because of attacks like the Tailed Beast Bomb, capable of destroying an entire mountain in an instant.
Against such terrifying power, ninety-nine percent of the ninja in the world had no countermeasure.
Once unleashed, it could easily alter the course of a war.
Although Hizashi's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm could slightly change the Tailed Beast Bomb's path, such a small deviation would be meaningless given its devastating blast radius.
That was why he hadn't finished his sentence.
Even so, watching the Tailed Beast Bomb already descending upon them, Hizashi clenched his teeth.
He still prepared to make a final effort.
Do everything within human power—then leave the rest to fate.
Just as Hizashi was about to strike, Uchiha Ren suddenly leapt into the air.
The three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes spun rapidly, transforming into the Mangekyō Sharingan. Two streaks of blood tears ran down the corners of his eyes.
At the same time, a massive semi-transparent golden-red skeletal figure formed around him—constructed from a strange and overwhelming chakra.
One of the skeletal arms rapidly grew muscle, flesh, skin… and finally armor.
"Rise!"
Ren roared.
The Susanoo arm swung violently, striking the underside of the incoming Tailed Beast Bomb.
BOOM!
With a dull thunderous impact, the enormous sphere was knocked away like a baseball, sent flying back at even greater speed toward the distant mountains.
"BOOOOM!!!"
A colossal mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
Several mountain peaks collapsed instantly, turning into dust.
Ren landed on the ground, breathing heavily.
Every cell in his body felt as if it were being pierced by needles.
The burden of Susanoo was far greater than he had imagined.
Without the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, this power was almost impossible to sustain.
"Ren!"
"The enemy is 11 kilometers away at the two o'clock direction. There are about five hundred of them—it should be the Iwagakure vanguard force!"
"They're preparing a second Tailed Beast Bomb!"
Feeling the shockwaves from the distant explosion, Hizashi activated his Byakugan and urgently called out.
Iwagakure's combat style remained as shameless as ever.
Without even testing the waters, they had immediately used a Tailed Beast to launch an attack.
Such ruthless tactics were perfectly in line with their leader—
The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of the Two Scales.
Hearing this, Ren no longer bothered conserving chakra.
Flames erupted across his entire body.
Jets of fire burst from both hands and both feet, propelling him into the sky like a rocket.
After adjusting his direction midair, the flames intensified violently.
A sonic boom followed as he broke the sound barrier, shooting toward the direction Hizashi had indicated.
Halfway there—
Another enormous Tailed Beast Bomb came flying straight toward him.
Ren's gaze turned ice-cold.
Susanoo manifested again.
With a single swing, he slapped the Tailed Beast Bomb aside, sending it crashing into the distant mountains.
Moments later, Ren arrived near the target location.
Below him stood hundreds of Iwagakure shinobi, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.
They surrounded a black-and-red monster with five tails, already in a partial Tailed Beast transformation.
None of them had expected Ren to cross more than ten kilometers and appear before them so suddenly.
Ren clasped his hands together.
Chakra surged violently through his body, dyeing both palms a brilliant golden-red.
"Have you ever witnessed…"
His icy voice echoed across the sky.
"…a palm strike descending from the heavens?"
His body twisted in midair.
Then he dove straight down toward the Iwagakure forces below.
"Scatter!"
"Scatter immediately! Find cover!"
The leader of the Iwa vanguard sensed danger instantly and shouted at the top of his lungs.
However—
The Five-Tails jinchūriki, Han, who stood at the center of the formation, suddenly erupted with white steam across his body.
Lowering his stance, he launched himself upward with unstoppable momentum, charging directly toward Ren.
"Boil Release: Unrivaled Strength!"
Ren's eyes sharpened.
His hands slowly pushed forward.
"Fire Release: Secret Technique — Manji Buddha Seal: Great Brahma!"
Two gigantic golden-red flaming palms instantly formed in front of him.
Between the palms floated a crimson sphere of fire, engraved with the ancient manji symbol (卍).
The flaming palms pushed forward, carrying the blood-red sphere with them.
As they advanced, they expanded rapidly, blotting out the sky.
Han had barely leapt halfway up when the overwhelming pressure generated by the technique halted him midair.
Swept up by the terrifying force, he was forced back downward, dragged along with the descending inferno.
"BOOOOOOM!!!"
The earth shook violently.
Towering flames erupted into the sky.
Within the raging blaze, the fire briefly took the shape of a crimson lotus, blooming and expanding as it devoured everything in its path.
Ren's body was carried by the shockwave, eventually landing on the branch of a massive tree several kilometers away.
He gasped for breath.
After unleashing that attack, his chakra was nearly depleted.
When the aftermath finally settled—
The place where the hundreds of Iwagakure shinobi had stood was now a charred crater two to three kilometers wide and dozens of meters deep.
The destructive power of Manji Buddha Seal: Great Brahma was not inferior to a Tailed Beast Bomb.
Ren pulled several Soldier Pills from his ninja pouch and swallowed them.
He seized every second possible to recover his chakra.
He knew very well—
That attack could not possibly have eliminated all of the Iwagakure shinobi, especially Han, the Five-Tails jinchūriki.
If he didn't recover chakra quickly, once the surviving enemies regrouped, his situation would become extremely dangerous.
And just as Ren expected—
A few seconds later, dozens of battered Iwagakure shinobi emerged from beneath the earth.
Most had been killed outright by Ren's devastating technique.
But some had escaped by using Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique or Earth Release: Underground Submarine Voyage (Doton: Dochū Senkō), diving underground to evade the blast.
Even among those who tried, many had not tunneled deep enough and were crushed by the collapsing earth or killed by the shockwaves.
The survivors who crawled out now were essentially the elite shinobi of the Iwa vanguard.
Ren jumped down from the tree and immediately turned toward the direction of Kikyō Mountain Fortress.
At that moment—
"WHOOOM—!"
A sound like a roaring steam engine suddenly echoed.
A tall figure instantly appeared beside Ren.
A fist shot forward—
aimed directly at Ren's head.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789