Chapter 460: The Runaway Tailed Beast

Whoosh!!

The wide-range Fire Release unleashed by Muzuki surged towards the Mist Ninja once more, forcing many of them to work together to use Water Release to block it.

Meanwhile, the other Konoha Ninja seized the opportunity to counterattack.

“Flash!”

Kakashi concentrated his breathing, converting all his gathered Chakra into Lightning Release Chakra to activate his cells. He moved through the battlefield like lightning, and wherever he passed, a Mist Ninja was cut in half.

“Eight Gates, Gate of Limit, Open!”

Might Guy directly opened the fifth of the Eight Gates, and a large amount of Chakra surged from his body, increasing his speed and strength once again. Every punch and kick dealt a heavy blow to the surrounding Mist Ninja.

For the current Might Guy, only opening five gates without activating Rock Breathing Chakra Mode would not put too much burden on his body.

Shisui was not to be outdone. His blood-red eyes swept over the Mist Ninja around him, and in the next moment, the Phantom Shisui clones surrounded the Mist Ninja. Their sometimes-solid, sometimes-ethereal bodies made them difficult for the Mist Ninja to deal with.

“Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!”

Obito utilized Flame Breathing to its fullest, gathering a large amount of Chakra in his throat, then converting it all into flames and spitting them out in one breath. Large swathes of flames formed a sea of fire, which then split into fire dragons that enveloped the Mist Ninja.

Although it wasn’t as spectacular as Muzuki’s Fire Release, which had an overwhelming momentum, it was still very striking on the battlefield and even stronger than the Fire Release of many Konoha Jonin.

Under the strong counterattack of the Konoha Ninja Force, the Hidden Mist Force, centered around Hozuki Mangetsu, was suppressed. One by one, Mist Ninja died under the Konoha Ninja Force’s counterattack.

The battlefield before Hozuki Mangetsu’s death was like a balanced scale, and Muzuki killing Hozuki Mangetsu was like adding a weight to the Konoha side of the balanced scale, causing the scale of victory to gradually tip towards Konoha.

Yagura Karatachi’s face grew darker and darker. Although he had the Three-Tails Jinchuriki on his side, Konoha was not to be trifled with. Most of their Jonin were here, so he couldn’t quickly decapitate Orochimaru like Muzuki had.

No matter how unwilling Yagura Karatachi was, he had to admit that Hidden Mist had lost this battle, even with a significant intelligence advantage.

“Use that,” Yagura Karatachi said to the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, who was currently beating up Manda, after forcing Orochimaru back with his iron rod.

Yagura Karatachi was not a reckless person. Although he believed that the Hidden Mist Force with the Jinchuriki had a high chance of winning, he wasn’t so arrogant as to think their win rate was one hundred percent.

Therefore, Yagura Karatachi had already thought of a way to deal with this situation.

Jinchuriki have several states, the strongest of which is called Full Tailed Beast Transformation. In this state, the Jinchuriki’s body completely transforms into the Tailed Beast while maintaining their self-awareness, allowing them to maximize the Tailed Beast’s terrifying power and immense Chakra.

However, not every Jinchuriki can achieve Full Tailed Beast Transformation; it greatly tests the Jinchuriki’s own abilities.

The current Three-Tails Jinchuriki of Hidden Mist Village did not have this ability, otherwise Yagura Karatachi would have had him perform a Full Tailed Beast Transformation long ago, and they wouldn’t be fighting so difficultly.

However, there is a clever trick for Full Tailed Beast Transformation: making the Jinchuriki lose consciousness and allowing the Tailed Beast to take over the body. This also allows for Full Tailed Beast Transformation, except the body is controlled by the Tailed Beast, not the Jinchuriki.

But there is a downside to doing this: since Tailed Beasts generally have poor relations with humans, once a Tailed Beast can move freely, it will immediately attack the Ninja around it indiscriminately.

However, Yagura Karatachi had no other good options now. Anyway, this was Konoha’s main base, so letting the Tailed Beast rampage would definitely cause more loss for Konoha.

The Three-Tails Jinchuriki nodded and, erupting with the Tailed Beast Chakra from his body, charged directly towards the Konoha Ninja Force, not dodging any incoming Ninjutsu or Ninja tools.

No matter how incapable the Three-Tails Jinchuriki was, he was still a Jinchuriki. The Konoha Ninja were unable to stop the Three-Tails Jinchuriki’s charge.

The moment he charged into the Konoha Ninja Force, the Three-Tails Jinchuriki used a secret technique to put his own consciousness to sleep.

At that moment, a terrifyingly immense Chakra rose from within the Three-Tails Jinchuriki’s body. The Chakra materialized from intangible to tangible, finally transforming into a colossal turtle with a body covered in sharp spikes and Three-Tails.

After opening its blood-red eyes, the giant turtle looked at the Ninja fighting everywhere and instantly revealed a terrifying killing intent.

It had been living peacefully in the water, only to be suddenly captured by these humans and imprisoned, leading to an endless life of confinement.

Isobu unceremoniously swung its three massive tails, lashing out at the Ninja. Any Ninja who failed to dodge was directly struck, their bodies bleeding profusely as they lay on the ground, unable to move, their fate unknown.

“Actively letting the Tailed Beast rampage, this is a bit troublesome,” Orochimaru frowned slightly.

He had once let the Eight-Tails rampage. Although a rampaging Tailed Beast’s strength was not as great as a true Full Tailed Beast Transformation, due to the Tailed Beast’s terrifying power and Chakra, even mindless attacks could cause immense destruction.

Yagura Karatachi was clearly making a desperate move, because a Tailed Beast wouldn’t rampage forever, and once the Jinchuriki recovered, they would suffer greatly.

【Name: Isobu】

【Chakra: 18,500,000】

Muzuki curiously appraised the Three-Tails Jinchuriki and found that the appraisal result in this state wasn’t even the Jinchuriki’s name, but the Tailed Beast’s name, and its Chakra amounted to an astonishing eighteen and a half million.

“As expected, Jinchuriki normally still can’t fully utilize the Tailed Beast’s Chakra,” Muzuki thought of the appraisal results for the Four-Tails Jinchuriki and Five-Tailed Jinchuriki on the Iwagakure battlefield earlier.

If he remembered correctly, Han and Roshi only had about five million Chakra at their peak.

Muzuki estimated that only by being completely recognized by the Tailed Beast, like Naruto and Nine-Tailed, could one fully utilize the Tailed Beast’s Chakra.

“Everyone retreat!” Yagura Karatachi commanded, taking advantage of the Three-Tails’ rampage.

A rampaging Tailed Beast would attack indiscriminately. They weren’t being attacked now only because they were far away. If they didn’t leave soon, they might end up getting hit by Tailed Beast Ball along with the Konoha Ninja.

“Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!”

Yagura Karatachi gathered Chakra and exhaled a large amount of dense mist to cover his retreating troops.

Orochimaru immediately used Wind Release to disperse the dense mist. Among the five nature transformations, Wind Release Ninjutsu was his most proficient.

Orochimaru would not let Yagura Karatachi escape so easily. With an advantage, he naturally wanted to eliminate as much of the enemy’s living force as possible.

But at this moment, the Three-Tails’ smashing tail forced Orochimaru, who was about to use Ninjutsu to attack the Mist Ninja, to dodge.

Orochimaru finally understood how the Cloud Ninja felt when the Eight-Tails rampaged.

“Manda, go stop the Three-Tails,” Orochimaru wanted Manda to entangle with the Three-Tails for a bit.

“Time’s up, don’t forget my sacrifices,” Manda ignored Orochimaru and returned directly to Ryūchi Cave.

Manda wasn’t stupid. Fighting a fully-formed Tailed Beast was no joke. Getting hit by a Tailed Beast Ball would mean severe injury, if not death.

Its relationship with Orochimaru was merely a partnership; a hundred sacrifices weren’t worth such a desperate fight.

Orochimaru’s expression remained unchanged. He wasn’t too surprised. Orochimaru was well aware of his Nin-Beast’s personality; Manda couldn’t be relied on in critical moments, he had to rely on himself.

“Shadow Imitation Technique!”

Nara Shikaku formed hand signs and used the Shadow Imitation Technique, overlapping his shadow with the Tailed Beast’s shadow.

The moment the shadows merged, the Tailed Beast’s attacking motion paused. Nara Shikaku’s face, however, turned pale. Controlling such a powerful and terrifying creature as a Tailed Beast with the Shadow Imitation Technique, even for just a moment, came at a considerable cost.

“Partial Multi-Size Technique!”

Akimichi Choza immediately used the Akimichi Clan’s secret technique. With the enhancement of Yang Release Chakra, Akimichi Choza’s body rapidly grew until he became a giant about the same size as the Three-Tails.

After using the Partial Multi-Size Technique, Akimichi Choza possessed terrifying strength. Taking advantage of the Three-Tails being restrained, he directly grabbed the Three-Tails’ tail, swung it, and then slammed it onto the ground.

“Inoichi, you take the Ninja below Jonin and retreat,” Orochimaru said while using Wind Release to attack the Tailed Beast.

The Yamanaka Clan’s secret techniques were most useful in this situation for quickly organizing troops to evacuate.

Ninja below Jonin would find it very difficult to survive fighting a Tailed Beast; even the aftermath of the battle would be extremely fatal to them.

Inoichi Yamanaka nodded slightly and used the Yamanaka Clan’s secret technique to quickly transmit this message across the battlefield.

“All Chunin and below Ninja, retreat to the northwest direction,” Inoichi Yamanaka’s voice suddenly appeared in the Ninja’s minds.

The northwest direction was towards Konoha, where there would be no enemies, as the Konoha Ninja Force regularly and thoroughly patrolled that area.

Upon hearing Inoichi Yamanaka’s voice, Obito instinctively started to walk towards the northwest direction, until he noticed that the other Muzuki’s disciples weren’t moving.

Only then did Obito remember that he was the only Chunin among Muzuki’s disciples. Rin Nohara, after all, was a Special Jonin.

Obito was a bit conflicted. Leaving would be disobeying a military order, but he couldn’t possibly leave the combat zone alone; that would be abandoning his comrades.

“If you want to stay, then stay,” Muzuki walked over and said.

As the battlefield’s deputy commander, Muzuki had this authority.

If Obito left alone, Muzuki would have to arrange Shadow Clones for protection, in case Uchiha Madara caused trouble during the chaos. It was better to let Obito stay on the battlefield.

A fully-formed Tailed Beast is very strong, but it also depends on which one. If it were the Nine-Tailed or Eight-Tails, Muzuki would choose to retreat with his disciples.

But the Three-Tails was a relatively ordinary Tailed Beast, and on the scene there was Orochimaru, Ino–Shika–Chō, and a group of Konoha Jonin. Furthermore, there were no Mist Ninja to help the Three-Tails. The losing side of this battle would definitely be the Three-Tails.

“Summoning Technique!”

Orochimaru once again used the Summoning Technique to summon a Nin-Beast. However, this time he wasn’t summoning Manda, but a large, ordinary Ryūchi Cave snake.

Orochimaru had a contract with Ryūchi Cave, so he could summon not only Manda but also other snakes, though Manda was the strongest Nin-Beast he could summon.

But in this situation, Manda would certainly not answer his summons, so Orochimaru simply summoned a sufficiently large Nin-Beast.

Orochimaru stood on the Nin-Beast’s head and charged towards the Three-Tails’ massive body.

At this point, Nara Shikaku was no longer able to use his Shadow Imitation Technique to control the Three-Tails due to excessive Chakra consumption. It was Akimichi Choza who was using his massive body to suppress the Three-Tails, but because the Three-Tails’ strength was too great, Akimichi Choza’s suppression was very strained, and his massive giant body constantly trembled.

The other Konoha Jonin all used their respective methods to deal with the Tailed Beast.

Those skilled in offensive Ninjutsu used Fire Release and Lightning Release to attack the Three-Tails’ body, while Jonin skilled in auxiliary Ninjutsu used various Earth Release Ninjutsu to try and trap the Three-Tails.

Every Konoha Jonin basically had a unique skill. Being besieged by such a group of elites, even the Three-Tails couldn’t bear it. It retracted its relatively vulnerable head into its shell and simultaneously unleashed a huge amount of Chakra from its body.

Boom!!

When the enraged Three-Tails completely unleashed the terrifying power within its body, Akimichi Choza could no longer suppress the Three-Tails. His massive body was knocked to the ground.

Immediately after, the Three-Tails swung its tail towards Akimichi Choza.

Akimichi Choza, lying on the ground, gasped as he looked at the spiky tail. If he were hit, he’d be full of holes.

Akimichi Choza immediately rolled on the ground, dodging the first tail. But unfortunately, the Three-Tails had Three-Tails in total, and the remaining two tails were about to hit Akimichi Choza.

Whoosh!

Just then, the sound of a Kunai cutting through the air came, and a Kunai flew above Akimichi Choza.

Whoosh!

The next moment, Muzuki, holding Enma, appeared above Akimichi Choza and raised Enma.

Clang!!

Muzuki rapidly descended and landed on Akimichi Choza’s body, stopping the spiky giant tail two meters in front of Akimichi Choza’s body.

Two meters was a very short distance for the massive Three-Tails and Akimichi Choza, who had used the Partial Multi-Size Technique. Muzuki’s body was even more minuscule between these two behemoths.

But despite such a huge size difference, Muzuki firmly resisted the spiky giant tail, not allowing it to advance another inch.

Orochimaru’s giant snake and Muzuki arrived simultaneously, coiling around another giant tail, successfully resolving Akimichi Choza’s crisis.

Akimichi Choza breathed a sigh of relief, quickly got up, and smilingly thanked Muzuki and Orochimaru. He then grabbed the Three-Tails’ tail where there were no spikes and gave the Three-Tails another fierce swing.

Rumble!!

The Three-Tails’ massive body crashed to the ground, creating a huge crater.

The other Konoha Jonin then seized the opportunity to unleash a barrage of attacks on the Three-Tails, leaving some small wounds on its vulnerable parts.

The Three-Tails was completely enraged. Its giant head roared towards the sky, and terrifying, wild Chakra swept across the entire battlefield. It would kill everyone here at all costs.

“Spread out from each other. It might use Tailed Beast Ball,” Orochimaru calmly directed.

If they couldn’t eliminate a large number of Hidden Mist troops, killing a Jinchuriki was still a significant achievement.

Then Orochimaru looked at Muzuki, “Lord Mu Yue, now is the time for you and I to exert our strength.”

To defeat a fully-formed Tailed Beast, relying on ordinary Jonin to scratch it was not enough; the strong ones were the main damage dealers.

Jiraiya had once repelled two Jinchuriki with the assistance of Minato Namikaze and a group of elite Jonin. Orochimaru believed that with him and Muzuki working together, plus the assistance of the Konoha Jonin, killing the Jinchuriki would not be a problem.