The two of them soared through the air.
"Mei," Kiyosuke shouted, "your Mizukage has gone insane!"
"Shut up!" Terumī Mei snapped, grabbing Kiyosuke by the collar. "He chose to sacrifice himself to drive you Konoha invaders out! This is all your fault!"
"You attacked the Land of Fire first!"
"And now you're attacking the Land of Water!"
"Oh come on, don't twist the facts. If you hadn't made the first move, we wouldn't even be fighting. Anyway, brace yourself—we're about to land."
"What? Wait—ahhh!!"
Terumī Mei screamed as Kiyosuke suddenly tossed her midair. Using the recoil, he accelerated his own descent. He slammed into the ground with explosive force, erupting into a burst of flames. The fire quickly converged, reforming into his original form. He reached up and caught Mei just in time, grinning.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me right about now?"
"Hmph. T-Thank you…"
Even though she knew she shouldn't, she still muttered her thanks. If he hadn't caught her, she might've ended up with more than a few broken bones.
She stepped out of his arms, cheeks tinged red, then looked toward the massive, berserk beast wreaking havoc in the distance. Her face gradually paled.
"We have to stop the Mizukage… If we don't…"
"He's going to die," Kiyosuke said calmly. "Even if the tailed beast doesn't go completely berserk, his body can't hold out much longer."
"He didn't have to be part of this war," Mei murmured, biting her lip.
"This was his choice," Kiyosuke replied. "He could've just died in bed, sick and old. But he chose the battlefield. That's how he wanted to go."
The Third Mizukage had once been a powerful force, a legend of his time. After the Second Mizukage and the Second Tsuchikage perished together in the First Great Ninja War, he took up the mantle. He was a veteran of three wars—a man who had fought all his life. To him, dying on a sickbed would've been a fate worse than death.
So, he chose battle.
"I just never thought he'd go so far as to become the Three-Tails' jinchūriki. His body was already failing, and yet he still wanted to strike Konoha with a final, crushing blow… well, I guess he got his wish," Kiyosuke said, eyes on the rampaging beast.
The Three-Tails had completely lost control, now lashing out indiscriminately. It didn't matter if it was Konoha or Kirigakure—anyone nearby would be attacked. The beast couldn't be stopped.
Orochimaru began ordering the Konoha forces to retreat. Let the rampaging Three-Tails be Kirigakure's problem. This had nothing to do with them anymore. Time to slip away.
Kiyosuke glanced toward Orochimaru's direction and said, "I'm heading out. You… be careful."
"…Yeah."
Mei nodded, keeping her eyes on the Three-Tails.
"Kiyosuke… I can call you that, right?"
"Mm."
"Goodbye."
Without another word, she turned and sprinted toward the Kirigakure forces.
"Tch." Kiyosuke clicked his tongue in annoyance as he watched her leave, but turned and ran toward Orochimaru.
As Kiyosuke approached, Orochimaru studied the markings on his face.
"So this is Sage Mode?"
"Yeah. Sage Mode from Ryūchi Cave. Perfect form," Kiyosuke said, clenching his fist.
"Are we retreating?"
"No. Stay here with me. Let's see how this plays out."
Orochimaru had no intention of leaving. He wanted to observe the power of a tailed beast up close.
"…Got it."
Kiyosuke maintained Sage Mode. With a rampaging tailed beast nearby, he couldn't afford to drop it. If the beast turned their way, he needed the speed to get out alive.
Over on the Kirigakure side, they had already started trying to suppress and seal the Three-Tails.
"Hurry! All seal-type shinobi, get ready! Yagura-sama! Kisame-sama! Please suppress the Three-Tails! We need to hold it down so the sealing team can move in!"
"Medical unit! Medical unit, stand by to treat the Mizukage!"
"Yuki clan! Use your kekkei genkai to freeze the Three-Tails' Water Release attacks!"
The Kirigakure forces moved quickly. They needed to contain the beast and save the Third Mizukage. Only by suppressing the Three-Tails could they hope to succeed.
Originally, the plan had been for the Third Mizukage to wield the Three-Tails' power and wipe out Konoha. But no one had expected his body to fail in the process, allowing the beast to break loose and launch indiscriminate attacks.
Now, the entire operation was in chaos.
"Hehehe… The power of a tailed beast isn't something to mess with," Orochimaru chuckled from the sidelines, eyes gleaming with greed.
Konoha had the Nine-Tails, but its jinchūriki, Kushina, kept it under tight control. There was no way it could rampage, let alone give Orochimaru a chance to study it. But this? This was the perfect opportunity to get a firsthand look at the true nature of tailed beast chakra.
"Tailed beasts are village-level weapons. And the Third Mizukage really went all-in."
Back in the day, the First Hokage had distributed the tailed beasts among the villages to maintain balance. Each was sealed within a jinchūriki to serve as a weapon, only to be released in moments of dire crisis.
But Kirigakure wasn't exactly facing a desperate situation.
The Third Mizukage had simply wanted to wipe out the enemy with overwhelming force. Instead, he'd thrown his own forces into a nightmare scenario.
The Three-Tails lifted one massive leg and stomped the ground, sending a colossal wave surging forward.
"Ice Release!!"
A chorus of Yuki shinobi shouted as they formed hand seals. A frigid wind swept through the battlefield, instantly freezing the tidal wave mid-air. The surrounding forest was blanketed in white.
Boom!
The Three-Tails stomped again, shaking the earth. Cracks split through the ice as it instantly melted back into water.
The Three-Tails also possessed Ice Release. Melting the Yuki's jutsu was effortless.
"ROAR—!"
It bellowed again, chakra surging in massive waves.
Kisame narrowed his eyes. "That amount of chakra… Samehada couldn't absorb all that even if it wanted to."
Samehada gave a longing growl but whimpered in frustration—it knew it couldn't handle that much power.
"Fall back!"
Yagura shouted, ordering all ninja to retreat.
The Tailed Beast Bomb shot straight forward, blasting through several unlucky ninja who hadn't gotten away in time. It smashed into a distant mountain and exploded in a deafening blast.
"This won't do. We have to lure it away," Yagura thought grimly. "If even one of those attacks hits the village…"
He turned to Kisame. "Kisame, do whatever it takes to draw the Three-Tails away. We can't let it attack the village."
Kisame nodded. "Understood."
But as he stared at the Three-Tails, he couldn't help but grimace. This was going to be tough. He couldn't think of any clever way to lure it off course. It looked like the only option was to fight.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+100 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo