"First Mizukage… he actually did it…"
Yagura stared at Byakuren, his expression tangled with conflicting emotions.
He felt chilled that Kirigakure once had such a cruel, cold-blooded, cunning, and sinister leader.
Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but feel admiration and pride that their village had produced someone so remarkably gifted, someone capable of resurrecting himself just to wipe away past humiliation and defeat the Iron Fist.
"Can the power of three Kekkei Genkai really shake the hero of the ninja world?"
Fugaku's Mangekyo remained fixed on the towering ice mountain that stood imposingly in the center of the battlefield.
This mountain, overflowing with Ice Release chakra, Storm Release chakra, and Swift Release chakra, even his Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't see through it.
He couldn't peer into anything inside.
"I can't see…"
Hizashi's heart tightened.
This was the first time he had ever encountered something even the Byakugan couldn't penetrate.
"The combined technique formed from three Kekkei Genkai is indeed powerful… but to claim it could take down a man who dominated two entire eras with a single strike… isn't that a bit too easy?
Not to mention Byakuren's so-called perfect timing…
Yes, time may eventually defeat the Iron Fist, but at this moment, the hero of the ninja world hasn't reached an age where time could truly shake him."
Thinking of this, Orochimaru couldn't help but turn to Tsunade.
If anyone understood Garp best, it was Tsunade.
After all, since Garp came back from retirement, she had followed at his side, never straying more than half a step.
"Uncle Garp is the only man who isn't affected by age at all…"
As if bound by some unspoken connection between the Sannin, Tsunade happened to look over just as Orochimaru's gaze landed on her.
"As long as he's not dead from old age, he absolutely cannot be defeated…"
Their eyes met, and both silently acknowledged the truth.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Just as countless shinobi were shifting their gazes and silently guessing whether Garp had truly been shaken, Byakuren abruptly formed hand signs and slammed his palm onto the ground.
With a burst of white smoke, a massive turtle, towering like a small mountain, with three long tails, materialized on the battlefield.
"The Three-Tails!"
"The Kage of that era were all monsters, he actually signed a summoning contract with a Tailed Beast!"
"A legendary level Kage… did they all just use Tailed Beasts as summons?"
Everyone froze the moment they recognized that Byakuren had actually summoned the Three-Tails.
In that instant, many couldn't help thinking.
Back in the old era… if you didn't tame at least one or two Tailed Beasts, were you even qualified to call yourself a Kage?
"Although he's already frozen… that old bastard's body is far too strong. Better add an extra layer of insurance…"
Thinking back to the punch he traded with Garp, Byakuren's gaze toward the ice mountain darkened.
He formed signs with his left hand, then pressed his right hand firmly onto the Three-Tails' head.
Crack…
Before the newly-summoned Three-Tails could even react, layer upon layer of massive ice blocks erupted, freezing its enormous body, and its three thick tails, solid.
After freezing the Three-Tails into a full-sized Tailed Beast ice sculpture, Byakuren gripped the icy surface with both hands, and several ice-dragon chains shot out from his abdomen, latching onto the frozen beast.
"Seal!"
With a cold shout, the ice-dragon chains tightened violently.
And shockingly, this massive Three-Tails ice statue was dragged straight into Byakuren's body.
"He subdued and sealed a Tailed Beast in an instant?"
"If not for Lord Garp's existence, the First Five Kage would've been the absolute peak of the past era."
"It's hard to imagine how Lord Garp overshadowed the brilliance of all five First Kage in those days…"
Every ninja who witnessed the entire sequence, summoning, restraining, and sealing the Three-Tails, was shaken.
This was one of the nine Tailed Beasts, the Three-Tails whose chakra reserves ranked seventh.
Yet before a First-generation Kage, it looked as weak as an unweaned pup, captured and sealed almost instantly.
"What a shame, Garp. Just when it's finally your turn to end up like a beaten dog… you don't even have the chance to tuck your tail and run.
To think I had been looking forward to seeing you scamper back to the Land of Fire in disgrace, tail between your legs…
Such a pity, no chance for that now!"
Byakuren's eyes snapped open, an ominous, sinister aura burst from his body.
Immediately, blood-red Tailed Beast chakra began seeping out of him.
In the blink of an eye, three red tails unfurled behind him.
"Tailed Beast Bomb!"
Half-transformed, looking like a miniature Three-Tails, Byakuren opened his jaws.
Red and blue chakra particles erupted across the air, rapidly condensing before his mouth into a dense black sphere so powerful it distorted the surrounding atmosphere into visible ripples.
A moment later, the semi-transformed Byakuren bit down, swallowing the Tailed Beast Bomb, then spat it forward.
Air rippled in massive waves as the Bomb shot out with an earth-shaking roar, streaking directly toward the ice mountain where Garp was frozen.
At that moment, every shinobi fixed their gaze on the Tailed Beast Bomb.
They all wanted to know…
Could the resurrected First Mizukage, along with the most fearsome technique of the Tailed Beasts, truly drag the greatest warrior of the Warring States down from the throne of the strongest?
"Even the weakest Tailed Beast, the One-Tails Shukaku, can flatten several mountains with a single Tailed Beast Bomb.
No matter how strong the Iron Fist is… he's still human, still flesh and blood.
Taking a Three-Tails Bomb head-on with no defenses… even if he survives, he'll be gravely injured!"
Watching this unfold, Yagura couldn't help but sigh inwardly.