GSiN: Ch. 191

Ryouma twirled a Flying Thunder God kunai between his fingers, toying with it as he observed the conflicted expression of the man before him with mild interest.

The Hero Water was, of course, nothing unfamiliar to him. What intrigued him more was its principle. If it merely consumed life force and didn't conflict with his own abilities, he might actually consider keeping a dose as a trump card. Taking a drug wasn't shameful. Besides, after using it, he could just have Shiori rewind time. Round it up, that's basically no side effects at all.

Come to think of it, could it be that Shiori came here for this very thing?

A blind spot he hadn't noticed before.

"Hey, are you drinking it or not?"

Sōto glared at him.

Just as he took a deep breath and prepared to drink the Hero Water, an unexpected event occurred. A shadow flashed past. Aoi suddenly darted forward from who-knows-where and snatched the glass bottle from his hand.

"What are you doing?"

He stared in shock, disbelief filling his eyes. He instinctively reached out to grab it back, but grasped only empty air.

Aoi stepped back slightly. "Forgive me, Sōto-sama, but let me be the hero this time."

Ryouma raised an eyebrow. To think that someone would fight for the chance to drink something that traded life span for power. It seemed this kunoichi's loyalty to Sōto ran deeper than expected.

Not that it mattered. Whoever drank it made no real difference. All he needed was to use his Rikugan to closely observe the Hero Water's composition and activation process. In fact, having the jinchūriki drink it might even yield better experimental data.

Unlike Sōto, whose face had been full of hesitation, Aoi didn't waver for a second. She tilted her head back and downed the contents of the glass bottle in one swift motion. However, it turned out Ryouma's guess had been slightly off. Aoi's act wasn't merely one of loyalty, but also of deep gratitude. If Sōto hadn't discovered her kidnapping back in the village, if he hadn't rescued her from the Kumo ninjas, her fate now would've been unimaginably tragic.

As her chakra surged wildly within her, her power seemed ready to burst free of all physical limits. She slowly turned her head, fixing her gaze on Sōto.

"Sōto-sama, please watch me closely."

The moment she spoke, three pairs of sheath-like wings suddenly unfurled from her back, beating at incredible speed and producing a sharp buzzing sound. At the same time, the blood-red chakra of the tailed beast boiled up like molten lava, quickly enveloping her body and forming a fierce, beastly cloak.

Compared to when she had released a Tailed Beast Ball before, the Aoi of this moment was unmistakably far closer to the beast itself.

Blue light flickered faintly in Ryouma's eyes, as though he could see straight through her body.

"So it really only consumes life force? That shouldn't be right..." he muttered under his breath. In the view of his Rikugan, the rate of cellular decay in Aoi's body was completely disproportionate to the terrifying chakra waves now erupting from her.

Could it be that...

He had a vague suspicion forming in his mind, but he still needed a bit more time to confirm it.

Aoi, however, had no attention to spare for whatever Ryouma was thinking. She knew perfectly well that the strengthening buff from the Hero Water would only last for a short while. Every second counted. She had to drive him back now. Only when Sōto officially became the leader of Taki, and they stood as Konoha's allies, could they truly be safe.

With that thought, her wing-sheaths beat even faster. A powerful thrust burst out from behind her, propelling her like a streak of red lightning. In a single flash, she was right in front of Ryouma. A fierce whip kick tore through the air with a sharp gust, aimed straight at his head.

Ryouma raised his arm. The kick connected with his forearm, the chakra cloak rippling from the impact. The force was considerable. The outer layer of golden chakra dispersed on contact, and her shin struck the invisible barrier of Armament Haki coating his arm underneath. The impact sent a shockwave through the air.

CRACK!

He grinned slightly. Not bad. He could feel the force reverberating through his bones. This was exactly what he needed. His body grew stronger through combat, through taking hits and dishing them out. No poison to worry about from a tailed beast cloak, just pure physical force.

He grabbed her leg with his hand before she could pull back, and with a sharp twist, sent her spinning through the air. She recovered mid-flight, wings buzzing as she stabilized herself.

"Interesting," he said, flexing his arm. "Let's see what you've really got."

Aoi didn't waste words. She shot forward again, this time with both fists coated in tailed beast chakra. A barrage of strikes came at him from multiple angles, each one powerful enough to shatter stone.

Ryouma met her head-on. His fists clashed with hers. Each impact sent shockwaves rippling across the lake's surface. He blocked, parried, and occasionally took a hit. One of her punches slammed into his ribs. He grunted, feeling the impact reverberate through his bones, and immediately countered with an uppercut that sent her flying upward.

She recovered in mid-air, diving back down with increased ferocity. This time, she formed a massive sphere of compressed tailed beast chakra in her palm and drove it toward him.

Ryouma caught it with both hands. The energy seared and pushed, but he held firm, muscles straining. With a roar, he redirected the sphere upward, where it detonated in the cavern ceiling.

This was good. This was what real combat felt like. None of that one-sided domination. Just two forces clashing, testing each other's limits.

But as the fight continued, it became clear that even with the Hero Water's boost, the gap was still too wide. His reflexes too sharp. Every attack she threw, he either blocked, parried, or tanked to strengthen himself further.

Finally, with one last desperate charge, Aoi threw everything she had into a final strike. Ryouma met it head-on, his Haki-coated fist colliding with her chakra-wrapped one.

The impact was tremendous. The shockwave tore across the battlefield, kicking up waves and sending debris flying.

Sōto spun toward the deep crater where Aoi lay motionless, his heart twisting painfully. Using the smoke as cover, he gritted his teeth and formed hand seals at lightning speed, splitting into three water clones.

In perfect sync, each clone drew a blade from their back and charged toward Ryouma. But before they could take more than a few steps, the sandy ground beneath them suddenly began to churn.

Thick sand snakes burst forth, coiling around him and his clones, binding them tight.

A moment later, the sand snakes constricted violently, twisting tighter and tighter.

The Water Clones couldn't withstand the crushing force, they burst apart instantly, collapsing into puddles that splashed across the ground.

Clang!

Sōto's hands went limp; his blade slipped from his grip and clattered to the ground with a crisp metallic ring.

Facing such an overwhelmingly strong opponent, his spirit completely collapsed.

He knew full well, his taijutsu was never that great to begin with, and now his ninjutsu had been effectively sealed. Before someone so strong, he was no different from a helpless primitive man.

But while despair consumed him, on the other side, Aoi's resolve burned even brighter.

Her situation couldn't have been more different. After all, everyone knew that a jinchūriki had two stages.

The sealing jutsu within her body had been sold to Taki by Tobirama back then, at a "friendly" discount, to serve as an auxiliary seal for the Seven-Tails. And knowing his shrewd character, it was obvious he hadn't handed over any top-tier sealing technique.

What Taki got was essentially a lite version. Because of that, under normal circumstances, Aoi's limit was merely activating the tailed beast's cloak. If she ever attempted full tailed beast transformation, she would soon lose her sanity, plunging into an uncontrollable, berserk state that couldn't tell friend from foe.

But what did that matter now?

She had already drunk the Hero Water. If she didn't go all out now, was she expecting some miracle after the effect wore off?

Within the depths of her inner sealing space, she gathered every ounce of her willpower and wrenched the wooden stake pinned at the center of the sealing formula free.

Then, Aoi's eyes widened. A bestial roar erupted from deep within her. The chakra cloak around her body exploded outward, growing larger, more violent, more uncontrolled.

"ROAAAAR!"

A terrifying roar split the air. A colossal insect, bearing three pairs of sheath-like wings and a thick, powerful tail, burst through the shattered seal. At last, the Seven-Tails was unleashed upon the world once more.

Whoa, that amount of chakra... it's almost half as much as Kurama's.

Ryouma raised his head, looking toward the Seven-Tails roaring wildly in the sky. Activating his sensory abilities, he roughly gauged the level of chakra inside it.

As expected, just as he had theorized earlier. If a jinchūriki drinks the Hero Water, the strengthening effect stacks and doubles. Of course, the price for that is that their life force consumption doubles as well.

Shukaku also looked up, eyes locked firmly on Chōmei flying in the air, and warned in a low voice, "Don't underestimate it. Chōmei seems to have gone berserk. The host over there just cut off our link between tailed beasts."

"Berserk, huh. Well, that's not surprising. After all, the sealing technique on her always had the risk of losing control," Ryouma replied, as he reached out and gently pinched some of the shimmering scales drifting through the air.

Those scales could reflect light, robbing nearby people of their vision. Originally, it was just a little trick of the Seven-Tails' jinchūriki, but now, under the direct control of the beast itself, the range of its effect was astonishing, nearly covering the entire vast underground cavern.

---

By the lakeside, taking advantage of Ryouma's Magnet Release restraining all enemies, Jiraiya immediately seized the moment. He dashed into the battlefield with Yahiko and Konan in tow, pulling out Sōwa.

The three hurried along until they reached the rooftop of a nearby building.

Jiraiya, face tense with worry, quickly pressed two fingers against Sōwa's philtrum and shouted loudly, "Hey! Stay with me!"

This was one of his loyal readers. He couldn't just let him die quietly in a place like this.

Konan didn't waste a second either. With practiced motion, she pulled a roll of medical bandages from the pouch at her waist and carefully wrapped several still-bleeding wounds on Sōwa's body.

Unfortunately, none of the three were medical-nin. All they could do were these basic first-aid measures.

Yahiko frowned deeply, asking with a hint of hope, "Jiraiya-sensei, do you have a medical toad with you?"

"Of course not!"

Jiraiya's mouth twitched slightly. This disciple of his was great in every way, except that his head was always missing a screw or two. Did he really think Jiraiya's summoning beasts were some kind of all-purpose toad toolset?

"Speaking of which, Jiraiya, our summoning time is almost up," came Shima's voice at just the right moment.

"I understand. Thank you both again for all your help this time," Jiraiya said sincerely.

"Don't mention it. Though honestly, we didn't manage to help you much," Fukasaku replied, and with that, both sage toads dispelled the summoning, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Just after seeing the two sages off, a surge of powerful chakra pressure suddenly swept past them.

Instinctively, the three turned their heads and saw a giant insect spreading its wings in the air above the battlefield. Shimmering scales scattered like drifting snow, beautiful as a dream yet hiding deadly danger.

A flash of fear crossed Konan's eyes as she murmured, "So that's the Seven-Tails' full beast form. No wonder Hanzō coveted such power. It really is a monster."

Yahiko's face was filled with worry. "Jiraiya-sensei, can Ryouma handle this alone? Maybe you should go help him. Leave Sōwa to me and Konan. We'll take care of him."

Jiraiya slowly shook his head, his tone filled with confidence. "Don't underestimate him. He can handle it."

There was one thing he didn't say aloud. Most of Ryouma's jutsu were wide-range, high-damage techniques. Since even the Sage Mode had been released, rushing in recklessly might only make him a burden, and he had no habit of seeking abuse.

But words that would undercut his own dignity as a teacher weren't worth saying.

---

In the middle of the battlefield, the air was thick with the Seven-Tails' scale dust, glittering with blinding white light that turned everything into a foggy haze.

Within this chaotic vision, all shapes blurred together, making it nearly impossible to discern what was happening.

High above, hidden by the swirling scales, the Seven-Tails' three pairs of sheathed wings suddenly flared. With a motion that defied the laws of physics, it accelerated from stillness to top speed in an instant.

In just a blink, it appeared ghostlike behind Ryouma. Its beetle-like horn sliced through the air with a faint hiss, a silent, deadly thrust aimed straight at him.

He didn't even need to use the Rikugan. The killing intent pouring off the Seven-Tails blazed so brightly in his senses it was impossible to miss. He didn't need to rely on the Flying Thunder God either. Even before the Seven-Tails lifted its head to strike, his reflexes and the raw stats of his Kurama Mode were enough for him to twist aside with a spin, cleanly dodging the attack.

At that same moment, seizing his chance, he shot out his right hand. Chakra cloaked his arm, stretching outward to form a massive golden fox claw that caught the Seven-Tails' horn in a flash of lightning-fast motion.

Then, using the beast's own momentum, Ryouma pivoted and slammed the Seven-Tails over his shoulder, smashing it straight into the ground.

BOOM!

The earth shook violently, dust erupting everywhere.

"Schriek!"

The Seven-Tails let out a strange, shrill screech, beating its wings furiously as it tried to take flight again.

But Ryouma had no intention of giving it the chance. His fox claw tightened around the horn.

A surge of strength exploded from him. Before the beast could rise even a few meters, he slammed it down again, this time far harder than before.

The impact gouged a massive crater into the ground, cracks spiderwebbing outward across the terrain.

And he wasn't done yet.

While the Seven-Tails was still dazed, he lifted his right foot slightly and then lightly tapped the ground.

In an instant, the surrounding sea of sand surged and churned as if stirred by an invisible giant hand. Two enormous sand snakes erupted upward, coiling toward the Seven-Tails' body.

Sensing the threat from the black sealing formulas running across the sand snakes, the Seven-Tails reacted on instinct, gathering energy in its mouth to form a Tailed Beast Ball.

But this was no ordinary bomb. It was vastly stronger than the one used earlier by Aoi when wearing a tailed beast cloak.

Now, fully transformed and empowered by the Hero Water, this Tailed Beast Ball's power was almost on par with one fired by Kurama in his normal state.

If it exploded here, half of Taki would be erased in an instant.

With that kind of firepower, I'd better pick a good place for the detonation.

In just the few seconds since the sand snakes had emerged, the Seven-Tails had already finished charging. Without hesitation, it fired the Tailed Beast Ball directly at Ryouma, aimed right at the hand gripping its horn.

Fine. Let's throw it somewhere else.

Without further thought, he raised his hand and hurled a Flying Thunder God kunai upward. In a blink, the spatial barrier was deployed.

The dark sealing formula flickered and effortlessly swallowed the violently pulsing Tailed Beast Ball.