Great Waterfall Technique

Anyone who had carefully observed spiders knew that these creatures were covered in bristles. Those bristles were a kind of defense, easily piercing the vulnerable skin of animals, especially unprotected mouths. Therefore, most animals would not treat spiders as food.

However, those bristles also had a fatal weakness: fire. Even a small flame could easily set a spider's entire body ablaze, because its bristles made excellent fuel.

And now, Black Maria had clearly suffered from a spider's weakness to fire. Before she could react, the spider half of her lower body had turned into a blazing fireball. She immediately screamed and hurriedly transformed her spider body back into legs. At the same time, black Armament Haki flowed down and wrapped around her legs, suppressing the flames.

Seeing her legs covered in burn blisters, Black Maria's face filled with rage. As a woman—especially a beautiful one—she naturally cared greatly about her appearance.

Now that her legs had been burned like this, who knew whether ugly scars would remain? How could she not be furious and anxious?

Driven mad by rage, Black Maria stopped pretending to be a lady. Besides, there was no way the Beasts Pirates had any ladies to begin with. "You damned little bastard, die!"

Pitch-black Armament Haki coiled around the Rinnegan Rod. Black Maria no longer used spiderwebs or flames, instead directly pitting her Haki and physique against his.

With a thunderous boom, the Rinnegan Rod crashed down onto Yota's upraised hands. Black Armament Haki intertwined, nearly throwing off sparks. Yet this time, Yota did not retreat even a single step. Both hands clamped tightly around the Rinnegan Rod.

Black Maria could not help but be startled. Yota had been distracted and sent flying by her earlier, so she had held a faint trace of contempt for him. But now, she vaguely sensed that Yota's physical strength was likely no weaker than her own.

The human head on the Rinnegan Rod in her hand kept snapping its jaws, trying to bite Yota. Yota sneered and flexed his fingers. In an instant, incomparably sharp blades sprang out from between them.

Those were all blades formed from the Grade Swords Yota had collected, mixed with Chakra Metal. Wrapped in Armament Haki and continuously erupting Chakra, how could they be blocked by a Rinnegan Rod formed from an artificial Devil Fruit?

The Rinnegan Rod's head let out a shriek. Yota suddenly swung both hands, and blood sprayed everywhere. Black Maria's Armament Haki was torn apart like thin paper. Nearly half of the entire Rinnegan Rod was sliced open!

Seeing her favored weapon nearly killed by a single move from Yota, Black Maria was not angered. Instead, it was as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, sobering her up.

This is bad. He tore through my Armament Haki that easily... I'm no match for him!

In truth, although Black Maria had the largest build among the Tobi Roppo, her raw strength was actually the weakest.

She relied entirely on her deadly poison, spiderwebs, the Rinnegan Rod in her hands, flames, and various other means to make up for it. That was why her fighting style was the flashiest.

But now, the Munch-Munch Fruit perfectly countered her spiderwebs and flames. The poison on her body was also almost useless against Yota, a Medical-nin. In a direct clash, she was still at a disadvantage, and the thought of retreating could not help arising in her heart.

At the end of the day, although Black Maria possessed the Beasts Pirates' characteristic brutality, she was the sort to bully the weak and fear the strong. Her fighting spirit was not particularly high. Seeing that she had no chance of winning, her first thought was not to risk her life, but to flee.

After feinting, she no longer cared about her fire-scorched legs and once again assumed her half-human, half-beast form. However, the spider portion of her lower body had been burned full of pits, with all its hair scorched away. It looked rather miserable.

Still, eight legs really could run fast. They could also freely scramble across walls and even ceilings. For retreating, they were indeed highly efficient.

Seeing Black Maria retreat, Yota revealed a faint smile. Black Maria truly was not weak. If they really fought to the bitter end, it would take Yota quite a while to defeat her.

"What a shame. You shouldn't have turned your back on me while running away." Yota chased after her unhurriedly, his hands constantly forming seals. A moment later, he finally unleashed the only A-Rank Ninjutsu he had learned.

"Water Release - Great Waterfall Technique."

A deluge that blotted out the sky instantly flooded the entire corridor. Black Maria, who had been fleeing, only managed a startled cry before being swept into it.

Put simply, the Great Waterfall Technique summoned an enormous quantity of water. Aside from its Chakra requirement, it could be considered the easiest A-Rank Ninjutsu to practice—of course, it was also the most impractical A-Rank Ninjutsu.

More than a dozen hand seals took at least several seconds to form, making it utterly unusable in combat. It was only slightly better than the Water Dragon Bullet, which required over forty seals.

As for Ninjutsu with simplified hand seals—sorry, those were true closely guarded secrets that could not be passed on. They could not be bought on the Black Market at all.

If Water Release had not naturally countered Devil Fruit users in the Pirate World, Yota would not have bothered learning this kind of Ninjutsu. And if Black Maria had not been so focused on fleeing, Yota would never have had the opportunity to use it.

Still, although an opening was difficult to find, once successfully cast, the Great Waterfall Technique had a remarkably obvious effect on Devil Fruit users. Black Maria had now returned to human form and lay in the water, utterly unable to resist.

Though the Great Waterfall Technique summoned a large amount of water, it was still water without a source and would soon drain away. Therefore, Yota did not waste any time. He stepped across the water to Black Maria's side. Altered by the Munch-Munch Fruit, his entire hand suddenly transformed into a giant syringe and stabbed into her neck.

Black Maria rolled her eyes back and immediately passed out.

"Good thing I prepared enough medicine. With a body that large, a small dosage would've been completely useless," Yota muttered. People in the Pirate World were troublesome in that regard—their resistance to poisons and anesthetics was frighteningly high. That was especially true of someone like Black Maria, who had such a huge body, had eaten an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit, and even possessed poison herself.

However, because of the extraordinary power known as Chakra in the Naruto World, powerful people also had extremely high drug resistance. Thus, the toxins created by Medical-nin far exceeded those of the real world. Only then could they deal with these absurdly durable people from the Pirate World.

After Black Maria lost consciousness, Yota began mixing a highly effective hallucinogen on the spot. Combined with his Genjutsu, he began controlling Maria and questioning her about the Beasts Pirates' intelligence, especially the location of their treasure vault.