His tail had been severed, his mouth was injured, and he was being brutally pinned down by Susanoo.
The Three-Tails, Isobu, who had once been so overwhelmingly powerful, now looked as though his strength had been drained away. He had less than a tenth of his power left.
He lay prone on the ground, as if at their mercy.
At the same time,
Isobu desperately thrashed his four massive legs and tried to shrink back into the seal inside his Jinchuriki.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
"It's too dangerous out here! I'm done playing! I'm not coming out again!"
"Let me go back! Let me go back!"
"Yagura, you little brat! You're trying to get me killed!"
"I can't beat an enemy this strong!"
Isobu roared, cursed, and lamented inwardly.
He could only feel that if he didn't shrink back soon, he would probably die here.
It was true that after his death, it wouldn't take long for him to gather himself and revive.
But it would still hurt!
Unless it was absolutely necessary, it was naturally best not to die.
Unfortunately, he had only struggled halfway back
when he saw the figure of Susanoo before him gradually fade away.
The body of that Uchiha brat slowly emerged.
"Hm? Is he planning to stop?"
"Did this brat finally get scared by my kingly aura?"
Isobu rejoiced, then grew overjoyed.
But before he could get too smug, he suddenly met the Uchiha brat's gaze.
"Damn it, those are Mangekyō Sharingan! I've been caught..."
Isobu jolted in alarm.
But before he could finish speaking,
the consciousness of the entire Tailed Beast was engulfed and controlled by the endless ocular power of Sharingan Genjutsu.
It had to be admitted that Tailed Beasts were powerful.
But their resistance to mental attacks was relatively weak.
With enough ocular power, even the mighty Nine-Tails could be controlled by the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Natsume's Sharingan wasn't geared toward genjutsu, and it couldn't compare to Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
But controlling a badly injured, relatively weak Three-Tails, Isobu,
was still no problem.
As for why he hadn't used the Mangekyō Sharingan to dispel the Fourth Mizukage Yagura's mental control from the start,
it was because Natsume had already tried.
He simply couldn't undo it in a short time...
After all, unlike the Byakugan, the Sharingan couldn't directly cut off the control of ocular power.
He could only use even greater ocular power to overwrite and erase the mental control imposed on the victim.
Yagura had been controlled by Obito for several years.
Each use of the technique deepened the control a little more.
If you counted it like stacking buffs, it was probably already at ninety-nine layers.
Even if Natsume could break through those shackles of ocular power, it would take a long time and simply wouldn't be worth it.
It was better to attack head-on and force the Three-Tails inside Yagura out!
After all, Yagura's genjutsu was difficult to dispel.
But controlling Isobu wasn't hard.
Before long, Isobu, who had been restrained by Natsume's Mangekyō Sharingan, stopped struggling.
He lay motionless by the entrance to Kirigakure, quietly watching the ground.
However, Natsume could clearly sense
a stubborn force still resisting his ocular power inside the Three-Tails.
Clearly, Yagura, the Jinchuriki,
was still resisting and trying to prod the Three-Tails into breaking free of Natsume's control.
Given enough time, with the control he wielded over Tailed Beasts as a Perfect Jinchuriki, he might actually have been able to free the Three-Tails.
But Natsume certainly wasn't going to give him that chance.
"Perfect. Let's try this jutsu."
"Sealing Technique: Contract Seal!"
Natsume formed Hand Seals, pressed his hands against Isobu, and instantly performed the technique.
The Contract Seal was one of the unique Sealing Techniques created by the Uzumaki Clan.
Once used, it could effectively sever the contract between an enemy and their Summoning Beast.
Back then, the Fourth Hokage had used this technique to free the Nine-Tails from Obito's control.
Though the relationship between a Jinchuriki and a Tailed Beast was somewhat different from that between a ninja and a Summoning Beast,
in the end, Tailed Beasts were still controlled through seals and contracts.
Whether it worked or not, there was no harm in trying.
In a shadowy place in the distance,
Obito, who had witnessed the entire battle, couldn't help exclaiming in surprise.
"The Contract Seal!"
"This brat even knows the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Techniques."
"Not good! He's trying to pull the Three-Tails out of Yagura!"
"Damn it, I have to stop him!"
Obito had fallen victim to that same technique once before, when Minato-sensei had severed his control over the Nine-Tails.
How could he forget?
At first, he'd planned to use the entire Mist Hidden Village and the Three-Tails to wear Natsume down, then seize an opportunity to strike a fatal blow.
But he'd never imagined
that in just a few days, that brat Natsume's strength would have surged yet again!
Now he could easily defeat dozens of ninja and a Tailed Beast!
The speed of this brat's growth was truly frightening!
And now,
he was even trying to separate the Three-Tails from its Jinchuriki!
Every Tailed Beast was a vital pillar of the Eye of the Moon plan. How could Obito stand by and do nothing?
But just as he was about to act,
he saw that brat hundreds of meters away
restraining the Three-Tails while turning his gaze toward him.
That glance brimmed with killing intent and an unmistakable threat.
It seemed to say, "If you dare show yourself, be ready to die."
"Phew!"
Obito took a deep breath and pulled back the foot he was about to step forward.
"That brat! He's already sensed me?"
"Damn it! Was it a coincidence?"
"Or did he already know I was controlling the Fourth Mizukage Yagura?"
"Impossible. How could that brat know?"
Obito shook his head sharply, his mind full of questions.
A ridiculous feeling suddenly came over him, as if even the color of his underwear had been exposed to the other man.
The feeling was terrifying!
"And besides, now that brat knows I'm here."
"My sneak attack will be even less likely to succeed!"
"Damn it. Does this mean I can only give up on Kirigakure? Give up the Three-Tails?"
Obito gritted his teeth in fury, thoroughly displeased.
At that moment, seeing Isobu beaten into the ground and stripped of his ability to resist,
the Kirigakure ninja,
including Genji, Terumi Mei, Fuguki, Kisame, and the others, were all utterly shocked.
Then came overwhelming joy.
"This is our chance! Our chance!"
"Quick, move!"
Genji leaned on his cane and issued one order after another.
Yagura had been defeated, and the Three-Tails had been badly wounded.
There could be no better opportunity.
This was their one chance to overthrow the rule of the Fourth Mizukage and save all of Kirigakure.
Genji, Fuguki, and the others had been preparing for this for years.
They sprang into action, immediately taking the opportunity to hunt down the remaining tyrannical supporters of the Fourth Mizukage in the village.
But then,
the sudden change at the center of the battlefield
once again left the Kirigakure ninja gaping in astonishment, frozen in place.
Before their disbelieving eyes,
as the Contract Seal's incantation marks appeared, the connection between the enormous Three-Tails, Isobu, and the Fourth Mizukage Yagura, his Jinchuriki, rapidly broke.
The Contract Seal had worked!
Vast amounts of Tailed Beast Chakra began to be drawn out of Yagura.
In no time,
the entire Three-Tails, Isobu, was completely extracted.
He became a tiny, stub-tailed turtle and obediently lay on the ground, not daring to move an inch.
Meanwhile,
with the Tailed Beast pulled out, Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage and its Jinchuriki, collapsed into a pool of water, barely clinging to life.
And so,
Kirigakure's strongest combatant had finally been defeated.
This battle of upheaval, destined to shock the Ninja World, had at last come to a temporary end.
Before you continue