I Have a Bunch of Relatives Who Want to Be Hokage Chapter 43

Space twisted. Before the demon's right arm could even collapse, the Tailed Beast Bomb was swallowed by space as though it had caved in.

The next moment, a brilliant flash erupted deep within the forest. The shockwave from the explosion swept through the woods and spread all the way here.

Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder—of course Uchiha Shingen could use it too.

Ice Release's inherent weakness could not be compensated for with senjutsu, but the Ice Release Demon had been created from Uchiha Shingen's chakra and could likewise serve as a medium for casting ninjutsu.

So-called "Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder" applied Flying Raijin in the form of a "barrier," transferring everything that touched the "barrier." The Ice Release Demon was Uchiha Shingen's natural "barrier."

To keep the Tailed Beast Bomb's explosion from affecting the city walls behind him, Uchiha Shingen had transferred it to the farthest Flying Raijin mark he could sense.

And at the same time as he sent the Tailed Beast Bomb away, he controlled the demon to slam its shield into the Nine-Tails' head.

Unlike Ice Release, a shield created through "Sage Art: Majestic Attire" could fully withstand that level of impact.

The Nine-Tails' face seemed to deform from the blow in an instant.

It was only because it had no true physical body. Otherwise, with that degree of deformation, it would have made no sense for a few teeth not to be knocked out.

Its advance was finally halted. More than that, the claws on its limbs gouged deep trenches into the ground.

It had been forced back!

Having landed a blow, Uchiha Shingen pressed his advantage without mercy. The demon's restored right arm threw a direct uppercut into the Nine-Tails' chin.

The effect was outstanding. The Nine-Tails, already unable to secure its footing, was lifted onto its forelimbs. How could Uchiha Shingen possibly hold back now? Another Wind Release blast followed, and the demon charged forward, finally flipping the Nine-Tails over.

The Nine-Tails' immovable stance had been shattered. It lay on its back before the Leaf Village ninja.

On the city walls and elevated ground everywhere, the Leaf Village ninja watching this scene were overwhelmed with emotion.

Uchiha Shingen, however, had no such abundance of thoughts. He had no time!

The demon raised its right arm and slapped the Nine-Tails' head. Dense sealing curse marks appeared, spreading over the Nine-Tails like a swarm of ants.

Tailed Beasts controlled by the Sharingan were rigid in "automatic mode." Genjutsu had essentially stripped them of their free will, leaving them with only a few repetitive moves and pitiful combat awareness.

Right now was the best opportunity to restrain the Nine-Tails.

And this sealing technique was something a Uzumaki girl he had dated during his first cycle had taught him.

Sis! For the sake of the good times we had, the sealing technique you taught me better work!

"Roar!"

The Nine-Tails struggled. Though its free will was suppressed by genjutsu, its long-standing instincts made it extremely sensitive to any form of sealing technique!

As its chakra began to fluctuate violently once more, the unfinished sealing technique immediately showed signs of collapsing.

Seeing the Nine-Tails about to roll over, Uchiha Shingen could no longer worry about anything else. He controlled the demon to climb directly on top of it, wedging the shield against the Nine-Tails' neck to restrain the movement of its head. Its right hand gripped the Nine-Tails' head tightly as he increased his chakra output.

The scene was earthshaking, leaving the Leaf Village ninja, who had already been reduced to spectators, dumbfounded.

The Nine-Tails frantically clawed at the demon with all four limbs. Its gleaming claws left mark after mark on the demon's Majestic Attire. Fortunately, they failed to pierce through, and Uchiha Shingen's ocular power repaired the damage immediately.

But that also made the sealing more difficult, and the formula refused to take shape.

Jonin had already leaped down from the city wall, wanting to help. But the two colossal beings reshaped the terrain with every movement, and they simply could not get close.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was among them. For the first time, he felt that the Adamantine Staff in his hands was so powerless.

He was confident that he could gradually drive the Nine-Tails farther away, one strike at a time. But with his own fragile body, he could not join a battle of this kind.

Namikaze Minato was still nowhere to be seen. Apparently, he had been held up by that masked, mysterious Uchiha.

If Uchiha Shingen's sealing technique failed, then the only thing here capable of sealing the Nine-Tails would be that technique.

Of everyone here, only he could use it.

He silently made a decision.

After all, the Nine-Tails absolutely could not fall into the hands of the Uchiha Clan.

The Hokage Building would acknowledge Uchiha Shingen's contribution, but the jinchuriki had to remain under the Hokage Building's control.

This was an ironclad rule among the five great ninja villages. The connection between a jinchuriki and a village's Kage could never be severed.

Suddenly, another change occurred.

The Nine-Tails' movements abruptly became more agile. It had originally been blindly clawing at the demon's forearm, but suddenly freed one claw, curled its five talons into a fist, and punched the demon's shield-bearing left arm directly at the joint.

Uchiha Shingen, whose main focus was on maintaining the seal, failed to keep up with this sudden change. Even under the protection of Majestic Attire, the demon's left arm developed a spiderweb-like crack at the joint, and its strength slackened.

Taking advantage of this opening, the Nine-Tails twisted its head, loosening the shield wedged against its neck as well.

The demon's left arm recovered quickly, but the Nine-Tails had already regained part of its mobility. With a thunderous roar, it rolled over and pinned the demon beneath it!

Its mouth opened, and a second Tailed Beast Bomb began to gather.

Everyone was instantly horrified and charged toward the Nine-Tails like madmen. If it detonated a Tailed Beast Bomb at this distance, the Nine-Tails would suffer at most a few injuries, but countless people on the southern side of the city would die!

Uchiha Shingen, however, did not care much. He merely sighed inwardly.

Ice Release truly could not be manipulated as freely as Susanoo. Senjutsu's enhancement could only minimize its flaws; it could not erase them at the root.

He was not worried about Tailed Beast Bombs at all. However many the Nine-Tails fired, he would transfer them away. Over the years, he had placed so many Flying Raijin marks throughout the forest that even he could not remember the number.

Before anyone could approach, he formed hand seals again. The demon's back spread across the earth like melting ice cream, forming an enormous ice mirror.

Uchiha Shingen had always been incomparably adept at applying the principles of chakra interconnection. He had never copied the Snow Clan's Ice Release techniques because, first, he did not think much of them, and second, he had no need for them.

Using chakra interconnection to move through mirrors was something he did not need to learn at all.

The Great Demon discarded its shield. Its two arms turned from ice into water, wrapped around the Nine-Tails' body, and froze solid again after binding it tightly.

The next moment, beneath the astonished gazes of the Leaf ninja, the Great Demon dragged the Nine-Tails down into the ice mirror beneath them.

Calling Your Name Doesn't Work?

Somewhere in the forest, the ground suddenly shook violently.

But only moments later, the same disturbance erupted again farther away.

Beastly roars and the sounds of mountains and rocks being struck rose and fell, breaking out again and again in different places as they continued deeper into the forest, farther and farther from the Leaf Village.

No one knew how long it had been when, in a completely uninhabited place, another enormous crash finally brought this lengthy "journey" to an end.

In its place came a brilliant red glow that lit up the sky, along with an enraged roar.

"Damn Uchiha brat!!!"

A fiery red tail swept through a stretch of forest, turning trees that had grown for who knew how many years from tree bros into corpse bros.

Together with their best buddies from when they were alive—the dirt—they flew a great distance away.

Uchiha Shingen once again felt that the Sharingan's perception was truly excellent, because he had also spotted a family of groundhogs.

The little fellows probably still had no idea what had happened. They had been lying comfortably in their burrow, so how had they suddenly ended up in the sky?

Their expressions were far too hilarious. Fortunately, the trunk that had flown up with them bore one of Uchiha Shingen's Flying Raijin marks.

He teleported onto the trunk, swept up the entire groundhog family in one hand, then teleported again to another hilltop.

That was probably rather stimulating for the groundhog family. If this were drawn in anime style, their eyes would all be spirals by now.

After rubbing their heads and helping them clear up a little, Uchiha Shingen placed the family on the ground.

Then he teleported away again, appearing near the Nine-Tails.

"Sharingan!" The Sharingan in the Nine-Tails' eyes had long since vanished, replaced entirely by hatred.

It seemed Namikaze Minato had succeeded. Perhaps it had been that famous scene, or perhaps a brand-new famous scene.

Either way, the result was the same.

After all, Namikaze Minato was not powerful because he knew Flying Raijin. Rather, Flying Raijin happened to perfectly complement the aspect in which he was powerful.

Uchiha Obito had probably gotten too used to acting cocky outside and forgotten just how terrifying his own teacher truly was.

But right now, the Nine-Tails was the priority.

"Nine-Tails, feels good to be awake again, doesn't it?"

Uchiha Shingen greeted it with a smile. He had long since released Sage Mode and was taking the chance to recover his chakra.

Though, come to think of it, recovering did not seem necessary. It felt like he still had plenty of chakra left.

"No matter how much time passes, only you Uchiha are utterly unforgivable..." The Nine-Tails' gaze fell to the ground, carefully avoiding any chance of making eye contact with Uchiha Shingen.

"This has nothing to do with whether I'm an Uchiha, does it? As far as I know, no Uchiha has ever sealed you Tailed Beasts inside their own bodies."

They only rode you for fun.

Wait, wasn't that even worse?

Uchiha Shingen thought about it and found the comparison difficult.

"It doesn't matter. Humans have always been like this. They treat us as beasts and only wish to use our power." The Nine-Tails slowly backed away. "I am leaving. You had better not follow me. Even if you possess the same eyes, you are not Uchiha Madara, and I will not let you Uchiha use me again."

"That won't do, Kurama." Although Uchiha Shingen wanted a little more time to recover his mana, he could not keep slacking off if the Nine-Tails was leaving. "If you leave, things here will become very troublesome."

"You even know my name. You Uchiha truly are all rotten to the core." The Nine-Tails stopped. "There is no use trying to talk things out with you."

Killing intent gathered around it. Compared to humans, the killing intent of Tailed Beasts was much easier to manifest.

"So just calling out your name really doesn't work." Uchiha Shingen was not surprised by the Nine-Tails' attitude. Sage markings emerged across his body once more. "If I don't go all out, I really can't keep you here."

Sure enough, he could not compare to someone with cheats. When Naruto called that fox's name a few more times, it was as though some switch had been flipped.

When he called it once, killing intent immediately surged out.

So it really was just discriminating against Uchiha!

Uchiha Shingen sighed inwardly.

Honestly, this was truly troublesome.

He did not have Susanoo right now, and his genjutsu had not reached the level where he could casually toy with a Tailed Beast with a single glance.

As far as genjutsu was concerned, his defense was high, not his offense. He had great confidence in his skill, but breaking through a Tailed Beast's mind truly required more than skill alone.

So, he was not afraid of Tailed Beasts, but Tailed Beasts were not afraid of him either!

This kind of situation was the most frustrating.

Namikaze Minato, you had better hurry up. At most, I can hold out for one night for you.

BOOM—!!!

The Nine-Tails struck first, its claws slamming down and gouging a massive crater where Uchiha Shingen had been.

As the strongest lifeform created by Hagoromo Otsutsuki during his lifetime, the Nine-Tails had decent combat instincts. It simply did not know ninjutsu.

Well, although it could gather natural energy to supply its jinchuriki, it really did not use ninjutsu. Its fighting style was pure Tailed Beast.

Uchiha Shingen liked enemies who believed their taijutsu was invincible and therefore did not use ninjutsu.

Or enemies who believed their ninjutsu was invincible and used nothing but ninjutsu.

Enemy beasts were the same.

Using the Nine-Tails' swipe, Uchiha Shingen formed several hand seals in midair, and chakra surged forth.

Boil Release: Boiling Concealment.

In an instant, dense fog spread outward from Uchiha Shingen, swallowing the entire forest.

One could not see their hand in front of their face within the mist.

When stealing kekkei genkai techniques, Uchiha Shingen generally only stole the nature itself. He liked to figure out the techniques on his own.

Meeting Terumi Mei back then had been purely accidental, but having run into her, not taking a taste would have betrayed Uchiha Shingen's conscience.

So he had chased her for quite some time before finally figuring out Boil Release.

He had also picked up the Hiding in Mist Technique along the way.

And, even more conveniently, developed this move.

In any case, he had plenty of chakra and could afford to burn through it. He just had to make it bigger.

Which was why having lots of chakra really was a good thing. For instance, one of the strict requirements for learning senjutsu was having enough chakra.

With too little chakra, one simply could not control natural energy.

Wherever the Boil Release mist reached, everything was corroded. More fragile materials were completely eaten away the instant they came into contact with the fog.