"He's asking to die, daring to challenge Lord Han in Taijutsu!"
"Lord Han is known as the Steam Ninja, after all. How could these muscle-brained idiots ever compare to him?"
"Tremble before the colossal power of boiling steam!"
The Hidden Stone ninja watching burst into laughter. They could already picture what would happen next.
This brazen, clueless, utterly foolish madman would be torn to shreds by their Lord Han's savage charge!
Samui was just as worried.
Han's strength had shocked her deeply.
This was the first time in all these days that she had seen anyone send Sora flying in a head-on clash of strength.
Most Hidden Cloud ninja specialized in Nintaijutsu, and this was most evident in the Yotsuki Clan. Almost all their techniques, along with their greatest personal strengths, revolved around Nintaijutsu.
No one could clash with the Yotsuki Clan in Nintaijutsu. They refined their bodies to the absolute limit, developing their physical potential to its utmost!
If he was outmatched even in a physical clash...
Then this battle would probably...
"Wait."
Samui's worried gaze suddenly stilled.
She sensed something different about Sora.
He was being attacked by Han, engulfed in Boil Release, and looked utterly battered.
Yet the aura emanating from Sora was every bit as powerful as before!
Savage, domineering, frenzied.
And...
Bestial!
Surging waves of blood-gold energy rolled outward, even eclipsing the radiance of the strongest Lightning Release Armor erupting from Sora's body.
In the distance, Han seemed to sense something utterly terrifying. His eyes widened abruptly, and he kept retreating.
At the same time, the steam and chakra inside him intertwined into a searing, distorting [Heat Haze], making him look as though he was covered in magma.
This was clearly a more advanced way of enhancing his combat power with steam!
Yet after unleashing this technique, Han retreated instead of advancing, leaving everyone around him bewildered.
Hadn't he already battered this Hidden Cloud ninja so badly? Why was he running away instead of pressing his advantage?
"All ninja, evacuate immediately!!" Han shouted.
"Evacuate?"
A bloodthirsty smile curled Sora's lips. "Where do you think you're going?"
Over the years, as his strength continued to grow...
It had been a very, very long time since Sora had felt the pride within him surge like this.
It was soaring fighting spirit, dopamine and adrenaline pumping wildly!
It was the bloodlust of a monster born from the fusion of Vastaya ancestry and the Six Paths bloodline, sensing prey worthy of his hunt!
Sora slowly began to move.
His palm, cloaked in blood-red flames and lightning, clenched into a fist. The already bulging, blood-engorged muscles across his body swelled again, as though some unimaginable monster was about to crawl out of them.
—it was pride compressed to the extreme!
Then.
He threw his punch!
"BOOM!!!"
The exploding air silenced the entire world.
An immense torrent of blood-gold pride burst forth like a storm, destroying everything in its path.
The scattered clouds overhead were swept away by the savage shock wave, and everything around him was pulverized!
Houses collapsed. The earth split apart.
The instant the blood-gold torrent of energy erupted, a fierce radiance like a nuclear blast forced everyone present to close their eyes. Every person, every building, everything in front of that torrent was utterly annihilated by its power.
Too fast.
That punch, that strike, had been far, far too fast.
As the deafening roar faded, the survivors outside the torrent stood completely stupefied.
Before their eyes, in front of Yotsuki Sora, more than half of Rock Town Village had vanished entirely.
Nothing remained across a stretch of ground over a hundred meters long, save for a hundred-meter trench.
There were no corpses in the trench, nor any ruined walls. Only a battered, grievously wounded figure remained.
"You bastard..."
His Steam Armor was completely destroyed. Blood drenched his body, exposing his damaged flesh, but those wounds soon began to mend at a rate visible to the naked eye.
And that was not all.
As his flesh healed, sinister red chakra began pouring from his body. Within a few breaths, tailed beast chakra had enveloped his entire human form, and several tails rose behind him one after another!
"Finally!"
As he watched Han's skin split, burn, and peel away, gradually transforming him into a blood-red creature that was half man, half beast, the gleam in Sora's eyes grew ever more fervent.
This was the enemy he wanted. This was the kind of opponent he craved!
Only by snapping the neck of someone like this, only by defeating something truly worth defeating, could he feel enough satisfaction and accomplishment!
"I really love punching bags like you that can take a beating!"
"ROAR!!"
As though sensing Sora's soaring battle lust and fighting spirit, the blood-red monster threw back his head and howled.
The explosive aura formed by the immense concentration of chakra left everyone present feeling suffocated.
"Evacuate now! Lord Han has entered Tailed Beast Transformation!"
"This guy actually pushed Lord Han this far?!"
"You've got to be kidding! That Hidden Cloud ninja is a monster too! Could any normal person unleash an attack like that?"
"Everyone, fall back five kilometers! No, ten!"
The Iwagakure ninja around them began fleeing like mad.
Tailed beasts were walking natural disasters. Their battles could casually reshape the entire landscape, and a single technique could even destroy an entire city.
If they stayed too close and got caught in the crossfire, they were done for.
Standing beside Kitsuchi, Samui couldn't help swallowing.
Facing a monster on the level of a natural disaster, merely sensing its chakra filled her with dread and made her heart pound.
Tailed beasts were the most evil beings in the world, masses of endless negative emotions.
Any living creature would feel fear when faced with such an existence.
"Is that Han?"
Kitsuchi slowly regained consciousness, his brows tightly furrowed as he surveyed the scene before him.
Han had entered Half-Tailed-Beast Transformation.
Yotsuki Sora's face was filled with wild fervor.
And more than half of Rock Town Village had been destroyed!
He had known that his capture would set off a series of events, but he had never expected things to escalate this far.
They had even sent a Jinchuriki, and the battle had reached this point.
Samui drew a deep breath, then grabbed Kitsuchi's arm, ready to relocate with her protective talisman so she wouldn't get caught in the coming battle between the two monsters.
But Sora's indifferent voice interrupted her.
"There's no need to retreat."
"Huh?"
Samui looked somewhat dazed.
She stared at the roaring, howling monster before her, which exuded a suffocating aura.
We're not running even from this, boss?
"Stay right here."
"My battle needs someone to cheer!"
Before you continue