The Awakened Abyss
The rain grew heavier, splashing muddy water into the puddles.
The blue Cat Fire in the Yugito's palm burned ever brighter. Even the falling raindrops were instantly vaporized into white mist by the terrifying heat before they could even get close.
"Want to pay the bill, huh?" Naruto casually wiped the rain off his face, a defiant smile playing on his lips. "Don't get angry, sister. I'm a rough guy, and I don't know my own strength when I fight. Please forgive me if I've done anything wrong. But I absolutely will not give up these prisoners and blueprints."
"Don't talk to me like that!" A dangerous glint flashed in Yugito took a step forward. The water beneath her feet instantly boiled, bubbling and gurgling. "The missing-nin from Hidden Cloud must be taken back by Hidden Cloud for interrogation. Leave the people and the blueprints behind, and you can get out of here."
"The evidence will be jointly kept by Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud." Naruto stood firm, his figure completely shielding Sasuke and the bound prisoners behind him, his eyes gleaming with disdain. "Trying to hog it all? Even with the Raikage here, he wouldn't dare ask me that."
"Then let's settle things with our fists!"
The Yugito let out a low growl. Eerie blue flames rapidly climbed up her legs, instantly covering her entire body. Two enormous fire tails danced wildly behind her, distorting the surrounding air with intense heat.
The rocks closest to her were heated to a bright red within just two seconds, their surfaces cracking with charred lines.
Omoi, watching from behind, swallowed hard and couldn't help but whisper in Karui's ear, "Brother, tell me the truth, why did this blond kid have to go up against the village tigress in the middle of the night? Could he be after something?"
"Shut up!" Karui stomped hard on Omoi's foot, his expression grave as he gripped the hilt of his knife.
Naruto didn't turn around; instead, he cast a wisp of pure golden Chakra into the rubble on the ground. The Chakra spread, forming an invisible, semi-circular energy barrier that steadily protected Sakura, Sasuke, and several civilians behind them.
To deal with Tailed Beast rampage of this level, he could have forcefully opened the Eight Gates and crushed it head-on. But his back was surrounded by his own people, and the terrain at the edge of the cliff was narrow. Once the shockwave from the Gate of Limit exploded, ordinary people wouldn't even be left with ashes.
This score can only be settled through pure hand-to-hand combat Sage Body.
"Whoosh!"
Yugito moved. With the terrifying burst of power from her Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, she became a ghostly blue afterimage. Her feet touched the water's surface, creating two huge splashes, and she slid extremely low, rapidly advancing in a "Z" shape along the ground.
The distance between them instantly disappeared.
"Left!" Sasuke's Two-Tomoe Sharingan spun wildly as he shouted out the word, having just caught the trajectory.
Yugito had already shattered the rock formation to Naruto's left, using the momentum to leap into the air. In an instant, half-meter-long Chakra blades shot out from his ten fingers, accompanied by a shrill whistling wind, aiming straight for Naruto's throat.
Naruto made no fancy moves; he simply took a half step back with his right foot and leaned his upper body to the right as far as he could.
"Hiss--"
The claws missed their mark, but grazed Naruto's shoulder. The fabric was roughly torn, and a glaring burn mark was left on his skin. The blood that had just seeped out was immediately dried by the extreme heat.
But the next second, the golden Yang Release energy deep within the wound spontaneously activated. The charred old skin peeled off, and new flesh healed at a visible speed, leaving not even a scar.
Yugito missed his first attack, then suddenly twisted his waist in mid-air, bent his right knee, and slammed it hard into Naruto's chest.
Naruto raised his knee to block. The two brute forces clashed in mid-air with a muffled "bang," and mud and water exploded outwards in a radial pattern.
Using the recoil, Yugito flipped backward, and while in mid-air, he waved his hands repeatedly. Dozens of fist-sized blue fireballs rained down like a meteor shower, blocking all of Naruto's escape routes.
Naruto kept his hands in his pockets. He stomped his right foot on the ground, channeling Chakra into the earth. A thick wall of earth and rock rose up from the ground. The fireball struck the earthen wall, burning more than a dozen craters, but failed to penetrate the defense.
Taking advantage of Naruto's obstructed view, Yugito used the stone pillars of the ruins to nimbly weave through the air like a real wildcat. She continuously bounced and used the rock walls on all sides to gain momentum, her speed increasing until she gradually stretched out a blue net of flames in mid-air.
She was searching for a fatal opening. The intense Chakra circulation made her slightly breathless, and her body temperature was so high that the surrounding rainwater could not get close to her.
She was certain that Naruto wouldn't dare use a large-scale destructive Ninjutsu.
Naruto stood still, his gaze casually sweeping across the surrounding light network. The Sage Body's Biological Radar had already pinpointed Yugito's movements perfectly.
He saw through Yugito's impatience and deliberately lowered the defense on the left by half a step.
As expected, Yugito seized this "flaw," suddenly turning back from the right and thrusting his claws straight at Naruto's left ribs.
Just as she approached, Naruto suddenly turned around. Instead of dodging, he took a step forward to meet the claws. His left hand precisely pierced through Yugito's defensive net and firmly gripped her wrist.
The Yang Release energy erupted instantly, forcibly extinguishing the blue Cat Fire on the Yugito's wrist.
"You attacked so suddenly, are you scared?" Naruto exerted force with his wrist, forcibly pulling Yugito in front of him, his azure eyes piercing her gaze.
Yugito struggled fiercely, but found that the other person's hand was as immovable as a steel hoop. She gritted her teeth and glared angrily. "Nonsense!"
"You're afraid the Raikage will find out that you were just manipulated like a puppet by those useless rogue ninjas," Naruto said in a low voice, his tone filled with undisguised mockery and cruelty. "You're afraid the villagers will think that you, this 'weapon,' have malfunctioned and lost your value, right?"
These words struck Yugito's deepest vulnerability with unerring accuracy.
Yugito's pupils contracted sharply, and his blood seemed to flow backward at that moment.
Images from her childhood flashed uncontrollably through her mind: the village elders scrutinizing her with the eyes of appraisers; the villagers' retreating posture when they saw her, a mixture of fear, disgust, and defensiveness. No one cared what her name was, no one cared whether she was in pain from her injuries.
In Hidden Cloud, she was merely a vessel for the Two-Tails, a strategic weapon ready to be deployed on the battlefield at any time.
If she can't even keep the label of "perfect weapon," what does she have left? Being controlled by the Black Rod just now was a great humiliation for her. She was eager to kill to silence witnesses and eager to retrieve the blueprints, all to prove that she still had irreplaceable value.
"Shut up!" Yugito's eyes were bloodshot with pain, and her eyes were red. She gritted her teeth, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. Even the two fire tails behind her trembled violently due to her loss of control.
"What do you know, you loser whom Hidden Leaf considers a monster!"
She completely abandoned her defenses, and the Two-Tails' Chakra within her erupted like a flood bursting its banks. An even denser and more violent deep blue demonic flame exploded from her body, and she almost completely lost her mind, heading towards Complete Tailed Beast Transformation.
Naruto frowned slightly. This woman is insane. If she really detonates the Tailed Beast Ball here, everyone in the canyon will die.
He clenched his right fist, pure golden Yang Release Chakra gathering between his fingers, preparing to forcefully knock her unconscious with his Monster Strength.
Just as the two were about to engage in a devastating clash.
"Buzz--!"
The once lifeless ground beneath our feet suddenly emitted a piercing buzzing sound.
Everyone felt a sudden numbness in their feet. The water in the puddle suddenly stopped flowing, and then, strangely defying gravity, the droplets floated upwards.
Immediately afterwards, in the deep crevice of the canyon, the abandoned Lightning Ore that had been buried when the mine collapsed suddenly began to breathe like a huge living organism, collectively emitting blinding, pale white electric light.
Thousands upon thousands of bolts of lightning intertwined and resonated underground, and the frenzied energy fluctuations turned the surrounding air into a suffocating swamp.
This is not Ninjutsu.
A vast, immeasurable magnetic field was fully awakened by the series of fierce battles and explosions just now.
The Cat Fire on Yugito this strange magnetic field, and even the Two-Tails 'Chakra trembled under this pressure, forcibly shrinking back into her body.
From the cliff above, Karin's hysterical voice came through the rain. "Naruto! Get out of there! Something underground is frantically draining your Chakra!"
Naruto released Yugito's wrist and looked down at the cracked ground, which emitted a bright light. He slowly pulled his hand out of his pocket, his eyes turning extremely dangerous for the first time.
The aura emanating from that abyss was far more destructive than that of the Tailed Beast.