Guidance and Suppression
Naruto withdrew his hand and looked into the abyss.
The intense light stung my eyes, and the rock strata beneath Lightning Cloud Gorge shattered completely. A ghastly white dragon, formed from the convergence of raging lightning, was rapidly taking shape underground. It was lifeless, yet possessed an instinct to destroy everything.
"Damn it!" Above, on the rocky surface, Samui's blade was deeply embedded in the crack in the ground, his knuckles turning a horrifying bluish-white from the excessive force. "The Lightning Formation Sacrificial Detonation activated the Primordial Lightning Vein at the bottom! The direction of this lightning vein... is the Eight-Code Market! There are at least several hundred civilians there!"
Naruto didn't even frown. He turned his head and glanced at Sasuke behind him. "Keep an eye on that damned prisoner. Take Sakura and the civilians up there. Karin, use Mind's Eye of the Kagura to find a safe exit."
"Big brother, the energy level below..." Sasuke's Sharingan spun wildly, clearly seeing the terrifying density of the lightning Chakra below.
"Stop talking nonsense, get up there and wait for me." Naruto put his hands in his pockets, stomped his heel hard, and the rocks shattered. He shot into the depths of the pale sea of lightning like a cannonball.
Yugito froze on the spot. One second she was still immersed in the humiliation of Naruto exposing her sore spot as a "weapon," but the next second she saw this man who had almost broken her neck go to block the disaster of the Land of Lightning without hesitation.
"When did Hidden Cloud have to shoulder the mess left by Hidden Leaf?" Yugito bit her lower lip, tasting the warm, metallic flavor of blood. She forcefully extracted the last of her frenzied Two-Tails Chakra, her legs buckling as she transformed into a streak of blue light and gave chase. "Hey! Golden-haired brat, trying to be a hero? Don't die before me!"
Deep within the fault.
The intense heat baked the rock walls on both sides until they glowed red-hot, and the air was so thin it felt like it was sucking the oxygen out of our lungs. Naruto landed first, and the lightning dragon roared as it charged northeast along the crack in the ground.
"Ice Release: Absolute Zero Domain!" Naruto didn't Hand Seals; he simply slammed his hand directly onto the ground.
The extremely cold frost, mixed with the life force of Yang Release, spread wildly, and in the blink of an eye, it condensed into a pure white ice wall more than ten meters thick in front of the rift valley.
Click!
The ice wall had barely formed when blinding lightning struck it. The ice layer, which should have formed Absolute Defense, suddenly shattered on a large scale, like a spider web.
"Idiot!" Yugito leaped down from above, leaving a trail of Cat Fire in mid-air. "Lightning can penetrate water vapor. Your ice won't stop it here; in fact, it will become the best conductor, accelerating the spread of the lightning!"
Before the words were even finished, the Thunder Dragon indeed pierced through the ice layer, its speed increasing dramatically.
"Get out of the way!" The Yugito fingers, and the deep blue Cat Fire exploded, crashing head-on into the white lightning dragon.
She wanted to use an even hotter flame to burn the area where the lightning flow was located into a vacuum.
The intense heat and pressure rubbed together violently within the narrow crevice of the rock, creating a deafening explosion that ripped eardrums. But she underestimated the sheer size of the Primordial Lightning Vein. The Cat Fire was torn apart inch by inch by the lightning, and the violent backlash surged back along the flames.
Yugito let out a muffled groan, his throat tightened instantly, and his body was thrown backward uncontrollably.
Smack
A warm, strong hand landed firmly on her back. Pure Golden Yang Release Chakra instantly poured in, forcefully dispelling the paralyzing sensation of lightning that had invaded her body.
"With such a fiery temper, how come you're even rougher at work than me?" Naruto's voice rang in her ear, carrying a calm and teasing tone. "Relax, sis. How can your Chakra flow if you're so tense?"
Yugito's ear tips instantly burned, and she subconsciously wanted to curse, but the warm current did give her exhausted meridians a moment of respite.
"This can't be blocked by force; it has to be suppressed." Naruto's teasing expression vanished, a golden glint flashing in his eyes. He clasped his hands together in front of his chest, and an aura of extreme cold mixed with golden light surged forth once more. "I'll use ice to guide the moisture, and you use fire to evaporate the edges, driving it deeper into the dead rock layers underground!"
"Impossible! Ice and fire would only repel each other and explode in a confined space!" Yugito refused categorically.
"With me here, it's impossible." Naruto grabbed Yugito's wrist and pulled her to his side without a word. "Do as I say! Now!"
The man's palm was incredibly warm, and that undeniable dominance shattered Yugito's psychological defenses. She had been trained as a weapon since childhood, accustomed to cold commands; this was the first time someone had acted as a protector, forcefully pulling her forward.
"Madman..." Yugito gritted her teeth, grabbed Naruto's forearm with her backhand, and the ghostly blue Cat Fire burst into flames again.
Two figures, one in gold and one in blue, stood side by side amidst the collapsing fault line.
Naruto's icy frost glided along the ground, deliberately leaving a downward-sloping opening. As expected, the Thunder Dragon pounced through the least-resistance water vapor channel.
"Burn the left side!" Naruto shouted.
The Yugito, and the fire whip lashed out to the left of the thunder dragon. The extreme heat instantly dried up the moisture on that side. Without a conductive medium, the thunder dragon was forced to shift to the lower right.
"Now! Follow my rhythm!" Naruto stared intently at the center of the raging energy. "Three!"
The extreme cold frost suddenly contracted, clamping down tightly on the Thunder Dragon's tail.
"Two!"
With Yugito transformed Cat Fire into a giant claw, slamming it down on the Thunder Dragon.
"One! Put out the fire!"
Yugito instinctively felt that withdrawing the firepower at this moment would result in a backlash from the lightning, but the warm current of Yang Release coming from her wrist made her body completely obey the command before her brain could make a judgment.
The Cat Fire went out instantly.
In the very same microsecond that the Kakkō disappeared, a blinding green light exploded beneath Naruto's feet.
Eight Gates, Gate of Life, Open!
Naruto descended from the sky using the recoil from the shattering ice, his right leg striking the Thunder Dragon's vital spot with tremendous Monster Strength, which had briefly stopped due to the loss of the double pressure.
Boom--!
This lightning bolt, comparable to a natural disaster, was forcefully broken in two by Naruto's kick. The white light dissipated, and the violent energy was forcibly altered, plunging headlong into the dead rock layer deep underground, devoid of any medium.
The dull light flickered twice before fading into complete darkness.
The Eight-Code Market above has been saved.
The storm subsided, with only a few lingering sparks of electricity flickering on the surrounding rock walls. The Yugito leaned against a stalactite, breathing heavily. His chest heaved, and his clothes, soaked with cold sweat and mud, clung tightly to his curvaceous body.
She stared at the blond figure in the distance, his hands back in his pockets, his expression incredibly complex.
"Why... why do you care about the life or death of Hidden Cloud?" Yugito's voice was hoarse.
"I'm not in charge of Hidden Cloud, I'm in charge of the hundreds of lives above." Naruto turned around, looking down at her. "Or is it that even your 'perfect weapon' has lost its instinct to save lives?"
Yugito's heart jerked violently. Weapons? Aside from killing and being used, these hands, stained with flames, had just saved hundreds of people. This feeling was almost foreign to her.
She opened her mouth, about to speak.
Suddenly, a thick, pitch-black Chakra exploded from her heart without warning.
"Ugh--!" Yugito's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils instantly contracting into extremely dangerous vertical lines, and the whites of his eyes were filled with terrifying blood vessels.
In order to guide the lightning flow, she had excessively exhausted her own Chakra, and coupled with the aftereffects of being controlled by the Black Rod of the black market missing-nin, the Two-Tails, which was already on the verge of losing control, now completely broke free of the shackles of the seal.
The eerie blue flames instantly transformed into an ominous blackish-purple. Two thicker, more frenzied materialized tails stretched wildly from behind her. Her ten fingers twisted and deformed, her bones emitting a teeth-grinding cracking and reforming sound, and beast-like, ferocious patterns appeared on her delicate face.
"Oh no..." Yugito clutched his neck tightly, letting out a painful, piercing scream, "Quick... run! I can't hold down... that cat anymore!"
This was her last struggle as a human being.
The next second, reason completely vanished.
With a piercing roar that shattered the cave, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, completely out of his mind, transformed into a jet-black line of deathly fire, carrying a violent aura that could incinerate everything, and rushed straight towards Naruto, who was closest to him.
"You're such a worry, you big wildcat."
Naruto stood rooted to the spot, not retreating an inch. The mockery in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by an extreme danger akin to the awakening of an ancient tyrannical dragon. He raised his right hand, and pure golden Yang Release Chakra in his palm compressed wildly, emitting a heart-palpitating buzz.
"Looks like I'll have to give you a full-body physical massage before you'll behave."