How the White Cursed Seal Grew!

As the Super Water Formation Pillar drove Susanoo into the sky, Kisame, hiding underground, changed his hand seals.

—Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique!

Boom! A shark-shaped water bullet enveloped Kisame and burst out of the ground, gliding upward. In an instant, it reached the space above Susanoo!!

Splash...! After spitting Kisame out, the water shark bullet crashed into Susanoo!

Somersaulting forward, Kisame brought Samehada cleaving down...!

Below was the Super Water Formation Pillar’s Extreme Lift; overhead was Kisame's crushing slash. The cutting technique, amplified by forces from both directions, coincided perfectly with how Danzo had once used Wind Release to tear through Susanoo's defenses!!!

Clang...!!!!!!!

Samehada struck straight down... but Susanoo, still in its muscular form, took the blow squarely!

"This chakra giant is a Mangekyō Sharingan technique, right? It's tough. Does Itachi have this trick up his sleeve too? But..."

—Samehada: Chakra-Eating Slash!

Veins bulged along Kisame's arms. Putting all his monstrous strength into the strike, he used Samehada's spikes to scrape viciously downward!!

Scrrrape!!!!

Samehada actually gouged a jagged wound into the surface of Susanoo's muscles!

Then... Sasuke noticed that the fragments scraped off Susanoo turned into Chakra and were swallowed by Samehada!

Kisame chuckled inwardly. Samehada can't directly absorb solidified Chakra. But once it's broken apart and changes from a solid to a fluid state... that's another matter!

Tap!

Kisame planted his feet on the Water Formation Pillar. Having absorbed Susanoo's Chakra, Samehada's blade became clad in purple bladed armor!

Sasuke said, "It can even do that...!?"

Kisame said, "That's right... this is!!"

—Samehada: Susanoo: Chakra-Eating Slash!

Boom, boom, boom, boom...!

Atop the rising Water Formation Pillar, Kisame repeatedly swung Samehada, now clad in Susanoo's bladed armor. Combined with the Chakra-Eating Slash, his attacks kept damaging Susanoo. As more fragments broke off and were absorbed, the bladed Susanoo armor covering Samehada grew thicker and sharper with every strike...!!!!

Boom, boom, boom...!!

More than a dozen heavy slashes, each stronger than the last, battered Susanoo from its muscular form back into its skeletal form!

"Raaaaargh...!!!"

Kisame mustered another strike, swinging Samehada, which had swollen to nearly the size of Susanoo's usual great sword, ready to shatter its defenses completely!

But he could never have anticipated that Sasuke would dispel Susanoo at that very moment, without the slightest warning!!

Whoosh...!!!

His full-powered slash, aimed at Susanoo as its target, struck empty air... Although he sensed trouble and strained with all his strength to pull his blade back, he inevitably left himself open!

Kisame was inwardly horrified. This brat was pretending to be overwhelmed just to seize this opening and counterattack!!!

Sasuke's gaze remained calm as his thoughts raced. Did you know, Kisame Hoshigaki? A strength can also become a weakness. Susanoo isn't just a trump card!

—That's right. Susanoo can also be a feint!

—White Rasengan!

Sasuke lowered his center of gravity and leaned slightly forward. A white Rasengan instantly formed in his right palm, and he drove it cleanly into Kisame's abdomen!

Crack! Crack! Crack-crack!

Following the spiral marks left on Kisame's abdomen, Terrifying Wood Spikes burst from all over his body, stained with blood!

Kisame fell from the Water Formation Pillar, hovering on the brink of death!

Crack!

Sensing its master's peril, Samehada shattered the Susanoo Chakra coating its body and urgently wriggled toward him. Its skull-adorned hilt softened and wound around Kisame's wrist, transferring red Chakra from a tailed beast into his body!

"Raaaaargh...!!"

Kisame roared, using the tension of every muscle in his body to force the wooden spikes out. Receiving the Chakra Samehada supplied, he rapidly repaired the damage to his body and internal organs!

He rose once his wounds had healed. The healed areas had turned a dull gray, unlike his pale blue skin. Because of the White Rasengan's impaling effect, irregular gray patches covered nearly a third of his body!

Still shaken, he said, "If Samehada hadn't still had some Two-Tails Chakra left from our recent battle with its jinchūriki, I might really have died here. Sasuke Uchiha, no matter how impressive your past accomplishments were, I never truly put you on the same level as Itachi. But in that instant just now, I understood. Your combat instincts and clear head are every bit as good as his..."

"I won't give you another chance. I'll create the environment that favors me most and crush you to death in one go!"

Clap!

Kisame released Samehada and brought his hands together before his chest!

Unleashing his strongest secret technique at the very outset of a battle—that was the kind of audacity and confidence only the man called the Tailless Tailed Beast possessed!

—Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!

At the foot of the mountain, Orochimaru's expression grew solemn. "Here it comes. Kisame Hoshigaki's most terrifying fighting method, one that almost never fails!"

Boom!

In an instant, Kisame spewed a tidal wave of water from his mouth. It swallowed the clearing where he and Sasuke were fighting, then expanded into an ellipsoidal water prison that engulfed a vast stretch of the surrounding mountain forest!

Sasuke's vision blurred for a moment. In the blink of an eye, he was inside an inescapable Water Prison!

He unleashed a Water Prison-style Water Release on this staggering scale in an instant...

Sasuke immediately held his breath, his thoughts racing.

He looked at the faint light filtering through the distant surface overhead.

But light can still get through. Apparently, this Water Release isn't so enormous that it defies all reason.

Still, the water pressure in this fully submerged Water Prison is dozens of times greater than in an ordinary one. I can't move freely at all. Suffocation alone would be enough to kill anyone trapped inside. Getting out quickly comes first...

Boom! Sasuke activated Susanoo again, using its weight to overcome his buoyancy and plant his feet on the bottom. Then he pushed against the water pressure toward the edge of the sphere, but the light overhead never drew any closer!

Sasuke conjectured, Could this water sphere... be moving? Does it move along with the caster?

Splash...!

Just then, a figure surged toward him and crashed into Susanoo!

With the Mangekyō Sharingan's perceptiveness, he discerned its shape in the darkness!

It was a half-human fish creature!

Even though its appearance and Chakra had changed, there was no doubt—it could only be Kisame Hoshigaki!

Susanoo was not completely sealed. Under the tremendous water pressure, water constantly seeped inside.

Sasuke covered his mouth and nose. I've heard that Samehada can fuse with its master. This must be it...

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fused with Samehada, Kisame shot through the water at an unimaginable speed, crashing into Susanoo again and again!

Though he knew he could not break through, Kisame kept ramming it tirelessly!

"Sasuke...!"

At the foot of Heavenly Gate Gorge, Karin watched the crystal ball, her heart tightening with worry for Sasuke!

Having witnessed greater spectacles in their previous battles, Kabuto Yakushi was much calmer than before. "Kisame's current tactics are the same as Sasori's back then, aren't they?"

Orochimaru nodded. "Yes. Kisame wants to prevent Sasuke-kun from dispelling Susanoo, accelerating his stamina depletion while keeping him on the brink of drowning..."

"Remember, even with the Yang Seal, all he has eliminated is the strain on his eyes caused by overusing his ocular power. It does nothing to reduce the stamina he expends!"

"Fortunately, Susanoo is temporarily blocking Kisame's most terrifying ability when fused with Samehada: absorbing an opponent's chakra directly through physical contact. That absorption is so powerful that even a jinchūriki cannot resist it!"

"Even the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, hailed as the most perfect of his kind, only barely escaped this technique because Samehada turned against its master..."

Orochimaru's gaze darkened. "However... maintaining Susanoo is closely tied to the caster's condition. Kabuto, just as your White Rage Technique in Sage Mode inflicted physical agony on its victims and prevented them from maintaining Susanoo, prolonged suffocation does the same."

As the suffocating sensation intensified... Sasuke began to lose his ability to maintain Susanoo!

The water pressure left him unable to move!

And Kisame's ramming attacks grew even more relentless!

Sasuke thought, Ugh, my chakra... it's draining away at a terrifying rate!

The loss of chakra worsened his exhaustion, and his exhaustion intensified the agony of suffocation. The vicious cycle left Sasuke in torment!

Watching the one-sided battle in the crystal ball, Kabuto Yakushi adjusted his glasses and asked, "Is there no way to counter Kisame's Water Release?"

"Of course there is. Let's limit ourselves to methods below the Six Paths level, whether through finesse or brute force."

Orochimaru explained clearly, "For finesse, the Rinnegan's Preta Path, space-time abilities, or powerful Sealing Jutsu could all do it. But Sasuke-kun currently has none of those. For brute force, power on the level of Perfect Susanoo or Complete Tailed Beast Transformation could also work."

Kabuto Yakushi's heart tightened. "But Sasuke... doesn't have any of those right now either, does he?"

"Not quite..."

Orochimaru shook his head. "Sasuke-kun has mastered and created many powerful ninjutsu, but they require chakra to support them. His only way out is to unleash his hid-den pow-er. If my guess is right, that's the power he intended to save for his battle with Itachi, isn't it?"

The corners of Orochimaru's mouth rose. "But the ten-battle series is all about breaking past his limits!"

Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble!

Ugh... am I starting to lose consciousness?

It looks like I underestimated Kisame Hoshigaki after all. No choice. I'll unleash the state I was saving for Itachi right now. As for exposing information, that doesn't matter anymore...

As long as I push past my limits in this third battle!!!

Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss...!

During the second battle, when Death Controlling Possessed Blood wounded Sasuke, he had completely absorbed the power of white cursed seal state one all at once. Once absorbed, that power became his own. He could continue releasing the White Cursed Seal across his body, while also gaining a greater capacity to withstand it!

Absorb the power he released and make it his own, then release even greater power than before and absorb that too—this was the White Cursed Seal's almost absurd method of growth!

And now, what he was about to unleash was!!!

—White Cursed Seal: State Two!