The battle style of a Jinchūriki is wild and brutal.
This has nothing to do with whether they retain their sanity or not.
It's just that this wild and brutal fighting style better unleashes the destructive power they wield.
Take Naruto, who may or may not master the so-called Nine-Tails Chakra Mode in the future, for example. Even Killer B, the perfect Jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, fights with a reckless abandon once they harness the power of the tailed beast. Most Jinchūriki fight with one common approach: full-on aggression.
The protective "Tailed Beast Cloak" provides enough defense to mitigate most attacks, reducing the damage they take to a minimal level. The chakra of the tailed beasts also has healing properties. As long as it's not a fatal injury, most wounds will heal before the Jinchūriki even notices them.
Incredible defense, self-healing vitality, and overwhelming destructive power capable of reshaping the landscape!
That's what it means to be a Jinchūriki—a monster seen by the villages as a weapon of war!
Yagura's dark-red arm extended like a saw blade, chasing Sougen. Effortlessly, it sliced through over a dozen massive cedar trees, each requiring five or six people to fully encircle. As the trees collapsed, they triggered a chain reaction, crashing into others and turning the once peaceful forest into chaos.
"An arm that stretches more than 20 meters, no blood on the blade after cutting… a simulated limb made of tailed beast chakra?" It's similar to the rib-like Susanoo that now shields Sougen!
Both are constructs of solidified chakra.
However, the essence of the two is different.
Sougen narrowed his eyes as he lightly tapped his toes on a tree branch, moving like a ghost through the forest.
As he leaped back, Yagura's dark-red arm erupted from the ground beneath him.
A clawed hand, clearly not human, reached to grab Sougen's ankle. In its initial ribbed form, Susanoo's protection was not all-encompassing. Above his head, under his feet… there were weak spots.
"Hmph, do you think I'm blind?"
While the Sharingan's perception isn't as powerful as the Byakugan, it's sharp enough to detect the massive chakra fluctuations moving through the shallow ground beneath him. At the moment Sougen jumped, a bone-white arm glowing with flickering chakra appeared beside him, and it came crashing down with the force of a mountain.
The skeletal hand collided with Yagura's claw-like arm.
Cracks formed in Susanoo's hand, and the resulting shockwave uprooted nearby trees, leaving a crater in the ground beneath them.
The power of a tailed beast is truly formidable.
However, as long as there is an endless supply of ocular energy, Susanoo can regenerate instantly, making these injuries meaningless to Sougen. In fact, the passive Sougen had never intended to target Yagura in the first place.
His attention drifted far away as his thoughts raced.
He wasn't sure what the situation was, but since his shadow clones hadn't been destroyed, that was a good sign. As long as Uchiha Obito and Zetsu hadn't discovered his little trick, it was worth dragging this out.
His task now was to hold Obito and Zetsu's attention here.
In the forest, as the terrifying aura of tailed beast chakra spread, birds, snakes, and insects instinctively sensed danger and fled in panic. The once tranquil woods were now in complete upheaval. Even White Zetsu hadn't noticed the black, inky creatures that blended in with the shadows—like they had bathed in a pool of ink—moving among the panicked animals.
Black rats, long black snakes, low-flying black crows, and many other dark creatures moved through every corner of the forest.
Though they appeared to flee in a frenzy, they were actually gathering and observing all the information they could.
Deep in the forest, three of Sougen's shadow clones, hidden in different locations, held brushes and blank scrolls. Every so often, a snake, rat, or crow would return, and as they touched the blank scrolls, they dissolved into ink, transcribing the information they had gathered in cryptic characters.
At the same time, the shadow clones continued sketching, sending out more scouts to gather further clues.
White Zetsu's "Mayfly Technique" was formidable. If memory serves, it allows him to merge with trees and the earth, moving underground at high speed and erasing all traces of his presence. No one would be able to detect him—while he's in that state, at least.
But they can't stay merged with the earth and trees forever!
Once they surface, they can be seen by anyone nearby, and that's why White Zetsu avoids the Hidden Leaf Village. The Byakugan's kilometer-long range makes White Zetsu curse in frustration.
In the Leaf, he often has to maintain the Mayfly Technique for excessively long periods, and unless he's absolutely sure it's safe, he avoids showing himself.
However, Sougen had placed several shadow clones throughout the area before arriving on Kuroshio Mountain. After engaging Yagura, he lured him into the forest.
His real target was much bigger.
Just as Obito was calculating against him, Sougen was calculating against Obito.
The roles of hunter and prey are never fixed. Under different circumstances, the two can switch places. The key to hunting is mastering the art of tracking.
Sougen had never excelled in tracking or investigation. Fresh chapters posted on noᴠelfire.net
However, the secret technique *Super Beast Imitating Drawing* filled that gap, giving him the tools to turn the tables on Obito.
One of Sougen's shadow clones, seated on a perfectly cut stone slab, looked over the latest information appearing on the scroll. His fingers glided over the text, the collected intelligence flashing through his mind like a movie on fast-forward.
Then, he saw it—a man in an orange mask with one eye, accompanied by a yin-yang-faced figure resembling a giant pitcher plant, poking their heads out from a cedar tree.
The shadow clone's lips curled into a smile. After all this effort, it wasn't a waste of time!
Forming a hand seal, the shadow clone dispelled itself. With a "pop," the chakra from the dissolving clone released a cloud of white smoke. As the breeze passed, the stone slab was empty.
Even the brush and scrolls vanished with the shadow clone.
At the same moment, some of the ink creatures under his control suddenly dropped dead, leaving inky smudges on the ground, leaves, and tree trunks. This unusual shift finally caught the attention of the lurking White Zetsu.
Just as White Zetsu was about to inform Obito, Sougen, who was fighting Yagura, had already received the intelligence. Lowering his gaze, he looked towards a thick cedar tree. Obito and Zetsu were hiding behind the tree canopy.
They were practically within arm's reach!
"Hiding right under my nose... That's some terrifying stealth!" Sougen muttered softly, a fierce killing intent flickering in his eyes. The previously cracked skeletal arm reappeared, the fractures gone, and chakra flickered around it like burning flames.
Then, an even greater surge of ocular energy flowed into his hand.
Three deep crimson orbs—gleaming like condensed drops of blood—floated in Susanoo's skeletal hand.
From the branches of the cedar tree, Obito and Zetsu peered through the foliage, watching the deep crimson orbs suspended in Susanoo's hand.
Seeing the unfamiliar technique, confusion flashed in Obito's eye.
"Yasaka Magatama. Uchiha Sougen is finally getting serious!" Black Zetsu rasped, explaining to Obito, "That's one of Susanoo's techniques. Every Uchiha who unlocks the Mangekyō Sharingan can use it. It's too bad that when you awakened your Mangekyō, you were missing one eye and couldn't unlock Susanoo. But if you retrieve your other eye, you too can wield this power."
Obito's demeanor instantly soured. Coldly, he retorted, "Even without that power, I'll create a new world."
Black Zetsu, feeling exasperated, thought to himself, *Even after living a thousand years, I can't figure out some of Obito's ideas.*
For instance, why does Obito resist reclaiming his other eye? Wouldn't gaining more complete and powerful abilities be beneficial? Why resist so strongly? But... it doesn't matter. With the power of "Kamui," Obito is more than capable of pushing the plan forward. Perfection isn't necessary.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, he saw Susanoo's massive skeletal arm swing, launching the three crimson magatama with great force.
Why does it look like those magatama are heading straight toward them? Black Zetsu's eyes widened in shock. For a moment, he was dazed. *Did Sougen really miss that badly?* Obito and Yagura aren't even in the same direction.
Or... is this deliberate?
His target wasn't the Kyojitsu Yagura after all, but Uchiha Obito? Or was it himself? Countless thoughts surged through Black Zetsu's mind, and at this moment, the three tomoe, radiating an overwhelming aura of destruction, were already right in front of them, filling their entire field of vision.