Above the camp, a viscous, purple corrosive liquid seeped downward, exuding a violent, stomach-churning stench of acid.
Facing the onslaught of the Six-Tails Jinchuriki, Pakura ignited her entire body into a gargantuan sphere of flame. She transformed into a streak of brilliant fire, lunging into the sky to meet the deluge of dissolved liquid head-on.
To protect her comrades, Pakura had pushed her Scorch Release to its ultimate state. The giant fireball blossomed into a massive fire lotus in mid-air; its intense heat was so extreme that it vaporized the entire torrent of acid in an instant.
It was a staggering display of raw power. Standing high in the air, her silhouette wreathed in flames, Pakura looked peerless. To carve a path of survival for her team and buy time for Shiraishi's return, she had to hold the line alone.
Enduring the searing backlash of her own maximum-output heat, she threw a punch. The resulting shockwave of thermal energy instantly evaporated half of the massive waterfall Fuguki had created.
Fuguki Suikazan clicked his tongue, sensing the danger of her current state. It was clear Pakura was fighting for her life.
Deciding on a tactical shift, he quickly retreated from her immediate vicinity, leaving the Jinchuriki to deal with her while he personally set off to hunt down the retreating Sand ninjas.
"Don't you dare!"
Seeing Fuguki move toward her subordinates, Pakura condensed a sphere of high-temperature fire to intercept him. However, the Six-Tails Jinchuriki intercepted her with blinding speed, exhaling a massive cloud of bubbles that smothered her flames.
Having seen his corrosive liquid neutralized, the Jinchuriki now viewed Pakura as his primary target. He unleashed his Acid Permeation Bubble technique. Purple bubbles drifted across the entire Sand formation.
One after another, they detonated. The acid splashed onto the faces and bodies of the Sand ninjas, causing such agonizing pain that many collapsed, rolling on the ground in a desperate attempt to stop the burning.
"Watch out!"
Shikasa and Maki were struggling to hold off Raiga Kurosuki when the acid bubbles drifted their way. Amidst the violent chemical explosions, Shikasa used his remaining puppets to shield the two of them.
But the bubbles were endless. The number of fallen Sand ninjas grew by the second. The Mist forces even pulled back slightly, content to watch the Six-Tails Jinchuriki wreak havoc. In this era, a Jinchuriki was a weapon of mass destruction—the ultimate deterrent of a village—and Utakata was currently crushing the Sand with the weight of a god.
"Dammit!"
Facing the slaughter, Pakura condensed her flames into a small, high-density barrier, attempting to trap and incinerate the Jinchuriki within a localized sun.
As the giant fireball barrier manifested, the acid bubbles were momentarily quelled. But the Sand's losses were already catastrophic. On the sidelines, Fuguki Suikazan raised his hand, ordering the Mist to launch their final, total offensive.
Juzo Biwa pressed his advantage against the Shiraishi puppet. As the fight wore on, the Control Mirror reached its limit. With many of its chakra threads severed, Juzo found a lethal opening.
The puppet's blade shattered under the weight of the Executioner's Blade. Juzo laughed maniacally. "This sword is even flimsier than the last one! Is this all you've got? You've regressed since our last dance!"
As Juzo swung his massive blade down, an earth wall rose to block him. But the Executioner's Blade carved through the stone like a storm. Simultaneously, Samehada lunged from the shadows.
Fuguki had struck again. The sentient sword tore away the puppet's arm, making a crunching, satisfied sound as it devoured the "flesh." However, Fuguki noticed something off—Samehada didn't seem satisfied. The chakra within the arm didn't taste right.
The Shiraishi puppet's expression remained unchanged. It activated the Mirror's six-sided defense mode, but under Fuguki's terrifying Water Style pressure, the shield began to buckle.
"The Sand is finished."
In another corner of the battlefield, Raiga Kurosuki turned into a storm of electricity, shattering Teisui's final puppet. Amidst the wreckage, Teisui looked at the surrounding enemies, his eyes filled with grim resolve.
"Die, brat!" Raiga roared.
At the heart of the battlefield, Pakura was nearing exhaustion. Despite being one of the Sand's elite, she was reaching her limit against the inexhaustible chakra of the Six-Tails.
This generation's Jinchuriki had far better control over the beast than Utakata would in the future; at the peak of his middle-aged strength, he was an immovable wall. His chakra turned a deep, bruised purple as the skeletal form of Saiken began to take shape.
The Scorch Release burned out. As Pakura's chakra hit zero, her high-temperature barrier flickered and died. She collapsed to one knee, her strength spent.
It's over.
Without the barrier, the Six-Tails' corrosive fluid surged forward like a tidal wave. As the purple acid loomed over the center of the battlefield, Pakura closed her eyes in despair.
At that same moment, Raiga's lightning blade swung toward Teisui's heart.
Then, the world changed.
Raiga's blade froze in mid-air. It began to vibrate and wail, fighting against an invisible force, unable to move a single inch forward. It wasn't just Raiga; every Mist ninja's senbon, kunai, and sword began to jerk and twitch, reacting to a sudden, overwhelming magnetic field.
"What is this...?"
Time seemed to stand still.
Teisui looked up. In the sky above, a "rain" of shimmering silver light began to fall upon the earth.
"Magnet Release: Quicksand Waterfall Flow!"
A familiar voice rang out. In an instant, every tree, blade of grass, and rock within the battlefield's radius dissolved into a surging sea of silver sand. It rose like a tidal wave, forming a colossal silver wall that slammed down, physically intercepting the Six-Tails' corrosive flood.
A layer of silver sand swirled around Pakura and the other survivors, shielding them from the residual acid.
The injured puppet Shiraishi, sensing the original's arrival, vanished in a puff of smoke. High above, the Crimson Mirror ascended, floating behind a figure in the sky like a divine shield.
Both sides looked up.
There, standing on a platform of silver, was a familiar figure dressed in ancient Ninshu robes, holding a silver blade. Beside him stood a tubby orange cat, looking equally solemn with its paws on its hips.
Shiraishi had discarded his glasses—a symbol of his new resolve. As he raised his silver blade, the very earth began to tremble in resonance.
Raiga Kurosuki snarled and forced his way through the magnetic interference, attempting to strike Shikasa once more. Shiraishi vanished.
With a combination of extreme speed and Body Flicker, he appeared instantly in front of Raiga. His silver blade flashed in a stunning arc.
Caught in the magnetic distortion, Raiga lost control of his twin blades for a split second. Shiraishi's strike was decisive, severing Raiga's hands and seizing the Lightning Blades mid-air.
"Shikasa, take these," Shiraishi said, tossing the legendary swords. "Let's finish this."
"Understood!"
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