Chapter 212: I've Wanted to Ride a Big Cat for a Long Time
As everyone knows, when a person is killed, they die.
Except for Naruto in the movies.
In the Land of Demons movie, Naruto's "death" was just a dream.
But in the Blood Prison movie from Hōzuki Castle, he really was about to die.
Satori not only dodged but also attacked.
In the end, Naruto and Ryūzetsu cosplay-ed his parents and were both pierced through the body by Satori.
What was even more ridiculous was that despite both being impaled, Naruto, who was the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, the reincarnation of Asura's chakra, and of Uzumaki bloodline, was the one who collapsed first looking completely dead.
And the Nine-Tails didn't even come out to save him.
Meanwhile Ryūzetsu, like nothing was wrong, stood there with a huge hole in her chest and casually used Dragon Life Reincarnation, transferring her life force to revive Naruto.
(Neji: Why does someone revive him whenever he gets stabbed?)
Good grief, this isn't just like cross-dressing Nagato, this is basically Nagato himself, right?
Where did such ridiculous vitality come from?
Karin still had to bite herself after suffering a fatal impalement just to keep moving.
Granny Chiyo, a kage-level puppet master, had to stop halfway through her One's Own Life Reincarnation (Reanimation Jutsu) because she didn't have enough chakra, and Naruto had to help her provide chakra so she could continue saving Gaara.
So what level were Ryūzetsu's life force and chakra at?
Could it be that yet another "white-haired" type like Namikaze Minato had overridden the Uzumaki clan's red-hair genes?
Why bring all this up?
Because by the time Uchiha Hikari made her move, the battle between the fully transformed Satori and the others had already taken a drastic turn.
Just as mentioned before, Yugito was deeply influenced by Matatabi's feline nature.
In the original story, one major reason she was captured by Kakuzu and Hidan was her excessive confidence in her own strength, much like how cats often toy with their prey instead of killing it immediately.
In the end, she played herself to death.
Naturally, the current Yugito had no chance to toy with Satori.
But she had unlocked another cat trait—Hissing.
She was hissing so hard it was practically 'hakimi nanbei lüdou ashi-ga ashi' already.
With all her attacks missing, she got heated in a different way.
The Two-Tails was a speed-type tailed beast, and Yugito was also a speed-type ninja.
But she ignored the fact that even the Raikage, a faster speed-type ninja than her, couldn't hit Satori.
At the instant of attacking, Yugito canceled her tailed beast transformation and shot forward in her human form at extreme speed toward Satori.
It was like she was trying to pull off a surprise strike.
After all, Matatabi had just been so huge, suddenly shrinking down, most ninja would probably lose track of where Yugito even was for a moment.
But Satori wasn't in that category.
It didn't even have eyes.
Satori twisted its body and then stabbed backward in a clean counter, piercing straight through Yugito.
Alright, it's your turn to cosplay Kushina now.
"Uwah!"
Yugito spat out a mouthful of blood.
Once again, she had suffered a crushing defeat because of lacking information.
However, she didn't immediately lose the ability to fight.
The very next second after being pierced through, the tailed beast chakra inside her surged out again, forming Matatabi, tearing free from Satori's spike and landing on the ground.
Only now, Matatabi was visibly weakened.
The blue flames covering its body had dimmed significantly.
"Yugito!"
Seeing this, the Raikage was extremely anxious.
That had clearly been a lethal attack just now. Yugito was only staying alive by relying on the Two-Tails' chakra.
The battle had to end immediately so Tsunade over there could treat her.
Satori, following the principle of "strike while you're weak and finish you off," launched another attack toward Matatabi.
Because the jinchūriki was dying and chakra was being used to sustain her life, the once agile Matatabi could now only struggle and shift slightly on the ground.
There was no way to dodge.
Seeing this, the Raikage immediately leaped up, turning into a streak of lightning as he charged at Satori, trying to stop it.
Satori once again easily dodged the Raikage's full-speed assault.
Here you could see two problems.
First, Yugito's position in the Raikage's heart wasn't at the level of being absolutely crucial.
At least, it was far below that of his younger brother, Killer Bee.
In the original story, Ryūzetsu could avoid being dodged by Satori simply through so-called "charging forward without fear, with a mind free of dread."
Which meant that if Killer Bee were the one fatally injured, the Raikage consumed by rage and completely free of stray thoughts would have been able to hit Satori.
But now Satori still dodged, showing that Yugito wasn't enough to make the Raikage lose rationality.
Second, the Raikage did have a brain, but calling him a reckless brute wasn't wrong either.
If it were Shiromo, when uncertain whether he could hit Satori or block its attack, how would he maximize the chance of stopping it and saving Yugito?
Ah, right.
Satori can dodge, Yugito can't.
Just elbow Yugito away and knock her out of range.
From the earlier fight, it was clear that Satori itself wasn't actually that fast. It couldn't even keep up with Matatabi's speed. It only seemed fast when dodging.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have only managed to injure Yugito the first time when she deliberately exposed an opening.
Before that, the three of them had basically been dancing around, fighting for ages without causing any damage at all.
They just kept firing ninjutsu and blowing up a lot of the Hōzuki Castle buildings instead.
With his strike missing, the Raikage could only turn back in despair and watch Satori thrust toward Matatabi below.
And this was the moment when Hikari, on the other side, finally acted at Shiromo's cue.
The weakened tailed beast cloak now couldn't possibly block Satori's attack.
But, at the instant Satori's spike stabbed toward Matatabi, a layer of crimson armor covered Matatabi's body.
Even Yugito inside Matatabi froze in shock, feeling a powerful surge of energy.
What was this?
"I've wanted to ride a big cat for a long time."
Excitement flickered in Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyō Sharingan.
When she had just been unsealed, Shiromo had shown her many things in the genjutsu world.
Among them were the battles between the tragic lovers Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
Though Hikari greatly despised these two "naturally destined" ninja who created a shinobi world full of tangled bonds, she had long been eager to try out Susanoo Armor.
Unfortunately, the Seven-Tails at home was a giant bug, and she hated big bugs, so she never tried it.
As for the other giant turtle, it was still in the process of mastering its power and couldn't transform properly yet.
"Relax your mind and body. Leave it to me."
After Susanoo fully covered them, Yugito was already inside Susanoo's "cockpit," standing beside Hikari.
Yugito stared blankly at the girl who was clearly much younger than herself.
What was this?
The Uchiha clan's Sharingan?
It had such terrifying power?
And it could even synchronize with a tailed beast?
"Hmph."
Looking at the spike blocked by Susanoo, Hikari snorted coldly.
Amaterasu instantly covered their entire body, and Matatabi's originally blue flames turned black.
At the same time, Susanoo's long blade was clamped in Matatabi's mouth.
"Roar..."
Burned by Amaterasu, Satori hurriedly pulled its arm back and retreated a step.
Actually, you could already see here that even without conquering fear, there was another way to hit Satori: let Satori attack you first, then activate counter-damage skills.
(End of this chapter)