After Sailing with the Pirate King, I Returned to Konoha - 221

Chapter 221: Observation from Hōdō, Mangekyō Disaster Divinity!

Tailed beasts were merely chakra entities without specific organs to target.

This piercing attack was no different from ordinary penetration strikes against their energy bodies. But for Rōshi personally, being stabbed in such a manner by an enemy was more than sufficient to draw genuine aggression.

"Kid!"

The giant ape unleashed a spinning kick with terrible force, sending Sasuke flying backward through the air. The sheer impact created a sonic boom.

Boom!!!

Seeing this, the spectators immediately prepared to intervene. Naruto raised one hand, stopping them.

"This is Sasuke's battle. It hasn't ended yet."

Though his words sounded certain, Naruto's eyes didn't blink. He stared intensely at the gaping hole in the mountainside. Clearly, his heart wasn't as confident as his mouth.

Don't die, Sasuke.

Falling debris was slowly covered by flowing lava. The act of piercing through the mountain seemed to trigger the volcano's dormant power, awakening the magma chambers deep below.

Fortunately, only vast wastelands surrounded the area. No settlements anywhere.

"Dead?"

In his strike, Rōshi showed no restraint. He knew intimately how powerful Four-Tails was. Even if another Jinchūriki appeared before him, this technique could similarly threaten obliteration.

Bang!

Above that hole, the mountain wall was torn open by sharp claws digging downward desperately.

Injury-covered Sasuke emerged from the rubble and dust, forcing his way out through sheer willpower.

His body was crisscrossed with wounds painted in cruel shades. His previously-defending arm hung uselessly, bones completely shattered within, beyond immediate repair. Fragments of bone ground against each other beneath mangled flesh.

"Cough, cough—"

After taking merely two steps, blood flowed from his mouth in a steady stream, mixing with saliva.

Broken ribs had punctured his lung. Blood foam was stuck in his throat, preventing him from making normal sounds. Each breath became a wet, agonized struggle.

Is this what a Jinchūriki truly is? Just one strike—

Supporting himself with his other arm to barely stand, black-red calamity fire coiled around his entire body like a protective cocoon.

Those flames spiraled with purpose, beginning rapid wound healing with visible precision. Black fire transformed into a dragon shape, burrowing into Sasuke's mouth and down his throat, treating damaged organs from inside. Finally, it allowed him to restore his breathing, barely, though each inhale still brought sharp pain.

Rōshi watched Sasuke's wounds closing, the black flames sealing the damage. He understood now—the kid had a healing factor. His lips curved into a thin smile.

"Interesting. But it won't save you."

His logic was simple and brutal. He would overwhelm the boy completely before that healing could take effect. Before Sasuke could even recover.

"Do it if you can!"

Sasuke lowered into a fighting stance despite the pain. His other arm, suffering compound fractures with bone powder grinding together, remained incomplete in healing. The limb was tucked awkwardly at his side, barely functional.

Lightning and fire covered his body again, crackling across his skin.

"Eight Inner Gates, Life Gate, Open!"

Learning this technique only recently, even with his mythical beast fruit enhancement, Sasuke could barely open the third gate. But this was sufficient.

White steam covered another layer above the lightning and flames, creating a shroud of power.

Sizzle.

Sasuke's muscles swelled visibly, blood vessels bulging from increased chakra flow. His entire frame strained against the power coursing through him.

"Lava Release: Granite Walls."

Rōshi controlled his tailed beast chakra with precision, both palms slapping downward.

Three massive stone walls, flowing with lava, erupted upward around Sasuke, sealing his movement paths. Heat radiating from them made the air shimmer and distort.

"Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique!"

The giant ape sprayed a terrifying lava ball nearly ten meters in diameter directly at Sasuke, now blocked by stone walls.

At this moment, Sasuke moved with pure instinct.

Simple attack abandoning all complex techniques. Under this amplified body enhancement, Sasuke lacked the finesse required for martial techniques.

But that speed and power was the strongest he possessed right now.

That massive lava ball was pierced through by concentrated fire and lightning. Before Rōshi could sense the attack's trajectory, Sasuke had already struck him directly in the torso.

The three-meter-tall beast-man rocketed through the air, momentum carrying him upward. The ape towering over ten times his size was sent flying.

Rōshi's reaction was swift. Adjusting mid-flight, he executed a battle-axe kick descending with desperate force.

However, Sasuke's observation Haki had already captured this technique. His precognition revealed the attack's path seconds before it was executed. He sidestepped smoothly, completing a counterattack following his opponent's own motion.

Sharp claws left deep wounds on Rōshi's tailed beast body, blood seeping from within. Though tailed beasts were chakra entities, they still bled under such extremes. In tailed beast form, Four-Tails and Rōshi jointly bore these injuries, sharing the agony.

Acute pain triggered Four-Tails' savage nature, the beast's fury surging through their connection and amplifying Rōshi's own aggression.

The giant ape roared, muscles tensing as it prepared for another assault.

Sasuke smirked, seeing the beast gathering power for a counterattack.

“Finally, fighting back properly,” he muttered, sinking lower into his stance.

But his Observation Haki detected a tremendous crisis wrapping his entire body. Danger signals screamed from every direction at once.

Even Naruto's stronger Observation Haki had already seen the immediate future.

He had no hesitation, directly entering Sage Mode without the usual preparation time. Unlike Jiraiya, who required absolute stillness to absorb vast natural energy, Naruto possessed an advantage.

Since his brief contact with "Natural Consciousness" previously, those natural energies gained tremendous affinity toward him. One could say they would even actively enter his body without invitation if he didn't control them.

Upon opening this connection, natural energy rushed like a tidal wave. His body adapted instantly.

However, Jiraiya lacked the leisure to focus on Naruto's instant Sage Mode activation. His attention remained fixed on the battlefield.

The completely-tailed-beast-transformed Rōshi opened wide jaws with purpose.

This time, what he sprayed wasn't lava or fire, but something far more terrifying.

Purple-black chakra converged with terrible power, a tailed beast ball forming with the destructive might of a small star.

"Naruto!"

Killer Bee was already partially transformed into a tailed beast, prepared to rush over immediately.

Though their acquaintance time was brief, he held favorable feelings toward Sasuke, the sparring partner he practiced with during downtime. He naturally couldn't watch passively as his sparring companion got killed by a tailed beast ball.

Yes, despite Sasuke's improvement these weeks, his distance to a completely-tailed-beast-transformed Jinchūriki remained vast and unquestionable.

All present, except Karin, understood the tailed beast ball's terrible, destructive power.

To Killer Bee's words, Naruto gave no response. He merely continued to block, hand raised protectively.

His eyes fixed on mid-air, Sasuke, seemingly already seeing the young man's immediate future unfolding.

Wrapped in lethal threat from every angle, Sasuke maintained his rushing motion at high speed. Yet that death aura growing stronger continuously pricked his Mangekyō Sharingan with intense warning.

The lotus-shaped Sharingan quietly "bloomed" with new power.

Simultaneously, Hōdō's primal instincts surged in response to this aura of impending death.

Both within the same body mutually fused in perfect synchronization, manifested through the incredible pupil technique encoded within Sharingan itself.

Calamity and fortune follow will, cutting death, preserving life.

At the knife's edge where doom approached, Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan ability finally awakened.

The name came to him instinctively, as if it had always been part of him

"Disaster Divinity!"

Blood streamed from his eye sockets in twin rivulets. Simultaneously, all present seemed to sense being watched by something—something ancient and vast beyond comprehension.

All wore the most awkward expressions as they experienced this inexplicable sensation.

That sensation resembled the feeling when, wearing long boots in winter, you suddenly feel your socks slipping down persistently. To retighten them, you must remove boots against the cold wind, exposing yourself. If left unaddressed, that awkwardness would constantly plague your mind and body.

Naruto similarly felt this influence, yet displayed a satisfied "finally achieved" smile.

Currently, facing Sasuke, Rōshi felt himself seemingly targeted by some inauspicious thing beyond comprehension.

So itchy.

Unknowingly, his throat felt terribly itchy.

Want to cough.

Despite being in a tense battle where distraction could prove fatal, Rōshi's mind uncontrollably produced this thought.

Just cough once. Just once.

He clearly recognized this moment wasn't suitable for such action, yet that instinct still drove him relentlessly.

Faster than thought was body action.

Whether due to a spasm or some other physiological reason, Rōshi's foreleg suddenly convulsed violently, causing his center of gravity to lose balance completely. His entire massive body tilted aside from the blast.

Though he immediately readjusted with desperation, this momentary relaxation made him uncontrollably cough.

And that tailed beast ball, because of this perfectly-timed cough, was shot toward mid-air by Rōshi's slightly-raised head.

Everything seemed controlled by an invisible hand, achieving this result through various unreasonable coincidences aligned by fate itself.