Chapter 95 095: You Might Escape, But Kumogakure Can't
Black Zetsu chuckled darkly, his voice sounding as if it were seeping up from beneath the earth, carrying an uncomfortable, viscous quality.
"Obito, given this situation, how do you propose we handle things moving forward?"
Uchiha Obito did not answer. He stood there, his expression hidden beneath his mask, but the single exposed Sharingan churned with resentment.
Black Zetsu waited a few seconds. Seeing no response, he continued, "If you hadn't shown yourself that time, if you hadn't fought him, we might have still had a chance to pull him over to our side."
He paused, as if savoring his own words.
"But now... it's going to be difficult."
"Shut up!"
Uchiha Obito violently slammed his fist into the tree trunk beside him. His knuckles sank deep into the bark, sending wood splinters flying and leaving a visible crater in the wood.
His voice emanated from behind the mask, kept very low, yet every word carried an uncontrollable rage. "I will take care of that guy. Just wait."
Black Zetsu looked at him without speaking, but inwardly, he scoffed.
'Seriously, even now, do you still think of yourself as Uchiha Madara? Let alone you failing to handle him, even if Uchiha Madara were resurrected right now, taking that guy down would be incredibly difficult. You're just a guy who had his arm blown off and barely escaped with his life. How dare you spout such arrogant nonsense here?'
Thinking this, Black Zetsu merely chuckled again, his voice laced with perfunctory encouragement.
"Is that so? Then I'll look forward to that day."
Uchiha Obito said no more. Retracting his fist, he looked toward the two colossal figures clashing in the distance.
The golden Susanoo and the dark Eight-Tails collided on the battlefield, every impact kicking up fierce gales and deafening booms.
His hand trembled slightly—not from fear, but from sheer anger.
Because at this moment, countless thoughts raced through Uchiha Obito's mind, yet he simply could not find a single way to defeat his opponent.
This realization left him feeling utterly indignant!
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the fight had reached a fever pitch.
Several cracks appeared on the Susanoo's armor. These fissures stretched from its shoulders to its chest, and from its arms to its waist—all marks left behind from its clashes with the Eight-Tails Gyuki.
However, the cracks spread very slowly. Moreover, every time a new fissure appeared, surrounding chakra would surge over to fill and repair the damage.
In stark contrast, the Eight-Tails Gyuki was in a far worse state.
Four of its eight tentacle tails had already been severed, and the remaining four bore deep blade wounds. Its body was riddled with gashes sliced open by the chakra blades. Dark red chakra seeped from the wounds like blood, flowing down its body and dripping onto the ground with a sizzling hiss.
Its breathing grew ragged, its chest heaving violently. Every exhale carried a low, heavy pant.
Uchiha Taiga stood within the chest of the Susanoo giant, his arms crossed as he looked down at the Eight-Tails Gyuki.
A smile graced his face, making him look thoroughly entertained.
Although this couldn't exactly be called an evenly matched fight, being able to unleash his power to this extent was, truthfully, incredibly exhilarating!
At that moment, the Eight-Tails Gyuki spoke to Killer Bee in his mind. 'Bee, if this keeps up, we're going to be in massive trouble. This guy is too tough to handle.'
Killer Bee naturally realized this as well. The Eight-Tails Gyuki was his greatest trump card. If even Gyuki found the situation dire, the outcome was practically set in stone.
Wasting no time, he controlled Gyuki's body and opened its massive maw.
Orange-red chakra gathered, compressed, and spun within its mouth, forming a Tailed Beast Bomb just beyond its jaws.
The sphere's diameter exceeded thirty meters, its surface violently rippling with dark purple waves. It was far more massive than any previous Tailed Beast Bomb, as if intending to take Uchiha Taiga down with them in mutually assured destruction.
Seeing the Tailed Beast Bomb, Uchiha Taiga's expression remained unchanged. Instead, he spoke with a cheerful smile.
"Are you out of tricks? You know this thing is useless against me."
His tone was casual, like asking a question to which he already knew the answer.
The Eight-Tails Gyuki did not reply. The Tailed Beast Bomb rapidly expanded.
Whipping its head down, it didn't fire the Tailed Beast Bomb at the Susanoo. Instead, it blasted the sphere directly into the ground a short distance in front of itself.
The next moment, the Tailed Beast Bomb slammed into the earth.
A blinding white light erupted.
It expanded in all directions. The shockwave swept up dirt, shattered stone, and splintered trees, devouring everything in its path.
The ground caved in from the blast, forming a massive crater. Soil and rubble were hurled into the air, blotting out the sky.
Immediately after, flames and smoke shot into the heavens, blooming across the landscape like a colossal mushroom cloud.
The Susanoo was swallowed by the explosion's shockwave. Its golden armor flickered faintly within the flames, its massive frame largely obscured by the thick smoke.
The deafening roar of the blast shook the earth violently, as if a massive earthquake were tearing the world apart.
The aftershocks of the explosion lasted for over ten seconds before gradually subsiding.
Before the smoke could fully clear, a golden figure burst forth from the dust.
The Susanoo tore through the violent turbulence left by the blast, raising its chakra blade high, the edge glowing with brilliant golden light.
Its speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye, it closed the distance to the Eight-Tails Gyuki and brought the blade crashing down.
The blade cleaved right through Gyuki's body. Yet, there was no blood, no agonizing scream. The moment the blade passed through, the massive beast exploded with a loud pop.
It wasn't an explosion of flesh and blood, but rather a violent burst of white smoke that blasted outward in all directions.
The colossal body rapidly dissipated in the turbulent air, as if it had never existed at all.
All that remained in its place was a single, writhing octopus tentacle.
The tentacle was dozens of meters long. The suction cups along its surface still twitched slightly, as if breathing, while pale red chakra seeped from the severed end like blood.
Uchiha Taiga looked at the tentacle, feeling a mild sense of surprise.
"Heh."
He let out a soft chuckle.
"As expected of a Tailed Beast. To think even the Byakugan couldn't see through a Substitution Technique of this caliber."
His Byakugan had remained active throughout the explosion, its 360-degree vision clearly capturing every corner of the battlefield.
Yet, he hadn't seen when the Eight-Tails Gyuki cast the Substitution Technique, nor had he caught when its true body slipped away.
He had to admit, beings like the Tailed Beasts truly had some impressive tricks up their sleeves.
Uchiha Taiga turned around, sweeping his gaze before locking onto a specific direction.
Within his Byakugan's vision, several kilometers away, a dark figure was moving at high speed.
The figure darted swiftly through the forest, fleeing toward the north.
And on that figure's back was another person.
Raikage A and Killer Bee!
"So they ran."
Uchiha Taiga's tone was calm, devoid of either anger or disappointment.
The Susanoo began to dissipate. The golden chakra receded from the giant's body like an ebbing tide. Skeleton, flesh, meridian pathways, and armor—layer by layer, it all vanished.
A few seconds later, the hundred-meter-tall golden giant completely disappeared. Uchiha Taiga stood alone on the utterly devastated battlefield, surrounded by massive craters, splintered trees, and scattered rubble.
Touching down on the ground, he casually straightened his clothes. They were dusted with dirt and ash, but completely untorn.
He patted his sleeves, flicked his collar, and then looked up toward the direction the Eight-Tails Gyuki had fled, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
"Don't go thinking this is going to end so simply."
Uchiha Taiga's voice was quiet, as if murmuring to himself.
"You might escape, but Kumogakure can't."
With that said, he took a step and began walking in their direction.
His pace was neither fast nor slow, no different from a casual stroll.
With his backpack slung over his shoulders and three ninja swords hanging from his left waist, the scabbards clinked softly together as he walked.
Just as when he first arrived, it seemed the colossal battle that had just transpired hadn't affected him in the slightest.