Just as in the anime, the shinobis of the Land of Swamps began to undergo horrifying mutations.
Kiyohara remembered that insects infused with the power of Moryo lived inside their bodies. If those parasites were pulled out and devoured, the host would undergo an even greater transformation, becoming an even more terrifying monster.
At the same time, their strength would increase severalfold.
"Kill."
At that moment, Yomi calmly gave the order.
He was Moryo's most devoted follower.
The instant his words fell, those twisted figures rushed into the crowd like streaks of black lightning.
An Iwagakure chunin failed to react in time before being seized by a shinobi whose arm had grotesquely mutated.
The enormous arm tightened violently.
Crack!
The Iwagakure chunin let out a miserable scream as his bones shattered. His entire body was flung through the air before smashing heavily into a massive boulder. Blood exploded everywhere.
Stone warrior puppets surged down the hillside in overwhelming numbers.
"Engage the enemy!"
Minato's voice rang across the battlefield.
His figure flashed.
In the next instant, he had already appeared before one of the Land of Swamps shinobis.
A Rasengan condensed within his palm before slamming directly into the enemy's chest.
Boom!
The shinobi was blasted backward, a huge spiraling crater caved into his chest.
Yet only a second later...
He stood back up.
The flesh around the wound rapidly writhed as purple-black muscles regenerated at astonishing speed.
He slowly raised his head.
Inside those pitch-black eye sockets, there wasn't the slightest trace of emotion.
"These things..."
Minato frowned slightly.
"Their regeneration has become much stronger."
Kakashi moved swiftly through the battlefield while summoning Yamamaru to fight alongside him.
His three tomoe Sharingan spun rapidly, capturing every movement made by the Land of Swamps shinobis.
However, it did not take long before he noticed something unusual.
The chakra flowing through their bodies was completely abnormal.
Something...
Something inside them was continuously supplying them with chakra.
Kakashi frowned.
Behind the front line, Kurenai formed a series of hand seals.
Demonic Illusion: Sound Bind!
Invisible yin chakra spread outward from her mouth like rippling waves, engulfing the advancing enemies.
But their movements only paused for the briefest instant.
The next second, Kurenai tightened her grip around Red Moon.
The crimson eyeball embedded within the guard slowly rotated.
Slash!
The blade flashed.
It cut across one of the enemy shinobi's necks, slicing deep into flesh.
Countless purple-black tentacles suddenly burst from inside the man's body, wrapping tightly around the blade.
Kurenai's pupils contracted.
She pulled with all her strength.
Yet the sword refused to move.
The countless tentacles had bound it completely.
Just then, a figure rushed over from the side.
"Kurenai!"
Rin's voice echoed out.
Her hands rapidly formed seals.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!
A gigantic water dragon condensed from the surrounding moisture before roaring toward the enemy.
Boom!
The mutated shinobi was blasted backward.
The tentacles restraining Red Moon were severed by the rushing torrent.
Kurenai immediately pulled her sword free before retreating several steps.
"Thank you."
"Be careful."
Rin stood beside her.
Her brown eyes remained filled with vigilance.
The two women swept their gazes across the battlefield.
The situation looked extremely grim.
Although the number of Land of Swamps shinobis was not large, every single one of them was incredibly difficult to kill.
Ordinary jutsu only left shallow wounds.
Those injuries healed almost immediately.
The terracotta warriors were even more troublesome.
Every time they were smashed apart, the scattered clay would wriggle back together and reconstruct itself.
No matter how many were destroyed...
More simply stood back up.
Already, over a dozen shinobi from the Five Great Nations had fallen.
Some had been torn apart by the mutated Land of Swamps shinobis.
Others had disappeared beneath endless waves of terracotta soldiers, never rising again.
"Damn it!"
Gari's voice came from another side of the battlefield.
His hands rapidly formed seals as chakra surged violently.
Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!
His fist smashed into the ground.
BOOOM!
A violent explosion erupted.
Several nearby terracotta warriors were blown into countless fragments.
Clay shards scattered in every direction.
Yet only moments later...
Those fragments began writhing.
They reassembled themselves.
In the blink of an eye, fully restored terracotta warriors once again stood before him.
Gari's brows knitted tightly together.
"These things..."
Standing beside him, Mei also formed hand seals.
Water Release: Water Prison Technique!
A massive sphere of water materialized instantly, trapping one of the Land of Swamps shinobis inside.
The shinobi struggled desperately.
But no matter how hard he fought, he could not escape.
Mei stepped backward several paces.
A solemn expression appeared within her emerald eyes.
Just then...
One of the Land of Swamps shinobis suddenly began convulsing violently.
Something beneath his skin wriggled frantically.
The bulging masses tore through his flesh before forcing their way outside.
Countless purple-black tentacles erupted from his body.
Each one was as thick as an arm.
Their surfaces were coated in slimy mucus and covered with vicious barbs.
They crawled out through his eyes.
His mouth.
His ears.
Within only a few breaths...
The shinobi himself had completely disappeared.
All that remained was a horrifying mass of writhing tentacles that resembled a grotesque blooming flower.
Then...
The tentacles began gathering together.
They twisted around one another.
Compressing.
Merging.
Fusing.
In the blink of an eye...
An entirely new body emerged.
It possessed the outline of a human figure.
Yet its entire body was covered in purple-black scales.
Several thick tentacles extended from its back like enormous tails, slowly swaying behind it.
Its face possessed no eyes.
No nose.
No mouth.
Only a smooth plate of scales.
Yet beneath those scales, one could faintly make out the distorted outline of a human face.
That face...
Belonged to the very shinobi who had transformed moments earlier.
"This is..."
Minato's voice carried unmistakable shock.
"They've absorbed Moryo's chakra. They're no longer normal humans."
Miroku's voice sounded nearby.
She had been observing the battlefield the entire time.
Ever since ancient times, countless people had coveted Moryo's power.
Because of that, Miroku knew exactly what the power of Moryo was capable of.
Yes, it could make someone dramatically stronger.
But the price was becoming completely controlled by Moryo.
As she spoke, one of the newly transformed monsters charged toward a Sunagakure chunin.
One of its enormous tentacles swept horizontally.
The Sand shinobi had no time to react.
Bang!
The tentacle struck him directly.
His body shot backward before crashing into a dead tree.
The trunk snapped instantly.
A massive crater collapsed into his chest.
Blood poured continuously from his mouth.
He struggled twice.
Then...
He fell completely silent.
Everyone stared at the monster.
At the creature that had once been human.
A chill rose uncontrollably from the depths of every heart.
"Damn it..."
Gari gritted his teeth.
"This thing..."
His eyes swept over the battlefield.
The endless terracotta stone warriors.
The countless Land of Swamps shinobis.
Perhaps his Explosion Release could eliminate some of them.
But it could never destroy all of them.
He simply did not possess that much chakra.
Before long, more and more Land of Swamps shinobis completed their transformations.
Nearly every one of these monsters possessed the combat power of a jonin.
Some individuals had even reached the level of elite jonin.
Soon, miserable screams echoed repeatedly across the battlefield.
The battle had begun tilting entirely to one side.
Kiyohara quietly observed the monsters before him.
Moryo truly was stronger than most movie villains.
With forces like these alone, the Land of Swamps could easily conquer the neighboring countries.
If the number of terracotta warriors and mutated shinobis continued increasing...
Even the Five Great Nations would eventually find themselves overwhelmed.
Which meant...
If Moryo wasn't dealt with today...
There would be endless trouble in the future.
'In the original anime, Miroku simply decapitated him. Once Moryo was sealed away, these shinobis of Land of Swamps and terracotta warriors lost the source of their power and became harmless.'
Kiyohara thought silently.
"In that case..."
"It's time for me to make my move."
He took a deep breath until his chest expanded fully.
Then he lifted his head toward the sky.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
Scarlet flames erupted violently from his mouth, soaring straight into the heavens.
Wherever the flames passed, the surrounding air twisted from the intense heat.
Like an inverted fire dragon, they rushed upward into the rolling sea of clouds.
Heat spread outward in every direction.
The rising hot air collided with the freezing atmosphere high above.
Within moments...
A massive thundercloud formed directly over everyone's heads.
The clouds were as black as ink.
Faint blue arcs of lightning flickered endlessly within them.
The Daimyo of the Land of Swamps looked upward.
Confusion appeared upon his cold face.
What was Kiyohara doing?
Why was that shinobi attacking the sky instead of the enemies on the ground?
Baki's kunai froze halfway through its swing.
For a moment, he wondered whether enemies were hiding in the clouds.
Mei also glanced toward Kiyohara.
She somehow had the feeling...
That this guy was about to unleash another bizarre ninjutsu.
Kakashi suddenly remembered something.
Back during the Kumogakure front, Kiyohara had captured a Cloud shinobi alive.
That shinobi specialized in an extremely rare Lightning Release technique capable of drawing down natural lightning.
At the time, Kiyohara had only mentioned it casually.
Kakashi had not paid much attention.
'Could it be...'
A thought flashed through his mind.
Was Kiyohara planning to do the same thing?
Sure enough...
Kiyohara formed a seal with one hand.
"Lightning Release..."
After completing the seal, he raised his right arm high into the air.
Then he swung it downward.
"Kirin!"
BOOOM!!
A bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down from the depths of the storm clouds.
The thunderbolt was so enormous that it resembled a gigantic silver-blue Kirin.
Its entire body was wrapped in blinding arcs of electricity.
It descended from the black clouds at a speed that surpassed sound itself, piercing through heaven and earth!
An explosion of white light erupted.
For one brief instant...
Everyone's vision was swallowed by blinding radiance.
Nothing remained except the deafening ringing in their ears.
When everyone's sight finally recovered...
The scene before them caused every single person to gasp.
Across the battlefield...
The endless army of terracotta warriors now lay scattered in every direction.
Their clay bodies were covered in charred black cracks.
Some had shattered completely into countless broken fragments.
As for the monsters transformed from the Land of Swamps shinobis...
Their condition was even more horrifying.
The purple-black flesh covering their bodies had been ripped apart by the lightning, exposing charred bones and blackened internal organs beneath.
The severed tentacles scattered across the ground, still twitching faintly as though they retained a life of their own.
"AAAAAH!"
The Daimyo of the Land of Swamps let out a shrill, agonized scream.
His entire body was engulfed by lightning.
Blackened burn marks rapidly spread across every inch of his exposed skin.
His body convulsed violently.
For the first time, genuine terror appeared upon that once cold and sinister face.
Purple-black mist began pouring from inside his body.
The fog spread rapidly, surrounding him completely before condensing into the shape of an enormous dragon-like monster.
It was none other than...
Moryo's true form.
Using the Daimyo of the Land of Swamps as a vessel, it had finally manifested in the physical world.
"Moryo has come out."
Miroku frowned, already prepared to act at any moment.
A priestess's fuinjutsu sealing techniques naturally possessed overwhelming suppressive power against Moryo.
"What... what kind of jutsu is that?"
Her brows remained tightly furrowed.
Mei suddenly realized something.
Kiyohara had grown stronger again.
And not by a small margin.
"The area of destruction caused by that attack... it's even greater than my Explosion Release."
Gari stared at the battlefield ahead.
The terracotta warriors that had been shattered by the lightning were already beginning to slowly regenerate.
At that moment, the Three Tails' chakra sealed within Rin suddenly rippled.
The tremendous power sleeping inside the seal seemed to have been awakened by something and began stirring ever so slightly.
Although the Three Tails could neither see the outside world nor hear what was happening...
It vaguely sensed a burst of chakra.
And somehow...
That chakra felt strangely familiar.
Why does it carry the aura of the Sage's son?
The Three Tails was puzzled.
The sensation was incredibly faint.
It vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.
It had merely sensed the sudden burst of chakra a moment earlier.
"Rin?"
Kakashi noticed something unusual about her.
Rin shook her head.
"I'm fine..."
She forcibly suppressed the restless Tailed Beast chakra inside her body.
High above the battlefield...
The purple-black mist dragon coiled through the sky.
Its enormous head lowered slightly as it looked down upon the tiny humans beneath it.
Then...
Its gaze landed upon Kiyohara.
Within those eyes formed entirely from mist, a trace of curiosity flashed.
"An interesting human."
Moryo finally spoke.
At that very instant...
A streak of golden light flashed in from the side.
Minato appeared directly above Moryo.
In his right hand, an enormous blue sphere spun at terrifying speed.
Giant Rasengan!
"Hah!"
Minato slammed the massive chakra sphere downward with all his strength.
BOOOM!
Blue light exploded across the sky.
Shockwaves spread in every direction.
The Giant Rasengan tore an enormous gash straight through Moryo's dragon body.
Purple-black mist scattered everywhere.
Minato landed back on the ground before looking upward.
The massive wound...
Was healing.
Purple-black mist continuously flowed in from every direction, filling the enormous crack.
Within only a few breaths...
The wound had completely disappeared.
The dragon's body had returned to perfect condition.
"It's useless."
Moryo laughed wildly.
"As long as my chakra remains..."
"My body can never be destroyed."
Its massive tail swept violently across the battlefield.
Minato disappeared in a golden flash.
The dragon tail passed straight through the afterimage he left behind before crashing into the earth.
BOOM!
An enormous crater exploded open.
Minato reappeared over fifty meters away before raising his head once more.
This creature's regenerative ability...
Was even stronger than he had anticipated.
"Its regenerative ability is extraordinary."
Minato spoke quietly.
There was a trace of regret in his voice.
Unlike many others, Minato possessed very few large-scale destructive techniques.
His combat style had always revolved around precise single-target elimination.
Like an assassin.
Strike once.
Withdraw immediately.
"We can suppress it first."
Kiyohara calmly addressed Minato.
The instant those words fell...
His body began to change.
Golden chakra erupted from within him.
It gathered around his body.
Condensed.
Solidified.
The first thing to appear was a set of golden ribs, gradually forming around him in midair.
Then came the spine.
Then the outlines of both arms.
A gigantic golden skeleton completely enveloped Kiyohara's body.
Susanoo!
"!"
Miroku's pupils contracted immediately.
This...
This was exactly what she had seen in her dream!
"What... is this?"
Baki had never seen a technique like this before.
Wasn't Kiyohara only capable of transforming into the Eight-Headed Serpent?
What in the world was this now?
Was this another ability shared by the Uchiha Clan?
Baki had always believed this was Shisui's personal technique.
After all, many people knew Shisui could transform into a gigantic green warrior.
Yet now...
Kiyohara had become a golden one!
"What exactly is this technique called?"
Kurenai asked curiously while using a wind jutsu to scatter apart the terracotta warriors that were attempting to regenerate.
"Susanoo."
Tsunade answered.
Each of her punches obliterated entire groups of terracotta warriors.
Since the stone soldiers did not bleed...
She could fight without any hesitation.
"So that's its name..."
Kurenai nodded thoughtfully.
"That's right."
As Hashirama's granddaughter and the princess of the Senju Clan...
Tsunade knew this technique better than almost anyone.
This legendary power of the Uchiha Clan...
Could only be used by those who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
But...
When had Kiyohara awakened his?
That was the question occupying Tsunade's thoughts.
Still...
None of that mattered now.
The golden skeleton continued evolving.
Meridians formed over the bones.
Then muscles and flesh.
Finally...
An enormous suit of armor covered the entire body.
The gigantic Susanoo slowly raised its right arm.
Its colossal golden hand descended toward the battlefield.
BOOOM!
The earth trembled violently.
Several nearby monsters were struck directly.
Their bodies exploded into countless fragments the instant the giant hand landed.
Kiyohara controlled Susanoo as it stepped forward.
With every step...
Susanoo became increasingly solid.
More bones rapidly formed.
The spine extended downward.
The waist took shape.
Then...
Two complete legs emerged.
In the blink of an eye...
The golden skeletal warrior that had previously possessed only an upper body now stood fully upright upon the earth.
Susanoo's Fourth Form!
Kiyohara's position shifted from the giant's abdomen to its head.
At the same time...
A golden sword materialized within Susanoo's hand.
Generally speaking, every Susanoo wielded its own unique chakra weapon.
Madara's was a massive longsword.
Sasuke's took the form of a bow.
Kiyohara's weapon was likewise a sword.
However...
It was a double-edged blade.
"Haa..."
Kiyohara slowly exhaled.
Originally, he had only intended to use the third stage of Susanoo, merely covering the skeletal frame with armor.
However...
Perhaps because his mastery had improved...
Or perhaps because of Asura's chakra...
He discovered that maintaining Susanoo no longer placed such an overwhelming burden upon his body.
And so...
He naturally advanced into this form.
"Now..."
Kiyohara's voice echoed from inside Susanoo.
"It's my turn."
He slowly extended his hand.
Susanoo mirrored the movement.
The enormous golden chakra hand reached out.
Then...
It seized Moryo's gigantic dragon body.
Moryo's entire body suddenly stiffened.
But the golden hand gripped far too tightly.
The purple-black mist making up Moryo's body began collapsing beneath the overwhelming pressure exerted by the golden chakra.
"You...!"
For the first time...
True panic filled Moryo's voice.
It opened its dragon jaws.
A sphere of violet light rapidly condensed within its throat.
Kiyohara gave it no opportunity to release the attack.
Instead...
His other hand clenched into a fist.
Then...
He punched downward.
BOOOM!
Purple-black mist exploded outward.
Moryo's entire body shook violently.
The energy gathering within its throat instantly dispersed.
The enormous golden fist continued raining down.
Every punch tore open another massive crack across Moryo's dragon body.
Whenever one wound attempted to regenerate...
The next fist had already descended.
Everyone could only stand there...
Heads tilted upward...
Silently staring at that colossal golden giant.
Watching it punch the once invincible purple-black mist dragon over and over again.
"Th... this..."
Gari's voice trembled.
He could no longer find the words.
At this moment...
Moryo looked less like an ancient monster and more like a slippery eel trapped inside the golden giant's grasp.
"Human!"
Moryo's voice echoed from within the giant golden hand.
By now, it had already been beaten to the point where it could no longer resist.
Its purple-black dragon body continuously collapsed before reconstructing itself inside Susanoo's palm.
"We can work together!"
Its voice became strangely alluring.
"My power combined with yours..."
"We could establish an empire that would endure for a thousand years!"
"We could make the entire world kneel beneath our feet!"
"Eternal life!"
"Supreme authority!"
"Whatever you desire..."
"I can give it to you!"
Kiyohara's movements paused ever so slightly.
Joy surged through Moryo's heart.
There was hope!
Had the human been tempted?
Unfortunately for it...
Another punch came crashing down.
BOOM!
The golden fist smashed directly into Moryo's dragon head.
The impact drove its entire body violently into the ground.
The earth split apart.
A gigantic crater instantly formed beneath it.
"I don't need it."
Kiyohara answered calmly.
Moryo could keep its empty promises for itself.
Kiyohara was already looking forward to eliminating Moryo, returning afterward to obtain the History of Warring States Seals, and finally inheriting the complete power of Asura's chakra.
(End of Chapter)