Deep blue intertwined with pitch-black patterns!
It was as if a titanic entity was being forcibly pulled from a pocket-sized box!
A deep, malevolent, and searingly hot chakra surged, spiraled, and ascended from Yugito Nii's chest, piercing straight into the heavens! The chains of hatred linked the two figures confronting each other on the battlefield at this moment. There was no room left for negotiation.
Seeing the young junior pierced through by Ren Uchiha's hand, Killer B's teeth ground together with an audible crack. An uncontrollable fury flickered within his hollow, pale eyes.
"Ren. U-chi-ha!"
"I... will... KILL YOU!!"
Driven by the flames of hatred, the full-form Eight-Tails twisted its body and whipped its tails. Its limbs slammed into the earth as its eight tails burrowed deep into the ground to anchor its massive frame.
"—ROAR!!"
The bull-head opened its bloody maw, swallowing the black sphere that had been condensing a terrifying chakra fluctuation! In an instant, the Eight-Tails' body expanded visibly.
Ren immediately recognized the move. The opponent was about to unleash a true "killing blow"—
Continuous Tailed Beast Bombs!
Unlike the Tailed Beast Flash, this technique accumulated the power of the bombs within the full Tailed Beast's body to be fired in rapid succession. It was a weapon of mass destruction that far exceeded the physical limits of a human in partial transformation!
"So this is the power of a true Tailed Beast!"
"This is the power that transcends human limits!"
Facing such overwhelming force, Ren's eyes snapped wide.
At this moment, his chakra was so depleted he could barely maintain his Sharingan. His body was exhausted to the point where he began to gasp for air uncontrollably. To take down a Jinchūriki under the nose of another—and a master like B—he had paid the price of completely draining himself, the Zero-Tails, and the Heaven Cursed Seal.
However, as those crimson eyes began to fade toward black and dim in the shadows, an irrepressible fire ignited within them.
The extreme emotion of facing the fear of death echoed and collided in Ren's heart, causing his very blood to boil.
"Killer B!"
Ren's facial muscles twisted into a savage mask as he suddenly roared:
"You think... you're the only one with this kind of power?!"
The moment his words fell—
A violent gale whipped Ren's black hair!
Blue flames surged around him as a gargantuan entity rose from the earth, lifting him high into the air! The terrifying chakra transformed into unquenchable blue flames, manifesting into the form of the world's most powerful cat-demon beneath Ren's feet!
The moment the beast touched the ground, it moved with lightning speed in response to Ren's roar. Its hind legs coiled like springs and snapped, launching it upward as a blur of blue light!
Shing!
Three cold flashes of light glinted beneath the moonless night! Claws as sharp as divine artifacts unsheathed from its paws! With one swipe, it severed a massive tentacle blocking its path. Then, a heavy "cat punch" slammed upward, connecting squarely with the Eight-Tails' chin!
BOOM!
The Eight-Tails, Gyūki, was knocked back in shock, its head snapping upward. As the Two-Tails, Matatabi, dug its claws into Gyūki's lower jaw, it latched onto the gaps between its teeth and yanked downward!
Clack!
Gyūki's locked jaws were pried open. Immediately following, the terrifying power accumulated within its body erupted toward the sky, transforming into a beam of light that dyed the world bright yellow!
As the beam faded, the cat-demon Matatabi lunged onto Gyūki's body, pinning it to the ground with sheer ferocity. It opened its mouth and let out a bristling, feline roar:
"HAAAA—!!"
However, the Eight-Tails was only dazed for a second before snapping back to its senses. A human-like rage flickered across its face. Swinging a thick arm and using its eight tails to push off the ground for leverage, it delivered a brutal, mountain-shaking punch directly into the Two-Tails' face!
Gyūki possessed a natural advantage in physical combat, and now, supplemented by the Jinchūriki's martial techniques, the punch sent Matatabi tumbling backward nearly three hundred meters!
Fwoosh—
Dust and sand billowed across the battlefield.
"Heh... heh..."
Slumped atop the head of the Two-Tails, Ren gasped for air, struggling to prop himself up. But a brilliant smile spread across his face!
He knew... he had won the gamble!
Once he broke Kumogakure's Iron Armor Seal, the Two-Tails was free to emerge. And a liberated Matatabi would never allow Killer B to fire a point-blank Tailed Beast Bomb directly into its face. Indirectly, it had saved the life of the now-feeble Ren!
Now, two ancient calamities stood at opposite ends of the Valley of Hell, confronting each other. Killer B, in full Eight-Tails form, glared with his pale eyes as he realized what had happened. He hissed in a suppressed, questioning tone:
"Two-Tails... do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
Faced with the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki's question, Matatabi's feline face showed a look of utter disdain, as if the question was too foolish to warrant an answer.
"How pathetic!"
Ren, sitting atop its head, couldn't help but sneer. Killer B's question made it seem as though being a Perfect Jinchūriki for so long had caused him to forget one thing:
The relationship between a Jinchūriki and a Tailed Beast was never one of harmony or friendship. More accurately, they were jailer and prisoner!
To expect a prisoner to empathize with their jailer was a fantasy, especially for a cat-demon as proud as Matatabi.
Thus, Matatabi ignored the furious Killer B. It lowered its head, its gaze falling on Yugito Nii, who lay nearby with a shattered chest, gasping like a fish dying on the shore. Once a Tailed Beast leaves its host, the host's fate is sealed. The girl who was destined to shine in Kumogakure had reached the end of her life.
The beast let out a sigh of "the fox mourning the death of the rabbit."
"Sigh... what a waste. I actually thought this child had great potential."
Hearing this, Ren started to laugh, coldly interrupting the beast.
"Two-Tails, you are the one who personally sent her to her death!"
"A Tailed Beast can temporarily lend its power to a host—don't try to tell me you didn't know that. Of course, if you had stayed in her body and let us both be blown apart by the Tailed Beast Bomb, she'd be dead anyway."
Ren questioned it darkly: "But why didn't you? Why didn't you stay to live and die with the host you 'favored' so much?"
Matatabi's expression turned cold, its gentle voice becoming sharp. "Uchiha brat, you—"
Before it could continue, Ren cut it off again, his voice steady.
"It's because you knew—no matter how hard Yugito Nii tried to empathize with you, you could never understand her! Because you were the one imprisoned!"
"And only I can give you freedom!"
He staggered to his feet atop the Two-Tails' head, huffing and puffing as he spoke plainly:
"Coincidentally, I need you too! Our relationship is exactly like that of a hunted fugitive and an escaped convict!"
Ren turned toward the distant Killer B, his face twisting into a savage grin.
"So, our goals are aligned! Aren't they?"
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