Chapter 243: Assessment

Chapter 243: Chapter 243: Assessment

Without wasting time wrestling with the octopus tails, Hyuga Kagami immediately controlled his Susanoo, pulling one arm back to protect his front.

But at that very moment, the Fourth Raikage shot through the opening beneath the Susanoo’s massive arm like a streak of blue lightning. Taking advantage of the brief gap before the arm could return to defend, he slammed a fist straight into the Susanoo’s chest.

Crack...

With a crisp sound, the chest of Hyuga Kagami’s Susanoo began shattering inch by inch!

The Fourth Raikage didn’t let up. Planting himself firmly, he threw another devastating punch, smashing it directly into the Susanoo’s already fracture-covered chest!

BOOM...

Amid a thunderous explosion, the Fourth Raikage completely shattered the front of the Susanoo. His figure flashed as he charged straight inside it, leaping high into the air and roaring at Hyuga Kagami,

"Die!"

Hyuga Kagami’s expression tightened, utterly speechless inside.

He hadn’t expected the Raikage to be this reckless. Relying purely on the brute force granted by his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, the man had actually smashed through the front of his Susanoo and forced his way inside!

Just as the Fourth Raikage’s lightning-wreathed fist was about to strike Hyuga Kagami, a mass of black Iron Sand spread through the air like a curtain, wrapping around the Raikage while he was still airborne.

At the same time, Hyuga Kagami rapidly retreated, forcing the Fourth Raikage, who had been temporarily restrained by the Iron Sand, back outside the Susanoo. Simultaneously, he activated the unique Mangekyo Sharingan ocular ability of these eyes—Mikoto.

"ROAR!"

In an instant, the enormous Susanoo unleashed a soul-shaking roar!

Immediately afterward, the golden flames covering the Susanoo’s entire body seemed to come alive. Clusters of golden fire converged within the Susanoo’s hands, forming two dazzling longswords of golden flame.

Without the slightest hesitation, Hyuga Kagami controlled the Susanoo and swung both flaming swords at the Fourth Raikage.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A series of explosions thundered across the battlefield, sending clouds of dust billowing into the sky.

"Did I hit him?"

Even with the Mangekyo Sharingan, Hyuga Kagami couldn’t see clearly through such a dense cloud of dust.

When the dust finally dispersed, Hyuga Kagami saw only two enormous sword trenches before him. The Fourth Raikage had already retreated into the distance, with traces of black Iron Sand still faintly clinging to his body.

At that moment, the Third Kazekage human puppet said, "The Lightning Release chakra surrounding his body is too intense. It interfered with my Magnet Release."

Hyuga Kagami nodded.

Magnet Release was a Kekkei Genkai formed by the fusion of Wind-nature and Lightning-nature chakra. Therefore, when confronted with Lightning Release chakra as powerful as the Fourth Raikage’s, it was inevitable that Magnet Release would be affected to some extent.

And this was despite the Third Kazekage human puppet using Tenseigan chakra. If it had been using ordinary chakra, the interference would probably have been even greater.

The Raikage brushed the remaining Iron Sand from his body and surveyed the golden flames scattered across the surroundings, each one blazing fiercely. His expression grew noticeably more solemn than before.

Just now, he had nearly been struck by the golden flaming swords of Hyuga Kagami’s Susanoo. Facing a Mangekyo Sharingan Kekkei Genkai wielder and a Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai wielder at the same time, even he had no choice but to become more cautious.

At the same time, Hyuga Kagami was also assessing the Fourth Raikage’s strength.

In terms of speed alone, the Fourth Raikage was no slower than Kagami while he was in Tenseigan Chakra Mode. So even if Kagami’s true body were here in person, there would still be a possibility of things going horribly wrong against the Fourth Raikage.

That was simply how the shinobi world worked—offensive power was generally high, while defensive ability was comparatively weak.

Because of that, even Six Paths-level powerhouses faced risks that could not be ignored when confronting taijutsu specialists who had pushed their physical abilities to the extreme, such as the Fourth Raikage or Guy.

"With this kind of speed and strength, even if the Third Hokage were here, I doubt he could handle him reliably!"

Hyuga Kagami had previously fought the Third Hokage using his Ice Release clone. Although he knew that the Third Hokage had not gone all out at the time, based on the information he had gathered, Kagami still felt that the now-elderly Third Hokage was probably no match for the Fourth Raikage, who was still in the prime of his physical strength.

Of course, the main reason was that a speed-oriented nintaijutsu shinobi like the Fourth Raikage, who simply overwhelmed opponents through sheer, unreasonable speed, was an extremely bad matchup for a technique-oriented ninjutsu shinobi like the Third Hokage.

By Hyuga Kagami’s estimation, aside from himself, the only person in the village who could probably match the Fourth Raikage was Jiraiya in Sage Mode. As for everyone else, regardless of who they were, victory was far from certain.

"Good thing we had the Fourth back then!"

That thought suddenly flashed through Hyuga Kagami’s mind.

If the Fourth Hokage hadn’t held off Kumogakure’s A–B Combo during the Third Shinobi World War, the war would probably have dragged on for much longer. And once Konoha began running short of manpower on the front lines, even with Orochimaru protecting him, Hyuga Kagami would likely have been forced onto the battlefield as cannon fodder.

It could be said that the Fourth Hokage’s existence had saved the lives of countless shinobi in the village. Perhaps that was also why he had been able to surpass the Three Legendary Sannin and convince the Third Hokage to relinquish the Hokage’s seat to him.

"Cough, cough..."

At that moment, Hyuga Kagami could no longer completely suppress the surging blood and chakra within his body and coughed heavily several times. He immediately thought to himself, "This clone is almost at its limit. I can’t keep dragging this fight out!"

Having made up his mind, Hyuga Kagami once again drove his Susanoo into action, swinging the two flaming longswords in its hands toward the Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails’ jinchuriki, Killer B.

BOOM...

BOOM...

BOOM...

In an instant, the entire forest was engulfed by explosions and thunderous roars!

Some of the trees in the forest were sliced cleanly in half, while others were completely uprooted and sent flying. Sword trenches over a meter deep crisscrossed the ground as clouds of dust filled the air!

As Hyuga Kagami’s Susanoo continued its rampage, clusters of golden flames ignited nearly all the surrounding trees. With thick smoke billowing upward and dust blanketing the area, it wasn’t long before the surroundings grew considerably darker.

Taking advantage of the obscured visibility, Hyuga Kagami, coughing up blood, flipped onto the back of the Third Kazekage human puppet and ordered, "Go!"

The Third Kazekage human puppet immediately activated Magnet Release, carrying Hyuga Kagami back into the sky.

Even after taking to the air, Hyuga Kagami didn’t lower his guard. He continued maintaining his Susanoo and hurled the golden flaming swords gathered in its hands down toward the ground, attempting to suppress the Fourth Raikage and Killer B with an unrelenting barrage of attacks.

Hyuga Kagami had his reasons for going to such lengths.

After transplanting Uchiha Ryota’s Mangekyo Sharingan, he discovered that while using this clone body to wield the eyes, he simply could not manifest a Complete Body Susanoo no matter what he did. Even when he pushed both Mangekyo Sharingan ocular abilities—Susanoo and Mikoto—to their absolute limits, it still wasn’t possible.

And a Susanoo that had not reached its Complete Body form did not possess the ability to fly.

That was precisely why, this time, Hyuga Kagami had taken the risk of bringing the Third Kazekage human puppet out of his secret laboratory...