Chapter 387: Another Mangekyō Sharingan?

Chapter 387: Chapter 387: Another Mangekyō Sharingan?

"One... two... three..."

Listening to the several faint footsteps coming from the passageway, the Fourth Mizukage immediately became alert.

Before entering the lounge, he had already given instructions to his subordinates. Under normal circumstances, no one should have come to disturb him at this time.

"Enemies?"

Picking up the iron hook beside him, the Fourth Mizukage rose to his feet with a gloomy expression.

If his subordinates were coming to report some sudden incident in the village, their footsteps would never be this light and restrained. So the three people in the passageway were, in all likelihood, enemies who had come with hostile intentions.

With a flicker of his figure, the Fourth Mizukage rushed out of the lounge.

The humiliation and pent-up frustration from having been controlled by Akatsuki were still weighing heavily on his heart. Right now, he was itching to find someone to vent his fury on.

If someone was delivering themselves straight to his doorstep, he couldn’t have asked for anything better!

Whoosh...

A moment later, accompanied by the sound of rushing wind, the Fourth Mizukage intercepted the three figures in the passageway.

He held his iron hook horizontally before him as surging killing intent and towering rage poured from his body. He was like a starving, irritable beast prowling for prey to fill its belly.

However, when he clearly saw that all three people before him were dressed as members of Kamigami, each wearing an identical mask patterned with flames, his expression froze.

"Kamigami!?"

Almost instinctively, the Fourth Mizukage immediately entered his Tailed Beast Transformation!

Having already suffered once before, he knew all too well that in the shinobi world, Kamigami was an enemy every bit as troublesome as Akatsuki. The slightest carelessness could result in him repeating the same humiliation of being toyed with by Akatsuki.

The instant he entered his Tailed Beast Transformation, the Fourth Mizukage roared furiously, "Again!? Do you really think I’m that easy to bully!? The Mizukage isn’t someone you bastards can toy with however you please!"

Once cloaked in a Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak, the Fourth Mizukage could become immune to the vast majority of taijutsu and ninjutsu damage. Moreover, being enveloped in such dense Tailed Beast chakra could itself resist genjutsu that relied primarily on chakra transmission.

Therefore, he was confident that this time, he would teach his opponents a lesson and make everyone understand that the Mizukage was not someone to be trifled with!

Fwoosh...

Yet the moment the Fourth Mizukage finished speaking, black flames suddenly ignited across his body!

"Fire Release?"

The Fourth Mizukage paid it no mind. The corner of his mouth curled upward into a disdainful sneer.

In his eyes, using a Fire Release ninjutsu against him—the Mizukage—was an act of stupidity beyond comprehension. He could barely resist mocking them for it.

But the black flames rapidly spread.

In the blink of an eye, they had engulfed the Fourth Mizukage’s entire body.

"AAAAARGH!!!"

In an instant, an excruciating burning sensation tore through the Fourth Mizukage.

In that brief moment, he felt as though his entire body had been completely scorched. The Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak that had always served him so well seemed utterly useless this time, completely incapable of protecting his body from the black flames.

"What kind of Fire Release is this...!? How can this be!?"

Gritting his teeth, the Fourth Mizukage forced himself upright and opened his mouth, preparing to condense a Tailed Beast Ball.

In such a narrow passageway, there was nowhere for his opponents to dodge. As long as he could unleash this Tailed Beast Ball, he believed that, at the very least, he could take them down with him. And even if he couldn’t, the resulting commotion would draw the village’s attention!

But just then, his vision suddenly lit up.

A golden phantom projected outward from the body of one of the Kamigami members before him. It rapidly expanded, transforming into a colossal golden giant in the span of a few breaths!

"Susanoo!?"

"Another Mangekyō Sharingan!?"

"Another Uchiha!?"

A jumble of thoughts flooded the Fourth Mizukage’s mind all at once.

BOOM!

Before the Fourth Mizukage could recover from his shock, the newly formed golden giant suddenly swung both hands down and smashed them into him!

At that moment, he felt as though an entire mountain had crashed down upon him.

Even in his Tailed Beast Transformation, with his physical strength and durability multiplied several times over, the blow still left him completely dazed. The Tailed Beast Ball gathering inside his mouth was forcibly interrupted as a result.

"Damn Uchiha..."

Cursing under his breath, the Fourth Mizukage tried to climb back to his feet, only to discover that the golden giant’s two hands had him firmly pinned against the ground.

He couldn’t move at all.

And the black flames had already engulfed him completely from head to toe.

"Damn it..."

The standoff didn’t last long.

Under the relentless burning of the black flames, the Fourth Mizukage gradually lost consciousness and, filled with unwillingness, finally passed out.

At that moment, Hyuga Kagami calmly said, "All right. Extinguish Amaterasu."

At Kagami’s command, Itachi immediately extinguished the Amaterasu burning across the Fourth Mizukage’s body. He then slowly deactivated his Mangekyō Sharingan, his three-bladed pupils returning to their ordinary dark color.

Kagami himself grimaced as he dismissed his Susanoo.

The black flames that had covered the Fourth Mizukage’s entire body had spread all the way onto the arms of Kagami’s Susanoo. Through the transmission of chakra, Kagami had also felt an unbearable burning pain.

So the Fourth Mizukage wasn’t the only one who had gotten a taste of Amaterasu. Kagami, who had activated Susanoo to prevent the Fourth Mizukage from firing a Tailed Beast Ball, had also gotten a firsthand taste of Amaterasu’s power.

Looking at the Fourth Mizukage lying on the ground with wisps of smoke rising from his scorched body, Kagami shook his head.

"What a miserable sight..."

Shisui covered his nose, his expression dark. "He isn’t dead, is he?"

At this point, even the air was filled with the smell of cooked meat.

Itachi replied seriously, "He shouldn’t be. I deliberately avoided his vital areas just now. With the physical constitution of a jinchūriki, this shouldn’t be enough to kill him!"

Kagami walked over and crouched beside the Fourth Mizukage.

Although large portions of his body had been badly burned, just as Itachi had said, none of his vital areas had suffered particularly serious damage. His breathing and heartbeat were also normal.

He had merely lost consciousness for the time being.

"As expected of the strongest flame!"

Kagami couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.

The power of Amaterasu was clearly superior to his golden flames, and on top of that, it possessed the property of never extinguishing on its own. It truly was an exceptional weapon for surprise attacks.

Once someone was struck by it, if they couldn’t take effective countermeasures within an extremely short period of time, then by the time the black flames spread across their entire body, the victim could basically do nothing but remain where they were and wait for death.

In the original timeline, during the final battle between Sasuke and Naruto, Naruto had once countered Sasuke’s Amaterasu by shedding a portion of his Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak.

In other words, trying to withstand Amaterasu head-on was meaningless. The only effective method was isolation.

Whether through physical separation or by using sealing techniques, the principle remained the same—the black flames had to be separated from one’s actual body.

After confirming that the Fourth Mizukage was still alive, Kagami turned toward Shisui and said, "Do it."

Shisui walked over, but hesitation flickered across his face...