Chapter 448: Women Are Such a Pain

Chapter 448: Chapter 448: Women Are Such a Pain

Originally, Orochimaru hadn’t believed that the sudden appearance of a member of Kamigami was simply to rescue Yuhi Kurenai.

After all, Kurenai was merely an ordinary Konoha shinobi. There was no reason for Kamigami to go to such lengths just to save her.

But after seeing Kagami desperately protecting Kurenai, even Orochimaru began to have doubts.

"Could this simply be Furin’s personal action, completely unrelated to Kamigami? And unrelated to the Totsuka Blade as well?"

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to Orochimaru.

Perhaps Furin of Kamigami actually knew Yuhi Kurenai, and there was some sort of relationship between the two of them.

Within the forest.

Countless trees continued growing wildly, relentlessly twisting and winding toward Kagami.

Although he hacked them apart with all his strength, the space available for him to dodge and maneuver was still being compressed little by little.

Kurenai wanted to help, but the residual poison in her body had yet to clear. She couldn’t muster any strength, much less refine chakra.

Seeing several branches coil around Kurenai and begin dragging her beyond the area he could control, Kagami cursed inwardly,

"Women are such a pain!"

Immediately, he clenched his right fist and violently pulled it toward himself.

A mass of black Iron Sand instantly transformed into a gigantic hand, seized Kurenai, and ripped her free from the entangling branches.

Just then, within the field of vision of his Byakugan, Kagami suddenly spotted the reanimation body of the Second Hokage nearby.

The Second Hokage was hanging upside down beneath a twisted tree trunk, his hands slowly forming seals.

"That’s—"

Hyuga Kagami’s gaze sharpened.

He immediately shouted,

"Crap!"

While developing his Water Release clone, Kagami had studied a vast number of Water Style techniques. So he quickly recognized the technique the Second Hokage’s reanimated body was preparing to unleash.

It was the extraordinarily destructive S-rank Water Style technique—

Water Style: Water Severing Wave!

Shing—!

With a crisp sound, a torrent of water erupted from the Second Hokage’s mouth.

Compressed by extremely dense Water-natured chakra, the torrent was condensed into a stream of water barely as thick as a finger. Like a razor-sharp water blade, it effortlessly sliced through every tree standing in its path and shot straight toward Kagami and Kurenai!

Kagami’s figure flickered.

Without the slightest hesitation, he placed himself directly in front of Kurenai.

Against a ninjutsu of this caliber, even the slightest graze would leave Kurenai either dead or severely wounded. And in her current physical condition, there was no chance she could dodge it.

So Kagami could only choose to take the attack with his own body.

After all, this was only a clone.

Unaware of that fact, Kurenai stared blankly at Kagami’s back as he shielded her.

In that fleeting instant, something deep within her heart seemed to have been suddenly stirred.

Hisssss—!

The compressed stream of water struck the massive Iron Sand shield protecting Kagami like a razor blade, producing an ear-piercing screech that made one’s eardrums ache.

And almost the very instant that shrill sound rang out—

the massive Iron Sand shield was sliced cleanly in half!

After cutting through the Iron Sand shield, the torrent didn’t lose even the slightest bit of momentum.

It carved a brilliant arc through the air—

and slashed straight toward Kagami!

"What!?"

Kagami had already expected that the iron shield temporarily formed through Magnet Release wouldn’t be able to stop the Second Hokage’s Water Style: Water Severing Wave.

But he had never imagined—

that the shield wouldn’t even slow it down in the slightest!

Swish!

The high-pressure stream swept across Kagami’s body.

Crack!

The mask on Kagami’s face, emblazoned with a raging-wind pattern, shattered on impact, its fragments scattering across the ground.

Not only that, the black cloak with gold trim draped over his body was sliced open by a long gash, and beneath the cloak, blood poured freely from the wound!

"Huff... huff..."

Half-crouching on the ground, Kagami lowered his head and breathed heavily.

His long, grayish-white hair hung down, concealing his face.

Behind him, Kurenai was already completely at a loss. Seeing Kagami’s chest drenched in blood, she hurriedly cried,

"Forget about me! Hurry up and run! No one can stand against the First and Second Hokage together!"

After taking several heavy breaths, Kagami said in a deep voice,

"Shut up. Stay behind me and don’t move!"

With that, he stood back up and yanked Kurenai behind him.

Although he looked utterly miserable at the moment, covered in blood from head to toe, his injuries were actually nothing more than flesh wounds.

That was because the Water Style: Water Severing Wave just now hadn’t damaged his internal organs at all.

The entire attack had been stopped by the layer of bone membrane he had created using his Shikotsumyaku. At most, it had merely sliced through the flesh across his chest. The wound itself was fairly large and had bled quite heavily, which was why it looked so severe from the outside.

"Orochimaru, don’t force me to use the Shikotsumyaku...

"Otherwise, I might not be able to stop myself from killing you!"

After silently cursing Orochimaru, Kagami used his Byakugan to locate him.

The reanimated bodies of the First and Second Hokage were effectively immortal. No matter how many times they were destroyed, they could simply regenerate on the spot.

Unless Kagami dealt with them using Truth-Seeking Balls or fuinjutsu, there was essentially no way to put them down for good.

As for Truth-Seeking Balls, there was no point even considering them.

The Type-A Wind Release clone Kagami was currently controlling simply couldn’t produce them.

As for fuinjutsu, it wasn’t as though just any fuinjutsu could deal with the reanimated bodies of the First and Second Hokage.

In the original timeline, when the Third Hokage faced this exact situation, the technique he ultimately resorted to was the mutually destructive Dead Demon Consuming Seal!

From this, it was clear that the battle-hardened Third Hokage had already determined that ordinary fuinjutsu were ineffective against the reanimated bodies of the First and Second Hokage. Only a top-tier fuinjutsu like the Dead Demon Consuming Seal could truly resolve the situation.

If it were only a one-on-one fight, Kagami was confident enough to try using the Four Symbols Seal.

But fighting two opponents at once while also having a troublesome burden beside him?

Trying to use the Four Symbols Seal against the reanimated bodies of both the First and Second Hokage under those circumstances was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Just then—

the surroundings suddenly plunged into darkness.

It was as though every trace of light had been swallowed away in an instant.

Kurenai exclaimed,

"What’s happening?!"

Kagami quickly recalled a technique from his memory.

A genjutsu known as the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.

However, this wasn’t much of a problem for someone possessing a high-purity Byakugan like him. Within his Byakugan’s field of vision, the surroundings had merely become somewhat darker.

Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!

Using the darkness as cover, the surrounding trees surged toward them all at once!

Seeing the seemingly endless mass of trees about to completely engulf Kurenai, Kagami could only helplessly bring his hands together.

Clap!

With the crisp sound of his palms striking together, the Magnet Release chakra within Kagami suddenly surged!

All of the black Iron Sand rapidly converged, transforming into thick, sturdy steel bars.

Within the span of a breath—

an iron cage had been constructed around Kurenai!

The cage completely enclosed her, blocking the trees surging in from every direction.

Inside the iron cage, surrounded by darkness so absolute that she couldn’t even see her own hand in front of her face, Kurenai felt around blindly and called out,

"Hey! Where are you?"

But there was no response from Kagami.

All she could hear was the incessant—

rustle... rustle...

—of the trees shifting around her.

Having committed all of his Iron Sand to protecting Kurenai, Kagami was left completely exposed.

And in only a single instant—

the endless mass of trees swallowed him whole, wrapping around his body layer after layer after layer.

Trapped beneath layer after layer of tightly entwined trees, Kagami curled his lips and grumbled inwardly,

"What rotten luck. If I’d known things would turn out like this, why the hell didn’t I bring more Iron Sand before leaving home?!"