novelhk Chapter 442 Urashiki's Crane Form
Chapter 442 Urashiki's Crane Form
As soon as Jiraiya and young Sasuke's feet touched the relatively intact glazed tiles of the roof on the east side of the stands, the slight vibration under their feet made them both fix their gazes on the roof.
The rooftop was crushed by a dozen or so enormous black cubes, leaving it in ruins.
The rubble piled up like mountains, and the broken branches of giant trees jutted out menacingly like the bones of a dying beast. Thick smoke and dust continued to rise slowly, obscuring the view, but the lingering, violent, and powerful Tailed Beast chakra in the air was like a lighthouse in the darkness.
Young Sasuke looked up, his Rinnegan beneath his slanted bangs turning slightly, the chaotic dust reflected in the purple ripples.
He had experienced countless fierce battles, fought against many Otsutsuki, and witnessed all sorts of incredible abilities. Although he was shocked by the strength that Masaru was showing at this moment, he did not think that Masaru would die so easily.
That effortless, overwhelming style of attack, where he could withstand Urashiki and Jigen's attacks with his immense chakra, was something he could only achieve when fighting alongside Naruto.
"This kind of attack..." Cold sweat beaded on Jiraiya's forehead.
If these things were to fall on Konoha Village... I can't even imagine!
Young Sasuke's voice was low and deep: "That level of attack isn't enough..."
"Hmm." Jiraiya nodded solemnly, his white hair fluttering with a few specks of ash from the cigarette smoke that had drifted over.
Jiraiya glanced at the other side of the ruins out of the corner of his eye.
"Cough cough... That's really... a brutal method."
A mocking voice came from the smoke and dust.
Immediately afterwards, a giant white snake struggled to raise its head from the ruins, opened its huge mouth, and Orochimaru, soaking wet but unharmed, emerged from the snake's mouth.
His golden, vertical pupils swept over the black cubes that had crashed into the ruins with great interest, and he licked his lips.
"A creation made using Yin-Yang Release... can also interfere with space..."
"Interesting...so interesting..."
Jiraiya glared at him angrily.
This bastard with maxed-out survival skills isn't so easy to kill after all!
At that moment, the smoke and dust in the center of the ruins were suddenly stirred up by an invisible force.
Immediately afterwards, a dull creaking sound rang out.
Suddenly, the dozen or so "Great Heavenly Box" cubes, as heavy as mountains, swayed. Then, as if grasped by ten invisible, towering hands, they began to slowly and steadily rise upwards!
Ten dark red chakra tails, like enormous tentacles, fiercely extended from the thickest part of the smoke and dust, blocking the bottom and sides of those giant boxes.
Mianma's figure slowly floated up from the depression in the ruins.
The faint fox phantom on his dark red chakra cloak seemed to carry a hint of disdainful mockery.
He didn't even change his posture much, just slightly raised his head, his gaze calmly sweeping over the enormous thing lifted up by his tail, as if he were only holding up a pile of building blocks.
Just as the ten tails were about to unleash their power and completely blast away these obstructive cubes, a sudden change occurred!
Behind Menma, less than three meters away from his back, the air suddenly rippled like water.
A black, oval portal suddenly opened, revealing a deep, twisted darkness inside.
Immediately afterwards, a figure shot out!
It's Pu-erh!
But his appearance now is completely different from before.
Those blue Rinnegan eyes, which always carried a hint of mockery and greed, had been transformed into an even more bizarre red Rinnegan eye with six tomoe in the center.
The frivolous smile on his face was replaced by a ferocious expression, and the blood-red fishing rod in his hand was no longer a tool for fishing for chakra, but had transformed into the sharpest thrusting weapon.
A chilling red glow gathered at the tip of the rod, tearing through the air without any frills, piercing straight to the face and back of the heart!
This attack was silent and stealthy, clearly intended to take advantage of the subtle gap in Menma's attention being focused on pushing away Daikaten, and to launch a fatal sneak attack.
"Behind us!" Sasuke, the young man on the roof, shouted in desperation.
Although his Rinnegan sensed Urashiki's portal, it was too far away for him to help!
However, Mianma didn't even turn around.
Just a fraction of a second before the red fishing rod touched the chakra cloak, his body, as if preordained, shifted half a step to the left at a tiny yet exquisitely precise angle.
At the same time, he swiftly swung his right leg back, delivering a clean and precise kick that struck the side of the red fishing rod.
clang--!
The red fishing rod was kicked upwards, the rod shaft vibrated violently, and the arm holding the rod visibly trembled, completely disrupting the trajectory of the thrust.
Menma's movements were fluid and without any hesitation. Before his right leg, which had just kicked away the fishing rod, had fully retracted, one of the ten chakra tails behind him, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore at the eardrums, lashed out at Urashiki's face, which was slightly distorted with astonishment, at an extremely fast speed!
That tail strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless!
The dark red chakra was highly compressed at the tip of the tail, almost solidifying, and wherever it passed, even the air was blown out in white gas explosions.
But just before his tail swept over, Urashiki's figure ghost-like retreated half a meter, narrowly avoiding the inevitable blow.
Young Sasuke's Rinnegan keenly captured that extremely subtle change.
Just as Menma's chakra tail was about to hit Urashiki, the time fluctuations around Urashiki became extremely erratic for a very short time. His body appeared as a barely perceptible "double image," as if rewinding to the position half a second earlier.
"It's not just a simple spacetime teleportation..." Young Sasuke murmured, purple light swirling in his Rinnegan as he tried to analyze the strange phenomenon.
"It's time! He reversed a portion of his own time by a mere instant! To outsiders, it looked as if he had foreseen the attack and dodged it."
"Time reversal?" Jiraiya gasped. This kind of ninjutsu, which involves the space-time domain, is the most taboo and the most difficult to understand and master, even among the sealed scrolls that record countless forbidden techniques.
In the air, Menma raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at the unharmed Urashiki. His gaze fell on Urashiki's Rinnegan, which had turned blue, and he understood.
"Time rewind..." he murmured to himself.
At this moment, Cixian had also adjusted, his figure flashed, and he appeared on the other side of Menma, forming a pincer attack with Urashiki on the left and right.
The black chakra rod in his hand pointed diagonally at his face, his killing intent surging like a tide.
Mianma's gaze swept over the two of them.
Jigen had not yet reached his limit. He knew that this guy could reincarnate and briefly regain the peak form of Otsutsuki Isshiki.
Urashiki had just switched to the red Rinnegan with six tomoe to launch a surprise attack, and then switched to the blue Rinnegan to rewind time, but he had not yet used his true trump card, the Crane Form.
"They're still holding back, huh..." Menma thought to himself with a cold laugh.
"Perfect timing, I also need a little pressure to push for that final step."
He felt the increasingly clear throbbing coming from deep within his left eye.
It wasn't pain, but a feeling of fullness, a vibrant pulse, as if something was being conceived and about to burst forth.
This cloned Sharingan, after absorbing a massive amount of Ten-Tails chakra and undergoing repeated high-intensity use of its eye power and mental pressure, finally reached the critical point of evolution.
The fetal movements of the Rinnegan are now clearly discernible.
Mianma gently twisted his neck, and his joints made a series of crisp "crackling" sounds, which were particularly clear in the suddenly stagnant air.
He raised his right hand, spreading his fingers and then slowly clenching them, feeling the endless flow of chakra within his body, as well as the increasingly clear burning sensation and fetal movement emanating from deep within his left eye.
It was a yearning for release, a yearning for evolution.
"We've warmed up enough," Menma said with a hint of arrogance.
That wasn't deliberate arrogance, but rather a calm indifference that came from absolute strength, looking down on ants.
As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly closed his eyes.
This action startled Urashiki and Jigen, and even Jiraiya and young Sasuke on the distant rooftop frowned.
In an aerial battlefield surrounded by two formidable adversaries, would you voluntarily close your eyes?
Is it extreme arrogance, or absolute self-confidence?
The next second, Menma suddenly opened his eyes!
Those once black eyes were now clearly stained with blood red.
Within the blood-red pupils, three jet-black tomoe slowly rotated, radiating a chilling aura of pupil power.
Sharingan!
The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan!
But it's not over yet.
The three tomoe in the left pupil suddenly accelerated their rotation, and the black lines between them began to extend, intertwine, and entwine, outlining a complex and eerie pattern.
The trajectory of the three magatama no longer followed an orderly pattern, eventually forming a bottomless vortex pattern that seemed to suck in one's soul!
At the center of the design, a deep darkness, like the origin of the universe, contains an indescribable mysterious power.
Kaleidoscope Sharingan!
"That's?!" Boruto exclaimed in surprise, turning his head sharply to look at the young Sasuke beside him, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Young Sasuke frowned, his Rinnegan fixed on the swirling pattern in Menma's left eye.
He had never seen that pattern before; it was neither his brother Itachi's "shuriken" nor Shisui's "four-cornered windmill".
This was a kaleidoscope pattern he had never seen before.
Young Sasuke slowly shook his head, his voice filled with confusion: "He is definitely not a member of the Uchiha clan."
"Then how could he...?" Boruto pressed.
"He is indeed not a member of the Uchiha clan," Jiraiya's voice rang out.
"Although I don't know how he got those Sharingan eyes."
"But I'm pretty sure now that Menma is the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, which means he's Naruto's older brother." Jiraiya turned to look at the young Sasuke and Boruto, his voice filled with deep weariness.
Many previously fragmented clues, contradictions discovered during the investigation, and Hiruzen Sarutobi's earth-shattering words before his death finally came together, piecing together a truth that made his heart clench.
Boruto was completely stunned, his mouth agape involuntarily: "Naruto... he... he has an older brother?"
He barely managed to bite his tongue and not shout out "Dad," but his heart was already in turmoil.
The father in a parallel universe actually has such a powerful and mysterious older brother?
Young Sasuke also suddenly turned to look at Jiraiya, his eyes filled with surprise and doubt.
Son of the Fourth Hokage?
He had never heard of Naruto having an older brother.
Furthermore, based on the previous exchange between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru, it seems that the Fourth Hokage in this timeline did not die, or rather, he used some kind of resurrection ninjutsu, which seems to be the key point of the anomaly in this timeline.
Moreover, where did Menma's terrifying strength and his strange Mangekyou Sharingan come from?
Jiraiya met their gazes, shook his head bitterly, and offered no further explanation.
The situation in the air has changed once again.
Almost at the same moment Menma opened his Mangekyou Sharingan, Urashiki and Jigen moved.
The two of them clearly noticed the change in Mianma's aura; the newly acquired pupil power made them instinctively wary.
We can't give him any more chances to build up his strength!
Pu Shi let out a sharp screech, his figure once again transforming into a streak of red light, drawing a winding and eerie arc in the air, making his trajectory unpredictable. The red fishing rod in his hand thrust forward again, this time aiming straight for Mianma's throat!
Cixian reacted almost simultaneously with Pu Shi's movements.
Instead of joining Urashiki in the attack, he hurled the black chakra rod he had gathered in his hand at Menma with all his might!
The moment the black chakra rod left his hand, it abruptly disappeared into the air, and the next moment, it appeared less than a foot away from Menma's left temple!
This is a sinister technique that combines the "Shona Bikanna" to shrink objects, pass them through space, and then instantly restore their size to strike!
The two attacked from both sides, one openly and one covertly, one fast and one unpredictable, their coordination was exquisite, revealing their combat skills as Otsutsuki warriors.
Faced with the tricky red light of the fishing rod aimed at his throat, Mianma did not choose to confront it head-on. Instead, he leaned his upper body back, letting the tip of the fishing rod graz his cheek.
At the same time, he raised his right hand, cupped his five fingers into a palm, and slapped it diagonally toward the side of the fishing rod.
This palm strike appeared light and effortless, but the moment it touched the fishing rod, dark red chakra suddenly erupted from the palm, creating a powerful rotating and tearing force.
boom!
With a muffled thud, the red fishing rod was deflected by the blow, and the momentum of the Pu-style forward surge was also skewed.
Just as Urashiki lost his balance and a flash of blue light appeared in his eyes as he prepared to activate "Time Reversal" to adjust, the swirling kaleidoscope pattern in Mianma's left eye suddenly accelerated its rotation!
Eye Technique: Wheel Fear!
Pu Shi felt a jolt in his heart.
His thoughts of trying to rewind time, his connection with the Rinnegan, and even the flow of chakra within his body all became blurred and stagnant in that instant!
This sudden interference and obstruction is undoubtedly a fatal flaw!
It's that less than a tenth of a second of delay!
Before the momentum of the right palm that was slapping the fishing rod could be exhausted, the wrist was flipped to form a fist, the middle finger joint slightly protruding, wrapped with a layer of highly condensed dark red chakra, and with lightning speed, it was slammed into the center of Urashiki's wide-open chest!
Snap!
A sickening cracking sound and a dull thud rang out simultaneously.
Urashiki's red Rinnegan eyes were filled with astonishment, pain, and disbelief.
He clearly felt that at least three of his ribs broke and collapsed under the punch. A violent, hot, and strangely corrosive chakra rushed into his body through the fist, frantically destroying his internal organs and chakra meridians!
Before he could even cry out in pain, his body was thrown backward at an even faster speed than when he arrived, as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding train!
"Cough—!" A mouthful of blood gushed from Urashiki's mouth, drawing a gruesome line in the air.
Faced with the sudden appearance of black chakra rods on his left, Menma didn't even turn his head.
The six chakra tails that had been on guard against Jigen were already in full combat readiness.
Three of its tails, like serpents emerging from their holes, precisely coiled around the black chakra rod. The dark red tailed beast chakra clashed fiercely with the Yin-Yang Release power on the rod, producing a sizzling corrosion sound as it firmly locked the chakra rod in place.
The other three tails, like giant whips, lashed out from three different angles with a terrifying whooshing sound, aiming fiercely at Cixian who was trying to take the opportunity to approach!
Cixian's expression changed. He hadn't expected Urashiki to lose so quickly, and he certainly hadn't expected Menma's tail to react so swiftly.
He had no choice but to abandon his plan to continue the attack. Two shorter black chakra rods appeared in his hands, which he swung around like wheels to parry the lashes from the two tails. At the same time, his body shrank rapidly, trying to squeeze through the gap in the third tail's attack.
Bang bang bang!
The black chakra rods collided with the tail, producing a dull, loud bang.
Although Cixian blocked the attack, the immense force made his arm go numb, forcing him to retreat again and distance himself from Menma once more.
Urashiki, who was sent flying by Menma's punch, crashed through the roof of a still intact grandstand below like a meteorite, and then, without losing momentum, slammed into the cracked ground in the center of the arena.
Boom—!!
Centered on the point of impact, the ground within a radius of tens of meters collapsed as if it had been hit by a cannonball, instantly creating a huge crater with a diameter of more than 20 meters!
Spiderweb-like cracks spread outwards at an alarming rate, shattering the base of the stands, turning bricks and stones into dust, and sending plumes of smoke and dust billowing into the sky.
"Damn it...damn it!!!"
Pu Shi's hysterical roar came from the bottom of the pit. The voice no longer carried the previous flippancy, but was filled with pure rage and a kind of madness like that of a wounded beast.
In the center of the deep pit, Pu Shi slowly floated up from the smoke.
He looked utterly miserable, with a clear fist mark dented in his chest, the surrounding skin covered in cracks, and bloodstains on his mouth and chest.
"How dare you... how dare you injure the noble... Otsutsuki Urashiki!!!" Urashiki's face was contorted with extreme anger. He suddenly stretched out his hands and grabbed the red fish basket at his waist.
"I didn't want to use this move... but you forced me to!!" he roared, opening his mouth and stuffing the red fish basket, along with the chakra collected from young Sasuke and others inside, into his mouth and swallowing it whole!
Then, to everyone's astonishment, Urashiki made an even more chilling move.
He stretched out the index and middle fingers of both hands and plunged them into his blue Rinnegan without hesitation!
puff!
With a slight sound, he forcefully gouged out two eyeballs that emitted a faint blue light!
Blood flowed down his fingers and cheeks, but he seemed to feel no pain. Instead, a savage grin, a mixture of pain, madness, and extreme excitement, appeared on his face.
He put the two eyeballs, still warm and bloodshot, into his mouth, chewed them twice, and swallowed them!
"He's...eating his own eyes?!" Boruto felt a chill run down his spine and his stomach churned.
"Absorbing chakra...absorbing one's own organs to gain even greater power..." Young Sasuke recalled his previous battles with Momoshiki and Kinji, where Momoshiki had refined Kinji into a chakra fruit and eaten him.
Urashiki, on the other hand, seemed to lack chakra and servants, and could only consume his own eyes.
Jigen watched Urashiki's actions from afar, but his face showed little surprise. He merely snorted coldly, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes: "So you've finally come to this... For power, you're even willing to abandon part of your dignity as an Otsutsuki warrior. Urashiki, this is all you've got."
As Urashiki swallowed the fish basket and his eyes, his chakra suddenly contracted inward and then exploded violently!
He was completely enveloped in dazzling golden light.
From within the cocoon of light, a chilling roar emanated.
"Hoh... Ahh ...
At this moment, Urashiki was like a second sun, and the golden chakra that erupted swept outwards like a tsunami!
"Not good!" Jiraiya's expression changed drastically, and his hands instantly formed hand seals.
"Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!" His white hair suddenly grew and hardened, enveloping himself, Boruto, and young Sasuke beside him, forming a giant white sphere.
Young Sasuke also made his move at the same time, his Rinnegan flashing with purple light.
"Amenotejikara!"
In an instant, he swapped his position with Boruto and Jiraiya's with a pile of rubble from a distant viewing platform.
The moment they disappeared from their spot, the terrifying chakra shockwave swept across, easily flattening the rooftop where they had stood, along with a large area of buildings below, like a sandcastle!
The shockwave continued to spread, slamming violently into the "Diamond Lockdown" barrier that enveloped the players' rest area!
Om-! ! !
The five golden chains trembled violently, groaning under the strain, and violent ripples spread across the barrier's light wall.
Inside the barrier, whether it was the ninjas from Kirigakure, Kumogakure, and Konoha, or Gaara and others from the Land of Stars, they were all swaying and pale under the impact of this chakra that seemed like a natural disaster.
Those who were weaker, such as Ino and Choji, were directly pressed to the ground and unable to move.
"What... what kind of chakra is this?!" Ao from Kirigakure knelt on the ground, veins bulging around his Byakugan as he tried to see the situation in the smoke and dust, but all he saw was a boiling, chaotic, and malicious ocean of chakra, which shocked him.
"More terrifying than... more terrifying than Uncle Killer Bee when he's angry..." Omoi from Kumogakure had long since lost his lollipop and his voice trembled.
Sasuke barely managed to steady himself by planting his ninja sword in the ground, his three-tomoe Sharingan fixed on the devastating scene outside the barrier, his teeth clenched tightly.
Shikamaru stood protectively in front of the trembling Ino, cold sweat beading on his forehead, with only one thought in his mind: This monstrous battle... Is Konoha going to be destroyed?
"Hey! Naruto!" Hinata, the leader, also put aside her hostility towards Karin and looked nervously in Naruto's direction.
At this moment, Naruto was still bound by the Adamantine Lock, but it seemed that due to the violent impact from the outside world, the Nine-Tails' chakra within him was even more restless, and the tail of the red chakra cloak on his body was faintly visible.
Karin's face also turned pale, and her glasses nearly fell off. She whispered to Gaara, who was beside her with a similarly grave expression, "Hey, Gaara, this chakra...something's wrong!"
Gaara didn't answer, but instead controlled more sand to surround everyone, forming a second buffer. His emerald eyes were fixed on the direction of the pit, and Shukaku inside him made an uneasy gurgling sound.
The golden light surrounding Pu Shi grew brighter and brighter, and finally exploded with a "boom"!
What appeared on the spot was a monster that was over three meters tall and had a strange, crane-like posture!
Pu Shi's eyes turned gold, and multiple black horizontal stripes appeared on his face, extending all the way to his neck and collarbone, making him look eerie and ferocious.
Where the forehead was originally, the skin split open, and a golden Rinnegan with intricate concentric circle patterns slowly opened, coldly and ruthlessly overlooking the world.
The two horns on his head had transformed into a pair of huge, curved horns that extended backward like bird wings.
Pu's hands became thin and long, with sharp, hook-like nails.
Most striking are his feet, which have completely departed from human form and transformed into enormous, raptor-like claws covered in jet-black scales.
Urashiki Otsutsuki!
Crane form!
The Pu-type slowly floated above the deep pit.
The golden Rinnegan on his forehead was fixed on Menma, who was still floating calmly in the air.
There was no longer any mockery or greed in his eyes, only a pure hunger as if he were looking at food, and a violent and arrogant desire to destroy all obstacles.
"Hah...hah..." Urashiki opened his mouth and let out an inhuman panting sound, his tongue licking his teeth.
"Your chakra... is very special... very vast... As long as I devour you and absorb your power, all the losses I just suffered... will be worth it!!"
The air in the entire competition venue became stagnant and heavy due to the complete release of Urashiki's form, filled with a suffocating sense of despair.
Menma watched Urashiki complete his transformation quietly, a slight smile curving her lips.
"Hmph, crane form, huh... finally starting to look somewhat like it."
The swirling kaleidoscope in his left eye slowly rotated, locking onto the golden Rinnegan in the center of Napushi's forehead.
Greed gleamed in Mianma's eyes!