"Wood Release: Exploding Forest Burial!!!"
In the situation of being attacked from both front and back, Zetsu acted without hesitation.
He didn't hope to defeat the Whitebeard Pirates in front.
Nor did he hope to defeat the Six Paths of Pain behind.
He only hoped to create an escape route, and then Zetsu would flee without hesitation.
In an instant!
One towering tree after another rose from the ground, and numerous vines surged and churned on the ground like waves of trees.
Some of the trees surged towards the Moby Dick of the Whitebeard Pirates, trying to entangle the enormous Moby Dick.
Another part of the trees surged towards Konan and the Six Paths of Pain behind.
"Ha! Is this the ninja we're dealing with? He can control trees, interesting!"
Ace on the ship, seeing the scene before him, was a bit excited: "Let me handle this!"
He leaped up from the ship, his right fist wrapped in flames, and punched forward.
"Fire Fist!!!"
With one punch.
A sea of flames surged!
The fire clashed fiercely with the trees, instantly igniting an even more intense blaze.
Under the impact of the flames... the towering trees and countless vines thicker than barrels were all reduced to ashes.
There is a world of difference between wood techniques, and it was clear that Zetsu's wood technique couldn't even compare to half the level of Senju Hashirama.
"Who is this guy..."
Zetsu was stunned for a moment, looking up at the figure wrapped in flames leaping into the air.
It was clear he didn't know who Ace was.
But that level of fire reminded Zetsu of a man.
That man was Uchiha Madara!
However...
"Why doesn't his Ninjutsu have any chakra fluctuations?"
Zetsu could subtly sense large-scale chakra activities.
It was because of this ability that he was now completely puzzled.
"Watch out."
Uchiha Itachi's sudden warning startled Zetsu, and he instinctively tilted his head.
In an instant!
Paper shurikens rained down like a torrential downpour, clearly indicating that Konan had started to act.
"Damn woman..."
Zetsu's face darkened, but before he could make any further moves, he realized something was wrong.
Wait!
These shurikens...
Boom!!!
Boom!!!
Boom!!!
A series of sudden explosions enveloped Zetsu's body; those shurikens were all folded from explosive tags!
Standing beside Zetsu, Uchiha Itachi used his Sharingan's superior dynamic vision to jump back and avoid the explosions.
"This is troublesome..."
Looking at Zetsu, who was engulfed in the explosion's flames and smoke, Uchiha Itachi frowned slightly, unsure of what to do next.
In his life, he had only experienced two truly desperate moments.
The first was when facing Whitebeard.
The second was when facing the entire Whitebeard Pirates and the Akatsuki!
Yes, he could smell the scent of death approaching!
"Uchiha Itachi!" A sudden childish shout brought him back to his senses, "I will kill you with my own hands!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Uchiha Itachi saw a figure jumping down from the Moby Dick.
He also saw that the figure was covered in a layer of tailed beast chakra.
That... seemed to be Sasuke!
He became a Jinchuriki?
"Ha!!!" Sasuke, in tailed beast chakra mode, was surrounded by a blue flame-like tailed beast chakra.
He quickly charged towards Uchiha Itachi and leaped high, delivering a spinning kick towards Uchiha Itachi.
"Rankyaku!!!"
Uchiha Itachi originally wanted to frown and raise his hand to block, thinking to himself: Sasuke is still too inexperienced. At this age, with such an immature body, how dare he engage in close combat with me?
But just as he raised his hand halfway, a sudden sense of danger made his pupils contract.
Uchiha Itachi quickly leaned back.
Facing Sasuke's swift and powerful spinning kick, Uchiha Itachi actually chose to dodge!
Swish!!!
Under the gaze of the Sharingan, he watched as Sasuke's kick unleashed a blue crescent slash!
The slash flew backward, hitting a large tree.
It left a nearly one-meter-deep gash on the tree!
This is Sasuke's "Rokushiki"!
In his normal state, Sasuke couldn't use Rankyaku.
But with the power of the Tailed Beast, Sasuke could use it.
"Interesting," Uchiha Itachi thought, slightly surprised, but his face remained expressionless. Facing Sasuke's close combat Taijutsu attack again, he calmly raised his hand to block.
Bang bang bang bang—
In just a few seconds, the two brothers' bodies collided intensely several times.
Uchiha Itachi grew more and more surprised.
He realized...
His brother's progress far exceeded his expectations!
"But... you are still too inexperienced." Uchiha Itachi's eyes narrowed, the scarlet Sharingan seemed to glow red: "Don't you know that the Sharingan is the nemesis of Tailed Beasts? Is this the extent of your abilities? It's far from enough!"
He decisively used the Sharingan Genjutsu. Under the influence of the Genjutsu, Sasuke's face went blank, and his movements paused.
Whoosh!!!
But just as Uchiha Itachi was about to reach out to touch Sasuke, a suddenly flying shuriken made him retract his hand.
A figure quickly approached Uchiha Itachi.
Without hesitation, Uchiha Itachi drew a Ninja Sword from his waist and raised it horizontally to block.
Clang—
Two Swords clashed fiercely, sparking.
"Izumi?"
Uchiha Itachi felt his palm go numb. After forcibly taking the opponent's strike, he almost couldn't hold onto his Ninja Sword!
Uchiha Izumi's strength also surprised Uchiha Itachi.
In his impression, Uchiha Izumi was still a Genin from Konohagakure.
But how long had it been? Three years? Less than four?
He found that Uchiha Izumi was at least at Jonin level!
And he noticed that she had her eyes closed!
"You don't deserve to called my name!" Uchiha Izumi's beautiful face showed a trace of coldness and hatred: "As a traitor of the Uchiha clan, I will personally take you down!"
Uchiha Izumi, holding a Sword, launched a fierce attack on Uchiha Itachi.
Even with her eyes closed, every strike aimed at Uchiha Itachi's vital points!
"Avoiding my Sharingan on purpose?" Uchiha Itachi understood, but was also very surprised: "But she can still capture my attack trajectory without using her eyes..."
"How strange..."
"Fire Release: Super Great Fireball Jutsu!!!" Just as Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Izumi were entangled, Sasuke forcibly broke free from the Sharingan Genjutsu.
He opened his mouth and a huge fireball rushed towards Uchiha Itachi.
Uchiha Itachi forced Uchiha Izumi back with a single slash.
He then turned and used a Ninjutsu: "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Blue flames clashed fiercely with orange-red flames.
The roaring flames surged and churned.
And then, a violent explosion occurred!
Boom!!!
...
On the other side.
Zetsu, who was engulfed by the explosion, naturally couldn't be killed by Explosive Tags. However, he found himself facing a very tricky opponent, the shirtless man in front of him.
"Wood Release: Cutting Technique!!!" Zetsu pressed one hand against Ace's abdomen, and a large number of sharp wooden spikes grew and spread on Ace's body, almost instantly turning him into a hedgehog.
However...
"His body?!" Zetsu looked in disbelief at the unflinching Ace. This Ninjutsu didn't even make the man in front of him bleed a single drop, let alone kill him in one hit.
Ace suddenly raised a fist, and Zetsu hurriedly burrowed into the ground in fear.
"Fire Fist!!!"
Raging flames covered an area of a hundred meters.
"Don't even think about escaping!" Ace made a "gun finger" gesture with both hands, and flames shot out from his fingertips like bullets, continuously bombarding the ground ahead.
Each flame bullet could penetrate tens of centimeters into the soil, and some even created small pits a meter deep!
Rat-a-tat-tat—
The ground ahead became a mess.
"Let me handle this."
A figure suddenly jumped down beside Ace.
It was the tall and imposing Katakuri!
Katakuri crouched down, touched the ground with one hand, and activated the power of his Devil Fruit.
He grabbed the sticky ground, his arm muscles bulging, and forcefully lifted the ground!
The scene was truly shocking.
It left people dumbfounded!
This sudden and strange change forced Zetsu, who was hiding underground, to reveal himself. He was utterly confused by the unexpected turn of events.
Because he found that the surrounding soil had become very sticky.
His body felt like it was being restrained!
"Found you," Ace said with a grin.
...
"Looks like they don't need us?" Konan lowered her hands, her cold face showing a hint of complexity. She spoke to "Pain" beside her: "Zetsu and Uchiha Itachi, they can't possibly be a match for the Whitebeard Pirates."
"Pain" was naturally controlled remotely by Nagato, so Konan was communicating with Nagato from afar.
"Who are those two?" Pain looked at Ace and Katakuri. He had never seen either of them before.
"One is called Charlotte Katakuri, the other is Portgas D. Ace. They are both sons of Whitebeard. And they are not from the ninja world; they are from another world," Konan calmly replied.
"The 'sea' you told me about?" Nagato had already learned about this from Konan.
He knew that Whitebeard was not from the ninja world.
"Yes," Konan nodded.
Nagato thought for a moment and ultimately decided not to take action, because as Konan said, the current situation didn't require their intervention.
They just needed to stay in position to prevent Uchiha Itachi and Zetsu from escaping.
Clearing his mind of distractions.
Nagato controlled the Tendo Pain.
his Rinnegan gaze piercing through the raging flames and dense trees, landing on Whitebeard.
Not far away, standing on the Moby Dick, Whitebeard seemed to sense something and cast his domineering Haki gaze over.
Their eyes clashed in mid-air.
"As expected, he has a very strong presence." Nagato stared at Whitebeard. "This is the man with the strongest presence I've ever seen. Such a man... doesn't seem like the type to want to form an alliance."
Konan spoke up, "As long as you talk to Whitebeard, you should be able to talk about it. But..."
"But what?" Nagato asked.
Konan replied, "But, the way you talk to a great pirate like Whitebeard might be different from what you imagine."
"Oh?" Nagato was taken aback.
Before Konan could speak, a battered figure flew over.
And crashed heavily at the foot of the mountain.
It was clearly Zetsu who had been sent flying!
Uchiha Itachi and Zetsu were currently in the worst shape, as Zetsu had to face enemies like Katakuri and Ace!
"Mirror Flame!"
Ace raised his hand, and a torrent of flames surged towards Zetsu.
The scorching flames even blasted a huge crater at the foot of the mountain.
The intense heat made Konan squint her eyes.
She felt very uncomfortable.
Whoosh!
Katakuri's body had already leaped tens of meters into the air, his right fist turning into mochi and becoming enormous, like the fist of a giant tens of meters tall.
Moreover, the entire fist was covered in Armament Haki.
"Power Mochi..."
"Giant's Fist!"
When this exaggerated punch slammed into Zetsu, the ground within a few miles trembled!
The earth shattered!
The mountain collapsed!
"This guy... is very strong." Nagato muttered two words. This was just the strength of one of Whitebeard's subordinates.
If it were Whitebeard himself...
How terrifying would that be?
For a moment, Nagato found himself lacking complete confidence when facing Whitebeard!
This baffled him ....
Clang—
The crisp sound of metal clashing rang out again. Uchiha Itachi knocked the Ninja Sword out of Uchiha Izumi's hand and kicked the charging Sasuke away.
During the battle, he remained silent for a long time.
Because he found that even though Sasuke and Izumi hated him...
It wasn't to the extent he had expected.
Even though the Whitebeard Pirates had given them a sense of family warmth, allowing them to live without hatred.
Their progress still shocked Uchiha Itachi.
It felt like, even though things hadn't gone according to his plan, the result was the same.
This made the stubborn Uchiha Itachi feel extremely conflicted.
He couldn't bring himself to say "foolish little brother" or "foolish Izumi."
Just as he pointed his sword at Uchiha Izumi's throat...
The sound of a sword being drawn startled him!
A strong sense of danger made him break out in a cold sweat!
"Itachi, you've become stronger." Shisui appeared not far behind Uchiha Itachi, his staff blade already drawn.
He wasn't closing his eyes but had one eye open.
"But you've disappointed me."
Shisui's grip on the blade was a bit pale. He had never thought that one day he would have to draw his blade against Uchiha Itachi.
But...
Shisui could not tolerate what Uchiha Itachi had done!
The eye he opened was the one he had taken back from Danzo!
"You betrayed the clan."
"You betrayed your family."
"You betrayed the village."
Shisui took a step with each word.
Killing intent was evident.
"Itachi... today, you will rest here."
...
...
(End of Chapter)
一 一 一 一 一
You can read advanced chapters on
pat reon.com/GMadman
一 一 一 一 一
Give me your power stone,
Add this novel to your Library,
And Give me your review of this novel