Chapter 463: Umibozu
The combined divine skill of the Lion's Roar and the One Finger of Yang was immensely powerful. Using it repeatedly on the same target would even cause stacking psychological damage.
Guren's fury meter was maxed out. Completely disregarding the consequences, she charged violently toward Masahiko while her hands blurred into hand seals: "Crystal Style: Labyrinth Five-Sided—"
"Crystal Style: Labyrinth Five-Sided Overlocking Jail!"
Masahiko simply raised his hand. Guren was instantly sealed inside a massive, three-dimensional, five-sided crystalline prism, frozen perfectly mid-charge with her hands still held in their final seal.
"Using your own method to repay you," Masahiko raised his eyebrows. "Do not move recklessly, little girl. You know that if this crystal shatters, you will shatter right into a pile of pieces along with it. You didn't manage to coat the surface of your body with chakra in time just now, did you?"
"Sister Guren!" Tayuya sprinted forward to intercept Masahiko, the Curse Mark on her neck faintly pulsing with an ominous red light.
"Stop right there!" Masahiko hurriedly halted her, his hair smoothly reverting back to its vibrant red color. "Do not activate your Curse Mark, that thing is far too hideous. Besides, the Great Ancestor came looking for Orochimaru; I didn't come here to bully two little girls."
Tayuya froze, the crimson light on her neck slowly receding back beneath her collar. "To think you are actually..."
Masahiko nodded with a grin. Passing straight by the dazed Tayuya, he crooked his index finger and tapped lightly against the crystalline prism: "Come on out if you possess the capability! Hehehe... Little girl, don't harbor such a volatile temper, the Great Ancestor won't tease you further. If you can speak properly, blink your eyes once, and I will let you out."
Inside the crystal, Guren remained absolutely motionless. Beside Masahiko, Tayuya began blinking her eyes frantically...
"Step aside, do not throw coquettish glances at the Great Ancestor, I don't fall for that routine!" Masahiko waved his hand with a chuckle, decisively dispelling the Crystal Style structure.
Slipping free from the crystal jail, Guren gasped violently for air for several moments. Her dark eyes then glared ruthlessly at Masahiko, looking exactly as though he had committed some unforgivable injustice against her...
"Has Orochimaru been in contact with you recently? The Great Ancestor has urgent business with him," Masahiko spoke up.
"...No!" Only after a long while did Guren manage to squeeze out a single word from between her gritted teeth.
Masahiko scratched his head: "Speak properly to the Great Ancestor. If you carry on with this attitude, I will drag Tayuya straight back to Konoha's detention blocks, and I'll take you along for the ride too."
"You old—"
"Sister Guren!" Tayuya cut her off anxiously.
Guren took a deep, forced breath, twisting her expression to squeeze out a tight smile: "Lord Orochimaru has lost all contact ever since he launched the assault on Konoha. I am currently remaining at this location specifically to wait for his communication."
Masahiko raised his eyebrows: "What about Hidan?"
"I don't know."
"Can't you cooperate with me a bit?"
"I genuinely do not know."
Masahiko let out a soft sigh: "Then what earthly use do I have for keeping you around!"
Guren and Tayuya froze, turning instantly tense. Masahiko, however, completely ignored them, stepping straight onto the sea surface and pacing leisurely toward Kikai Island.
The two girls exchanged a look, and Guren whispered in soft accusation: "Tayuya, how on earth did you end up leading him directly here?!"
Tayuya was entirely unable to offer a rebuttal. She could never have guessed that someone of his advanced age would still cross-dress as a youthful teen. However, Masahiko wasn't actually cross-dressing to look young; he was genuinely youthful, and thoroughly adorable...
The absolute moment Guren had appeared earlier, Masahiko had razor-sharply intercepted her chakra signature, discerning that she had walked right out from beneath the waves.
This is the spot where Guren emerged from, which means Orochimaru's northern hideout is actually nestled underwater? Hidden this implicitly, it should contain a few exceptionally high-quality items, shouldn't it? Lightly tapping the water surface with his feet, the ocean automatically parted down the middle, and Masahiko walked downward step by step.
"Disaster! Lord Orochimaru's underwater research laboratory has been exposed!" In the distance, Guren grew frantic, rising to sprint after Masahiko, but she was held back by Tayuya.
"Sister Guren, the Grandelder of the Land of Whirlpools shares an exceptionally excellent relationship with Lord Orochimaru, doesn't he? I recall he was right there when Lord Orochimaru bestowed the Curse Marks upon us back then. Since that's the case, letting him step inside Lord Orochimaru's base shouldn't be an issue... More critically, the two of us possess zero capability to hold him back anyway."
Guren's brow knit slightly: "But Lord Orochimaru isn't present right now, and if that exceptionally arrogant and conceited monster inside happens to infuriate him... In any case, let's head over first!"
Deep beneath the ocean bed, the ambient light was incredibly dim. Even with Masahiko's exceptional visual acuity, he couldn't parse out the surrounding environment clearly. However, he could distinctly sense two active chakra signatures not far ahead, and he walked straight toward that direction.
Closing in on the source of the chakra vibrations, two pairs of emerald-green eyes eerily blinked into existence. Amidst this pitch-black ocean depths, it truly carried a trace of a horror movie aesthetic.
"What on earth is this, a summoning beast?" Masahiko murmured softly under his breath. Extending his right hand forward, Lightning Style chakra coalesced, and a blinding arc of lightning lanced out like a high-powered searchlight to illuminate the two 'summoning beasts'.
Stimulated by the intense illumination, the two pairs of emerald eyes slammed tightly shut. Once Masahiko caught sight of the scene directly in front of him, the corner of his mouth twitched violently, and he rapidly extinguished the lightning flash. Honestly, I would have been better off remaining ignorant!
Those were not summoning beasts at all, but two specimens of an exceptionally rare species—mermen!
But their gender was male, and they were freaking hideous!
Masahiko started cursing inwardly: Orochimaru, you are excellent. Screwing over the Great Ancestor like this, you're trying to interfere with the evolution of my Rinnegan, aren't you?
By now, he finally understood what this underwater research base was dedicated to. Researching beast-humans, transplanting the genetic traits of marine life into human vessels to engineer mermen.
He truly is an incredible scientist, but it's a shame his aesthetic standard possesses a severe problem. The Great Ancestor wanted to see actual mermaids!
The two hideous mermen, whose fish eyes had nearly been blinded by the flash, came swimming toward Masahiko at maximum velocity. Their lower bodies didn't terminate in a traditional fish tail; instead, their feet had fused into colossal swimming webs. Flailing back and forth within the water columns, they swam incredibly fast.
Seemingly designating Masahiko as an active intruder, the two hideous mermen snapped their jaws open and closed, expelling two high-velocity 'Water Cannons' straight toward him. However, the attacks were firmly isolated outside by the repelling force Masahiko used to push back the seawater.
Masahiko was quite curious about this unique 'species', and he also wanted to figure out why on earth Orochimaru was engineering mermen, so he temporarily held his hand.
Upon closing the distance to Masahiko's immediate vicinity, the hideous mermen brothers didn't recklessly plunge into the 'waterless zone'. Instead, they scattered to the left and right, circling Masahiko at a frantic velocity.
This rotational kinetic force actually managed to drag the surrounding seawater into a heavy spin, steadily forming a massive underwater vortex, causing Masahiko to manifest a trace of surprise.
If they launched an assault against ships using this technique, it would practically resemble a natural disaster. Who on earth would suspect it was artificial? Reflecting on this, Masahiko's face turned slightly dark. He recalled that the Land of Whirlpools' merchant fleet had suffered several of these maritime shipwrecks over the years, losing a substantial amount of financial assets. Could it have been related to them?
A moment later, seeing that they were only capable of endlessly spinning to generate a larger vortex without displaying any fresh techniques, Masahiko steadily exhausted his patience.
A torrential repelling force erupted out from around Masahiko's body. In the dead center of the boundless ocean, a waterless, cylindrical pillar of solid land with a diameter of a hundred meters instantly hollowed out. The surrounding walls of seawater appeared to be barricaded by an inexplicable force field, desperately seeking to collapse inward to fill the void but completely unable to pass.
The two hideous mermen had been blasted off to heaven knows where by Masahiko's repelling force, but Guren and Tayuya managed to track his location down very quickly.
"Orochimaru's experimentation is quite interesting," Masahiko tilted his head with a grin. "Exactly how many of these mermen has he engineered in total? Are there any female specimens?"
Guren paused, completely failing to anticipate that Masahiko's focus would actually land on this specific detail...
Right at this moment, a colossal surge of chakra vibrations suddenly rippled through the space. Out on the distant water surface, a massive water monster entirely composed of seawater coalesced into form.
"Eh? This thing is also highly interesting. Orochimaru's research base truly holds pleasant surprises at every corner. What is this, a summoning beast? Forgive the Great Ancestor for being somewhat reclusive and lacking in exposure; my face is tender and my knowledge is narrow."
Guren: "..."
"What, you're refusing to honestly answer the Great Ancestor's words again? Mischievous!"
Tayuya lightly tugged at Guren's sleeve, and Guren let out a long, helpless sigh: "This is a specialized maritime summoning beast engineered and modified by Lord Orochimaru—Umibozu (The Sea Bonze)."
"Umibozu?!" Masahiko paused. Looking back up at the water monster, his eyes filled with a wave of absolute fondness...
Back in his past life when he played a certain mobile game, aside from the free Yuki Onna they gave out at the start, Umibozu was literally his only SR pull.
Ahem, did I just accidentally expose something?
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