Blood flowed from Roshi's nose and mouth. He pushed himself up with both hands, trying to stand, but his knees gave out and he fell back to the ground.
A sharp pain spread through his abdomen. Every breath felt like his insides were being torn apart.
"Cough!"
Roshi spat out another mouthful of bloody foam. Then he raised his head and looked at the figure standing on top of Kokuo, the Five-Tails.
"Who exactly... are you, monster?" he asked hoarsely. "Since when did someone like you appear in the ninja world?"
"Looks like you've run into a terrifying enemy this time," Son Goku, the Four-Tails, said in a heavy voice inside his mind.
Roshi stayed silent.
Son Goku continued, his tone becoming more serious.
"With just one strike, all of you were defeated. Even if I personally took action, I probably wouldn't last more than two moves." After a brief pause, the tailed beast said, "Find a chance to escape, Roshi. Otherwise, you will die."
It wasn't because the Four-Tails cared about him.
The relationship between Roshi and Son Goku was nowhere near close at this point of time.
One was the Jinchuriki, the other was the tailed beast sealed inside him. Their relationship was filled with hostility and silence.
Even so, Son Goku still warned him. The reason was simple...
If Roshi died, it would die too.
Although tailed beasts were beings made entirely of chakra and could not truly die forever, the process of death was still extremely painful. More importantly, dying did not mean freedom. Once revived, it would only be captured again.
After all, no matter how powerful a tailed beast was, it still couldn't fight an entire hidden village alone.
"Han..." Hearing the Four-Tails' warning, Roshi's eyes widened in shock. He quickly turned to look at Kokuo.
At the same time, the black-robed figure raised both hands and formed a rapid series of hand seals.
The ground suddenly shook.
Boom!
A gigantic creature burst out from beneath the earth and instantly wrapped itself around the Five-Tails' massive body.
Before Roshi could react, countless scales suddenly drifted down from the sky, spreading through the area like a thick fog. His vision blurred and his eyes gradually lost focus.
Then, a sharp tearing sound suddenly rang out as a huge black shadow burst from the mist of scales.
Bang!
The attack slammed heavily into Roshi's chest. It was the Scaled Wood Dragon.
"Gah...!"
Roshi coughed out blood as his body twisted backward unnaturally. He shot through the air and crashed heavily into a nearby rock wall.
The moment he hit, the wall exploded apart, sending countless rocks crashing down around him.
Buried beneath the rubble, Roshi felt like every bone in his body had been crushed. His fingers twitched slightly, but he couldn't even raise his arm anymore.
Blood slowly dripped from his chin onto the broken stones below.
'Am I... going to die?'
That single strike had completely destroyed his ability to fight back.
The Scaled Wood Dragon slowly hovered in front of him. Then it opened its huge jaws and bit down on his body, tearing him straight out of the broken rock wall before flying back toward its black-robed master.
Roshi's head hung low.
His half-open eyes could only silently watch everything happening before him.
Shinichi merely glanced indifferently at the defeated Jinchuriki before shifting his attention back to the Wood Dragon wrapped tightly around Kokuo.
Buzz!
A strange humming sound filled the air.
The Five-Tails' enormous body suddenly began to break apart, turning into countless glowing particles of light that were continuously absorbed by the Wood Dragon.
The Wood Dragon raised its head and let out a silent roar.
Its wooden body suddenly began to glow with a dark red light. The glow grew brighter and brighter until it turned scorching white. Cracks spread across the dragon's body as blistering steam burst out from within.
In just a few moments, the Wood Dragon completely changed.
A milky-white Wood Dragon appeared in the sky, wrapped in burning vapor and releasing a terrifying pressure.
The Boiling Wood Dragon.
Roshi stared blankly at the scene, his mind completely frozen. Inside his consciousness, Son Goku's horrified voice suddenly roared out.
"What is this?! It's absorbing tailed beast chakra?! It's devouring Kokuo's power?!" The Four-Tails' voice trembled with disbelief. "What kind of jutsu is this?! Who exactly is this man?!"
Roshi couldn't answer. He could only watch helplessly as the black-robed Shinichi stood atop the Boiling Wood Dragon's head.
With the birth of the milky-white dragon, Shinichi's chakra surged explosively. Violent winds swept through the battlefield, causing his robes to flutter wildly.
"Haha, it worked!"
Shinichi's voice echoed through the storm. "The power of all nine tailed beasts... is finally mine!"
The moment those words fell, Roshi's body stiffened.
He could clearly feel the remaining Four-Tails chakra inside him begin to fluctuate violently, as though it was being pulled away by some irresistible force.
And it wasn't just him.
Roshi's eyes widened. The space around the black-robed figure suddenly began to twist and distort.
At the same time, Future Shinichi seemed to receive some final confirmation. His expression turned cold as he suddenly slammed his hands together, forming a complicated hand seal.
"Nine Dragons Technique!"
The earth shook violently.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Seven deafening explosions erupted one after another.
The ground within several hundred meters instantly split apart with Shinichi at the center. From the shattered earth, seven gigantic dragons burst out and rose into the sky. Each dragon had a different appearance, and every single one radiated a terrifying aura.
Together with the Scaled Wood Dragon and the Boiling Wood Dragon, there were now nine colossal dragons circling the battlefield.
At the same time, all nine dragons lowered their heads in unison, bowing toward Shinichi.
Roshi, who had been thrown onto the broken ground by the Scaled Wood Dragon, completely lost hope.
"Nine..." he muttered blankly as he stared at the figure surrounded by the giant dragons. "He actually has... nine of them..."
Inside the mental space, Son Goku was even more horrified.
"Nine kinds of tailed beast chakra..." the Four-Tails said with disbelief. "This man actually gathered the power of all nine tailed beasts by himself?!"
But before he could finish speaking... Shinichi suddenly looked up.
Behind the mask, his gaze seemed to pierce through space itself. Then he slowly raised both hands and formed another hand seal.
An endless amount of chakra erupted from his body.
"Then... appear here." Shinichi's cold voice echoed across the battlefield.
"Wood Release: Divine Deep Forest Emergence!"
The nine giant dragons instantly raised their heads. Their massive bodies twisted together, intertwining into a gigantic spiral that reached toward the sky.
A blinding light suddenly exploded outward.
Roshi instinctively shut his eyes.
At the same time, a world-shaking roar thundered through the battlefield.
The intense light burned through his eyelids. The pain from his shattered body, the violent disturbance of his chakra, and Son Goku's sudden silence all mixed together into one overwhelming sensation.
Then, the deafening noise suddenly disappeared.
The scorching heat and blinding light also faded away.
An eerie silence descended over the world, as if everything had returned to the very beginning of creation.
Roshi slowly forced his heavy eyelids open. At first, his vision was blurry. But as it gradually became clear, shock instantly filled his face.
A gigantic tree stood between heaven and earth like a pillar holding up the world itself. It was so massive that it completely blocked out the sky.
"What... is this...?" Roshi muttered hoarsely, his dry voice trembling. At that moment, his understanding of the world completely collapsed.
Then laughter suddenly echoed from high above... "Haha... hahahaha!"
It was wild and filled with excitement.
At the same time, an overwhelming pressure swept across the battlefield. Roshi slowly turned his stiff neck toward the sound.
There, he saw Shinichi standing high above, arms spread wide as his black robes fluttered wildly within the raging chakra storm.
"So that's it... so that's it!"
Shinichi looked up at the enormous tree, his voice filled with excitement.
"The chakra of the nine tailed beasts is the catalyst. Wood Release is the foundation. Recreate the Divine Tree, absorb natural energy, and once again produce the Chakra Fruit!"
Then he lowered his head and stared at his own trembling hands.
"This... is the path to becoming a god."
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