This time, the glowing things were not squid, nor jellyfish, but a type of planktonic algae.
This algae actually emitted purple light during the day as well, but under sunlight, it could not be seen at all.
Only in the night environment could it clearly reveal itself.
While the Uchiha were marveling at the strange sight before them, Uchiha Yoru's voice sounded again.
"Your prey has arrived…"
Before his words even fell, a huge thing suddenly rose from the seawater.
Because of the glowing algae, everyone saw the seawater bulge high like a mountain peak, then quickly fall back, stirring up an incomparably magnificent scene of brilliant light.
As the seawater fell, glowing algae clung to the surface, outlining an enormous octopus tentacle covered in suckers.
"This is a giant octopus. Everyone should have sensed it. It gives off quite strong chakra, and it even carries the chakra aura of the Eight-Tails."
"The task I'm giving you is to hunt this octopus."
"But I do not allow you to kill it. You can only attack and cut off the two octopus legs I mark."
Yoru's words left the little brothers dumbfounded.
Such a large chakra beast, and one connected to a tailed beast.
The difficulty of hunting it was absolutely frightening.
How could killing it be forbidden?
Before the noise could rise, Yoru said loudly,
"The leg meat of this octopus… is extremely delicious."
"The water-soaked meat slices you ate before were made from octopus legs I cut off earlier and dried."
The Uchiha's agitation suddenly stopped.
Everyone focused fully on listening to their leader's explanation, wishing they could press closer to hear every word clearly.
"This octopus is very powerful, but its strongest ability is limb regeneration."
"I waited two months, finally waiting until two legs grew properly, before bringing you here to cut octopus legs."
"If you kill it, you won't be able to eat them again in the future. Will you still kill it?"
"No! We absolutely can't kill it!"
"Right, we can't kill it!"
"And pay attention. Aside from the octopus legs I mark, you can hit the other six, but absolutely don't cut them off."
"The time since I last cut them off is too short. Those six haven't fully grown yet. They won't taste like much."
"This time, we cut off two mature octopus legs. After another twenty-five days, we can come cut off two more. After that, we come once every twenty-five days, and we'll be able to continuously eat octopus legs."
"We understand!"
Yoru simply formed a hand seal.
A golden flame shot toward the giant octopus at unimaginable speed.
When it was about to hit, the flame split into two, striking the roots of two octopus legs separately.
After the golden flames hit, they did not extinguish.
Instead, they quickly spread and burned, forming two ring-shaped circles of flame that marked the roots of the octopus legs.
Yoru was deeply satisfied with his marking ninjutsu.
He laughed loudly, waved his hand, and ordered,
"The marks are done. Everyone, go."
The flame marks were not harmless.
Under the burning golden flames, the octopus released a painful humming sound, and the seawater trembled endlessly.
Amid the giant octopus's cry, Uchiha Hiroto cheered and led his team forward first.
Using the Four-Four Tactics formation, they launched an attack against the giant octopus.
Uchiha Shigenobu was one step slower.
He could only lead his division around, charging from the giant octopus's rear side.
Their target was the other leg.
The shinobi of the two divisions stepped on the sea surface.
The tremors of their footsteps triggered even stronger light from the algae, forming ring-shaped halos.
Many halos combined together, outlining the route and formation of the shinobi divisions' charge.
Like two enormous iron pincers, they launched a pincer attack against the giant octopus.
This was the basic tactical formation for coordination between divisions in the Four-Four Tactics.
The two pincers could be used without distinguishing main and secondary forces, or they could switch main and secondary at any time.
The tactics could change on the spot, making the enemy under attack unable to attend to both sides, dizzy and confused.
But this was a tactic used against shinobi units with unified command.
Using it to attack a giant octopus with nine brains made every tactical change meaningless.
Because the octopus's nine brains often contradicted each other.
As long as it was not facing mortal danger, each one would act according to its own will.
It would not be manipulated by tactical changes at all.
After one round of fighting against the giant octopus, the Uchiha of the two divisions were beaten into a sorry state.
Thanks to the octopus's poor mobility and speed, as well as the prevalence of Sharingan within the Tiger Unit, no one was hit or injured during the battle.
But their formation had been completely scattered.
No—
It had not been scattered.
Rather, according to the size of the damage range after the giant octopus's tentacle attacks, they had spontaneously adjusted the spacing between squad members and reduced the distance between squads.
Yoru was naturally very satisfied.
Being able to make correct tactical adjustments during battle according to the enemy's situation proved that the Tiger Unit had begun to mature.
They were qualified to absorb new members and use themselves as a template to copy more Tiger Unit divisions.
[After we go back, I'll tell Uchiha Kazushi that he can approve applications from Uchiha clan members outside the study group to join.]
After the tactical formation was adjusted, the Uchiha gradually became familiar with the giant ninja beast's attack methods.
Against this kind of attack with few variations but enormous power, responding became extremely easy.
The problem lay in attack.
The Uchiha were mainly skilled in Fire Release, shuriken, and taijutsu.
They lacked cutting attacks like Wind Release and Lightning Release.
After their attempt to blast open the roots of the octopus legs with Fire Release failed, they could only use ninja blades to chop and cut.
It had to be said, this method of chopping down a large tree was far too dangerous.
And the efficiency was so low that one could only click one's tongue.
The battle lasted from just after sunset until the full moon hung high in the sky.
The giant octopus's two legs were still intact.
Their scarred-looking roots had actually not even had their thick skin cut open.
The Uchiha, who were skilled at bursts but not prolonged battle, visibly wilted.
Only then did Yoru pat Miwa Masayo's head and wake her up.
Yoru said to the tabby cat,
"Looks like you and I still have to make a move."
Miwa Masayo rubbed her eyes and said listlessly,
"Didn't you say the little brothers could handle it? What happened, nya?"
Yoru explained,
"It was my miscalculation. The little brothers' attack power is actually not bad."
"I just didn't expect this octopus to also have the ability to evolve."
"After we cut off all its legs, the regenerated octopus legs greatly increased in defense. Just the skin thickness alone has increased by at least half."
Miwa Masayo gathered her energy and looked over.
Very soon, she said in surprise,
"It really did become thicker. And the toughness and elasticity have also become very strong, nya."
"Fortunately, this meow has also improved a lot. Watch me cut off this leg in one move, nya."
Yoru pointed and said,
"You left, me right. The two of us go together and catch it off guard, so it doesn't run the moment it sees us."
"Okay, nya."
Three seconds later, Yoru and Miwa Masayo suddenly jumped out of the seawater in front of the octopus.
Before the octopus could react, they each stood on one scar-covered octopus leg.
The giant octopus sensed the two most familiar and most terrifying chakra signatures.
Immediately, its whole body shrank in fear.
Its nine brains instantly reached an agreement.
Escape!
All its tentacles lined up tightly, quickly forming a water-spraying funnel.
Then they exerted force together, squeezing seawater out at high speed.
Its body gained a powerful recoil force, and its enormous body suddenly leapt out of the water.
This octopus had actually learned from flying fish.
When facing enemies, it chose to escape by flying through the air.
Its body was far larger than a flying fish.
It had no wings either.
After leaving the water, it continued squeezing out seawater, using the recoil force to fly several hundred meters.
Only after all the seawater had been sprayed out did the giant octopus crash back down onto the sea surface.
Then it brought six octopus legs together into the shape of a fish tail.
They worked in unison and swayed, quickly fleeing into the deep sea like an enormous fat fish.
Yes.
Before it fell back to the sea, Yoru and Miwa Masayo had each cut off one octopus leg.
And they were the strongest two.
Even more surprising was that unlike before, when the severed limbs immediately became dead objects, this time, after the octopus leg was cut off, its brain did not die immediately.
Instead, it sealed its blood vessels and began its final struggle before death.
This kind of octopus leg with a nerve center and thinking ability was far more powerful than a gecko tail after breaking off.
It could even consciously flee and attack.
Of course, such a single octopus leg could not survive independently.
Once it separated from the body, blood no longer circulated.
When oxygen content dropped below a threshold, death would arrive.
"Rika-chan."
"Nya?"
"I'm starting to like this octopus. Its evolution speed isn't slow. It can completely become the Tiger Unit's best whetstone."
"Tell the truth, nya."
"Mm. After evolving, this octopus's meat became even tastier."
"So that's how it is, nya. Then I'm starting to like it too."
When the sea returned to calm, the sky had already begun to turn pale.
The brightness of the glowing algae was gradually covered by the surrounding light, and the magnificent ocean scenery disappeared.
The Uchiha little brothers had fought the octopus continuously for ten hours.
Through failure, they proved that the Tiger Unit's tactics, ninjutsu, and all skills were quite powerless against giant ninja beasts.
At the same time, the Uchiha's endurance was the biggest problem.
Only one hour after the battle began, the Uchiha no longer had the chakra to use ninjutsu.
Even the power behind their chopping had weakened.
Two hours later, the two divisions rationally gave up on the idea of cutting off two octopus legs and joined forces to attack one leg.
Five hours later, the Uchiha fell into despair.
Their physical strength had dropped to the point where they could not swing ninja blades.
The wound on the opposite giant octopus had even stopped bleeding.
During the final hour, the Uchiha little brothers were basically just fleeing for their lives.
Yoru sat on the octopus leg that had stopped twitching and spoke earnestly.
"Now you know your weaknesses, right?"
"You lack methods to deal with giant ninja beasts."
"And you lack the endurance to persist against an enemy until the end."
"Even if I hadn't forbidden everyone from killing the octopus, and even if you had started with the intention to kill it, you actually still wouldn't have been able to do anything to it."
"The first problem is easy to solve. It is nothing more than learning high-level ninjutsu and equipping yourselves with giant weapons targeting giant bodies."
"The second problem also has a solution."
"But it is a stupid method."
"Train. Train fiercely. Train like your lives depend on it!"
Not a single Uchiha little brother was standing.
Some floated in the water.
Some lay on the stiff octopus leg.
Every person was panting heavily.
Hearing Yoru's words, they raised their right hands one after another.
Their voices were weak and hoarse, but incomparably firm.
"Yes, Big Brother Yoru."
The direct feeling brought by battle was more persuasive than Yoru's painstaking advice and the strictest corporal punishment.
After experiencing ten hours of bitter battle, and in the end being unable to stand, relying entirely on Yoru to save their lives, the thirty-four Uchiha of the Tiger Unit recognized from the bottom of their hearts the necessity of physical training.
They had seen that taijutsu lunatic.
The lunatic who trained for more than twelve hours every day.
At that time, everyone mocked him in their hearts as trash.
What use was training like that until you were half dead?
On the battlefield, wouldn't one ninjutsu wipe everything out?
But now, every Uchiha too weak to stand thought of Dai.
If that guy were here, he would probably be able to fight energetically until the end.
In truth, if the Uchiha had half of Might Dai's stamina, they would not have needed to fight this long.
Although Uchiha Fire Release was not convenient for tearing, and ninja blade chopping was not effective, both could break defense.
In only one hour, they had beaten the giant octopus until its skin split open, flesh tore apart, and blue blood spread everywhere.
If they could have maintained the initial momentum, at most four to five hours would have been enough to cut off both of the giant octopus's legs.
The octopus, with only six soft newly-grown legs remaining, would no longer have any ability to counterattack.
It could only flee like last time.
Unfortunately, the Uchiha's physical strength could only last one hour.
Fighting giant ninja beasts was completely different from fighting between shinobi.
Giant ninja beasts possessed thick skin defenses hundreds or thousands of times greater than shinobi, as well as health bars so long that they made shinobi despair.
Only enormous destructive power and sufficiently long-lasting endurance could bring down giant ninja beasts.
Against such giant beasts, it was usually Kage-level shinobi who were responsible.
Or several hundred shinobi attacking together.
The Tiger Unit's Uchiha had displayed extremely powerful battle strength on the battlefield.
But that was the embodiment of tactical and organizational advantages.
Their hard strength had not surpassed several hundred ordinary shinobi.
Therefore, when they encountered an individual strong enemy against whom tactical effects were greatly reduced, their lack of hard strength became obvious.
In the first battle, at the cost of twenty-three casualties, they wiped out three hundred Kirigakure shinobi.
In the second battle, they even caused over three thousand casualties with zero deaths.
The young Tiger Unit had inevitably become proud.
From the bottom of their hearts, they could not muster enthusiasm for training.
But now, that pride had been shattered.
The Uchiha little brothers had already made up their minds.
They would properly learn new ninjutsu.
Properly train their physical strength.
Work hard in cultivation and raise their strength.
And strive to obtain the three-tomoe Sharingan as soon as possible.
After only three hours of rest, the boys' stamina recovered.
Even their frustration and unease were all thrown beyond the horizon.
The Uchiha clan's youths happily carried two thick legs, chatting and laughing as they followed Yoru back.
Although Yoru was also eighteen, his heart was not truly that of a youth.
He was amazed by the little brothers' vitality and praised with envy,
"Youth really is wonderful."
After saying this, he picked up a slice of octopus sashimi from the plate in his hand.
It was thin as paper.
The transparent sashimi was as clear as water, and when it shook, it produced a glittering light effect.
Miwa Masayo stretched out a paw and hooked one corner of the sashimi.
Then, with one lick of her barbed tongue, she sucked it into her mouth.
The smooth and tender sashimi did not stop at all, directly sliding down her throat and entering the cat's stomach.
The entire process was smooth as silk.
It brought the tabby cat an unparalleled swallowing enjoyment.
She narrowed her eyes beautifully and made happy meowing sounds.
Today, Miwa Masayo finally no longer needed any processing to eat the giant octopus leg raw.
While enjoying the greatest wild freshness, she also obtained the benefits inside the meat to the greatest extent.
Yoru picked up the next slice, gently rolled it into a meat roll, dipped it in the soul dipping sauce, then put it into his mouth.
He chewed slowly.
The sweet octopus meat mixed with the spicy, stimulating dipping sauce, bringing layers of rich flavor.
After chewing and swallowing, it turned into a warm current in his stomach, slowly seeping into every part of his body and nourishing his cells.
But Yoru frowned and said regretfully,
"This timing is still not right. It seems the plan to harvest once every twenty-five days won't work."
"The flavor and nutrients of this octopus leg are quite a bit worse than last time."
Miwa Masayo laughed at him.
"Keep dreaming. Those first eight legs were the result of who knows how many years of tailed beast chakra contamination."
"For it to have this flavor after only two months is already enough, nya."
Indeed.
This method of regular harvesting made the giant octopus almost like farmed livestock.
For it to have this flavor now was already very good.
This kind of uncooked, wild seafood—
Uchiha Shigenobu and Uchiha Hiroto were knocked down after one bite.
Their digestive systems could not withstand the energy in the fish meat.
It was like they had eaten raw ginseng.
They got nosebleeds, felt hot and sweaty, and became dizzy.
They even had strange hallucinations, like eating wild mushrooms from southern mountains.
Two powerful shinobi with two-tomoe Sharingan fought nonexistent enemies on the sea surface like drunkards.
Even now, these two unlucky fellows had not escaped their hallucinations.
They could only be tied tightly like dumplings and thrown onto the octopus legs carried by their team members.
So, the octopus meat's quality had already reached a sufficient level.
If they wanted to increase quality further, the meat production would disappoint people.
Yoru smacked his lips and nodded, approving of the tabby cat's words.
After quickly sharing all the sashimi with Miwa Masayo, Yoru suddenly missed the taste of takoyaki.
So he tossed the tray away, turned around, and shouted to the little brothers,
"Speed up! When we get back, I'll cook octopus meat for you!"
But the Uchiha all looked toward the octopus legs at the same time.
Seeing the two division leaders twisting around on top of them, they collectively shrank their heads back.
The Uchiha asked,
"Big Brother Yoru, please tell us the truth. Can this meat really be eaten?"
Yoru held back his laughter and answered seriously,
"Of course it can!"
"Do you still remember the big chunks of fish meat I gave you when we first arrived in the Land of Hot Water?"
"That was octopus leg meat."
The Uchiha couldn't help exclaiming in surprise.
Remembering the delicious taste they had sampled back then, everyone's legs mysteriously gained countless strength.
Their marching speed became faster and faster.
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