42 - To Chain a Beast

Strictly speaking, Masashi's Corrosive Steam Technique drew inspiration from three techniques commonly used by Kiri shinobi:

Hidden Mist Technique, frequently employed by Kiri ninja. Mei's Skilled Mist. And Kisame's Super Exploding Water Shockwave.

His technique managed to blend the strengths of these three into a single, versatile jutsu.

By combining his mastery of water and fire nature chakra, he created a technique that superheated water particles to their most volatile state. The precise balance required constant chakra control—too much fire chakra would disperse the mist, too little would render it harmless.

Of course, those last two techniques were creations of shinobi who, like him at the time, were still young and inexperienced. There was no telling if they had even invented their techniques yet.

Masashi had never crossed paths with Kisame, so he set that aside for now.

As for Mei, at the time, she hadn't developed her technique yet.

Still, she was a formidable ninja, solidly at the level of an elite jonin. No surprise, considering she'd one day become the Mizukage.

In his quest to master the principles from her Boil Release, he put in considerable effort—so much that she thought of him as a total creep.

Even the comrades fighting alongside him assumed he was ready to abandon his wayward ways... or rather, that he was finally falling in love.

People often praise Konoha's endless supply of talent, but Kiri wasn't far behind. It was just that, being tucked away in isolation, they rarely participated in the continent's broader affairs, so their reputation remained limited.

The Corrosive Steam technique was incredibly practical because its applications were so versatile.

The "mist" form wasn't its only one; it could also appear in liquid state, looking indistinguishable from regular water, except for the greater chakra cost due to maintaining its superheated state.

When deployed in mist form, it can be used like Hidden Mist to pinpoint enemies' positions with remarkable accuracy via chakra detection.

Of all the techniques Masashi had developed in his career, the Corrosive Steam was by far the most versatile.

Especially when paired with regular water jutsu for deception and the corrosive properties for lethality—an almost perfect setup for ambushes.

Only something as resilient as a tailed beast could barrel through Corrosive Steam without any defenses.

As the Nine-Tails was about to escape his range, Masashi teleported to its head again, delivering another head-pat strike.

The Nine-Tails, now far from where it had been, found itself once more in the center of the Corrosive Steam.

Enraged, it swatted at Masashi—only to smack itself hard in the face.

The power of a seal-less jutsu was infuriatingly unfair. And Flying Thunder God was outrageously annoying.

Having failed again to shake off this irritating Uchiha, the Nine-Tails lost its patience.

Tailed beasts never considered chakra efficiency in a fight. That's just how they were. They had an excess of power, and even if they died, they would come back eventually.

By human standards, they embodied pure strength and mass, vast and seemingly endless.

This time, instead of running, the Nine-Tails crouched low to the ground.

This familiar posture immediately put Masashi on high alert.

Anyone who had been a troublemaking kid knew this move all too well—it was a setup for chaos.

Based on the Nine-Tails' size, he quickly calculated its likely area of impact and teleported to a safe distance, appearing on a hill where he had earlier released a marmot family. From this vantage point, he could survey everything.

The earth trembled.

Rocks crumbled.

It was a cataclysmic display, as if the world was being reshaped.

From afar, it might not look as dramatic, but to anyone caught in it, it would feel apocalyptic—leaving them completely at the mercy of the chaos.

Watching the Nine-Tails thrash about in rage, Masashi sighed. He couldn't help but long for the Mangekyō's power: Perfect Susanoo.

Now that would be sweet.

In the end, human desires knew no limits.

The Corrosive Steam, under the sheer might of the rampaging tailed beast, was completely destroyed—shattered into fragments.

And as for Minato, that wife-lover, he still hadn't shown up.

So, Masashi decided he could give Minato another hour to show up. It was, after all, late at night. The Hokage wouldn't actually cut it this close to midnight, would he?

If Minato still didn't show after an hour, he would have no choice but to drag the Nine-Tails back toward Konoha. Otherwise, the number of uncontrollable factors would only increase.

He calculated silently. This delay should have given Konoha's ninjas enough time to secure a safe perimeter.

Seeing the distant Nine-Tails begin to slow its rampage, he prepared his next jutsu. Rhythm was critical; there could be no downtime.

During sparring sessions with Shisui, he had once used a simplified version of a water technique called Ten Dragon Torrent, though it was a heavily nerfed version that barely retained its original essence.

The jutsu was originally designed for battlefield domination—perfect for attacking large-scale targets.

Like, say, a battalion of a hundred enemy ninjas. Or maybe two battalions. Or even a whole lot more.

The more, the better—since most shinobi in a battalion were genin.

War, after all, was about mass slaughter. The fewer people left standing, the quicker peace talks could resume.

Against a tailed beast, though, this jutsu would need some adjustments to its trajectory.

Otherwise, pushing the beast too far away would only make transporting it back a greater burden.

Activating the Flying Thunder God again, he appeared on the opposite side of the Nine-Tails, leaving enough distance to maximize the jutsu's impact. The markers he'd placed earlier gave him perfect positioning—a tactical advantage that had taken years to master.

With the extra time he had, he silently thanked this new timeline for blessing him with excellent genes. He even vowed to find a wife for this timeline's parents before he turned fifty.

After all, his retirement plan was set for forty. At forty, he'd be an elder—prime time to step down and enjoy life.

A ninja's peak was around forty years old. Past fifty, no matter how strong, one's combat abilities inevitably declined. That was just natural law—unalterable and absolute.

Humans were made of flesh and blood, not chakra. So, people should be content. Those who refuse to retire at fifty werre just clinging on like old thieves.

True sustainability required making way for others.

In his original timeline, he had nothing but disdain for senior officials who delayed their retirement—utterly unmanly.

Ahead, the Nine-Tails finished its tantrum and began to raise its head.

Masashi completed his jutsu in perfect timing.

Dragons of water erupted skyward.

One, two, ten—then a twenty, a hundred.

A massive wave obscured the sky, casting shadows across the earth.

The corrosive steam gathered, swirled, and roamed through the air. Wherever it passed, it dissolved everything, leaving only empty air and barren ground.

Finally, the water surged into a towering wave, its height escalating under Masashi's precise control. 

Standing at its peak, he now towered over the distant Nine-Tails.

Then, the endless waves of water formed a colossal whirlpool, mercilessly devouring everything in its path.

With a deafening roar that overshadowed the thunderclaps in the sky, massive tidal waves surged upward.

Under the assault of the torrent, the forest was submerged, the earth was ground away, and everything ahead was swallowed and obliterated in an instant.

At the crest of the surging waves, roaring violently, were layered water dragons, rising higher than even a tailed beast.

Masashi watched the Nine-Tails flip onto its feet, its massive maw opening wide to unleash a Tailed Beast Bomb.

Even tailed beasts need to charge their attacks. Conversely, they could opt not to, but that would result in a weaker blast.

He had anticipated this. His Sharingan tracked the gathering chakra, measuring its density and flow.

Just as before, when a Tailed Beast Bomb hit his ice construct to no avail, this smaller bomb merely created a dent among the countless water dragons before being teleported away without detonating.

The thousand water dragons merged, forming a massive dragon head that slammed into the Nine-Tails. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, creating ripples in the water below.

This was merely a transformation-based ninjutsu. Even a water dragon couldn't pluck stars, move mountains, or fill seas.

But shaking the earth and mountains?

That was more than sufficient.

From a bird's-eye view, the land and everything on it—including the Nine-Tails—looked as if a colossal titan had swept it with a proportionately massive broom. The beast's massive form tumbled through the raging waters like a leaf in a hurricane.

Even the surface of the earth had been deeply stripped away.

The rivers ran muddy, turning into turbulent, chaotic streams.

It was akin to a naive boy entering a certain shop, emerging after a single night entirely changed, his youth lost forever.

Don't ask why—just know the hostess who ran the shop was very kind.

And like that kind hostess' tireless attention, Masashi's ninjutsu worked to gradually wear down its target.

Mud, sand, and debris mixed with the waves, building up strength with each cycle of destruction.

These materials endlessly pounded the Nine-Tails' massive form, crashing and shattering against its seemingly infinite chakra body, only to regroup and resume the assault.

It was quite the spectacle.

In the darkness, it was impossible to distinguish sky from water—everything had become a murky mess.

The Nine-Tails was caught in the chaos, roaring as it was tossed and turned by the endless tides.

It looked painful, but it didn't really feel pain.

Eventually, its massive body slammed into a cliff. The impact shook the earth, sending tremors through the ground that could be felt miles away.

Layer upon layer of waves followed, crashing against the mountainside. Yet the cliff stood unmoved, enduring the endless onslaught, watching as the waves shattered into countless shards of foam, dissipated, and scattered away.

Finally, all that remained on the cliffside were deep, crisscrossing scars. And the Nine-Tails, washed ashore and left there.

High above, a shadowy eagle, abstract as if painted in ink, observed the entire scene and relayed it to its creator.

Through its eyes, the full scale of destruction became clear.

Through the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques, this vision was shared with others.

The Yamanaka ninja, withdrawing his hand from his comrade's head, was silent for a long moment.

No one in the search squad said a word.

The Nine-Tails didn't seem particularly worse for wear—it was a tailed beast, after all. But imagining this jutsu unleashed on a battlefield, against a group of humans?

That was terrifying.

Was the Uchiha clan's chakra always this abundant?

As one of the clans that had joined Konoha alongside the Sarutobi, the Yamanaka clan understood basic facts: the Uchiha were naturally gifted with ample chakra reserves.

But traditionally, chakra abundance was associated more with the Senju or Uzumaki clans.

Watching Masashi's colossal Water Release technique, however, they might as well have been looking at a jinchūriki.

The ice titan he'd summoned earlier had already been absurd enough.

Surprised as they were, the squad wasted no time transmitting the intel. "Send word to command—target contained, but the situation has... evolved."

Konoha's forces were frantically scouring the forest.

Earlier, they'd been frantic because the Nine-Tails was heading for the village.

Now, they were frantic to keep it from escaping. They couldn't let it get away.

No one moved faster than Minato. His urgency surpassed everyone else's.

Driving off the mysterious masked man was nothing—he'd driven away countless enemies before. But he only had one wife.

When a search team sent back word, he immediately used the Flying Thunder God to teleport there.

He appeared atop the cliff.

Before him lay a scene of utter devastation, with the Nine-Tails shaking off its daze at the mountain's base.

Minato descended at once.

He began by summoning—a massive, plump toad appeared midair, using gravity to slam the freshly recovered Nine-Tails back into the ground.

The impact created a crater beneath the beast.

The Nine-Tails, still disoriented from the water's assault, initially thought something had fallen off the mountain. But as the toad shifted uneasily, it realized the truth.

The Nine-Tails erupted in fury.

Its first move nearly sent the toad sprawling. Claws raked the air where the amphibian had been moments before.

As it tried to regain its composure, Minato landed on its head, pressing his hand against its body.

Both he and the Nine-Tails vanished.

After a few flickers of teleportation, accompanied by the sound of something massive slamming into the ground, the Nine-Tails appeared in front of a structure.

This was where Minato had hidden his wife—still outside the village.

As the weight on its body vanished, the Nine-Tails prepared to leap, only to be restrained by chains that burst from its surroundings. The chains tangled midair before pinning it down.

These chains belonged to a red-haired woman.

Kushina.

The current jinchūriki of Konoha was critically injured, her life on the verge of ending. Even standing seemed to cost her immense effort.

"Kushina!" Minato flashed to her side, supporting her. "Don't push yourself like this."

"It's fine, Minato. I still have chakra. Just help me restrain the Nine-Tails." Kushina's face was deathly pale—not from emotion, but from her failing body.

Her hands trembled as she maintained the chains.

Masashi thought she might not have much time left.

Oh, right.

When Minato teleported earlier, he had used his Flying Thunder God to tag along. He'd arrived atop the Nine-Tails' head with it.

But Minato hadn't noticed him at all.

"Cough, cough…" Kushina suddenly erupted into a violent fit of coughing. Blood speckled her lips. "Hurry, Minato. I'm going to seal the Nine-Tails back into myself and die with it!"

Hearing this, Masashi quickly jumped down from the Nine-Tails' head.

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