219: God? (2)

Chapter 219: God? (2)

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[Shukaku - Peak Tier 8]

[CP: 1,108,034]

The Shukaku was weak. Weaker than ever now that most of its Chakra was sucked out.

More so, against a fully transformed fused dragon such as Neji, Shukaku's powers were falling short.

After the dragon’s breath, as Shukaku was having trouble moving with parts of his sand body transformed into glass, Neji started his next barrage of attacks.

Dozens of magic circles appeared in the air, and Neji cast a single water spell.

[Divine Class Water Magic: Poseidon's Wrath]

Magic crackled in the air as a huge body of water poured down from the magic circles in the air, not like rain, but like a titanic pillar of water. It crashed onto Shukaku, and Neji by extension, but a Dragon was immune to mere water. The Shukaku on the other hand yelled in annoyance, his sand-body decomposing as it tried to fight back with Neji, but some sand didn't hurt a Dragon.

Neji's front foot was pushing onto Shukaku's throat, coated with Tremor, his back foot on its tummy, while his tail was wrestling with the beast's own. By the time water finally stopped pouring down a minute later, the beast looked like a wet mouse.

As the beast gasped for air, barely struggling with Neji, the latter used his [Observe] to confirm a suspicion, and grinned. 

He used «Mine» on the beast.

"Keuk!"

Shukaku groaned seeing the red energy leap into his body from Neji’s foot, resisting with both his will and chakra quite a bit, but the Dragon's will was stronger.

Soon, after some physical and mental resistance from the sand beast, four messages popped up.

[You have mined out Sand Manipulation - Level 10 (MAX)!]

[You have mined out Magnet Release (1) - Level 10 (MAX)!]

Neji decided to merge this Magnet Release with the 3rd Kazekage's once the battle ended and ignored the next System Messages. Rather, he focused his attention on the tailed beast.

Now that the beast had nothing else to offer Neji, he decided to kill it. He opened his mouth, but this time instead of a pristine white glow, a dark ominous glow was present in his throat.

The third starting skill of his Voidmamcer Class, "Blackflame".

Neji then fired the black beam, the Void Dragon's Breath, and Shukaku's face started to melt without much resistance. But Neji's mouth wasn't the only part releasing the blackfire. His claws that were dug into the sand monster's body also caught on dark fire, cutting into the beast's body like butter. As seconds passed, Neji had engulfed the whole screaming beast into a ball of black flame that ate out the creature without even leaving ashes behind.

This was a fire more potent than Amaterasu.

Neji could feel dozens of gazes in the far back, watching his battle, but he didn't care. In less than a minute of burning, the Tailed beast ceased to exist. Killed in a way where it wouldn't even reincarnate.

[Ding! You have killed the One-Tailed Beast, Shukaku, a Peak Tier 8 foe!]

[You have received 45,000 Exp!]

[You have gained 14 levels!]

[You have reached level 440!]

[Kurai has reached level 331!]

[Due to the special existence of the beast, you'd receive Loot Drops!]

'Ohhh?' Neji just hoped it wasn't Tier Potions.

[Due to the presence of other people around, the 5 "Permanent Mana Increase Potions" (works on other forms of energies), have been put into the inventory!]

Neji didn't mind the reward. Not when he was expecting nothing.

'In any case,' Neji thought as his size started to shrink, at the same time using his authority over the black flame to stop it from spreading through the forest. 'I should try to activate my Divinity in this form and make sure Divinity would really give me access to full Tenseigan.' If it didn't, he would take Lady Luck's quest a lot less seriously.

Now human again, Neji took a deep breath. 'Activate Divinity.’

—★—

Team Seven (and Chiyo) along with Neji's team were shocked out of their soul at the fight that just took place in front of them.

Who the hell just goes and kills a Tailed beast, weakened or otherwise?

But certainly, this wasn't a dream, Hanabi could tell. The dead body of Gaara and Temari beside them was enough proof of that.

Under the dark cloudy sky, they all sat down, exhausted even though a few of them didn't even partake in any fight, with Gaara and Temari's dead bodies laid down on the side, covered by clothes to hide their grotesque state.

This was a sad and gloomy atmosphere for Hanabi.

This wasn't her first experience with death, but it was the first she saw it happen so brutally. But she controlled her emotions, a Ninja shouldn't lose themselves like this. …Still, the fact that Temari was just travelling with them a few hours ago, and also the fact that she would have been completely fine if she stayed with Neji till the end… made Hanabi's eyes wet.

"...Fuck." Naruto cursed, gritting his teeth. "Goddammit."

Kakashi was unconscious, and Sakura didn't have the courage to try to calm him down. Chiyo tried, but Naruto just snapped back.

"He doesn't deserve it, dammit! Let alone his innocent sister! This is all the fault of that sand bastard! No, all the Tailed beasts in general!" Tears were flying down his cheeks. "Why, why did you even seal something like that inside him, huh?! Why do you people need Jinchiurikis anyway?!"

Hanabi simply stayed silent, watching Chiyo try to calm the Nine-Tailed Jinchiuriki, but failing in the end. However, as Hanabi watched, Chiyo had a change in her facial expression, she looked sad, and suddenly determined.

"Haah, if only I hadn't delayed the fight for the Hyuga boy. But regardless, I think have a way to bring them ba-"

"I agree. You shouldn't have delayed me." Suddenly, Neji appeared out of nowhere, as if teleporting. He still had the dragon tail and cat ears, but he looked entirely casual otherwise. "Temari was a good girl, you know. I didn't wish for her to die like this."

…This side of him was new to Hanabi. Perfectly calm, even though the girl he was flirting with just a few hours ago was dead, her grotesque dead body right in front of him. So was this what being a trained Ninja felt like? …If so, Hanabi preferred Naruto's outbreak more than this.

"Ah, fuck." Neji sighed, scratching the back of his head.

…Ah, did he sense her negative emotion just now? He did say…

"Onii-sama, I-"

"It's not about you, Hanabi." Neji waved her off. "I just couldn't believe I am still hesitant while having so much power."

What did he mean?

Neji stepped forward, standing over the dead bodies of Temari and Gaara. He pulled down his blindfold and turned his head back at her.

-...!!

'His eyes…' Hanabi gasped. 

His eyes were more beautiful now, more gorgeous and mythical, with a trail of phantom flowers inside each pupil.

'The true Tenseigan…'

"Hanabi, my dear, why do you think the Tenseigan is called the Eye of Reincarnation?"

Hanabi felt a chill run down her spine as he smiled, green energy running on his eyes, before he turned back to the dead bodies.

"Oh well," he crouched down, throwing the clothes from over the dead bodies. He then put his hands on top of the injured dead bodies. There was a silence following that, Neji's expression became a strange mixture of melancholy and sadness as if this was an action he wished he could do before, in a world unknown to her. He muttered out a curse at last, before taking a deep breath. "Tenseigan: The Empyrean Rebirth Technique."

The cloudy sky magically cleared up.

Neji's hand shone with a greenish-blue light, engulfing both dead bodies, as everyone watched their bodies heal visibly.

Hanabi's Byakugan activated on its own.

"T-that…" Chiyo gawked at the scene as if realising something. "No… no, this is fine, it's different. It has… no drawbacks."

Hanabi didn't know what she meant, but she could agree that the technique her cousin brother was using had no drawbacks. She watched with absolute preciseness as the dead bodies- no… as Temari and Gaara's fingers twitched, their bodies healed up entirely, and their eyelids slowly opened up.

"Ha…"

"What just…"

Gaara and Temari blinked as Neji smiled at them, withdrawing his hands back.

"Good to have you-" Neji couldn't finish his words, his body swaying to the side. "Aw, fuck. The Chakra cost is abysmal."

A puff of smoke came out of his body, releasing whatever merging technique he and Kurai had done, as Neji fell on his back, Kurai sleeping on his chest.

Hanabi immediately focused on Neji, sighing seeing he was fine, just exhausted and unconscious.

'Haah…'

Naruto ran to Gaara to hug him, and Chiyo went to Temari. However, Hanabi and everyone else looked at Neji's sleeping face.

At that moment, Hanabi remembered what Kurai had said before.

"A deity…" Tenten muttered.

Her brother… was a God.

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