Chapter 177: Madara’s Betrayal

Dense senjutsu chakra overflowed from the Slug Sage’s body, wrapping around it completely, making the Slug Sage glow with a faint milky-white radiance.

Among the Three Great Sacred Lands, the Slug Sage’s “methods” were probably the fewest.

But when it came to corrosion—no one in the shinobi world could compare to her.

After all, aside from corrosion, she didn’t have particularly overwhelming offensive power. Over a thousand years was more than enough time to push that one thing to an utterly terrifying level.

Especially with senjutsu chakra reinforcing it.

Inside the Slug Sage’s body—

Watching Susanoo being rapidly corroded all around him, Madara’s face sank into darkness.

He drew on his chakra and barked again:

“Chō: Shinra Tensei (Ultra Almighty Push)!”

A horrifying repulsive force exploded outward.

Outside, the Slug Sage’s massive body suddenly bulged—then, in the next moment, returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

“It’s useless!”

Madara’s expression changed, his brows knitting tight.

He forced Susanoo to continuously shrink, while a flood of ocular power poured from his eyes to reinforce Susanoo’s hardness again and again.

Even so, Madara could clearly see Susanoo being eaten away at terrifying speed.

He hadn’t expected the Slug Sage to be this troublesome.

Madara’s expression was ugly, but his eyes remained calm.

Was the Slug Sage strong?

Yes—strong.

At least in Madara’s eyes, if he fought the Slug Sage head-on to the end, the one who lost would definitely be him.

But to Madara, the Slug Sage was still less dangerous than Yuto.

“Maybe using the Slug Sage to erase Yuto first… isn’t a bad choice at all.”

A brilliant light flashed in Madara’s eyes.

He had cooperated with Yuto to witness the “back hand” Hashirama left behind.

If that back hand could deal with Yuto, then it could deal with Madara as well.

But now that he had seen it, Madara’s last lingering worry disappeared.

He couldn’t resist that bizarre corrosion—but neither could Yuto.

And unlike Yuto, Madara wasn’t worried at all.

Just because he couldn’t resist the corrosion didn’t mean he couldn’t leave the Slug Sage’s stomach.

As for “cooperation”—

It was nothing more than an agreement you could tear up at any moment.

Madara’s lips curled slightly.

Here, right now… might be the best chance to finish Yuto.

If he could leave Yuto’s corpse sealed inside the Slug Sage’s belly, then Yuto would have no hope of reviving ever again.

Unless—

The Slug Sage released him.

But that possibility was basically zero. Madara understood Hashirama too well.

If the Slug Sage was specifically the countermeasure Hashirama left to deal with Yuto, then Hashirama must have struck some sort of agreement with her.

The Slug Sage would never spit Yuto back out.

With an opportunity this perfect in front of him, Madara had no reason to let it go.

A faint smile appeared on Madara’s face, and the Rinnegan shimmered again with its unique light.

“Rinbo: Hengoku (Limbo: Border Jail)!”

The moment the ability activated, Madara summoned all four of his shadows.

As the four shadows appeared, they too felt the intense corrosive liquid all around them.

“Rinbo: Susanoo (Limbo: Susanoo)!”

Splash—

All four shadows manifested the same Susanoo armor as Madara, wrapping their bodies in identical protection.

Madara narrowed his eyes slightly, his sensing spreading outward.

Inside the Slug Sage’s belly, perception was compressed down to an extremely low level.

But Madara didn’t need to sense the Slug Sage’s enormous body.

He only needed to feel which direction vibrations were coming from.

With Yuto’s personality, in a situation like this, he’d definitely be striking the surroundings to test for an escape route—or to create an opening for whatever he planned next.

Suddenly—

Madara’s eyes lit up, and he smiled.

“Found you.”

Madara and his four shadows moved at the same time, rushing straight toward the direction where he’d sensed the vibrations.

The space inside the Slug Sage’s body was huge, but the surroundings were filled with highly corrosive liquid. Unless you could break through a flesh wall of unknown thickness, going anywhere was basically the same.

At this moment, Yuto—still maintaining the three-tailed form—stared around with an ugly expression.

He had already battered the surrounding flesh walls, and the conclusion was clear.

Trying to force his way out with pure brute strength… was nearly impossible.

But if he stayed here, it would become genuinely dangerous.

Among everyone present, Yuto feared Hashirama’s specially prepared “back hand” the most.

He was too confident in himself—so confident that he hadn’t left any part of his body outside.

But even if he had, Hashirama likely wouldn’t have allowed that opportunity.

The Ajin (Demi-human) revival ability might have no “limits,” but it did have conditions.

For example: you can only revive after dying.

And even more importantly—when reviving, the largest portion of your body becomes the anchor for reconstruction.

In other words, even if Yuto hid an arm outside…

If the majority of his body remained inside the Slug Sage’s belly, that arm would be meaningless.

Yuto still wouldn’t be able to revive.

As for whether Hashirama knew this weakness, Yuto didn’t know.

Unless it was absolutely unavoidable, Yuto wouldn’t gamble his life on information even he wasn’t sure about.

To Yuto, betting your life was stupidity—because it meant you’d already admitted defeat.

Ssshhh—Ssshhh—

Thin wisps of white smoke rose from Isobu’s body.

Yuto frowned, quickly dropping out of the complete Isobu form and instead covering his outer body in a Bijū no Koromo (Tailed Beast Cloak).

At the same time, Yuto controlled his internal energy to spread outward, forming something like an energy shield to resist the bizarre corrosion outside.

“Do I really have to expose all the tailed beast power?”

Yuto muttered, brow furrowed.

Inside him, the chakra of Shukaku, Isobu, Kokuō, Saiken, Gyūki, and Kurama began gathering.

With Black King’s ability, Yuto could fully mobilize the chakra of six tailed beasts and form a half-fused, mixed power—an amalgam of all six.

That power might not compare to the Jūbi (Ten-Tails), but Yuto was confident it could blast open the Slug Sage’s body.

But he didn’t want to reveal it.

Because once that power was exposed, Madara would absolutely become suspicious: why was Yuto collecting tailed beast chakra?

And if Madara became wary, future plans would become troublesome for Yuto.

As for killing Madara here…

Yuto had considered it—but only as a thought.

Izanagi was as disgusting as Yuto’s immortality.

In fact, in Yuto’s eyes, aside from the cost of sacrificing eyes, Izanagi was even more practical than his own “immortality.”

Because Yuto’s immortality still had all sorts of limitations—while Izanagi had none.

If he didn’t know how many eyes Madara had prepared, Yuto had no confidence he could one-shot Madara.

As Yuto’s thoughts turned, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

Right now, besides the Slug Sage, the one he needed to watch most was Madara.

They had spoken of “cooperation” from the start, but both of them had their own schemes.

In this situation, Madara might not follow their original agreement at all.

Boom!

A heavy impact suddenly sounded beside Yuto.

A terrifying strike slammed into Yuto’s body, forcing him to take a step back.

Damn it!

Madara!

In the instant he was hit, Yuto understood—

Rinbo: Hengoku (Limbo: Border Jail)!

Black King’s power fully unfolded. Yuto pushed his senses to the limit, focusing on the movement of forces around him.

Normally, Black King couldn’t sense Limbo.

Only at full output could it do so.

But that state put a huge burden on Yuto—he didn’t usually use it.

A deep rumble rose from Yuto’s body.

Terrifying power spread outward.

And in the instant that expansion occurred, Yuto sensed something—

Four of Madara’s shadows were simultaneously beside him!

At the same time Yuto sensed them, the four shadows attacked.

“Rinbo: Tengoku (Limbo: Heaven Prison)!”
“Rinbo: Jigoku (Limbo: Hell Prison)!”
“Rinbo: Rengoku (Limbo: Purgatory)!”
“Rinbo: Shingoku (Limbo: Needle Prison)!”

Four terrifying powers poured out at once.

Lightning flashed like a sea of thunder, and other elemental forces erupted as well, completely swallowing Yuto whole!

“Madara—you’re asking to die!!”

Yuto roared, and for the first time, true fury showed on his face.

Madara’s ruthless betrayal ignited an endless blaze in Yuto’s heart.

Yuto absorbed the raging power as fast as he could—then hurled it back at the four shadows in the same brutal fashion.

His gaze swept the surroundings again and again, but he still couldn’t find Madara’s real body.

Hiding in the dark?

A cold light flashed in Yuto’s eyes. He jumped, trying to break away from the four-shadow encirclement.

“Rinbo: Susanoo: Shinra Tensei (Limbo: Susanoo: Almighty Push)!”

A repulsive force—several times stronger than Nagato’s—erupted from above without warning.

Yuto froze in midair.

The repulsion couldn’t slam him back down… but it also prevented him from rising any further.

“Rinbo: Susanoo: Nitō no Mai (Limbo: Susanoo: Two-Blade Dance)!”

Two more shadows appeared at Yuto’s front and back, their slashes striking simultaneously in a vicious pincer.

“Rinbo: Susanoo: Yasaka no Magatama (Limbo: Susanoo: Yasaka Beads)!”

The last shadow attacked from below at the same time.

Four horrific forces pinned Yuto in the center and poured down on him like a storm.

Madara was clearly trying to execute Yuto here—completely.

Pff!

Blood sprayed from Yuto’s mouth.

These four forces were too violent—no matter how much Yuto could absorb, he couldn’t swallow it all in one gulp.

And at the same time, the corrosion surged in again from all directions.

A blaze of rage ignited sky-high within Yuto’s chest.

Boom!

Suddenly, a roaring sound exploded inside Yuto’s mind.

Black particles—imperceptible to anyone else—burst out from Yuto as the center!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A flood of black particles formed a terrifying shockwave, temporarily blasting the four shadows away.

At this moment, Yuto also noticed his own abnormal condition—

An endless stream of black particles was pouring out of his body, surging in all directions like it would never run out.

Yuto sensed no energy deficit inside himself.

It was as if those black particles were appearing from nothing at all.

“This is…”

For the first time in a long while, genuine surprise appeared on Yuto’s face.

“The Ajin (Demi-human) ‘Torrential Phenomenon’!!”