Strictly speaking, Masashi's Corrosive Steam Teique drew inspiration from three teiques only used by Kiri shinobi:

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

  His teique mao blend the strengths of these three into a single, versatile jutsu.

  By bining his mastery of water and fire nature chakra, he created a teique that superheated water particles to their most votile state. The precise bance required stant chakra trol—too much fire chakra would disperse the mist, too little would re harmless.

  Of course, those st two teiques were creations of shinobi who, like him at the time, were still young and inexperiehere was no telling if they had even ied their teiques 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 teique yet.

  Still, she was a formidable ninja, solidly at the level of ae jonin. No surprise, sidering she'd one day bee the Mizukage.

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

  Even the rades 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 isotion, they rarely participated in the ti's broader affairs, so their reputation remained limited.

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

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

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

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

  Especially when paired with regur 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 ails was about to escape his range, Masashi teleported to its head again, delivering another head-pat strike.

  The ails, now far from where it had been, found itself once more in the ter 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 eously annoying.

  Having failed again to shake off this irritating Uchiha, the ails lost its patience.

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

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

  This time, instead of running, the ails crouched low to the ground.

  This familiar posture immediately put Masashi on high alert.

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

  Based on the ails' size, he quickly calcuted its likely area of impad 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 dispy, 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 pletely at the mercy of the chaos.

  Watg the ails 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, uhe sheer might of the rampaging tailed beast, was pletely destroyed—shattered intments.

  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, te 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 t the ails back toward Konoha. Otherwise, the number of untrolble factors would only increase.

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

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

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

  The jutsu was inally designed for battlefield domination—perfect for attag rge-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 sughter. 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 transp it back a greater burden.

  Activating the Flying Thunder God again, he appeared on the opposite side of the ails, leaving enough distao maximize the jutsu's impact. The markers he'd pced earlier gave him perfect positioning—a tactical advahat had taken years to master.

  With the extra time he had, he silently thahis imeline 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 pn 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 bat abilities iably deed. That was just natural w—unalterable and absolute.

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

  True sustainability required making way for others.

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

  Ahead, the ails fis tantrum and began to raise its head.

  Masashi pleted his jutsu in perfect timing.

  Dragons of water erupted skyward.

  Owo, 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 oy air and barren ground.

  Finally, the water surged into a t wave, its height esg under Masashi's precise trol.

  Standing at its peak, he now towered over the distant ails.

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

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

  Uhe 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, r violently, were yered water dragons, rising higher than even a tailed beast.

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

  Even tailed beasts o charge their attacks. versely, they could opt not to, but that would result in a weaker bst.

  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 struct to no avail, this smaller bomb merely created a dent among the tless water dragons before being teleported away without detonating.

  The thousand water dragons merged, f a massive dragohat smmed into the ails. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, creating ripples ier 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 suffit.

  From a bird's-eye view, the nd and everything on it—including the ails—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 hurrie.

  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 ged, 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 destru.

  These materials endlessly pouhe ails' massive form, crashing and shattering against its seemingly infinite chakra body, only troup and resume the assault.

  It was quite the spectacle.

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

  The ails was caught in the chaos, r as it was tossed and turned by the eides.

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

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

  Layer upon yer of waves followed, crashing against the mountainside. Yet the cliff stood unmoved, enduring the endless onsught, watg as the waves shattered into tless shards of foam, dissipated, and scattered away.

  Finally, all that remained on the cliffside were deep, crisscrossing scars. And the ails, washed ashore ahere.

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

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

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

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

  No one in the search squad said a word.

  The ails didn't seem particurly 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 's chakra always this abundant?

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

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

  Watg Masashi's colossal Water Release teique, 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 and—target tained, but the situation has... evolved."

  Konoha's forces were frantically sc the forest.

  Earlier, they'd been frantic because the ails was heading for the vilge.

  Now, they were frantic to keep it from esg. 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 tless 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 y a se of utter devastation, with the ails shaking off its daze at the mountain's base.

  Minato desded at once.

  He began by summoning—a massive, plump toad appeared midair, using gravity to sm the freshly recovered ails bato the ground.

  The impact created a crater beh the beast.

  The ails, 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 ails erupted in fury.

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

  As it tried tain its posure, Minato nded on its head, pressing his hand against its body.

  Both he and the ails vanished.

  After a few flickers of teleportation, apanied by the sound of something massive smming into the ground, the ails appeared in front of a structure.

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

  As the weight on its body vahe ails prepared to leap, only to be restrained by s that burst from its surroundings. The s tangled midair before pinning it down.

  These s beloo 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 fshed to her side, supp her. "Don't push yourself like this."

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

  Her hands trembled as she maintaihe s.

  Masashi thought she might not have much time left.

  ht.

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

  But Minato hadn't noticed him at all.

  "Cough, cough…" Kushina suddeed into a violent fit of coughing. Blood speckled her lips. "Hurry, Minato. I'm going to seal the ails bato myself and die with it!"

  Hearing this, Masashi quickly jumped down from the ails' head.