Things were looking bad for her.
Outrunning the constructs was a waste of stamina, so she ignored the wolves and went straight after Arthur. The two met near the dirt as she threw a barrage of punches while flying. But Arthur dodged them all before letting the wolves swarm the space she just occupied.
Fū was forced to fly high up to evade their jaws again. "This is too much!"
Arthur scoffed and caused the wolves to melt into puddles of water. Seeing this opening, Fū folded her wings and flew down like a whirlwind to punch him.
"Hidden waterfall hurricane!"
Bang!
Arthur stopped the attack with just a forearm. He didn't even slide back in the dirt.
"What?!" she gasped with eyes wide.
Arthur then knocked her arm down, twisted his hip, and twirled her to the side.
Bang!
One drop kick sent her flying back by several yards as she crashed into the earth.
"Owe!" Fū cried after recovering. She rubbed her shoulder and glared at him. "The heck are ya made out of?!"
Not looking for a real answer, she charged in again. She threw a flying kick; he dodged. She aimed a hook; he side-stepped. A third strike hit nothing but air. Arthur was simply too fast for her.
Suddenly, she appeared directly behind him, grabbed his waist, and flew upward. At the peak of her flight, she shifted her weight and threw him back to the ground, hitting the bedrock with a heavy crash.
"Ha!" she cheered, floating above the debris. But when the dust settled, Arthur slowly stood in the impact zone and casually wiped the dirt from his cloak. "Gee, I knew ya were strong, but I didn't think you were that strong."
Fū knew she had to try something better. So she landed a few yards away and rapidly formed hand signs.
"Secret ninjutsu: scaled sneak jutsu!"
A large quantity of fine powder was exhaled from her mouth as it raced across the battlefield.
'Ice style: white whale jutsu…'
A massive ice whale erupted from the field, displacing the air while clearing the powder instantly. Its bulking size then cast a shadow over Fū as it threatened to crash down on her.
She screamed, "Seven-Tails, I need your help!"
Chakra exploded from her core, causing her two wings to grow into four more as they enlarged. Her body then warped and expanded, turning into the armoured form of the Seven-Tailed rhinoceros beetle.
Before the whale could land, the creature quickly spun like a drill by generating a vortex of wind and chakra.
"Scale powder blast!"
Ka-crash!
The spinning beetle drilled right through the ice whale, and the impact shattered the construct, creating an explosion of ice shards across the wasteland.
"That was impressive…" Arthur commented while watching the debris fall. He only found the attack interesting because it was a video game technique—something he had never seen. "But things end here. Summoning jutsu…"
Arthur slammed his palm against the dirt. When the puff of cloud cleared, there stood Hōichi, holding his instrument.
"Do it…" Arthur ordered.
Hōichi wasted no time as he began playing. "Dharma sealing jutsu: sen no rikyu!"
A purple-coloured chain quickly lashed out from Hōichi's chest, shot through the air, and connected right to the center of the beast's mass. The moment the chain latched on, the Fū's momentum died. Then she slowly descended to the ground as if being drained of its strength.
It was over.
Unleashing these chains was an instant win for Arthur. That's simply how they worked.
So he stood perfectly still and watched as the chains began pulling the raw, green chakra of the beast out of its host and toward Hōichi.
"S… Stop!" Fū's voice echoed from inside the chakra shroud.
But it was too late. Once the chains were unleashed, there was no stopping the extraction without outside help.
In just a matter of seconds, Arthur saw the Tailed Beast fully rip out and enter inside Hōichi. The purple chains then retracted as Fū's body collapsed on the ground. Hōichi stopped playing. When he lowered the biwa and looked at Arthur, he confirmed that the task was done.
Arthur verified things with his Crimson Gaze. Through Hōichi's flesh, the swirling mass of the Seven-Tails was indeed sealed inside the monk's chakra network, making Hōichi the new Jinchūriki.
That meant Arthur had done it; he had successfully captured a Tailed Beast under the noses of the Akatsuki and the other six.
But he needed to make sure of one thing: Fū's condition.
He walked toward her unmoving body. She was lifeless.
When the Nine-Tails had been extracted from Kushina Uzumaki years ago, she had been able to fight for a few more minutes before succumbing to death. That was thanks to being an Uzumaki.
Fū, however, was not an Uzumaki. She lacked the genetic resilience, so she had died instantly the moment the tether snapped.
"How pathetic…" Arthur said aloud.
He then crouched beside her body and placed a mark directly on her uniform. With a quick pulse of chakra, he teleported the corpse to a stasis unit in his laboratory.
Having her unique genetic traits and skills might come in handy one day. Mostly, he kept the body because he didn't want anyone else finding it. The last time he left a dead body lying around, his enemies somehow still discovered it.
When he was finished, he touched Hōichi's shoulder to teleport the monk away.
Alone in the quiet wasteland, Arthur stood there to think of the fight.
Throughout the entire time, he was mainly testing his might. One of the strongest Jinchūriki was the perfect opponent to push his reflexes. And the results were highly informative.
Fū was incredibly skilled for a Jinchūriki. She was far more adaptable and aggressive than Utakata when Arthur had fought him.
But that's what made Arthur so dangerous: he knew exactly how to dismantle the hosts. Throughout the entire battle, he could have summoned Hōichi at any time to seal the Seven-Tails without raising a single fist.
Now Arthur had enough data to understand who he could and couldn't take on in a direct fight. His power level, although not as high as his real body, was still strong enough to take on the likes of someone like an Akatsuki member. Two, if he pushed his enhancements.
The only thing left for him to do now was secure his prize.
'Flying raijin…'
He teleported directly to where he had sent Hōichi minutes prior. The two of them were on a remote island close to the Bird Country—a location where the Six-Tails was currently hidden and always had been since Arthur placed him there after losing connections to the Water Country.
Not once had anyone tried coming here. It was protected by the strict maritime laws he had set as the ruler of this nation.
"Arthur!" the Six-Tails greeted. The giant slug raised its head as slime dripped from its body. "I haven't seen ya in so long. I almost thought ya forgot about me. So! What ya plannin' this time?"
Arthur stepped into the clearing, bringing Hōichi beside him. "Just watch." He then looked at Hōichi. "Do it…"
Hōichi closed his eyes. In a moment's notice, the monk's body collapsed, and the seal on his chest broke.
The Tailed Beast's chakra erupted into the sky like a red geyser as the energy gathered, condensed, and manifested into the physical form of the Seven-Tails.
The creature was just as large as when Arthur saw Fū transform into it during the skirmish: it had six tails resembling green insect wings, along with an actual seventh tail, all growing from the end of its abdomen.
The beast stretched its wings, sending a gale of wind across the island that parted the dust around. When it saw Hōichi lying there dead, it scooped him up with a flap of its wings and ate the monk whole.
Arthur watched as the body dissolved almost instantly inside the beast's anatomy system. It was quite a gruesome sight to see.
Such was the act of a Tailed Beast: to kill its host as some form of animalistic instinct. The Six-Tails had done the same when Arthur released it from Utakata.
But now Arthur had a free Seven-Tails that wasn't under any genjutsu. He had the power to fight it, so why release such a creature here of all times?
Arthur soon stood directly in front of the monster without flinching under the weight of its chakra.
"It's good to finally meet you, Chōmei…"