"Roar! Damn it! What the hell are you?!"
The wild Nine-Tails was getting beaten senseless, humiliated beyond belief.
It could feel that its power wasn't actually that much weaker than the other's—yet it couldn't bring any of it to bear. Everywhere it turned, it was being suppressed.
The golden Nine-Tails didn't answer (it couldn't speak anyway).
What it gave in reply was a brutally heavy tail whip, slamming into the wild Nine-Tails' waist and belly!
Crack!
A teeth-gritting sound—like bones snapping—rang faintly through the air.
The wild Nine-Tails screamed again as it was whipped away, smashing hard into the side of a small mountain.
Rocks collapsed. Dust billowed.
It struggled to get up.
But the golden Nine-Tails was already there like a shadow—one enormous forepaw coming down like a mountain, stomping straight onto its skull and pinning it deep into the rock!
"Mm… ngh…"
The wild Nine-Tails let out a resentful, muffled whine.
Its limbs scrabbled wildly, but it couldn't shake off that pressure—like the weight of the world itself.
Crushing.
Total, unquestionable, from-start-to-finish crushing.
The entire fight lasted less than a minute.
The wild Nine-Tails—just freed, swaggering, threatening to destroy everything—
was now pinned underfoot like a dead dog, able only to let out a humiliated wail.
Kushina stood on the golden Nine-Tails' head.
She stared through the whole one-sided battle, dumbstruck, her mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
Th-this… it's over?
That Nine-Tails that looked so terrifying— the one that came out of her body—just… got flattened like that?
She instinctively looked at Rei Ao beside her, who still looked completely calm.
Even his "pet" was this absurdly strong?
Rei Ao's shiny, golden Nine-Tails was basically running cheats.
It pinned the orange-red, howling feral Nine-Tails that had been yanked out of Kushina and proceeded to grind it into the dirt over and over.
Yes—"grind it" in the most literal sense.
The scene was brutally savage, full of the aesthetics of power (for Rei Ao) and pure one-sided brutality (for the feral Nine-Tails).
When the orange-red Nine-Tails got slapped into the ground again by that huge golden paw, biting a mouthful of mud—
and after struggling for ages still couldn't get up, only managing a humiliated little "whu… whu…"—
Rei Ao finally decided that was enough.
Standing atop the golden Nine-Tails, he looked down at the filthy, dust-covered giant below.
"Hey. Down there."
He spoke casually, like he was greeting a neighbor.
"Done throwing a tantrum? Ready to talk properly?"
"ROAAAR—!!!"
The answer was a roar packed with rage, refusal, and extreme frustration.
The orange-red Nine-Tails struggled to lift its head, its blood-red eyes practically screaming: I refuse.
"Human! How dare you… how dare you humiliate me like this! And that traitor too! What kind of Nine-Tails is it?! It's a disgrace to all tailed beasts!"
It glared at the golden one that had beaten it to the point of confusion, its worldview collapsing.
How could there be a Nine-Tails this obedient—one that even let humans stand on its head?
That wasn't scientific!
That wasn't a tailed beast!
The golden Nine-Tails only shot it a cool glance—an expression that somehow conveyed: You trash-tier weakling think you're qualified to run your mouth?
It even lazily flicked its tail, and the gust of wind made the orange-red Nine-Tails wobble again.
Not much damage.
Maximum insult.
Kushina watched from the side, completely stunned, her brain fully refusing to keep up.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Are these two legendary world-ending monsters… arguing, or is this just one-sided bullying?
And that shiny golden one… is it on our team?
Too much information. CPU overheating.
Rei Ao sighed and dug a finger in his ear, like the roaring was annoying.
"Alright, alright. I get it. You're loud."
He waved a hand.
"Now listen up—business. From this day forward, your power—meaning you, yourself, and all your chakra—belongs to this red-haired girl. Unconditionally."
"She's your new landlord and the permanent owner of the property. Understand?"
"Bullshit!"
The orange-red Nine-Tails roared back without hesitation, chakra-spit flying everywhere.
"My power is mine! Why would I give it to some little brat?! A human brat, at that! Not a chance! If you've got the guts, then wipe me out completely!"
It was still a tailed beast that had lived who knew how many years—its pride and ego were very much intact.
Getting beaten for no reason was humiliating enough.
And now it was supposed to sign a slavery contract?
A permanent one?
Over its dead body.
It would rather die—then resurrect and be a good Nine-Tails all over again!
Instead of getting angry, Rei Ao grinned.
That smile—framed by moonlight and the Nine-Tails' golden glow—looked a little… sinister.
"Not agreeing?"
He drawled.
"You think I'm negotiating with you?"
He raised his right hand, pinched his thumb and middle finger together, and snapped.
Snap.
The sound was small.
But the instant it rang out, something changed.
Centered on the orange-red Nine-Tails, the surrounding void suddenly filled—without any warning—with countless golden magic circles, so intricate they made your eyes blur!
They layered over one another, interlocking in rings. Some rotated slowly like gears.
Some shimmered quietly like star maps, releasing a rhythm that was completely different from chakra—ancient, mysterious.
Their light wasn't blinding, yet it carried an undeniable force of "rules," locking the orange-red Nine-Tails dead at the center!
"W-what is this?!"
The orange-red Nine-Tails realized in horror that it couldn't move even a single claw!
Not just its body—its vast, boundless chakra also fell into absolute stasis the moment those golden arrays appeared.
Like an insect frozen inside amber.
"A tiny little contract ritual," Rei Ao said lightly.
"Don't worry. It won't hurt. Probably."
Before the words even finished, the layered arrays flared with blinding intensity!
Countless golden threads—hair-thin, yet condensed to the extreme—shot out from the arrays, piercing precisely into every corner of the orange-red Nine-Tails' being!
Not piercing in any physical sense—
but directly striking its "existence," its very essence.
"ROAAGH—!!!"
This time the orange-red Nine-Tails wasn't roaring in anger.
It was screaming—screaming in agony so extreme it twisted the air.
It was a pain beyond description, not on the flesh, yet worse than being carved up a thousand times.
As if countless invisible hands were brutally rewriting its "source code," forcibly branding absolute, unbreakable rules into the deepest layers of its soul!
It could feel its freedom—its will—being bound.